IL-3 2012 IEEE International Conference on Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis

23-27 September 2012, Bali, Indonesia

High Voltage and High Current Test Techniques

Ernst Gockenbach
Schering Institute
Leibniz Universitt Hannover
Hannover, Germany
gockenbach@si.uni-hannover.de

AbstractStarting with a short description of the former
recommendations in the field of high voltage testing and
measuring techniques the actual changes in the recently
published recommendations are described. The time to peak of
switching impulses and the front time evaluation of lightning
impulses are the most important changes in the field of high
voltage testing. The main changes in the high voltage measuring
technique are the use of digital recorders and the related
evaluation software and its performance check. Finally the new
recommendation regarding high current test techniques will be
shortly explained.
Keywords-high voltage, high current, test techniques,
I. INTRODUCTION
The international recommendations for high voltage and
current test and measuring techniques will be handled under
the responsibility of the Technical Committee 42 (TC 42). The
TC 42 is a so called horizontal committee which means that the
recommendations of this TC should be used in all other
apparatus or system recommendations, but particular
requirements which may be necessary for some equipment
could be introduced, e.g. the front time of lightning impulse
voltage is increased for cable testing due to the usually large
capacitance of the cable to be tested.
Due the horizontal function of the TC 42 recommendations
these recommendations have a long validity, sometimes up to
some ten years. The main recommendations under TC 42
responsibility are IEC 60060, Part 1 to 3 High Voltage Test
Techniques, IEC 61083, Part 1 and 2 and in future Part 3 and 4,
Instruments and software used for measurement in high-
voltage and high-current tests, IEC 62475 High current test
techniques, IEC 62478 Partial discharge measurement and IEC
60052 Standardized air gaps.
Before the future of the TC 42 recommendations could be
described it is necessary to look back on the changes of the
above mentioned recommendations. One of the major changes
in the past was the introduction of reference measuring system
in the high voltage measuring technique due to the increasing
demand on traceable measuring uncertainty which was up to
this time not applied in the field of high voltage measuring
techniques. There were several attempts to describe the transfer
behaviour of an impulse voltage divider by time parameter in
order to qualify or disqualify an impulse voltage divider, but
finally the recommended method was the comparison between
the impulse voltage divider to be calibrated with a reference
impulse voltage divider. Already at this time the discussion
starts about the check of the linearity of an impulse voltage
divider because the rated voltage of the reference voltage
dividers was limited.
Together with the application of digital recorders the
automated evaluation of the digital recorded impulse starts and
leads to some problems concerning the reproducibility of the
test voltage for lightning impulse and the evaluation of the time
to peak for switching impulses due to the fact, that the at this
time existing recommendations were based an analogue
measuring technique and the evaluation of the parameters were
done by experienced test engineers.
Furthermore the very old recommendation for sphere gaps
in air, with which the peak value of the breakdown voltage
under AC voltage stress and the 50 % breakdown voltage under
lightning impulse voltage stress could be measured, was
extended to 50 % breakdown voltage under switching impulse
stress.
Finally the high current test technique, which was described
in the former recommendation for high voltage test techniques
only in a few paragraph was extracted from the voltage test
recommendations and introduced in an own recommendation
dealing only with high current test techniques.
The high demand on quality assurance was the driving
force for recommendations for on-site testing including the
measuring technique. The requirements could be less stringent
for some parameters due to the different purpose of the tests
compared to design, routine and acceptance tests in a factory
and due to some on-site conditions which prevent the
compliance of some requirements.
II. HIGH VOLTAGE TEST TECHNIQUES
The increase of the voltage level up to 1200 kV leads to
larger equipment and to larger test facilities. For AC voltage
and DC voltage withstand tests the increased test voltage level
up to the required test voltages is not a problem for the
generation of the test voltage but may be for the correct
measurement of the voltage.
The increase of the equipment size leads to larger gaps in
air and it should be discussed and decided, if the actual time to
peak of 250 Ps for a standard switching impulse is still
appropriate for the test of equipment in the Ultra High Voltage
(UHV) range. Fig. 1 shows clearly that the minimum in the so

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called V shaped curve of the breakdown voltage as function of
the time to peak (in former times time to crest) is shifted to
longer time to peak value for larger air gap distances.
