ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

Purpose and Description
The purpose of this exercise is to introduce Short Circuit Module interface by using the system
modelled and thereby calculating the total short circuit currents as per IEC 60909 including
contributions from individual motors, generators and utility ties in the system.

Procedure
1. Open LF-Example1 OTI file shown below.

2. Click on “Short circuit Analysis Module” in Mode toolbar as shown.

Click this button for

short circuit mode.

3. Create a New Study Case by clicking the toolbar as shown below.

Click this button to create new

short circuit study case.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

4. Name the study case to “Fault 3Phase” as shown below.

5. Select “Fault 3Phase” from Short Circuit study case and proceed to Edit Study Case
option as shown below.

Click this button to edit the

short circuit study case.
6. Of study case editor (or brief case) settings:
Two pages are shown below where following information is need to be checked on:
i. Nominal transformer tap or impedance adjusted to tap ratio
ii. Selection of C factor or voltage factor
iii. Selection of X/R method: A, B or C
iv. Selection of Margins on alert page, for alert display
i. Nominal transformer tap or impedance adjusted to tap ratio:
In ETAP, there are two options available for selecting transformer Tap:
1. Adjust Base kV
2. Use Nominal Tap

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

Typically nominal tap method should be used for IEC 60909study.

ii. Study case editor page ‘standard’ for selection of standard user defined C factor or
Voltage factor & X/R method:

Select IEC standard for performing short circuit calculation as per standard IEC-60909.
C factor default values are as per standard IEC-60909, it is Ok as in ETAP, unless this need to be
changed. For the user defined C factor check box shown below need to be clicked.

Range for C Maximum value Minimum value

Voltage range
factor of C factor of C factor
< 1001 V 0.95 to 1.10 1.1 0.95
1001 to 35000 V 1.00 to 1.10 1.1 1
> 35000 V 1.00 to 1.10 1.1 1

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

iii. X/R method:

ETAP briefcase for this selection is as below.
Default calculation method used in Etap is method C which is more appropriate method for
calculation.

Peak short-circuit current (ip) calculation:

In peak short circuit current calculation, two separate methods are used for non-meshed and
meshed networks.

a. Short circuits in non-meshed networks

For three-phase short circuits fed from non-meshed networks, the contribution to the peak short-
circuit current from each branch can be expressed by:

……… (Refer: Equation No 54 of IEC 60909-0 standard)

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

Where k is a function of the system R/X ratio at the fault location, and shall be obtained
from Fig (i) (i.e. figure 15 of IEC 60909-0 standard) or can be calculate by using below
formulae:

……….. (Refer: Equation No 55 of IEC 60909-0 standard)

Fig (i)

b. Short circuits in non-meshed networks

In meshed networks, the above equation (equation no: 54 of IEC 60909 standard) of determining
peak fault current shall be used with k determined using one of the following methods A, B, or C.

 Method A - Uniform ratio R/X or X/R

For this method the value of the k factor is determined from Fig (i) taking the smallest ratio of
R/X or the largest ratio of X/R of all the branches of the network. It is only necessary to choose
the branches which carry partial short-circuit currents at the nominal voltage corresponding to the
short-circuit location and branches with transformers adjacent to the short-circuit location.
Branches may be a series combination of several elements.

 Method B - R/X or X/R ratio at the short circuit location

The value of the k factor is determined by multiplying the k factor by a safety factor of 1.15,
which covers inaccuracies caused after obtaining the R/X ratio from a network reduction with
complex impedances.

……… (Refer: Equation No 58 of IEC 60909-0 standard)

As long as R/X remains smaller than 0.3 or X/R smaller than 3.33 in all branches, it is not
necessary to use the factor 1.15. It is not necessary for the product 1.15 * k(b) to exceed 1.8 in
low-voltage networks or to exceed 2.0 in medium- and high-voltage networks.
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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

The factor k(b) is found from figure (i) for the ratio Rk/Xk given by the short-circuit impedance Zk
= Rk + jXk at the short-circuit location F, calculated for frequency f = 50 Hz or 60 Hz.

 Method C - Equivalent frequency fc

The value of the k factor is calculated using a frequency-altered R/X. R/X is calculated at a lower
frequency and then multiplied by a frequency-dependent multiplying factor.

In this method, an equivalent impedance Zc, of the system as seen from the short-circuit location
is calculated assuming a frequency& = 20 Hz (for a nominal frequency off = 50 Hz) or fc = 24 Hz
(for a nominal frequency off = 60 Hz). The R/X or X/R ratio is then determined according to
below equations:

(Refer: Equation No 59a & 59b of IEC 60909-0 standard)

where
Zc = Rc + jXc is the equivalent impedance of the system as seen from the short-circuit location for
the assumed frequency fc;
Rc is the real part of Zc (R, is generally not equal to the R at nominal frequency)
Xc is the imaginary part of Zc, (Xc is generally not equal to the X at nominal frequency).

