UNSW - SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

ELEC4612 POWER SYSTEM ANALYSIS LABORATORY

EXPERIMENT 5
SWITCHING SURGES IN POWER SYSTEMS

1. AIMS:

Transients in power equipment circuits occur due to the effect of sudden internal or external
changes (e.g. switchings, lightnings). The nature of these transients is strongly influenced by
the stored energy in the inductors and capacitors of the circuit and the inability of inductor
currents and capacitor voltages to vary instantly when other circuit variables such as the
voltage across the inductor or the current passing through the capacitor are changed. Mutual
coupling between adjacent circuits leads to a different induced current, during transients. The
non-linear B-H characteristic of ferromagnetic materials can also influence the transient
behaviour of the circuit. One important example of this phenomenon is the magnetizing
inrush current, commonly encountered in transformers.

This experiment investigates the phenomena of transient recovery voltage and current
chopping. A switching arc model is employed for the circuit breaker in this analysis.

2. BACKGROUND:

2.1 Transients in Power Systems

A transient in the power system occurs when an existing path for passage of current is
terminated or a new path for passage of current is established. During occurrence of this
change, the power system moves from one steady state condition to another through a
transient process. This can be produced due to various internal or external phenomena. For
instance, when lightning strikes the shield wires of a substation, or hits the ground near a
high-voltage transmission line, a surge current is generated and over-voltages are induced in
the system. The switching of a circuit breaker is another cause of transients. The majority of
transients in the power system occur due to switching. The durations of these transients are
very short, relative to the power frequency cyle, and they are called fast transients. However,
during this short period of time, the system may experience significantly high current and
voltage peaks, which may cause severe damages to the insulation in high voltage equipment,
their conducting parts or mechanical supports.

In steady state, the power frequency is a constant (50Hz), thus the complex calculus and
phasors can be applied successfully to represent the voltages and currents in the system. On
the other hand, power system transients consist of much higher frequency components, in the
range of several to hundreds of kHz or even MHz, and therefore vary rapidly. For transient
analysis, the complex calculus and phasor representation can not be employed. Furthermore,
the travelling waves should be considered in the transmission line. The transformer requires
to be modelled differently due to the effects of stray capacitances between different turns of
each winding, between each turn of a winding and ground, and between the primary and
secondary coils. This experiment will explore the behavior of power system during transients
by employing the well-known transient analysis program, ATP.

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2.2 Transient Recovery Voltage (TRV)

TRV is the voltage that appears across the terminals of interrupting devices after a fault
current interruption. It is one of the most critical parameters in the design and selection of
high-voltage interrupting devices, such as circuit breakers (C/B) and fuses.

In normal system operation, the stored energy is divided among the electric field and
magnetic field. When the current is interrupted, it disconnects the path for transfer of energy.
There is still magnetic energy stored in the inductance and electric field energy in the
capacitance of other parts of the power system such as the leakage inductances of the
transformers, the self-inductances of the stators and the field windings of the generators, the
inductance and the capacitance of the connected bus bars, the overhead lines and the
underground cables, etc. The full system voltage suddenly appears across the open gap and
results in a high-frequency voltage oscillation. A simple single-phase equivalent circuit for
opening a three phase short circuit fault to ground is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The equivalent circuit of a short-circuit fault.

In Figure 1, a short circuit fault appears at the terminal B of the C/B. Assume that the C/B is
an ideal switch, which means when it is closed, the resistance between the contacts is zero,
and the resistance becomes infinite when the C/B opens. The voltage on the supply side is
Vsup ply Vm cos t . The C/B interrupts the fault current at t 0 and the circuit becomes a
simple LC circuit. Denote Vc the voltage across the C/B after the current interruption. Apply
KVL:
di
L Vc Vm cos t (1)
dt
Then the current which flows through the inductance is:
dv
iC c (2)
dt
substituting this into Equation 1, the following is obtained:
d 2 v c Vc V
2
m cos t (3)
dt LC LC
Applying Laplaces transform to Equation 3:

s 2 vc s sv c 0 Vc0 02 vc s 02Vm 2
s
2
(4)
s
where is the system angular frequency, and 0 1 LC is the natural frequency of the
equivalent circuit in Figure 1 or, the frequency of transient oscillation. At t 0 , ignoring the
arc voltage, the voltage across the capacitor is:

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 Vc 0 0
Since I 0 0 , Vc0 I 0 / C 0 , Equation 4 can be rewritten as:
s 2
vc s 02Vm 2 2 0 2 Vm 2 s 2 2 s 2 (5)

s 2 s 2 02 0

s s 0
Thus, the voltage across the circuit breaker is
02
vc t Vm cos t cos 0 t (6)
02 2

Generally, 0 . Therefore, Equation 6 can be approximated as follows:

vc t Vm cos t cos 0 t (7)
According to the above equation, the recovery voltage can rise to a maximum value of 2Vm ,
and this peak value usually appears during the first cycle of the high frequency component.
The initial rate of rise of the recovery voltage can be represented as:
dv t 2V 2V
RRRV c m m 0 volts/sec (8)
dt ave T0 / 2
In practice, there is always some damping because of the resistance in the circuit. The ATP
simulated waveform of the TRV appearing across the C/B is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The TRV waveform of the circuit breaker.

