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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2005

Frequency Characteristics of Very Fast

Transient Currents in a 245-kV GIS
M. Mohana Rao, M. Joy Thomas, and B. P. Singh

AbstractThe conducted as well as the induced voltages on control cables and control circuits due to transient electromagnetic
(EM) fields generated during switching operations in a gas-insulated substation (GIS) depend on the waveshape of the very fast
transient overvoltages and the associated very-fast transient currents (VFTCs). The aim of this paper is to build a basis for characterizing the VFTC generated in gas-insulated switchgear and the
associated equipment during switching operations for the study of
transient coupling phenomena. The peak magnitudes of VFTC and
their dominant frequency content at various locations have been
computed in a 245-kV GIS for different switching operations as
well as substation configurations. Finally, the influence of the substation layout on the frequency spectrum, dominant frequencies,
and the highest possible frequency component of the VFTC at various distances from the switch have been reported.
Index TermsElectromagnetic compatibility (EMC), electromagnetic interference (EMI), frequency spectrum, gas-insulated
switchgear (GIS), switching, very-fast transient currents (VFTCs),
very-fast transient overvoltages (VFTOs).

I. INTRODUCTION

ERY-FAST transient overvoltages (VFTOs) generated

due to switching operations in a gas-insulated switchgear
(GIS) and the associated very-fast transient currents (VFTCs)
could have a rise time ranging from 4 to 7 ns [1]. The peak magnitude of the transient current may be about a few kiloamperes
depending on the location of the switch operated, the substation
layout, and the observation point. These transient voltages
and currents radiate electromagnetic (EM) fields during its
propagation through the coaxial GIS bus section as the associated frequencies are in the range of a few megahertz to about
a few hundreds of megahertz. The transient electromagnetic
fields, in turn, leak out into the external environment through
gas-to-air bushing, gas-to-cable
discontinuities such as
termination, nonmetallic viewing ports, insulated flanges, etc.
and get coupled to the control equipment or data cables present
in the GIS [2]. This coupling produces transient current/voltage
on the shield of the control cables. Depending on the transfer
impedance between the shield and the central conductor of
the cable, the transient voltage appears at the terminals of the
control cable. Pigtail coupling can also take place between the
shield pigtail and the central conductor of the control cables. In

Manuscript received March 8, 2004; revised September 30, 2004. Paper no.
TPWRD-00117-2004.
M. M. Rao and B. P. Singh are with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Corporate R&D, Hyderabad 500 093, India (e-mail: mmrao@bhelrnd.co.in;
bpsingh@bhelrnd.co.in).
M. J. Thomas is with the Department of High Voltage Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012, India (e-mail: thoma@hve.iisc.ernet.in).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2005.852362

addition to the radiated EM field coupling, conducted mechanisms are also responsible for the coupling of very-fast transient
currents to the control wiring. The current transformer (CT)
and the potential transformer (PT) get conductively coupled to
the high-voltage bus of the GIS through the stray capacitance
between the primary and secondary as well as the Faraday
shields. Because of this coupling, a portion of the bus transient
current couples directly to the central conductor of the control
cables which, in turn, may appear at the terminals of the relay
or data-acquisition (DAQ) systems, etc. connected to them
[3]. All of these modes of coupling summed up with different
waveshapes, frequency content, and relative phase shift result in
a waveshape different from that due to any one of the coupling
mechanisms acting alone [4], [5].
The protection of the control circuits against the induced transients is an important aspect for the reliable operation of a GIS.
Malfunctioning of the primary/secondary equipment has been
reported by many authors during switching operations in a GIS
[1], [2], [6]. Since the transient voltages in control circuits depend on the nature of the radiated EM fields, it becomes necessary to estimate the magnitude and waveshape of the VFTC
along with its frequency spectrum. Further, knowledge of the
VFTC characteristics would be required in the theoretical study
of EM field coupling as well as shielding of the sensitive secondary equipment used in modern GIS.
This paper covers the estimation of VFTC at various locations in a GIS for different switching operations. The configurations, such as small length of the bus section, high capacitance terminal components, and multiple branches of the bus
section on the source/load side of the switch, are considered
for the study. The peak magnitude of the transient currents at
different locations and their attenuation with time/distance are
calculated for various switching configurations. The variation
in the frequency spectrum of the VFTC with distance from the
switch operated for different switching configurations and substation layouts have been analyzed. The approach used in the
present study can be extended to any other GIS also regardless
of the size, rating, type, etc. EMC problems due to VFTC are
of most concern for system voltages above 245 kV and at these
voltages, segregated-phase GIS is normally used. Hence, such a
system has been taken up for the study.
II. VERY-FAST TRANSIENT CURRENTS (VFTCs)
The parameters that characterize the VFTC are of more relevance for the protection of GIS controls and are as follows [7]:
1) amplitude of VFTC;
2) attenuation of the amplitude of VFTC with distance and
time;

