With increasing generation and network capacity added to an electrical network, fault level reduction is an ongoing task for electrical power distribution companies and the main business drivers are:
- Maintain the existing equipment within design ratings to avoid expensive upgrades
- Safety and reliability
- Bushfire risk mitigation
- Storms
- Improvement of supply quality.
Short circuits between phase and ground can result in irreversible damage to networks and equipment, therefore a Neutral Earthing Resistor is a good preventative option to control and reduce their effects.
The reason for limiting the current by Neutral Earthing Resistor may be one or more of the following:
- Reduce burning effects in faulted electrical equipment
- Reduce mechanical stresses in circuits and apparatus carrying fault currents
- Safety, reduce electrical shocks caused by stray ground fault currents in the ground return path
- Easier detection of fault location
- Transient over voltages.