APSA-Experiment 3: Symmetrical Short-Circuit Analysis

and Determination of Circuit Breaker

Rating
Objectives
 To perform the symmetrical fault analysis and determine for circuit breaker rating.
 To calculate the current supplied by each generator and bus voltage magnitudes during
fault

Introduction
Fault in a circuit is any failure that interferes with the normal flow of current in the circuit. Most
faults on transmission lines of 132 kV and higher are caused by lightning, which results in the
flashover of insulators.

Figure 3-1 Lightning striking a transmission line and causing a fault

The high voltage between a conductor and the grounded supporting tower causes ionization, which
provides a path to ground for the charge induced by the lightning stroke. Once the ionized path to
ground is established, the resultant low impedance to ground allows the flow of current from the
conductor to ground and through the ground to the grounded neutral of a transformer or generator,
thus completing the circuit. Line-to-line faults not involving ground are less common.
Most of the faults on the power system lead to a short-circuit condition. When such a condition
occurs, a heavy current (called short-circuit current) flows through the equipment, causing
considerable damage to the equipment and interruption of service to the consumers.

11
Fault Classifications
The types of fault commonly occurring in practice are as follows:
(a) Line-to-ground: Line to ground faults are caused by a transmission line touching the ground.
Wind, ice loading, or an accident such as a tree limb falling on a line or a crane touching the
line can cause a line to ground fault. This category accounts for about 70% of all transmission
line short circuit faults.
(b) Line-to-line: These faults are normally caused by high winds blowing one line into another,
or by a line breaking and falling on a line below it. These account for about 15% of
transmission faults.
(c) Double-line-to-ground: This category of faults is caused by the same things that cause single
line to ground faults, except two lines are involved instead of one. These account for about
10% of transmission line faults.
(d) Three-phase faults: If a line condition occurs in which all three phases are shorted together,
either by something falling on the phase conductors, an equipment failure, or all three lines
falling to the ground, it is called a three-phase fault. These are relatively rare, accounting for
only about 5% of all transmission line faults.

The fault current that flows depends on the equivalent Thevenin voltage, and the equivalent
impedance at the fault terminals and the fault impedance, as illustrated in Figure 3-2.

ZTH IFAULT

ZFAULT
 VTH

Figure 3-2: Simple equivalent circuit for fault current calculation

Three-phase faults are called symmetrical faults, which give rise to symmetrical currents (i.e. equal
fault currents in the lines with 120 degree displacement). Other types of transmission-line faults
(line-to-ground, line-to-line and double-line-to-ground faults) cause an imbalance between the
phases, and so they are called unsymmetrical faults.
In this experiment, the symmetrical short-circuit analysis is performed and the ratings of CBs are
determined.

Software
The software, ‘Power World Simulator’ is used in this experiment to study the symmetrical fault
and determine CB ratings.

12
Test System
A power system consisting of 3 generators is shown in Figure 1-2.

Figure 3-3 A Three-Generator Power System (File: Example7_24)

(Note: Do not save any changes that you have made in the original file. Save the file in a new file.
Record the results.)

Procedure & Results

Part I:
1. Launch the program by double-clicking on the PowerWorld Simulator icon on the desktop.
Click on the File Menu and Open File “Example7_24”.
2. Click on each symbol and check out what they represent. All data are on a 1000MVA base.
3. Complete Tables 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3

Table 3-1: Generator data for Symmetrical Short Circuit Program

Bus Generator Subtransient Reactance-X” (per unit) –positive sequence
5
6
7

Table 3-2: Line Data for Symmetrical Short Circuit Program

Bus to Bus Equivalent Positive-Sequence Series Reactance (per unit)
1-2
2-3
2-4

Table 3-3: Transformer Data for Symmetrical Short Circuit Program

Bus to Bus Equivalent Positive-Sequence Series Reactance (per unit)
1-5
7-3
4-6

13
 4. Perform fault analysis and determine the current supplied by each generator and the per-
unit bus voltage magnitudes at each bus for a three-phase fault at bus 2.
5. Repeat step 4, for a fault at bus 4.
6. Repeat step 4, for a fault midway between buses 1 and 2. Determining the values for line
faults requires that the line be split, with a fictitious bus added at the point of the fault. The
original line impedance is then allocated to the two new lines based on the fault location,
50% each for this case. Fault calculations are then the same as for a bus fault. This is done
automatically in PowerWorld Simulator by first right-clicking on a line, and then selecting
‘Fault..’. The Fault dialog appears as before, except now the fault type is changed to ‘In-
Line Fault’. Set the location percentage field to 50% to model a fault midway between
buses 1 and 2.

Part II:
7. For the test system shown in Figure 3-3;
a) draw the positive-sequence reactance diagram in per-unit on a 1000MVA
base.
b) calculate the equivalent Thevenin reactance in per-unit at the fault terminals
if the short-circuit occurs at bus 2.
c) if the prefault voltage is 1.05 p.u, calculate the subtransient fault current in
per unit at the fault and verify the results with the fault current obtained in
step 4.
8. Determine the rating of the circuit breaker CB1 which is placed between Bus 4 and the
transformer if the nominal voltage at Bus 4 is 345kV.
9. Disconnect the generator at bus 7, and determine the fault current for three-phase faults at
each of the buses 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Part III:
10. A large power system data is stored in file “Example 6.13”. Open the file and determine
the per-unit current and actual current in amps supplied by each of the generators for a fault
at the LAUF69 bus. During the fault, what percentage of the system buses has voltage
magnitudes below 0.75 per-unit.
11. Repeat step 10, for the fault at the AMANS69 bus.

Questions
1) What can you conclude from this experiment?
2) Suggest methods to limit the fault current during fault.
3) How do you determine the rating of circuit breakers based on symmetrical fault study?

Lab Assessment
 On-Spot evaluation (20%).
 Experiment results & Lab report (80%).

14