Chapter

5
Short-Circuit Calculations

When the current flow path is directed correctly, the pres-

sure of the source voltage forces normal current magnitudes
to flow through the load impedances. During this time, the
insulation surrounding the energized conductors prevents
current from flowing through any path other than through
the load impedance. In this situation, the load impedance is
large enough to limit the current flow to “normal” low val-
ues in accordance with Ohm’s law:

EIZ

Problems arise, however, when the conductor insulation

fails, permitting a shortened path for electron flow than
through the load impedance. If the shortened path, or short
circuit (also known as a fault), permits contact between a
phase conductor and an equipment grounding conductor,
this is known as a ground fault, or a phase-to-ground fault.
If, however, the shortened path instead permits contact
between two or three phase conductors, then it is known as
a phase-to-phase fault.
If a solid connection is made between the faulted phase con-
ductor and the other phase wire or the equipment grounding
conductor, then the short circuit is identified as a bolted fault.

179
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180 Chapter Five

In bolted faults, little or no arcing exists, the voltage drop

across the very low impedance of the almost-nonexistent arc
is very low, and the fault current is of high magnitude.
If an arcing connection is made between the faulted phase
conductor and the other phase wire or the equipment
grounding conductor, then the short circuit is identified as an
arcing fault, with its associated lowered fault current flow. In
certain systems, this arcing fault current can be so low that
it is not recognizable as a problem to the upstream overcur-
rent device. During such events, excessive heat buildup
around the arc can occur, causing further damage to the oth-
erwise sound electrical system or starting fires in nearby
structures or processes. Even though the fault may be small,
heat energy flows from it over time to the surroundings,
eventually causing high temperatures. High temperatures
applied to most wire insulation systems cause plastic defor-
mation and failure, frequently resulting in an even more
severe short circuit than the original one. It is because of this
consideration that everything possible must be done to inter-
rupt current flow to a fault as soon as possible after the
beginning of the fault or to limit fault current flow in some
way, such as with transformers or grounding resistors.
Considering that fault current can reach several hundred
thousand amperes, interrupting fault current flow can be a
formidable task, so one rating of circuit breakers and fuses
intended to interrupt fault currents is the ampere rating
that each can interrupt. These device ampere ratings fre-
quently are given in terms of symmetrical current values
(providing for no direct-current offset) or in terms of asym-
metrical current values that include provision for direct-cur-
rent (dc) offset. The relative amount of dc offset and
resulting asymmetrical current value multiplier used to
multiply by the symmetrical current value are related to the
X/R value of the system at the point of the fault. With a
highly resistive circuit having little reactance, the difference
between the symmetrical and asymmetrical current values
are minimal (there could be no difference at all), but with a
highly reactive system containing only a small resistance
value, the asymmetrical current value could be a multiple of
three to five times the symmetrical value, or higher.
 Short-Circuit Calculations 181

Large values of current cause large magnetic forces.

When fault current flows through switchgear or a circuit
breaker, the bus bars therein are attracted to one another
and then are forced apart from one another at a frequency
of 50 or 60 times per second depending on the frequency of
the power source. This equipment must be braced to with-
stand these forces, and this bracing is rated and is called the
withstand rating of the equipment. Thus a circuit breaker
must be rated in full-load amperes for normal operation, it
must have a withstand rating, and it must have an inter-
rupting rating.
The interrupting rating of a circuit breaker depends largely
on how fast its contacts can operate to begin to interrupt the
current flow in the circuit. A breaker that is extremely fast,
with a contact parting time of, say, one cycle, must be able to
interrupt much more current in a system with a large X/R
value than would a slower breaker. Fuses, on the other hand,
are able to open and interrupt fault current in less than 14
cycle, so fuses must carry accordingly greater ratings.
Although the calculation of the asymmetrical current val-
ues from the symmetrical current values is important, most of
the short-circuit calculation work goes into determining the
symmetrical short current availability at the prospective fault
point in the electrical power system. This symmetrical current
calculation normally is done for a phase-to-phase fault, with
the knowledge that this is normally the most demanding case.
Rarely (only where the fault occurs near very large electrical
machines having solidly grounded wye connections) does the
phase-to-ground fault exceed the phase-to-phase fault in cur-
rent availability. Therefore, concentration is on the phase-to-
phase fault for the electrical power system with the largest
expected quantity of rotating machines that will exist on the
system in the foreseeable future.
Short-circuit currents present a huge amount of destruc-
tive energy that can be released through electrical systems
under fault conditions. These currents can cause serious
damage to electrical systems and to equipment or nearby
persons. Protecting persons and electrical systems against
damage during short-circuit conditions is required by the
National Electrical Code (Secs. 110-9 and 110-10).
182 Chapter Five

