To prevent unnecessary power outages, and to remove feeder lines from service only when certain hazardous fault conditions occur, a load analysis system including an apparatus and method, monitors the load level of a feeder line and determines the presence of any arcing on the feeder line. In a two stage load pattern analysis, the presence of arcing and load current level changes are used to discriminate high impedance, low current conditions including a downed conductor, a broken and dangling conductor, a tree or object contact with the feeder line, overcurrent activities, and normal switching events such as recloser operation. The load analysis system also provides output commands including wait, alarm, trip-ready, trip and normal, depending upon which status is diagnosed.
