PowerWorld - A Software Approach to
Transmission Line Fault Analysis
A paper by Prajakta Dhawane
Bharati Vidyapeeth University
Absuud- The falllt aulysis is doae for the three
phase sym••etric2I fa.at •• d die a~ halts..
TlIe unsymmetrical faults include siagie _ to grouod.,
tiBe to liDeaJIddoable tiae to grouad &lilt. llae metllod
employed is bllS i_pedaatt matrix wIIidt bas certain
advantages over tlleveaUa's equivaleat _dbocL The
advautage of this approach over coaveatioeal metllod is
to make the analysis of three typical un-symmetrical
faults, namely single-line-to-ground fault, line-to-line
fault and double-line-to-ground fault more unified. So it
is aa~ to camberso_dy coaaed dlrcc seqllCllce
networks ",hen calculating the fauft voltagesat acb bus
and fault carn:ats flowiag from otIe bas to its
neigbboriag bas. Tile resalts have beea obbiaed using
the POWERWORLD Simulator, which usesthe method
of Bus Impedance i\'btriL
Index Terms- - Bus impedance matrix, fault analysis,
powerworld, thevenin 's equivalent.
1. INTRODUCT[ON
T he steady state operating mode of a power
system is balanced 3-phase ac. However due to
sudden external or internal changes in the system,
this condition is disrupted. When the insulation of the
system fails at one or more points or a conducting
object comes in contact with a live point, a short
circuit or fault occurs. A fault involving all the three
phases is known as symmetrical (balanced) fault
while one involving only one or two phases is known
as unsymmetrical fault. Majority of the faults are
unsymmetrical. Fault calculations involve finding the
voltage and current distribution throughout the
system during the fault. It is important to ·determine
the values qf system voltages and currents during
fault conditions so that the protective devices may be
set to detect the fault and isolate the faulty portion of
the system.
II. FAULTS IN A THREE PHASE SYSTEM
under guidance of Prof. S.U.Kulkarni,
,
College of Engineering , Pune
1_ Symmetrical three-phase fault
2_ Single line-to-ground fanft (SLG)
3_ Line-to-line fault (IL)
4. Double line-to-ground fault (OLG)
The mostcommon type of fauhs by far is the SLG
fault, followed in frequency of occurrence by the LL
fault, DLG fault, and three-phase fault.
Out of the above four faults, two are of the line-to-
ground faults. Most of these occur as a result of
insulator f1asbovcr during electrical storms. The
balanced three-phase fault is the rarest in occurrence
and the least complex in so fur as the fault current
calculations are concerned. The other three
unsymmetricaJ faults will require the knowledge and
use of symmetrical components. Unsymmetrical
faults cause unbalanced currents to flow in the
system. The method of symmetrical components is a
very powerful tool which makes the calculations of
unsymmetrical faults almost as easy as the
calculations of a three-phase fault.
To analyze un-symmetrical faults, one needs to
develop positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence
networks of the power system under study, based on
which one further needs to work' out the impedance
of three thevenin equivalent circuits as viewed from
faulty point. Then the positive-, negative- and zero-
sequence components of phase-a faulty-point-to-
ground current can be calculated. To calculate three-
pbase currents flowing from one bus to its
neighboring bus and three-phase voltages at each bus,
one needs to connect three sequence networks
uniquely for each type of fault. This may make
circuit drawing very cumbersome. Furthermore by
using the network with three sequence networks
connected, it is impossible to appreciate the
impedance matrix approach to calculate the sequence
voltage at each bus when fault occurs.
To overcome these two drawbacks, paper [1]
introduces a new approach to unify the analysis of
 three typical unsymmetrical faults, namely single-
line-to-ground fault, line-to-line fault and double-
line-to-ground fault. This new method allows the
analysis of three typical un-symmetrical faults to <:0
share all steps except one. The only different step is
bow to calculate the posirive-, negative-, and zero-
a---~i
sequence components of pbase-a-to-ground fault Ifa®
current at faulty point. It also makes impedance
matrix approach more UIldastmdable when used to b .-
calculate the sequence voltages at each bus.

All the above four fuuJts ( L,2., 3., 4.) are being
c -------------~ __--~--------------
solved using the bus impedance matrix and the same
results are obtained from the powerwodd simulator.

