According To Home Engineering

According to Home Engineering, A symmetrical fault is a fault where all phases are
affected so that the system remains balanced.
A three-phase fault is a symmetrical fault. The other three fault types (line to ground,
line to line, and two- line to ground) are called unsymmetrical or asymmetrical faults.
Because symmetrical faults result in balanced conditions, they may be analyzed using
per-phase analysis.
Unsymmetrical Faults
Line to Line to Line to Ground Fault (LLLG)
According to Electrical4U, A triple line-to-ground fault occurs when
three conductors fall on the ground or come in with the neutral conductor. It is
a symmetrical fault
According to Elprocus, The 3-phase L – G fault mainly comprises all the 3-
phase of the system. This fault mainly occurs among the 3-phases as well as the
ground terminal of the system. So, there is a 2 to 3% of probability to occur the
fault.
ISO 9001:2015 Certified
Level I Institutionally Accredited
Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University
Province of Laguna
LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults
(2022). Jameson M. Saniano
Line to Line to Line Fault (LLL)
According to Electrical4U, Three line of the conductor short with each other.
According to Elprocus, These kinds of faults are balanced which means the system
remains balanced after the fault occurs. So this fault rarely occurs, although it is the
harsh kind of fault that holds the largest current. So this current is used to determine
the rating of the CB.
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Unsymmetrical Fault
Unsymmetrical faults are normal fault which means the three phase lines
become unbalanced (unequal currents with unequal phase shifts in a three
phase system.) and they do not have the equal phase displacement each other’s.
The unbalance load occurs due to the presence of the short circuit or open
circuit of the transmission or distribution lines. Coming to the types of faults, it
occurs between line-to-ground or between lines. An unsymmetrical series fault
is between phases or between phase-to-ground, whereas unsymmetrical shunt
fault is an unbalanced in the line impedances.
Also it can occur either by natural disturbances or by manual errors. The
natural disturbances are heavy wind speed, ice loading on the lines, lightening
strokes and other natural disasters.
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SINGLE LINE-TO-FROUND FAULT (LG
In single line-to-ground fault, one conductor comes in contact with the ground or the
neutral conductor. Single line to ground fault is the most frequently occurring fault (60
to 75% of occurrence)
According Elprocus, This single L – G fault mainly occurs once a single conductor falls
toward the ground terminal. So around 70 to 80 % of the fault within the power
system is the single L – G fault.
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LINE-TO-LINE FAULT (LL
A line-to-line fault occurs when two conductors are short circuited. This type of
fault occurrence ranges from 5 to 15%.
This L– L fault mainly occurs once two conductors are short-circuited and also
due to heavy wind. So the line conductors can be moved because of heavy wind,
they may touch with each other and causes short-circuit. So, 15 – 20% of the
faults can occur approximately.
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DOUBLE LINE-TO-GROUND FAULT (LLG
A double line-to-ground fault occurs when two conductors fall on the ground or
come in contact with the neutral conductor. This type of fault occurrence
ranges from 15 to 25% of occurrence
In this kind of fault, both the two lines get in touch with each other through the
ground. So, there is a 10% probability for faults.

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OPEN CIRCUIT FAULTS
The open-circuit faults mainly occur because of the malfunction of one
otherwise more conductors used in the power system. The open-circuit faults
diagram is shown below. This circuit is for 1-phase, 2- phases, and 3-phases
open condition.
The definition of a short circuit is, an abnormal connection of extremely less
impedance among two points of dissimilar potential, whether completed by
chance or purposely.
Fault Limiting Devices
Fuses And Circuit Breaker

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Fuse
A fuse is an electrical safety device that protects an electric circuit from
excessive electric current. Fuses are destroyed during overload conditions.
When reasonable to do so (and economically sensible), circuit breakers are
used instead because they are not destroyed during overload conditions.
Circuit Breaker
A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an electrical
circuit from damage caused by an overcurrent or short circuit. Its basic function
is to interrupt current flow to protect equipment and to prevent the risk of fire
PROTECTIVE RELAYS
Types of
Protective Relays

