Abstract: When single-phase grounding fault occurs in a new type of wire-cable hybrid distribution network with distributed generator, it is difficult to locate the fault accurately by using the traditional section locating method. In this paper, a method based on characteristic energy and binary firefly genetic algorithm is proposed to locate fault segments in the new distribution network. Firstly, the sum of the zero-sequence current components at the head end of each feeder in the characteristic frequency band was obtained by ensemble empirical mode decomposition, and the fault line was determined for fault line selection. Secondly, based on the realization of line selection, the correlation coefficient method is used to code the switch according to the great difference between the zero-sequence current amplitude at both ends of the fault section and the zero-sequence current amplitude in the healthy section. Finally, the optimal solution of fitness function is obtained by binary firefly genetic algorithm. Simulation analysis and algorithm performance comparison show that the proposed method is faster, more accurate and has certain fault tolerance.