0885-8977/$20.00 2005 IEEE

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TABLE I
ELECTRICAL EQUIVALENT REPRESENTATION OF GIS COMPONENTS [3], [8], [9]

Fig. 1.

Single-line diagram of a 245-kV GIS.

3) dominant frequency components of the VFTC;

4) variation in the frequency content of VFTC with distance.
Fig. 1 shows the single-line diagram of a segregated-phase
245-kV GIS used for the VFTC studies. The incoming line of
the GIS is comprised of an overhead transmission line of 5-km
length, an XLPE cable of 8-km length, PT, lightning arrester
(LA), earth switch (ES), disconnector switch (DS), etc. The
XLPE cable and the power transformer (T1) locations are assumed as source and load side of the switch being operated,
respectively. The most onerous condition during a switching
operation is given for a voltage collapse of 2 p.u. (i.e., 1 p.u.
p.u. on the load side) and this has
on the source side and
been simulated in the present study. The equivalent circuits for
GIS components and the spark channel that develops between
the switching contacts are essential for calculating the transient
current levels. Table I gives the electrical equivalent representation of various GIS components. The gas breakdown between
the switching contacts during its operation is simulated as a series connection of time-varying resistance and a fixed inductance of 5 nH. The role of inductance becomes significant especially for fast rising pulses such as VFTC. In the present study,
time-varying resistance during the build up of the spark channel
is simulated using Toeplers spark law [10]. According to this
(1)

where is Toeplers constant in V-sec/m, l is length of the spark

is initial charge, and is the spark colchannel in meters,
lapse time in seconds. For the switching operations in a GIS, k
value is taken as 0.005 V-sec/m. The integral in the spark law

sums up the absolute value of current

through the resistance
over the time, beginning at the breakdown inception. The equation for spark resistance is solved at each time step through iterations by using the current integral along with the circuit parameters (surge impedance of the bus, surge impedance of the
switch, capacitance between contacts, etc.). For this purpose, a
computer code has been developed. A fixed resistance of 2.5
has been assumed for the spark channel after the spark collapse
time. The time step for the analysis is taken as 0.1 ns. The following switching events are considered in the study:
1) SW1: Closing operation of the disconnector switch DS1,
when DS3 and CB3 are open;
2) SW2: Closing operation of the disconnector switch DS3,
when circuit breaker CB3 is open;
3) SW3: Closing operation of the circuit breaker CB3, when
disconnector switch DS6 is open.
Fig. 2 shows the equivalent electrical network of the 245-kV
GIS during SW3 operation. The amplitude and waveforms
of the transient currents have been estimated using Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP). From the time-domain
current waveforms, the frequency spectra have been calculated
using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) technique.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Fig. 3 shows the waveforms of the transient currents at different locations in a 245-kV GIS for the first switching operation (SW1). From this figure, it is seen that the peak magnitude
of the transient current at DS1 is about 8.18 kA and the highest
magnitude of the transient current occurs at 3 m from the disconnector switch DS1 [i.e., at the CT (listed in Table II)]. This
is in contrast to the peak magnitude for VFTO, which occurs at
the open ends. The peak magnitude of the transient current at
the GIS-cable junction is about 7.29 kA. To understand the effect of switching configurations on the peak magnitude of the
VFTC at different locations, transient currents have been calculated for the second switching configuration (SW2). From the
results, it is clear that the highest magnitude of transient current

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2005

Fig. 2. Equivalent electrical network of the 245-kV GIS.

