The University of New South Wales

School of Electrical Engineering

and Telecommunications

Industrial and Commercial Power Systems

Topic 5

FAULT
CALCULATIONS
 short-circuit faults in supply system.
 very
high fault current causing equipment
damage, fire, injury, etc.
 require protection systems
 to detect fault currents and
 to take remedial action.

 need to establish methods of calculating fault

current in any particular location of the electrical
installation.
Difficulties:

 many types of fault in three phase systems

 must know impedances of all system components
 fault impedance itself may be non-zero, value =?
 difficult to estimate accurately earth impedance
 fault current contribution from machines etc.
 DC offset in initial cycles of fault current
 DC system faults also include inductance effects
Possible fault types:
 three phase (symmetrical) faults
 three phase to earth fault
 single phase to earth fault
 phase to phase fault
 phase to phase to earth fault

We consider only symmetrical 3-phase faults.

Often, this type gives maximum fault current level at
any location and represents worst case situations.
Prospective s/c current and fault level (power):

 important parameter that designer of an electrical

installation needs to know.
 Can be obtained from electricity distributor

 prospective short-circuit current = current which

would flow as a result of a bolted 3-phase fault.
 "Bolted" refers to the phases being connected via
a zero impedance connection.
 Inreality this is not physically possible, since
there will always be a resistive component with a
fault occurs.
 Typical value at point of supply for 230/400V NSW
distribution systems
 Suburban residential areas: 10 kA
 Commercial and industrial areas: 25 kA

 Knowing fault level:

 impedance of upstream circuit and devices (e.g.
transformers, conductors) can be derived.
The prospective fault current varies at different points
in the supply
 1

PER UNIT SYSTEM

 normalize electrical quantities
 express voltage, current, kVA and impedance as
percentages (per unit values) of their base values
 simplify calculations substantially.
 transformer treated as a simple impedance (no
need for ratio).
Per unit values:
 need to specify two base values, and the other
two base values can be derived.
 usually, specify VB and SB
 and thus:
 normally, VB is taken as rated system voltage.
 SB is arbitrarily specified (say 10 or 1 MVA), or
use rating of a major system component, e.g.
supply transformer.
Three-phase systems

 calculationsdone on a single-phase basis using

per unit phase impedances in the one-line
diagram.
 VB is line voltage and SB is three-phase kVA
 and note:
Example:
Example:
 2

EFFECTS AND REQUIREMENTS

Knowing fault levels enables determination of:

 over-current protection requirements

 peak electromagnetic forces
 thermal heating effects
 maximum fault current (and minimum fault
current)
 timediscrimination requirements of protection
operation
 touch voltage on earthed object (personnel safety)
Sources of fault currents:

 electrical utility supply grid system

 any in-house generation systems operating at
time of the fault
 any motors operating within the system at time of
the fault
 anyelectrical storage elements in the system (e.g
capacitors)
Fault impedance variation:

 for
the utility supply, source impedance is
constant (a stiff source)
 for in-house generators or motors, impedance
is time-varying, depending on the time after the
short circuit:
 sub-transient reactance (Xd”) (First cycle)
 transient reactance (Xd’) (1.5 to 4 cycles)
 synchronous reactance (Xs) (30 cycles)

 Synchronous motors sustain fault current longer

than induction motors
DC offset:

 offsetcan increase initial current levels

substantially
 magnitude of DC offset level governed primarily
by X/R ratio of faulted circuit
 alsodependent on angle on voltage waveform at
which fault occurs
 The physics behind is not easy!
 The system X/R determines how rapidly the DC
decays.
 Faultsthat occur at a current zero crossing don't
produce a DC offset
 Those that occur at a current max or min produce
the largest DC offset that circuit will produce.
 The actual DC offset will range between those
values and will be different in each phase.
 3

FAULT CALCULATION METHODS

Assumptions:
Procedure:
 convert all impedances to per unit values
 draw single line diagram of fault circuit,
 all
possible sources are modeled as ideal voltage
source with their source impedance
 simplify circuit and reduce it to
 4

FAULTS IN DC SYSTEMS
 Sources:DC generators, synchronous converters,
DC motors, rectifiers, battery banks, UPS
 only resistance elements determine steady-state
fault current.
 L/R time constants usually long enough that
steady state fault current will not be reached
before protection operates.
 arc interruption is much more difficult for DC than
for AC
 5

FAULT CALCULATION DATA

AND EXAMPLE
 Example:

Required to find fault

current at location A.

Use 20 MVA base.

Example (Students try in groups)

An 11kV, 10MVA, 50Hz, three-phase generator of 0.08 per unit

reactance and negligible resistance, is connected to an 11/33kV,
12MVA transformer of 0.02+j0.05 per unit impedance. A line
having a series impedance of 2+j4 ohms/phase is connected to the
33kV side of the transformer.

A symmetrical fault of zero impedance develops at the far end of the

line. Calculate the fault current. How much energy would be
dissipated in the system if the current remained at this value for 8
cycles?
Solution

11 kV 11/33 kV (2+j4) Ω
10 MVA 12 MVA
X = 8% Z=0.02+j0.05 pu

Choose S base
= 10 MVA, Thus :

2
V S
For V = 11kV : Z = base
= 12.1Ω ; I = base
= 525 A
3 ×V
base base base
S base base

2
V S
For V = 33kV : Z = base
= 108.9Ω ; I = base
= 175 A
3 ×V
base base base
S base base
Thank you