PSA Notes Unit 3

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UNIT III FAULT ANALYSIS BALANCED FAULTS

Fault Analysis
The cause of electric power system faults is insulation breakdown. This breakdown
can be due to a variety of different factors:
Lightning.
wires blowing together in the wind.
animals or plants coming in contact with the wires.
salt spray or pollution on insulators.
Fault Types
There are two main types of faults
Symmetric faults: system remains balanced; these faults are relatively rare, but are
the easiest to analyze so well consider them first.
Un-symmetric faults: system is no longer balanced; very common, but more difficult
to analyze.
The most common type of fault on a three phase system by far is the single line-toground (SLG), followed by the line-to-line faults (LL), double line-to-ground (DLG) faults,
and balanced three phase faults.
Fault Analysis
Fault currents cause equipment damage due to both thermal and mechanical
processes.
Goal of fault analysis is to determine the magnitudes of the currents present during
the fault.
need to determine the maximum current to insure devices can survive the fault.
need to determine the maximum current the circuit breakers (CBs) need to interrupt
to correctly size the CBs.
Fault Analysis Solution Techniques

Circuit models used during the fault allow the network to be represented as a linear
circuit
There are two main methods for solving for fault currents:
1. Direct method: Use pre-fault conditions to solve for the internal machine voltages; then
apply fault and solve directly.
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2.Superposition: Fault is represented by two opposing voltage sources; solve system by

superposition.
The fault analysis of a power system is required in order to provide information for
the selection of switchgear, setting of relays and stability of system operation. A power
system is not static but changes during operation (switching on or off of generators and
transmission lines) and during planning (addition of generators and transmission lines).
Thus fault studies need to be routinely performed by utility engineers (such as in the CEB).
Faults usually occur in a power system due to either insulation failure, flashover, physical
damage or human error. These faults, may either be three phase in nature involving all
three phases in a symmetrical manner, or may be asymmetrical where usually only one or
two phases may be involved. Faults may also be caused by either short-circuits to earth or
between live conductors, or may be caused by broken conductors in one or more phases.
Sometimes simultaneous faults may occur involving both short-circuit and brokenconductor
faults (also known as open-circuit faults).
Balanced three phase faults may be analysed using an equivalent single phase circuit.
With asymmetrical three phase faults, the uses of symmetrical components help to reduce
the complexity of the calculations as transmission lines and components are by and large
symmetrical, although the fault may be asymmetrical.
Fault analysis is usually carried out in per-unit quantities (similar to percentage
quantities) as they give solutions which are somewhat consistent over different voltage and
power ratings, and operate on values of the order of unity.
In the ensuing sections, we will derive expressions that may be used in computer
simulations by the utility engineers.
Equivalent Circuits - Single phase and Equivalent Single Phase Circuits
In a balanced three phase circuit, since the information relating to one single phase
gives the information relating to the other two phases as well, it is sufficient to do
calculations in a single phase circuit. There are two common forms used. These are (i) to take
any one single phase of the three phase circuit and (ii) to take an equivalent single phase
circuit to represent the full three phase circuit.
Figure shows one single phase AN of the three phase circuit ABC N. Since the
system is balanced, there is no current in the neutral, and there is no potential drop across
the neutral wire. Thus the star point S of the system would be at the same potential as
the neutral point N. Also, the line current is the same as the phase current, the line
voltage is 3 times the phase voltage, and the total power is 3 times the power in a single
phase.
I = IP = IL, V = VP = VL/3 and S = SP = ST/3
Working with the single phase circuit would yield single phase quantities, which can then
be converted to three phase quantities using the above conversions.
Equivalent Single Phase Circuit
Of the parameters in the single phase circuit shown in figure, the Line Voltage and the
Total Power (rather than the Phase Voltage and one-third the Power) are the most
important quantities. It would be useful to have these quantities obtained directly from the
circuit rather than having conversion factors of 3 and 3 respectively. This is achieved in
the Equivalent Single Phase circuit, shown in figure 2.2, by multiplying the voltage by a
factor of 3 to give Line Voltage directly.
The Impedance remains as the per-phase impedance. However, the Line Current gets
artificially amplified by a factor of 3. This also increases the power by a factor of (3)2,
which is the required correction to get the total power.
Thus, working with the Equivalent single phase circuit would yield the required three
phase quantities directly, other than the current which would be 3 IL.
Revision of Per Unit Quantities
Per unit quantities, like percentage quantities, are actually fractional quantities of a
reference quantity. These have a lot of importance as per unit quantities of parameters tend
to have similar values even when the system voltage and rating change drastically. The per
unit system permits multiplication and division in addition to addition and subtraction
without the requirement of a correction factor (when percentage quantities are multiplied
or divided additional factors of 0.01 or100 must be brought in, which are not in the original
equations, to restore the percentage values). Per-unit values are written with pu after the
value.
For power, voltage, current and impedance, the per unit quantity may be obtained by
dividing by the respective base of that quantity.
Expressions such as Ohms Law can be applied for per unit quantities as well. Since
Voltage, Current, Impedance and Power are related, only two Base or reference quantities
can be independently defined. The Base quantities for the other two can be derived there
from. Since Power and Voltage are the most often specified, they are usually chosen to
define the independent base quantities.
Calculation for Single Phase Systems
If VAbase and Vbase are the selected base quantities of power (complex, active or reactive)
and voltage respectively, then
Calculations for Three Phase Systems

