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LABORATORY 5 FAULT LEVEL CALCULATIONS USING EMTC/PSCAD

INTRODUCTION
This experiment investigated the analysis of Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical Three-Phase
faults in power systems.

Theory Background
Under normal conditions, a power system operates under balanced conditions with all
equipment carrying normal load currents and the bus voltages within the prescribed limits.
This condition can be disrupted due to a fault in the system. A fault in a circuit is a failure
that interferes with the normal flow of current. A short circuit fault occurs when the
insulation of the system fails resulting in low impedance path either between phases or
phase(s) to ground. This causes excessively high currents to flow in the circuit, requiring the
operation of protective devices to prevent damage to equipment. The short circuit faults can
be classified as:

Symmetrical faults
Unsymmetrical faults

Symmetrical faults:

A three phase symmetrical fault is caused by application of three equal fault impedances
to the three phases, as shown in Fig. 1. If = 0 the fault is called a solid or a bolted fault.
These faults can be of two types: (a) line to line to line to ground fault (LLLG fault) or (b)
line to line to line fault (LLL fault). Since the three phases are equally affected, the system
remains balanced. That is why, this fault is called a symmetrical or a balanced fault and the
fault analysis is done on per phase basis. The behaviour of LLLG fault and LLL fault is
identical due to the balanced nature of the fault. This is a very severe fault that can occur in a
system and if , this is usually the most severe fault that can occur in a system.
Fortunately, such faults occur infrequently and only about 5% of the system faults are three
phase faults.






Figure 1 Symmetrical Faults

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Unsymmetrical faults:

Faults in which the balanced state of the network is disturbed are called unsymmetrical or
unbalanced faults. The most common type of unbalanced fault in a system is a single line to
ground fault (LG fault). Almost 60 to 75% of faults in a system are LG faults. The other
types of unbalanced faults are line to line faults (LL faults) and double line to ground faults
(LLG faults). About 15 to 25% faults are LLG faults and 5 to 15% are LL faults. These
faults are shown in Fig. 4.40.






Figure 2 - Unsymmetrical Fault

Majority of the faults occur on transmission lines as they are exposed to external elements.
Lightening strokes may cause line insulators to flashover, high velocity winds may cause
tower failure, ice loading and wind may result in mechanical failure of line or insulator and
tree branches may cause short circuit. Much less common are the faults on cables, circuit
breakers, generators, motors and transformers.

Fault analysis is necessary for selecting proper circuit breaker rating and for relay settings
and coordination. The symmetrical faults are analysed on per phase basis while the
unsymmetrical faults are analysed using symmetrical components. Further, the Bus matrix
is very useful for short circuit studies .

Symmetrical or Balanced three phase fault analysis:

In this type of fault all three phases are simultaneously short circuited. Since the network
remains balanced, it is analysed on per phase basis. The other two phases carry identical
currents but with a phase shift of 120. A fault in the network is simulated by connecting
impedances in the network at the fault location. The faulted network is then solved using
Thevenins equivalent network as seen from the fault point. The bus impedance matrix is
convenient to use for fault studies as its diagonal elements are the Thevenins impedance of
the network as seen from different buses. Prior to the occurrence of fault, the system is
assumed to be in a balanced steady state and hence per phase network model is used. The
generators are represented by a constant voltage source behind a suitable reactance which
may be sub-transient, transient or normal d-axis reactance. The transmission lines are
represented by their -models with all impedances referred to a common base. A typical bus
of an n- bus power system network is shown in Fig. 3. Further, a balanced three phase fault,
through a fault impedance is assumed to occur at kth bus as shown in the figure. A pre-
fault load flow provides the information about the pre-fault bus voltage.
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Let [ Bus (0)] be the pre-fault bus voltage vector = (0) . . . Vk(0) . . . Vn(0)

p.u. The
fault at kth bus through an impedance will cause a change in the voltage of all the buses
[BUS] due to the flow of heavy currents through the transmission lines. This change can
be calculated by applying a voltage (0) at kth bus and short circuiting all other voltage
sources. The sources and loads are replaced by their equivalent impedances.








