Journal of Physics: Conference Series

PAPER • OPEN ACCESS You may also like

- Study on Short Circuit Current Calculation
Short Circuit Current Algorithm and Software of EHV Overhead Line-GIL Hybrid Line
Honggang Jia, Na Yan, Wei Wang et al.
Design Based on IEC60909 Standard - Assessment of the use of FEM for
computation of Electromagnetic Forces,
Losses and Design of Transformers
To cite this article: Guanbiao Huang et al 2023 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2418 012113 Vibhuti, Genius Walia and Deepika Bhalla

- Research on Single-phase Power Supply

in Short-circuit Test of Transformer on
Magnetic-force Coupling Field
Xiaoxiao Luo, Qian Wang, Qianbo Xiao et
View the article online for updates and enhancements. al.

This content was downloaded from IP address 185.225.107.27 on 14/02/2023 at 16:19

EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

Short Circuit Current Algorithm and Software Design Based

on IEC60909 Standard

*Guanbiao Huang1, Yinsheng Su2, Ligang Zhao1, Zhenyu Mao1, Hongyue Zhen1,
Sijia Tu1, Changxiang Wang1, Tinghui Zhou1, Yuan Xu1
1.
CSG Electric Power Research Institute, NO.11, Kexiang Road, Huangpu District,
Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
2.
CSG Power Dispatching and Control Center, NO.11, Kexiang Road, Huangpu District,
Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China.
*Corresponding author, contact e-mail: 260094093@qq.com

Abstract. With the continuous growth of load and the enhancement of grid structure, the
problem of excessive short circuit current has become a key factor affecting the safe operation
of the China Southern Power Grid. The comparison of measured data shows that the short circuit
current calculation results of China Southern Power Grid are optimistic based on the existing
short circuit current calculation method. It brings difficulties to the arrangement of the power
grid operation mode. This paper first briefly introduces the calculation principle of the IEC60909
Standard (short for IEC60909 Short Circuit Current Calculation Standard). And based on this
standard, an improved algorithm for short-circuit current calculation is proposed. FCAP (short
for Fault Current Analysis Program), a newly developed software based on the improved
algorithm, is compared with other similar software being popular in domestic and foreign to
prove its engineering practical value.

1. Introduction
Short circuit current calculation is the premise of electrical equipment selection and electrical protection
setting calculation and is an important link in power system planning, design, and operation. Based on
the electromagnetic transient model of the power system, the calculation of short circuit current can
obtain accurate results, but the calculation efficiency cannot meet the engineering requirements. For
years, many scholars have been working hard to find a balance between the accuracy and simplicity of
short-circuit current calculation. At present, the main short circuit current calculation methods in the
industry mainly include ANSI Standard, IEC Standard, and calculation curve method.
IEC9090 Calculation of Short Circuit Current in Three Phase AC System formulated by the
International Electrotechnical Commission in 1988 is widely recognized. It was approved as a national
standard by the National Bureau of Technical Supervision of China in 1996. In 2001, the International
Electrotechnical Commission formulated the IEC60909 Standard of short circuit current calculation,
which was not approved as a new national standard in China until 2011.
At present, the calculation methods of short circuit current adopted by various domestic power grid
companies are not consistent [1][2]. And the conservative calculation results are of great concern to the
grid with serious excessive short-circuit current problems [3].

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

The purpose of this paper is to propose a short circuit current calculation method that is convenient
for program implementation and to design a short circuit current calculation program based on
IEC60909 Standard.
This paper first introduces the short circuit current calculation method of IEC60909 Standard, then
proposes the optimization of its computer algorithm, followed by introducing a short circuit current
calculation software developed based on the above algorithm and compares it with other commonly
used similar software to prove its engineering practical value.

2. Introduction to IEC Standard

The document of the IEC60909 Standard has detailed regulations on the impedance calculation of each
piece of equipment in the power system [4], which is characterized by many calculation items, clear
concepts, scientific impedance corrections, and relatively conservative calculation results. The
calculation items related to the algorithm optimization in Section 3 will be introduced in detail below.

2.1. Calculation method

IEC Standard stipulates: ignoring all line capacitances, parallel admittances, and non-rotating loads in
addition to the zero-sequence system. An equivalent voltage source can be used to calculate the short
circuit current whether it is far or near. The fault point is replaced by an equivalent voltage source
𝑐𝑈 /√3 and serves as the only voltage source for the grid [5].
When a short circuit occurs at a certain point in the AC system, the magnitude of the short circuit
current not only depends on the topology of the network system but also is related to the operating state
of the system before the fault occurs. The operating states of large-scale AC systems are ever-changing.
Generally, people only care about the maximum short circuit current and the minimum short circuit
current that may occur at a certain point. Therefore, for medium and high voltage power grids, when
calculating the maximum short circuit current, the voltage coefficient c is 1.1, and when calculating the
minimum short circuit current, c is 1.0 [6]. The calculation method of the initial value of the symmetrical
short circuit current 𝐼 " is as follows:
𝐼" = () (1)
√
()
𝑈 is the nominal voltage of the system, 𝑍 is the corrected short circuit impedance of the network
system at the fault point. There are different calculation methods for different short circuit types [7].

