Table of Contents

Introduction..............................................................................................3
Guidelines for selecting protective devices................................4

HIGH 1 Overview ..............................................................................................4

2 Overload protection ........................................................................5
3 Short circuit protection ..................................................................7
FACTORS LIMITING FAULT CURRENT ............................................8

FAULT 1 Capacity of the supply source ....................................................8

2 Transformer impedance ................................................................9
3 Circuit wiring impedance ..............................................................9
4 Fault current limiters ....................................................................10

CURRENTS DETERMINING PROSPECTIVE FAULT CURRENTS ....................11

PROTECTING CUSTOMER’S INSTALLATIONS AGAINST
DAMAGE FROM SHORT CIRCUIT FAULTS ....................................15
1 Limiting fault currents due to circuit impedance ..............15
2 Selecting —
(a) HRC fuse backup protection................................................17
(b) Circuit breaker backup (cascading) ..................................17
DETERMINING WHEN FAULT CURRENT
LIMITING IS REQUIRED ....................................................................18
APPENDIX A............................................................................................19
APPENDIX B ..........................................................................................20

2003
H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 2

Introduction
Electricity consumption has increased dramatically in the
majority of commercial and industrial installations. To meet
this increased demand, it’s common practice now for the
transformer which supplies these installations to be
installed beside the main switchroom. In some larger
installations, extra transformers may be sited strategically
to supply major equipment.
In large installations, long runs of mains are avoided so
there is no excessive voltage drop. When a fault occurs,
the impedance of mains, submains and final subcircuit
is a major factor in reducing high fault currents in the
installation.
The magnitude of fault currents to be expected at
transformer terminals will far exceed the rated output listed
on the transformer manufacturer’s nameplate. A 500kV.A
transformer with a rated output of 695 A could supply,
under certain conditions, a shortcircuit current as high as
13 900 A.
All equipment in an installation including protective devices
must be able to interrupt safely the calculated or limited
fault currents which may be present. Guidelines to consider
in designing an electrical installation are:
• All equipment must have the capacity to operate safely
at the prospective fault current available at its
installation point; or
3 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s
• If fault current limiters are to be used, they must be:
selected to prevent fault conditions from exceeding a
predetermined level (e.g. the maximum rating of
equipment used in that part of the installation), and
installed to comply with recommended standards,
eg AS/NZS 3000
Whatever method is chosen, the equipment must be able to
clear a fault without damage to itself.
There are considerable dangers inherent in wrong selection
of equipment or improper installation of suitable
equipment. The high levels of energy dissipated during
faults involving high currents can extensively damage plant
and could lead to injury for anyone working nearby.
Guidelines for Selecting
Protective Devices
1. Overview
Overcurrent protection is the main type of protection used
in most electrical installations. In some circumstances, a
Safety Switch or R.C.D. protection may also be mandated or
selected.
Overcurrent protection requires:
• fuses or circuit breakers capable of carrying the rated
current continuously;
H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 4
 • short duration low level overloads should not cause If an overload occurs through an increase in loading, then a
operation higher-than-normal current would flow through the
protective device and final subcircuit, causing increased
• protection must operate on any overload which persists
temperature in the protective device, which, in turn, would
long enough to cause circuit conductors to overheat;
cause it to operate.
• protection must open the circuit before fault currents
In overloads, the current increase will be relatively low
cause damage;
compared with currents in a short circuit where the only
• protection should be “discriminative”, isolating only the limiting factors are the cable impedance before the fault
faulty circuit while others remain unaffected. and the fault impedance. Operating time for protective
devices under overloads may vary from 2 hours for a 125%
Overcurrent protection devices may protect against either
overload to 3 seconds for a 600% overload (see diagram).
overload or short circuit conditions, both of which must be
properly understood and considered when designing new
installations or adding to or altering existing ones.
NOTE: If high current levels could exist under short circuit
conditions, it is essential to determine the level of
prospective fault currents and install suitably rated
protection equipment or use current limiters to reduce fault
currents to an acceptable level.

2. Overload protection
The current rating of any protection device is determined by
the current level it is capable of carrying continuously
without deterioration. If the circuit current has been
correctly calculated and the proper conductor size selected,
then the protective device and conductors would be Typical tripping characteristic curves. A, Miniture circuit breakers; B, HRC
expected to carry this current continuously without cartridge fuses; C, Rewirable fuses.
deterioration.

