Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743

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Ain Shams Engineering Journal

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Electrical Engineering

Harmonic resonance overvoltage due to main transformer energization

in large wind farms, Zafarana, Egypt
Ahmed Fouad a, Mostafa Elshahed b,⇑, Mahmoud Sayed b, Mahmoud Gilany b
a
Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, Ministry of Electricity, Egypt
b
Electric Power Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: When a large power transformer is energized, a high magnitude inrush current may result in harmonic
Received 24 March 2018 resonance overvoltage (HRO), if the system has resonance phenomenon. Such overvoltages may cause
Revised 27 February 2019 large stresses on the system. This paper investigates the energization of two winding 220/22 kV main
Accepted 3 April 2019
power transformer in a weak system of a grid-connected wind farm. To achieve this aim, the produced
Available online 15 May 2019
HRO during the energization of the main power transformers and the affecting factors are investigated.
In addition, the effect of the sympathetic inrush phenomena is studied. Finally, the sequential energiza-
Keywords:
tion of the three-phase transformer and the pre-insertion resistor method are discussed as mitigation
Grid-connected wind farms
Harmonic resonance overvoltage
methods. The investigated scenarios and results will contribute in developing the power system restora-
Pre-insertion resistor tion procedures for existent wind farm, its extension, and future-planned wind farms.
Sequential energization of transformers Ó 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction the arrangement of system elements. If one of the frequencies pro-

Wind farms have been widely used recently, Zafarana wind
farm is one of the largest wind farms in Egypt. The Medium Voltage
(MV) cables and the wind turbine transformers (WTT) in Zafarana
always suffer from repeated insulation breakdown. Such problems
are general and well-known in grid-connected wind farms [1,2]
and are not limited to Zafarana. This ensures that there are unde-
sired overvoltages produced especially during the main transform-
ers energization. There is shortage of studies and information
related to such problems [2]. Therefore, it is important to investi-
gate these behaviors to introduce a suitable mitigation for over-
voltage due to transformers energization.
The energization of the main transformer may lead to high
magnitudes of inrush current which are enriched with harmonics.
The attendant frequencies due to transformer energization phe-
nomenon always vary from the fundamental power frequency up
to about 1 kHz [3]. Low resonance frequencies may exist due to
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: m.elshahed@eng.cu.edu.eg (M. Elshahed).
Peer review under responsibility of Ain Shams University.
duced by the inrush current is equal to or close to one of the sys-
tems low resonant frequencies, harmonic resonance overvoltage
(HRO) occurs [4,5].
Overvoltage is considered a more serious problem in wind
farms than in conventional power stations for the following
reasons:

Wind farms are characterized by repeated switching of different
types of equipment due to frequent change in wind speed, in
addition to the need for periodic different equipment mainte-
nance. The repeated energization of the main transformers
may lead to high magnitudes of inrush currents which are
enriched with harmonics of different orders.

Wind farms have a large number of cables used to connect
between different types of equipment. These cables increase
the system capacitance leading to an increased probability of
resonance phenomenon occurrence.

Wind farms are always designed far from the grid and the over-
head transmission lines (OHTLs), connecting between wind
farms and the grid, are usually long. This may lead to consider-
ing wind farms as weak systems with low MVA fault levels
[6–8].

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.04.002
2090-4479/Ó 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
732 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743

