SHORT-CIRCUIT CALCULATION

INTRODUCTION
Designing an electrical system is easy and simple,
if only the normal operation of the network is
taken into consideration. However, abnormal
conditions which are likely to occur anytime must
be foreseen and should be taken seriously during
the design stage. A good design must not only be
made simple, but most importantly, safe and
reliable. An Electrical system must operate
continuously during normal and healthy overload
situations; its protective device must also trip
expeditiously to isolate the affected parts of the
system during fault conditions.
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Why Fault Occur?

Fault in power system occur because of insulation failure in plant
which may be caused by a system over-voltage such as switching
surge or a lightning stroke, or maybe due to broken insulators or
conductors and various causes in the system.

The following table shows approximate percentage wise the

various causes of faults:
(i) Lightning 6%
(ii) Sleet, wind, Mechanical (jumping conductors) 10%
(iii) Apparatus failure 10%
(iv) Switching to a fault 10%
(v) Miscellaneous (tree falling on lines, sabotage) 10%
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These faults can take one of the following forms:

Type Probability of failures
1. Single phase to ground faults 10%
2. Phase to phase faults 15%
3. Two-phases to ground faults 10%
4. Three-phase faults 5%

Such faults cause heavy currents called, short-circuit currents, to flow

in the system.

The determination of the values of such currents enables us to make

proper selection of circuit breakers, protective relays and also helps to
ensure that the associated apparatus e.g. bus bars, connections,
current transformers will withstand the forces which arise due to the
fault currents during the period prior to the interrupting device
clearing the fault.
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Single phase to ground faults are the most common whereas the three
phase short-circuit fault are the most severe faults and also the most
amenable to calculations since these involve symmetrical conditions
only.
For unsymmetrical ground faults, line-to-ground fault on a solidly
grounded system is used to size ground cable as well as to coordinate
ground fault protective devices.
Sources of Fault Power.

All the generating and trandformers which under normal
conditions take power from the system.

Synchronous Machines. Under short-circuit conditions, a drop in
frequency or voltage is common and in this event, synchronous
machines will feed back into the system for a short period.

Large Induction Motor. large induction motor’s flywheel effect will
act as generators in the event of reduces frequency. Where
machines such as these are connected, and they are of size as to
have effect particularly where they are connected to a point close to
that for which short-circuit values are being calculated, they should
be calculated.

Frequency chargers
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FAULT CURRENTS LIMITERS:

Cables
Busbars
Circuit breakers,
Reactors
Transformer P Q
P Q G x F1
x F1
G . x F2

G x F3

Fig. 1.1 - short-circuit fed from a Fig. 1.2 - short-circuit fed from a source
single generator having more then one generator
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In Fig. 1.1, let P and Q represents the bus bars at the power station and
the sub-station respectively. Also F1 represents a feeder outgoing from
the sub-station bus-bars and equipped with circuit breaker at X.
If there is a single feeder connecting P and Q and the generating station
also consists of a single generator as in Fig 1.1, in the event of fault
occurring at any point in on feeder F1, the short-circuit current from the
generating station will be a certain value limited by the impedance of
the generator and the impedance of the feeder up to the point of fault.
Now supposed that an increased load is required to be fed from the
sub-station bus-bars. In that case, it may become necessary to increase
the generating units at the power station and also to install a second
feeder between P and Q to carry the increased load. ( It is assumed that
the original generating unit and feeder between P and Q were fully loaded).
With the increased load, which may be due to additional consuming
apparatus, it may be similarly necessary to have more outgoing feeders
F1 and F2 etc. as shown in Fig. 1.2.
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The fault current from the generating station due to a fault occurring
on, say F1 will be greater than that in the original system due to
(i) large kVA of the generating plant,
(ii) smaller impedance of the generating plant. ( the equivalent
impedance of two generators in parallel is smaller than the
individual impedance of each.)
(iii) the smaller impedance of the two feeders connecting P and Q
since they are now in parallel.

The value of fault current which can flow in any system under short-
circuit is limited only by the impedance in that system. Therefore, it is
necessary in any calculation to have knowledge of these impedances.
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Reactance. Often the resistance is so small that in most cases

reactance alone is considered for calculating the fault currents. In
general it is to be noted that if the reactance exceeds 3 times the
resistance, the resistance may be neglected. The error in the
assumption will not exceed 5%.

