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Short circuit current calculations

Conference Paper · May 2018

DOI: 10.1109/EPE.2018.8396040

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 Short Circuit Current Calculations
Comparison of dynamic simulation results more with approach according to IEC standard

Zsolt Čonka Karel Máslo, Bronislav Bátora

Department of Electric Power Engineering Dept. of electrical power engineering
Technical University of Kosice Brno University of Technology
Košice, Slovakia Brno, Czech Republic
maslo@feec.vutbr.cz

Abstract—Paper deals with short circuit calculations. It

compares results of three different tools for short circuit currents II. TEST CASE
calculation. A low voltage system (Un = 400 V) from the Technical
report [2] (furthermore the Report).was used as a test case. Fig.
Keywords—short circuit, dynamic simualtion
1 shows single-pole scheme of the test system.
Sn=400 kVA, uk=4%
I. INTRODUCTION Pk=4.6 kW, Un1/2=20/0.41 kV
NETWORK R0=R1 X0=0.95X1 dYN T2
NN2 0.4 kV 
L2 F2 F3
4 m  F23
An adequate handling of short circuit is considered as one of 20 kV 
Z1=0.208+j0.068 /km L3 20 m  L4 50 m 
the major aspects of power system reliability and operational cQ=1.1
F1 R0=4.23R1 X0=1.21X1

security. Knowledge of short-circuit currents is a necessary UnQ=20 kV

IkQ=10 kA Sn=630 kVA, uk=4% T1
L1 10 m 
TK=60 ms
TK=60 ms
TK=60 ms

Z =0.271+j0.087 /km Z1=0.3704+j0.297 /km

condition for proper design and secure operation of the power Pk=6.5 kW, Un1/2=20/0.41 kV
R0=R1 X0=0.95X1 dYN
Z1=0.017+j0.079 /km 1
R0=3.7R1 X0=1.81X1 R0=3R1 X0=4.46X1 R0=2R1 X0=3X1

system. There are two basic ways of the short circuits

Fig. 1 Low voltage system with short circuit locations (according to [2])
calculation: static and dynamic.
While the static calculation only detects the initial values of The figure contains all necessary data for short circuit
short circuit values, the dynamic calculation determines the calculations. Data for the zero sequence components is blue.
current time courses (waveforms) during the short circuit. The test system corresponds to the main assumption of the
The static approach usually used simplified methods defined Standard [1]:
in some standards e.g. IEC 60909 [1] (furthermore the 1. There is no load
Standard). This standard determines calculation of initial
symmetrical short circuit current I”k (RMS value) and then other 2. There is not shunt admittance
characteristic values (peak short circuit current Ip, symmetrical Fig. 2 shows the calculated impedance values and the
short circuit breaking current and thermal equivalent short relevant formulas for their calculation from the input data.
circuit current Ith) are derived by using particular multiplication
u KSV U n2 2
factors. zQ 
cQSV U
( n2 )2
3UnQIkQ UV
zT  (
100  Sn U V
) zL 
l Z1SV
U 2V SV=168.2 MVA UV=0.41 kV ZV=1 m
4.712+j15.698 0.416+j0.136
The dynamic approach enables to determine waveforms of 0+j0.534
5.42+j1.17 18.5+j14.85

short circuit currents - either instantaneous or RMS values and 1.05

2.68+j10.054 0.385 +j0.395

then specify the other characteristic values. rT 

PKSV U n2 2
(
S2n U V
) xT  zT2  rT2

This paper presents both approaches on the example of short-
circuit current calculation in a simple low-voltage system. The
static calculation (according to the Standard) is compared to the
results of dynamic calculations using three different tools
NEPLAN for static, ZKRATY for RMS simulations and
PSCAD for electromagnetic transient simulations.
The purpose of the paper is to find out if simulated programs
can be used to calculate characteristic values of short-circuit
currents.
Fig. 2 Positive sequence equivalent scheme for the RMS simulation in per unit
Values are the same as in the Technical report with the
exception of zero resistance value for the network feeder and
other values for transformers, which are not multiplied by a
correction factor KT. The use and meaning of this coefficient is
not clearly explained in the Standard. The voltage of the
equivalent source corresponds to the voltage factor c from the
Standard.

This research work has been carried out in the Centre for Research and
Utilization of Renewable Energy (CVVOZE). Authors gratefully
acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and
Sports of the Czech Republic under NPU I program (project No. LO1210).

