ELECTRICAL FAULT ASSESSMENT OF A 33KV DISTRIBUTION NETWORK A CASE STUDY OF ILE-OLUJI 33KV FEEDER

This work examines faults on a 33KV feeder network in Ile-Oluji. The town is one of the major towns in Ondo State that experiences epileptic power supply due to bad feeder network (bad terrain of the 33KV line), disrepaired and old-fashioned electrical power equipment. In this research work, diferent types of fault including overcurrent and earth faults were studied. These was as a result of the newly located higer institution (Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji) in the town and the need for regular power supply to avoid student unrest. During the study, fault data on the feeder between the period of 2012-2016 were collated from Ondo 33/11KV Injection Substation's logbook of Benin Electricity Distribution Company. The data was analysed using SPSS 17.0 version. The research revealed that faults occurred oftent in the third quarter of the year (rainy season) due to thick vegetation along the feeder line while the least number of faults is usually recorded in the first quarter (Januray to March). Single Phase Earth fault was found to be the most occuring fault with an avegrage quarterly occurrence of 25.8125 while the Three Phase Overcurrent fault has the least with a quarterly average of 5.3125. Analysis of variance among fault types reveal a very high significant differences among the fault types. The Inter-fault Correlation showed that highest degree of relationship exists between Three Phase and Single Phase Earth faults. Other pairs of faults also revealed that considerable positive relationships with exception of Single Phase Overcurrent and Single Phase Earth faults. Based on these observations, it was deduced that for the town to enjoy regular power supply, a thorough rehabilitation must be carried out on the feeder by clearing all the thick vegetation along the feeder and replacing some bad equipment.