According to [1] the air gap distances for 800 kV equipment
will be in the range of about 7 m and for that distance the time
to peak of 250 Ps is near the minimum of the so called V-type
curve. For 1200 kV equipment however the air gap distances
will be in the range of 13 m and this requires a time to peak of
about 600 Ps to reach the minimum of the V-t curve. Therefore
a discussion and a decision are required concerning the
adjustment of the time to peak for switching impulse voltage
tests, but it should be noted that the results in Fig. 1 are for air
gaps like rod plane configuration.
Figure 1. Flashover voltage at switching impulses as function of time to peak
[2]
The tests on inductive test objects like power transformer
require a certain voltage rise which may be not reached by an
extended front time, but usually such equipment will be
stressed with chopped lightning impulse where the decline time
of the voltage is much shorter than the rise time and the stress
on the insulation due to the non-linear voltage distribution
much higher.
However the revised IEC 60060-1 [3] defines already an
average rate of rise slope as the best fitting straight line,
calculated from the recorded curve, using all the data points
between the 30% and 90% of the extreme value levels, usually
expressed in kilovolts per microsecond. Furthermore a peak
time Te is defined as the extreme value of the recorded voltage
divided by the average rate of rise.
The evaluation of the impulse voltage regarding the test
voltage seems to be solved in the revised IEC 60060, even if
the change of the evaluation method was not influenced by the
increase of the rated voltage levels of transmission systems but
necessary due to the ambiguous definition of the test voltage
level in the former version of IEC 60060. This defines the test
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voltage as function of the duration of the overshoot or the
correlated frequency of the oscillations near the peak area. Fig.
2 shows the well-known example of the two cases where for
the curves a) and b) the test voltage is the extreme value of the
recorded curve and for the curves c) and d) the maximum value
of the mean curve, shown only as dotted curve without any
further definition or requirement. In the time of analogue
measuring equipment this definition was not very critical
because experienced engineers evaluated the test voltage with a
small uncertainty and a high reproducibility. The later chapter
dealing with the measuring technique will give some more and
detailed information.
Figure 2. Overshoot evaluation according to IEC 60060-1:1989, Figure 10
Mean curve (dotted curve) shall be drawn by experienced engineers
The evaluation of the test voltage in case of overshoot or
oscillations near the peak required a revision, because the test
voltage could change from impulse to impulse if the frequency
of the oscillation was near 500 kHz or the duration of the
overshoot near 1 Ps due to definition of the test voltage in the
former IEC 60060.
These changes are now included in the latest revision of
IEC 60060-1 and details will be explained in another
contribution to this symposium. Fig. 3 should only demonstrate
the evaluation process using a simulated lightning impulse
voltage. Curve (1-blue) is the recorded impulse with a high
overshoot and an oscillation frequency near 500 kHz. The base
curve (2-green) replaces now the former mean curve but
calculated by an algorithm described in the IEC
recommendation which leads to a very high reproducibility of
the base curve. The difference between the recorded and the
base curve is represented by the so called residual curve (3-
green) which can be interpreted as the superposition of the
oscillation on the base curve.
This residual curve will then be filtered with the
experimental evaluated so called k-factor or test voltage factor
in order to take into account the influence of the superimposed
overshoot or oscillation near the peak to the breakdown or
withstand behaviour. The characteristic of the filtering is
similar to a high pass filter because it was already recognized
in the past that higher frequency content of the superimposed
oscillation are less important as higher the frequency [5].
The test voltage is evaluated from a calculated curve, which
is the addition of the base curve and the filtered residual curve.

1 used to adjust the transformation ratio of the measuring system
2 and this in a remote control version.
