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Session Twelve:
Fault Reduction Strategy using Neutral Earth Resistor
(NER) Installation
Cheng Lee
Lead Engineer, Peracon
Co-author : Frans Cloete, Peracon
Abstract
Fault level reduction is an ongoing challenge in a growing electrical network.
With generation and network capacity continually being added to the system,
the fault levels in various locations of a distribution network will soon approach
their maximum allowable design level. For electrical power distribution
companies there are a number of business drivers that force the
implementation of fault level reduction schemes.
While the general operation of Neutral Earthing Resistors (NER) for fault level
reduction is well understood, optimisation of the design under various network
configurations to yield maximum benefit requires detailed study. This paper
presents the studies carried out in assessing the impact of Neutral Earthing
Impedances of varying sizes for phase-ground faults on a “generic” network
with three different configurations:
Delta-Star Transformer configuration;
Star-Star Transformer configuration; and
Bus Tie CB Open (Delta-star Transformer configuration)
The impact of Transient Recovery Overvoltage (TRV) on selected zone
substation configuration resulting from the installation of NERs is also
presented.
1. INTRODUCTION
Fault level reduction is an ongoing task on a growing electrical network. With
increasing generation and network capacity added to the system, the fault
levels in various locations of a distribution network will approach their maximum
allowable design level.
For electrical power distribution companies, there are a number of business
drivers that result in the implementation of fault level reduction schemes. These
business drivers are:
Maintain the existing equipment within design ratings to avoid expensive
upgrades.
Bushfire risk mitigation.
Quality of Supply Improvement.
Safety and reliability.
In particular, the quality of supply improvement generates a key driver for the
electrically sensitive LV industrial and commercial customers, and the HV
customers with step down transformers.
The present 66/22kV systems under studied are solidly earthed (i.e. without
NER installed), which results in higher earth fault currents under fault condition.
With the expanding network, the situation is quickly worsened because the
existing switchgear and other equipment are not rated for the higher fault level.
These are shown graphically and mathematically as follows. Without the NER,
it can be seen that the Ifault will be naturally high.
66kV 22kV
RL
Ifault
Vs
NER
A commonly accepted and cost efficient approach to reduce the single phase to
ground fault level is to install a neutral earthing resistor on the transformer
neutral (as shown below).
66kV 22kV
NER
During the fault, the NER will form part of the positive, negative and zero
sequence circuits, providing a mean to control the Ifault, consequently a higher
NER value will result in a lower fault current. The simplified sequence circuits
for the symmetrical components to represent the unbalance condition under
single phase to ground fault are demonstrated graphically as follows:
I1
Positive Sequence Z+ V1
I2
Negative Sequence Z- V2
I1 = I2 = I0
I0
Zero Sequence Z0 V0
NER
While the general operation of Neutral Earthing Resistors for fault level
reduction is well understood, optimisation of the design under various network
configurations to yield maximum benefit requires detailed study. The studies
involved assessing the impact of Neutral Earthing Impedances of varying sizes
for phase-ground faults on a “generic” network with three different
configurations:
Delta-Star Transformer configuration;
Star-Star Transformer configuration; and
Bus Tie CB Open (Delta-star Transformer configuration)
The impact on Transient Recovery Overvoltage (TRV) resulting from the
installation of NERs has also been studied to help determine eventual NER
selection.
As the use of NERs to reduce the fault level is a widely accepted approach in
the electrical industry. This paper aims to provide an insight into the NER effect
on the network and to present the outcome of the study and simulation results.
2. METHODOLOGY
The modeling and computation associated with fault and Temporary
Overvoltage (TOV) calculation was carried out using the load flow software.
The work associated with Transient Recovery Overvoltage (TRV) was carried
out using ATP software, a widely used EMTP software for the analysis of
electrical transient phenomenon.
The study has been performed by modeling the generic network (see
Figure 4) in the load flow program, and modifying it to reflect the required
transformer configuration and additional bus tie circuit breakers. Load flow
studies were then conducted for each configuration.
The NER fault studies (for the range of NER values) were conducted according
to IEC methodology for phase-ground faults at selected locations. The voltages
and fault currents were recorded and tabulated for various transformer
configurations with the 22kV bus tie CB both open and closed.
From these results, voltage rises on healthy phases for each study were
calculated and graphed at both the 22kV zone substation bus level and at the
415V LV customer level for each transformer configuration. The effects of the
NER on the LV customer level within the generic network were investigated
because the impact on customer voltages is one of the major benefits of neutral
earthed impedance installations.
It should be noted that all voltages specified herein are phase to ground
voltages. When the neutral earthing resistor value is zero, the phase to neutral
voltage is equivalent to the phase to ground voltage, i.e. solidly earthed.
