Short Circuit Currents

Abdul Basit
Power System Protection
Short Circuit Currents
• Current flowing through an element of a power system is a parameter
that can be used to detect faults, given the large increase in current
flow when a short-circuit occurs.
• Short-circuit calculations are used for protection, the selection of
conductor sizes and for the specifications of equipment such as
power circuit breakers.
• Electrical faults are characterized by a variation in the magnitude of
the short-circuit current due to the effect of the equivalent system
impedance at the fault point that produces a decaying DC
component, and the performance of the rotating machinery that
results in a decaying AC component.
Short-circuit currents
• The resulting short-circuit current is determined by the internal
voltages of the synchronous machines and the system impedances
between the machines voltages and the fault.
• Short-circuit currents may be several orders of magnitude larger than
normal operating currents
• If allowed to persist
• thermal damage to equipment
• mechanical damage due to high magnetic forces during faults: windings &
bus-bars
• necessary to remove the faulted sections of a power system from
service as soon as possible
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Fault (short-circuit) studies
• Determine:
• bus voltages
• line currents
… during various types of faults

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Why fault studies?

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System impedance effect
• During Faults, network impedance resists the change in system
current resulting in decaying DC component
• Rate of decay depends on the instantaneous value of the voltage when the
fault occurs and the power factor of the system at the fault point
• Differential equations are used to calculate fault currents that vary with time
• Transient nature of current is equivalently modelled as simplified RL
circuit
• Simplification is important as all system equipment must be modelled in some
way in order to quantify the transient values that can occur during the fault
condition
System impedance effect
Mathematical expression that defines the behavior of the
current is

Transient period Steady State period

Complete Solution
System impedance effect
• In previous equation, first term corresponds to the AC component,
whereas the second term can be recognized as the DC component of
the current having an initial maximum value when , and
zero value when
System impedance effect
• Total asymmetrical current, including the AC and DC components,
with acceptable accuracy can be used by assuming that these
components are in quadrature with the following expression:
Effect of rotating machinery
• Fault at the terminals of rotating machinery produces a decaying AC
current, similar in pattern as RL circuit
• Decaying pattern is due to the fact that the magnetic flux in the
windings of rotating machinery cannot change instantaneously.
• gradual decrease in the magnetic flux causes reduction in current from its
value
Effect of rotating machinery
• Variation of current with time, I(t), comes close to the three discrete levels of
current, I’’, I’ and I – the subtransient, transient and steady-state currents,
respectively corresponds to the values of direct axis reactance are denoted by X’’,
X’ and X
Balanced three-phase faults

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Synchronous generator reactance

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Fault impedance

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Thevenin theorem

“Changes in network voltages caused by an added branch (fault

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Thevenin and superposition theorem

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Thevenin and superposition theorem

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Assumptions for calculations
• Transformers are represented by their leakage reactance. Winding
resistances, shunt admittance and ∆-Y phase shifts are neglected.
• Transmission lines are represented by their equivalent series
reactance. Series resistances and shunt admittances are neglected.
• Synchronous machines are represented by a constant voltage source
behind the (sub) transient reactance (depending on types of fault
analysis). Armature resistance, saturation are neglected.
• All non-rotating impedance loads are neglected.
• Induction motors are either neglected (<50hp), or represented in the
same manner as synchronous machines.

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Steps in short-circuit calculation
1. The pre-fault bus voltages are obtained from the results of a load flow
analysis.
2. Loads are converted to constant impedances to ground using the bus
voltages.
3. The faulted network is reduced into a Thevenin equivalent circuit viewed
from the faulted bus. Applying Thevenin's theorem, changes in bus
voltages are obtained.
4. Bus voltages during the fault are obtained by superposition of the pre-
fault bus voltages and the changes in the bus voltages computed in the
previous step.
5. The currents during the fault may now be obtained in all branches of the
faulted system.

