Topic 8: Fault Calculation Methods

Problems in electrical circuits

Open circuits
Supply is disconnected to the load

Short circuits
Supply bypasses the load Very dangerous
Lead to high fault currents Disastrous effects on equipment
Thermal heating Electromechanical effects Fires

Protection must detect abnormal fault currents

Isolate in a time consistent with short circuit fault current

Therefore fault current must be accurately predicted for a fault in any location

Problems in fault calculation (1)

Many different types of faults in 3-phase systems
3-phase symmetrical faults Phase to phase fault Single phase to earth fault Three phase to earth fault Phase to phase to earth fault

Impedance characteristics of all electrical items in the system must be known Fault impedance itself may be non-zero and difficult to estimate There may be substantial fault current contribution from rotating machines Initial cycles of fault current may be asymmetric with substantial dc offset Earth impedance in earth faults can be difficult to estimate

Problems in fault calculation (2)

Different fault types have different fault currents even when they occur at the same location
The protection must take this into consideration when setting operating time

Symmetrical three phase faults

Maximum fault current level at any location Represents worst case scenario and covers all other faults

LV systems have low impedance

Generate very high levels of fault current

Types of short-circuits and their currents

Balanced threephase short-circuit

Line-to-line shortcircuit

Types of short-circuits and their currents

Line-to-line short-circuit with earth connection

Line-to-earth short-circuit

Comparison of magnitude of shortcircuit currents

Fault type
3-phase (most severe) Line-to-line Line-to-ground (usually least severe)

Magnitude
(E/Z) x multiplier 0.87 x 3-phase fault Depends on system grounding

Per Unit System

Fault calculations must be done using per-unit system
Vpu = V/VB Ipu = I/IB Spu = S/SB Zpu = Z/ZB VB is the voltage base IB is the current base SB is the kVA base ZB is the impedance base

Usually base values VB and SB are specified

IB and and ZB are determined from VB and SB IB = SB/VB ZB = VB2/SB = VB/IB VB is taken as the rated system voltage SB is arbitrarily specified (100/10/1 MVA)
Rating of transformer is normally used as the base

Use of pu system
For balanced symmetrical 3-phase faults
Fault calculation must be done on single phase basis Use the pu phase impedance of one-line diagram
Care must be taken to ensure the proper phase kVA and voltage levels are used in the calculation IB = (SB/3)/(VB/3) = SB/ (3 VB) ZB = [(VB/3)2]/(SB/3) = VB2/SB Where VB is the line voltage And SB is the three phase kVA value

Change of base
Fault calculations must include all significant components of impedance
Must be expressed in pu terms using the appropriate base value Sometimes may need to be changed if they are expressed using different bases, e.g transformer impedances Zpu = Z/ZB = Z(SB/VB2) For change of kVA base (SB): Zpu(new) = Zpu(old)[SB(new)/SB(old)] Change of voltage base (VB): Zpu(new) = Zpu(old)[VB2(old)/VB2(new)] Change of both kVA and voltage bases at the same time: Zpu(new) = Zpu(old)[SB(new)/SB(old)][VB2(old)/VB2(new)] Impedances of transformers, motors, etc will be given in pu terms based on their rated voltage and power levels Impedances of cables, overhead lines, etc will be given in ohms and must be converted to pu with the appropriate base

Fault Calculation Effects and Requirements

Fault levels in a power system must be calculated at the design stage to determine:
Overcurrent protection Peak electromagnetic forces Thermal heating effects Maximum and minimum fault current Time discrimination requirements of protection Touch voltages on earth objects Electrical utility supply system In-house generation systems operating at time of fault Motors operating within the system at time of fault Any electrical storage elements in the system, e.g. capacitors

Sources of fault currents

Fault current contribution

Static equipment are not sources of fault current
Inverters, converters, transformers, induction heaters

Capacitors and battery operated UPS are lowlevel sources of fault current Supply utility and in-house generation provides constant fault current (stiff source) Motors will provide decaying fault current as their magnetic excitation fields collapse

Fault current contribution from motors

Time-varying impedance
Sub-transient reactance (Xd) effective impedance in first few cycles Transient reactance (Xd) - effective impedance in 2 20 cycles Synchronous reactance (Xs) impedance in steady state

Synchronous reactance is generally not used since protection will operate before it comes into effect
For synchronous motors, only the sub-transient and transient reactance are normally used For induction motors, only the sub-transient reactance is used

DC Offset
Must be included in fault calculations, especially LV systems
DC offset can increase initial current levels substantially

Magnitude of DC offset depends on X/R ratio of fault circuit

Short-circuit current waveforms (far from generator short-circuit)

Short-circuit current waveforms (near to generator short-circuit)

Short-circuit current waveforms from different sources

Utility

Generator

Synchronous motor Induction motor

Symmetrical short-circuit current from 3 sources (utility, motors and generator combined into a total)

Fault calculation methods

To simplify calculations, the following assumptions are made:

Fault is balanced 3-phase symmetrical Pu impedances are pure reactances for MV systems, any resistance is neglected For LV systems where resistance is important, impedance is [Z] = (R2 + X2)1/2 All significant component impedances are included The fault itself has zero impedance (i.e. bolted short circuit)

Fault calculation methods

Earth circuit impedance is neglected
balanced 3-phase nature of fault eliminates earth impedance

Rated voltage is used as the voltage base X/R for all equipment
used to calculate level of DC offset multiplier
after symmetrical fault current has been calculated

Convert all impedances to pu values

Use these to draw single line diagram of fault circuit All possible sources modeled as ideal voltage source
With appropriate source impedance value connected

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Fault calculation methods

Circuit simplification
Impedance diagram reduced to single pu impedance Zf Connected to true earth and to ideal voltage source Fault current (pu): If (pu) = Vpu/Zf(pu) = 1/Zf(pu) (since Vpu = 1) If = If(pu) . IB Amps

Parameters for fault calculation

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