occurs very near to the switch (i.e., at the BUS LINK). The peak
magnitude of the transient current at the GIS-cable junction is
about 4.12 kA. The reduction in amplitude of transient current
at the cable end for the SW2 operation may be due to the presence of the gas-insulated bus-sections (245 kV BUS II) on the
source side and a smaller length of the bus section on the load
side of the switch. More clearly, the transient current divides
between the BUS II and the incoming line. To understand the
effect of high surge capacitance components on the peak magnitude of the transient currents, the third switching operation has
been considered and the results are shown in Fig. 4. From this
figure, it is clear that the peak magnitude of the transient current at the switch operated is high compared to the other two
switching operations and the highest magnitude of the transient
current occurs at 1.9 m from the switch (load side of CB3). The
increase in transient current may be due to the high surge capacitance on the load side of the switch. The peak magnitude
of the transient current at the GIS-cable junction is about 6.92
kA. Also in the present configuration, the transient current divides between BUS II and the incoming line as in the case of
the second switching configuration. From the above analysis,
it is also clear that the peak magnitude of the transient current
near the open end of the bus sections is significant (up to 3 kA)
and is of higher value for the SW1 operation than for the other
two switching operations. This may be due to a) the high capacitance termination for the third switching configuration and,
thus, the current flowing through the open end bus section is
low; b) branching of the transient current between BUS II and
the incoming line for the SW2 and SW3 configurations.
The following salient features have been observed during the
VFTC characterization.

Fig. 3. VFTC waveforms at three different locations for the first switching
operation (SW1).
TABLE II
TRANSIENT CURRENTS IN kILOAMPERES AT DIFFERENT GIS COMPONENTS.

1) VFTC waveform attenuates with time and approaches to

zero within a few microseconds.

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TABLE III
DIFFERENT SUBSTATION LAYOUTS UNDER THE STUDY

Fig. 5. Variation in peak magnitudes of the VFTC with distance for various
substation layouts.

Fig. 4. VFTC waveforms at three different locations for the third switching
operation (SW3).

2) The highest magnitude of the transient current occurs at

or near the switch for all of the switching operations.
3) The peak magnitude of the transient current decreases
with distance from the switch in either direction.
4) The peak magnitude of the transient current is low when
switching on/off bus sections of smaller lengths.
5) The peak magnitude of the transient current and its waveshape at different components of the GIS change with
each switching operation.
The peak magnitude of VFTC at various locations depends
on the terminal component connected to the GIS. The terminal
component could be an XLPE cable or an overhead transmission
line or a gas-insulated transmission line (GITL). To understand

the effect of different terminations on the peak magnitude of

the transient currents, various substation layouts have been considered and are listed in Table III. These substation layouts have
been arrived at with the modification of the terminal components
for the third switching configuration of the 245-kV GIS. For the
CFG5 configuration, the load side of the switch CB3 is terminated with a long gas-insulated line ( km) and the source side
of the switch is terminated with an XLPE cable. The peak magnitude of the transient current in each cable for the second substation layout (CFG2) is less than that in the cable of the first
configuration. Fig. 5 shows the variation of the peak magnitude
of the transient current with distance for different substation layouts. From this figure, it is evident that the reduction in peak
magnitude of the transient current for the overhead line termination (bushing) is more compared to the GITL and XLPE cable
terminations. Nevertheless, the peak magnitude of the transient
current at the bushing is small compared to the other terminations of the GIS, the highest transient current level remaining
unaltered. The peak amplitude of the transient current for the
fifth substation layout (CFG5) is the lowest compared to the
other substation layouts. This may be due to the presence of
GITL instead of high capacitance component (T1) on the load
side of the switch.
The attenuation of the transient current amplitude with time
at a particular location is found to depend on the switching configuration and the terminal component connected to the GIS.
The attenuation rate is high if the GIS is terminated with low
impedance systems, such as XLPE cable, and the attenuation
rate is low if the GIS is terminated with high surge impedance

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TABLE IV
ATTENUATION RATE OF TRANSIENT CURRENT AMPLITUDES WITH TIME

elements such as an overhead line. Similarly, if the GIS is terminated with a long length of GITL, there is a possibility of the
transient currents for a longer time duration.
The attenuation rate of the amplitude of VFTC with time has
been calculated at different locations of the GIS for the above
substation layouts and are listed in Table IV. For the purpose of
comparison, the peak magnitude of the transient current at about
2 s is considered as the base value. The attenuation rate of the
at a particular position in GIS is defined
transient currents
as follows:
%

