ECE 760 Topic -10 Fall 2020

Operation and Control of Future Integrated Energy

Systems – Module 11

Insulation Integrity of the Future Grid

Course Instructor:
Shesha H. Jayaram,
Professor and Director of High Voltage Engineering Laboratory,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Phone(519) 888-4567 Ext. 35337
jayaram@uwaterloo.ca
 Power and Energy Systems
Introduction to Insulation Systems

Machine Insulation and Variable

Speed Drives

Integration of the Renewable

Energy Sources

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 Power and Energy Systems
Generation, transmission, and distribution

Today, 1000kV AC system and ± 800 kV DC

systems are in operation.

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 Power and Energy Systems
Pan-Canadian Power Grid – red line shows the 735kV AC network

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 Power and Energy Systems
HV DC Transmission System
Specially designed
transformers for
converter stations

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 Power and Energy Systems
HVAC and HVDC Transmission Systems

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 Power and Energy Systems
HVDC System – Converter Station
A view of a converter station showing the rectifier
(converter) switches)

1A = 6.25  1018 electrons flow Currents of magnitudes of 100s to 1000A is common in these power
per second. converter stations. The switches used for converting AC into DC must allow
and interruption of such high magnitudes of currents.

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 Power and Energy Systems
HVAC Cable Systems
Growth rates of Cables History:
Extruded vs Paper-Oil 1812 – First power cable was used in Russia
1881 – Jute insulated DC cable by Edison
Europacable
1890 – Formal concentric construction by Ferranti
2003
1917 – First shielded cable – PILC type.
1963 – XLPE invention
1968 - 70 – XLPE cables; unjacketed; failures
1972-80 - improvements on XLPE cables
1982 – Water Tree Resistant (WTR) XLPE cables

“Long-life XLPE-insulated Power

Cables” by Orton and Hartlein

S.ECE
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UW
 Objectives
 Understanding the importance of electrical insulation.
 Understanding the application of various dielectric materials
as electrical insulation system – in power equipment.
 Understanding the relationship between types of stresses
and the insulation failure.
 Understanding the impact of adjustable or variable speed
drives (use of power electronic devices) on insulation
systems.
 Understanding the impact of renewable energy sources (use
of power electronic devices) on existing insulation systems.

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 Power Components and Insulation
Systems
 HV line insulators  Power Transformers
 Surge arresters  Underground Cables
 Apparatus bushing  Electric Motors
 Station posts  Generators
 Circuit Breakers  Instrument Transformers

 Gases  Insulating property is normally restored following the breakdown.

 Liquids  These materials also serve as coolants.

 Breakdown destructs the material permanently.

 Solids  Used as barriers and separators.
 Solids are also used for mechanical support.

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 Transmission Line Insulators
 Most of the electrical power is transmitted and distributed via overhead
lines (In North America). Outdoor insulators work as a backbone.
 It is essential to electrically isolate the live lines from grounded structures.

 Mechanical: Line weight and

forces due to line currents.
String of
 Electrical: Applied voltage and Disc
Insulators
transients.
 Environmental: UV light from
the sun, salt, ice, snow,
moisture, chemical and
biological attack.

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 Station Equipment Insulation

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 Cable Insulation

Cable Basement
Cross-sectional view of a Cable

Cable buried in earth

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Undersea (underwater) HV Cables
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 Electric Machine Insulation

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 Metering and Protection Equipment Insulation
Current and Voltage Transformers,
and Circuit Breakers

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Jayaram
 Overvoltages
Overvoltages: According to IEEE standard; An overvoltage is defined as: “Voltage between one phase
and ground or between two phases, having a crest value exceeding the corresponding crest of maximum
system voltage.”

Overvoltages may be classified by shape and duration as either transient or temporary.

Transient Overvoltage: A short-duration highly damped, oscillatory, or non-oscillatory overvoltage,

having duration of few milliseconds or less. Transient overvoltages are classified as; Lightning
Overvoltages and Switching Overvoltages; and Very fast front, short duration overvoltages.

Temporary Overvoltage: An Oscillatory phase-to-ground or phase-to-phase overvoltage that is at a

given location, of relatively long duration (seconds, even minutes) and that is un-damped or only weakly
damped.