Depending on the product f * t; where f is the frequency and t is the time, the equivalent
frequency fc should be as follows:

Method C is most appropriate method adopted in most cases of IEC 60909 short circuit
calculations.

COPYRIGHT iv. Alert Page

The alert page of briefcase for critical and marginal alert display is shown below.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

7. Select “All Buses” and Click “<<Fault” to create a fault on the selected buses.

Select All Buses

& Click <<Fault

8. To study different faults for the selected buses, click “60909” & give name for Output
File Name as shown below.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

9. Results of Three phase faults will be displayed as shown below.

10. Go to Display Options to change the type of fault on the selected buses as shown below.

Check Show Units

for displaying
units in OLV.

Change the Type of

Fault & click OK for
displaying fault
currents of a specific
fault on OLV.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

11. ETAP results shows the total bus fault currents, individual contributions of each branch
and also the contributions of the dynamically modelled load as shown below for three
phase fault.

12. To view the short circuit report, go to Report Manager in Short Circuit Toolbar and
Click on Result & select Short-Circuit Report as shown below. Select the type of file
format to view it.

13. Sizing of HV and LV switchgear can be done from short circuit results obtained from
3-Phase Device Duty (IEC 60909) in Short Circuit toolbar.
14. Run 3-Phase device duty calculation and check Peak Short Circuit Results as shown
below.
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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

15. Proceed to Alert View in short circuit toolbar for list of alerts for inadequate sizes of
breakers.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

Aim: To perform SC calculation by IEC-61363 standard

In order to ensure that an overtly conservative approach is not taken, that could increase
equipment requirements leading to weight and space constraints on mobile or fixed
offshore installations, IEC 61363 standard is also being used for short circuit studies in
shipping and offshore industry as per the title of the IEC 61363 standard which is
‘Electrical installations of ships and mobile and fixed offshore units – Part 1:
Procedures for calculating short-circuit currents in three-phase a.c.’

The IEC 61363 standard is known to evaluate short-circuit currents within sufficient
accuracy that is suitable for practical applications after allowing for generator pre-
loading and appropriate fault current attenuation based on actual data of generator
impedance and time constants.

IEC 60909 is used for both meshed and unmeshed systems whereas IEC 61363 is
applicable only for unmeshed systems.

To start the IEC-61363 calculation in Etap set the briefcase with revised C factor value
which need to be use for IEC 61363 calculations. This is because the current version of
ETAP software for Short Circuit calculation using IEC 61363 is only suited for
unloaded generator fault calculation. For loaded generator cases, the multiplying factor
for voltage behind Xd’’, Xd’ have to be worked out separately and adjusted as a
correction factor (by suitable adjustment of c factor) on the ETAP IEC 61363 results of
Ik’’ (subtransient Id’’& Ipeak) and transient Id’ for evaluating the net peak make short
circuit current and asymmetric break short circuit current.

IEC 61363 calculates and plots of iinst, Iac rrms, idc, idc (%) & ienv at various instants of
time from 0 to selected plot time in the study case editor (as shown below) in the Etap
14 and above version.

Note: In previous versions of Etap the plot time was fixed to 0.1 sec.

Typically 0.1 sec plot time is adequate unless the CB opening time is more than that 0.1
sec. However the plot step is fixed at 1msec.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

C factor for ETAP IEC 60909 is taken as maximum value (1.05) as mentioned in IEC
60909 and this also is seen to match with the Ik’’ of ETAP IEC 61363 as seen in the
table above. Results from ETAP IEC-61363 have been multiplied by appropriate
factors to account for appropriate voltages behind Xd’’, Xd’ and Xd with bus/generator
terminal voltage as 1 p.u. This is required because ETAP’s IEC 61363 software module
does not consider change in fault level due to generator loading. No such factors will be
applicable for motor contribution on ETAP IEC 61363 results with the main bus
voltage maintained at 1 p.u. Typically average factor of 1.15 have been consider for
IEC -61363 calculation in this exercise. However this has to be worked out separately.

To achieve this c factor for calculation can be set as 1 and factor of 1.15 need to be
applied on all the SC current results, for the present version of Etap.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

16. To see the plots of short circuit currents, run transient short circuit as per standard IEC-
61363.

17. The following window will get pop up.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

18. The plots of i, Iac rrms, idc, Idc (%) & I env for bus 1 are as below. This is graphical
representation of the fault currents.

a. i (total fault current)

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

b. Iac rms (AC component of fault current in rms)

c. Idc (Dc component of fault current)

d. Idc (%) (Percentage dc component of fault current)

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

e. ienv (Top envelop of fault current)

19. However, to check the tabulated results of above fault currents, go to Report Manager
>> Result >> Short Circuit Report. The below results are shown for bus 1.

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

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 ETAP Workshop Notes

Short Circuit Analysis

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