POWER SYSTEM

FAULTS
 POWER SYSTEM FAULTS
 Power substations as a target of study consists of some
elements like Transmission Lines, Bus Bars, Power
Transformers, Outgoing Feeders, and Bus Couplers.
 Regardless of the design and the systematic preventive
maintenance procedures instituted, failures due to
abnormal or fault conditions do occur
 Fault are intolerable power conditions (other than
steady-state or rated ones) to which the power system or
requirement are subjected.
General causes of power system
faults

 1- Fault Current
Healthy insulation in the equipment is subjected to either transient
over voltages of small time duration due to switching and lightning
strokes, direct or indirect. Failure of insulation may be happened,
resulting in very high fault current. This current may be
more than 10 times the rated or nominal current of the equipment.
 2- Insulation Aging
Aging of power equipments may cause breakdown of its insulation
even at normal power frequency voltage.
General cause of power system
faults (contd)
 3- External Causes
External object such as bird, kite, or tree branch are
considered as external cause of fault. These objects
may span one conductor and ground causing single
line to ground fault (phase-earth) or span two
conductors causing phase-phase fault
Fault Effects

 The fault must be cleared as fast as possible. Many

equipments may be destroyed if the fault is not cleared
rapidly. The dangerous of the faults depends on the
type of the fault, as example the three phase short
circuit is the most dangerous fault because the short
circuit current is maximum. Some of the effects of short
circuit current are listed here under.
Fault Effects

1- Due to overheating and the mechanical forces

developed by faults, electrical equipments such as bus
bars, generators, transformers will be damaged
2- Negative sequence current arises from
unsymmetrical faults will lead to overheating.
3- Voltage profiles may be reduced to unacceptable
limits as a result of faults. A frequency drop may lead to
instability
Fault Types
Fault can be classified due t as:
1- Permanent
2- Transient
Or due to PARTICIPATED PHASES as
1- Phase-Earth
2- Phase-Phase
3- Phase-Phase-Earth
4- Three-Phase or Three-Phase-Earth
Broad categorization of Fault Types

Fault may be categorized broadly into 2 types:

 Symmetrical or balanced faults
 Asymmetrical or unbalanced faults
Broad categorization of Fault Types

Balanced (3Ø) Faults

RARE :- Majority of Faults are Unbalanced
CAUSES :-
1. System Energisation with Maintenance Earthing
Clamps still connected.
2. 1Ø Faults developing into 3Ø Faults
Line - Line - Line (5%)
3 Phase; Ia + Ib + Ic = 0 and Va = Vb = Vc
Broad categorization of Fault Types
3Ø FAULTS MAY BE REPRESENTED BY 1Ø CIRCUIT
This is valid because system is maintained in a BALANCED state
during the fault
Voltages equal and 120° apart
Currents equal and 120° apart
Power System Plant Symmetrical
Phase Impedances Equal
Mutual Impedances Equal
Shunt Admittances Equal
Broad categorization of Fault Types

Unbalanced Faults
Unbalanced Faults may be classified into
SHUNT FAULTS and SERIES FAULTS.

SHUNT FAULTS:
 Line to Ground
 Line to Line
 Line to Line to Ground
Broad categorization of Fault Types
Broad categorization of Fault Types
 Causes :
 1) Insulation Breakdown
 2) Lightning Discharges and other Overvoltages
 3) Mechanical Damage
During unbalanced faults, symmetry of system Is
lost therefore single phase representation is no
longer Valid
Broad categorization of Fault Types

SERIES FAULTS OR OPEN CIRCUIT:

Single Phase Open Circuit
Double Phase Open Circuit
Causes :
1) Broken Conductor
2) Operation of Fuses
3) Maloperation of Single Phase Circuit Breakers
 Characteristics of Faults

A fault is characterized by:

 Magnitude of the fault current
 Power factor or phase angle of the fault current

The magnitude of the fault current depends upon:

 The capacity and magnitude of the generating sources
feeding into the fault
Characteristics of Faults

 The system impedance up to the point of fault or

source impedance behind the fault
 Type of fault
 System grounding, number and size of overhead
ground wires
 Fault resistance or resistance of the earth in the case
of ground faults and arc
 resistance in the case of both phase and ground faults
Characteristics of Faults

The phase angle of the fault current is dependent upon:

 For phase faults: - the nature of the source and
connected circuits up to the fault location and
 For ground faults: - the type of system grounding in
addition to above.
Necessity for fault calculations
Fault calculations are done primarily for the following:
 To determine the maximum fault current at the point of
installation of a circuit breaker and to choose a
standard rating for the circuit breaker (rupturing)
 To select the type of circuit breaker depending upon
the nature and type of fault.
Necessity for fault calculations
 To determine the type of protection scheme to be
deployed.
 To select the appropriate relay settings of the
protection scheme.
 To co-ordinate the relay settings in the overall
protection scheme of the system
Necessity for fault calculations