5 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 6
 Any circuit protection device selected primarily for
overcurrent protection must isolate the protected circuit
only after a specific overload has been sustained for a
predetermined time.
Consider also the protective device’s capacity to withstand
the fault current which may exist at that part of the
installation where the fault occurs. Methods of determining
prospective fault currents are discussed later.
3. Short circuit protection
Short circuit fault protection is achieved if the fuse or circuit
breaker acts fast enough to open the circuit before the
current can cause damage by overheating, arcing or
mechanical stress. Furthermore, the protective device must
be capable of opening the circuit under these high current
conditions such that the installation is free of electrical risk.
If the selected device can’t handle the high fault current
conditions then the outcome normally is explosive and
violent because the very high energy levels cannot be
contained and must be dissipated rapidly.
When a short circuit occurs in a customer’s installation
factors limiting the current at the fault location include:
• capacity of the supply source
• transformer impedance;
• circuit impedance (total of mains, submains and final
subcircuit up to the fault location), and
• whether fault current limiters have been installed.
7 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s
Factors Limiting Fault Current
1. Capacity of Supply Source
The energy released under short circuit fault conditions is
governed by the capacity of the supply source.
The capacity of an electrical system and its supply source
depends on its size in terms of the generators feeding it.
A small portable generating set provides a limited capacity
to cause damage under short circuit conditions – a large
transmission system fed from several large generating
stations provides the capacity to cause very
considerable damage.
The increased generating capacity of modern supply
systems has led to an increase in the prospective current
available at a customer’s electrical installation under short
circuit conditions.
NOTE: While reference has been made only to short circuit
currents, a portable generating set is just as lethal an
electric shock hazard as its reticulated supply.
It is not uncommon today for protective equipment in
electrical installations to have to withstand the effects of
energy released by fault currents of 30 000 amperes (30 kA)
or more.
When a fault provides a path of negligible impedance in an
electrical installation, large electromagnetic forces are
developed and great amounts of heat energy released due
to the large currents flowing.
H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 8
 The operation of an electric welder demonstrates that even
relatively low currents of around 100 A are capable of
I
melting metal. It is not hard to visualise the damage V
thousands of amperes could cause if uncontrolled. This is I=
an important consideration in designing and building R
electrical equipment and installations.
V R
2. Transformer impedance
A transformer’s impedance usually is expressed as a
percentage of the primary voltage needed to circulate full
load current in a short-circuited secondary. A 5%
impedance is common. It means that only 5% of the normal Then if R = 10 Ohms I= 24 A
primary voltage will produce full load current in the short- R= 1 Ohm I= 240 A
circuited secondary. It follows that, at normal voltage R= 0.1 Ohms I= 2 400 A
(neglecting any impedance on the line side of the R= 0.01 Ohms I= 24 000 A
transformer), a three phase short circuit on the secondary R= 0.005 Ohms I= 48 000 A
side would result in a current twenty times as great as the Resistance below 0.01 Ohms is normal in industrial
full load current flowing in the short-circuited secondary. installations.
3. Circuit wiring impedance 4. Fault Current limiters
To understand why circuit impedance plays so critical a role Fault current limiters should be selected to limit
in limiting current at a fault, let us go back to basic instantaneous fault currents to a value within the capacity
electrical theory. of the equipment being protected. In selecting suitable
OHM’s LAW STATES THAT CURRENT IS EQUAL TO fault current limiters, consider:
VOLTAGE DIVIDED BY CIRCUIT RESISTANCE. • Short circuit current available from the supply;
At a constant V of 240 volts, substituting various resistance • Ratings and characteristics of the connected
values in this circuit demonstrates how dramatically current equipment; and
levels increase as impedance falls.
• Rating and characteristics of the protective equipment.

9 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 10
 Where protective equipment is selected with a fault-
interrupting capacity less than the fault level at the
installation point, it must be backed up by a device which
will limit fault currents to a level the equipment can
withstand safely. Typically a HRC fuse or suitably designed
circuit breaker is used as the fault current limiter (FCL) in
these situations.

Determining Prospective Fault

Currents
Fault levels normally are expressed in megavolt-amperes
kV.A
(MV.A) which is 1000. This level can be calculated or
obtained from the local supply authority. When calculating
fault levels it is essential to know the kV.A rating and Once the fault level has been determined, the prospective
impedance of the transformer supplying the installation. fault current can be calculated by:

A 500 kV.A transformer with 5% impedance would produce For a three phase load the prospective fault current in kA.
a fault level of = MV.A x 1000
500 x 100 3 x Line Volts
= 10 MV.A
1000 x 5 The Prospective fault current for a 500 kV. A transformer
If the impedance of this transformer was only 4%, then the with 5% impedance is:
fault level would be: PFC = 10 x 1000
500 x 100 3 x 415
= 12.5 MV.A
1000 x 4 = 13.9 kA.
Alternatively, refer to the table which gives details of full
load current, short circuit output in MV.A and short circuit
current for a range of transformers with 5% impedance.