Figure 3 - Network representation for calculating BUS

In Figure 3 above, and are the equivalent load impedances as bus i and k respectively,
is the impedance of line between ith and kth buses. is the appropriate generator
reactance, is the fault impedance, is the fault current and (0) is the pre-fault
voltage at kth bus. From the superposition theorem, the bus voltages due to a fault can be
obtained as the sum of pre-fault bus voltages and the change in bus voltages due to fault, i.e.,









Figure 4 Fault at Kth Bus of a Power System



(1)
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Where,
[ Bus (F)] = Vector of bus voltages during fault = (F) . . . (F) . . . n(F)

[ Bus (0)] = Vector of pre-fault bus voltages = (0) . . . (0) . . . n(0)

[BUS] = Vector of change in bus voltages due to fault = [

Also the bus injected current Bus] can be expressed as,



(2)
where, [BUS] is the bus voltage vector and [BUS] is the bus admittance matrix. With all
the bus currents, except of the faulted bus k, equal to zero, the node equation for the network
of Fig. 3 can be written as






(3)

As the fault current (F) is leaving the bus it is taken as a negative current entering the bus.
Hence,


(4)
[BUS] can be calculated as:


(5)

where, [BUS] is the bus impedance matrix = [BUS

. Substituting the expression of

[BUS] from equation (4) in equation (1) one can write,
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(6)
Expanding the above equation one can write,




(7)
The bus voltage of kth bus can be expressed as:


(8)

Also from Fig. 4,


(9)

For a bolted fault = 0 and hence, (F) = 0. Thus the fault current k(F) for bolted fault
can be expressed using equation (8) as,




(10)


For faulty with non-zero fault impedance , the fault current can be calculated as:

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(11)
The quantity in equation (10) and equation (11) is the Thevenins impedance or
opencircuit impedance of the network as seen from the faulted bus k. From equation (4.70),
the bus voltage after fault for the un-faulted or healthy buses can be written as:



(12)
Substituting (F) from equation (10) , (F) can be expressed as:




(13)

The fault current (F) flowing in the line connecting ith and jth bus can be calculated as



(14)

where zij is the impedance of line connecting buses i and j.








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Unsymmetrical or Unbalanced fault analysis:

For the analysis of unsymmetrical or unbalanced faults, symmetrical component method is
used. The use of symmetrical components simplifies the analysis procedure of unbalanced
system and also helps in improving the understanding of the system behavior during fault
conditions.

Symmetrical components:

Any unbalanced set of three phase voltage or current phasors can be replaced by three
balanced sets of three phase voltage or current phasors. These three balanced set of voltage or
current phasors are called symmetrical components of voltages or currents. Let the vectors Ia,
Ib, and Ic be an arbitrary set of three current phasors representing phase currents. Then using
symmetrical components they can be expressed as:






(15)
Or,



(15)
Where,



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The graphical representation of the sequence components is shown in Fig. (5). Let an
operator a be defined such that a = .120 . Any phasor multiplied by a undergoes a
counter clockwise rotation of 120 without any change in the magnitude. Further,







Or,




(16)

where, is the angle of phase a positive sequence current.








Figure 5 - Representation of Symmetrical Components



(17)

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The phase sequence of the positive component set is abc.

Similarly the negative sequence set can be written as:



(18)

where, is the angle of phase a negative sequence current.




(19)
The phase sequence of the negative component set is acb.

The zero-sequence component set can be written as:



(20)
where, ._0 is the angle of phase a zero sequence current. Hence, equation (15) can be
simplified as:







(21)
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It can also expressed in a compact form as:
(22)









(23)
To summarize:
For Voltage:

(24)



(25)
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where, abc is the set of phase voltages, and is the set of sequence voltages.

For Current:


(26)



(27)

where, is the set of phase voltages, and is the set of sequence voltages.