2.2. Correction coefficient of Impedance

IEC Standard has clear regulations on the impedance calculation of equipment such as synchronous
motors, transformers, asynchronous motors, and current-limiting reactors. Among them, the impedance
correction of the generator-transformer group is more complicated. Because it not only needs to
distinguish between near short circuits and remote short circuits but also distinguish between on-load-
tap-control and non-on-load-tap-control of the transformer. For a simple generator-transformer group,
its model is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Generator-transformer group model

If a short circuit fault occurs on the high-voltage side of the transformer, the situation is a remote
short circuit for the generator-transformer group. According to whether the transformer T is of the on-
load-tap-control or the non-on-load-tap-control, Equation (2) or Equation (3) can be used respectively
to calculate the impedance correction coefficient of the generator-transformer group [8].

2
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

𝐾 = ∙ ∙ " (2)

𝐾 = ∙ ∙ (1 ± 𝑝 ) ∙ " (3)
( ± )

In the equation, 𝑈 is the system nominal voltage of the power grid on the transformer’s high-
voltage side. 𝑈 is the rated voltage of the generator. 𝜑 is the rated power factor angle of the
generator. 𝑥 " is the relative reactance of the generator. 𝑥 is the relative reactance of the transformer
when the tap is in the main position. 1 ± 𝑝 is the tap position of the transformer. 𝑈 /𝑈 is the
rated transformation ratio of the transformer.
When a short circuit occurs at the generator bus, it is a near short circuit. For the generator-
transformer group on-load-tap-control, the impedance correction coefficients of the generator and
transformer must be calculated according to Equation (4) and Equation (5) respectively. For the
generator-transformer group that is not on-load-tap-control, the impedance correction coefficients of the
generator and transformer are calculated according to Equation (6) and Equation (7) respectively.
𝐾 . = " (4)

𝐾 . = (5)

𝐾 . = ∙ " (6)

𝐾 . = ∙ (7)

The impedance correction coefficients in all cases above can be applied to the calculation of the
positive sequence, negative sequence, and zero-sequence short circuit impedance of the generator-
transformer group. If the influence of the power network in the power plant is considered, the calculation
method of the impedance correction coefficient for the generator-transformer group is more complicated.

3. Algorithm design
The key to solving the short circuit current is to solve the short circuit impedance at the fault point.
According to IEC Standard, impedance correction is required when calculating the positive, negative,
and zero-sequence impedances of network components. After the corrected positive, negative, and zero-
sequence node admittance matrices are formed, the factor table will be calculated, and then the short
circuit impedance of each node can be quickly calculated by using the sparse vector technology.
However, the short circuit impedance of the generator-transformer group at the generator node
obtained by the above method is inaccurate. As described in the previous section, the corrected
impedance value will change because this node is the near short circuit point for the generator-
transformer group and its impedance correction coefficient’s calculation method is different from the
remote short circuit. It needs to modify the relevant elements in the admittance matrix. However, once
the original node admittance matrix is modified, its factor table must be recalculated. When there are
many generator-transformer groups in the network, this process will consume a lot of computer time
and occupy more memory. In fact, the characteristics of the network model of the generator-transformer
group can be fully utilized to bypass this tedious and repetitive calculation process. The accurate short
circuit impedance value can be obtained by correcting the approximate short circuit impedance at the
generator node calculated by the original admittance matrix. The specific principle of this correction
method will be explained in detail below.
Taking positive-sequence networks as an example, the conclusions obtained can be extended to zero-
sequence networks and negative-sequence networks. The diagram of the positive sequence impedance
of the generator-transformer model is shown in Figure 2. It is assumed that the generator-transformer
group is of on-load-tap-control.

3
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

Figure 2 Diagram of positive sequence impedance of generator-transformer group model

All the generator-transformer groups on the network are subjected to impedance correction according
to the remote short circuit condition to form the corrected node admittance matrix. The short circuit
impedance of the generator node of the generator-transformer group is obtained as 𝑍 . 𝑍 is the
approximate short-circuit impedance obtained without modifying the original admittance matrix, and its
value can be obtained by Equation (8).
𝑍 = (𝐾 . ∙ 𝑍 )// 𝐾 . ∙𝑍 𝑍 . (8)
The corrected short circuit impedance 𝑍 can be obtained by equation (9).
𝑍 = (𝐾 ∙ 𝑍 )// 𝐾 ∙ 𝑍 𝑍 . (9)
Combining Equation (8) and Equation (9) can obtain 𝑍 . This algorithm can effectively avoid
solving the factor table repeatedly.