3 impulse parameter like test voltage amplitude, front time and
Figure 3. Principle of filtering the overshoot according to [4] with the
recorded (1), base (2) and the residual curve (3)
This procedure is only possible if the recorded impulse
shape is available in digital form. It is also the first time that
within an IEC recommendation the procedure to calculate a
parameter, here in this case the base curve, is described and not
only the requirements and the tolerances. Therefore some
discussion takes place if the IEC will change its philosophy
from describing only requirements and tolerances to describing
fixed procedures in the recommendations. To explain this in
more details on the example of the lightning impulse
evaluation the calculation of the base curve is defined by an
algorithm where the sample range is given. All samples from
20 % of the extreme recorded value in the front up to 40 % of
the extreme recorded value should be used to find the best fit of
the two exponential functions as shown in Equ. (1) in a general
form.
u (t) = U (e -t / W1 - e -t / W2 ) (1)
The advantage of such a procedure is the high
reproducibility of the base curve which was in the past only
defined by the drawing shown in Fig. 2. The disadvantage may
be the fact that the given procedure prevents the invention or
development of a more clever, cheaper, faster or whatever
method to calculate the base curve.
It is worthwhile to mention that the filtering has the main
purpose to increase the reproducibility of the test voltage
evaluation and to prevent the sharp step and change of the test
voltage if the frequency of the oscillations is near 500 kHz. A
further advantage concerning the evaluation is the fact that the
calculated test voltage curve is a smooth curve and the
evaluation of the 30 % and 90 % point is simple due to the lack
of oscillations at this level.
The recording instruments have experienced a large change
within the years; starting from the analogue oscilloscope with a
high input voltage over the storage oscilloscope up to the actual
The use of digital recording system in the high voltage test
area starts with some problems concerning the electromagnetic
interference of the recording and storage device. The solution
was to keep the high signal of up to 1200 V on the transmission
system between the impulse voltage divider and the recording
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device and to reduce the amplitude with an additional divider
just at the input of the digital recorder. Such a solution has a
further advantage, that the second voltage divider could be
The digital recording system allows also an automatic
evaluation of the impulse parameter using a computer with the
relevant software. But here some problems arise due to the fact
that the requirements and rules for the evaluation of the
time to half value were based on analogue systems and some
details should be adjusted to digital recorded impulses.
The first digital recorders were limited in sampling rate and
resolution, but nowadays and also in future the sampling rate as
well as the resolution is not any more a problem; sometimes in
the other direction that the available sampling rate and the
resolution should be limited to a reasonable value.
The reasonable combination of a digital recording systems
and a computer for the evaluation of the recorded data leads to
IEC recommendation for the hardware, the digital recorder, and
the software implemented in the computer, because this could
also contribute to the total uncertainty. The actual situation in
this field is the planned revision of the IEC recommendation
for the hardware, IEC 61083-1, which up to now includes also
analogue recording systems, and an expected Committee Draft
for Voting (CDV) of the revision of IEC 61082-2 which
contents a number of digital available impulses with which the
evaluation procedure of a measuring system could be checked
and approved. The so-called Transient Digital Generator
(TDG) is part of the IEC recommendations and available as
software. With the TDG the used recorder could be simulated
and a data set generated which represents a real measurement
regarding sampling rate, resolution and some characteristics of
a digital recorder like internal noise and jitter of the sampling
starting point. This revision deletes some bugs of the former
version where the software could be managed in such a way
that all available test impulse could be evaluated within the
given tolerance, but other impulses not.
The digital recorder influences also the evaluation
procedure of the time to peak for switching impulses. Due to
the fact, that a large number of samples in the area of the peak
have the same level the former definition of the time to peak
was not anymore valid, because depending on the program
different samples with the highest level could found. The
solution was a change in the evaluation procedure, the same as
for the front time of lightning impulse, using the 30 % and 90
%level of the test voltage curve. But this change leads to a
change in the value of the time to peak and therefore the time
to peak is defined according the following equations:
Tp = K TAB, (2)
where K is a dimensionless constant given by
K = 2,42 - 3,08.10-3 TAB + 1,51.10-4 T2 (3)
where TAB is defined as t90 t30 and T2 is the time to half
value, both times are in Ps. In the IEC recommendations for on
site tests [6] the calculation of the time to peak is much simpler
as following:
 Tp = 2,4 TAB
From the test point of view the difference between the Equ.
