Ground Fault Current Distribution When a Ground Fault Occurs in HV Substations Located in an Urban Area

The paper presents a method of determination of ground fault current distribution when HV (high voltage) substations are located in urban or suburban areas, or where many relevant data necessary for determination of this distribution are uncertain or completely unknown. The problem appears as a consequence of the fact that many of urban metal installations are situated under the surface of the ground and cannot be visually determined or verified. On the basis of on-the-site measurements, the developed method enables compensating all deficiencies of the relevant data about metal installations involved with the fluctuating magnet field appearing around and along a feeding power line during an unbalanced fault. The presented analytical procedure is based on the fact that two measurable quantities, currents in one phase conductor and in one neutral line conductor, cumulatively involve the inductive effects of all, known and unknown surrounding metal installations. Once, this quantity has been determined, the problem of determination of different parts of a ground fault current becomes solvable by using a relatively simple calculation procedure. The presented quantitative analysis indicates at the benefits that can be obtained by taking into account the presence of surrounding metal installations.