Introduction

During normal operating conditions, current will flow through all elements of the electrical power
system within pre-designed values which are appropriate to these elements’ ratings. Any power system
can be analyzed by calculating the system voltages & currents under normal & abnormal scenarios [2].

Unfortunately, faults could happen as a result of natural events or accidents where the phase will
establish a connection with another phase, the ground or both in some cases [4]. A falling tree on a
transmission lines could cause a three-phase fault where all phases share a point of contact called fault
location. In different occasions, fault could be a result of insulation deterioration, wind damage or
human vandalism.

Faults can be defined as the flow of a massive current through an improper path which could cause
enormous equipment damage which will lead to interruption of power, personal injury, or death. In
addition, the voltage level will alternate which can affect the equipment insulation in case of an increase
or could cause a failure of equipment start-up if the voltage is below a minimum level. As a result, the
electrical potential difference of the system neutral will increase [2]. Hence, People and equipment will
be exposed to the danger of electricity which is not accepted.

In order to prevent such an event, power system fault analysis was introduced. The process of evaluating
the system voltages and currents under various types of short

circuits is called fault analysis which can determine the necessary safety measures & the required
protection system [4]. It is essential to guarantee the safety of public [10]. The analysis of faults leads
to appropriate protection settings which can be computed in order to select suitable fuse, circuit breaker
size and type of relay [2].

The severity of the fault depends on the short-circuit location, the path taken by fault current, the system
impedance and its voltage level. In order to maintain the continuation of power supply to all customers
which is the core purpose of the power system existence, all faulted parts must be isolated from the
system temporary by the protection schemes. When a fault exists within the relay protection zone at
any transmission line, a signal will trip or open the circuit breaker isolating the faulted line. To complete
this task successfully, fault analysis has to be conducted in every location assuming several fault
conditions. The goal is to determine the optimum protection scheme by determining the fault currents
& voltages. In reality, power system can consist of thousands of buses which complicate the task of
calculating these parameters without the use of computer software such as Matlab. In 1956, L.W.
Coombe and D. G. Lewis proposed the first fault analysis program [4].

There are two types of faults which can occur on any transmission lines; balanced faults & unbalanced
faults. In addition, unbalanced faults can be classified into single line-to-ground faults, double line faults
and double line-to-ground faults. The most common types taking place in reality are as follow: Line-
to-ground fault: this type of fault exists when one phase of any transmission lines establishes a
connection with the

ground either by ice, wind, falling tree or any other incident. 70% of all transmission lines faults are
classified under this category [11].

Line-to-line fault: as a result of high winds, one phase could touch anther phase & line-to-line fault
takes place. 15% of all transmission lines faults are considered line-to-line faults [11].

Double line-to-ground: two phases will be involved instead of one at the line-to-ground faults scenarios.
10% of all transmission lines faults are under this type of faults [11].

Three phase fault: in this case, falling tower, failure of equipment or even a line breaking and touching
the remaining phases can cause three phase faults. In reality, this type of fault not often exists which
can be seen from its share of 5% of all transmission lines faults [11].In order to analyze any unbalanced
power system, C.L. Fortescue introduced a method called symmetrical components in 1918 to solve
such system using a balanced representation [6]. In this project, literature review section will be
provided to summarize the methods used to analyze such cases. Then, a description of the symmetrical
components methods will be discussed in detail. Its mathematical model will be presented. After that,
a 6-bus system will be under fault for analysis. This analysis will take place using the manual
calculations. These results will be compared later with the results of Matlab codes. These results will
be discussed in the final chapter and a conclusion will be provided of our comments.
 1.1 Type of fault

There are two type of electrical fault in three-phase power system, namely open and
short circuit faults. Further, these faults can be symmetrical or unsymmetrical faults. Below are
discussion about these fault in detail.

 Open circuit fault

These faults occur due to the failure of one or more conductors. The figure below illustrates
the open circuit faults for single, two and three phases (or conductors) open condition. The
most common causes of these faults include joint failures of cables and overhead lines, and
failure of one or more phase of circuit breaker and also due to melting of a fuse or conductor
in one or more phases. Open circuit faults are also called as series faults. These are
unsymmetrical or unbalanced type of faults except three phase open fault.

 Short circuit fault

A short circuit can be defined as an abnormal connection of very low impedance between
two points of different potential, whether made intentionally or accidentally. These are the most
common and severe kind of faults, resulting in the flow of abnormal high currents through the
equipment or transmission lines. If these faults are allowed to persist even for a short period, it
leads to the extensive damage to the equipment.