Causes of Overvoltages: 1) Internal Causes: (a) Switching

surges (b) Insulation Failure (c) Arcing Ground (d) Resonance,
and 2) External Causes i.e. Lightning.
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 External and Internal Insulations
Line Insulators

Power Transformers

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 External and Internal Insulations
Arresters protecting a 230kV windfarm collector transformer

34.5kV arresters
on LV side.

Circuit breaker

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 Transformer Insulation

HV Bushings

Iron Core

HV Winding

Tank

LV winding is hidden

Cut section of a fully assembled transformer before filling with liquid. Note that the
winding insulation is also impregnated with liquid.

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 Voltage Levels – Operating and Overvoltages
Basic impulse insulation
High voltage ratings (volts)
Operating Levels < < Withstand Levels level – BIL (kV)
2400 Delta 60
4160 Delta 75
4800 Delta 75
7200 Delta 95
12000 Delta 110
12470 Delta 110
13200 Delta 110
13800 Delta 110
14400 Delta 110
16340 Delta 110
34500 Delta 200
4160GrdY/2400 75
8320GrdY/4800 95
12470GrdY/7200 110
13200GrdY/7620 110
13800GrdY/7970 110
22860GrdY/13200 150
23900GrdY/13800 150
24940GrdY/14400 150
34500GrdY/19920 200
Basic impulse
Low voltage ratings (volts) insulation level – BIL
(kV)
208Y/120 45
480Y/277 45
575Y/332 45
600Y/347 45
690Y/398 45

There are three types of overvoltages; lightning,

4160Y/2400 75
240 Delta 45
480 Delta 45
switching, and temporary overvoltages. 240 Delta with 120 Mid-Tap
480 Delta with 240 Mid-Tap
45
45
4160 Delta 75

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 UHV Transmission Projects
(Some Facts)

Test Voltage Levels for 1000kV AC Operating Voltage

Source: State Grid Corporation of China
Lightning impulse Switching
withstand voltage impulse voltage
Equipment (Peak) (Peak) AC (RMS)

Transformer and reactor 2,250kV 1,800kV 1,100 (5 min)

Circuit breaker and disconnector 2,400kV 1,800kV 1,100 (1 min)

Capacitive Voltage Transformer 2,400kV 1,800kV 1,100 (1 min)

Clearance between open contacts of 1,100+635

circuit breaker (2,400+900)kV (1,675+900) kV (1 min)

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 Insulation plays a vital role
 Insulation is the weakest part of an electrical device, especially if made by
polymeric materials. It is therefore important to identify the service stresses,
which can be often different from those expected at design stage.
 Failure of electrical insulation is due to multiple stresses; thermal, electrical,
mechanical, environmental that can degrade the electrical insulation.
 The relationship between its stresses and properties needs to be known as
the time to failure is usually indicated by the rate of decay of insulating
materials used.
 Voltages are not sinusoidal; rather contain DC components, ripple,
harmonics, and high frequency fast transients. As such,
effects due to enhanced electric fields, over-shoots, partial discharges and
increased losses that can lead to premature insulation failures must be
considered.
Many critical power components, like power transformers are
now reaching the end of their economical lifetime of
approximately 40 years.
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 Energy Supply and Demand

Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

In order to meet the constantly growing demand for power, most

countries are targeting the renewable energy sources.

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 Renewable Energy Sources
Generation, transmission, and distribution

The Smart Grid will be

combination of many energy
generation and distribution
system sources; such as,
Combined Heat and Power
(CHP), Energy storage,
Microgrid, HVDC, Solar
Power, Wind Power, Energy
storage, fuel cell and more.
Distribution system will be
computer controlled. Storage
will play significant role.

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 Renewable Energy Sources

World’s Renewable Energy Sources

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 Power and Energy Systems
Canada’s and Ontario’s Electric Framework

Generation Mix in Canada (2014) Installed Capacity Mix in Ontario (2015)

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 Current Research
 Non-linear Loads
 Plug in Electric
Vehicles
 Micro Grids
 Renewable Energy
Sources

Machine, Transformer and Cable Insulation Systems

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 Variable Speed Drives
and
Machine Insulation
Changes the grid is experiencing from the way the loads are controlled
using power electronics.

