108
1, JANUARY 2000
A Practical Method for Evaluation of Ground Fault
Current Distribution on Double Circuit Parallel Lines
Ljubivoje M. Popovic, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractThe paper presents an original analytical procedure
for quick and, for practical purposes sufficiently accurate evalua-
tion of the principal components of the ground fault current. The
procedure is valid for faults at any of the towers of a double 3-phase
circuit line with an arbitrary number of spans. The method is ob-
tained by application of relatively simple and exact equations for
uniform ladder circuits of any size (for any number of pis, from
one to infinity) and for any terminal conditions. The method can
be applied to solve several practical problems: the evaluation of
the maximum substation grounding system fault current, the se-
lection of a ground wire capable of withstanding the fault currents
and the prediction of step and touch voltages near the transmission
towers. In the case of a double circuit 3-phase line, the solution of
these problems is additionally complicated by the mutual inductive
coupling between the two parallel lines.
I. INTRODUCTION
I N THE case of appearance of a ground fault in a power
system with grounded neutrals, strong currents and in-
creased potentials appear in locations where they would not
be expected under normal operating conditions. In order
to ensure safe and economical protection against undesired
events, such as loss of human life, burndown of transmission
wire(s) and damages to sensitive telecommunication equipment
entering the power station, it is necessary to evaluate the part
of the ground fault current flowing between the substation
grounding system and the surrounding earth. All potentials
and potential differences significant for the estimation of the
safety conditions (touch and step voltages) are proportional to
this current, further in this text denoted as the earth current .
Because of the nature of the problem it is necessary to predict
this current under the conditions when it reaches its maximum.
A problem appears when the location of this worst fault is
not obvious and when the ground fault distribution cannot be
determined by simple rules. Such situation normally appears
in the case of large generating stations. It is then necessary to
perform a ground fault analysis including the faults on outgoing
transmission lines [3][5].
According to the considerations from [8], two fundamental
tendencies can be observed in the contemporary development of
the methods for ground fault current analysis. First, a continual
effort is being made to make these methods more convenient
for application [2], [5] since there is a great number of cases that
should be solved. On the other hand, the accuracy of the methods
is improved by including new factors of lower significance [3],
Manuscript received July 20, 1998.
The author is with JP Elektroprivreda Srbije, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8977(00)00550-1.
08858977/00$10.00 2000 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO.
[4]. Unfortunately, some of the input data (e.g., the value of the
footing resistance of each tower) can be determined only when
the station and the lines are already built, but then the increased
accuracy of these models has not a practical importance for most
of the problems.
The development of the methods with increased accuracy is
based on special matrix techniques and capabilities of modern
computers, while the improvement of the practical methods is
tightly connected with the development of analytical procedures
for simpler and more accurate solution of a specific problem,
the uniform ladder circuits. Many authors dealt with its solution
since late sixties until the early nineties [2], [4], [5]. They pro-
posed a relatively large number of approximate formulas and
partial solutions. However, a definitive solution was given only
by deriving the General Equations of the Line Represented by
Discrete Parameters [7], which actually represent a general so-
lution of uniform ladder circuits. By applying this solution and
the previously known analytical procedures (method of sym-
metric components, driving point technique [6], and decoupling
technique [2], [4]) a practical method with high accuracy at the
design stage has been developed [8]. The procedure given here
represents a modified version of this practical method enabling
the solution of the problem in the specific case of a double circuit
line. The lines consisting a double circuit line in general diverge
at some point and terminate at a different station (sometimes at
both ends). When the lines are at the same time parallel (lines
start and finish in the same substations), intensive currents can
flow in the ground-fault conditions through each one of them
(both faulted and unfaulted). This is the reason why this spe-
cific case deserves a special consideration, both theoretical and
practical.
Double circuit 3-phase lines are becoming increasingly fre-
quent in high voltage transmission networks and it is a realistic
assumption than in the future they will be increasingly used.
Since they actually represent two parallel lines which share the
same right of way (towers), specific for this problem is that these
lines are electromagnetically coupled. The influence of this cou-
pling can be neglected in the case of symmetric operation with
positive or negative sequence, but it is evident in the zero-se-
quence operation [1], [9]. In the case of the lines with induc-
tive coupling the value of the zero impedance of each line is
increased, and in the equivalent circuit of these lines a mutual
zero-sequence impedance occurs [9]. In this work the increased
zero impedance of the lines is included by using the analytical
