How sensitive is your ground fault protection?

Being able to handle maximum fault currents and increasing loads, properly coordinating lockout of devices and minimizing the blinks to an increasing number of sensitive loads, demands most of the attention in sectionalizing. The purpose of this paper is to develop awareness to the lack of ground fault sensitivity to minimum fault conditions when using the typical ground fault settings on three phase reclosers. In addition to the awareness, the paper explores options to improve the ability to sense and open for minimum faults. Those options demonstrate that single phase, 100 amp reclosers are as sensitive to ground faults as a three phase recloser. With a better understanding of minimum fault sensitivity, wise sectionalizing equipment and settings can be selected to provide better protection of the public.