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Electrical Protective Relays
The protective relay is the device that responds to signals from the transducers
by quickly initiating or allowing a control action to be implemented in order to
prevent damage to the faulted equipment and to restore service as soon as
possible.
A relay is said to pick up when it operates to open its normally closed (NC)
contact or to close its normally open (NO) contact in response to a disturbance
to produce a desired control action. The smallest value of the actuating quantity
for the relay to operate is called its pickup value.
A relay is said to reset when it operates to close an open contact that is
normally closed (NC) or to open a closed contact that is normally open (NO).
The largest value of the actuating quantity for this to happen is called the reset
value.
During study of electrical protective relays, some special terms are frequently
used. For proper understanding, the functions of different protective relays, the
definition of such terms must be understood properly. Such terms are,

1. Pick up current.
2. Current setting.
3. Plug setting multiplier (PSM).
4. Time setting multiplier (TSM).
In all electrical relays, the moving contacts are not free to move. All the contacts
remain in their respective normal position by some force applied to them
continuously. This force is called the controlling force of the relay. This controlling
force may be the gravitational force, may be a spring force, or may be a magnetic force.
The force applied to the relay’s moving parts for changing the normal position
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of the contacts is called deflecting force. This deflecting force is always in opposition of
controlling force and is present always in the relay. Although the deflecting force is
always present in the relay directly connected to live line, as the magnitude of this
force is less than controlling force in normal condition, the relay does not operate. If
the actuating current in the relay coil increases gradually, the deflecting force in
electromechanical relay is also increased. Once, the deflecting force crosses the
controlling force, the moving parts of the relay initiate to move to change the position
of the contacts in the relay. The current for which the relay initiates its operation is
called pick up current of relay.
Current Setting of Relay
The minimum pick up value of the deflecting force of an electrical relay is constant.
The deflecting force of the coil is proportional to its number of turns and the current
flowing through the coil.
Now, if we can change the number of active turns of any coil, the required
current to reach at minimum pick value of the deflecting force, in the coil also changes.
That means if active turns of the relay coil are reduced, then proportionately more
current is required to produce desired relay actuating force. Similarly, if active turns of
the relay coil are increased, then proportionately reduced current is required to
produce same desired deflecting force.
Practically same model relays may be used in different systems. As per these system
requirements, the pickup current of the relay is adjusted. This is known as the current
setting of the relay. This is achieved by providing the required number of tapping in
the coil. These taps are brought out to a plug bridge. The number of active turns in the
coil can be changed by inserting a plug in different points in the bridge.
The current setting of relay is expressed in percentage ratio of relay pick up
current to the rated secondary current of CT.

That means,
For example, suppose, you want that, an over current relay should operate
when the system current just crosses 125% of rated current. If the relay is rated
with 1A, the normal pick up current of the relay is 1A and it should be equal to
secondary rated current of current transformer connected to the relay.
Then, the relay will be operated when the current of CT secondary becomes
more than or equal to 1.25 A.
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As per definition,
Suppose we have connected on protection CT of ratio 200/1A and current
setting is 150%.
Hence, pick up current of the relay is, 1 × 150 % = 1.5A