Short circuit faults are also called as shunt faults. These faults are caused due to the
insulation failure between phase conductors or between earth and phase conductors or both.
The various possible short circuit fault conditions include three phase to earth, three phase clear
of earth, and phase to phase as shown in figure. The three phase fault clear of earth and three
phase fault to earth are balanced or symmetrical short circuit faults while other remaining faults
are unsymmetrical faults.

 Symmetrical Faults
A symmetrical fault gives rise to symmetrical fault currents that are displaced with 1200
each other. Symmetrical fault is also called as balanced fault. This fault occurs when all the
three phases are simultaneously short circuited. These faults rarely occur in practice as
compared with unsymmetrical faults. Two kinds of symmetrical faults include line to line to
line (L-L-L) and line to line to line to ground (L-L-L-G) as shown in figure below.
  Unsymmetrical Faults

The most common faults that occur in the power system network are unsymmetrical faults.
This kind of fault gives rise to unsymmetrical fault currents (having different magnitudes with
unequal phase displacement). These faults are also called as unbalanced faults as it causes
unbalanced currents in the system. Up to the above discussion, unsymmetrical faults include
both open circuit faults (single and two phase open condition) and short circuit faults
(excluding L-L-L-G and L-L-L). The figure below shows the three types of symmetrical faults
occurred due to the short circuit conditions, namely phase or line to ground (L-G) fault, phase
to phase (L-L) fault and double line to ground (L-L-G) fault.
1.2 Cause of Electrical fault

i. Equipment failures: Various electrical equipments like generators, motors,

transformers, reactors, switching devices, etc causes short circuit faults due to
malfunctioning, ageing, insulation failure of cables and winding. These failures result
in high current to flow through the devices or equipment which further damages it.

ii. 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.

iii. 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.

iv. 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.

Reference

https://www.electronicshub.org/types-of-faults-in-electrical-power-systems/
Circuit breakers technology and ratings.

The rating of circuit breaker is given according to the duties that are performed by it. For
complete specifications, standard rating and various tests of switches and circuit breakers IS
375/1951 may be consulted. A circuit breaker is required to perform the following three major
duties.
 It must be capable of opening the faulty circuit and breaking the fault current. This is
described as breaking capacity of a circuit breaker
 It must be capable of being closed on to a fault. This refers to making capacity of a
circuit breaker
 It must be capable of carrying fault current for a short time while another circuit breaker
is clearing the fault. This refers to short time capacity of the circuit breaker.

In addition to the above ratings, a circuit breaker should be specified in terms of

 Rated voltage: the rated maximum voltage of a circuit breaker is the highest rms
voltage, above nominal system voltage ,for which circuit breaker is designed and is the
upper limit for operation. The rated voltage is expressed in kVrms and refer phase to
phase voltage for three phase circuit.
 Rated current: the rated normal current of a circuit breaker is the rms value of the
current which the circuit breaker shall be able to carry at rated frequency and at the
rated voltage continuously, under specified condition.
 Rated frequency: the rated frequency of a circuit breaker is the frequency at which it is
designed to operate.
 Operating Duty: the operating duty of a circuit breaker consist of the prescribed
number of unit operations at stated intervals.
Breaking capacity:
Breaking current is the RMS value of current that a circuit breaker is required to break at the
instant of contact separation. The symmetrical breaking current is the RMS value of its
symmetrical component. If however, at the instant of contact separation, the wave is still
asymmetrical it is known as the asymmetrical breaking current.

Breaking capacity (MVA) = Rated symmetrical breaking current (kA) × Rated service voltage
(kV) × √3

Making capacity:
A circuit breaker may complete a full short circuit on being closed. This is known as making
capacity.

Making capacity = 1.8 × √2 × Symmetrical breaking capacity.

Short time rating:

Circuit breaker should be capable of carrying high currents safely and without showing undue
stress for a specified short period in a closed position. This is known as short time rating.

This happens in case of momentary fault like bird age on the transmission lines and the fault is
automatically cleared and persists only for 1 or 2 seconds. For this reason the circuit breakers
are short time rated and they trip only when the fault persists for a duration longer than the
specified time limit.
Other Factors
Generally the fault current at various voltage levels expected are standardised
while manufacturing a circuit breaker, considering the hike in fault currents in future due to
adding of different sources. The voltage level and expected fault current are given below:

220kV 40kA 40 kA
110kV 31.5kA 31.5 kA
66kV
11kV 250MVA
433V 25MVA
240V 5MVA

The various types of circuit breakers are Bulk oil circuit breakers (BOCB), Minimum oil circuit
breakers (MOCB), Air blast circuit breakers (ABCB),Vacuum circuit breakers (VCB), SF6 gas
circuit breakers etc.

SF6 CBs and VCBs are superior in performance compared with other types and hence selected
for this particular sub station design for 220 & 110 KV side and 11 KV side respectively.