expression given in [10], while the influence of the mutual zero
impedances is included by using the decoupling technique [2].
Since relevant parameters of both lines are identical, all expres-
sions have a relatively simple mathematical form.
POPOVIC: A PRACTICAL METHOD FOR EVALUATION OF GROUND FAULT CURRENT DISTRIBUTION ON DOUBLE CIRCUIT PARALLEL LINES
II. FAULTS ON A DOUBLE CIRCUIT PARALLEL LINE NEAR
THE STATION
The problem of the determination of the fault current injected
into the earth through the station ground grid and the external
grounding circuits in the cases of a ground fault on an outgoing
single line is considered in [3], [5], and [8]. It is shown that
the largest (critical) value of this part of the fault current can
appear at the end of a relatively short line, or, for long enough
lines, on a certain critical distance from the generating station.
In this work we extend the consideration to the case when at
least one of the outgoing lines is a double circuit parallel line.
It is reasonable to focus our attention to this case, since when
all other conditions are identical or very similar, higher ground
fault currents can be expected in such lines than in single circuit
lines. The fault position is supplied by the fault current from the
generating station via two lines (faulted and unfaulted line).
Example System: As a convenient example we will use here a
simple system consisting of a double circuit parallel line through
which a source station supplies a distribution station . Thus
all the 6 phase conductors emanate from the same substation,
share the same towers and terminate in the same substation.
Fig. 1 shows schematically parts of the fault current when a
single-line-to-ground fault occurs at an arbitrary ( th) tower.
The notation used for this circuit has the following meaning:
Faulted and unfaulted line, respectively.
Total ground fault current.
Fault current components through the faulted line
left and right of the fault location, .
Fault current component through the unfaulted line.
Earth current in station .
Fault current through the ground wire(s) on the first
span, counted from the station .
Impedance of the grounding system of the station
( ) which does not include the grounding effects of
the ground wire(s) of the line under consideration.
Mutual impedance between the phase conductor
with the current and the phase conductor with
and .
Mutual impedance between the ground wire(s) and
the faulted phase conductor, as well as between the
ground wire(s) and the phase conductor with fault
current, . slightly conservative results for the current and its parts.
Towers footing resistance.
Number of spans to the fault location, counted from
the station .
Total number of spans.
The parameters , , and are determined by the well-
known procedure described for example in [8]. We will empha-
size here only that the impedance is determined in relation
to one of the phase conductors [8], because we cannot assume
that a line section of a few spans (e.g., ) is transposed. Fur-
thermore, we have to remind ourselves that we need the current
under the worst fault conditions. Because of that, we will
assume that the faulted conductor is the most distant one from
the ground wire(s). It is specific for the double circuit parallel
lines that they have two mutual impedances, the one between the
ground wire(s) and the faulted phase conductor, and the other
109
Fig. 1. Main parts of the ground fault current.
between the ground wire(s) and the phase conductor with fault
current, . Since the position of these conductors relative to
the ground wire(s) is symmetrical, as shown in Fig. 6 (phase
conductors and ), these impedances have the same values.
Thus for the sake of simplicity we can use the same notation
for each one of them.
The specificity of double circuit lines is also the mutual
impedance . In nontransposed lines, i.e., relatively short
ones its value is constant, since the position of the phase
conductors ( and ) along such a line also does not change.
However, when the line is transposed, in each transposition
point the value of this impedance changes, since the relative
position of the phase conductors changes in such a manner that
in a general case its value is different in approximately each
third of the line length: , , and . The change
of the relative position of the phase conductors of a transposed
line in realistic conditions does not influence strongly the value
of the impedance , since the dependence is logarithmic [10].
Therefore for practical purposes one average value of these
distances can be adopted for the whole length of the line, but to
obtain increased safety we can choose the largest one of them.
Quantitative analysis of various line configurations per-
formed by the method presented in [9] shows that the inductive
influence on the other conductors of both lines ( and ) can
be neglected even when it is at its maximum (fault at the end of
the line). This is explained by the fact that the currents induced
in these conductors at the ends of the line circulate through
transformer windings. Neglecting these currents guarantees the
The fault currents , , , and in the case of single
circuit lines were considered in detail in [3], [5], and [8]. Here
we emphasize only that it is necessary to determine the current
at critical distance, when it reaches its maximum.
III. EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT AND NECESSARY ANALYTICAL
EXPRESSIONS
The power system that we have adopted (shown in Fig. 1) can
be transformed by:
the method of symmetric components,
driving point technique [6],
decoupled technique [2], [4],
reduction of the uniform ladder circuit [8],
and represented by the equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2.
110 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2000

