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Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552

10th International Conference on Marine Technology, MARTEC 2016

Short-Circuit Current Calculation Application for A.C 3 Phase on

Marine and Mobile Offshore Installations Based on IEC-61363
Standard
Angjuang Adi Panji P1,∗, Hardika Raditya A1 , Triyan Indrawan1
a PT.Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia, Jl. Yos Sudarso No.38-40, Jakarta 14320, Indonesia

Abstract
As part of increasing marine vessel and mobile offshore installation safety, The Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), an International
Maritime Organization (IMO) publication required that electrical installations in ships shall be protected against short circuit. The
short circuit calculation shall be performed properly to obtain the appropriate protection device. Since the methods of calculation
used by designer are mostly varied, the amount of time needed for verification by Classification Society reviewer will be increased
if both of parties used different techniques. Moreover, the manual calculation data (by using Microsoft Excel, etc.) will not be saved
in appropriate order, according to ship’s name where such historical technical data might be needed in case of another modification
or electrical equipment replacement in the future. Therefore, this research is aimed at creating a short circuit calculation software,
in which the calculation data will be saved as historical record in an IMO number group and the method of calculation will be
technically uniform.The calculation is intended to obtain the short circuit current of a.c three phase based on IEC 61363 standard.
The calculated short circuit current comprises of three components, a.c component (Iac ), d.c component (Idc ) and peak current
(Ip ). The output of calculation can also be used as the way to determine the breaking and making capacity current in selection of
protection device.

©c 2017
2017TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Ltd. This
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 10th International Conference on Marine Technology.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 10th International Conference on Marine Technology.
Keywords: Short-circuit current;SOLAS;IMO; Making capacity;Breaking capacity; Protecting device

1. Introduction

To prevent short circuit currents occurring on marine and offshore installations, electrical system must be designed
in such a way to diminish short circuit event by ensuring all possible precautions have been taken. The calculation
result will be taken as minimum capability for electrical system and its component to withstand the effect of any pos-
sible short circuit event and hence limit occurring damage to a minimum. In practical, short circuit current protection
normally consists of some arrangements of fuses and circuit breakers. Therefore, this calculation can also provide
suitable information for any user to select ratings and capability of short circuit current protection component in order
to provide such necessary protection for their system[1].
As Classification Society, Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia are demanded to evaluate the safety precaution of all electrical
components, including verification of electrical component’s ability in concern to withstand short circuit current.

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.:+62 21 430 1017; fax: +62 21 439 36175

E-mail address: angjuang@bki.co.id

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the 10th International Conference on Marine Technology.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.08.183
546 P. Angjuang Adi Panji et al. / Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552

However, the calculation is still performed manually by the user which takes long time and risk of calculation mistakes
due to many complicate calculation formulas. Thus, the calculation software is developed which is based on IEC
publication 61363 which has been used for years as a fundamental reference related with short circuit calculation
suited for application on ships and offshore installations. This software will be used as complement tools for the
rules of Electrical Installations published by Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia were as required by the rules that the electrical
power source with the total output of greater than 500 kVA should be supplemented with short circuit calculation [4].
This software is expected to reduce the time needs for calculation and also reduce the calculation error.
The output of this calculation software will be used to determine the value of breaking and making capacity for
selection of appropriate circuit breaker. The calculation is performed by using the simplified one-line diagram as
basis.The system is divided into its active and non-active components. The active components are sources of short-
circuit current, the non-active components transmit or transform the short-circuit current to distribute it from the
source to the fault point. Each component is represented by a mathematical model formulated from its characteristic
parameters.
The result of this calculation software will be validated using commercial software. The difference between value
produced by designed calculation software and validating software as proof of its reliability, shall not to be more than
1%.

2. Short-circuit Current Calculation

The electrical power system in the shipping and offshore industry should be designed to serve the load with a safe
and reliable manner. One of the key considerations in planning the power system is a good control against short
circuit. Uncontrolled short circuit can cause service outages, which in turn will cause stoppage of the production,
termination of essential facilities or vital services, or fatal accidents to personnel and possible fire risk.
The electrical power system is designed to be free from the possibility of a short circuit through the design and
equipment selection, careful installation and adequate care. But even with those precautions, short circuit may still
occur.Some of the causes include rodents, breakage of connection, voltage spikes, degrade insulation material, accu-
mulation of dust, moisture and other contaminants, the inclusion of metal or conductive object and other phenomena
that can-not be determined.
Short-circuit current event is occurred when there is contact between a phase conductor with the earthing (ground),
phase conductors with each other or phase conductor with neutral conductor. The current induced by the short circuit
event has a high magnitude. Protective device must be able to withstand the current and disconnect the circuit within
the specified time. It is necessary for rating and selecting the appropriate protective device settings. Calculation of
short circuit current is intended to determine the value of short-circuit current that occurs on a system in regard to the
components that are involved. There is some effect when a short circuit occurs in a system:

• At the location of the short circuit, a fire and electric arc can occur
• The short circuit current flows from the source to the location of the short circuit
• All components energized by short circuit current will experience mechanical and thermal stress. Stress varies
as a function of the current squared (I2 ) and duration of the flowing current.
• The system voltage will decay following the proportion of short-circuit current. The maximum voltage drop
occurs at the location of the short circuit (to zero), but all parts of the power system will be affected by the
voltage drop.

The short-circuit current must be immediately removed from the power system and that is the task of a protective
device which in this case is the circuit breaker and fuse. To carry out their duties properly, an appropriate protective
device must be selected proportional to maximum short circuit current flowing to the location of the short circuit. The
maximum value of the short-circuit current is often referred to as ’available’ short-circuit current. When determining
the value of the magnitude of the short circuit current, it is important to consider all sources of short circuit and
characteristic impedance.
In calculating the short-circuit current, only the highest values of the current are considered. Such value refers to
maximum or peak current (ik ) as shown in figure 1. The highest values vary as a function of time along the upper
 P. Angjuang Adi Panji et al. / Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552 547

envelope of the complex time-dependent function. The current defined by this upper envelope is calculated from the
equation:
√
ik (t) = 2Iac (t) + Idc (t) (1)
For normal application purposes, it is usual to calculate three functions from this envelope, the a.c. component
Iac (t), the d.c. component idc (t) and the maximum possible peak value ip [1].

Fig. 1: Synchronous generator terminal short-circuit current time function [1]

The a.c. component time function Iac (t) is characterized by the sub-transient, transient and steady-state currents
during the sub-transient and transient time periods. These time periods are defined by the direct-axis sub-transient and
transient time constants T̋ d and T́ d.

Iac (t) = I̋ kd − I´kd et/T́ d + I´kd − Ikd et/T d + Ikd (2)

The sub-transient and transient initial values of the three-phase short-circuit currents, I̋ kd and I´kd can be evaluated
using the active voltages behind the respective impedance, using equations (3) and (4).
Ikd = Ik which is the steady-state short-circuit current, whose value should generally be obtained from the manu-
facturer.

I̋ kd = E̋ q0 /Z̋ d = E̋ q0 /(R2a + X̋ 2d )1/2 (3)

I´kd = Éq0 /Źd = Éq0 /(R2a + X́d2 )1/2 (4)
The active voltages E̋ q0 ,Éq0 depend upon the preload current and can be evaluated using equations (5) and (6).

 U0 2  U 0 2 1/2
E̋ q0 = √ cos φ + Ra I0 + √ sin φ + X̋ d I0 (5)
3 3
 U0 2  U 0 2 1/2
Éq0 = √ cos φ + Ra I0 + √ sin φ + X́d I0 (6)
3 3
The d.c. component idc (t) can be evaluated from equation (7).
√
idc (t) = 2(I̋ kd (t) − I0 sin φ0 )e−t/Tdc (7)
The peak value of the short-circuit current occurs between time t = 0 and t = T/2 of the short-circuit condition. The
exact time depends on the preload conditions, the generator impedance and time constants. However, it is acceptable
to calculate i p at time T/2, i.e. at the first half-cycle of the short-circuit condition, using equation (8).
√
i p (t) = 2Iac (t) + Idc (t) (8)
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3. Methodology

The code of this software is made based on above formulas and written using Visual Basic application. The
validation process is done by comparing the calculation results with the values obtained using commercial software
for calculation of short-circuit current with decided deviation that does not exceed 1% for all short circuit results.
For system with generators and/or motors having different ratings and/or characteristics, the generators and motors
shall be combined to form an equivalent generator or an equivalent motor. The asynchronous motor whose power are
below 100 kW are considered as small motor and if they are connected in parallel, the motors will be considered as
equivalent motor [1]. The calculation step of this program are as follows:

• The program will read / identify input of active and passive components which are connected to the main
distribution. The program will start in the following order:
– Generators 1, 2, 3 ... 20 + cable
– Single motors 1, 2, 3 ... 20 + cable
– Equivalent motor + cable + transformer + cable
• After identify the input parameters, the program will calculate the contribution of each component to the fault
in the main distribution. The contribution of each component in the form of short-circuit current comprised of
alternating current components, Iac , direct current components, Idc and peak current, I p at t = 0 and t = T / 2.
• Afterwards, the program will sum up the contribution of each component and displays it on the screen as the
output calculation.

