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Short Circuit Calculations - The Easy Way

Baseline short-circuit studies should be performed when the facility electrical system is first designed. If the insulation barrier fails, current flows in a shorter path than the intended circuit. There are three basic sources of shortcircuit current: the electric utility, motors, and on-site generators.

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izette1
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988 views

Short Circuit Calculations - The Easy Way

Baseline short-circuit studies should be performed when the facility electrical system is first designed. If the insulation barrier fails, current flows in a shorter path than the intended circuit. There are three basic sources of shortcircuit current: the electric utility, motors, and on-site generators.

Uploaded by

izette1
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Short-Circuit Calculations: The Easy Way Page 1 of 2

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Short-Circuit Calculations: The Easy Way


May 1, 2008 12:00 PM
0
Short-circuit currents represent a tremendous amount of destructive energy, which can be released through electrical systems
under fault conditions. Baseline short-circuit studies should be performed when the facility electrical system is first designed,
and then updated when a major modification or renovation takes place — but no less frequently than every five years. Major
changes would be considered a change in feed by the electric utility, a change in the primary or secondary system
configuration within the facility, a change in transformer size or impedance, a change in conductor lengths or sizes, or a
change in the motors that are energized by the system.

Every electrical system confines electrical current flow to selected paths by surrounding the conductors with insulators of
various types. Short-circuit current is the flow of electrical energy that results when the insulation barrier fails and allows
current to flow in a shorter path than the intended circuit.

In normal operations, as shown in Fig. 1, the impedance of the electrical load


limits the current flow to relatively small values. However, a short-circuit path
bypasses the normal current-limiting load impedance, resulting in excessively high
current values that are restricted only by limitations of the power system itself, and
by the impedances of the conductive elements that still remain in the path
between the power source and the short-circuit point (Fig. 2).

Using basic Ohm's Law (E = I × Z or I = E ÷ Z) as a guide, it's obvious that if the


voltage remains constant and the impedance suddenly decreases, approaching
zero, then the current must simultaneously increase, approaching infinity, to
satisfy Ohm's Law. Fig. 1. Short-circuit current through an
impedance.
There are three basic sources of short-
circuit current: the electric utility,
motors, and on-site generators.
Obviously, the largest source is the
electric utility, although the high- and
medium-voltage lines leading to the
facility do have finite impedances, as
does the utility service transformer. The
second largest source is from motors
within a facility.
Fig. 2. Short-circuit current through two
With today's high fault currents, it's impedances.
more important than ever to protect
electrical equipment from extremely high current levels. Otherwise, the equipment will explode as it attempts to interrupt the
fault. But for many, fault current calculations have always been difficult to get a handle on, until now.

Here's a new method to calculate short-circuit currents, one we like to call the “Easy Way kVA Method.” You can use in it in
place of the abstract “per-unit” method of short-circuit calculations from the past. With the kVA method, you can easily
visualize what currents will flow and where they will flow, and you can calculate them using an inexpensive handheld
calculator in moments, regardless of the complexity of the electrical power system.

This method is simple because there are no awkward “base” changes to make, because kVAs are the same on both the
primary and secondary sides of every transformer. Best of all, you only need one calculation to determine the short-circuit
values at every point within the entire electrical power system. With the old per-unit method, you needed a separate

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Short-Circuit+Calculations... 9/14/2010
Short-Circuit Calculations: The Easy Way Page 2 of 2

calculation for each point in the system.

You can obtain short-circuit kVA values from your electrical utility company, but short-circuit power is also protected by
generators and motors. The kVA produced by a motor is equal to its starting inrush current. Likewise, the kVA produced by a
generator is equal to its kVA nameplate rating divided by its nameplate subtransient reactance rating (Xd).

For example, suppose we have a 1,000kVA generator with a subtransient rating of 0.15. It would instantaneously produce
6,667kVA (1,000 ÷ 0.15). Or, suppose we have a 100-hp motor with subtransient rating of 0.17. It would instantaneously
produce 588kVA (100 ÷ 0.17).

Now suppose this motor and generator connects to the same bus. Then, the short-circuit power available at that bus is the
sum 6,667kVA plus 588kVA, or 7,255kVA. If the electrical utility is rated to deliver 100,000kVA to this same bus, then the total
short-circuit power available at that bus is 107,255kVA.

Using the kVA method also greatly simplifies the calculation of short-circuit power attenuation (or holdback) provided by
reactors, transformers, and conductors. For example, a 2,000kVA, 7% impedance transformer will pass through its windings a
maximum of 28,571kVA of power (2,000 ÷ 0.07), if infinite power flows to one side of its windings. If instead of an infinite
current source, the above bus connects to this transformer, then the amount of power that will be “let through” the transformer
is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the two, or 1 ÷ ( [1 ÷107,254] + [1 ÷ 28,571] ), or 22,561kVA. You can
determine transformer impedance, reactor impedance, or cable size with the kVA method quickly enough to make “what-if”
calculations.

Comparisons over several years have found results of the kVA method to be accurate within 3% of computer calculations
using expensive software, so you can even use the kVA method as a “check” on the input and output of a computer
calculation. This is an excellent benefit because standard engineering procedure requires you to check calculations using a
different method from the one originally used.

Find this article at:


http://www.ecmweb.com/mag/electric_shortcircuit_calculations_easy/index.html

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