Now, suppose fault current in the CT primary is 1000A. Hence, fault current in
the CT secondary, i.e., in the relay coil is, 1000 × 1/200 = 5A
Therefore PSM of the relay is, 5 / 1.5 =3.33
Time Setting Multiplier of Relay
The operating time of an electrical relay mainly depends upon two factors :
1. How long distance to be traveled by the moving parts of the relay for closing
relay contacts and
2. How fast the moving parts of the relay cover this distance.
So far by adjusting relay operating time, both of the factors to be adjusted. The
adjustment of traveling distance of an electromechanical relay is commonly
known as time setting. This adjustment is commonly known as time setting
multiplier of relay. The time setting dial is calibrated from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.05
sec.
By adjusting only time setting multiplier, we cannot set the actual time of
operation of an electrical relay. As we already said, the time of operation also
depends upon the speed of operation. The speed of moving parts of relay
depends upon the force due to the current in the relay coil. Hence, it is clear
that the speed of operation of an electrical relay depends upon the level of fault
current. In other words, the time of operation of the relay depends upon plug
setting multiplier. The relation between time of operation and plug setting
multiplier is plotted on a graph paper, and this is known as time/PSM graph.
From this graph one can determine the total time taken by the moving parts of
an electromechanical relay, to complete its total traveling distance for different
PSM. In time setting multiplier, this total traveling distance is divided and
calibrated from 0 to 1 in steps of 0.05.
When the time setting is 0.1, the moving parts of the relay have to travel only
0.1 times of the total traveling distance, to close the contact of the relay. So, if
we get the total operating time of the relay for a particular PSM from time/PSM
graph and if we multiply that time with the time setting multiplier, we will get,
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the actual time of operation of the relay for said PSM and TSM.
Calculation of Relay Operation Time
For calculating actual relay operating time, we need to know these following
operations.
1. Current setting.
2. Fault current level.
3. Ratio of current transformer.
4. Time / PSM curve.
5. Time setting
Overcurrent Relays
The actuating quantity of an overcurrent relay is a current. The relay is designed to
operate when the actuating quantity equals, or exceeds, its pickup value. An overcurrent
relay can be either of two types: instantaneous or time-delay type. Both relay types are
frequently provided in one relay case and are actuated by the same current; however, their
individual pickup values can be adjusted separately. The pickup values may be adjusted
by varying the tap settings in the input.
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Grounding Systems/Components
• Grounding is one of the most important, but least understood, considerations in designing
electrical systems. Grounding refers to techniques for making low-resistance connections
from wiring and electrical equipment to earth or ground. This connection can be a wire
making a direct connection to a grounding electrode buried in the earth, or it can be a
connection to some other approved ground such as a metal cold-water pipe or metal
reinforcing bar projecting from a concrete foundation or footing. NEC 2002 requires that
two approved grounding methods be used, but warns against the use of metal gas pipe for
grounding.
• Grounding provides protection for personnel, equipment, and circuits by eliminating
dangerous or excessive voltages in the system. Under certain conditions, higher than
normal voltages can occur at points in an electrical system or in electrical equipment
connected to the system. Proper grounding ensures that these overvoltages are channeled
to earth or ground.
Two Elements In Electrical System Grounding
1. Wiring system grounding
2. Equipment grounding
Wiring System Grounding
- is the grounding of one of the wires of the electrical system, such as the neutral, to limit
overvoltages on the circuit. Overvoltages can be caused by lightning or accidental contact
with other circuits carrying higher voltages than the grounded circuit. In addition,
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grounding one of the wires of the system limits maximum voltage to ground under normal
operating conditions. Also, a circuit with a grounded conductor can have an automatic
circuit-opening device installed if a potentially dangerous ground fault should occur on one
of its ungrounded conductors
Equipment Grounding
- is the permanent and continuous bonding together of all metal parts of equipment
enclosures such as conduit, boxes, cabinets, motor frames, and lighting fixtures that are
not intended to carry current and their connection to a system grounding electrode. The
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bonding or interconnection of metal enclosures provides a low-impedance path for fault-
current flow while permitting enough current to flow to blow the fuses or open the circuit
breakers protecting the circuit. This permits the installation of GFCI circuits which open
automatically in the presence of a ground fault. They prevent the accidental conduction of
voltages by metal enclosures, which can present a possibly fatal shock hazard to personnel
who touch the equipment.
Grounding Electrode Systems
“Electrodes Permitted for Grounding”
Generally, all or any of the electrodes listed below, if they are available on the
premises, must be bonded together to form the “grounding electrode system.”
• Metal cold-water pipe
• Metal frame of a building
• Concrete-encased electrode
• Ground ring encircling the building or structure
• Rod and pipe electrodes
• Plate electrodes
Metal cold-water pipe
The cold-water pipe is now considered the least acceptable electrode, and is the only one
that may never be used by itself as the sole electrode. It must always be supplemented by
at least one “additional” grounding electrode. Any one of the other electrodes listed below
is acceptable as the sole grounding electrode.
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Metal frame of a building
- provided the frame is effectively grounded (embedded in earth and /or buried in concrete
if it is effectively grounded).
Concrete-encased electrode
- within and near the bottom of a concrete foundation or footing in direct contact with the

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earth. The electrode must consist of at least 20 ft of one or more steel reinforcing bars or
rods of not less than 1 2-in. diameter, or at least 20 ft of bare copper conductor not
smaller than No. 4 AWG.
Ground ring encircling the building or structure
- 20 ft of bare No. 2 or larger copper conductor. (It is expected that the conductor will have
to be much longer than 20 ft to encircle the building.)
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Rod and pipe electrodes - are not less than 8 ft long.
Plate electrodes - with surface areas of at least 2 ft2 made of iron or steel plates at least 1
4 in. thick. Electrodes of nonferrous metal at least 0.06 in. thick are also approved.
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Ground Fault
SURGE ARRESTER
An electrical surge can be occurred in an electrical power transmission system due
to various reasons. Surge in an electrical system originated mainly due to lightning
impulses and switching impulses. Electrical surge produces a large transient over voltage in
the electrical network and system. The shape of the transient over voltage has a steeply
rising front with slowly decaying tail as shown in the figure below. This steep voltage wave
travels through the electrical network and causes over voltage stresses on all the electrical
insulators and equipment come under its travelling path.
That is why all electrical equipment and insulators of power system must be
protected against electrical surges. The method of protecting system from surge is
normally referred as surge protection.

