Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

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Features Calculations and Design 2015 May/June 2015 - Advertisement -

Calculating Short-Circuit Current

By Thomas A. Domitrovich - July 7, 2015  22413  0

Code Hunter

One of the most fundamental calculations made on a power

distribution system is that which yields available short-circuit
current. The September – October 2012 issue of IAEI magazine
included an article titled “Going to Basics, Maximum Fault

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

Current” which spoke to this topic but did not get into the
math. I have received many requests ever since to get into the
math. I trust this article will satisfy inquiring minds with details
To play this game, you need a
around calculating available fault current and provide some
sharp eye, a quick mind and a
equations for the student to explore. 2017 National Electrical Code
book. How well do you know
the NEC?
Available Short-Circuit Current
Take the Quiz!
Maximum available short-circuit current is an important
parameter for every power distribution system as it provides a
data point necessary to ensure equipment is being applied
within its rating and the system is performing to meet
expectations. Available short-circuit current is used in many
other applications as well.

The National Electrical Code demands this data point for

enforcement of such Sections as 110.9, Interrupting Rating;
110.10 Circuit Impedance, Short-Circuit Current Ratings, and
other Characteristics; and 110.24 Available Fault Current.
Whether you are a designer, installer or inspector, you will at
some point in your career be faced with calculating available
fault current. Understanding the math behind this and how
calculated short-circuit currents are used can only broaden
knowledge and understanding. It may also help us realize that
a qualified individual should be the one making these
calculations. So for the sake understanding, I offer this article
to get you on your way.

Fundamentals of Calculating Short-Circuit

Current
Everything you need to know about calculating fault currents,
you learned in circuits 101, trigonometry, and basic math

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classes. Figure 1 illustrates a simple single-line diagram that

very well could be your basic service entrance for a commercial
or industrial installation.

Figure 1.  Single Line Diagram

Figure 2 is the basic circuit diagram of what is represented in

Figure 1 and that would be used to calculate available fault
current at any point in the above simple single line diagram.
Engineers will call that which you see in Figure 2 an impedance
diagram as it basically converts each component in the Figure 1
above into impedance values. For those of you who are up on
circuits 101, what you see below, when all impedances are
added together, is a “Thevanin Equivalent” circuit which
includes an impedance and a voltage source. This basic circuit
will be used throughout this article.

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

Figure 2. Impedance Diagram (Circuit)

Assumptions will have to be made for calculations and to

simplify our work for this document.

The assumptions for the transformer that will be used as part

of the example for this article will include that which follows.
This information should be available when reading the
nameplate of the transformer.

Transformer kVA               1500

Primary Voltage                  4,160 V
Secondary Voltage              480 V
% Impedance                       5.75%

The assumption is for the utility available short-circuit current.

For this exercise 50,000 amps will be used. Before a study is
conducted, the utility is contacted to obtain this information.
They may provide the available fault current in one of a few
different ways. The most straightforward and probably most
seen data from the utility will be an available fault current in
kA. Some utilities may provide the data as short-circuit MVA
instead. This article will provide equations to accommodate
both forms of input but cater to a utility available short-circuit
current of 50 kA.

With regard to conductor impedance, the following calculations

will ignore the resistance of the conductor and only use the
reactance. This will do two things for the sake of this article.
First, it will result in a higher fault current than would be
calculated had we taken into consideration both the resistance

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

and reactance. Second, it will keep the math simple. A final

section of this article will provide analysis results that include
the resistance and reactance of the conductors and the utility.
The methods used mirror those used by such software
programs as SKM Systems Analysis A-Fault.

This article will also assume no motor contribution. Maximum

available short-circuit current should include all short-circuit
contributors. We are not including this contribution for this
effort for simplicity sake.

Basic Transformer Calculations

The very first step of this process is the calculation of full-load
amps (FLA) for the transformer. Yet another basic calculation
that an electrical professional will have to perform at some
point in their career and that some perform many times a day.
The equations for calculating FLA are included below:

FLA Secondary  = kVA

(√3)×(kVsec)

FLA Secondary = 1500

[(√3)×(0.480)] =1,804 Amps

This 1500 kVA transformer has a secondary FLA of 1,804 amps.

This parameter is necessary to select the secondary conductors
for this transformer. Based on this FLA and the use of Table
310.15(B)(16) from NEC 2014, the conductors used on the
secondary of the transformer will be a quantity of 5-500 MCM
conductors per phase.

Calculating Short-Circuit Current On Secondary

of Main Transformer
There are two ways to approach calculating the available fault
current at the secondary of a transformer. We can calculate the

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

maximum amount that the transformer will let through, as if

the power generation facility was hooked directly to the line
side of the transformer, or we can calculate the available fault
current considering the provided available fault current from
the utility. The former approach which results in the maximum
amount of fault current that a transformer will let through is
referred to as an “infinite bus” calculation. The circuit of figure
2 can be re-drawn to include zero impedance for the utility
which will reduce the overall impedance of the circuit and so
increase the value of calculated short-circuit current. Figure 3
will yield the maximum available fault current that a
transformer can supply.