(2)

where
is the peak magnitude of transient current for the
is the peak magnitude of transient
entire time duration and
current after 2 s of the strike between the switching contacts.
The attenuation rate of the amplitude of the VFTC with the time
at the switch operated is more or less in the same range with
a cable or a GITL termination on the source side and a power
transformer on the load side of the switch. The attenuation of
transient currents with time is low if the GIS is terminated with
an overhead line (CFG4) on the source side of the switch. In
other words, there is a possibility of higher transient currents for
a longer time duration. There is a considerable change in attenuation of the transient current amplitude at the GIS-cable junction
if the load side of the switch is terminated with GITL (CFG5)
instead of a power transformer (CFG1). More clearly, the attenuation of transient current at the source side of the switch
not only depends on the source side termination but also on the
load-side termination and vice versa.
In the second stage of the analysis, the fast Fourier transform
(FFT) technique has been employed to identify the dominant
frequencies of the transient currents. The frequency spectrum
has been calculated by considering the VFTC waveform for the
time duration of 4 s. Fig. 6 shows the frequency spectrum of
the VFTC at different locations of a 245-kV GIS during the first
switching operation. From this figure, it is evident that the dominant frequency components of the VFTC at the switch DS1 are
up to 150 MHz, except that there is a high-frequency component
of 238 MHz with considerable amplitude. The high-frequency
content of the transient current may be due to the small length
of the open-end sections near the switch operated as well as due
to the fast voltage collapse (a few nanoseconds) between the
switching contacts during its operation. Near the switch DS1,
the highest frequency of 310 MHz is possible and this highfrequency component created locally is observed to attenuate
within a small distance (a few meters) from its point of generation. Similar observations have been made in the earlier experi-

Fig. 6. Frequency spectra of the VFTC for the first switching operation
(normalized amplitude in arbitrary units).

mental works reported in the literature [1]. At the current transformer location, the frequency components of the VFTC are
not dominant beyond 150 MHz except that there is a high-frequency component of 238 MHz with reduced amplitude. However, there is a considerable reduction in the amplitude of the fre-

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2455

quency components of the VFTC above 50 MHz. Interestingly,

the frequency components at the GIS-cable junction are dominant only up to 14 MHz where as the frequency components
maximum of 31.5 MHz appear with moderate amplitudes. Similarly, for the second switching operation, VFTC waveforms are
rich with high-frequency content at or near the operated switch.
From the results, it is understood that the dominant frequency
components at the switch DS3 are up to 140 MHz. However,
there are high-frequency components with moderate amplitudes
in the range of 200 to 300 MHz at or near the switch DS3. At the
current transformer location, the frequency components of the
VFTC are limited to 130 MHz except a high-frequency component of 238 MHz. Even though the physical location of the
CT for the second switching configuration is at a longer distance from the switch operated than for the first switching configuration, high-frequency components have been observed for
the VFTC at CT during the second switching operation. This
may be due to switching on a smaller length of bus section for
the SW2 configuration. At the GIS-cable junction, the highest
dominant frequency components are up to 13 MHz only. To understand the effect of high capacitance components such as the
power transformer on the frequency content, frequency spectra
have been obtained for the VFTC at various locations during
the third switching operation and are shown in Fig. 7. From
the above figure, it is evident that the frequency content of the
VFTC at or near the switch CB3 are dominant up to 95 MHz except that there are high-frequency components of 164 and 270
MHz with moderate amplitudes. Interestingly, the highest possible frequency component of the VFTC at the current transformer is only 80 MHz. The dominant frequencies at CT are
in the lower range for the third switching operation due to the
presence of the power transformer on load side of the switch. At
the GIS-cable junction, the dominant frequencies of the VFTC
are limited to 15.5 MHz. The following observations have been
made from the frequency spectrum of the VFTC at various locations during the above switching events:
1) The amplitude of the frequency components particularly
above 10 MHz is observed to have significant attenuation
with distance depending on the switching configuration.
2) At most of the locations in a 245-kV GIS, the highest
amplitudes are possible for frequencies of a) 5 MHz
for the first switching configuration, b) 3.5 MHz for
the second switching configuration, c) 1.5 MHz for the
third switching configuration. This frequency value is
expected to decrease with an increase in the length of the
gas-insulated section of the switching configuration.
3) The high-frequency components in the range of 150 MHz
and above attenuate within a few meters from the point of
generation (i.e., from the switch operated). The attenuation of amplitudes of high frequencies with distance from
the switch changes with the switching configuration of
GIS.
The variation in the frequency spectrum of the VFTC with
distance has been analyzed for different switching operations in
the 245-kV GIS. Fig. 8 shows the variation in the highest dominant frequency component (only those frequency components
whose amplitudes are at least 10% of the maximum possible