The notation used in Fig. 2 has the following meaning:

Auxiliary driving source at fault location whose
voltage is equal to the voltage at the source sta-
tion.
Potential of the faulted tower.
Current sources corresponding to the inductive
influence of the faulted line on the unfaulted line.
Current sources corresponding to the inductive
influence of the unfaulted line on the faulted line.
Current sources corresponding to the inductive
influence of the phase conductors on the ground
wire(s).
Positive and negative sequence impedance at the
fault location.
Zero sequence impedance of the system at the
station .
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of a double-circuit line for ground fault analysis.
Zero sequence impedance of the unfaulted line.
Zero sequence impedance of the line from the
fault location to the station . The currents induced in the ground wire(s) are represented by
Remote ground. the current sources whose currents are determined according to
The current sources , , , and are the con- [2] by
sequence of the mutual inductive coupling of phase conductors
and are given by the following relations: (6)

(1) (7)

The equivalent impedances and are [8]

(2)
(8)

(3)
(9)

where
(4)

In the given expressions and represent the currents ap- (10)

pearing in the faulted phase conductor because of the galvanic
connection between the points and , and and , respec- The grounding impedance of the ground wire(s) of an infinite
tively. , and are the currents appearing in the corre- line, , is according to [2] and [7] given by
sponding phase conductor of the unfaulted line because of the
galvanic connection between the points and and and (11)
, respectively. is a fictive point on the unfaulted line, de-
termined by the position of the faulted tower. and
The impedances and can also be determined by the
are the currents induced in the phase conductor of the unfaulted
expressions (8) and (9), only then it is necessary to introduce the
line by the currents and , respectively. On the other hand,
corresponding number of spans, i.e., to replace with
and are the currents induced in the faulted conductor
. The equivalent circuit and the calculation can be simplified
by the current in the sections and , respectively.
if the section from the point of fault to the station can be
The is the coefficient of the inductive coupling of two earth
regarded as infinitely long regarding the grounding effects, i.e.,
return circuits, determined according to [2] by
if according to [8] the following criterion is satisfied:

(5)
(12)
where is the self-impedance of one phase conductor, deter-
mined under the assumption that the other phase conductors of where
the influenced line do not exist. active line length expressed in number of spans
POPOVIC: A PRACTICAL METHOD FOR EVALUATION OF GROUND FAULT CURRENT DISTRIBUTION ON DOUBLE CIRCUIT PARALLEL LINES 111