Figure 1 shows a typical response of the phase voltages following the clearing
of a phase to ground fault.
Typical ATP Output
60
[kV]
TRV generated when
40 TOV during fault clearing fault
conditions
20
-20
-40
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 [s] 0.40
(file STA_020805_R2_w TERT.pl4; x-var t) v:SECA v:SECB v:SECC
The ratings of relevance in this study are the TRV rating and the short-time
power frequency-withstand voltage rating of the 22kV circuit breaker. The first
refers to the peak TRV value the circuit breaker can tolerate during mechanical
breaking and the second is relevant to the TOV, i.e. the breaker’s tolerance to
withstand phase voltage displacement during the fault.
Displaced
NER Voltage
As a result, the neutral phase voltage is displaced and causes other phases
(relative to it) to shift as well. This is also the fundamental cause of temporary
overvoltage (TOV). See Figure 3. The unbalance voltage also provides a
means of detecting earth faults and is a technique many relays employ.
a b
TOV
Voltage
displacement
c resulting from NER
The key findings related to the impact of the NER with different transformer
configurations, bus tie CB states, and fault types were as follows.
220kV Bus
66kV Bus
66kV Bus
Normally open CB
To LV (415V) To LV (415)
customer customer
On a network with no neutral earthing resistors, and for faults along Feeder 1,
only the faulted phase is displaced at the 22kV bus level while the two healthy
phases remain fairly constant, as shown in Figure 8.
At the LV (415V) bus level, however, two phases (Va & Vc) experience some
displacement while the other healthy Vb is relatively constant at close to 1 pu
(Figure 7). In fact, the voltage displacement compared with the healthy phase is
as high as 36% for a fault directly on the 22kV bus. As such, a fault on Feeder
1 very close to the 22kV bus would cause some noticeable disruption for
customers on other feeders, quantifying as a voltage phase failure and can
The study showed that the correction and improvement a NER of 8Ω provides
at the 415V customer level is quite significant, regardless of the 66/22kV
transformer configuration.
NERs provide protection for all non-faulted feeders from phase to ground faults
and their effects are comparable to opening the bus tie CB for phase to ground
type fault mitigation. However, NERs do not have the reliability and voltage loss
issues associated with opening the bus tie CB. Rather, they help maintain
quality of supply at the LV 415V level at the expense of an increase on 22kV
phase voltages. NERs are effective in reducing the impact of all phase to
ground faults, which represent approximately 90% of all faults on the
distribution network.
Different NER values, including NEX which has similar effect in reducing fault
levels are investigated in later sections.
4.2 Discussions
As illustrated in the diagrams below, the zero-sequence currents will flow in
both primary and secondary circuits in the case of star-star connection. For
delta-star, the zero-sequence currents will flow in the secondary circuit. It was
found that the 66/22kV transformer configurations have more minor and a
secondary impact on fault current mitigation, this outcome is not usually
expected because the configuration of source transformers (66/22kV) does
impact the fault currents. The reason for this minor impact is likely due to the
range of NER values being investigated.
Z0
But NERs do cause 22kV voltage rise for networks with bus tie CB closed, for
this reason, many utilities are still maintaining the solidly earthed approach.
Opening bus tie CBs offer a cost-effective means for mitigation of all fault
types. The drawback, though, is voltage depression on feeders connected to
affected bus section due to a weaker system.
On a network with a 8Ω NER, the phase voltage at the 415V customer level is
very steady at approximately 1.0 pu. This differs from the voltage displacement
observed at the 22kV bus voltage level where there is quite some disparity
between the phase voltages.
5.1 General
The TRV is the voltage occurring at the circuit breaker contacts on the faulted
phase at the moment of opening the circuit breaker to clear the fault. The
installation of neutral earth impedance could potentially increase the Transient
Recovery Voltage, causing the circuit breaker to re-strike and fail to interrupt
fault currents.
The maximum TRV is generated when clearing ‘close-in’ phase to ground fault
at 22kV network.
The ATP models are constructed based on detailed network information and
are properly validated.
It should be noted that unless otherwise specified, all voltage waveforms shown
in the figures represent line-to-ground voltages. For example, the nominal peak
value for the 66 kV voltage level is 54 kV ( 66 2 / 3 54 kV ) and the nominal peak
value for the 22 kV voltage level is 18 kV ( 22 2 / 3 18 kV ).
The reduced system model is mainly associated with finding suitable equivalent
impedance (or fault level) used to represent the system outside the study area.
The system outside the study area is normally represented by impedance
equivalent to the available short circuit level at a point distant from the
disturbance.
