Fault

• A fault is any abnormal condition in a power system.

• Fault is a defect in the circuit due to which the current
is diverted from its intended path.
• The steady state operating mode of a power system is
balanced 3-phase A.C. However, due to sudden
external or internal changes in the system, this
condition is disrupted.
• When the insulation of the system fails at one or more
points or a conducting object comes into contact with a
live point, a short circuit or a fault occurs.
• Breaking of conductor & Insulation failure.
 Results of Faults
• Excessive Current.
• Less Fault Impedance.
• During fault, voltage becomes unbalanced and the
supply of the nearby system is also affected.
• Due to excessive fault current, it damage the faulty
equipment along with the installation through which
the fault current is fed.
• Ex fault occurs in motor and its winding damaged,
and under the condition if motor winding is
disconnected quickly the excessive fault current can
damage to the starting equipment.
 Minimization of Fault
• Improvement in the quality of machine, equipment,
installation, by improvement in design, manufacturing
techniques, materials, quality control, adequate
testing, research & Development.
• Improvement in system design, correct layout, choice
of equipment.
• Adequate and reliable protection systems & control
• Regular and detailed maintenance by trained
personnel.
• Trained personnel for operation and management of
electric plant.
 Fault in a system in a year
S.No. Equipment Cause of Fault % of total faults
1 Overhead Lines 1. Lighting strokes 30-40%
2. Storms, earthquakes, icing
3. Birds, Trees, kites, aeroplanes , snakes,
etc
4. Internal Over voltages
2 Underground 1. Damage during digging 8-10%
cables 2. Insulation failure due to temperature rise
3. Failure of Joints
3 Alternators 1. Stator Faults 6-8%
(Generators) 2. Rotor faults
3. Abnormal conditions
4. Faults in associated equipments
5. Faults in protective system
4 Transformers 1. Insulation failure 10-12%
2. Faults in tap changer
3. Faults in bushing
4. Faults in protection circuit
5. Inadequate protection
6. Overloading &Overvoltage
 Cont…
S.No. Equipment Cause of faults % of Total Faults
5 CT, PT 1. Overvoltage 15-20%
2. Insulation Failure
3. Breaking of conductors
4. Wrong connections
6 Switchgear 1. Insulation failure 10-12%
2. Mechanical defect
3. Leakage of air/oil/gas
4. Inadequate rating
5. Lack of Maintenance
 Causes of Faults
• Lightning
• Heavy winds
• Trees falling across lines
• Vehicles colliding with towers or poles
• Birds shorting lines
• Aircraft colliding with lines
• Vandalism · Small animals entering switchgear
• Line breaks due to excessive load
 Classification of faults
• Symmetrical Fault
– Three phase faults
• Unsymmetrical Fault
– Single phase to earth fault
– Phase to phase fault
– Double phase to earth fault
• Simultaneous faults
 Procedure of Fault Calculation
• Draw the single line diagram of power system
• Choose the base values of KV & KVA
• Draw the reactance diagram or positive
sequence network
 Symmetrical fault calculation
• These fault can be analyzed on per phase
basis.
Single line diagram of Power System
Impedance and reactance or positive
sequence network
 Per Unit method
• Per unit =Actual value/ Base Value
For a single phase system, selected bases are as
follows: base current 10A, Base Voltage 200volts
calculate the base impedance. Express the
following quantities in per unit form:
20A,0.2A, 50V, 1000V, 2OHMS
 Selection of Bases
• Select only base KV & Base KVA rest like
current and impedance can be derived from
the same.
• For circuit connected by transformer, choose
same KVA base for both the circuits. Choose
base kV’s such that the ratio of base kV’s is
same as the ratio of transformer.
 Advantage of per unit methods