®
.~.
a

!fa ~t
'. -.
® Zf
b
lib ~r
(k)
~.
ill. BUS IMPEDANCE MATRIX MElHOD

We can work out a universal representation of all

c f----------- three typical un-symmetrical faults. This
representation is valid with the imposition of
Ifc Ii different fault conditions for each typical lID-
symmetrical fault, such as for the single-line-to-
ground fault, such as for the single-line-to-ground
Fig.l. Single line to ground fault
fault, the fault conditions being V ka=Zrlfa,
Itb=Ifc=O.

ill the following formulation, per-unit system

is adopted Zero-sequence oltage at each bus
a contributed by equivalent current source is
determined by

Zf

Fig.2. Line to line fault

This gives
 .?
AV(') Z(I} Z{I) Z(I) Z(I} V (2) -Z (2)1(2)
If In II;: h

AV(') Z(I)
II

Z{I)
11

Z(I)
"' Z(I} V
If

(1) -Z (2)1(2)
1C 21 22 2l: 2n 2f 21;: h

=
AV(') Z(I) Z(I) Z(I) Z(I) V (1)
u t.:I U H:: 1.-.. H

AV(') Z(I) Z(I) Z{l} Z(I) V (2)

.c nl a2
"" DB Dr
-Z(I)I(I)
0 zY)
It: b
-Z(')I(')
~2)
. I 11 ~!l .. ~}
0 21: r••
'4 t:1
2
_I
) .. z1:1 .. zg}
.
_el)fa -Z (1)1(1) zY}=
1;;:1;:b
4~) zt> .. Z(2)
H:: .. zi!>
o
z<2)
nl
zY)
ril.

If pre-fault current is ignored, then the pre-fault

voltage at each bus is the same and equal to that at Following figure shows the single line diagram of a
fault bus k before fault occurs, which is assumed to four bus system. Let the bus number 4 be faulted. Let
be V f . So the positive sequence voltage at each bus us perform the fault analysis for faults (1.,2.,3.,4.).
when fault occurs can be written as follows. using powerworld.

-v.:1) 9
If I
.• 2
I) I)
1f 1

VP)
tf
= v.
t
1)
+
AV~'}
tf
=
v, +
-Z~~
liL';
_.- U"'luot'l'
IllN11
SINor

rL
I) v.9
D
AV{l)
of
v. -t2~
fig. 4. Sino~ lincdiagram from POWERWORLD
Vr-~~~
V
f
_t:r!I) ·fa

V _Z(I)~)
f H::

In a similar way, the negative-sequence voltage at

each bus can be COG1 uted by

TABLE [
 SfNGLE LfNE TO GROUND FAUL T VOLT AGES DOUBLE UNE TO GROUND FAUL T VOLT AGES

----
~ ~- ~.---.••.c::-- :.~~.- ~---.-- ~-----.
~
="=----':F'''",,-=:=,- ••~
I",~;;;:
•••••

.=r.::..
".""
•••
-~~
"'Il>;;;"l!;;------ -~· ·:_~~--
~
.~

__ -_d ~_-::.:-~~ -.p.:

-; 1'" !•••
~

TABLE V
TABLE II
IN-LINE FAULT VOLTAGES
UNE TO LLNE FAULT VOLTAGES

'-~
~.-~
.~~-- --
-- ----...
,.,.".-_. ---
,-
-~
IIliIMI

~-----
,
'--

••••••

-~-~
1IiI--'--

:-

-~&.
-----

-"'~
- ~--

... ~-----
s:!.ZIll (l;~ ~ .•0:. -11m2 ~

~~ ::.::: :::- -:: -.nS!: ~: - --Uiiri:- - -I~ ~ -•.•.-u ••

.---~ ~ Vi&s - .' ..•.. --~ ••
11""
&.....
~
~
LlI8(! ••
- •••• -- •..,.
'J!
~.
'1I'j"tl
,"II( ....
,..••
.--.-~--.~
- •••• -- UiIiI!II
0.--' ---ril ". -~ ._ .. u
.

TABLE [[[
IV. CONCLUSION
THREE PHASE BALANCED FAULT VOLTAGES
This paper presents a method to tackle typical un-
symmetrical faults. It is foundthat the bus impedance
~----- - s.iQpr--- •• ~-------&lY......r---
matrix method invol es comparatively less
'-~-'IIMe-~~

~ -~
;:~

-~-~~----- .-
-~

-~

--------
~:Nr--=---
-~-.--~--
FItiIIDIIiI -au.a. ....~
••••.

~
computations than the thevenin's equivalent method
The software approach using powerworld foe
analyzing the fanlts invovlves the IJ5C of the stated
method This furthec makes e calculations less
tedious, regardless of the co exity of the
s= .•••• <r<I ..,. powersystcm, The proposed app r
.Uiiii .. --. -y-----p
U3 ~ .------i-.'-' advantage over traditional method that it is more
UiIj'--- - roD -0-----_·0·
intuitive when matrix approach is adopted to tackle a
fan h problem,

- 1-1 1""'.

TABLE IV V. REFERENCES
[1] Darning Zhang," An alternative approach to
analyze un-symmetrical faults in power
system".

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