For the problem about complicated topological structures and hard-to-extract information when single-phase grounding fault occurs in power distribution network, in this paper a new method of fault selection based on the intrinsic-mode-function ( IMF ) energy moment and SVM ( Support Vector Machines ) is proposed for power system. The localization characteristics of EMD is used to quantify the fault, and then the SVM is combined to classify the fault. Firstly, the fault current signals are decomposed into certain IMF ( Intrinsic Mode Function ). Secondly, an integral of selected IMF components along time axis is calculated to obtain the IMF energy moment eigenvectors. Finally, the IMF energy moments of high correlation coefficient are taken as the eigenvectors to input into SVM classifier for fault selection. As a result, the fault selection model is obtained. A simulation results of 66kV line model show the proposed method can recognize fault line accurately and effectively with only measurement of fault current signals.