FAULT ANALYSIS

In an electric power system, a fault is any abnormal flow of electric current.

For example, a short circuit is a fault in which current flow bypasses the normal
load. An open-circuit fault occurs if a circuit is interrupted by some failure. In threephase 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. The prospective short circuit current of a fault can be calculated for power
systems. In power systems, protective devices detect fault conditions and operate
circuit breakers and other devices to limit the loss of service due to a failure.
In a poly-phase system, a fault may affect all phases equally which is a
"symmetrical fault". If only some phases are affected, the resulting "asymmetrical
fault" becomes more complicated to analyze due to the simplifying assumption of
equal current magnitude in all phases being no longer applicable. The analysis of
this type of fault is often simplified by using methods such as symmetrical
components.

FAULT TYPES
1. Transient Fault
A transient fault is a fault that is no longer present if power is
disconnected for a short time. Many faults in overhead power lines are
transient in nature. At the occurrence of a fault power system protection
operates to isolate area of the fault. A transient fault will then clear and the
power line can be returned to service.
Typical examples of transient faults include:
Momentary tree contact
Bird or other animal contact
Lightning strike
Conductor clash
In electricity transmission and distribution systems an automatic
reclose function is commonly used on overhead lines to attempt to restore
power in the event of a transient fault. This functionality is not as common on
underground systems as faults there are typically of a persistent nature.
Transient faults may still cause damage both at the site of the original fault or
elsewhere in the network as fault current is generated.
2. Persistent Fault
A persistent fault does not disappear when power is disconnected.
Faults in underground power cables are most often persistent due to
mechanical damage to the cable, but are sometimes transient in nature due
to lightning.
3. Balanced (Symmetric Fault)
A symmetric or balanced fault affects each of the three phases equally.
In transmission line faults, roughly 5% are symmetric. This is in contrast to an

asymmetric fault, where the three phases are not affected equally. In
practice, most faults in power systems are unbalanced. With this in mind,
symmetric faults can be viewed as somewhat of an abstraction; however,
asymmetric faults are difficult to analyze, analysis of asymmetric faults is
built up from a thorough understanding of symmetric faults.
4. Unbalanced (Asymmetric Fault)
An asymmetric or unbalanced fault does not affect each of the three
phases equally. Common types of asymmetric faults, and their causes:
line-to-line
line-to-ground
double line-to-ground

FAULT PROTECTION TYPES

Generator sets
In a power plant, the protective relays are intended to prevent damage to
alternators or to the transformers in case of abnormal conditions of operation, due
to internal failures, as well as insulating failures or regulation malfunctions. Such
failures are unusual, so the protective relays have to operate very rarely. If a
protective relay fails to detect a fault, the resulting damage to the alternator or to
the transformer might require costly equipment repairs or replacement, as well as
income loss from the inability to produce and sell energy.
Overload & Back-up for Distance (Overcurrent)
Overload protection requires a current transformer which simply measures
the current in a circuit. There are two types of overload protection: instantaneous
overcurrent and time overcurrent (TOC). Instantaneous overcurrent requires that the
current exceeds a pre-determined level for the circuit breaker to operate. TOC
protection operates based on a current vs time curve. Based on this curve if the
measured current exceeds a given level for the preset amount of time, the circuit
breaker or fuse will operate.
Earth fault (Ground fault in the United States)
Earth fault protection again requires current transformers and senses an
imbalance in a three-phase circuit. Normally the three phase currents are in
balance, i.e. roughly equal in magnitude. If one or two phases become connected to
earth via a low impedance path, their magnitudes will increase dramatically, as will
current imbalance. If this imbalance exceeds a pre-determined value, a circuit
breaker should operate.
Distance (Impedance Relay)
Distance protection detects both voltage and current. A fault on a circuit will
generally create a sag in the voltage level. If the ratio of voltage to current
measured at the relay terminals, which equates to impedance, lands within a pre-

