Electricalfaults

Electrical faultsininpower
powersystem
system

Back ground
In an electric power system, a fault or fault current is any abnormal electric
current. For example, a short circuit is a fault in which a live wire touches a neutral
or ground wire. An open-circuit fault occurs if a circuit is interrupted by a failure
of a current-carrying wire (phase or neutral) or a blown fuse or circuit breaker. In
three-phase systems, a fault may involve one or more phases and ground, or may
occur only between phases. In a "ground fault" or "earth fault", current flows into
the earth.

Objective
The studies and discovery of faults in electric power systems is essential in
ensuring the consistency and the stability if the power grid. Another importance of
carrying out fault analysis gives a fair idea of the voltages and the current
magnitudes under faulty conditions for different scenarios. The fault analysis of a
power system is needed in order to provide information for the choice of switch-
gear, size of conductors, setting of relays, finding the rating requirements of other
power equipment and confirming system stability

Types of Faults in Power System

The faults in the power system are mainly categorized into two types:
Open Circuit Fault
Short Circuit Fault
Open Circuit Fault:
The open circuit fault happens due to the failure of one or two conductors. These
faults take place in series with the line so referred as series fault. Such types of
faults have a strong impact on the reliability of the system. The open circuit fault is
classified as
 Open Conductor Fault
 Two conductors Open Fault
  Three conductors Open Fault
 open-circuit-fault
Short Circuit Fault:
The short-circuit fault is commonly divided into symmetrical and asymmetrical
types. These faults are further categorized as one of five types. In order of
frequency of occurrence, they are
 Single Line to Ground Fault:
 Line to Line Fault
 Double Line to Ground
 Three Phase Line to Ground
 Three Phase Line to Line Fault

Working
A power system operates under balanced conditions with all equipment's carrying
normal load currents and also the bus voltages inside the prescribed limits. This
condition can be disrupted because of fault within the system. If the electrical fault
current exceeds the interrupting rating of the protective device, the consequences
can be devastating. It can be a serious threat to human life and is capable of
causing injury, extensive equipment damage.Short circuit fault current is many
times larger than the normal current. A short circuit is simply a low resistance
connection between the two conductors supplying electrical power to any circuit.
This results in excessive amount of current flow in the power systems through the
path of low resistance and may even cause the power source to be destroyed and
causes more heat and fires.

Detection and protection (STEPS)

1. Converting the System to Base Values: Convert the system to the per-unit
system, based on the same base value.
2. Type of Fault: Identify the type of fault that is being analyzed.
3. Constructing Sequence Networks: Draw the sequence networks for each of
the positive negative and zero sequence networks from the system that was
converted in step 1.
4. Make a Faulted Sequence Network Diagram: Take the un-faulted sequence
networks and modify and interconnect them according to the type of fault to
make a faulted sequence network diagram.
5. Hand Calculation: Hand calculate the sequence currents and voltage
quantities during a faulted condition.
6. Convert per unit value into three phase current and voltage quantities:
Convert the per unit values that we calculated in step 5 into three phase
current and voltage quantities that can be actually used and understood
intuitively.
7. Fault calculation on LV side of the transformer: Calculating the fault that
occurs on the low voltage side of the transformer.

Reference
https://www.allumiax.com/blog/fault-analysis-in-power-system
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_fault

Research credits
Farheen khan
2022-EE-604