desired relative accuracy of the grounding impedance

of the ground wire(s) seen from toward in com-
parison to the impedance (an arbitrarily small a
priori adopted number).
Then we have and .
The impedances and are determined by using the
equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit for determination of Z and Z .
The used notation has the following meaning:
Positive and negative sequence impedance of the influence of this approximation on the value of the current
system at the station . is negligible. In the first case, the branch with the impedance
Positive and negative sequence impedance of one must be omitted, while in the second it can be omitted.
line from to . Then, according to Fig. 2, the currents and are equal. Si-
Positive sequence impedance of one line from multaneously, the current sources and also become
to . equal, according to (3) and (4). Besides, the influences of each
Negative sequence impedance of one line from of these sources to the value of the current outside of the phase
to . conductors cancel each other (Fig. 2), so that they can be also
The analytical expressions for the positive, negative, and omitted. The equivalent circuit modified in such a manner ap-
zero-sequence line impedances are given in [10]. pears finally as shown in Fig. 4.
For the calculation of the current in the case of a fault at represents the grounding impedance at the fault location,
the end of the line (station ), the equivalent circuit shown in according to [8] determined as
Fig. 2 becomes significantly simpler. The following impedances
are then omitted from the equivalent circuit: , , and , (13)
as well as the resistance . The impedance becomes equal
to the impedance . Also, all of the four current sources rep- where
resenting the currents induced in the phase conductors can be (14)
replaced by only one current source with the current equal to
the double value of the current induced in the phase conductor In many cases the line section according to (12) can be
of one of the lines ( or ). treated as infinite, and the following simplified equation can be
On the basis of the equivalent circuit in Fig. 2 and the given used
expressions, the complete system of equations can be written.
By varying and by performing sequential (tower to tower) (15)
calculations, it is possible to determine the extreme values of
the current , the current and the potential of any tower,
V. SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURE FOR DETERMINING THE CRITICAL
, for any given line.
FAULT POSITION
The analysis can be performed on a double circuit parallel line
of an arbitrarily complex power system, which means multiple The results of an extensive quantitative analysis, not pre-
lines, multiple sources, multiple substations, different voltage sented in this paper because of space limitation, show that
levels, substations with connected neutrals, etc. Before that, it is taking into account the mutual inductive coupling of the lines
necessary to calculate the positive, negative and zero-sequence does not change the critical fault location in some cases, while
impedances of the system at the terminal points of the line under in all of the others the location becomes nearer to the source
consideration. Also, in order to calculate , the equivalent cir- station for one span only. Practically, this means that in approx-
cuit should be formed in such a way to retain one branch which imate determination of the critical location, , of a fault on the
directly connects the points and (Fig. 2). The equivalent line the current sources and can be omitted. This
impedance in this branch should be determined so that the fault reduces the problem to the one considered in [8]. Analogously
current is divided into two components. One of them circulates to the procedure presented in [8], but now taking into account
through the neutral(s) in the station , while the other flows the impedance , we obtain the following approximation:
through the remaining grounded neutral(s) in the system, with
the exception of the part of the system supplied by the consid-
ered line. (16)
where
IV. SIMPLIFIED EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT AND APPROXIMATE
EXPRESSIONS (17)
For the solution of some practical problems the equivalent (18)
circuit shown in Fig. 2 can be modified in a significantly sim-
pler one. In practice, the neutral(s) in distribution stations is fre- The impedance , according to [8], represents the incre-
quently insulated. Also, even when it is grounded, under the ment of the impedance of the fault loop at the critical fault loca-
condition it can be treated as insulated, since the tion if the line length is increased by one span. On the basis of
112 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 15, NO. 1, JANUARY 2000

this definition, according to the circuits shown in Figs. 3 and 4

(without current sources and ) we have
(19)
and finally, after certain algebraic manipulation,
(20)
where

(21)