Figure 3 Flow chart of short circuit current calculation program

The flow of the short circuit current calculation algorithm is shown in Figure 3. The above algorithm
can accurately solve the short circuit impedance of all nodes in the network without modifying the
original admittance matrix, so as to realize the fast short circuit current scanning function.

4
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

4. Fault current analysis software

FCAP (short for Fault Current Analysis Software) is an engineering software developed based on
Fortran and C#. Its computing kernel is written in Fortran language, which ensures high efficiency in
large-scale numerical calculation. The user interface is developed in C# language, which has good
compatibility with the Windows system and is easy to maintain quickly. In network data processing,
FCAP is compatible with the BPA data format. It uses optimization methods such as node number
optimization, sparse vector technology, and deep optimization search technology to speed up
computation. The test results show that it only takes about 15 seconds at most to perform short-circuit
current scanning calculations on a network with a scale of 12,000 nodes and 30,000 branches. FCAP
not only realizes the short circuit current calculation function based on IEC Standard but also integrates
the following functions:
 Asymmetric longitudinal fault current calculation
 Circuit breaker breaking calculation
 Multiple fault current calculation
 Multi-point network equivalent
 Short circuit current calculation based on ANSI Standard
 Short circuit current calculation based on power flow
The user interface of FCAP is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 User interface of FCAP

At present, the widely used short circuit current calculation software in the power industry include
PSD-SCCP [9], PSASP [10], PSS/E [11], etc. The horizontal comparison results of the functions between
the above three software and FCAP are shown in Table 1. Compared with other short-circuit current
calculation software, FCAP is more complete in function.

5
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

Table 1 Short-circuit current calculation software function comparison

Functions SCCP PSASP PSS/E FCAP
Sequence network file parameter editing √ √ √ √
Positive, negative and zero-sequence short
√ √ √ √
circuit impedance calculation
Calculation of short-circuit current based
√ √ √ √
on power flow
Calculation of short-circuit current based
√ √ √ √
on IEC Standard
Calculation of short-circuit current based
- - √ √
on ANSI Standard
Short-circuit current scanning calculation √ √ √ √
Calculation of short-circuit current based
√ √ √ √
on the given scheme
Calculation of short-circuit current in
- √ - √
complex fault mode
Output short-circuit current calculation
√ √ √ √
result report
Circuit breaker breaking calculation - - √ √
Graphical display of short-circuit
- √ √ -
calculation results
Asymmetric longitudinal fault current
- - - √
calculation

During the testing of the above four software, it can be found that the actual calculation results are
not very accurate although some software provides the short circuit current calculation function based
on IEC Standard. It is mainly due to its algorithm not being strictly in accordance with the IEC Standard.
They might simplify the processing of some details so that only an approximate result can be obtained
[12]
. Taking the 10-bus system provided by IEC Standard as an example, the network topology is shown
in Figure 5, and the specific parameters of the network elements can be found in the document of
ICE60909 Standard.

Figure 5 Diagram of 10-bus network

6
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

The short circuit current scanning is performed on the 10-node system on the FCAP and SCCP
respectively, and the comparison of the calculation results is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Comparison of three-phase short-circuit current scan results between FCAP and SCCP
Voltage Standard SCCP Relative FCAP Relative
Node
(kV) Result (kA) (kA) Error (%) (kA) Error (%)
BUS01 380 40.6447 40.66 0.03764 40.65 0.01303
BUS02 110 31.7831 31.91 0.39926 31.78 -0.00975
BUS03 110 19.673 19.81 0.6963 19.67 -0.01524
BUS04 110 16.2277 16.47 1.49312 16.23 0.01417
BUS05 110 33.1894 33.36 0.51401 33.19 0.0018
BUS06 10 37.5629 37.58 0.04552 37.57 0.0189
BUS07 10 25.5895 25.6 0.04103 25.59 0.00195
BUS08 30 13.5778 13.58 0.0162 13.58 0.0162
G1 21 52.4392 55.05 4.978718 52.44 0.001526
G2 10.5 80.5687 84.58 4.978732 80.57 0.001614

