Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
There's more to this process than meets the eye Find more articles on Ground Fault According to the IEEE Buff Book, A power cable must be protected from overheating due to excessive short-circuit current flowing in its conductor, which may damage or destroy the insulation. It also says, The shield of the cable beyond the fault also carries part of the fault return current, which may then return along the shields of other conductors or equipment-grounding conductors, from common grounding points.
Fig. 1. Single-line diagram of a typical MV distribution system with ground-fault protective relays. How can you verify that a power cable's shield will be able to carry a fault current of specific magnitude in the time needed for operation of a fault-current protection device without damaging cable insulation? Let's take a closer look.
The Table on lists the measured current distributions during 400A ground-fault tests for various conduit-cable-ground wire configurations. The sum of the currents shown adds to more than 100% due to phase-angle differences in currents. As you can see, the percentages shown in the Table vary with the cable-conduit-ground wire configuration of the tested feeder. The Table also shows that the majority of fault return current will flow in the metallic conduit and ground wire, because their impedances are much lower than that of typical shielding constructions. For ground-fault coordination study purposes, you can safely assume that 15% of the available fault current will flow in each metallic shield.
0.063 for 5kV through 15kV- and 25kV-rated cables 0.065 for 35kV- to 46kV-rated cables 0.066 for 69kV-rated cables
For 90C-rated power cables with copper shielding and thermoset jacket [Neoprene, Hypalon, or thermoset polyethylene (CPE)], the constant M is as follows:
0.089 for 5kV through 15kV- and 25kV-rated cables 0.090 for 35kV- to 46kV-rated cables 0.091 for 69kV-rated cables
By inserting any known two of the three variables in Equation 1, you can verify that the copper shield in each of your MV feeders is capable of carrying its portion of fault current within the time requirements dictated by the respective ground-fault relay or overcurrent protection device. To find out various performance characteristics of your proposed shield construction, insert the proper value for the constant M into the ICEA equation, and then solve this equation for the characteristic in question. For example, if you want to know the maximum amount of time (t) that a given fault current (IO) can flow in a given shield, take Equation 1 and solve it for t: t = (MA IO)2 (Eq. 2)
Listing of measured current distributions during 400A ground-fault tests for various conduit-cable-ground wire configurations. The sum of the currents shown adds to more than 100% due to phase-angle differences in currents. The table is reprinted with permission from the IEEE Transactions on Industry, Vol. IA-22, No. 6, November/December 1986, paper titled Are Cable Shields Being Damaged During Ground Faults? by Paul S. Hamer and Barry M. Wood. You may find that standard shield constructions may not have sufficient cross-sectional area to handle the fault current for the cable in question. In this situation, you can then consider the following construction options that may satisfy the more demanding requirement:
14 AWG concentric wire strands in lieu of the standard 18 AWG sizing. Helically applied 5-mil tape with 17% overlap. One layer of overlapped, helically applied, 5-mil tape plus a second layer of reverse lay overlapped, helically
applied, 5-mil tape.
In situations where numerous calculations are required, especially in coordination studies involving many MV feeders, you can use shield withstand-limit curves that you can prepare yourself. Here's how to go about it: 1. Obtain actual circular mil area values of metallic shields per cable voltage and shield and cable construction. 2. Plug in these values, along with either incremental time values or ground-fault current values, into Equations 2 or 3.
3. Plot the solutions on log-log graph paper to form a specific shield withstand-limit curve, an example of which
is shown in Fig. 2 (click here to see Fig. 2). By verifying that the required shield withstand falls below and to the left of the limit curve, you confirm the adequacy of the proposed shield construction. The shield withstand curve shown here is that of a 4/0 AWG, 15kV, grounded, concentric wire strand shielded MV power cable. The dotted lines represent the required shield withstand limits of Feeder No. 1 and Feeder No. 2. Note that the required withstand limits fall within the performance characteristics of the shielding configuration used in the feeders. Medium-voltage (MV) power cables can also be damaged by sustained overvoltages, such as during a ground fault in one phase. This is why they bear a rating called percent insulation level, or %IL. The %IL ratings include the following:
100%IL Cables that may not be required to operate longer than 1 minute in case of a ground fault. 133%IL Cables that may not be required to operate longer than 1 hour in case of a ground fault. 173%IL Cables that may not be required to operate longer than 1 hour continuously with one phase
conductor grounded. Generally, you would set the timing of permissible protective systems in accordance with the IL rating of the cables involved.