The calculation is not only limited to present system

requirements but also meet:
 The future expansion schemes of the system such as
addition of new generating units
 Construction of new transmission lines to evacuate
power.
 Construction of new lines to meet the load growth and
or Construction of interconnecting tie lines
Necessity for fault calculations

Basically, there are two approaches to fault

calculations. These are:
(a) Actual reactance or impedance method
(b) Percentage reactance or impedance method or
per unit (p.u) reactance or impedance method.
 Machine and Transformer impedance or reactance are
always noted in percentage values on the nameplate.
Hence the latter method is considered for our
calculation.
Per Unit System
Power system quantities such as voltage, current
and impedance are often expressed in per unit or
percent of specified values.
Per unit quantities are calculated as:

Actual Value
Per Unit Value 
Base Value
Per Unit System
Per Unit Values

S I V Z
S pu  I pu  Vpu  Z pu 
S base I base Vbase Z base

Conversion of Per Unit Values

Z Sbase 2
Vbase
Z pu   2 Z Z  Z base Z pu  Z pu
Z base Vbase S base
Per Unit System
Usually, the nominal apparent power (S) and nominal
voltage (V) are taken as the base values for power (Sbase)
and voltage (Vbase).
The base values for the current (Ibase) and impedance
(Zbase) can be calculated based on the first two base
values.
 Z actual
Z%   100%
Z base
 The percent impedance
 e.g. in a synchronous generator with 13.8
kV as its nominal voltage, instead of
saying the voltage is 12.42 kV, we say the
voltage is 0.9 p.u.
• Usually, the 3-phase SB or MVAB and line-to-line VB or kVB
are selected
• IB and ZB dependent on SB and VB

S B  3VB I B VB  3I B Z B
VB / 3 VB 
2
SB
IB  , ZB  
3VB IB SB
 The impedance of individual generators &
transformer, are generally in terms of
percent/per unit based on their own ratings.
 Impedance of transmission line in ohmic
value
 When pieces of equipment with various
different ratings are connected to a system, it
is necessary to convert their impedances to a
per unit value expressed on the same base.
Change of Base
old
Z pu be the per unit impedance on the power base Sold
B
old
& voltage base V B

Z  S Bold 
Z old
 old     Z
pu
ZB 
 V old
 B 
2 
 1
new
Z pu be the new per unit impedance on the new power base Snew
B

& new voltage base VBnew

Z   S Bnew 
new
Z pu  new   Z 2
ZB V
 B
new 2 
 
Change of Base
From (1) and (2), the relationship between the old
and the new per unit value
2
S new
 V old

Z new
pu Z old
pu

S
B
old


V
B
new


 B  B 

If the voltage base are the same,

 S new

new
Z pu  Z pu  old 
old B

 SB 
 2
MVAbase ( new) KVbase ( old )
Z pu ( new)  Z pu ( old ) * * 2
MVAbase ( old ) KV base ( new )
(1) To calculate the p.u impedance and % impedance
of a transmission line at 100 MVA
base Line voltage 330 KV
Line length 200 Kms
Line resistance /Km = 0.06 ohms/Km
Line reactance /Km = 0.4 ohms/Km
 Z = R + jX
For the 200kms line length
Z = 200 (0.06 + j 0.4)
= 12 + j 80
|Z| =  [(12) 2 + (80) 2] = 80.895 ohms
Zp.u = Zx MVA base
(KV) 2 base

= 80.895 x 100
(330) 2
= 0.0743 p.u
%Z = 0.074 x 100
= 7.43
(2)To calculate the p.u impedance to a 100 MVA base
Given four generators; 90MVA, 11KV of 15%
impedance each connected to step up transformers
of 90MVA 11KV/330KV of 14% impedance. Calculate
the fault current at F.
Assumed MVA = 100
%Z generators = 15 on 90 MVA base
or Zg p.u = 0.15 on 90 MVA base

Zg p.u on 100 MVA base will be:

(Zg p.u) base2 = (Zg p.u) base1 x MVA base2
MVA base1
(Zg p.u) 100 = 0.15 x 100
90
= 0.167
%Z transformers = 14 on 90 MVA base
or Zt p.u = 0.14 on 90 MVA base

Zt p.u on 100 MVA base will be:

(Zt p.u) base2 = (Zt p.u) base1 x MVA base2
MVA base1
(Zt p.u) 100 = 0.14 x 100
90
= 0.156
The system reduces as follows
 Ztotal = 0.323
4
= 0.08075
Total p.u impedance at F = 0.08075 = Ztotal

Fault MVA at F = Base MVA

Ztotal
= 100 MVA
0.08075
= 1238.4 MVA
Current at F = Fault MVA x (10) 3 u
3 x system voltage (KV) at point of
fault

= 1238.4 x (10) 3
3 x 330
= 2166.638Amps