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2.3 Current Chopping

Current chopping occurs when circuit breakers interrupt small inductive currents or when
high rupturing capacity (HRC) fuses with low rating interrupt high fault current. In this
situation, the current may be interrupted before a natural current zero and there is energy
stored in the inductance in the circuit. This results in an enhanced and additional voltage
transient across the C/B.

Assume the momentary current at the time the chopping occurs is i0 , thus the energy stored
in the inductance is 1 2 Lio2 . The dissipation of this energy will cause an LC oscillation, like
what happens when the current is interrupted at current zero. However, in this case, the peak
value of the transient voltage will not be limited to 2Vm . It can potentially reach a much
higher level. The circuit is shown in Figure 3. The system supply voltage is v Vm cos t ,
and L L .

Figure 3: An inductive circuit.

According to the energy balance equation,

1 2 1 2 1 2
Li0 Cv L Cv c max (9)
2 2 2
where i0 is the current flow through the inductance L at the instant that the current is
chopped, and v c is the voltage at terminal B. Thus,
L
Vc max Vm2 i02 (10)
C
and

vc t Vm cos 0 t i0
L
sin 0 t (11)
C
The first term of Equation 11 is the normal TRV and the second term is the chopping voltage.
Therefore, the total transient recovery voltage across the circuit breaker is
L
v AB t vc t Vm cos t Vm cos 0t cos t i0 sin 0t (12)
C
Note that the transient voltage across the C/B can be very high when the surge impedance
Z o L C is large. The ATP simulated waveform of TRV waveform is as follows:

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 Figure 4: The TRV waveform of C/B when current chopping occurs.

In Figure 4, the current is chopped when it reaches its peak value. The TRV appeared across
the circuit breaker is much larger than that when the current is interrupted at current zero.

2.4 The Switching Arc

For the analysis of simple switching transient in low-voltage power systems, it is sufficient to
model a C/B as an ideal switch. However, in high-voltage power systems, the influence of the
electric arc on the system elements is always significant. Electric arc is a continuous electric
discharge of high current between two electrodes. In high voltage C/Bs, the electric arc is a
high-pressure arc burning in oil, air, or SF6 and producing an ongoing plasma discharge.
These arcs are usually undesirable and have detrimental effects. For instance, the arcs are
always giving out a brilliant heat leading to a high increase in temperature, which may cause
carbonization of the material. In addition, electric arcs may cause failure in the interruption
process of the fault current.

In high-voltage power system, the electric arc appears between the C/B contacts after the
separation of the contacts. The current will be finally interrupted by cooling the arc plasma.
This cooling process can be performed by application of different techniques used in different
type of C/Bs such as: air blast, vacuum, oil, and SF6 types.

Modeling of the Switching Arc

Arc modeling has always been an important part in switching transient study. There are
several models used for describing the arcs: black box models, physical models and parameter
model.

The black box model is not suitable for C/B design, however it is very useful for simulation
of the arc-circuit interruption. In this model, the arc is modelled by a set of mathematical
equations which provide a relation between the arc conductance and the circuit parameters

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such as arc voltage and arc current. Physical arc models are built based on the fluid dynamic
equations, the principles of thermodynamics, and the Maxwells equations. The parameter
models are derived from black box model, however it has a set of more complex functions.

The well known black box models are the Cassie model, and the Mayer model.

In general, the power of the arc is

dQ
P Ploss (13)
dt
where Ploss is the power loss of the arc and Q is the heat content. Thus,
Q P Ploss dt (14)
The arc conductance is a function of Q and can be written as:

G G Q G P Ploss dt (15)
To find the change of the arc conductance, the equation above is differentiated as:
dG dG Q dQ dG Q
P Ploss (16)
dt dQ dt dQ
Divided by the momentary arc conductance g,
1 dG 1 G Q
P Ploss (17)
G dt G G Q
To solve, Ploss and G Q must be known, and thus assumptions have to be made.

