Power System Analysis EEE486

Unsymmetrical Faults
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Electrical & Computer Engineering Department

COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad campus

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• Introduction
• Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
• Single Line-to-Ground Faults
• Line-to-Line Faults
• Double Line-to-Ground Faults
• Demonstration Problems
• Open-Conductor Faults
• Summary 523

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Introduction
• Most of the faults that occur on power systems are unsymmetrical faults
• Faults consist of
– Unsymmetrical short circuits
– Unsymmetrical faults through impedances
– Open conductors
• Unsymmetrical faults occur as
– Single line-to ground faults
– Line-to-line faults
– Double line-to-ground faults
• The path of the fault current from line to line or line to ground may or may not
contain impedance.
• One or two open conductors result in unsymmetrical faults, through either the
breaking of one or two conductors or the action of fuses and other devices
that may not open the three phases simultaneously.
• Since any unsymmetrical fault causes unbalanced currents to flow in the
system, the method of symmetrical components is very useful in an analysis to
determine the currents and voltages in all parts of the system after the
occurrence of the fault.
• We consider faults on a power system by applying thevenin's theorem, which
allows us to find the current in the fault by replacing the entire system by a
single generator and series impedance, and we show how the bus impedance
matrix is applied to the analysis of unsymmetrical faults.
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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
• Fig shows the three lines a, b, and c of the three-phase system at
the part of the network where the fault occurs.
• the currents flowing out of the original balanced system from
phases a, b, and c at the fault point will be designated as 𝐼𝑓𝑎 , 𝐼𝑓𝑏
and 𝐼𝑓𝑐 respectively.
• Appropriate connections of the hypothetical stubs represent the
various types of fault
• For instance, direct connection of stubs b and c produces a line-to-
line fault through zero impedance. The current in stub a is then
zero, and 𝐼𝑓𝑏 = −𝐼𝑓𝑐

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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
• The line-to-ground voltages at any bus of the system ⓙ during the
fault will be designated 𝑉𝑗𝑎 , 𝑉𝑗𝑏 and 𝑉𝑗𝑐
• Superscripts 1, 2, and 0, respectively, denote positive-, negative-,
and zero-sequence quantities.
(1) (2) (0)
• Thus, for example, 𝑉𝑗𝑎 , 𝑉𝑗𝑎 , and 𝑉𝑗𝑎 will denote, respectively,
the positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components of the
line-to-ground voltage 𝑉𝑗𝑎 at bus ⓙ during the fault.
• The line-to-neutral voltage of phase a at the fault point before the
fault occurs will be designated simply by 𝑉𝑓 ' which is a positive-
sequence voltage since the system is balanced.

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System Representation
• A three-phase power system is represented by its sequence
networks i.e. the zero-, positive-, and negative-sequence networks
of system components—generators, motors, transformers, and
transmission lines can be used to construct system zero-, positive-,
and negative-sequence networks. We make the following
assumptions:
1. The power system operates under balanced steady-state
conditions before the fault occurs. Thus the zero-, positive-, and
negative-sequence networks are uncoupled before the fault
occurs. During unsymmetrical faults they are interconnected only
at the fault location.
2. Prefault load current is neglected. Because of this, the positive-
sequence internal voltages of all machines are equal to the
prefault voltage VF. Therefore, the prefault voltage at each bus in
the positive-sequence network equals VF.

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System Representation
3. Transformer winding resistances and shunt admittances are
neglected.
4. Transmission-line series resistances and shunt admittances are
neglected.
5. Synchronous machine armature resistance, saliency, and
saturation are neglected.
6. All nonrotating impedance loads are neglected.
7. Induction motors are either neglected (especially for motors rated
50 hp (40 kW) or less) or represented in the same manner as
synchronous machines.

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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
• A single-line diagram of a power system containing two
synchronous machines is sufficiently general for equations
derived therefrom to be applicable to any balances system
regardless of the complexity.
• Figure also shows the sequence networks of the system.
• The point where a fault is assumed to occur is marked P, and in
this particular example it is called bus ⓙ on the single-line
diagram and in the sequence networks.
• Machines are represented by their sub-transient internal voltages
in series with their sub-transient reactances when sub-transient
fault conditions are being studied.

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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
• The bus impedance matrix composed of positive-sequence
impedances is used to determine currents and voltages upon the
occurrence of a symmetrical three-phase fault.
• The method can be easily extended to apply to unsymmetrical
faults by realizing that the negative-and zero-sequence networks
also can be represented by bus impedance matrices.
• The bus impedance matrix will now be written symbolically for
the zeero-, negative-, and positive-sequence network in the form

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Unsymmetrical Faults on Power Systems
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