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 Electric Motors and Power Consumption
Motors are the number one consumer of electrical power

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 Electric Motors and Power Consumption
Power consumption based on size

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 Electric Machines – Small Motors

Stator

Rotor

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 Electric Machine Insulation
Stator of a random-wound induction motor
Stator core and winding details

Insulated
Conductors
Iron Core

Insulated
Conductors

For such low voltage machines, insulation used is mainly enamel.

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 Some Applications for Large Motors

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 Machine Insulation – Large HV Motors

Stator core and winding

Insulation problems are generally

with the HV Stator Windings.

Induction motors for process industries,

paper and pulp industries, synchronous
motors for city water pumps, etc.

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 Form-Wound HV Induction Motors
A completed three phase stator assembly

Distributed three phase winding

– wye or delta connections are
used.

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 Large HV Motors and Generators
Details of a form-wound machine stator construction

Each coil is separately formed and then

placed in the slots; finally completing the
windings using end windings.

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 Machine Insulation – Large HV Motors
Details of the winding insulation and stress grading within each coil

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 PWM drives Output Voltage

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 Sources of Fast Transients
 Breakdown in gas insulated substations

 Operation of vacuum interrupters (CBs)

 Operation of disconnectors
→ Generate steep front transients, but mostly single occurrence.

 Use of Adjustable Speed Drives

 Integration of the Renewable Energy Sources

→ Generate steep front transients at high repetition rates.

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 Life Under Variable Electric Stress
1

0.9 only ac voltage

0.8

0.7 2 switching per

day
0.6

Reliability
30 years
0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
1.0E+02 1.0E+04 1.0E+06 1.0E+08 1.0E+10

A B Life (h)

Example of model application: B: reliability for capacitors subjected to

switching overvoltages of known probability distribution: A.

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 Life Under Variable Electric Stress
Example of model application: motor wire insulation reliability vs life for
power electronics voltage impulses. Blue line: reliability of the real waveform.
Red line: reliability for a sinusoidal waveform. The black vertical line indicates
30 year of life.

U pk/pk

U' pk
U pk/pk

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 Voltage Waveform at Load Terminals

16

14 Overshoot

12

10

Voltage (kV)
8

2
Risetime Falltime
0

-2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time (S)
Voltage at the terminals of a
machine fed by a 3-level PWM Typical waveform of single pulse
converter. of a PWM converter.

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 PWM Voltage Waveforms - Problems
IEC 60034-18-42 : Influence of features of the converter drive voltage on acceleration
of aging of components of Type II insulation systems

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 PWM Voltage Waveforms - Problems
Repetitive Fast Rise-time Pulses

High Repetition High dV/dt Voltage Overshoot

Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical EMI & Acoustic

Noise
Stresses

Space Charge Partial Electric Field Dielectric Axial Current &

Formation Discharge Enhancement Losses Vibration

Insulation Bearing Failure

Degradation
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 Fast Rise Time Voltages
PWM Waveform

3
2x10

3
1x10
Voltage, V [v]

0 Pulse front

3
-1x10

3
-2x10

-0.02 -0.01 0.00 0.01 0.02

Time, t [ms]

Laboratory generated Voltage at the terminals of a test

specimen fed by a 2-level PWM Generator

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 Machine Insulation – Large HV Motors
Slot exit - region for partial discharges, if E> 3kV/mm

Iron core

Insulated coils

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 Stress Grading in Machines
Medium voltage Motors ( 4 kV to 13.8 kV)
Slot exit - region for partial
discharges, if E> 3kV/mm Form wound coil end

Iron core

Insulated
coils

Use of conductive armor coating and stress grading coating at the coil
ends.

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 Machine Insulation – Stress Grading
Stator core and
winding

Potential
region for
PD

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 Potential/Field under Power Frequency
1.0

0.5
AC 60 HZ
Magnitude

0.0

-0.5

-1.0

0.04 0.06
X Axis Title

Stress grading is effective under power

frequency; keeps the field < 3kV/mm in
the slot exit area, and field enhancement
is in the stress graded region.