The single line diagrams of the zone substations and fault levels at the relevant
points of the network under study have been provided. To accurately capture
the electromagnetic transient response, all the relevant power system
components were modeled.
1.20
Circuit Breaker Opening Time
1.00
TRV Sensitvity Factor (p.u)
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
200 205 210 215 220
The TRV sensitivity with respect to the circuit breaker opening time has been
analysed and it was found that the point of worst case scenario is identified as
close to the 200ms (or 210 ms) in the simulation cycle of 20ms (see Figure 9).
This corresponds to the peak on the voltage waveform (90° or 270°). As such,
the simulation of the circuit breaker opening time is targeted at about 200ms
(90°) to obtain a more conservative result.
3.200
3.000
2.800
2.600
Peak Voltage Levels (p.u.)
2.400
2.200
2.000
1.800
1.600
1.400
1.200
1.000
0.800
TOV-NER-PU
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
TRV-NER-PU
NER Values (Ohms)
TOV-NER-S2-PU
It can be shown that the two TOV curves are very comparable in both
magnitude and trend. The slight discrepancy is likely due to the use of generic
model in the load flow program.
Figure 11 to Figure 14 show the time domain response of the individual phase
voltage following the clearing of 100ms single phase fault, simulated for 0Ω,
1Ω, 2Ω and 8Ω Neutral Earthed Impedance.
5.4 Discussions
The temporary overvoltage (TOV) takes place on the two healthy phases
during the occurrence of phase-to-ground fault. There are two components
associated with the TOV – the transient surge component and the fundamental
frequency component. The transient surge component attenuates with a time
constant that depends on the circuit damping and the fundamental frequency
component will remain until the fault is cleared.
Figure 12 NEX = 1Ω
Figure 13 NER = 2Ω
The TRV curve (orange line) in Figure 10 shows that the peak TRV levels occur
with NERs between 2 to 3 for one of the zone substations investigated.
However, this can vary slightly from one zone substation to another because it
is found that the behaviours of TRV are site specific and are dependent on the
transformer impedances, line impedances, and feeder impedances.
We have assessed all TOV values corresponding to each TRV case simulated
and the results are presented for each zone substation under study. The study
found no TOV levels that are of any significant concern and the cases
investigated are generally in compliance with the Australia Standard.
The TRV results of the EMTP studies conducted for the three separately
located zone substations, identified as Substation A, Substation B and
Substation C are summarised in Table 1.
The one ohm neutral earthing reactors will neither provide effective limitation of
earth fault current nor provide adequate benefits to quality of supply at the
415V level. Furthermore, in a zone substation with capacitor bank installations,
neutral earthing reactors could increase the risk of resonance situations that
may be difficult to predict. Based on the simulation results, there is evidence in
the case of reactor neutral grounding that multiple low to medium frequency
oscillation superimposed on the 50Hz system frequency. The resonance
condition, particularly due to interactions with local loads was not modelled in
this report due to the lack of information of the other harmonic current sources.
Unlike the neutral earthed resistor, the neutral earthed reactor appeared to
have fluctuating levels of TRV depending on the values selected and it does
not follow a constant trend. This fluctuation can be attributed to the frequency
dependant nature of TRV, that vary based on each reactor value and their
interactions with one or all of the zone substation’s capacitor banks, the line
inductance, transformer impedances, and feeder configurations.
1
TOV observed is 1.87pu for Substation A, 1.89pu for Substation B, and 1.79pu for Substation C
The Australian Standards (AS 62271.100) for 24kV circuit breakers have the
following TRV rating - TRV peak value of 41kV and time of 87µs. This is the
standard by which the results within these studies were compared against. The
current set of 22kV bus circuit breakers are rated within the Australian
Standards specifications.
It is observed that all solidly earthed, 1 NEX and 8 NER (common) have
shown that the TRV values measured have response time within the Australian
Standards. Only some of the 2 NER cases have TRV response times (as well
as maximum TRV value) exceeding the Australian Standards.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The installation of 2Ω neutral earth reactor will result in high TRV levels
that are above the rating of the existing 24kV circuit breakers. Although
substation C’s TRV levels are considered satisfactory with the existing
zone substation configuration, the future installation of capacitor banks
(2 X 12MVAr) will cause the TRV levels to rise above the acceptable
rating. Therefore, the use of 2Ω NER is not recommended.
7. REFERENCE
D. Mc Nabb and al., June 2001, 'Transient Design Studies for the
TransMantaro Series-Compensated Transmission System', IPST'01
Proceedings, Rio de Janeiro.
8. APPENDICES
Definition of Terms
CB – Circuit Breaker
LV – Low Voltage