ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION OF 1200kV ULTRA-HIGH VOLTAGE LIGHTNING ARRESTER

Saravanan Selvaraj, Nitin Jha, D. John Yesuraj Crompton Greaves Ltd, Mumbai 400042, India ABSTRACT With increasing urban power demand and the trend to locate new power plants in remote areas, power networks are growing larger. Ultra High Voltage (UHV) power transmission system is a key for providing a stable long term power supply to meet this demand and will be choice of transmission with reduced losses. For insulation coordination of such system, UHV Lightning arresters (LA) are indispensable. Due to its great height, large volume, and complex configuration, the UHV LA has very non-uniform potential distribution, which will lead to reduced service life and poor reliability. Accurate prediction of the potential distribution of the LA is important to improve the same and finite-element method (FEM) is very suitable to deal with the problems with such complicated structures. This paper presents the study of the potential distribution of the 1200 kV LA using 3-D FEM. In addition, the influence of the grading ring design and the external insulation housing design of the LA on the potential distribution is discussed.
Index Terms Finite-element method (FEM), Lightning arrester, potential distribution, Ultrahigh voltage (UHV).

apparatus [1][13]. The potential distributions of metaloxide surge arresters installed on the ground in substations have been calculated and measured in [6]; a charge simulation method was introduced to analyze the potential distribution in [4] and [7]; and a finite-element method (FEM) for the potential distribution of surge arrester was reported in [2], [8], and [9].The voltage distribution in an arrester is governed by the geometry of the different components and the electrical properties of the materials used. Implementing changes in geometry is preferred for obtaining a more uniform voltage distribution. The 1200 kV LA has multiple columns of varistors and not an axisymmetrical structure so it cannot be treated as an axisymmetrical FEM model. In this work, the accuracy of the Finite Element Approach has been checked by solving the 333kV arrester specified in IEC standard 600994.Having validated the modeling and computation approach, it has been used to calculate voltage distribution. Also few studies have discussed to improve the potential distribution of multi-section arresters. II. ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY

I. INTRODUCTION The Lightning Arrester (LA) is a key piece of equipment in ac power system. Reliability of these arresters depends upon its steady state performance. It has been observed in practice that the voltage distribution in the arrester is quite non-uniform. As a result, the discs at the top share a higher voltage and hence higher thermal stresses than the remaining discs. This leads to a faster thermal ageing of the discs at the top. To overcome this problem, efforts are generally made to make the voltage distribution as uniform as possible. There is a need for analysis of voltage distribution which can be studied either experimentally or theoretically. Generally numerical methods are an effective means; many publications can be found on the calculation and measurement of the electric-field and potential distributions of surge arresters and other power A. STRUCTURE OF 1200-kV LA Fig. 1 shows the configuration and cross-section of the 1200-kV MOA, which consists of four columns connected by metal connector and three grading rings. Each column consists of five arrester sections connected by metal flanges and two grading rings. The top flange is connected to high voltage and bottom flange is connected to ground. Each arrester section has 47 pieces of ZnO varistors discs with ring shape. The LA has two symmetry axes, which would reduce 3/4 of the computational resources. The grading ring connecting the high-voltage terminal of the LA consists of two metal rings. The relative permittivities of different components of the LA used in the analysis are shown in Table 1.

Step1). Validation of analysis methodology with IEC model Step2). Calculation of potential distribution and voltage ratio of 1200 kV LA using 3D FEA. Step 3) Calculate grading ring dimensions and its position. Step 4) Calculate the potential distribution of the LA. Step 5) Confirm the potential distribution obtained in Step 4) by satisfying the requirement. If not, go to Step 3) until the improvement is finally achieved. C. VALIDATION OF METHODOLOGY. The 333kV arrester was modeled as per dimension specified in IEC standard (Arrester dimension and the boundary condition).Since the arrester is axisymmetrical; the arrester was modeled by both 2D axisymmetry and 3D modeler. Figure 1 shows the structure with dimensions. This model has been analyzed using commercial FEM software, ElecNet from Infolytica Corporation. For each unit the maximum stress, Uct, and the ratio of the maximum stress and average stress (Uct/Uc) are calculated .Comparison between the results of IEC and results from ElecNet are shown in Table 2. TABLE 2: COMPARISON OF RESULTS OF IEC MODEL
Arrester Model Maximum Stress Uct Top Unit (%/m) 2D Analysis 3D Analysis Published From ElecNet Published From ElecNet 44 43.5 43 43.2 Middle Unit (%/m) 40 40.2 38 38.5 Bottom Unit (%/m) 27 27.3 28 27.1 Maximum Ratio Uct/Uc p.u. 1.27 1.25 1.27 1.24

Figure 1: Configuration and cross-section of the 1200kV LA.