• Calculation are simple.
• Circuit connected to transformer is particular
suitable. By choosing the suitable Base KV the
pu reactance of both side of the transformer
can be same.
• Per unit system gives the method of
comparision.
 Determination of Base impedance (
single phase system)
• Per unit kV =Base kV/Actual kV
• Base current I(amp)=base kVA / Base kV
• Base Impedance
Z=Base Kv*1000/Base current (amp)
Z=(Base kv)^2*1000/Base kVA
• Per unit Z=Actual Z/Base Z
• Per unit Z=Actual Z*Base KVA/(Base KV)^2*1000
 Per unit impedance at new base
• Z (new base)=Z(at old base)*(old base kv/new
base kv)^2*(New base kva/old base kva)
 Neumericals
• Convert 2 ohms into per unit, base kV 11 and
base kVA 1000.
• A 11kv, 1500kVAgenerator has the reactance
of 0.15 pu referred to its ratings as bases. The
new bases for calculation are 110KV and
30000kva calculate the per unit reactance for
the new base.
Determination of bases impedance for
Three phase system
• If base voltage are phase to neutral and base
current is phase current:
Base Kva=3 Phase kVA/3
Base current=basekva/base kv
Base impedance= (base kv)^2*1000/base kVA
• If base voltage is phase to phase
Base Kva=3 Phase kVA/3
Base current=base kva/1.732*base kv
Base
impedance=((basekv/1.732)^2*1000)/(basekVA/3)
 Practice question
• Three single phase circuit A B Care connected
as shown in fig. Transformer 1 is rated
10,000kva and has the ratio of 11/22kv
leakage reactance of 5%. Transformer 2 has
rating of 10,000kva ratio 22/3.3kv and leakage
reactance 8%. Load is 300ohm resistance.
Draw the reactance diagram for the system.
 Practice Question
• Draw reactance diagram of the system shown in
Figure. The generator is 11kV, 30000kVA with
sub-transient reactance of 15%. The generator
supplies power to more motors through a
transmission line having transformers at both the
ends. Motors have rated input 10,000kVA at 11kV
with 20% leakage reactance, transformer is
11/110kv, 35000kVA with leakage reactance of
10 %. Series reactance of transmission line is 80
ohms.
 Fault MVA & Fault current
• Fault power also called fault level or short
circuit level and is the product of 1.732*fault
current *system voltage
Fault power in MVA = 1.732*kV*kA
kV=Line to line Voltage
kA=Fault Current
Pu fault current=p.u. voltage at fault point/pu X
equivalent
 Cont…
For 3 phase Circuit
p.u. Fault level= 1.732*pu fault current*pu service
voltage
Fault MVA= Base MVA/pu X equivalent
Fault Current= (Fault MVA*1000)/1.732*Base kV
For three phase circuit
Fault MVA=Base kVA / X pu the Thevnin’s Equivalent
Fault Current= Fault MVA*1000/1.732*Base Kv
Fault current is of lagging Power Factor.
 Practice Question
• A 3 phase 5000kVA, 6.6 kV generator having 12 % sub-
transient reactance. A 3 phase short circuit occurs at
the terminals , calculate fault MVA & current.
• A 3 phase, 11kV 5000kVA generator has a steady state
reactance Xd of 20%. It is connected to 3000kVA
transformer having 5 % leakage reactance and ratio of
11/33kV. The 33kV side is connected to a transmission
line. A three phase fault occurs at the other end of the
transmission line. The series reactance between the
faulted point and the transformer is 30 ohms.
Calculate the steady state fault current assuming no
load prior to fault.
 Cont…
• Four 11kV, 25MVA alternators having a sub-transient
reactance of 16% are operating in parallel when a 3
phase fault occurs on the generator bus. Find the 3
phase fault MVA fed into the fault.
• Two 11kv, 3 phase, 3000kva generators having
subtransient reactance of 15% operate in parallel. The
generators supply power to a transmission line
through a 6000kva transformer of ratio 11/22kv and
having a leakage reactance of 5%. Calculate fault
current and fault MVA for three phase fault on (a) HT
