Abstract: Power optical fiber composite overhead ground wires (OPGW) has both ground wire and communication functions for the power communication network, and its accurate and rapid fault location is an important prerequisite to ensure the safe and stable operation of the power communication network and the power grid. To solve the difficulties on fault location in the actual operation and maintenance of power OPGW, an accurate and fast fault location method of OPGW based on distributed sensing technology is proposed. Using the distributed Brillouin frequency shift characteristics of optical fibers, it is prossible to accurately identify the closure of the optical cable, calibrate the position of the line connection tower, and use the connection tower as a new coordinate to realize the accurate and fast fault location, which can effectively improve the level of optical cable operation and maintenance. The field experimental results show that, compared with the traditional optical time domain reflectometer test combined with manual line inspection, the proposed method reduces the fault location time from days to hours and the accuracy from kilometers to meters.

Key words: distributed sensing, optical fiber composite overhead ground wires, fault location