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 Effect of Fast Rise Time Voltages

Fast Rise time pulse

Electric field enhancement region is at the slot exit – undesired as

local field enhancement can lead to partial discharge inception at
the slot exit. Thus degrading the insulation and potentially causing
machine failure.
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 Effect of Fast Rise Time Voltages

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 Effect of Fast Rise Time Voltages
Thermal Images revealing stress enhancement

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 Effect of Fast Rise Time Voltages

Cross section of the form wound coil end

Solutions:
1. Modifying properties of conductive armor and stress
grading coatings.
2. Implementing conductive foils within the ground-wall
insulation.
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 Sectionalized Stress Grading System

Reduction in the
Electric field during the rise
Stress Grading with a
time
Double Layer Coating
Highly
conductive
SGHF
paint SGLF
End of the (a)
stator slot
Conductive armor tape Groundwall insulation

During the
voltage rise
(t < 200 ns) (b)

t > 1 s
(c)

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 Effect of Fast Rise Time Voltages

Typical SG

Sectionalized
SG

1.0

AC 60 HZ
Sectionalized 0.5

Magnitude
SG
0.0

-0.5

-1.0

0.04 0.06
X Axis Title

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 Summary
 Use of Voltage Source Converters for drives has been increasing at a
considerable faster rate. As such the power electronics switching
initiated transients impact the machine insulation aging significantly.
 Designing appropriate insulation to cope with the increased electrical,
and thermal stresses is imperative.
 Developing diagnostics to assess the risks from the above is essential
for condition monitoring of power system components.
 Developing new materials that can withstand the severe stresses that
are critical as mentioned above is also essential.
 In addition to applications in industrial automation, power electronics
is now playing a significant role in global energy conservation
enabling the utilization of renewable energy sources using distributed
generation schemes.

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 Integration of the Renewable
Energy Sources
“Traditional grid is based on a one-way network. The smart grid principle is rather based
on a hierarchical structure and on the acceptability of intermittent resources
such as renewable energies. This acceptability of the choppy different renewable
energy sources and its power outage self-healing capability are the major advantages
over traditional power grid”.

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 Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation
Advantages
 Globally considered as well-funded and fast growing technology.
 Attracted the attention of governments, manufacturers and end
users alike.
 Can be configured to meet peak power needs.
 Well suited for some renewable energy technologies.
 Located close to the user.
 Can be installed in small increments.

Concerns:
Since power electronic devices are a key component of the DG, the increased
connection of DG to the existing grid could cause substantial amount of
harmonics injection.

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 Renewable Energy: non-controlled supply
Source Cycle changes in a given day with time on each type of
generators – calls for significantly high number of switching operations.
For fast operations, vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) have been used,
and each time a VCB operates, it injects fast transients into the grid.

Power in MW
Power in MW

Time in hours Time in hours

AC power transmission in AC power transmission in

Germany May 12th 2015 Germany May 25th 2015

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 Renewable Energy: system resonance
The lay-out of the offshore wind farm, which is the base of the resonances

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 Renewable Energy: system resonance
The lay-out of the offshore wind farm, which is the base of the resonances

 This wind farm comprises six collector circuits

(lines of six colours) all connecting at a central
substation.
 Cable joints are shown by the blue circle with
cross.
 Cable joints are required at these specific
locations to allow connection of the collector
circuit to the substation.
 Transport and installation constraints impact on
maximum cable manufacturing lengths. For
example, 1200mm2 single-core cable the
approximate maximum length is 2km.
 Potentials for amplified harmonic components
when the resonant frequencies align with the
A typical wind farm collector circuit layout harmonic frequencies that are being injected by
showing cable joints in long cable run; power electronic components.
Australian power grid.

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 Renewable Energy: system resonance

Network impedance at
capacitor bus with no DG
and subsequent switching
of WTGs

The impact of WTG connections on resonant modes of system impedance and total harmonic
distortion in the network are discussed in detail. The resonant frequencies for a given system can
change significantly with the change in characteristic impedance when WTGs are added. As such,
it is hard to define the resonant frequencies, as resonance can occur at multiple harmonics.

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 Impact of WTG on Harmonic distortion
of Real-time distribution system

D. Patel, R. K. Varma, R. Seethapathy and M. Dang. “ Impact of wind turbine generators

on network resonance and harmonic distortion.” 23rd Canadian Conference on Electrical
and Computer Engineering, 2010, pp.1-6.

