Single Phasing Detection in Presence of DG

Units
INTRODUCTION:-
Single phasing is an open circuit fault in which only one phase out of balance three phase
is disconnected from the source which is causing other two phase to form single phase.

Cause of Single Phasing:-

1) One of the most common cause of single phasing is the opening of only one phase
conductor of three or four wire transmission system due to tree falling on the line which
leaving the other two conductor intact.
2) Most common short circuit fault is single line to ground (SLG) fault, after occurrence of
SLG fault circuit breakers will disconnect this single phase from the system which leaving
other two phase remains in the system.
3) Power System equipment like power transformer, distribution transformer bank etc. is
one of the cause of single phasing due to opening of transformer winding of one phase of
three phase transformer, open phase on the substation transformer primary, open phase
on the primary of the distribution step-down transformer bank.
4) Another most frequent cause of single phasing is the malfunctioning of protection
equipment like circuit breaker, isolator, fuses etc. A very common example occurs in
circuit breakers, while energizing a circuit, only two poles of the breaker are closed and
the third pole is stuck and remains open. The utilization of single-phase protective devices
is another common cause for single-phasing. Most electrical utilities use single-phase
fuses to protect three-phase distribution networks. The fuse of one phase blown off
developed single phasing.

Effect of Single Phasing:-

1) Effect on three Phase Induction Motor-

A three-phase motor is an AC motor which is built to operate on a three-phase

power source. The construction of both types of a motor is similar as they both have a
stator and rotator. The single phase motor does not have a rotating field, but one that
reverses 180 degrees. Usually, single phase motors are not self-starting. For that, they use
additional provisions like switching out the start winding or a capacitor.
Single phasing problem on a 3 phase induction motor will have the following
effects:
 i) If the motor is in a stopped condition, it cannot be started as a single phase motor
cannot be a self-starter and also due to the safety system provided in 3 phase motor
to protect it from overheating.
ii) If the single phasing faults occur while the motor is operating, it will continue to run
because of the torque produced by the remaining two phases which is produced as
per the demand by the load. As the remaining two phase are doing additional work of
the one default phase, they will be overheated which might result in critical damage
to the windings.
iii) The single phasing will lead to increase in the current flow by 2.4 times the average
current value in the remaining two phases.
iv) Single Phasing reduces the speed of the motor, and its rpm will fluctuate. The noise
and vibration from the motor will be abnormal. This is the result of uneven torque
produced by the remaining two phases.
v) Almost all the motor system in the ship has a standby arrangement. If the motor is
selected for standby, with single phasing problem, it will not start leading to failure of
the related system. If the problem is not addressed and motor operation is continued,
windings will melt due to overheating and can lead to short-circuiting or earthing.
vi) It may cause overloading of the power generation machine, i.e. auxiliary engine,
alternators.
2) Effect of negative sequence current produced by single phasing on rotating
machine:-
Unbalanced currents due to single phasing will generate negative sequence
components which in turn produces a reverse rotating filed (opposite to the synchronous
rotating filed normally induces emf in to the rotor windings) in the air gap between the
stator and rotor of the machines. This reverse rotating magnetic field rotates at
synchronous speeds but in opposite direction to the rotor of the machine. With respect
to the rotor surface, this reverse rotating magnetic fields induces double frequency
currents into the rotor body in the case of cylindrical rotating machines (generators driven
by steam turbines and motors )and induce double frequency currents in the pole faces in
case of salient pole machines (generators driven by hydro turbines). This resulting
induced currents into the rotors will provide high resistance path to the normal induced
currents (generated due to synchronous rotating magnetic field) resulting in the rapid
heating. This heating effect in turn results in the loss of mechanical integrity or insulation
failures in electrical machines within seconds. Therefore it is undeniable to operate the
machine during unbalanced condition when negative sequence currents flows in the rotor
and has to be protected.
3) Effect on Power Electronics load:-
Voltage unbalance causes three-phase power electronic loads such as adjustable-
speed drives (ASDs) to draw unequal current in each phase. This effect is more
pronounced in smaller drives (< 15 hp) where the percent current unbalance may be 20
 times the percent voltage unbalance. High phase currents can result in overcurrent trips
and excessive dc bus ripple. High ripple can reduce the life of the dc bus capacitor of the
ASD.
4) Ferroresonance:-

