Short-circuit apparent power of the system

When doing power systems study, it always the predicament of Electrical Engineers where to get the values of the utility short circuit MVA. I was just talking to a senior engineer a few weeks back and he told me that he always consider an infinite bus supply when doing his studies. Despite the fact that it is partially correct, if the fault current values are used in the selection of equipment, then it will be very expensive.

The available short circuit varies significantly from location to location even for a particular utility, thus the utility provides the more accurate values for these electrical parameters. It is not always an easy tasks  for the electrical engineer though to get the utility line parameters. Talking to the utility can sometime be very difficult and stressful. If you ask me, I would rather not do that unless I know anybody with in their organization.

If you faced a blank wall, as an electrical engineer tasks to size electrical equipment, what will you do? Use infinite bus as an assumption? No way, especially if you are trying to reduce the cost of your project.

It is here where IEC 60076-5 Power transformers – Part 5: Ability to withstand short circuit comes into rescue. Table 5 of this standard provides the short-circuit apparent power of the system for any particular voltage. As a bonus, it provides for both current European and North American practice.

In above table, it is very noticeable that North American practice have higher fault MVA ratings for their equipment thus significantly larger in size.