For the Cassie model, the arc temperature and the arc voltage is assumed to be constant, and
the power loss is dependent of the diameter of the arc channel. Therefore, a linear relation
between P and G can be obtained:
Ploss U c2 G and P u 2 G ,
where U c is the static arc voltage and u is the momentary arc voltage. Substituting this into
Equation 17:
1 dG U c2G u 2 1 u2
2 1 2 1 (18)
G dt Q Uc c Uc
or
dG 1 i u
2 G (19)
dt c U c
Q
where c is the time constant of the arc and i is the momentary arc current.
U c2 G

The Mayer model assumes the power loss of the arc is caused by radial heat transport, which
means the conductance is a function of temperature, but independent of the cross-section of
the arc channel. The diameter of the arc channel is therefore assumed constant. Besides that,
the relation between arc current and arc voltage is constant as well, thus
P const. P0 .
For constant specific heat capacity, the heat content is
Q const. T
where T is the arc temperature. The electrical conductivity can be written as const. e T ,
and thus:
G G Q const. e Q / Q0 (20)
Substituting it into Equation 17, the following equation can be obtained:

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 1 dG P0 P 1 P
1 1 (21)
G dt Q0 P0 m P0
where m Qo Po is the time constant for the Mayer model. Multiply both sides of the
equation by G,
dG 1 i2
G (22)
dt m P0
The Cassie model is suitable for modelling of the arc conductance in the large current when
the temperature of the plasma is above 8000 K, whereas the Mayer model performs better in
the vicinity of current zero when the temperature of the plasma is below 8000 K.

3. SIMULATIONS:

PART 1:

A simple single-phase circuit is shown as follows.

Figure 5: A simple single-phase circuit.

v 1sin t p.u. and f 50Hz . The inductance and capacitance of the supply are L 64mH ,
C 0.45F . The series resistance of C is R 100 . A short-circuit fault with a 7.8 arc
impedance appears near the terminal B of the circuit breaker at time t=0. Using ATPDraw,
create a simulation model which interrupts the short-circuit fault at current zero, e.g. t=0.02,
as shown in Figure 5.

1.1 Plot the system supply waveform, the waveform of the TRV and the current across the
circuit breaker. Determine the TRV oscillation frequency and the RRRV.

1.2 Repeat 1.1 with increasing value of C from 0.1 to 0.5F .

1.3 Repeat 1.1 with increasing value of L from 50 to 200mH when C 0.1F .

In some cases, the C/B may chop the current before a natural current zero. This may occur
when the C/B interrupts small inductive current like transformer magnetizing current.
Consider a circuit shown below.

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 Figure 6: Interrupting small inductive current

v 1sin t and f 50Hz . L 100mH , C 1.3F and the series resistance of C is

R 100 . L 0.64H L . Assume the C/B interrupts the current at t=0.015s. Create a
simulation model with ATPDraw. Note that in order to interrupt the current before natural
current zero, the parameter I mar for the switch should be set to 1 or higher.

1.4 Plot the system supply waveform, the waveform of TRV and current across the circuit
breaker. Record the TRV peak value.

1.5 Repeat 1.4 with changing the opening time of the switch from 0.015s to 0.025s. Record
the TRV peak value and the current value before chopping.

PART 2:

2.1 Open the simple simulation model Exp_5_1.adp with ATPDraw. The source is a 500kV
three-phase AC source, and f 60 Hz . The line model used is a PI-equivalent line. The
model is shown as bellow.

Figure 7: A three-phase simulation model.

2.2 The three-phase switch closes at 0.0333s. Run the simulation and plot the three-phase
waveforms for V BEG and the current in the system. Record the peak values of the
instantaneous voltage at node BEG and the current across the switch when the switch
closes.

2.3 Vary the closing time T-cl_1 of the switch within half cycle. Plot the waveforms of V BUS
and the current in the system for phase A, and record the values of the bus voltage when
the switch closes and the peak values of the transient voltage for phase A.

PART 3:

3.1 Open the 750kV simulation model Exp_5_2.adp with ATPDraw as shown below.

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 Figure 8: A 750kV three-phase system.

On the supply side, a parallel resistor Sur_imp represents the surge impedance of the line
from the supply bus. An uncoupled series reactance represents the short circuit
inductance of the transformer. The 750kV overhead line is simulated by a three-phase un-
transposed LCC object with JMarti model, and the length of the transmission line is
345km.

At 0.0285s, a single phase line-to-ground short circuit fault appears at point A on phase A
through a 10 impedance, as shown in Figure 8 above. The C/B interrupts the fault
current at 0.075s.

3.2 Plot the waveform of the voltage at the node BUS, the voltage across CB1, and the fault
current waveform on phase A. Record the peak value of the TRV across the C/B.

3.3 Plot the waveform of the TRV at the node SEND on phase A.

4. DISCUSSIONS:

1. Comment on the TRV oscillation frequency and its initial rate of rise.

2. Comment on the peak value of the TRV according to the result in 1.5.

3. Compare the data in 2.3, in which case the peak transient voltage in the first cycle will
be the highest? Explain why.

4. Compare the results in Part 3 with those in Part 1.

_____________

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