side (b) LT side of a transformer.
 Cont…
• Two generators rated 11kV, 3000kVA, having
20 % reactance are inter connected by a
100km long transmission line. The reactance
of line is 0.10 ohms per km. The transformers
near the generators are rated 6000kva,
11/66kv and have 5% reactance. A three
phase fault occurs at a distance of 20 km from
one end of the line when the system is on no
load but at rated voltage. Calculate fault MVA
and fault current.
 Cont…
• Two generators are connected to their unit transformer
as shown in figure generators and transformers are
rated as follows:
Generator1 : 20 MVA, 11kV, 0.2 pu
Transformer 1: 20 MVA, 11/110Kv, 0.08pu
Generator 2: 30 MVA, 0.2 pu, 11kV
Transformer 2: 30 MVA, 11/110KV, 0.08 pu
Reactance of the transmission lines 0.516 pu (based on
110kV, 30 MVA bases)
A 3 phase short circuit occurs at the receiving end 110kv
busbar. Determine the current supplied by the generator.
 Cont…
• A three phase transmission line operating at 33kV
and having a resistance and reactance of 5 & 20
ohms respectively connected to a generator
station busbar through a 15MVA step up
transformer which has a reactance of 0.06 pu.
Connected to the busbars and two generators,
one 10 MVA having 0.01 pu reactance and
another 5 MVA having 0.075 per unit reactance.
Calculate the short circuit MVA and the fault
current when a three phase short circuit occurs. (
a) At high voltage terminals of the transformers
(b) At the load end of the transmission line.
 Reactors in Power System
• Current limiting reactor (Series)
• Reactor in neutral to earth connection called
arc suppression coil/peterson coil/ground
fault neutralizer.
• Shunt reactors (Compensation reactor)
• Reactors in harmonics filter
• Smoothing reactor in HVDC system
 Current Limiting reactors
• It is used to limit the current
• Connected in series
• By increase in reactance short circuit current
can be reduced.
• Should not saturate in short circuit condition.
 Why current limiting reactor
• To limit the magnitude of current during fault.
• Fault current can reduce upto the level of breaking
capacity of Circuit breaker.
• In case of expansion of power system
 Design features of Current limiting
reactor
• The reactance should not reduce because of
saturation during fault condition.
• As the fault current is high, it is approx 3
times of full load current then due to the
constant permeability of iron core necessiate
a very large cross section of core. Hence air
core coils are used for current limiting
reactors.
 Cont..
• Dry type air core
• Oil immersed air core
With magnetic shielded and without shielded
 Dry Type AIR Core Reactor
• The windings of the dry type reactor are embedded in
vertical supports of concrete. The winding is bolted to
concrete base which is insulated from porcelain post
insulators which also support the reactor.
– It is natural or forced air cooled
– Used only upto 33kv
• For dry type reactor magnetic shielding need to be
provided to prevent the reactor flux from inducing
current in the surrounding metal objects.
• Occupy large space.
 Oil immersed
• In this coil is placed in the oil which serves the purpose
of cooling and insulation. Oil immersed reactor can be
cooled by any one of the method that we adopt for
transformer cooling. Can be made for both indoor and
outdoor installation.
• Advantages
– Higher safety
– Smaller size
– Higher thermal capacity
• Types
– Magnetically Shielded
– Non Magnetically shielded
 Types of Reactors
• Generator
• Feeder
• Busbar
 Generator Reactor
• When the reactor are connected in series with the generator then
it is called generator reactor. Modern generators although
designed to have sufficiently large reactance to protect them even
in dead short circuit condition. Thus it is only used with the old
generators.
 Cont….

