CALCULATION OF BUSBAR 3-PHASE FAULT CURRENTS OF AN INDUSTRIAL POWER NETWORK BY PERFORMING SHORT-CIRCUIT ANALYSIS USING ETAP SOFTWARE

This paper provokes the idea of faults in the power system, and it is stimulated in this work. Mainly there are two major faults that can occur in power system, these are open circuit fault and short circuit fault. Of the two faults, short circuit fault is the more dangerous because it can result in extremely high fault currents, which can have very serious consequences like electromechanical forces and thermal heating on equipment that may require replacement, as well as possibly starting fires and other similar secondary effects in the power system. Building systems are particularly vulnerable. To prevent problems from short circuits, electrical protection systems must be created to be able to identify any potential abnormal fault currents and then take corrective action to prevent issues from short circuits and to isolate the faulty section of the system in short time as it is consistent with the magnitude of the short circuit fault current level. This requires that the fault current be predicted for a fault in any particular location or place where the fault as occurred in the power system. This paper describes the calculation of Busbar 3- phase fault currents of an industrial power network by performing short circuit analysis at different locations. This analysis is done by using Electrical Transient Analyzer Program (ETAP).