Fig. 2: Flow chart of short circuit program calculation

 P. Angjuang Adi Panji et al. / Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552 549

4. Short-circuit Calculation Program

The short circuit current calculation of IEC 61363 standards is intended for installations of three-phase ac system
that operates at a frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz in a ships or offshore installations. The system has one or more levels
which are different in voltages, consisting of generators, motors, transformers, reactors, cables and unit converter.
The system has a neutral point which is connected to the hull through an impedance or isolated neutral point of the
hull [1].When the short circuit occurs, the active components of the system, which are the generators and the motors,
will feed electric currents into the faulty point. Having the first and highest maximum short circuit current at some
milliseconds (T/2), the current will decrease after the beginning of the short circuit condition until reaching a steady
state level after several hundreds of milliseconds [1].
The short-circuit current of a typical synchronous generator for marine applications are divided into the following
different components: dc current, sub-transient current, transient current and steady state current.The short-circuit
current of an asynchronous motor is comprised of an ac-component and a dc-component decaying typically faster
than the current of a generator. Asynchronous motors do not supply a steady short-circuit current.The decreasing of
the short-circuit current of both generators and motors may be expressed mathematically by means of exponential
functions as carried out by this program, to calculate the upper envelope of the current marked by the maximal values.
Non-active components of a ship mains are cables and transformers, which attenuate the short currents and change
the time constants of motors and generators.

4.1. Calculation Procedure

The short circuit calculation of the program described by this paper is performed in the following steps:

1. At the first, the program checks if the input data are complete and reasonable. If data are missing or no value,the
calculation will be disabled and an F (=failure) is placed in the main menu and also on the data input pages.If
data are not reasonable (e.g. voltage and frequency have been obviously interchanged e.g. 60 V / 440 Hz) a
warning message will be shown on the monitor.
2. After performing the check routine, the program starts the calculation of the time dependent ac and dc currents
of generators, single motors and the equivalent motor. The ac and dc currents are calculated for t=0 and t=T/2.
3. Finally, the short circuit currents at the various fault points of the shipmains will be calculated as follows.

(a) Calculation of the fault currents at main bus, generator breakers and breakers of single motors is based
mainly on the results described by the above-mentioned item 2 = currents of active components.
(b) Calculation of the time-dependent short-circuit currents at equivalent motor

Fig. 3: Schematic diagram of ships main electrical power distribution to be calculated (base diagram)
550 P. Angjuang Adi Panji et al. / Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552

4.2. Ships Main Electrical Power Distribution to be Calculated

As many references related to short circuit calculation quoted, design of electrical power distribution can be gener-
alized as Figure 3 above, which already elaborate all contributed components. Therefore, this software performed the
short circuit calculation based on above figure. The number of main generators connected directly to main distribution
(B1) are up to 20 generators, meanwhile the numbers of single motors connected directly to main distribution are up
to 20 motors and up to 5 equivalent motors connected to main distribution. The definition of main generators, single
motor, and equivalent motor refers to IEC 61363.
Although the design of electrical power distribution applied on the marine vessel can be varied greatly, the gen-
eralized design in Figure 3 already capable to be implemented in all possible configuration. Moreover, this kind of
configuration could enable easier application of this software for the user.

4.3. Calculation Assumption

The calculation carried out by this program is based on the following assumptions according to IEC 61363 stan-
dard:

• All system capacitances are neglected;

• At the start of the short circuit, the instantaneous value of voltage in one phase at the fault point is zero;
• During the short-circuit, there is no change in the short-circuit current path;
• The short-circuit arc impedance is neglected;
• Transformers are set at the main tap position;
• The short circuit occurs simultaneously in all three phases;
• For generators connected in parallel, all generators share their active and reactive load proportionally at the start
of and during the short circuit;
• During each discrete time interval, all circuit components react linearly.