Not only should short-circuit studies be performed when a

facility electrical system is first designed, but they also
should be updated when a major modification or renovation
takes place and no less frequently than every 5 years. Major
changes would include a change by the electrical utility, a
change in the primary or secondary system configuration
within the facility, a change in transformer size or imped-
ance, a change in conductor lengths or sizes, or a change in
the motors that are energized by a system.
When modifications to the electrical system increase the
value of available short-circuit current, a review of overcur-
rent protection device interrupting ratings and equipment
withstand ratings should be made. This may entail replacing
overcurrent protection devices or installing current-limiting
devices such as current-limiting fuses, current-limiting circuit
breakers, or current-limiting reactors. The key is to know, as
accurately as possible, how much short-circuit current is
available at every point within the electrical power system.

Sources of Short-Circuit Current

Every electrical system confines electric current flow to select-
ed paths by surrounding the conductors with insulators of var-
ious types. Short-circuit current is the flow of electrical energy
that results when the insulation barrier fails and allows cur-
rent to flow in a shorter path than the intended circuit. In nor-
mal operation, the impedances of the electrical appliance loads
limit the current flow to relatively small values, but a short-cir-
cuit path bypasses the normal current-limiting load imped-
ance. The result is excessively high current values that are
limited only by the limitations of the power source itself and by
the small impedances of the conductive elements that still
remain in the path between the power source and the short-
circuit point. Short-circuit calculations are used to determine
how much current can flow at certain points in the electrical
system so that the electrical equipment can be selected to with-
stand and interrupt that magnitude of fault current. In short-
circuit calculations, the contribution of current sources is first
determined, and then the current-limiting effects of imped-
 Short-Circuit Calculations 183

ances in the system are considered in determining how much

current can flow in a particular system part.
There are three basic sources of short-circuit currents:
■ The electrical utility
■ Motors
■ On-site generators

There are two types of motors that contribute short-circuit

current:
■ Induction motors
■ Synchronous motors

Between these sources of short-circuit current and the point

of the short circuit, various impedances act to limit (impede)
the flow of current and thus reduce the actual amount of
short-circuit current “available” to flow into a short circuit.
Naturally, the value of these impedances is different at every
point within an electrical system; therefore, the magnitudes
of short-circuit currents available to flow into a short circuit
at different places within the electrical system vary as well.
Several calculation methods are used to determine short-
circuit currents, and reasonably accurate results can be
derived by system simplifications prior to actually perform-
ing the calculations. For example, it is common to ignore the
impedance effect of cables except for locations where
the cables are very long and represent a large part of the
overall short-circuit current path impedance. Accordingly,
in the most common form of short-circuit calculations,
short-circuit current is considered to be produced by gener-
ators and motors, and its flow is considered to be impeded
only by transformers and reactors.

