POWER SYSTEM

PROTECTION & SWITCH GEAR

 Electrical Faults

Faults in a power system occur

because of insulation failure
may be caused due to over
voltages such as switching
surge or lightning stroke or
broken insulator or conductors
 Various causes of faults
Lightning
Jumping conductors
Apparatus failure
Switching to a fault
Miscellaneous
 Types of faults
Single phase to ground faults
Phase to phase faults
Two phase to ground fault
Three phase faults
Fault current (short circuit) enable us to
make proper selection of CBs, protective
relays and associated apparatus (bus
bars, Transformer etc.,)
 Limitations to fault current
Let P and Q represent bus bar at power station
and substation Q
G P
F1
~ X
X circuit breaker at X
F1 outgoing feeder

In the event of fault occurring at any point F1 the

short circuit current from the generating station
will be a certain value limited by the impedance of
the generator and the impedance of the feeder
upto the point of the fault
 P Q
G1
~ X
F1

X
F2

G2
~ X
F3

The fault current from the generating station due to a fault occurring on, say
F1will be greater than that in original system on account of
1. larger kVA of generating plant
2. Smaller impedance of the generating plant
3. Smaller impedance of the two feeder connecting P and Q

The value of the fault current which can flow in any system under
short circuit is limited only by the impedances in that system
 PERCENTAGE REACTANCE
Percentage reactance may be defined as follows:
A reactance of X percent will have a reactive voltage drop
of X percent of normal voltage when carrying a full load
current corresponding to normal rating
IX
(% X ) 100
V
X------------ reactance
V------------ rated voltage
I ------------ full load rated current

V 100
I sh I
X %X
 % reactance calculation
For a system of transformer having 4%
were short circuited, the applied voltage
need only be 4% of the normal line to
neutral voltage in order to circulate full load
current through its windings. Alternatively
with secondary short circuited and with
normal voltage applied to primary the
symmetrical short circuit current will be 25
times the normal full load current