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 Renewable Energy: distorted voltage
Voltage measured between phase and ground in back-to back operation. The
upper curve shows the actual waveform and the lower diagram shows the
harmonic spectrum.

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 Fast Transients and their effects
 Insulation used has variety of materials; and they are real;
represented by a combination of R and C.
 Ideally insulating materials – nonpolar in nature. But, in practice, a
small leakage current flows.
 At high frequency, due to polarization effects the permittivity goes up;
as a result, materials become more polar.
 Further, the loss factor also goes up due to dielectric losses
associated with friction due to polarization.
 Due to high losses, temperature goes up, as a result, thermal
runaway conditions can reach – insulation failure due to thermal
effects.
Efficiency of Power Controllers depends on how fast and at what
repetition rate the switches operate.

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 Dielectric Loss and Capacitance
Measurable parameters that reflect the changes inside solids
 Ideally, if the insulation of any electrical system is defect free, it can be
represented as a perfect capacitor; however, in reality defects or impurities are
part of any system components.

 In a perfect capacitor, the voltage and current are phase shifted by 90oC and
the current through the insulation is capacitive.

 If there are impurities in the insulation, like those mentioned above, the
resistance of the insulation decreases, resulting in an increase in resistive
current through the insulation. The current and voltage will no longer be shifted
by 90 degrees.

 The extent to which the phase shift is less than 90 degrees is indicative of the
level of insulation contamination, hence quality/reliability of the insulation. This
“Loss Angle” is measured and analyzed – Dissipation Factor (tan).

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 Frequency Dependence of a Dielectric Material
  1 
Tan    
  CR  o

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 Transformers Connected to Wind
Energy Plants

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 Stresses on wind-farm transformers
Loading cycle of power network
Loading
Loadingcycle
cycleofofpower
powernetwork
network
without DRE
with DRE

• High dV/dt oscillations from frequent

switching
• Thermal (loading) cycles

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 Stresses on wind-farm transformers
 High dV/dt oscillations from frequent switching
 High frequency harmonics and spikes from power electronic sources
 Thermal (loading) cycles

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 Wind farm transformers
(1) When the wind farms run at the high voltage level, transient overvoltage caused by the
switching will be higher, which brings greater risk to the safety and reliability of
equipment in wind power system.
(2) The wind turbines are driven by wind energy which is an intermittent energy, so whether
the wind turbines are put into operation or not, it is frequent and random, which makes
the circuit breaker action frequently. Therefore, the occurrence probability of switching
overvoltage is larger, and the cumulative damage to insulation is more serious.
(3) In many offshore wind farms, power cables are used widely. Due to the surge
impedance of the coaxial cable much lower than the overhead line, when the same
transformer is in the invasion of the overvoltage, the wave steepness of the cable is
nearly 10 times the overhead line.
(4) The networks topology of wind farm has remarkable difference with conventional power
systems. The whole system consists of external network, step-up transformer,
expensive cable systems, vacuum circuit breaker (CB) and wind turbine. The
combination of these equipment has been identified as a potential source of transient
overvoltage in large offshore wind farms
The overvoltages occurred even if terminal voltages were below installed surge arrester
protection level. Also, the insulation damage inside the tap winding of a 20 MVA 75.25/6.9
kV was found to have occurred due to internal resonant overvoltages.

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 Wind farm transformers

Comparison of hydrogen contents in transformers installed in

wind-farm and other conventional substations

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 PD and Ageing/Breakdown
MV/LV Transformer installed in a solar plant
Before the breakdown PD activity and Hydrogen dissolved in the oil
were found

Few weeks after the PD test

the transformer exploded
In the same plant five
Before installation 5 months after installation transformers failed within 6
months

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 Wind farm transformers
What are the adverse effects of such conditions on
transformer insulation?
Is the existing infrastructure capable of sustaining
such conditions?
Proposed design changes:
 Use of covered core.
 Higher BIL for bushings (200kV vs. 150kV for a 34.5kV
bushing).
 An electrostatic shield between LV and HV windings.
Yet nearly 35% of transformers show gassing problems

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 Objectives
 Investigate the performance of transformers connected to wind
farms under high frequency and high dV/dt conditions.