The Ability of the Electrical Utility System to

Produce Short-Circuit Current
By definition, the source-fault capacity is the maximum out-
put capability the utility can produce at system voltage.
184 Chapter Five

Generally, this value can be gotten from the electrical utili-

ty company by a simple request and is most often given in
amperes or kilovoltamperes.
Suppose that the utility company electrical system inter-
face data are given as

MVASC  2500 at 138 kilovolts (kV) with an X/R

 7 at the interface point

For this system, the utility can deliver 2,500,000 kilo-

voltamperes (kVA) ÷ [138 kV(兹3 苶)], or a total of 10,459 sym-
metrical amperes (A) of short-circuit current.
The short-circuit value from the electrical utility company
will be “added to” by virtue of contributions from the on-site
generator and motor loads within the plant or building elec-
trical power system. That is, the short-circuit value at the
interface point with the electrical utility will be greater than
just the value of the utility contribution alone.

Short-Circuit Contributions of On-Site

Generators
The nameplate of each on-site generator is marked with its
subtransient reactance Xd″ like this. This subtransient val-
ue occurs immediately after a short circuit and only contin-
ues for a few cycles. For short-circuit current calculations,
the subtransient reactance value is used because it produces
the most short-circuit current.
Determining how many kilovoltamperes an on-site genera-
tor can contribute to the short-circuit current of an electrical
power system is a simple one-step process, solved as follows:

generator kVA rating

Short-circuit kVA  
Xd ″ rating

For example, a typical synchronous generator connected to

a 5000 shaft horsepower (shp) gas turbine engine is rated at
7265 kVA, and its subtransient reactance Xd″ is 0.17. The
 Short-Circuit Calculations 185

problem is to determine the short-circuit output capabilities

of this generator. Thus

7265 kVA
Short-circuit kVA    42,735 kVA
0.17

Note that when more than one source of short-circuit cur-

rent is present in a system, the resulting amount of short-cir-
cuit kilovoltamperes available to flow through a short circuit
is simply the arithmetic sum of the kilovoltamperes from the
various sources, and the total equivalent kilovoltamperes from
all these sources is simply the arithmetic sum of the individ-
ual equivalent kilovoltampere values.
For example, if two of the preceding 7625-kVA, 138-kV
synchronous generators are cogenerating into an electrical
power system that is also supplied from an electrical utility
whose capabilities on the generator side of the utility trans-
former are 300 million voltamperes (MVA), how many total
fault kilovoltamperes are available at the terminals of the
generator? The answer is

Total kVA  2 (42,735 kVA)  300,000 kVA  385,470 kVA

It is worthwhile to note that the kilowatt rating of the gen-

erator set is not used in this calculation. Instead, the kilo-
voltampere rating of the electrical dynamo in the generator
set is used because it (not the engine) determines how many
short-circuit kilovoltamperes can be delivered momentarily
into a fault. This is so because most of the fault current is
quadrature-component current having a very lagging power
factor. Another way of saying this is that the fault current
does little work because of its poor power factor, and the size
of the engine determines the kilowatt value of real work the
generator set can do.

Short-Circuit Contributions of Motors

The nameplate of each motor is marked with its locked-rotor
code letter as well as with its rated continuous full-load current
186 Chapter Five

and horsepower. The locked-rotor value occurs immediately on

motor energization and also immediately after a short circuit.
After a short circuit, this large amount of current flow through
the motor only continues for a few cycles (even less time with
induction motors). Unless specific information about the indi-
vidual motor locked-rotor current characteristics is known,
normally, a value of six times the motor full-load current is
assumed. Dividing 100 percent current by 600 percent current
produces the normally assumed X″ motor value of 0.17. It is
this value that is used to determine the short-circuit power
contribution of a motor or group of motors. The characteristics
of small induction motors limit current flow more than those
of larger motors; therefore, for calculations involving motors
smaller than 50 horsepower (hp), the 0.17 value must be
increased to 0.20. In addition, the approximation that 1 hp
equals 1 kVA normally can be made with negligible error, par-
ticularly with motors of less than 200 hp.
Determining the short-circuit contribution from a motor is
a simple one-step process solved as follows:

motor horsepower rating

Short-circuit power  
0.17

(Note: 1 hp  1 kVA for this calculation.)

