Chapter 22

Short-Circuit Analysis

22.1 Introduction

Power systems as well as industrial systems are designed so that loads are supplied safely and reliably.
One of the major aspects taken into account in the design and operation of electrical systems is the
adequate handling of short-circuits. Although systems are designed to stay as free from short circuits
as possible, they can still occur. A short-circuit condition generally causes large uncontrollable current
flows, which if not properly detected and handled can result in equipment damage, the interruption of
large areas (instead of only the faulted section) as well as placing personnel at risk. A well-designed
system should therefore isolate the short-circuit safely with minimal equipment damage and system
interruption. Typical causes of short-circuits can be the following:

• Lightning discharge in exposed equipment such as transmission lines.

• Premature ageing of the insulation due mainly to permanent overloading, inappropriate ventilation,
etc.

• Atmospheric or industrial salt “Build-Up" in isolators.

• Equipment failure.
• Inappropriate system operation.

One of the many applications of a short-circuit calculation is to check the ratings of network equipment
during the planning stage. In this case, the planner is interested in obtaining the maximum expected
currents (in order to dimension equipment properly) and the minimum expected currents (to aid the
design of the protection scheme). Short-circuit calculations performed at the planning stage commonly
use calculation methods that require less detailed network modelling (such as methods which do not
require load information) and which will apply extreme-case estimations. Examples of these methods
include the IEC 60909/VDE 0102 method [11], the ANSI method and the IEC 61363 method [9] for AC
short circuit calculation and the IEC 61660 method [8] and ANSI/IEEE 946 method [5] for DC short
circuit calculation. A different field of application is the precise evaluation of the fault current in a specific
situation, such as to find out whether the malfunction of a protection device was due to a relay failure or
due to the consequence of improper settings (for example an operational error). These are the typical
applications of exact methods such as the superposition method (also known as the Complete Method),
which is based on a specific network operating point.

The short-circuit calculation in PowerFactory is able to simulate single faults as well as multiple faults
of almost unlimited complexity. As short-circuit calculations can be used for a variety of purposes,
PowerFactory supports different representations and calculation methods for the analysis of short-circuit
currents.

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CHAPTER 22. SHORT-CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

This chapter presents the handling of the short-circuit calculation methods as implemented in Power-
Factory. Further background on this topic can be found in Section 22.2.

22.2 Technical Background

Beside load flow calculations, short-circuit is one of the most frequently performed calculations when
dealing with electrical networks. It is used both in system planning and system operation.

Typical application examples of short-circuit analysis in system planning include:

• Ensuring that the defined short-circuit capacity of equipment is not exceeded with system expan-
sion and system strengthening.
• Co-ordination of protective equipment (fuses, over-current and distance relays).
• Dimensioning of earth grounding systems.

• Verification of sufficient fault level capacities at load points (e.g. uneven loads such as arc
furnaces, thyristor-driven variable speed drives or dispersed generation).
• Verification of admissible thermal limits of cables and transmission lines.

Example applications of short-circuit analysis in system operation include:

• Ensuring that short-circuit limits are not exceeded with system reconfiguration.

• Determining protective relay settings as well as fuse sizing.

• Calculation of fault location for protective relays, which store fault disturbance recordings.
• Analysis of system faults, e.g. misoperation of protection equipment.

• Analysis of possible mutual interference of parallel lines during system faults.

AC short circuit calculation quantities available in PowerFactory are shown in Figure 22.2.1, also a
graphical representation of the AC short-circuit current time function is illustrated in Figure 22.2.2. Note
that the quantities relating to the IEC 61363 standard [9] and DC short-circuit quantities calculated in
DC short circuit standards IEC 61660 and ANSI/IEEE 946 are not shown in Figure 22.2.1.

Note: The current waveform for a DC short circuit calculation is dependent on the type of DC current
source(s), for more information please refer to Section 22.2.5 and Section 22.2.6 and the relevant
IEC and ANSI/IEEE standards.

450 DIgSILENT PowerFactory 15, User Manual