Assumptions Commonly Made in Three Phase Fault Studies

The following assumptions are usually made in fault analysis in three phase transmission
lines.

All sources are balanced and equal in magnitude & phase
Sources represented by the Thevenins voltage prior to fault at the fault point
Large systems may be represented by an infinite bus-bars
Transformers are on nominal tap position
Resistances are negligible compared to reactances
Transmission lines are assumed fully transposed and all 3 phases have same Z
Loads currents are negligible compared to fault currents
Line charging currents can be completely neglected


AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The objective of this experiment is to become familiar with the use of the Software
EMTDC/PSCAD in the analyse of Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical Faults in Power
Systems.



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PROCEDURE
Figure 6 shows the single-line diagram of a 4-bus power system. The system parameters are
given in Table 1.








Figure 6 Bus Power System Schematic

Table 1 The System Data









Figure 7 Positive sequence impedance Figure 8: Negative sequence impedance
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Figure 9 - Zero sequence impedance diagram

1. Using the system data given in Table 1 and the impedance diagrams shown in Figs 7-9,
compute the positive, negative and zero sequence Y-bus matrices.

2. Invert the Y-bus matrices to obtain the Z-bus matrices and the Thevenin
impedances for each bus.

3. Run the PSCAD program.

4. Choose the fault location, type, start time and duration as per the instructor
given values.

5. Calculate the rms fault current sequence components
Figure

Apparatus
PSCAD software
Printer








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RESULTS

Y and Z Bus Matrices

Positive = Negative Y-Bus Matrix


j


Zero Y-Bus Matrix


j



Positive = Negative Z-Bus Matrix


j



Zero Z-Bus Matrix


j


-14.16 2.5 1.66 0
2.5 -14.88 1.38 1
1.66 1.38 -13.13 2.5
0 1 2.5 -11.83
0.0744 0.0138 0.0115 3.608
0.0138 0.071 0.0108 8.29
0.0115 0.0108 0.0822 0.0182
3.608 8.29 0.0182 0.089
-11.660 5.000 3.330 0.000
5.000 -13.110 2.770 2.000
3.330 2.770 -14.600 5.000
0.000 2.000 5.000 -8.080
0.136 0.075 0.066 0.059
0.075 0.130 0.067 0.074
0.066 0.067 0.129 0.097
0.059 0.074 0.097 0.202
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Graph 1 No-Fault
As can be seen in Graph 1, under normal
operating conditions, the voltages and currents
in each phase are equal in magnitude and 120
apart from each other. Hence the system is
stable and balanced in all 3 phases.










Graph 2 Phase a to Ground Fault
In graph 2 a fault Line-to-Ground has
occurred between phase a and ground. In
this type of fault there will be heavy current
flowing on phase a to ground. Currents of
phases b and c remain the same. This
means that phases b and c are not
experiencing heavy current because they are
not faulted or shorted (connected to ground).
This fault introduces unbalance between the
three phases where voltage of phase a
becomes zero, whereas voltage of phase b
and c remain almost the same as before the
fault has occurred. Note that L-G fault is the
most common and severe one in power
systems. It accounts for about 75% to 80% of
all faults related to power systems. Therefore
System protection schemes are to be evolved
and implemented for the reliability and safety of
power systems..



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Graph 3 Phase ab to Ground Fault
In graph 3, a fault Line-to-Line Ground has
occurred on phases a and b. As a result
voltages on phase a and b are zero because
they are grounded. On the other hand phases
a and b carry a heavy current.









Graph 4 Phase abc to Ground Fault Power System
In this type of fault where all three phases are
shorted to ground, as is shown in Graph 4, all
the three phases experience the same
conditions which are:












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Graph 5 Phase ab Shorted Fault













Graph 6 Phase abc Shorted Fault















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DISCUSSION





























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APPENDIX

Reactances in pu:

) (

)
(

)
(

) (

) (

||

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Currents in Actual unit:

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