Faults on Electrical Systems

1.What is Electrical Fault

2.Common Types of Faults
A. Open Circuit Fault
B. Short Circuit Fault

3.Protection Devices Against Faults

A. Fuse
B. Circuit Breakers
C. Protective Relays

4. Types of Protective Relays

A. Magnitude relays
B. Impedance relays
C. Pilot relays
D. Differential relays
E. Directional relays
 Electrical Faults
In any electric power system, a
fault or fault current is any
abnormal electric current.
Example:
a short circuit is a fault in which
current by passes the normal load.
 OPEN CIRCUIT FAULT
An open circuit fault occurs if a circuit is
interrupted by some failure .
OPEN CIRCUIT FAULT
In three phase systems, a fault may involve one
or more phases and ground or may occur only
between phases. The prospective short circuit
current of a predictable fault can be calculated
for most situations.
In power systems, protective
devices can defect fault
conditions and operate circuit
breakers and other devices to
limit the loss of service due to
failure.
COMMON TYPES OF FAULTS

A. OPEN CIRCUIT FAULTS

It occurs due to the failure of one or more conductors.
The most common of these faults include joint failures
of cables and overhead lines. It causes a broken
conductor and malfunctioning of circuit breaker in or
more phases.
 B. SHORT CIRCUIT FAULTS
It can be defined as an abnormal
connection of very low impedance
between two points of different
potential, whether made
intentionally or accidentally.
 PROTECTION DEVICES AGAINST
FAULTS

A. FUSE
It opens a circuit whenever
fault exists in the systems. It
consists of a thin copper
wire enclosed in a glass or
casing with two metallic
contacts.
B. CIRCUIT BREAKER

It is the most common

protection device that can make
the circuit break either manually
or through remote control under
normal operating conditions.
C. PROTECTIVE RELAYS
These are fault detecting devices.
These devices detect the fault and initiate the
operation of the circuit breaker so as to isolate the
faulty circuit.
 TYPES OF PROTECTIVE RELAYS
INCLUDE:
o Magnitude relays
o Impedance relays
o Pilot relays
o Differential relays
o Directional relays