 Identify the key parameters that reflect the degradation under

the above conditions.

 Develop test procedures based on frequency response and

dissolved gas analyses.

 Develop a high frequency transformer model to study internal

resonances and transferred voltages.

 Propose design modifications to improve the transformer

performance in a wind farm environment.

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 Topics for Discussion
 Renewable energy characteristics.
 Transformer insulation system under distorted
voltage waveforms.
 Voltage waveform at transformer terminals.
 Electric stress inside transformers.
 Transformer Insulation materials under high
dV/dt.
 Effectiveness of design modifications.

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 Aging of model transformers
Sinusoida
l

Monitored parameters:
– Oil bulk temperature
– Winding temperature
– Partial discharges (PDs)
– Dissolved gases
– Frequency responses

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 Bulk oil and winding temperature
variations

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 Dissolved gas
and Partial discharge Analyses

Dissolved gas Power-grid-fed Inverter-fed

(ppm) transformer (T1) transformer (T2)

Hydrogen <10 52

Carbon Monoxide 43 259

Methane <5 13

Carbon Dioxide 1120 5780

Ethylene <2 4

Ethane <2 <2

Acetylene <2 7

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 Switching impulse simulation
G Medium
Low Low Medium
Voltage cz
Voltage Voltage Voltage Point Grid
Doubly Wind Vacuum
Vacuu Cable Cable of
Fed Turbine Circuit
m Common
Induction Step Breaker
Circuit Coupling
Generator Breake Up
r Transform
er VCB opening on HV side under inductive load
150

Transformer terminal Voltage in kV

100

50

-50

-100

-150
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

81 Time in seconds x 10
-3

Measured overvoltages at the terminals of a 20 kV transformer due to VCB opening under

inductive load with an 80 m cable.
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 Transformer insulation under impulse
G Medium
Low Low Medium
Voltage cz
Voltage Voltage Voltage Point Grid
Doubly Wind Vacuum
Vacuu Cable Cable of
Fed Turbine Circuit
m Common
Induction Step Breaker
Circuit Coupling
Generator Breake Up
r Transform
er

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 Validation of PD comparison method

One-minute
accumulated
PD pulses
recorded by
Illustration of the test chamber used in DGA;
1: ground electrodes, 2: energized electrodes, 3: paper RF antenna.
samples, 4: oil bath, 5: dissolved gas monitor, and 6: RF
antenna.

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 PD under different impulse waveforms

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 Electrostatic shielding

PES Working group recommendation on design changes to suppress PD in oil

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 Electrostatic shielding

Transformers are equipped with

connecting leads

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 Electrostatic shielding

1- Shielded transformer 3- Frequency response unit

2- Un-shielded transformer 4- Data acquisition

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 Electrostatic shielding

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 Summary
 As a result of pronounced localized electric fields partial discharges can
occur leading to turn-turn failures; hence the generation of gases like
hydrogen.
 A linear relationship exists between the generated hydrogen and the PD
activity. Thus, hydrogen gas content can be used to study the performance of
transformers under distorted voltage waveforms; to assess the effects of
pulse rise time, repetitive frequency and energy.
 Use of a single electrostatic shield is not effective in mitigating various
frequency components. Although the shield suppressed the frequency
components in certain frequency range, for higher frequencies the transferred
voltages were significantly higher than those observed in the absence of a
shield.
 High frequency performance of the transformer should be considered before
and after the installation of a shield.

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 Experience from wind farm transformers
failure analysis
 Researches mainly focus on problems of thermal stability caused by
increasing transportation of power flow, fault in wind power generation and
its recovery, reactive power compensation in wind farms and low voltage
ride-through capability of a wind turbine generator system. However,
transient overvoltage of the power system in wind farms have become one
of the prominent issues in wind farms.
The aim of this lecture is to bridge between the smart grid and insulation
communities.
 One area of mutual benefit is in demand response – reducing peak loads
can reduce peak temperatures in distribution transformers, thus reducing
the rate of aging. This is a good example of a case where the Dielectrics
and Smart Grid communities can work together to provide maximum
possible benefits to the network owners and operators.

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 References
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 Thank You!
Acknowledgements

RESEARCH TEAM

Prof. Montanari for sharing the presentation slides; 40, 41 and 74.

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