11 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 12
 NOTE: This calculates the prospective fault current If the only information available is the transformer’s kV.A
expected at the transformer terminals under worst possible rating and impedance, the prospective fault current can be
conditions and neglects any impedance upstream of the determined from this graph.
supply transformer.
Prospective short circuit levels of transformers
Alternatively, the prospective fault current in kA can be
determined from the graph.
Conversion graph MV.A vs kA at 415 volts

Transformer impedance (percent)

For example a 1000 kV.A transformer with 5% impedance

could supply a fault current of approximately 28kA.
NOTE: These are fault currents at the transformer terminals;
they will be affected by cable impedance and any installed
current limiting devices.

13 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 14
 The total kV.A rating of two or more transformers in parallel
is the sum of the capacity of all transformers. e.g. Three
500 kV.A transformers equals 1500 kV.A and the
prospective fault current is 41.7 kA.
Protecting Customer’s
Installations Against Damage
from Short Circuit Faults
Fault currents in a customer’s installation are subject to
limiting due to circuit impedance and the selection and
installation of a suitable fault current limiter.
1 Limiting fault currents due to circuit impedance
The prospective fault current at any point in a customer’s
installation depends on the total impedance of all
conductors, mains, sub mains and final subcircuit
between the transformer terminals and the fault location.
Prospective fault currents are effectively lowered when
circuit length is increased, cross sectional area of the
conductors is decreased, or conductors of a higher
impedance are used (e.g., aluminium rather than copper).
These factors may introduce other difficulties such as
reduced current carrying capacity or increased voltage
drop in the installation.
Appendix A provides cable impedances for various
lengths of copper conductors. Adjustments must be
made as noted if aluminium cables are used.
Fault currents can be determined at any point in the
customer’s installation using Appendix B, a graph
showing how prospective fault currents decrease as
the conductor impedance increases.
EXAMPLE
Where the prospective fault current at the point of supply is
30 kA, what is the fault current at the end of a 5m final
subcircuit consisting of 2.5mm2 copper conductors, given
that the consumer’s mains consist of 10 m of 150 mm2 cable
and the submain consists of 25m of 25mm2 cable?
Impedance of
Mains = .0012 ( 10 metres 150 mm2)
Sub Mains + .017 (25 metres 25 mm2)
Final Sub Circuit + .036 ( 5 metres 2.5 mm2)
Total Impedance .0542
say .055 ohms
From Appendix B, fault current is reduced to 4kA.

15 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 16
 NOTE: Fault currents at the end of each conductor in the
circuit are: end of consumer’s mains (0.0012 ohms) 26 kA,
Determining when Fault Current
end of submains (0.0182 ohms) 9 kA, end of final subcircuit
(0.055 ohms) 4 kA.
Limiting is Required
When necessary, the customer should provide and install
The fault current limiting effect of the consumer’s mains is
fault current limiting equipment to protect his installation.
negligible because of larger cross sectional area and shorter
In general, where a HRC fuse rated up to 100 A is installed,
length, illustrating that the smaller the cable, the higher the
no additional fault current limiters need to be connected in
impedance and greater the reduction in fault current.
the circuit(s) protected by that fuse. A HRC service fuse
2 Selecting suitable fault current limiters rated up to 100 A will provide suitable fault current limiting
to a customer’s installation.
(a) HRC fuse backup protection
Equipment manufacturers provide technical details of
the maximum HRC fused size to use to limit fault
current energy to a level that their protective
equipment can withstand safely.
(b) Circuit breaker backup (cascading)
The advent of high-interrupting capacity fault current
limiting circuit breakers allows the backing up of
circuit breakers with insufficient interrupting capacity
by circuit breakers which limit the “let through”
energy to a safe level.
In the event of a fault, both circuit breakers may
operate.
This practice frequently is referred to as “cascading”
and, where used, should be installed in accordance with
the manufacturer’s cascading co-ordination instructions.

17 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 18
 Appendix A Appendix B

19 H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s H i g h F a u l t C u r r e n t s 20