• Disadvantages of generator reactors

– Constant voltage drop and power loss in each
reactor
– If a busbar or feeder fault occurs close to busbars
then the voltage drops to low value with the
result generator may loose the synchronism.
 Feeder Reactor
• When reactor are connected in series with the
feeder.
 Cont…
• Advantages
– If there is a fault in the feeder then it will not effect the
another feeder supply.
– If there is fault in the feeder then voltage drop in reactor
will not effect the busbar voltage and therefore little
chances of loosing synchronization of Generator.
• Disadvantages
– Constant voltage drop in reactor during normal condition.
– If a fault occurs in feeder then no protection required for
the generator
– If the size of generator changes then feeder reactor should
also change.
 Busbar Reactor
• The constant losses can be reduced by connecting the
reactor in Busbar. In this only small current flows
through reactor during normal condition. During short
circuit condition only one generator fed the fault
directly but rest of the generator will fed the fault
through reactor.
 Practice question
• Find the short circuit current in a single phase
system where a generator of 2000kva, 10 %
reactance is connected to the transformer of
1200kva 7 % reactance. The reactance is
connected between the transformer and fault
point is 2 ohms. The voltage at fault point if
6.6 Kv.
 Cont…
• Two three phase generators of ratings 1000 kVA
and 1500KVA and voltage of 3.3 kv have the
percentage reactance of 10 & 20 5 respectively
with respect to their ratings. These are connected
to bus bars. A three phase fault occurs on the
bus. Find the short circuit current.
• In the above problem find the reactance of
reactor to be connected in series with generator
of 1000kVA to limit the short circuit KVA of
busbar to 1000.
 Cont…

• Two generators of 3000 kVA and 10 % reactance

and one grid supply in series with transformer
and reactor of X value are connected to the
generator bus. The rating of circuit breaker
connected to feeder is 150 MVA. The capacities
and reactances of the generators and
transformers are as follows:
• G1 3000 KVA 10 %
• G2 3000KVA 10 %
• Transformer 9000 kva 5%
 Cont…
• In previous question if the grid supply is not
of infinite but has fault level of 4000MVA.
Calculate the fault MVA at generator bus
neglecting the reactor at generator busbar.
 Unsymmetrical faults analysis
• Analysis is not possible based on per phase basis.
As the system remain unsymmetrical as voltage,
current and impedances of all three phases will
not be equal.
• Symmetrical component method will be used
• Dr. CL. Fortesque introduced this imaginary
concept.
An unbalanced set of n phasors may be resolved
into (n-1) balanced n phase systems of different
phase sequence and one zero phase sequence
system.
 Symmetrical components
• Three unsymmetrical unbalanced phasors of
three phase system can be resolved into
following three component sets of balanced
phasors which possess certain symmetry:
– Positive sequence components
– Negative sequence components
– Zero sequence components
Symmetrical components
Graphical representation of
symmetrical components
 Positive sequence components
• A set of three phasors equal in magnitude,
displaced from each other by 120 in phase and
having the same phase sequence as original
unbalanced phasors, this set of balancing phasors is
called positive sequence components.
Represented by VA1, VB1 & VC1
 Negative sequence components
• A set of three phasors equal in magnitude ,
displaced from each other by 120 in phase
and having the phase sequence opposite to
that of original phasors. This set of balanced
phasors is called negative sequence
components.
• Represented by VA2, VB2,VC2
 Zero Sequence Components
• A set of three phasors equal in magnitude with
zero phase displacement from each other, this
set is called zero phase sequence components.
The components of this set are called identical.
• Represented by VA0, VB0 & VC0
Mathematics
 Component synthesis
• The determination of original phasors in terms of
sequence components if called sysnthesis.
• VB1=(ALPHA)^2*VA1
• VC1=ALPHA*VA1
• VB2=ALPHA*VA2
• VC2=(ALPHA)^2*VA2
• VA0=VB0=VC0
• Alpha is the rotational operator in anticlockwise
direction and its value of magnitude 1 with angle
120 degree.
 Cont..
VA=VA0+VA1+VA2
VB=VB0+VB1+VB2
VC=VC0+VC1+VC2
VA=VA0+VA1+VA2
VB=VA0+(ALPHA)^2*VA1+ALPHA*VA2
VC=VA0+ALPHA*VA1+(ALPHA)^2*VA2
 Cont..

Above equation is called synthesis equation and the matrix A is called symmetrical component
transformation matrix.
 Component Analysis
• The determination of sequence components
in terms of original phasors is called
component analysis. Both side multiply with
Inverse A matrix.
• Inverse A*Vabc=inverse A*AV012
• V012=INVERSE(A)* Vabc
• C-inverse (A)