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Short-Circuit Capacity

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Short-Circuit Capacity

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Types of fault duty
• For respective applications, short-circuit currents have to be
calculated carefully as they vary considerably during a fault
• Rapid drop of the current due to the armature reaction of the synchronous
machines
• Extinction of an electrical arc is never achieved instantaneously
• ANSI/IEEE Standards C37 and IEC 6090 refer to four duty types
defined as first cycle or momentary, peak, interrupting or breaking,
and time-delayed or steady-state currents.
Types of fault duty – first cycle current
• First cycle currents, also called momentary currents, are the currents
present one half of a cycle after fault initiation (I’’).
• These are the currents that are sensed by circuit breaker protection
equipment when a fault occurs.
• They are calculated with DC offset but no AC decrement in the
sources, and using the machine subtransient reactance.
• Peak currents correspond to the maximum currents during the first
cycle after the fault occurs and differ from the first cycle currents that
are totally asymmetrical rms currents.
Types of fault duty – Interrupting & Time-
delayed currents
• Interrupting currents, also known as contact parting currents, are the
values that have to be cleared by interrupting equipment.
• Called breaking currents and typically are calculated in the range from three to five
cycles.
• Currents contain DC offset and some decrement of the AC current.
• Time-delayed or steady-state short-circuit currents correspond to the
values obtained between 6 and 30 cycles.
• Currents should not contain DC offset, and synchronous and induction contributions
should be neglected and transient reactance or higher values should be used in
calculating the currents.
• Asymmetrical values are calculated as the square root of the sum of the
squares of the DC component and the rms value of the AC current
Calculation of fault duty values
• Momentary current is used when specifying the closing current of
switchgear.
• Typically, the AC and DC components decay to 90% of their initial
values after the first half cycle.
• From this, the value of the rms current would then be
Calculation of fault duty values
• Considering the specification for the switchgear opening current, the
rms value of interrupting current is used
Methods for calculating short-circuit currents
• Symmetrical faults can be treated by using a single-phase
representation as it leave the electrical system balanced, i.e. three-
phase faults and three-phase-to-earth faults.
• Symmetry is lost during asymmetrical faults (line-to-earth, line-to-line
and line-to-line-to-earth) and faults are analyzed through method of
symmetrical components
• When considering a three-phase system, each vector quantity,
voltage or current, is replaced by three components so that a total of
nine vectors uniquely represent the values of the three phases.
Why Symmetrical Components?

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Symmetrical components

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Methods for calculating short-circuit currents
The three-system balanced phasors are designated as:
1. Positive-sequence components, which consist of three phasors of equal
magnitude, spaced 120ᵒ apart, and rotating in the same direction as the
phasors in the power system under consideration, i.e. the positive
direction.
2. Negative-sequence components, which consist of three phasors of equal
magnitude, spaced 120ᵒ apart, rotating in the same direction as the
positive sequence phasors but in the reverse sequence.
3. Zero-sequence components, which consist of three phasors equal in
magnitude and in phase with each other, rotating in the same direction
as the positive sequence phasors.
Definition

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Definition

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Assignment
Calculate the sequence components of the following balanced line to
neutral voltage with a-b-c sequence.

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Assignment

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Sequence Networks
• Impedance of circuit in which positive, negative or zero sequence
currents are circulating are called the positive, negative and zero
sequence impedances, respectively.
• These sequence impedances are designated as Z1, Z2 and Zo.
• Generators are designed to supply balanced voltages and therefore of
positive sequence only.
• positive-sequence network is composed of an e.m.f. source in series with the
positive-sequence impedance
• Negative- and zero-sequence networks do not contain e.m.f.s but only include
impedances to the flow of negative- and zero-sequence currents, respectively.
Line-to-earth fault
• Conditions for a solid fault from line a to earth
Line-to-line fault
• Conditions for a solid fault between lines b and c are represented as
Line-to-line-to-earth fault
• Conditions for a fault between lines b and c and earth are represented
Supplying the current and voltage signals to
protection systems
• Current transformers (CTs) circulate current proportional to the fault
current to the protection equipment without distinguishing between
the vectorial magnitudes of the sequence components
• Relays usually only operate using the summated
• Relays are available that can operate with specific values of some of
the sequence components.
• achieved by using filters
• Relays for earth fault protection require this type of filter