FAULT CALCULATION

Objectives
- Protection Design - Circuit Breaker Rating (fault level) - Transmission Planning - Operational Planning - Substation safety - Interference study - Circuit Rating Circuit Breaker (CB) rating and Fault level
Under normal (healthy) condition, the CB will experience a voltage Vrated Under fault, the CB has to clear a fault IF (much greater than normal load current). The CB rating is often expressed MVA Fault level = 3 Vrated IF Per unit fault level = ( 3 Vrated IF) /( 3 Vbase Ibase) =IF/Ibase=IF pu (pu fault current) because Vbase is Vrated

Application of Thevenin equivalent to fault calculation A) Simplified Approach (load ignored)

j Eg Xg=0.4 Xt=0.1 k V V=1 Xth k

Neglecting load current, Eg = V = 1 pu (prefault or oc voltage)

IF = Eg Xg + Xt = V =2 Xg + Xt

Assumptions 1. No shunt elements a) No shunt capacitor nor reactor b) Tx Tap ratio t = 1 c) B=0 (cable, line) 2. Iload = 0 3. Eg = V(=1 pu) for all nodes and machine.

Worked examples
A) 2-bus system (circuit as above) A 33kV bus-j of fault level of 250MVA is connected to bus-k by a 1.089ohm cable. Determine the fault current at bus-k. (Use 100MVA base.) At bus-j, IF=250/100pu=2.5pu, Xg=1/2.5=0.4pu Xt=1.089100/332=0.1pu At bus-k, IF=V/Xth = 1/(0.4+0.1)=1/0.5pu 2pu Since Ibase=Sbase/(3 Vbase)=100/(333) =1.75kA, IF=21.75=3.5kA B) 4-bus system (p173 Jones) On 100MVA base Thevenin XG=0.4pu for generator, XM=0.5pu for motor, and XL=0.92pu for each line By network reduction, the final Xth at bus D is 0.345pu (Fig. 6.2d) and IF=1/0.345=2.9pu, i.e. pu fault level at D = IF = 2.9pu 290MVA

Representation of Source at a bus

Source is usually represented by Thevenin equivalent with ES=1pu. Then IF1=ES/ZS=1/XS (if RS0). For null fault contribution from other source, i.e. IF2=0, the bus fault current equals to the fault infeed from this source (i.e. IF=IF1).
IF1 Thevenin Equivalent of Source ZS ES IF IF2

Very often, the pu source reactance is obtained by XS=1/IF (assuming ES=1). Strictly speaking, it is only valid if IF2=0. The most appropriate method is to use fault infeed IF1 such that XS=1/I F1, instead of fault level IF.

B) Modified Approach (load included)

Eg = V + Il (Xg+Xt)
V=1
j k

Equivalent Impedance Zeq between a node and reference

Il =1

Using nodal method

If =

Eg Xg + Xt

V + Il Xg + Xt

I=YV
where, e.g. for a 2-node system,

Eg

Xg

Xt

= Io + Il = 3 f
I o = fault current with load ignored f Conclusion: The fault current equals to summation of fault current with load ignored and load current. Discrepancies Since Il is normally a fraction of If, the fault current appears negligible changes with load (e.g. between peak and light). e.g. If =5, Il (peak)=1, Il (light)=0.5, then If(peak)=6, If(light)=5.5 Reasons of discrepancy: - Number of generators neglected - Transformer tap neglected - Number of parallel circuits (e.g. Tx) neglected - Outages of some cables to reduce MVAr generation at mid-night

Y=

Ya + Yb Yb

Yb Yb + Yc

Yb Ya Yc

If a current is injected into node k only, the voltage can be calculated by

V = Y-1 I = Z I

V1 M Vj

Z11 L M Z j1

Z1k M Z jk M Z kk M

0 M =

Z1k M Z jk M Z kk M Ik

M M = Vk Z k1 L M M

C) Computerized Approach by Thevenin

k Large Network Zf Zeq Voc k

Ik M 0

kth column

By Ohms law

Z eq =

Vk Z kk I k = = Z kk Ik Ik
-----------(1)

Open-circuit voltage Voc = prefault voltage = normal (loadflow) voltage Voc If Zeq can be determined, then fault current If = Z eq. + Z f

The voltage rise at node j due to Ik injection is Vj = Zjk Ik Note: only one column of Z-matrix is required.

Fault Calculation (for a 3-phase fault at node k)

(a) (b) Extract the k th column of the Z-matrix Calculate the fault current using thevenin equivalent

Worked example using computerized approach of thevenin

Calculate the fault current for the 4-bus system (p173 Jones)

If =
Zkk Ek If Zf

Ek Z kk + Z f
Ek Z kk for dead short

If =

YG1=YG2=1/j0.4=-j2.5 YM=1/j0.5=-j2 YAB=YAC=YBC=YBD=YCD=1/j0.92=-j1.087

A Y= -j 22.5+21.087 -1.087 -1.087 B -1.087 31.087 -1.087 -1.087 B C C -1.087 -1.087 31.087 -1.087 D 0.0617 0.2037 0.2037 0.3457 D -1.087 -1.087 2+21.087 A B C D

(c)

Calculate the voltage during fault for all nodes For node j , the voltage rise due to a current Ik (= -If ) is

Ej

= Ik Zjk = If Zjk

from (1)
A Z= j

Actually If Zjk is a voltage drop because If is a negative current injection. By superposition theorem, the voltage at node j is: Vj = Ej + Ej = Ej If Zjk
Check: if k = j,

A B C D

---------- (2)

IF=1/j0.3457=2.893pu Check with the network reduction approach by Jones p.174

Vk = Ek If Zkk = Ek

Ek Zkk = 0 Z kk

(d)

Calculate branch current flow (including fault and load) Imn = (Vm Vn) Ymn ----------- (3)

Formation of Z-matrix for large network

Steps (a) Use previous Y-matrix formed at loadflow which already contains all circuit elements such as capacitors, reactors, transformers (Fig. 5.1e), lines and cables (Fig. 5.1d) Convert static load to equivalent (Fig. 5.1c) Convert motor load to equivalent (Fig. 1b) Convert generator to equivalent (Fig. 5.1a) In actual practice, the current equivalent in Fig. 5.1a,b may be neglected in fault calculation, as what is needed is Z only. (e) Invert Y-matrix

(b) (c) (d)

The above also holds in forming the negative and zero sequence Z-matrix, except that the previous loadflow contains only positive sequence quantities. Therefore step (a) is modified to (a') Build the sequence Y-matrix (i.e. Y or Yo) for the circuit elements.

Advantage of Computerized Method vs Simplified Method

Both methods use Thevenin, but the simplified (conventional) approach using network reduction has to eliminate all the buses (except the faulty bus), in order to establish the Thevenin equivalent and then to obtain the fault current. Therefore, the voltage dip at healthy bus, the fault flow, the CB interrupting current nor the machine fault contribution cannot be calculated in this conventional method.