The reactance of synchronous machines, transformers, reactors, is

usually expressed as a percentage.
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In electrical systems, power flows from the sources to

loads through circuit components which has specific
impedances. The power flow is principally determined by
the load impedance.
A FAULT can be described as a load with very low
impedance. Depending upon the type of fault, Phase or
ground faults can be regarded as Source Limited (phase
fault) or Fault limited (ground faults).
All the fault calculating methods are based upon this
principle.
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FAULTS CALCULATING METHODS:

Ohms Method

The basic formula for all current flow is Ohms Law,

Volts = Ampere x Ohms.
This is easily applied to single phase circuits operating at
only one voltage level. However, when several different
voltages occur, the situation becomes more complicated.
Each location in the circuit where faults must be
calculated has an specific operating voltage. All circuit
impedances must be referred to the fault voltage before
calculating the short-circuit current.
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Formula 1 - is based for referring impedance to a new voltage at which

the fault is being calculated.
When all the impedances have been referred to the fault voltage, they
can be added.
2
New Voltage
Ohms at new V = Ohms at old V x ( Formula 1)
Old Voltage

Example: Calculate the two faults indicated on the following

diagram.
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480 volts
Fault 1 - ISC1 = = 96 Amps
5 ohms

Fault 2 - refer 5 ohms from 480V to 240V

2
240 V
Ohms @ 240V = 5 x = 5 x 0.25
480V
Ohms @ 240V = 1.25
Assume perfect transformer (Z = 0%)
Total Impedance = 1.25 + 3 = 4.25 ohms

240 volts
Fault 2 - ISC2 = = 56.5 Amps
4.25 ohms
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This conversion is necessary when a transformer must be included or

motor contribution is being considered. The formula is derived from the
fact that the impedance of the transformer or motor is the only
limitation to the circulation of current with a winding shorted or rotor
locked. The rating of voltage required to circulate full rated current to
the rated voltage is the Per Unit Impedance of the particular transformer
of motor.
Consider the following system consisting of a utility in-feed through the
cable to a transformer. The step by step solution is shown below.
Example:
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2
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2
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(Formula 5)

(Formula 6)

(Formula 9)
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The circuit used to illustrate the Ohmic calculations is used below to

illustrate Per Unit calculations.
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So far only three phase faults have been considered. In

all cases, the fault impedance was assumed to be zero.
However, three phase faults do not often occur. Ground
faults are by far the most common and they generally
have arc and contact impedance at the point of the fault.
Impedance of the ground return path may also be an
important factor. The fact that the ground faults are
rarely bolted (near zero fault impedance), does not
mean the case may be ignored. Bolted phase to ground
faults are generally the theoretical worst case. For this
reason it is necessary to calculate them and understand
the theory behind the calculations.

The study of ground faults necessarily leads us to

symmetrical component analysis. The theory presented
here is brief and no mathematical proof is included.
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The bolted 3-phase faults which have been considered

thus far were calculated with the assumption that all
voltages and impedances were balanced, i.e., a
symmetrical fault. When it becomes necessary to analyze
an unsymmetrical fault (phase to phase, phase to ground,
etc.) the calculations become quite complicated.

To simplify the analytical process, the unbalanced system

of vectors is reduced into three balanced vector systems
which are known as POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, and ZERO
phase sequence components. The positive sequence
components consist of three vectors equal in magnitude,
120 degrees displaced and rotating ABC. The negative
sequence components are three equal vectors, 120
degrees displaced and rotating ACB. The zero sequence
components consists of three vectors equal in magnitude
and in phase. Each of these sets of voltage vectors is
shown in the following diagram.
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Now that three sets of sequence voltages have been assumed, It

follows that they are the result of sequence currents flowing
through sequence impedances. Positive sequence currents only
flow through positive sequence impedance, etc. It is then
possible to draw an impedance diagram for each sequence in
order to calculate faults. The Theory and generation of these
diagrams is best described in applied Protective relaying
references. It will simply be stated here that the impedance
diagram is drawn and connected as shown in the following
sketches.
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IMPEDANCE DIAGRAM
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Since delta-delta and delta-wye grounded

transformers are most common, the equivalent
diagram of each is shown below:
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For most circuits, the positive and negative

sequence impedances can be assumed equal. The
zero sequence impedance will depend upon the
location of delta windings in the circuit. The term Zn
refers to impedance in the neutral or return path
from the fault to the transformer neutral connection.
Z f refers to the impedance of the fault arc. The
example assumes Zn and Z f are zero, i.e., a bolted
phase to ground fault.
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Step 1. Draw the impedance diagram. Note that Z 0

only includes the transformer. Z 0 is
assumed equal to Z 1 .

Step 2. The impedance of each system element has

already been calculated in the 3-phase
example. All of the following impedances
have been referred to the 480 volts level.

Utility = 0.0023 ohms ( slide 16 )

Cable = 0.0016 ohms ( slide 17 )

Transformer = 0.0115 ohms ( slide 18 )

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Example: The basic form of the Ohmic impedance

diagram is suitable for this example.
Step 1. Draw the impedance diagram.
Step 2. The impedance calculated for the 3-phase
fault are valid for this condition.
Utility = 0.1 0/1 ohm
Cable = 0.0694 0/1 ohm
Transformer = 0.5 0/1 ohm
Step 3. Calculate the total impedance.

Z t1 = 0.6694 0/1 ohm = Z t2

Z t2 = 0.6694 0/1 ohm
Z t0 = 0.5 0/1 ohm
Z T = 1.834 0/1 ohm
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