High-impedance faults (HIFs) caused by downed conductors in electric power systems are in general difficult to be detected using traditional protection relays due to small fault currents. The energized downed conductor can pose a safety risk to the public and cause a fire hazard. This paper presents a new method for locating the line (feeder) section of the HIF with the help of limited measurements in electric power systems. The discrete wavelet transform is used to extract the features of transients caused by HIFs. A modified k-means algorithm associated with genetic algorithms is then utilized to determine the placement of measurement facilities. The signal energies attained by wavelet coefficients serve as inputs to the support vector machine for locating the HIF line section. The simulation results obtained from an 18-busbar distribution system show the applicability of the proposed method
