What happens to voltage and current during a fault?

Faults cause voltage to collapse and current to increase.

Why does current increase during a fault?

Increase in current occur due to the fact that system impedance decreases during fault condition where as decrease in voltage happens due to demagnetizing nature of armature reaction.

How does fault current flow?

A fault current is an unintended, uncontrolled, high current flow through an electrical system. Fault currents are caused by very low impedance short circuits. These may be shorts to ground or across phases. If the resistance was zero, then the calculated fault current would go to infinity.

How does circuit current behave on the occurrence of fault in a power system?

Effects of electrical faults Over current flow: When fault occurs it creates a very low impedance path for the current flow. This results in a very high current being drawn from the supply, causing tripping of relays, damaging insulation and components of the equipments.

How does voltage drop affect current?

Wires carrying current always have inherent resistance, or impedance, to current flow. Voltage drop is defined as the amount of voltage loss that occurs through all or part of a circuit due to impedance. This condition causes the load to work harder with less voltage pushing the current. …

How can fault current be reduced?

1. Use of reactors. Reactors can be installed anywhere in the distribution circuit in order to limit the fault current. Since they are essentially a linear inductive reactance, their impedance will add arithmetically to the system impedance and result in a reduction of the fault currents.

What affects fault current?

A fault current is an unintended, uncontrolled, high current flow through an electrical system. Fault currents are caused by very low impedance short circuits. Causes of faults include things such as lightning strikes, animals, dirt and debris, dropped tools, corrosion, and human error.