TABLE 1: RELATIVE PERMITIVITIES OF DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF THE 1200-kV LA Component Varistors discs Flange ,electrodes Composite insulator Material ZnO Steel Silicone Rubber Relative Permittivity 726 1 4.3 4.7

Insulation rod Fibre reinforced plastic Grading Aluminum rings, Corona Rings

From Table 2, it is clearly evident that the results of the software and the analysis procedure are closely matching with IEC results. D. CALCULATION OF THE POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION The operating frequency of the 1200 kV LA is power frequency 50 Hz, so solving the potential distribution of the LA is the problem of the quasistatic field. In order to obtain the potential distribution of the 1200 kV LA, the 3-D electrostatic-field FEM can be applied. Since the

B. ANALYSIS PROCEDURE The method to analyze and improve the potential distribution of the 1200 kV LA combines the numerical calculation of the quasistatic field. The particular analysis procedure is given as follows.

electric field has even symmetry relative to the symmetry planes, th model is considered for analysis. The top flange F1, is kept at high voltage and bottom flange F6, along with pedestal structure are set at ground potential. Whereas potentials of other flanges (F2 to F5 ) are unknown and, thus, they must be set as floating potential boundaries. Potential distribution and stress distribution along the length of arrester columns are calculated. In addition the voltage distribution ratio of each section is calculated as discussed in IEC standard. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS A. POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE ORIGINAL 1200 kV LA The potential distribution of the original 1200 kV LA without grading rings is calculated, and the normalized potentials are given in Fig. 2. From Fig. 2, we can see that the potential distribution of the LA is very non-uniform, the maximal and minimal voltage drops on ZnO section are about 35% and 13%, that is the potential distribution coefficient (K factor) are between 2 and 0.7, which greatly exceeds the required 1.2.
100 90 N o r m a liz e d v o lta g e d is tr ib u tio n (% ) 80 70 60

ring heights (H Ring) and the results obtained are plotted in Fig. 3.
100

100%
90

98%
Norm alized Voltage Distribution(% ) 80 70 60 50 40 30

96% 94% 92% 90% 88%

20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Axial Distance (m)

86% 84%

Figure 3: Voltage Distribution for Various Grading Ring Height

In these plots, the voltage can be seen to remain constant along the spacers and flanges. This Figure clearly demonstrates that the voltage drops very sharply near the line end in all cases. As a result, the corresponding gradients are higher than the average value for the discs in the top portion and lower than the average value for the discs in the remaining portions. Hence K factor is calculated for all the cases and is shown in Table 3. TABLE 3: POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION COEFFICIENT FOR DIFFERENT RING POSITIONS %( H Ring/ H arrester) Without Rings K Factor 2 1.65 1.48 1.33 1.27 1.13

50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Axial distance (m)

100 95 90 85 80

Figure 2: Voltage Distribution of 1200 kV LA without Grading Ring

B. EFFECT OF THE GRADING RING POSITION ON POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION The grading ring is employed to make the voltage distribution uniform. Its efficacy is clearly dependent on its relative position. The voltage distributions are therefore computed for different