4.4. Testing the Program

This program has been tested by comparing it with the commercial short circuit current calculation software. The
purpose of the test is to verify the result of program which shall has difference not more than 1% deviation. After the
program runs the calculation, the value of short circuit current magnitude for each component is shown in Table 5.
The following data were used to test the program:

Table 1: Main generators data

Genera-tors Pr (kW) Pf Sr (kVA) Ur (V) fr (Hz) Xd̋(%) Xd́(%) Xd(%) Ra(%) Td̋(ms) Td́ (ms) Tdc (ms)
G1 3500 0.8 4375 4200 60 17.5 29 275 0.5 26 420 93
G2 3500 0.8 4375 4200 60 17.5 29 275 0.5 26 420 93

Table 2: Single motor data

Motors Pr (kW) Pf sin φ μr Sr (kVA) Ur (V) fr (Hz)
M1 2000 0.88 0.475 0.92 2470 4200 60

Table 1 to 4 above consists of designated input value for calculation. The result of calculation of both developed
software and commercial software have been shown and compared in Table 5.
The comparison of short circuit current at time t = 0 (Ik̋), t = 0.5 (Iac ) and peak current (Ip ) for each component
listed in Table 5 had a result in which developed software result is 1% maximum difference higher than calculation
 P. Angjuang Adi Panji et al. / Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552 551

Table 3: Equivalent motor data

Equivalent Motor Pr Pf μr Sr ) Ur fr Cable type L n R X
(kW) (kVA) (V) (Hz) (m) (Ω/km) (Ω/km)
Eq. M1 2000 0.8 0.9 2777 600 60 3x1c 350MCM 20 1 0.11 0.095

Table 4: Transformer data

Transformer Sr ) Urk UrR UrX UrHV UrLV fr Cable type L n R X
(kW) (%) (%) (%) (V) (V) (Hz) (m) (Ω/km) (Ω/km)
T1 2000 6.5 1.15 6.4 4200 600 60 3x1c 300MCM 10 1 1.25 0.98

Table 5: Contribution of components

Component Developed software Commercial software
I̋k (A) Iac (0.5T)(A) Ip (A) I̋k (A) Iac (0.5T)(A) Ip (A)
G1 3838.604 3431.365 9815.067 3838.603 3423.735 9805.220
G2 3838.604 3431.365 9815.067 3838.603 3423.735 9805.220
M1 2125.527 1360.254 3400.913 2125.527 1360.253 3400.912
Eq. M 1226.597 918.255 1653.070 1909.227 1221.905 3054.763

Table 6: Fault points

Fault Point Developed software Commercial software
I̋k (A) Iac (0.5T)(A) Ip (A) I̋k (A) Iac (0.5T)(A) Ip (A)
Main bus 11029.331 9149.903 24694.149 11712 9430 26066
Breaker of G1 7190.728 5718.538 14879.082 7873 6006 16261
Breaker of G2 7190.728 5718.538 14879.082 7873 6006 16261
Breaker of M1 8903.804 7780.986 21283.865 9586 8069 22665

from commercial software except for Ik̋, Ip and Iac of equivalent motor (Eq.M) where for Ik̋ is 35.7% lower than
commercial software, also for Iac and Ip are 45.8% and 24.8% lower than commercial software respectively. Those
results are mainly caused by passive component that is transformer (T1) including cable length which goes into
equivalent motor.Those passive components do not seem to be included in commercial software. However, when
the capacity of transformer and its cable resistance is increase, the possibility of greater and significant difference of
calculation result will be higher.
Furthermore, that difference will also be affecting the rating of protection device that will be used.The protection
device e.g. circuit breaker is determined by two factor: making capacity and breaking capacity. The making capacity
is the value for which the breaker can withstand the maximum short circuit current, the making capacity shall not less
than short circuit peak current (Ip ). Meanwhile, the breaking capacity defined as ability of breaker contact to break the
connection.The breaking capacity shall not be less than a.c. sub-transient short circuit current (Ik̋) and transient short
circuit current (Iac ).The value of short circuit current in each fault point listed in table 6 is obtained from contribution
of each component in table 5. The comparison in table 6 hada result in which the developed software result for
Ik̋, Iac and Ip is 8.6% maximum difference lower than commercial software.The difference of those results is mainly
caused by effect of passive components which is connected to equivalent motor (Eq.1).

5. Conclusions
In this paper adevelopment of short circuit current calculation programintended for marine and offshore installa-
tion is presented. The proposed method for the calculation of short circuit is based on IEC publication 61363 and
performed by using a commercial visual basic program. The program calculates short circuit current in several point
552 P. Angjuang Adi Panji et al. / Procedia Engineering 194 (2017) 545 – 552

such as main distribution, in generator circuit breaker and in motor circuit breaker. The program is successfully tested
and verified by comparing it to a commercial short circuit program. The result shown that the deviation is at most
1% from commercial software where it implies that the developed software has more detailed calculation compared
to commercial software. The impedance of passive component should be taken into account when connected to active
component. The impedance of passive component reduces the magnitude of the short circuit current. Therefore, it
should be more future works to be done to verify whether there is a significant effect in the difference of the results
when the passive component such as transformer and cable is connected to the active component.

References
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