In three phase systems the line voltage and the total power are usually used rather than the
single phase quantities. It is thus usual to express base quantities in terms of these.
If VA3base and VLLbase are the base three-phase power and line-to-line voltage respectively,
It is to be noted that while the base impedance for the three phase can be obtained directly
from the VA3base and VLLbase (or MVA3base and kVLLbase) without the need of any additional
factors, the calculation of base current needs an additional factor of 3. However this is
not usually a problem as the value of current is rarely required as a final answer in power
systems calculations, and intermediate calculations can be done with a variable 3Ibase.
Thus in three phase, the calculations of per unit quantities becomes
Conversions from one Base to another

It is usual to give data in per unit to its own rating [ex: The manufacturer of a certain piece
of equipment, such as a transformer, would not know the exact rating of the power system
in which the equipment is to be used. However, he would know the rating of his
equipment]. As different components can have different ratings, and different from the
system rating, it is necessary to convert all quantities to a common base to do arithmetic or
algebraic operations. Additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions will give
meaningful results only if they are to the same base. This can be done for three phase
systems as follows.
Balanced Faults
The most common types of fault are (in order) single-line-to-ground fault, line-to-line
fault, and double-line-to-ground fault. All of these are unbalanced faults. The balanced
(or three phase) fault is the one when all three lines are shorted to ground. It is usually
rare, but can happen. When a fault occurs it is important to isolate it by opening protective
breakers. To properly set the breakers, the magnitude of the fault currents needs to be
known.
The life of a fault can be divided into the following times which occur in sequence:
1. The sub-transient period which lasts for only a few cycles
2. The transient period which lasts for a much longer period (tens of cycles)
3. The steady state period which lasts till a major change in the transmission network
takes place (like a circuit breaker opening or a line failing)

The magnitude of the current in each period needs to be known so as to program
breakers to operate at the right time. To do this in the balanced fault case we need to know
how to construct the bus impedance matrix using the building algorithm which is detailed
later on in the chapter. (It is possible to invert the Ybus matrix, but it is more expedient to
"build" the Zbus directly.
Balanced Three-Phase Fault
During a three-phase fault, the impedance of a generator is a time varying quantity. It
is Xdin the sub-transient period (one to four cycles), Xdin the transient period (about 30
cycles), and the synchronous reactance Xd after that. Which one to use depends on the
purpose of the study. Keep in mind that the sub-transient currents can be very large due
to the small size of Xd. Due to symmetry, the three phase currents during a symmetrical
fault can be solved using ordinary circuit theory. In this case we use Thevenin's theorem
to analyze the fault. If the fault has zero impedance to ground, it is called a solid fault or
bolted fault (all three lines shorted to ground with zero impedance).
Example
The one-line diagram of a three bus system is shown below. Each generator is represented
by an emf behind the transient reactance. All impedances are in per unit on a 100 MVA base
and for simplicity, resistances are neglected. The following assumptions are
made:
1. Shunt capacitances are neglected and the system is considered on no-load.
2. All generators are running at their rated voltage and rated frequency with their emfs in
phase.
Determine the fault current, bus voltages, and the line currents during the fault when a
balanced three-phase fault with impedance
Z f 0.16 pu occurs on
(a) Bus 3.
(b) Bus 2.
(c) Bus 1.
Part (a): The fault on bus 3 is simulated by connecting a fault impedance Zf = j0.16 pu as
shown in the figure below.
According to Thevenin's theorem, the change due to the short circuit is equivalent to that
caused by the added source Vth = V3(0) with all other sources shorted as shown on the right,
where V3(0) is the pre-fault voltage at bus 3 (where the fault will occur). It is now easy to
solve for the changes due to the fault. These changes are then added to the pre-fault values to
get the post-fault values. The fault current at bus 3 is
where Z33 is the Thevenin impedance seen at the faulted bus. To solve for this, the delta is
first changed to an equivalent Y then the circuit is simplified as shown next page. Note that
all values are pu.
In this example the voltages were assumed equal to 1 pu. For more accurate
calculations, a load flow study is made and the pre-fault voltages are accurately obtained.
Also, the example above did not have any loads at the buses. If there were any loads they
would be represented as constant impedances to ground. This is a good approximation (the
loads change after a fault, but that may be neglected). The general process is summarized
below:
The pre-fault bus voltages are obtained from the results of a load flow analysis.
Loads are converted to constant impedances to ground using the bus voltages.
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.
Bus voltages during the fault are obtained by superposition of the prefault bus
Voltages and the changes in the bus voltages computed in the previous step.
The currents during the fault may now be obtained in all branches of the faulted
system.
Short-Circuit Capacity (SCC)
The short-circuit capacity of a bus is a measure of the strength of a bus. The SCC is defined
as the product of the magnitudes of the rated bus voltage and the fault current. It is
used to determine the size of the bus bar and to size the breaker used at the bus.
From the above definition we have for the short-circuit MVA at bus k:
SCC 3VLk Ik F103 MVA
where the line-to-line voltage is VLk is in kV and Ik(F) in A. The symmetrical three phase
current in per unit is given by
where Vk 0is the per unit prefault bus voltage and Xkk is the per unit reactance at the
point of fault. N.B. System resistance is neglected, thus the current computed is on the
pessimistic (larger) side. The base current is given by

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UNIT III FAULT ANALYSIS BALANCED FAULTS

Fault Analysis Solution Techniques

2.Superposition: Fault is represented by two opposing voltage sources; solve system by

Calculations for Three Phase Systems

Conversions from one Base to another

takes place (like a circuit breaker opening or a line failing)

current in per unit is given by

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