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The main equipment commonly used for this purpose is lightning arrester or surge
arrester.
There are two types of surges one comes externally from atmosphere such as atmospheric
lightning. Second type is originated from electrical system itself, such as switching surges.
When an electrically charged cloud comes nearby an electrical transmission line, the cloud
induces electrical charges in the line. When the charged cloud is suddenly discharged,
through lightning, the induced charge in the transmission line is no longer confined static.
It starts travelling and originate dynamic transient over voltage. This transient over voltage
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travels towards both load and source side, on the transmission line because of distributed
line inductance and stray capacitance. This surge voltage travels with speed of light. At the
end of the transmission line, as the surge impedance changes, the surge voltage wave
reflected back. This forward and backward travelling of surge voltage wave continues until
the energy of the surge or impulse is attenuated by line resistance. This phenomenon
causes voltage stress on the transmission system many times greater than normal rated
voltage of the system. Hence, surge protection scheme must be provided to the electrical
power transmission system to make reliable and healthy system. Lightning arrester is one
of the main components to to protect the system from surge.
Lightning Arrester
As we said earlier, that the electrical surge also can be generated from the system itself.
Actually, during switching operation there may be a chance of current chopping. If during
normal operation, if electrical isolator is opened on load. Sudden open circuit is occurred in
the system.
In addition to these, the basic arc-quenching techniques of SF6 circuit breaker and vacuum
circuit breaker may give rise to current chopping and multiple re-ignition sometimes. As we
know that sudden current chopping give rise to the di/dt. [di/dt = rate of change of current
with respect to time].
As the electrical load is generally inductive, there is a transient voltage, expressed by
L(di/dt) where L is the inductance of load of system. This voltage is induced across the
opening contacts, and travels towards load and reflects in similar manner of lightning
impulse. Lightning arrestor or surge arrester are provided at the end of the transmission
line to withstand the surge voltage.
Generally, oil field electrical power transformer, electrical switchgear, cables, electrical
transmission lines, distribution lines are quite capable for withstanding these switching
impulse voltages, as their insulation level is quite high to withstand these over voltages.
But, generator, electric motor, dry type transformers and electric arc furnaces etc. can not
withstand large switching impulse voltages. As essentially this types of equipment do not
have very high level of insulation. To protect this equipment from surges, lightning arrester
is must.
In electrical sub-station, arresters are mainly used at the entrance of any feeders and also
they are used at both rides of electrical power transformers as transformer is also
considered as inductive load and very costly equipment.
Zinc Oxide Lightning Arrester
In modern era, gap less ZnO or zinc oxide surge arresters are mainly used for surge
protection. Let us discuss zinc oxide type gap less arresters.
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Construction of Zinc Oxide Lightning Arrester
The Zinc Oxide Lightning Arrester comprises of numbers of solid zinc oxide disc. This discs
are arranged one by one to form a cylindrical stack. The number of zinc oxide discs used
per lightning arrester depends upon the voltage rating of the system. This stack is kept
inside a cylindrical housing of polymer or porcelain. Then the stack is placed inside the
housing and highly pressed by heavy spring load attached to end cap at top. The
equipment connection terminal for line is projected from top cap and connection terminal
for earth is projected from the bottom cap.
Working Principle of Zinc Oxide Lightning Arrester