978-1-5090-6406-9/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE

 III. RMS DYNAMIC SIMULATION
This section describes main principles of the RMS
simulation focused on electromechanical transient phenomena.
The RMS simulation is characterized by neglecting so called
transformer electromotive force in stator differential equations
of generators. These equations changes into algebraic ones, and
can be easy interfaced into steady state network equations. It
enables significant simplification of the power system modelling
and computation time saving (see e.g. [3] for more information).
Voltages and currents in such system can change immediately if
some disturbance occurs in the network and no dc components
do not occur in calculated current waveforms.
RMS simulation tools can be either three phases or only
single phase (modelling only positive sequence components).
The second approach again significantly simplifies the power
system model assuming a more or less symmetrical network,
which is still fulfilled, but with the exception of non-
symmetrical short circuits. However, this limitation can be
overcome by using the symmetrical component modeling
method described below.
A. Symetrical componets modelling
A separation of an asymmetric network into three
symmetrical component systems (positive, negative and zero
sequence component) is a well-known and long-used analytical
method. According to [4], the fault can be simulated by
connecting an impedance element to the fault site. The
symmetrical component method then allows us to investigate a
fault in a positive sequence system (as is common in network
simulators operating and stability programs) by adding an
additional impedance Z of a certain value to the fault location
in dependency on the fault type. These impedances are
summarized in the following table.
TABLE I. Additional impedances overview for particular short circuit types
Fault type Short circuit
One-phase Two-phase Two-phase to ground
Z ZC2+ZC0 ZC2 (ZC2ZC0)/ (ZC2+ZC0)
The main task is to determine the substitution impedances
ZC, which represent the total impedances of the respective
passive network, measured between the fault location and the
ground. Indices 2 and 0 denote a negative and zero sequence
components.
To do this, short-circuit admittance matrices YK2 and YK0
must be defined in both component systems. Here we will only
focus on the method of obtaining these substitution impedances.
Assuming the short circuit is in the node i, the required
impedance is equal to the diagonal element of the short-circuit
impedance matrix, that we obtain by inversion (or other suitable
procedure) from the short-circuit admittance matrix ZK = YK-1.
ZC = Zii 
With the additional impedance Z connected, the positive
sequence component of the voltages and currents can be
calculated and with the help of substitution impedances, it is also
possible to calculate other components in the negative and zero
sequence systems. The phase values of voltages and currents can
be than calculated from the sequence component values easily.
B. DC componets modelling
For device design and operational security checking it is also
necessary to know peak and thermal equivalent short-circuit
currents. This is related to the DC component of the short-circuit
current, but the RMS simulators do not calculated this.
This limitation can be overcome by calculating the
maximum possible value of the DC component considered that
the component is determined by only one time constant Ta,
which depends on the reactance/resistance ratio of the
substitution impedances ZC (this approach corresponds to the
recommendation of the old standard CSN 333020. Assuming
equal short-circuit impedances for the positive and negative
components, equivalent Ta are given in the following table.
TABLE II. Ta in seconds for particular short circuit types (=314rad/s)
Short circuit
Three and two-phase One-phase Two-phase to ground
XC1/RC1 (2XC1+XC0)/(2RC1+RC0) (XC1+2XC0)/(RC1+2RC0)
Simplified component computation (based on one time
constant) can be refined by using the method of a two-port
Thevenin equivalent published in [5]. This method is suitable
especially for meshed networks. Further refinement of DC
component computations in networks with near sources enables
the extended two-port Thevenin equivalent method published
in [6].
IV. . EMT DYNAMIC SIMULATION
In this section, we are focusing on electro-magnetic transient
phenomena, specifically their simulation. Power system is a vast
dynamic system and it is practically impossible to simulate its
behavior without a series of simplifying conditions, as was
previously mentioned in section II.
For the EMT simulation the PSCAD program was chosen,
which is used on BUT for the EMT calculation. PSCAD (Power
Systems Computer Aided Design) is a simulation software from
the Canadian company Manitoba HVDC Research Centre. This
toll enables creating network configuration, running
simulations, analyzing results and administrating data in the
fully integrated graphic environment. At one’s disposal there are
various functions that allow the user to change system
parameters during simulation, thus effectively analyze its course
(waveform). PSCAD is supplied with a library of programmed
and tested simulation models, from simple passive components
and control functions to more complex models, such as electrical
machines, devices, transmission lines, cables, etc. More
information can be found in [7].
This specific case was modeled in the PSCAD environment.
Models, which the PSCAD program library offers, do not,
however, offer the choice of parameters defined for the network
components according to the IEC 60909 technical report and
inaccurate entering of parameters causes significant mistakes in
calculations. Some components (generator, transformer) had to
be replaced by impedances, which had to be calculated
manually, because algebraic calculations in PSCAD can be
solved only with CSMF (Continuous system model functions),
which is user-unfriendly. Another possibility is to directly create
one’s own blocks and functions in the FORTRAN language.
 The network components were substituted by impedances
and through the tool ´three phase fault’ the fault of three phase
and one phase short circuit was simulated. The tool ´Timed Fault
Logic’ ran the simulation scenario. The output was the record of
the current Ik time waveform. With the tool ´RMS’ the effective
value of short circuit was acquired and because it is a dynamic
simulation, the RMS waveform, where stable value is
substantial, can be seen in the graph.
The calculation of the short circuit current DC component is
not a standard PSCAD function. Its course had to be processed
additionally, as a difference of a short circuit current waveform
and a stable harmonic short circuit current value with the same
amplitude and phase shift. Other methods, such as filtering of
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
This section summarizes results of short circuit calculation
on the test system carried out by programs ZKRATY (part of the
package MODES), NEPLAN and PSCAD. ZKRATY uses the
symmetrical and DC components approach described in section
0, NEPLAN calculates static values according to standard IEC
60909 and PSCAD calculates electromagnetic transients.
The following tables compare static calculation, dynamic
simulation with the Report results (currents in kA).
TABLE III. Comparison of results from the Report (TR), static (NEP),
dynamic (ZKR) and EMT (PSC) calculations – three phase short circuits