Figure 3. Infinite Bus equivalent circuit diagram

Figure 3 only includes the impedance of the transformer. The

equation to calculate the maximum available fault current that
a transformer can supply is as follows:

Isc  =  (Transformer kVA) × 100

(√3)×(Secondary kV)×(%Z transformer)

Using the information stated above for the example 1500 kVA
transformer for this example, the maximum available fault
current that this specific transformer will let through is 31,378
amps and is calculated as follows:

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

Isc =  1500 × 100

(√3)×(0.480)×(5.75)         = 31,378 amps

What this tells us is that the secondary of the transformer

cannot see any more fault current than what we have
calculated. There are NO changes on the utility side that can
impact this available fault current to a point where it would be
greater than 31,378 amps. The only way this service would see
more than 31,378 amps would be if we changed the
transformer and the new transformer which would presumably
be the same in all other characteristics, has a different %
impedance. Figure 4 is a table that includes the results of
varying the impedance of the subject transformer +/- 20% in
increments of 5% as compared with the 5.75% impedance
value used in this example. This illustrates how a change in
transformer impedance will impact the maximum available fault
current that it can let through.

As illustrated in figure 4, changing a transformer and varying

its impedance can have a significant impact on the system. If I
were to hazard a guess, I would say that in most cases, a
utility changing the service-entrance transformer would be
recognized by the facility. The challenge would be for the
facility owner or resident employees to understand how that
change may impact their power distribution system. When
changes are made, labels like that included in Section 110.24
of the NEC, should be updated.

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

Figure 4.  Impact of varying the impedance (+ / – 20%) of a 1500 kVA transformer

This calculation does not consider the source impedance of the

utility and nor does it include any load-side conductors. Let’s
next explore the impact of adding in the utility available fault
current.

Calculating Short-Circuit Current Including Utility

Available Fault Current
As in most situations, we take conservative shortcuts,
conservative on the side of safety, until situations present
themselves that warrant digging into the details. The above
shortcut for calculating fault current is conservative, in that it
did NOT consider the utility available fault current yielding a
maximum value. When considering interrupting and other
similar ratings, devices and equipment that can accommodate
this conservative value of fault current need no further
investigation. When new or existing equipment cannot handle
this conservatively high available fault current, further detailed
analysis could be conducted or the equipment could be
replaced or sized appropriately. The following will consider
adding utility provided available fault current. Specifically, 50
kA available from the utility. This will illustrate that the
calculated 31,378 amps could be reduced by doing so.

Below, are two equations that address when kA is available and

when Short-Circuit MVA is available. For this example, we will
use the equation below that assumes the utility has provided
you with an available fault current in kA.

The circuit diagram now looks like that shown in figure 5.

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

Figure 5.  Circuit diagram that includes both transformer  and utility  source
impedance.

The first step required is to convert the utility provided

available fault current information (50 kA) into a source
impedance.
When kA is provided by the utility:

%Z Utility =  KVA Transformer  × 100

(Isc Utility) × (√3) × (kV Primary)

When Short-Circuit MVA is provided by the Utility:

%Z Utility =  KVA Transformer

Short – Circuit kVA of Utility System

For a given utility available fault current of 50 kA, the %Z of

the utility is calculated as follows

%Z Utility = 1500 × 100

(50,000) × (√3) × (4.160) = 0.420

Figure 6 provides utility source impedance values for varying

utility available fault currents for this specific example. As
noted above, the transformer kVA and primary voltage will play
a key role in these values.

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Figure 6.  Utility source impedance values

for various levels of utility available fault
current

The equation for calculating the available fault current at the

secondary of the transformer which includes the impedance of
the utility is as follows:

Isc = (Transformer KVA) × 100)

(√3) × (Secondary KV) ×  [(%Ztransformer)+(%Z

Utility)]

Inserting all of the known variables, the new available fault

current is calculated as follows:

Isc = 1500 × 100

(√3)×(0.480)× [(5.75)+(0.4164)] = 29,259 Amps

If we compare the infinite bus calculation and that which

included the source impedance of the utility (available fault
current of 50,000 amps) we see that the available short-circuit
current dropped from 31,378 amps to 29,259 amps, a 6.8%
reduction in available fault current (2,119 amps).

