Abstract: Fast, accurate, and reliable fault location is crucial for reducing outage durations and improving power supply quality in distribution networks. This paper conducts a systematic analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing fault location algorithms and proposes a novel fault location system that integrates an expert system with a genetic algorithm. The proposed system combines the uncertainty-handling capability of expert systems with the global optimization advantages of genetic algorithms. A case study provides a detailed description of the complete system workflow. The results demonstrate that the proposed system performs well in terms of timeliness, accuracy, and reliability, indicating its potential for engineering application and broader implementation.