Ferroresonance is a special form of resonance that involves the magnetizing

reactance of a transformer and the system capacitance. A common form of
ferroresonance occurs during single phasing of three phase distribution transformers.
Ferroresonance most commonly occurs on cable-fed transformers because of the high
capacitance of the cables. The transformer connection is also critical for ferroresonance.
An ungrounded primary connection leads to the highest magnitude ferroresonance.
During single-phasing (which occurs when a line crew energizes or de-energizes the
transformer with single phase cutouts at the cable riser pole), a ferroresonant circuit may
be set up between the cable capacitance and the transformer reactance. If these
impedances are in the range of magnitudes where ferroresonance can occur, then high
voltages up to 5 per unit can occur on the open legs of the transformer. The most common
problem that can occur is overheating of metal-oxide surge arresters.
5) Effect on Transmission system :-
Single phasing cause de-rating of power cables and thus increase 𝐼 2 𝑅 losses
In the cable. Transformers which are present in transmission system suffer from
overheating due to single phasing. Also overvoltage due ferroresonce may lead to
insulation failure of transformer.

Detection Of Single Phasing:-

1) Single-phasing operation without the presence of DG:-
In a passive vertically integrated distribution system, i.e., with-out DG units,
single-phasing can be detected easily, as the current of the lost phase drops to zero,
whereas the currents in the other two healthy phases remain almost the same. This task
is usually accomplished using a current-unbalance relay. A typical relay trips after two
seconds if the average current is more than25% of the full load current, and the current
in one phase is approximately zero.
2) Single-phasing operation in the presence of DG:-
In this case, the DG unit is connected to the system and as in the previous case, a
single-phasing situation is simulated by opening phase A at the midpoint of power
transmission line let phase A is opening. Consequently, the phase A current in the line
drops to zero. However, the back feed current from the DG unit will support the current
in the lost phase, and the phase A current seen by the load to be protected is not equal
to zero, hence masking the single-phasing condition. As a result, using traditional current-
unbalance relays to detect single-phasing, in the presence of DG, is no longer effective.
However, it has been observed that the current waveforms initiated at the onset
of the single-phasing condition are characterized by an impulsive transient that is rich in
high-frequency content. By using an appropriate signal processing tool, single-phasing
events can be accurately detected and classified. However, current transients may exist
in distribution systems due to many other disturbances such as heavy load switching,
capacitor switching, etc. For this reason, it is important not only to detect and classify
single-phasing events, but also to discriminate them from other disturbances occurring in
the system. There are several signal processing tools that can be used to achieve the
previous objectives such as the classical Fourier transform (FT), the short-time Fourier
transform (STFT) and the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The classical FT decomposes
the input signal into a sum of sinusoids of different frequencies and computes their
corresponding amplitudes. In other words, the classical FT transforms the input signal
from the time-amplitude domain into the frequency-amplitude domain. The main
drawback of this approach is that the time localization information of non-periodic
transients is not preserved. As a result, the classical FT is not an effective tool for analyzing
non-stationary signals. The STFT avoids the previous drawback by utilizing an analysis
window of certain width that slides through the signal along the time-axis so as to perform
a “time-localized” FT. Accordingly, the time localization information of non-periodic
transients can be preserved. The main drawback of STFT, however, is that the sliding
window has the same width for all frequencies. To analyze a non-stationary signal more
effectively, the width of the sliding window should vary so as to determine more
accurately the time information of high frequency signals, and the frequency information
of low frequency signals. This characteristic is the main advantage of the DWT, as it utilizes
a multi-resolution technique by which different frequencies are analyzed using different
resolutions (i.e. multiresolution analysis). Due to these advantages, DWT has been used
in numerous power system studies. Now, using DWT we are going to detect and classify
single-phasing events in distribution systems with a high penetration of DG units.