(2) and (4) is not very large, but Equ, (2) leads to time to peak
values which are closer to the values evaluated by the former
definition, but the new Equ. (2) has two variables which means
the jitter could be larger.
IEC 61083 Instruments and software used for
measurements in high-voltage and high-current test with the
following parts, Part1 - Requirements for instruments for
impulse tests, Part 2 Requirements for software for impulse
test, Part 3 - Requirements for instruments for tests with
alternating and direct currents and voltages, Part 4 -
Requirements for software for tests with alternating and direct
currents and voltages.
III. HIGH CURRENT TEST TECHNIQUES
During the revision of IEC 60060 it was also realized that
the part dealing with currents was not adequate to the
importance of the current test techniques. Therefore all parts
related to current were moved to another IEC recommendation
624574 [7] which was approved recently.
The structure of this recommendation is very similar to the
recommendations for high voltage tests. After the general
chapters like scope and references the chapters follow the
recommendation for high voltage tests concerning procedures
for qualification and use of a measuring system, which
describes the different checks and tests as well as the operating
conditions and uncertainty. One chapter refers to tests and test
requirements for an approved measuring system with the
details on calibration, linearity, dynamic behaviour and short
term and long term stability. Furthermore the uncertainty
calculation, interferences tests and withstand tests are described
in detail for references as well as for approved current
measuring systems.
The definitions of the impulse current shapes were
unchanged related to the current impulses described in the
former recommendations for high voltage testing. Fig. 4 shows
a typical impulse current with the superposition of the two
exponential functions. The definition of the front time is
different from the front time of high voltage impulses but this
was already given in the former recommendations.
i(t)
100 %
90 %
50 %
T1 = Front time
= 1,25 T
T2 = Time to half-value
10 %
t
T Reversal peak
T1
T2
Figure 4. Typical impulse current [14]
(4) Table I shows some example of current impulses but in the
annex H of [7] a long list of current impulses is given based on
the different IEC recommendations in the field of testing of
surge arrestors, surge protecting devices for different
installations and electronic devices.
TABLE I. TABLE TYPE STYLES
The current measuring system is usually connected to the
neutral terminal of the transformer (or reactor) and/or to a
terminal not subjected to the impulse voltage. The main
objective is to verify that the impulse current varies linearly
with the applied test voltage, thus providing proof that no
internal breakdown has occurred. No requirement is posed on
determination of actual current values.
But in dielectric tests, particularly for the insulation of
transformers, the record of the current will be used for
comparison or for the calculation of the transfer function,
which could be e.g. the ratio of the impulse voltage and the
output current, both in the frequency domain. Then the
resolution and reproducibility of the shape of the current
through the test object may be of high importance.
The new recommendation ends with a short description on
the requirements on reference measuring systems which are
very general like the following statement. A reference
measuring system shall have an uncertainty sufficiently low to
permit the required uncertainties in calibration of approved
measuring systems to be reached. It shall also be traceable to
national and/or international standards of measurements
through an unbroken chain of comparative measurements all
having stated uncertainties.
REFERENCES
[1] IEC 60071 - Insulation co-ordination- Part 1: Definitions, principles and
rules, Amendment 1, 2010
[2] International Symposium on Standards for UHV Transmission, New
Delhi, India, 2009
[3] IEC 60060 - High-voltage test techniques Part 1 General definitions
and test requirements, 2010
[4] M. Hinow, W. Hauschild, E.Gockenbach: Lightning Impulse Voltage
and Overshoot Evaluation Proposed in Drafts of IEC 60060-1 and
Future UHV Testing, IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical
Insulation, Vol. 17, No. 5, 2010, pp. 1628- 1634
[5] S. Berlijn, F. Garnacho, F. Simon, E. Gockenbach, P. Werle, K.
Hackemack and M. Watts, Final report: Digital measurement of
parameters used for lightning impulse tests for high voltage equipment",
EU contract no. PL- 951210-SMT-CT96-2132, 1999
[6] IEC 600-60 High-voltage test techniques Part 3: Definitions and
requirements for on-site testing. (Only required for on-site testing.),
2006
[7] IEC 62475 - High-current test techniques - Definitions and requirements
for test currents and measuring system, 2010
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