The impact of a varying utility available fault current is

illustrated in figure 7. This table shows how the calculated
available short-circuit current varies for changing utility source
fault current values. The 50 kA utility available fault current is
used as the value to which changes are compared. It is
interesting to see that increasing the available fault current
from the utility, assuming a starting point of 50 kA, doesn’t
have as great of an impact as one would think. For example,
doubling the utility available fault current from 50 kA to 100 kA
only increases the transformer secondary available fault
current by 3%, or 1,022 amps. For most overcurrent protective

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

device application, this change should not be significant. I have

heard some say we should not label the service-entrance
equipment because the utility could make switching changes on
the line side which would impact the number on the label.
Figure 7 is a good example that shows that even if an infinite
bus was not used, changes on the utility side do not have as
significant of an impact on the short-circuit current as one
would think.

Figure 7.  Impact of varying utility available fault currents on the power
distribution system

Just to recap where we are in this discussion, the available

fault currents are as in figure  7a.

The next thing we have to consider is the conductor on the

secondary of the transformer. This will reduce the available
fault current even further.

Calculating – After Length of Conductor

Conductors can have a considerable impact on available fault

current. Let’s continue the analysis of this 1500 kVA
transformer example adding parallel 500MCM conductors on its
load side.

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

The equivalent circuit has already been provided as part of

figure 1. Now let’s review the impact of conductor length on
available fault current. We need the following equation:

The data needed for this example is retrieved from the National
Electrical Code. From Table 9 of NEC 2014 for a 500 MCM
conductor in steel conduit, the Xl (reactance) is found to be
0.048 Ohms/1000ft. For this example, as stated earlier, we are
only using the reactance value which will result in slightly
higher short-circuit current values and make the math for this
publication more palatable. For a 1500 kVA transformer with
1,804 full load amps, we will need 5- 500MCM conductors in
parallel per phase. The calculation is made as follows:

the equation to calculate the available fault current is as

follows:

Putting in all of the known variables, we calculated the ISC as

follows:

The same calculation assuming an infinite bus, removing the

utility impedance, is as follows:

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

To summarize again,

As can be seen here, including more details reduces the

available fault current. In this case the fault current was
reduced from 31,378 amps to 26,566 amps, approximately
15.3%.

Figure 8.   Summary of calculations and comparison with other tools to calculate
available fault current.

Final Calibration
So we have walked through the calculation of available fault
current for service-entrance equipment. We showed how
shortcuts result in conservative available short-circuit currents
which, for the purpose of evaluating interrupting ratings and /
or SCCR ratings, provide a safety factor for the design. We also
showed how reducing available fault currents through a more
detailed analysis can be achieved but takes more effort and

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

expertise. Let’s look at the above example with an eye on other

tools that may be available.

There are various tools at our disposal when we consider

calculating available fault current. Some are quite expensive
and take trained specialists to use. Those would include such
software applications as SKM Systems Analysis tools. These
applications are indeed quite thorough and produce very
detailed reports. There are also tools that are free such as the
Eaton Bussmann FC2 short-circuit calculator. Figure 8
summarizes what we accomplished above AND provides a
comparison with SKM and with the Bussmann FC2 application.
The Bussmann FC2 calculator is free and available on the web
or for any IPHONE or ANDROID via either products App Store.
Visit www.cooperbussmann.com/fc2 for more information. You
will note that the SKM software result leverages both the real
and reactive component of the conductor. The impedance
values were taken straight from Table 9 in NEC 2014 for copper
conductors in steel conduit.

Again, none of the examples shown above and included in this

article considers motor contribution. This was an exercise
meant to provide some background to the discussion of short-
circuit currents and so simplicity was our friend. Motor
contribution can be very important for these calculations. From
a math and/or system circuit perspective, when you include
motor contribution the impedance is in parallel with the utility
source impedance, transformer impedance and the conductor
impedance. This acts to reduce the overall impedance in the
circuit of figure 2 and hence increasing the calculated short-
circuit current. The reset is left to the student. (I’ve always
wanted to say that.)

Closing Remarks
Available fault current is a very important parameter to
consider in your design, installation and inspection. Tools are

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

available on the market that help calculate available short-

circuit current. Leverage these resources to meet NEC and
product application requirements.

As always, keep safety at the top of your list and ensure you
and those around you live to see another day.

TAGS circuit

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Fire — Reality and Safety Month
Misconceptions

Thomas A. Domitrovich
Thomas Domitrovich, P.E. is a national application
engineer with Eaton Corporation in Pittsburgh PA. He
has more than 20 years of experience as an
electrical engineer and is a LEED Accredited
Professional. Thomas is active in various trade
organizations on various levels with the Independent
Electrical Contractors (IEC), International Association
of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI), Institute of Electrical
and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), National Electrical
Manufacturer’s Association (NEMA) and the National
Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Thomas is
involved with, and chairs various committees for
NEMA and IEEE and is an alternate member on NFPA
73. He is very active in the state-by-state adoption

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

process of NFPA 70 working closely with review

committees and other key organizations

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Calculating Short-Circuit Current | IAEI Magazine

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