A Presentation On Symmetrical Faults

A PRESENTATION ON
SYMMETRICAL FAULTS
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
• Symmetarical Faults
• Faults
• Causes of Faults
• Transmission Fault Types
• Lightning Strike Event Sequence
• Fault Analysis
SYMMETARICAL FAULTS
Transmission lines stretch over large distances and are subject to faults involving one or
more phases and ground. Such faults cause momentary power outages but, more
important, if a protective action is not taken, can cause permanent damage to transmission
equipment such as the transmission line itself or the transformer.

FAULTS
•A fault in a circuit is any failure that interferes with the

normal flow of current to the load.
•In most faults, a short circuit path forms between two or
more phases or between one or more phases and the
neutral (ground).
•Since the impedance of a new path is usually low, an
excessive current may flow
•High-voltage transmission lines have strings of insulators
supporting each phase. The insulators must be large
enough to prevent flashover.
CAUSES OF FAULTS
• Tree branches near the right-of-way on transmission lines and
shorting them to ground.
• Lightning that represents a current source of thousands of amperes.
This current flowing through the tower footing impedance can raise
the tower potential above the local ground to such a level that
without surge arresters, the insulator strings may flashover.
• The reason to analyze faults are:
-To set the relays so that they can detect it
-To make sure that the circuit breakers ratings are such that they are
capable of interrupting the faulty currents.
TRANSMISSION FAULT TYPES
• There are two main types of faults:

• Symmetric faults: System remains balanced; these faults are
relatively rare, but are the easiest to analyze so we’ll consider
them first.
• Unsymmetric faults: System is no longer balanced; very
common, but more difficult to analyze.
• The most common type of fault on three phase systems are:
- Single Line-to-Ground (SLG)
- Line-to-Line Faults (LL)
- Double Line-to-Ground (DLG) Faults
- Balanced three phase faults.
• If flashover occurs on single phase of the line, arc will be
produced. Such faults are called single line-to-ground
faults.
• Since the short-circuit path has a low impedance, very
high current flow through the faulted line into the ground
and back into the power station.
• Faults involving ionized current paths are also called
transient faults. They usually clear if power is removed
from the line for a short time and then restored.
•Sometimes, all three phases of a transmission line are shorted together; this
is called symmetrical three-phase faults.
•Two phases of a line may touch, or flashover may occur between two phases;
this is called a line-to-line fault.
•When two lines touch each other and also touch the ground, the fault is
called a double line-to-ground fault.
•Lighting strokes cause most faults on high-voltage transmission lines
producing a very high transient that greatly exceeds the rated voltage of the
line. This voltage usually causes flashover between the phase and the ground
of the line creating an arc. Once the current starts flowing through the arc, it
LIGHTNING STRIKE EVENT SEQUENCE
• Lighting hits lines, setting up an ionized path to the ground

• Millions lightning strikes per year hits every year!
• A single typical stroke might have 25,000 amps, with a rise
time of 10 µs, dissipated in 200 µs.
• Multiple strokes can occur in a single flash, causing the
lightning to appear to flicker, with the total event lasting up
to a second.
•Conduction path is maintained by ionized air after lightning
stroke energy has dissipated, resulting in high fault currents
(often > 25,000 amps)
LIGHTNING STRIKE EVENT SEQUENCE CONT’D
•Within one to two cycles (16 ms) relays at both ends of line
detect high currents, signaling circuit breakers to open the
line:
• Nearby locations see decreased voltages
•Circuit breakers open to de-energize line in a one to two
cycles:
• Breaking tens of thousands of amps of fault current is no
small feat.
• With line removed voltages usually return to near normal.
•Circuit breakers may reclose after several seconds, trying to
restore faulted line to service.
FAULT ANALYSIS
• Fault currents cause equipment damage due to both thermal

and mechanical processes.
• The main goal of fault analysis is to determine the
magnitudes of the currents present during the fault:
• We need to determine the maximum current to ensure
devices can survive the fault.
• We need to determine the maximum current the circuit
breakers need to interrupt to correctly size the circuit
breakers.
NETWORK FAULT ANALYSIS SIMPLIFICATIONS
• To simplify the analysis of fault currents in networks we will

make several simplifications:
• Transmission lines are represented by their series reactance.
• Transformers are represented by their leakage reactance.
• Synchronous machines are modeled as a constant voltage
behind direct-axis sub-transient reactance.
• Induction motors are ignored or treated as synchronous
machines.
• Other (non-spinning) loads are ignored.
SYMMETRICAL AC COMPONENTS
OF THE TRANSIENT
•Sub-transient: first cycle or so after the fault – AC current is very large
and falls rapidly.
•Transient: current falls at a slower rate.

•Steady-state: current gets back to normal.
SYMMETRICAL AC COMPONENTS OF
THE TRANSIENT CONT’D
•The AC current flowing in the generator during the sub-
transient period is called the sub-transient current and is
denoted by I”. This current is caused by the damper
windings of synchronous machines. The time constant of
the sub-transient current is denoted by T” and it can be
determined from the slope. This current may be 10 times
the steady-state fault current.
OF THE TRANSIENT CONT’D
• The AC current flowing in the generator during the
transient period is called the transient current and is
denoted by I’. It is caused by a transient DC component
of current induced in the field circuit of a synchronous
generator at the time of fault. This transient field
current increases the internal generated voltage of a
machine and, therefore, an increased fault current.
OF THE TRANSIENT CONT’D
• The time constant of a field circuit T’ is much larger than the
time constant of the damper winding, therefore, the transient
period lasts longer than the sub-transient. This current is
often as much as 5 times the steady-state fault current.
•• After the transient period, the fault current reaches a steady-
state condition . The steady-state rms current is denoted by
Iss and is approximated by the fundamental frequency
component of the internal generated voltage normalized by

the synchronous reactance:
•• The rms magnitude of the AC fault current in a synchronous
generator varies over time as
The sub-transient reactance is ratio of the fundamental

component of the internal generated voltage to the sub-
transient component of current at beginning of the fault:
•• Similarly, the transient reactance is the ratio of the
fundamental component of the internal generated voltage to
the transient component of current at the beginning of the
fault. This value of current is found by extrapolating the
transient region back to time zero
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What are symmetrical faults and how do they occur on transmission lines?

What are the different types of faults that can occur on transmission lines?

A PRESENTATION ON

equipment such as the transmission line itself or the transformer.

•A fault in a circuit is any failure that interferes with the

• There are two main types of faults:

• Lighting hits lines, setting up an ionized path to the ground

• Fault currents cause equipment damage due to both thermal

• To simplify the analysis of fault currents in networks we will

•Transient: current falls at a slower rate.

component of the internal generated voltage normalized by

The sub-transient reactance is ratio of the fundamental

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