Unless specific values of subtransient reactance or motor
locked-rotor code letter are known, for motors of 50 hp and
less, use 0.20 for the subtransient reactance. For individual
motors or groups of motors producing 50 hp and more, use
0.17 for the subtransient reactance. Always assume that 1
hp  1 kVA.
For example, a typical 460-volt (V) motor is rated at 40 hp.
Determine the short-circuit contribution of this motor. Thus

40 kVA
Short-circuit power    200 kVA
0.20

If there were 10 identical motors of this same rating con-

nected to one bus, then their total short-circuit contribution
at the bus would be 10  200 kVA  2000 kVA.
 Short-Circuit Calculations 187

Note that for motors of 50 hp or larger, the Xd″ rating of

0.17 should be used. For example, a typical 4.16-kV motor is
rated at 2000 hp. Determine the short-circuit power contri-
bution of this motor.
Setting 1 hp equal to 1 kVA, we get

2000 kVA
Short-circuit power    11,764 kVA
0.17

If all the short-circuit current contributors were at the

same voltage, then short-circuit currents simply could be
added to one another to determine the total amount avail-
able to flow in a system. However, because transformers
greatly lessen the flow of fault current and also change volt-
ages, the impact of transformers must be considered, and
fault values transported through transformers must be cal-
culated in terms of power instead of amperes.

Let-Through Values of Transformers

For any transformer, the maximum amount of power (the
fault capacity) that the transformer will permit to flow from
one side of the transformer to the other side, in kilovoltam-
peres, is calculated as

transformer kilovoltampere rating

Let-through power  
%Z/100

For example, a 2000-kVA transformer has a nameplate

impedance of 6.75 percent, and its voltage ratings are 13.8
kV-277/480 V, three phase. Find the maximum amount of
power that this transformer can let through if it is energized
from an infinite power source. The answer is

transformer kilovoltampere rating

Let-through power  
%Z/100
2000
   29,630 kVA
0.0675
188 Chapter Five

If the power source upstream of the transformer is not

infinite, then the amount of power that would be available
on the load side of the transformer would be less, and it is
calculated using admittances as follows:
■ Utility short-circuit power is UP, and its admittance is
1/UP.
■ Maximum transformer let-through is T, and its admit-
tance is 1/T.
■ Net power from the utility let through the transformer P
is calculated as

1
P  
(1/UP)  (1/T)

Where the utility can supply 385,000 kVA, the amount

that the preceding 2000-kVA, 6.75 percent impedance trans-
former can let through, or admit, is calculated as

1
P    27,512 kVA
(1/385,000)  (1/29,630)

Let-Through Values of Reactors

Similar to a transformer coil in its current-limiting charac-
teristics, a reactor is a series impedance used to limit fault
current. In a three-phase circuit, there are normally three
identical reactor coils, each connected in series with the
phase conductors between the source and the electrical load.
The amount of power that a reactor will let through from an
infinite power source to a short circuit on the output termi-
nals of the reactor is calculated as

Let-through power
1000 (phase-to-phase kilovolt circuit rating)2
 
reactor impedance in ohms per phase
 Short-Circuit Calculations 189

For example, in a three-phase reactor operating within a

4.16-kV circuit, the impedance of each of the three reactor
coils is 0.125 ohms (). Assuming that an infinite power
source is connected to the line terminals of the three-phase
reactor, how much short-circuit power would the reactor let
through to a “bolted” short circuit on the load terminals of
the reactor? The answer is

