Earth fault currents in distribution networks

Summary

A thorough understanding of the system characteristics for ungrounded and reactance grounded systems is achieved in this practical. In an ungrounded system the phase to ground voltage is varying with asymmetry of system capacitance. At ground fault of such a system, the phase to ground voltage can increase even more than the line to line voltage, which is detrimental to the insulation of the system components. Further a comparatively large leakage current is observed even when the system is healthy. A Peterson coil increases the impedance of the system and limits the earth fault current.

ii

Contents
Summary ......................................................................................................... ii Contents ......................................................................................................... iii 1. 2. 3. Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Theory ...................................................................................................... 2 Measurements .......................................................................................... 4 3.1. Supply Voltage.................................................................................... 4 3.2. Input Voltages ..................................................................................... 5 3.2.1. Phase to Earth Voltage ................................................................ 5 3.2.2. Phase to Neutral Voltage ............................................................. 5 3.2.3. Neutral to Earth Voltage ............................................................... 5 3.3. Healthy Transmission line ................................................................... 5 3.4. Faulted Transmission line ................................................................... 6 3.5. Earth Fault current using symmetrical components ............................ 7 3.6. Peterson Coil Earthed ......................................................................... 8 3.7. Fluorescent Lamp Earth fault .............................................................. 8 4. 5. Discussion and conclusion........................................................................ 9 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 10

iii

1. INTRODUCTION
Any power transmission or distribution system serves to carry current, moving charges from source to drain. As a result of the charges on the transmission system the system will have a certain capacitance to ground. The intent of this practical is to find out variation of phase to ground voltages with different system conditions and to find out the effect a Peterson coil has on the system. The transmission system is modelled by a simple capacitance to earth.

2. THEORY

The lab set up is shown in figure 1 (NTNU).

Figure 1 : lab setup (NTNU)

The Resistance to earth is neglected in modeling due to much larger resistive impedance when compared to capacitor impedance.

Due to the high impedance of the capacitances in series with extremely small transformer and line impedance, the system impedance can be neglected . Therefore the comparatively smaller line and transformer impedances can be safely neglected.

Figure 2 : Equivalent per phase diagram (Professor Hoidalen)

The per phase equivalent system for a faulted system with fault impedance of Rf is shown in figure 2. It is the positive , negative ad zero sequence components in series.

Using KVL;

Using Ohms law;

Where VN is the neutral to ground voltage and V is the phase to neutral voltage of phase a.

3. MEASUREMENTS
All Voltages were measured using the high impedance digital multimeter. The initial results taken using the analog meter were inaccurate due to low internal impedance. The currents were measured using a multimeter. Voltages to ground were measured by using the common ground point available on test bench while the neutral voltages were measured using the neutral point available in the transformer secondary.

3.1. Supply Voltage

A Phase (V) VLL Phase Sequence OK OK OK 232 B Phase (V) 232 C Phase (V) 232

Figure 3 : initial phasor diagram (Professor Hoidalen)

The Supply voltage is 230 V balanced three phase with correct phase sequence as shown in figure 3.

3.2. Input Voltages

3.2.1. Phase to Earth Voltage

A-E (V) 132

B-E (V) 100

C-E (V) 124

3.2.2. Phase to Neutral Voltage

A Phase (V) VLL 134

B Phase (V) 134

C Phase (V) 134

3.2.3. Neutral to Earth Voltage

N-E (V) 20

Phase to Earth voltages are not symmetrical since the neutral is not connected.

3.3. Healthy Transmission line

A-E (V) 134 B-E (V) 134 C-E (V) 134 N-E (V) 0 5

Capacitance connected 1 F

The capacitances connect the phase to ground, thereby providing an anchor to earth reference. The earth is now coinciding with the neutral in a phasor diagram.

3.4. Faulted Transmission line

Fault Rf (k Ohm) 0 1 2 4 6 10 Current - If (mA) 127 92 58 32 22 13 Phase a to ground Vag 0 93 119 130 132 133 Phase b to ground Vbg 232 145 113 112 118 123 Phase c to ground Vcg 233 229 197 167 156 147 Neutral to Ground Vng 134 97 62 34 23 14

Figure 4 : Phasor diagram for the faulted system (Professor Hoidalen)

The Ground point varies from phase a to neutral when the fault impedance varies from infinity to zero. Further Vag and Vng lie on an arc with Van as the diameter. According to figure 4, the phase to ground voltage can even exceed line to line voltage for phase C.

3.5. Earth Fault current using symmetrical components

The voltages are measured from secondary output of the transformer and the currents are extremely small due to high impedance of the line capacitances. Therefore the comparatively smaller line and transformer impedances can be safely neglected. If is calculated using equation 1 and Vng is calculated using equation 2. The locus of ground point is marked in the phasor diagram. There are no deviations from the measured values since the measurement values are small and accuracy of equipment moderate. For the given accuracy the theoretical values and practical values are matching.

Phase a to Rf (k Fault Current ground Vag 0 93 119 130 132 133

Neutral to Ground Vng 134 97 62 34 23 14

Calculated Fault Current Calculated - If (mA) 126 92 59 32 22 13 Vng (V) 134 97 63 34 23 14

Ohm) - If (mA) 0 1 2 4 6 10 127 92 58 32 22 13

3.6. Peterson Coil Earthed

Calculated Coil Coil Fault coil Calculated capacitor

Inductor Voltage Current Current impedance impedance Position (V) 0-1 0-2 0-3 0-4 0-5 0-7 0-8 134 134 134 134 134 134 134 (mA) 58 117 176 235 355 411 469 (mA) 69 12 49 108 227 283 341 (ohm) 2310 1145 761 570 377 326 286 (ohm) 1062 1062 1062 1062 1062 1062 1062

Minimum earth fault current of 117 mA given at coil impedance of 1145 ohms which is closest coil impedance value to the capacitor impedance of 1062 ohm.

3.7. Fluorescent Lamp Earth fault

Fault Current If (mA) 170 Phase a to ground - Vag (V) 47 Phase a to neutral - Van (V) 135 Neutral to ground Vng (V) 125

The value for inductor reactance cannot be calculated since voltage across coil is un-available. The registered fault current of 170 mA is greater than with the tuned Peterson coil value of 12 mA. The reason for this is that the system impedance is very high at parallel resonance of system capacitance and Peterson coil

inductance and even for zero impedance faults the maximum possible fault current is negligible.

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In an ungrounded system the phase to ground voltage is varying with asymmetry of system capacitance. At ground fault of such a system, the phase to ground voltage can increase even more than the line to line voltage, which is detrimental to the insulation of the system components.Thus the system earthing must be taken into consideration when choosing new components for the power system Further a comparatively large leakage current is observed even when the system is healthy. A Peterson coil increases the impedance of the system and limits the earth fault current. However operation at correct resonance frequency is of utmost importance since the system capacitance is a dynamic value.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY
NTNU, T. 4. (n.d.). Laboratory assignment PSA1. Professor Hoidalen, H. K. (n.d.). TET 4115 : Power system protection slides.

10