It is mentioned in [5] that the deviation should be within ±0.02% of the range if there is a deviation
in the calculation result of the program. Therefore, ±0.02% can be used as a measure of whether the
program conforms to the IEC Standard. It can be seen from Table 2 that the calculation results of SCCP
are almost always outside ±0.02% while the maximum relative error of FCAP is only 0.0189.
Based on further testing and analysis, the possible reasons for large deviations in the SCCP results
can be summarized as follows:
1. SCCP treats all generator-transformer groups as non-on-load regulation types for impedance
correction;
2. When the generator-transformer group has a near short circuit, SCCP still performs impedance
correction according to the method of the far short circuit.
It can be seen that the algorithm of SCCP does not strictly follow the steps specified in the IEC
Standard which can only be regarded as a "simplified" result of the IEC Standard. Thus, FCAP is better
than SCCP in this regard.
In addition, IEC Standard stipulates that "the grounding impedance of the neutral point of the
transformer does not require impedance correction" and "the impedance correction of the generator-
transformer group of non-on-load-tap-control requires special processing". Therefore, it is necessary to
use the grounding impedance of the neutral point of the transformer and the tap position of the non-on-
load-tap-control transformer when calculating the correction factor. However, in fact, since the BPA
data format does not reserve storage locations for these two parameters, the parameters required for the
calculation are insufficient. The calculation results may deviate in some cases. In order to make up for
the defects of the calculation algorithm caused by the limitation of the data format, FCAP provides an
additional parameter completion function, which enables users to fill in these two parameters. If it is not
necessary to precisely determine each parameter, the user can also fill in the corresponding default value
for it.

5. Conclusions
This paper briefly introduces the calculation principle of the IEC60909 Standard and proposes a
computer algorithm to realize IEC60909 Standard. The algorithm overcomes the defect that the factor
table needs to be solved repeatedly in the process of short-circuit current scanning calculation and
effectively improves the efficiency of the program. Finally, a new software FCAP developed is
introduced based on this algorithm, and the advantages of FCAP are shown through the horizontal
comparison to similar software.

7
EPEE-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2418 (2023) 012113 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2418/1/012113

IEC60909 Standard does not mention the short-circuit current calculation principle under asymmetric
faults, nor the short-circuit current impact of the VSC-HVDC converter on the AC grid. This will be the
next work direction of this paper.

References
[1] Berizzi A., Massucco S.. Short-circuit current calculation: a comparison between methods of IEC
and ANSI standards using dynamic simulation as reference[J]. IEEE Transactions on Industry
Applications,1994,30(4).
[2] Wenxia Pan, Mingyang Liu, Kun Zhao, Yibo Zhang, Tongchui Liu. A Practical Short-Circuit
Current Calculation Method for DFIG-Based Wind Farm Considering Voltage Distribution.[J].
IEEE Access,2019,7.
[3] Hu Xiaofeng. Algorithm research on short-circuit current calculation curve and comparison with
IEC short-circuit current calculation method[J]. BASIC & CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY
& TOXICOLOGY,2020,126.
[4] TR 60909 -0 IEC: 2001 International standard short-circuit currents in three-phase A.C systems-
Part 0: Calculation of currents [S]. IEC, 2001.
[5] TR 60909 -1 IEC: 2002 International standard short-circuit currents in three-phase A.C systems-
Part 1: Factors for the calculation of short-circuit currents [S]. IEC, 2002.
[6] TR 60909 -2 IEC: 2008 International standard short-circuit currents in three-phase A.C systems-
Part 2: Electrical equipment-data for short-circuit current calculations [S]. IEC, 2008.
[7] TR 60909 -3 IEC: 2003 International standard short-circuit currents in three-phase A.C systems-
Part 3: Currents during two separate simultaneous line-to-earth short circuits and partial short-
circuit currents flowing through the earth [S]. IEC, 2003.
[8] TR 60909 -4 IEC: 2000 International standard short-circuit currents in three-phase A.C systems-
Part 4: Examples of short-circuit currents[S]. IEC, 2000.
[9] Pei Ming Pan, Huan Lian, Fei Xiang Hui, Wei Pu Tan. Calculation and Analysis of Three-Phase
Transformer Short-Circuit Current[J]. Advanced Materials Research,2014,3294(986-987).
[10] Chunju Fan, Kan Xu, Qi Liu. Short-circuit current calculation method for partial coupling
transmission lines under different voltage levels[J]. International Journal of Electrical Power
and Energy Systems,2016,78.
[11] Yin Jun. Influence of reactive power support control strategy on short-circuit current calculation
and fault analysis method of DFIG[J]. Energy Reports,2021,7.
[12] Niancheng Zhou, Jiafang Wu, Qianggang Wang. Three-Phase Short-Circuit Current Calculation
of Power Systems with High Penetration of VSC-Based Renewable Energy[J].
Energies,2018,11(3).