FAULT KVA.

CALCULATION

Bijadhar Pandey
Certified Energy Auditor (CEA)
Bureau of Energy Efficiency
Govt. of India, Delhi
 INTRODUCTION
• Faults in Power Systems occur because of Insulation Failure which may
be caused by a system Over Voltage such as switching surges or a
lightning stroke.
• It may be due to broken insulators or conductors and various other
causes on the transmission line.
• Percentage wise various causes are:
– Lightning : 6%
– Sleet, wind, Mechanical : 10%
– Apparatus failure : 10%
– Switching to a fault : 10%
– Misc(tree falling on line, sabotage) : 10%
 INTRODUCTION
• These faults can take one of the following forms:
– Single phase to ground faults : 10%
– Phase to Phase faults : 15%
– Two phase to ground faults : 10%
– Three phase faults : 5%
• Such faults cause heavy currents called Short circuit/ faults current to
flow in the system.
• The determination of the values of such currents enables us to make
proper selection of Circuit Breakers, Protective relays , Bus bars,
Current Transformers etc.
• Single phase to ground faults are most common whereas the three
phase short circuit faults are most severe faults and also the most
amenable to calculations since these involves symmetrical condition
only.
 SOURCES OF FAULT CURRENT
• The sources of fault power originate in all the generating and other
connected plants which under normal conditions take power from the
system.

• Under short circuit conditions, a drop on frequency or voltage is common

and in this event, synchronous machine will feed back into the system for
a short period.

• Similarly, large induction motors where considerable flywheel effect is

available act a generators in the event of reduced frequency and feed fault
current which should also be included in short circuit calculation.
 LIMITATIONS OF FAULT CURRENT
• Let us consider a single feeder P and Q and the generating station also
consist of a single generator as shown below

P Q
Generator

F1

• In the event of a fault occurring at any point 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.
 LIMITATIONS OF FAULT CURRENT
• Suppose an increased load is required to be fed from the station bus bar.
• Now 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.
P Q
G1 F1

F2
G2 F3

• With increased load ,which may be due to additional consuming

apparatus.
• It may be similarly necessary to have more outgoing feeders F1 ,F2 etc.
 LIMITATIONS OF FAULT CURRENT
• The fault current from the generating station due to fault occurring on, say
F1 will be greater than that in original system having single generator
because of:
– Large KVA of the generating plant

– Smaller impedance because generators and connected feeders are 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 to have knowledge of these impedance for

short circuit calculation.
 PERCENTAGE IMPEDANCE
• Often the resistance is so small that in most cases reactance alone is
considered for calculating fault current.

• In general if the reactance exceeds 3 times the resistance the latter may
neglected.

• The reactance of synchronous machines , transformers , reactors etc is

usually expressed in percentage as follows.

• A reactance of X % will have a reactive voltage drop of X percent of

nominal voltage when carrying full load current corresponding to normal
rating i.e (%) X = IX/V x 100
– Where ,X is the reactance , V is the rated voltage and I is the full load rated current.
 PERCENTAGE IMPEDANCE
If X is the only reactance in the circuit, the short circuit current ( Ish) will be:
Ish = V/X = I x ( 100/ %X) From previous equation.
X = (%X) V / 100 I
Multiply V in numerator and denominator both

= (%X V x V ) / (100 I x V)
= %X ( V/1000) (v/1000) x1000 / 100 (V/1000)XI
= %X ( KV)2 10 / KVA
X = %X 10 ( KV)2/ KVA
%X = (KVA x X)/ 10 KV)2
 PERCENTAGE REACTANCE
AND BASE KVA
• Since different plants in any system may have different KVA ratings and
since the percentage reactance quoted by the manufacturers are for the
respective KVA ratings.
• It is necessary to convert all the reactance to a common KVA rating called
base KVA.
• The value of this base is quite unimportant and may be:
– That of the largest plant
– That of the total plant capacity
– Any arbitrary value
• The conversion can be affected by using the expression :

% reactance at Base KVA = Base KVA/ Plant KVA x % reactance of plant KVA
 STEPS INVOLVED IN CALCULATING
FAULT KVA.
• Draw a single line diagram of the network and indicate on it the capacity ,
voltage, reactance , resistance of all synchronous plants.
• Corresponding to the single line diagram of the network , draw single line
Reactance or Impedance diagram showing one phase of the system and the
neutral. In this diagram , write down the reactance/ Impedance either in
percentage value or ohmic value .
• Having draw the reactance diagram, calculate the total reactance or
impedance up to the point of fault. This may involve series parallel
combinations and delta star or star delta conversion of reactance.
• The short circuit current and short circuit KVA can then be calculated as
follows :
Short circuit KVA = ( Base KVA x 100 / % reactance )
Short circuit current ( r.m.s) value
= Short circuit KVA /( √3 x line to line voltage in KV ) Amps
 CASE STUDY
• A 3-phase transmission line operating at 33 KV and having a resistance and
reactance of 5 ohms and 20 ohms respectively is connected to the generating
station bus bars through a 5000KVA transformer which has a reactance of 6%.
Connected to the bus bars are two alternators, one 10000KVA having 10%
reactance and another 5000KVA having 7.5% reactance. Calculate the KVA at
a short circuit fault between phases occurring :
a) at the high voltage terminals of the transformer
b) at load end of transmission line.

Let us refer single line diagram of the network in the next slide:
Choosing base KVA = 10000KVA.
-Reactance of generator A = 10%
-Reactance of generator B = (10000/5000)x7.5 = 15%
-Reactance of transformer = (10000/5000) x 6 = 12 %
 CASE STUDY
10000 KVA ,10%
A T 5+j20 ohms
F1 F2
5000KVA ,7.5%
B 50000KVA , 6 %

XA
Xt ZL
F1 F2

Neutral XB
Xt ZL F2
Xg F1

Neutral
 CASE STUDY
• The impedance of transmission line is (5+ j 20) ohms which is to be
converted in % impedance .

%R = (KVA)X/10KV2 =(10000 x 5)/10x (33)2 = 4.592%

%X = ( 10000x20)/10x (33)2 = 18.368%.

• The impedance of GA = 10% and GB = 15% , Since both the impedance are
in parallel as shown in diagram its equivalent impedance would be =
(10X15)/(10+15) = 150/25 =6 %

• Now the step up transformer is in series so its impedance 12% will also be
in series and equivalent impedance up to transformer = 6+12 =18%
 CASE STUDY
• The short circuit KVA fed into the fault F1 :
= Base KVA /Equivalent impedance up to the point of fault F1 x 100
= (10000x 100)/18 = 55560KVA

• Short circuit current at F1 = Short circuit KVA / √3x VL

= 55560 / 1.732x33 = 972 Amps

• For a fault at the end of transmission line F2 ,the equivalent impedance

would be = 18+18.368 = 36.368% where transmission line impedance is
18.38% which is in series with generators and transformer impedance.
 CASE STUDY
• The % resistance of transmission line is 4.592%. So the total impedance up
to the fault point F2 would be = √ (4.592)2+( 36.368)2 = 36.68%

• Now the short circuit KVA fed into fault at F2:

= Base KVA x100 / % impedance
= (10000 x100)/36.68 = 27260 KVA

• Similarly the short circuit current = Fault KVA/ √3 x VL

= 27260/1.732x33 = 477 Amps