This dissertation presents a methodology for an efficient, non-destructive, and online incipient fault diagnosis system (IFDS) to detect underground cable incipient faults before they become catastrophic. The system provides vital information to help the operator with the decision-making process regarding the condition assessment of the underground cable. It incorporates advanced digital signal processing and pattern recognition methods to classify recorded data into designated classes. Additionally, the IFDS utilizes novel detection methodologies to detect when the cable is near failure. The classification functionality is achieved through employing an ensemble of rule-based and supervised classifiers. The Support Vector Machines, designed and used as a supervised classifier, was found to perform superior. In addition to the normalized energy features computed from wavelet packet analysis, two new features, namely Horizontal Severity Index, and Vertical Severity Index are defined and used in the classification problem. The detection functionality of the IFDS is achieved through incorporating a temporal severity measure and a detection method. The novel severity measure is based on the temporal analysis of arrival times of incipient abnormalities, which gives rise to a numeric index called the Global Severity Index (GSI). This index portrays the progressive degradation path of underground cable as catastrophic failure time approaches. The detection approach utilizes the numerical modeling capabilities of SOM as well as statistical change detection techniques. The natural logarithm of the chronologically ordered minimum modeling errors, computed from exposing feature vectors to a trained SOM, is used as the detection index. Three modified change detection algorithms, namely Cumulative Sum, Exponentially Weighted Moving Averages, and Generalized Likelihood Ratio, are introduced and applied to this application. These algorithms determine the change point or near failure time of cable from the instantaneous values of the detection index. Performance studies using field recorded data were conducted at three warning levels to assess the capability of the IFDS in predicting the faults that actually occurred in the monitored underground cable. The IFDS presents a high classification rate and satisfactory detection capability at each warning level. Specifically, it demonstrates that at least one detection technique successfully provides an early warning that a fault is imminent.

The scope of this thesis was to develop a prototype high-impedance arc detection system that a utility worker could use as an early warning system while working in a manhole environment. As part of this system sensors and algorithms were developed to increase the sensitivity of detecting an arc while ignoring loads that can give false positive signatures for arcing. The latest technology was used to repeat measurements performed in previous research from decades ago that lacked in sampling speed and amplitude resolution. Several types of arcs were produced and analyzed so to establish a library of various waveform and frequency signatures. The system was constructed as a development unit and is currently gathering information in the field. Data being collected will be analyzed so future revisions will give higher confidence levels of arc detection. Other future plans involve designing a more compact and portable unit.

Monitoring of abnormal events in a distribution feeder by using a single technique is a challenging task. Many abnormal events can cause unsafe operation, including a high impedance fault (HIF) caused by a downed conductor touch ground surface, an incipient fault (IF) caused by partial breakdown to a cable insulation, and a circuit breaker (CB) malfunction due to capacitor bank de-energization to cause current restrikes. These abnormal events are not detectable by conventional protection schemes. In this dissertation, a new technique to identify distribution feeder events is proposed based on the complex Morlet wavelet (CMW) and on a decision tree (DT) classifier. First, the event is detected using CMW. Subsequently, a DT using event signatures classifies the event as normal operation, continuous and non-continuous arcing events (C.A.E. and N.C.A.E.). Additional information from the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) can be used to precisely identify the event. The proposed method is meticulously tested on the IEEE 13- and IEEE 34-bus systems and has shown to correctly classify those events. Furthermore, the proposed method is capable of detecting very high impedance incipient faults (IFs) and CB restrikes at the substation level with relatively short detection time. The proposed method uses only current measurements at a low sampling rate of 1440 Hz yielding an improvement of existing methods that require much higher sampling rates.

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