determined level the circuit breaker will operate. This is useful for reasonable length
lines, lines longer than 10 miles, because its operating characteristics are based on
the line characteristics. This means that when a fault appears on the line the
impedance setting in the relay is compared to the apparent impedance of the line
from the relay terminals to the fault. If the relay setting is determined to be below
the apparent impedance it is determined that the fault is within the zone of
protection. When the transmission line length is too short, less than 10 miles,
distance protection becomes more difficult to coordinate. In these instances the
best choice of protection is current differential protection.
Back-up
The objective of protection is to remove only the affected portion of plant and
nothing else. A circuit breaker or protection relay may fail to operate. In important
systems, a failure of primary protection will usually result in the operation of backup protection. Remote back-up protection will generally remove both the affected
and unaffected items of plant to clear the fault. Local back-up protection will
remove the affected items of the plant to clear the fault.

Causes of Electrical Faults

Weather conditions: It includes lighting strikes, heavy rains, heavy winds, salt
deposition on overhead lines and conductors, snow and ice accumulation on
transmission lines, etc. These environmental conditions interrupt the power supply
and also damage electrical installations.
Equipment failures: Various electrical equipments like generators,
transformers, reactors, switching devices, etc causes short circuit faults
malfunctioning, ageing, insulation failure of cables and winding. These
result in high current to flow through the devices or equipment which
damages it.

motors,
due to
failures
further

Human errors: Electrical faults are also caused due to human errors such as
selecting improper rating of equipment or devices, forgetting metallic or electrical
conducting parts after servicing or maintenance, switching the circuit while it is
under servicing, etc.
Smoke of fires: Ionization of air, due to smoke particles, surrounding the overhead
lines results in spark between the lines or between conductors to insulator. This
flashover causes insulators to lose their insulting capacity due to high voltages.

Effects of electrical faults

Over current flow: When fault occurs it creates a very low impedance path for the
current flow. This results in a very high current being drawn from the supply,
causing tripping of relays, damaging insulation and components of the equipments.

 Danger to operating personnel: Fault occurrence can also cause shocks to

individuals. Severity of the shock depends on the current and voltage at fault
location and even may lead to death.
Loss of equipment: Heavy current due to short circuit faults result in the
components being burnt completely which leads to improper working of equipment
or device. Sometimes heavy fire causes complete burnout of the equipments.
Disturbs interconnected active circuits: Faults not only affect the location at which
they occur but also disturbs the active interconnected circuits to the faulted line.
Electrical fires: Short circuit causes flashovers and sparks due to the ionization of
air between two conducting paths which further leads to fire as we often observe in
news such as building and shopping complex fires.

Fault limiting devices

It is possible to minimize causes like human errors, but not environmental
changes. Fault clearing is a crucial task in power system network. If we manage to
disrupt or break the circuit when fault arises, it reduces the considerable damage to
the equipments and also property.
Some of these fault limiting devices include fuses, circuit breakers, relays, etc. and
are discussed below.
Fuse
It is the primary protecting device. It is a thin wire enclosed in a casing or
glass which connects two metal parts. This wire melts when excessive current flows
in circuit. Type of fuse depends on the voltage at which it is to operate. Manual
replacement of wire is necessary once it blowout.

 Circuit breaker
It makes the circuit at normal as well as breaks at abnormal conditions. It
causes automatic tripping of the circuit when fault occurs. It can be
electromechanical circuit breaker like vacuum / oil circuit breakers etc, or ultrafast
electronic circuit breaker.

 Relay
It is condition based operating switch. It consists of magnetic coil and
normally open and closed contacts. Fault occurrence raises the current which
energizes relay coil, resulting in the contacts to operate so the circuit is interrupted
from flowing of current. Protective relays are of different types like impedance
relays, mho relays, etc.

Lighting power protection devices

These include lighting arrestors and grounding devices to protect the system
against lighting and surge voltages.