Symmetrical Fault

• Most of the faults on the power system lead to a short-circuit condition.

• When such a condition occurs, a heavy current (called short circuit

current) flows through the equipment, causing considerable damage to
the equipment and interruption of service to the consumers.

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Symmetrical Faults on 3-Phase System

• That fault on the power system which gives rise to symmetrical fault currents (i.e.
equal fault currents in the lines with 120o displacement) is called a symmetrical
fault.
• The symmetrical fault occurs when all the three conductors of a 3-phase line are
brought together simultaneously into a short circuit condition as shown
• This type of fault gives rise to symmetrical currents
i.e. equal fault currents with 120 displacement.

Notes:
(i) The symmetrical fault rarely occurs in practice
(ii) The symmetrical fault is the most severe and
imposes more heavy duty on the circuit breaker

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 Limitation of Fault Current

• When a short circuit occurs at any point in a system, the short-circuit

current is limited by the impedance of the system up to the point of fault.

• If a fault occurs on the feeder at point F, then the short circuit current from
the generating station will have a value limited by the impedance of
generator and transformer and the impedance of the line between the
generator and the point of fault.

• This shows that the knowledge of the impedances of various equipment and
circuits in the line of the system is very important for the determination of
short-circuit currents.

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Percentage Reactance

The reactance of generators, transformers, reactors etc. is usually expressed in

percentage reactance to permit rapid short circuit calculations.

It is the percentage of the total phase-voltage dropped in the circuit when full-load
current is flowing

If X is the only reactance element in the

circuit, then short-circuit current is
given by
I = full-load current
V = phase voltage
X = reactance in ohms per phase

where X is the reactance in ohms. 4

Short-Circuit kVA

The product of normal system voltage and short-circuit current at the point of
fault expressed in kVA is known as short-circuit kVA

Short-circuit kVA for 3-phase circuit

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Reactor Control of Short-Circuit Currents

• With the fast expanding power system, the fault level (i.e. the power available to
flow into a fault) is also rising.

• If no steps are taken to limit the value of these short-circuit currents, not only
will the duty required of circuit breakers be excessively heavy, but also damage
to lines and other equipment will almost certainly occur.

• In order to limit the short-circuit currents to a value which the circuit breakers can
handle,
• Additional reactances known as reactors are connected in series with the system at
suitable points.
• A reactor is a coil of number of turns designed to have a large inductance as
compared to its ohmic resistance.

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Reactors

Advantages
(i) Reactors limit the flow of short-circuit current and thus protect the equipment
from overheating as well as from failure due to destructive mechanical forces.

(ii) Increases the chances of continuity of supply.

(iii) They permit the installation of circuit breakers of lower rating.

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Location of Reactors

Short circuit current limiting reactors may be connected

(i) in series with each generator
(ii) in series with each feeder and
(iii) in bus-bars.

(1) Generator reactors

• To protect the generator in the case of any

short-circuit beyond the reactors.

Disadvantages
(i) There is a constant voltage drop and power loss in the reactors
(ii) If a bus-bar or feeder fault occurs close to the bus-bar, the voltage at the
bus-bar will be reduced to a low value.
(iii) If a fault occurs on any feeder, the continuity of supply to other is likely to
be affected.
NOT common practice 8
 Location of Reactors

(2) Feeder reactors (MOST)

Two advantages.

• Firstly, the voltage drop in its reactor will

not affect the bus-bars voltage
• Secondly, the fault on a feeder will not
affect other feeders
Disadvantages
(i) There is a constant power loss and voltage drop in the reactors
(ii) If a short-circuit occurs at the bus-bars, no protection is provided to the generators.
(iii) If the number of generators is increased, the size of feeder reactors will have to be
increased (Why ?)

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Location of Reactors

(3) Bus-bar reactors.

The previous two method has Voltage drop and power loss in the reactors even
during normal operation. This disadvantage can be overcome by locating the reactors
in the bus-bars. There are two methods for this purpose, namely ; Ring system and
Tie-Bar system.
(i) Ring system. In this system, bus-bar is divided into sections and these sections
are connected through reactors as shown

This results in low power loss and voltage drop

in the reactors, How?
Also, the fault current is less

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Location of Reactors

(ii) Tie-Bar system.

There are effectively two reactors in series between sections so that reactors
must have approximately half the reactance of those used in a comparable ring
system

Disadvantage ?!

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Steps for Symmetrical Fault Calculations

The procedure for the solution of such faults involves

(i) Draw a single line diagram of the complete network indicating the rating, voltage
and percentage reactance of each element of the network.
(ii) Choose a value of base kVA and convert all percentage reactances to this base
value.
(iii) Corresponding to the single line diagram of the network, draw the reactance
diagram showing one phase of the system and the neutral. Indicate the % reactances on
the base kVA in the reactance diagram. The transformer in the system should be
represented by a reactance in series.
(iv) Find the total % reactance of the network upto the point of fault. Let it be X%.
(v) Find the full-load current corresponding to the selected base kVA and the normal
system voltage at the fault point. Let it be I.
(vi) Then various short-circuit calculations are :

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Equations

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 Ex

Example 17.1. (i) shows the single line diagram of a 3-phase system. The percentage
reactance of each alternator is based on its own capacity. Find the short-circuit current that
will flow into a complete 3-phase short-circuit at F. The base kVA be 35,000 kVA.

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Ex

Example 17.3. A 3-phase transmission line operating at 10 kV and having a resistance

of 1Ω and reactance of 4 Ω is connected to the generating station bus-bars through 5
MVA step-up transformer having a reactance of 5%. The bus-bars are supplied by a 10
MVA alternator having 10% reactance. Calculate the short-circuit kVA fed to
symmetrical fault between phases if it occurs
(i) at the load end of transmission line
(ii) at the high voltage terminals of the transformer

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Ex

Example 17.4. The plant capacity of a 3-phase generating station consists of two
10,000 kVA generators of reactance 12% each and one 5000 kVA generator of
reactance 18%. The generators are connected to the station bus-bars from which
load is taken through three 5000 kVA step-up transformers each having a reactance
of 5%. Determine the maximum fault MVA which the circuit breakers on (i) low
voltage side and (ii) high voltage side may have to deal with.

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