The normal operation is defined as condition when no surge is presented, and the surge
arrester is subjected to normal system voltage only. The zinc oxide has highly non-uniform
current voltage (I-V) characteristics. This typical I-V characteristic makes zinc oxide very
suitable for designing gap less zinc oxide lightning arrester for surge protection. The
nonlinear resistance of the block is an inherent bulk property and consists of mainly zinc
oxide (90 to 95%) with relatively small amounts of several additives of other metal oxide (5
to 10%) like alumina, antimony tri-oxide, bismuth oxide, cobalt oxide, zirconium etc. On a
macroscopic scale the additives are almost homogeneously distributed throughout the
arrester blocks. But the microstructures of the metal oxide block represents a network of
series and parallel arrangements of highly doped zinc oxide (ZnO) grains separated by inter
granular junctions. The nonlinear behavior is the super imposition of nonlinear
characteristics of individual junctions. The current carrying capacity of the surge arrester
block is proportional to the total cross-section of the block
The nonlinear resistance characteristics of ZnO block can be expressed as,
Where, Ir and Vr are the reference current and voltage respectively of the lightning
arrester or surge arrester block. The value of x is 30 to 40 in case of metal oxide block. For
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normal system, the voltage and current increase. For normal system, the voltage and
current increases linearly, i.e. for increasing system voltage at this range, current is
increased in linear proportionate. The current at this region of characteristics is in range of
micro ampere. But beyond a certain voltage level, leakage current voltage level, leakage
current starts increasing very rapidly it is of KA range. The voltage beyond which the
current through the LA becomes such high, is referred as reference voltage and the current
at reference voltage is known as reference current. Sudden draining of huge current
through lightning arrester just beyond reference voltage level, prevents the system from
transient over voltage stress. The voltage-current relation in a metal oxide block highly
depends upon temperature. Metal oxide block has negative temperature co-efficient. That
means with increase in temperature, resistance of the surge arrester decreases hence for
some system voltage, the leakage current through the instrument increases with increase
in temperature.
As we know that, there would be a continuous leakage current through the LA. This
leakage current generates heat. This generated heat should be dissipated properly
otherwise the temperature of the LA may rise which further increases the leakage current.
Because of this the proper thermal design of surge arrester housing plays an important
role. There is a critical temperature depending upon the voltage rating of the metal oxide
block beyond which joule heat generated in the block which joule heat generated in the
block can not be dissipated at required rate and which finally leads to thermal runaway of
lightning arrester. Now we can understand that the working principle of LA or surge
arrester used for surge protection fully depends upon nonlinear V-I characteristics of metal
oxide (ZnO) blocks inside the insulator housing of the arrester.

According To Home Engineering

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According To Home Engineering

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According to Home Engineering, A symmetrical fault is a fault where all phases are

affected so that the system remains balanced.

Line to Line to Line to Ground Fault (LLLG)

According to Electrical4U, A triple line-to-ground fault occurs when

According to Elprocus, The 3-phase L – G fault mainly comprises all the 3-

ground terminal of the system. So, there is a 2 to 3% of probability to occur the

ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Level I Institutionally Accredited

Republic of the Philippines

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults

(2022). Jameson M. Saniano

Line to Line to Line Fault (LLL)

the rating of the CB.

ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Level I Institutionally Accredited

Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults

(2022). Jameson M. Saniano

become unbalanced (unequal currents with unequal phase shifts in a three

circuit of the transmission or distribution lines. Coming to the types of faults, it

occurs between line-to-ground or between lines. An unsymmetrical series fault

is between phases or between phase-to-ground, whereas unsymmetrical shunt

fault is an unbalanced in the line impedances.

Also it can occur either by natural disturbances or by manual errors. The

strokes and other natural disasters.

ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Level I Institutionally Accredited

Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults

(2022). Jameson M. Saniano

SINGLE LINE-TO-FROUND FAULT (LG

system is the single L – G fault.

ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Level I Institutionally Accredited

Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults

(2022). Jameson M. Saniano

LINE-TO-LINE FAULT (LL

fault occurrence ranges from 5 to 15%.

ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Level I Institutionally Accredited

Republic of the Philippines

Laguna State Polytechnic University

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults

(2022). Jameson M. Saniano

DOUBLE LINE-TO-GROUND FAULT (LLG

ranges from 15 to 25% of occurrence

ground. So, there is a 10% probability for faults.

ISO 9001:2015 Certified

Level I Institutionally Accredited

Republic of the Philippines

LSPU SELF-PACED LEARNING MODULE: ELC 222 – Electrical Faults

(2022). Jameson M. Saniano

OPEN CIRCUIT FAULTS

The open-circuit faults mainly occur because of the malfunction of one

The definition of a short circuit is, an abnormal connection of extremely less

impedance among two points of dissimilar potential, whether completed by

Fault Limiting Devices

Fuses And Circuit Breaker