The variation of k factor with ring position is due to the capacitive coupling between the stack and the ground When the ring is present it provides additional capacitive coupling to the stack from the high voltage terminal, which will partly compensate for the coupling to the ground and as a consequence the voltage distribution improves. When the height of the ring is the same or greater than the stack height, the coupling provided by the ring to the top portion of

the stack is more than that to the bottom portion of the stack. As the ring height is lowered, the coupling to the bottom portion improves and the voltage at the bottom portion increases; consequently the voltage gradient at the top portion decreases. After an optimum point, further lowering of the ring results in increased coupling to the middle and bottom portions and the maximum gradient point shifts towards the middle. Consequently, the magnitude of the maximum gradient starts to increase [3]. The comparison of voltage distribution of 1200 kV LA with and without grading rings is shown in Fig.4. . From Fig. 4, we can see that the potential distribution of the LA is close to uniform, the maximal and minimal voltage drops on ZnO section are about 22% and 17.5% which closely matches the required 20%.
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Axial Distance (m) Original Improved

predicted at the design computational effort

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

stage

with

less

The authors gratefully acknowledge the management of Crompton Greaves for permitting the publication of this paper. We also thank the Switchgear division for providing necessary datas for simulation REFERENCES [1] Z. J. Csendes and J. R. Hamann, Surge arrester voltage distribution analysis by the finite element method, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-100, no. 4, pp. 18061813, Apr. 1981. [2] S. J. Han, J. Zou, S. Q. Gu, J. L. He, and J. S. Yuan, Calculation of the potential distribution of high voltage metal oxide arrester by using an improved semi-analytic finite element method, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 1392 1395, May 2005. [3] U. Kumar and V. Mogaveera, Voltage distribution studies on ZnO arresters, in Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Sci. Meas. Technol., Jul. 2002, vol. 149, no. 4, pp. 457462. [4] J. L. He, R. Zeng, S. M. Chen, and Z. C. Guan, Potential distribution analysis of suspended-type metal-oxide surge arresters, IEEE Trans.Power Del., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 1214 1220, Oct. 2003. [5] A. Haddad and P. Naylor, Finite-element computation of capacitance networks in multipleelectrode systems: Application to ZnO surge arresters,in Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Sci. Meas. Technol., Jul. 1998, vol. 145, no. 4, pp. 129135. [6] M. Oyama, I. Ohshima, M. Hoda, M. Yamashita, and S. Kojima, Analytical and experimental approach to the voltage distribution on gapless zinc-oxide surge arresters, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol.PAS-100, no. 11, pp. 46214627, Nov. 1981. [7] S. Kojima, M. Oyama, and M. Yamashita, Potential distributions of metal oxide surge arresters under various of environmental conditions, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 984989, Jul. 1988. [8] Z. J. Csendes and J. R. Hamann, Surge arrester voltage distribution analysis by the

Figure 4: Voltage Distribution of original and improved 1200 kV LA. CONCLUSION

Methodology for prediction of potential distribution in lightning arrester using 3D electrostatic FEA was developed and validated with IEC model. The analyzed results show the potential distribution of the 1200-kV metaloxide arrester without considering grading measures is very nonuniform. By selecting optimum grading ring the maximal voltage drop on ZnO section is reduced from about 35% to about 22% and k factor is reduced from 2 to 1.13. Hence, with the help of advanced techniques available with commercial FEA packages, the potential distribution in UHV products can be

N o m in a l V o lta g e D is trib u tio n (% )

finite element method, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-100, no. 4, pp. 1806 1803, Apr. 1981. [9] W. Que and S. A. Sebo, Electric field and potential distributions along dry and clean non-ceramic insulators, in Proc. Electrical Insulation Conf. Electrical Manuf. Coil Winding Conf., Cincinnati, OH, Oct. 1618, 2001, pp. 437440. [10] I. Sebestyn, Electric-field calculation for HV insulators using domain- decomposition method, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 12131216, Mar. 2002. [11] T. Zhao and M. G. Comber, Calculation of electric field and potential distribution along nonceramic insulators considering the effects of conductors and transmission towers, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 313 318, Jan. 2000. [12] M. Zucca, A. Sardi, O. Bottauscio, and O. Saracco, Modelling H. V. reference divider for lightning impulses, in Proc. 11th Int. Symp. High Voltage Engineering, London, U.K., 1999, vol. 1, pp. 7073. [13] S. Sato, T.Wakimoto, T. Harada, M. Saeki, and K. Futamata, Approximation RC distribution circuit in simulating 700 kV potential divider for switching impulse voltage, in Proc. 11th Int. Symp. High Voltage Engineering, London, U.K., 1999, vol. 1, pp. 1316.