1000 (4.16)2
Let-through power    138,444 kVA
0.125

Let-Through Power Values of Cables

A length of cable is a series impedance that limits short-cir-
cuit current. As with reactors, there is a maximum amount
of power any cable will let through to a short circuit from
an infinite power source at system voltage. Each size and
configuration of cable has unique impedance characteristics
(found within the manufacturer’s cable catalog), and typical
values are shown in Fig. 4-11 for 600-V cable, for 5-kV
cable, and for 15-kV cable. The impedance values in this
table contain the resistance, inductive reactance, and over-
all impedance of typical cables in units of ohms per thou-
sand feet.
The amount of short-circuit power that a cable would let
through to a short circuit if an infinite power source were
connected to one end of the cable and the short circuit is at
the other end of the cable is calculated as

Short-circuit power

1000 (phase-to-phase kilovolt circuit rating)2

 
cable impedance in ohms per phase

For example, a 3/c 500-kCMIL copper cable that is 650

feet (ft) long is operated on a 480-V three-phase system.
How much power would this cable let through to a short
circuit if the impedance of the cable is given as 0.0268 
190 Chapter Five

per thousand feet? The short-circuit capacity of this cable

is calculated as

Let-through power
1000 (phase-to-phase kilovolt circuit rating)2
 
cable impedance in ohms per phase

1000 (0.480)2
 
(0.0268 ) 0.650
As mentioned earlier, the effect of cable is often neglected
in short-circuit calculations. However, the amount of fault
current that can flow through a cable, together with the
time duration during which it can flow, can be considered in
sizing medium-voltage cable using a cable damage curve. A
detailed explanation of this thermal damage cable calcula-
tion is provided along with cable thermal damage curves in
Figs. 4-27 and 4-28.

Sample Short-Circuit Calculation

It is desired to determine the short-circuit value available at
the 13.8-kV bus in the electrical system shown in Fig. 5-1.
The equivalent drawing of the electrical system is given in
Fig. 5-2, along with the calculations and calculation results
of the short-circuit values available at different points in the
system. Note the arrows showing the direction of power flow
into the fault point.
In this calculation, the fault point is the 13.8-kV bus.
Fault power is available to flow into this bus from

1. The electrical utility source

2. The 24-megawatt (MW), 30-MVA generator
3. The 5000-hp motor
4. The 200-hp motor
5. The 40-hp motor

If all these loads had been connected directly to the 13.8-

kV bus, the calculation would have been quite straightfor-
 Short-Circuit Calculations 191

Figure 5-1 Electrical power system one-line drawing for short-circuit

calculation example.

ward, but the system contains two transformers that change

current values and present large oppositions to fault current
flow. Therefore, measures must be used in the calculation
procedure to accommodate these transformations and their
impedances.
In this example problem, the following steps are taken and
are shown in numerical form in Fig. 5-2. First, however, note
that electrical short-circuit power can come from four
sources in this circuit:

1. The 400,000-kVA electrical utility service

2. The 24-MW, 30-MVA generator
3. The 5000-hp motor
4. The motors connected to the 480-V bus
192 Chapter Five

Figure 5-2 Solve for the short-circuit current in the electrical power system
of Fig. 5-1.

Step 1. Power from the 400,000-kVA electrical utility ser-

vice is restrained from flowing entirely into the fault point
at the 13.8-kV bus by the impedance of the transformer. As
is shown in the calculation in Fig. 5-2, only 142,857 kVA of
the original 400,000 kVA of electrical utility power can get
through the transformer to the fault point.
Step 2. As shown in the calculation beside the generator
in Fig. 5-2, the subtransient reactance of the 30-MVA gener-
ator limits its contribution into the fault to 176,470 kVA.
Step 3. The contribution of the 5000-hp motor into the
fault is limited by its impedance to 29,411 kVA.
 Short-Circuit Calculations 193

Step 4. The small contributions from the 200- and 40-hp

480-V motors, 1376 kVA, are reduced to an even smaller val-
ue by the 1000-kVA transformer to 1275 kVA.
Step 5. The sum of these power contributions into this
fault point is 350,013 kVA, as shown in Fig. 5-2. When this
value is divided by 13.8 kV multiplied by the square root of
3, the result is the actual fault current at the fault point,
which is 14.6 kA.