Location
DC component with filters proved to be inaccurate. You can see I“k Ip Ith
the calculation in the Fig. 3. TR ZKR NEP PSC TR ZKR NEP PSC TR ZKR NEP PSC
F1 34.6 35.6 35.1 34.2 70.9 72.2 70.9 66.8 38.9 38.4 37.6
F2 34.1 35.0 34.8 33.6 69.1 70.4 69.8 65.1 37.3 37.4 38.2 37.0
F3 6.9 7.2 7.1 6.9 10.4 10.6 10.9 10.3 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.6

TABLE IV. Comparison of results from the Report (TR), static (NEP),
dynamic (ZKR) and EMT (PSC) calculations – one phase short circuits

Location I“k1 Ip1 Ith1

TR ZKR NEP PSC TR ZKR NEP PSC TR ZKR NEP PSC
F1 35.7 36.7 36.2 35.1 72.9 72.6 73.2 67.4 39.8 39.8 38.6
F2 35.0 35.9 35.8 34.4 70.8 69.7 70.5 65.0 38.8 39.4 37.8
F3 4.8 5.0 5.1 4,8 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.2 5.0 5.1 5.3 5.3
Fig. 3 Method of calculation of DC component
The currents calculated by static and dynamic approach is
Simulations were executed with following parameters:
slightly higher compared with reference values from the Report.
 Duration of run = 2s, This is probably due to the use of a nominal voltage of 410 V in
 Solution time step = 10 µs and 1 ms, the calculations while using 400 V in the Report.
 Chanel plot step = 50 µs and 1 ms.
Following figures show the short circuit currents
The example of short circuit current time waveform in (contributions from the line L1, transformer T1 and total short
PSCAD program including the RMS value waveform can be circuit current) for the three phase short circuit in the node F1
seen in the Fig. 4. Short circuit current is depicted in blue, DC considering the maximal DC components.
component is the blue curved line (exponential) and the RMS
value is depicted in red. The differences in phase shift are caused The blue waveform is a contribution (instantaneous values)
by smaller calculation step. from the transformer T1 and the violet one is a contribution from
the line L1. The red waveform is the total short-circuit current.
DC components are drawn dashed.

80
I [kA] Total
60
T1
40
L1
20
0
-20
-40
Fig. 4 Waveforms of short circuit currents in PSCAD software -60
0 10 20 30 40 50 t [ms]
60
Fig. 5 Waveforms of short circuit currents for the location F1 from ZKRATY
 I [kA] Total VI. CONCLUSION
60
The use of network simulators to calculate characteristic
T1
40 short-circuit currents is possible and even useful if a network
L1 model is ready e.g. for dynamic stability calculation. However,
20 if the results are to be comparable to the Standard, similar
conditions (no load, no shunts elements, and zero tap on
0 transformers) should be used.
‐20
REFERENCES
‐40
[1] IEC 60909-0:2016, Short-circuit currents in three-phase a.c. systems –
Part 0: Calculation of currents
‐60
[2] TR 60909-4, Technical report: Examples for the calculation of short-
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
t [ms]
circuit currents
Fig. 6 Short circuit currents for the location F1 from PSCAD - int. step 1ms [3] J. Machowski, J.W. Bialek, J.R. Bumby: Power system dynamics and
stability, John Wiley & Sons, 1997
I [kA] Total
60 [4] P. A. Anderson: Analysis of faulted power system, IEEE PRESS, 1973
T1 [5] K.Máslo, S.Vnouček: Short Circuit Calculation Analysis, 2001 IEEE
40 Power Tech Conference, Porto
L1
[6] K. Máslo, J. Novák, J. Doležal: Analýza výpočtu zkratových proudů, 1.
20 mezinárodní vědecké sympozium ELEKTROENERGETIKA 2001, Stará
Lesná
0
[7] MANITOBA HVDC RESEARCH CENTRE, PSCAD – User’s Guide
‐20 Manual (2017), 211 Commerce Drive, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3P
1A3, 511 pages
‐40

‐60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
t [ms]
Fig. 7 Short circuit currents for the location F1 from PSCAD - int. step 50s

There two figures for PSCAD results, which differ in the

length of the integration step. The DC components are the same
for both integration steps, but symmetrical AC components are
moved in the phase. It is interesting that peak current (maximal
short circuit value) is greater for the 50 s integration step (66.88
versus 66.7 kA). For RMS simulation is 10 ms integration step
sufficient.

Fig. 8 compares waveforms of the DC component of the total

short circuit current.
50
I [kA]

40

30

20 ZKRATY

10 PSCAD

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 t [ms]
60
Fig. 8 Comparison DC components of the short circuit currents

The waveforms differs, but not too much. Differences will

be examined later.

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