The impedances and are positive and zero sequence

impedance per one span of one of the parallel lines (their pa-
rameters are identical, since the conductors are symmetrically
disposed, Fig. 6).
At the design stage it is usually assumed that the impedance Fig. 4. Simplified equivalent circuit.
is approximately equal to zero, and in this case instead of
(16) we can use
(22)
By using (22) the critical (worst) fault approaches the station
, and a consequence of it is an increase of the maximum of
the current . It is necessary to stress here the following: if the
impedance is also neglected in the equivalent circuit (Figs. 2
or 4) the estimated critical value of the current for the cases
(e.g., a few Ohms) may be significantly larger than the
real one.
The approximation (16) is determined according to the well-
known condition for the determination of extrema of analytical
functions (first derivative of the function over the independent
variable must be equal to zero [8]). As it can be seen, the rela-
tion represents a transcendent equation whose solution may be Fig. 5. The estimation of the critical fault position.
determined graphically. Fig. 5 shows as an illustration the pro-
cedure of the solution of (16) for one of the cases studied in our
quantitative analysis.
The diagram shows the functions representing the right ( )
and the left side of the (16) for different line lengths, for
, for , and for . The points
and give us the critical positions of the faults at the lines of
40 and 200 spans, respectively. Naturally, since can be only
an integer, the final solution must be sought among the nearest
integers, making use of the circuit shown in Fig. 4.
If the curve representing the left side of (16) or (22) does not
intersect with the curve and becomes instead divergent with
an increase of (e.g., the curve ), the function does
not reach an extreme, and the largest value of is obtained
Fig. 6. Line configuration.
for a fault at the end of the line. This estimation helps us to
significantly reduce the necessary sequential (tower to tower)
VI. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
ground fault analysis.
The same conclusion is valid for a single line, although this is Let us assume that a double circuit line connecting the
not explicated in [8], where this problem is also considered. A stations and is a nontransposed 110 kV line with 6
more complex procedure is offered instead for a quick answer aluminum/steel 240/40 mm2 phase conductors, configured as
to the question if the current reaches its largest value for a shown in Fig. 6.
fault at a certain critical distance or at the end of the line. The ground wires are in one case steel 50 mm2, while in the
Of course, (16) or (22) may also be used for a quick and ap- other they are ACSR95/55 mm2. Line impedances per one span
proximate estimation of the value of when is a large source are determined on the basis of the following assumptions: av-
station ( ) and the neutral(s) in the station is (are) erage length of a span is 250 m; specific soil resistance along the
grounded. line is 50 m. The resistance per unit length of phase conductor,
POPOVIC: A PRACTICAL METHOD FOR EVALUATION OF GROUND FAULT CURRENT DISTRIBUTION ON DOUBLE CIRCUIT PARALLEL LINES 113

The influence of the inductive coupling of the phase conduc-

tors to the decrease of the current , expressed in rela-
tive units, amounts 8% at the most in the cases of steel ground
wire(s) or 10% in the cases of ACSR ground wire(s), so that in
practical analyzes it could be neglected, which would greatly
simplify the circuits in Figs. 2 and 4. The influence is more
marked at the ends of the lines and increases with an increase
of the line length, asymptotically approaching the limit value
which is on the basis of the circuit shown in Fig. 2 defined by
the relation

However, in this case the circuits used in calculations (Figs. 2

and 4) become significantly simpler.
Fig. 7. Current I in dependence on fault location on short lines.

VII. CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents a practical method for the analysis of the
ground fault current distribution in a double circuit parallel line.
The method is applicable in the analysis of grounding systems of
source stations with at least one outgoing double circuit parallel
line and in the design of double circuit parallel lines.

Fig. 8. Current I as a function of fault location on long lines.
steel and ACSR ground wire is 0.12, 3.5, and 0.299 /km, re-
spectively.
The source impedances and
are chosen so that the fault currents are typical of those
found in most power systems. The substation is with the in-
sulated neutral(s), and the impedances and are equal to
zero.
On the basis of the given data, and following the procedure
outlines in the paper, we obtained the results shown in Figs. 7
and 8.
Fig. 7 shows the change of the current in dependence on
the fault location on a relatively short line ( ). For both
types of the ground wires if the current does not
reach its largest value for the fault on the line, but rather at the
end of the line (in the station ).
In the case of a relatively long line ( ), the current
in all four considered cases reaches its maximum for fault
on the line, but it decreases with an increase of the line length,
since the contribution of the fault current via the unfaulted line
( ) is decreased with the lengthening of the line. Also, in
the case of long lines the critical fault location approaches
the source station (also seen in Fig. 6), and the limiting point
of the approach is reached if the line becomes so long that the
contribution of the to the current can be neglected.
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Ljubivoje M. Popovic was born in Markovac,
Serbia, Yugoslavia, on February 24, 1944. He re-
ceived the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from the University of Belgrade in
1969, 1983, and 1991, respectively. He has worked
on the design of different power system installations
in ElektrodistribucijaBeograd. For the last
fourteen years, he has been a leading Research
Engineer in the field of grounding problems and
short circuit currents. He is a Senior Member of the
IEEE Power Society.