Fig. 7. Frequency spectra of the VFTC for the third switching operation.

amplitude) with distance. From this figure, it is clear that for

the third switching configuration, high-frequency components
of the VFTC are damped out within a short distance from the
switch compared to the other two switching configurations. It

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the viewing ports depending on the electrical dimensions. The

VFTC waveforms obtained in the present study could be used as
the excitation for the quantification of transient EM field emission from different modules of GIS and, hence, will be helpful
in developing an electromagnetic-interfeence (EMI) chart for a
particular GIS installation.
IV. CONCLUSION

Fig. 8. Variation of highest dominant frequency component of the VFTC with

distance.

has also been observed that high-frequency components above

200 MHz appear at most of the locations for the first and second
switching configurations. More clearly, switching on or off a
smaller length of the bus section generates relatively lower transient current with very-high-frequency content and switching on
or off of high capacitance components generates higher transient
currents with a frequency content limited to 95 MHz.
To understand the effect of terminal component of the GIS
on the frequency spectrum of the VFTC, different substation
layouts have been considered for the study (Table III). Interestingly, the dominant frequencies of the VFTC at the switch operated are almost in the same range for all of the configurations
(CFG1 to CFG4), except a slight shift in the frequencies. However, the amplitude of dominant frequency components changes
with each configuration. This may be due to an appreciable difference in peak magnitude and attenuation rate of the transient
current at all of the locations of the GIS for different substation
layouts. From the analysis, it has been observed that the dominant frequencies appearing at the GIS-cable junctions/gas-to-air
bushing are always less than 16 MHz and the frequency components maximum of 31.5 MHz appear with moderate amplitudes.
Further, the frequencies up to 74.5 MHz appear with very low
amplitudes. To establish the highest possible frequency component at the GIS-bushing junction, the transient currents are
calculated at the entrance of gas-to-air bushing for the first and
second switching configurations (SW1 and SW2) by replacing
XLPE cable with an overhead transmission line. The peak magnitude of the transient current at the bushing is about 2.01 kA
and 1.16 kA for these configurations, respectively. Interestingly,
the frequency components of the VFTC at this location during
SW1 operation are possible up to 150 MHz. The transient currents of these frequency components generate radiated electromagnetic (EM) fields, which leak out from the bushing through a
composite insulator housing and may interfere with the nearby
controls. Similarly, the transient current of the frequencies in
the range of 130150 MHz and sometimes as high as 238 MHz
through the CT couple to the control cables by means of either radiated EM fields or the conducted coupling mechanisms.
Finally, the transient EM fields due to VFTC with frequency
components up to 310 MHz appearing at or near the switch
mostly leak out of the GIS through the nonmetallic flanges and

The peak magnitude of VFTCs generated during switching

events changes from one position to another depending on the
switching operation in a 245-kV GIS. In the present paper, the
parameters that characterize the VFTC have been analyzed. The
peak magnitude of the transient currents at or near the switch operated could be in the range of 10 kA and dominant frequency
components are possible up to 270 MHz depending on the substation layout.
The peak magnitude of the transient current at the entrance
of the gas-to-air bushing for most of the configurations of the
245-kV GIS is about 1 kA. However, in a special situation such
as switching of a small length of the bus section with the switch
located at a few meters distance from the bushing, the peak magnitude of VFTC could be about 2 kA and a frequency component
of even 150 MHz is possible. The peak magnitude of the transient currents at the GIS-cable junction is in the range of 4 to
9 kA, depending on the switching configurations or substation
layouts. The dominant frequencies of the VFTC at the GIS-cable
junction are less than 16 MHz and the frequency components
maximum of 31.5 MHz appear with moderate amplitudes. The
attenuation rate of the transient current with time and distance
is observed to be a function of the location of the switch being
operated and the terminal component of the GIS. Switching on
or off of smaller length bus sections (i.e., a few meters) results in
transient current waveforms with dominant frequencies beyond
200 MHz at most of the locations in a 245-kV GIS.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are thankful to the management of BHEL and
the Indian Institute of Science for their permission to publish
the work. The first author would like to thank Dr. H. S. Jain for
his continuous encouragement and cooperation.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Meppelink, K. Diederich, K. Feser, and P. Pfaff, Very fast transients
in GIS, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 223233, Jan. 1989.
[2] P. Clarenne, G. Ebersohl, J. Vigreux, and G. Voisin, The effect of highfrequency transient regimes on secondary equipment in gas insulated
substations-design of earthing system, low voltage wiring, and electronic equipment, Electra, no. 126, pp. 95116, Oct. 1989.
[3] A. M. Miri and Z. Stojkovic, Transient electromagnetic phenomena in
the secondary circuits of voltage and current transformers in GIS (measurements and calculations), IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 16, no. 4,
pp. 571575, Oct. 2001.
[4] C. M. Wiggins and S. E. Wright, Switching transient fields in substations, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 591600, Apr. 1991.
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Wright, Transient electromagnetic interference in substations, IEEE
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[6] S. Nishiwaki, K. Nojima, S. Tatara, M. Kosakada, N. Tanabe, and S.
Yanabu, Electromagnetic interference with electronic apparatus by
switching surges in GISCable system, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol.
10, no. 2, pp. 739746, Apr. 1995.

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[7] M. M. Rao, M. J. Thomas, and B. P. Singh, Frequency spectrum analysis of fast transient currents (FTC) during switching operation in a 245
kV GIS, in Proc. IEEE/PES T&D Conf., Yokohama, Japan, Oct. 2002,
pp. 22392243.
[8] S. Ogawa, E. Haginomori, S. Nishiwaki, T. Yoshida, and K. Terasaka,
Estimation of restriking transient overvoltage on disconnecting switch
for GIS, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. PWRD-1, no. 2, pp. 95102, Apr.
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[9] Z. Haznadar, S. Carsimamovic, and R. Mahmutcehajic, More accurate
modeling of gas insulated substation components in digital simulations
of very fast electromagnetic transients, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 7,
no. 1, pp. 434441, Jan. 1992.
[10] P. Osmokrovic, S. Krstic, M. Ljevak, and D. Novakovic, Influence of
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27, no. 2, pp. 214220, Apr. 1992.

M. Joy Thomas was born in Kerala, India, on

July 22, 1961. He received the B.Tech. degree in
electrical engineering from Institute of Technology,
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, and the
M.Sc. (Eng.) and Ph.D. degrees from the Department
of High Voltage Engineering, Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, India.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor with the
Department of High Voltage Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research interests
are gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC), pulsed power
engineering, electrical transients in power systems, digital measurement of
high voltage, extra-high-voltage (EHV) power transmission, and insulation
engineering.

M. Mohana Rao was born in Guntur, India, in

1973. He received the B.Tech. degree from Sri
Venkateswara University, Tirupathi, India, in 1994
and the M.Sc. degree in engineering in 1996 from
the High Voltage Engineering Department, Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, where he is currently
pursuing the Ph.D. degree.
Currently, he is a Senior Engineer with Bharat
Heavy Electricals Ltd. R&D, where he has been
since 1996. His research areas are the design
and development of gas-insulated substations
(GIS), gas-insulated lines, electromagnetic-interference/electromagnetic-compatibility (EMI/EMC) studies in GIS- and computational fluid dynamics
(CFD)-based analysis of circuit-breaker (CB) arcs.

B. P. Singh was born in Bihar, India, in 1947. He

received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering
from Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology, Bihar,
India, in 1968, the M.E. degree in high voltage from
the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 1971,
and the Ph.D. degree from the Electrical Engineering
Department, University of Liverpool, Liverpool,
U.K., in 1974.
He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University
of Liverpool on a project sponsored by the United
Kingdom Atomic Energy agency and thereafter for
two years at the Reactor Research Center, Kalpakkam, India. Currently, he is
General Manager of High Voltage, Gas Insulated Switchgear and Advanced
Technical Education with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., R&D, Hyderabad,
India. He joined Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. in 1978. His research interests
are switchgear, high-voltage power transformers, motors, and capacitors. He
has published many papers in various national and international journals and
conferences.