The produced HROs are temporary overvoltages lasting for
some cycles and taking the form of undamped or slightly damped
oscillations at a definite frequency [9–11].
Some affecting factors exist on HROs are overviewed in [12].
These factors are the transformer to be energized rating, the source
fault level, the circuit length, the loads, the system voltage profile,
and the transformer flux density.
It can be said that, factors affecting inrush current affect also
HROs. In addition, the type of resonance, which may be series res-
onance [1,12] or parallel resonance [5,14], affects HRO. The system
natural frequency (fn) also affects HRO. Finally, the wind farm site
with respect to the grid determines the degree of overvoltages
damping [6–8].
Overvoltages may lead to protection disturbances, equipment
problems, and consumer problems. The protection disturbances
are represented in mal-operations of protection system, especially
the unnecessary tripping of overvoltage over-fluxing relays. Over-
voltages may result in large stresses in equipment involved and
overheating causing damage and destruction of different system
equipment as insulators, cables [1], circuit breakers, and protection
elements. The repairs or replacements of these elements are costly.
As for transformers, the overvoltages may cause deterioration
and collapse of weak spots; in both insulators and mechanical sup-
port structures of the transformer windings which lead to trans-
former breakdown [2]. There were recorded accidents in different
wind farms [1,2] may classify wind farms as hazardous systems.
Power quality problems may also be a nuisance to consumers
and result in complaints to network operators due to oscillations
and flickering of network user lights. This may cause continuity
disturbance of power delivery leading to a generating system low
reliability.
There are several kinds of literature available about HRO excita-
tion due to inrush currents [4–17]. The HRO in different portions of
power system is discussed as follows:
i. The resonance overvoltages due to cable energization [12].
ii. The resonance overvoltages in HVDC systems due to ener-
gization of converter transformers [16,17].
iii. The resonance overvoltages in industrial applications; due to
energization of furnace power transformers [14].
iv. The resonance overvoltages due to system restoration
[5,9,10].
Although there are many studies about HRO excitation from
inrush currents as reported in [4,5,9], and [15] but there are still
other system components that affect the HRO. The researchers
have concentrated on consequences of single transformer ener-
gization connected to a long OHTL or cable, known as ‘‘system
restoration case”. In such cases, the factors influencing HRO are
the OHTL and transformer parameters. Investigation of other ele-
ments effects such as connected to the secondary side on-line
transformer feeders in wind farms are is necessary.
The relation between HROs and natural system frequency
reported in [5,16] are not fully studied. There is still lack of infor-
mation about the dynamic behaviors of wind farms and uncom-
pleted explanation of HRO phenomenon.
The objective of this paper is to study HRO problems in wind
farms and their relation with system natural frequency. This paper
assesses the simulation model to study resonance overvoltage fol-
lowing the energization of a 75 MVA 220/22 kV main transformer
in a weak system. Although Zafarana is an existing wind farm with
existing equipment, the investigated scenarios and results will
contribute in developing the power system restoration procedures
for existent wind farms, its extension, and future-planned wind
farms taking into consideration the plans to extend wind farm pro-
jects to contribute to the energy mix. To achieve this aim, the HRO
during energization of main power transformers in wind farms is
investigated.
Different factors affecting HRO are investigated including num-
ber and lengths of MV feeders connected on secondary of any par-
allel on-line transformer. Moreover, the sympathetic inrush
phenomena effect is also studied. Finally, the most common-used
methods of overvoltages mitigation including sequential energiza-
tion of the three-phase transformer and pre-insertion resistor
method are assessed in damping worst scenarios that may occur.
2. System description and modeling
The system under study, shown in Fig. 1, consists of two 75
MVA, 220/22 kV, main transformers (TR1 and TR2) connected from
primary sides to the same bus bar (substation 1) which is con-
nected to the 220 kV grid by two, 220 kV, OHTLs. The secondary
side of the first transformer (energized transformer), TR1, is always
open. The secondary side of the second transformer, TR2, may be
connected to one, two, three, four, or five, 22 kV, feeders.
The MV Feeders are symmetrical, each one is 22 kV, 500 mm2,
CU cable connected to 12 WTT rated at 1.1 MVA and 22/0.69 kV;
the WTTs are tied to each other from the primary side by 22 kV,
AL cables. Each WTT is responsible for transmitting the generated
power from 0.85 MW, 0.69 kV wind turbine generators to the
22 kV side.
The study addresses mainly on no-load energization of the first
transformer, TR1, in two main case studies. In the first case study,
the first transformer (TR1) is energized whereas the second trans-
former (TR2) is off-line, so this case takes into consideration only
the outer power grid and OHTLs effects. In the second study, the
first transformer (TR1) is energized while the second one (TR2) is
on-line. This case takes into consideration the effect of wind farm
elements in addition to the outer power grid and OHTLs effects.
In both cases, the secondary of the energized transformer is always
open.
Transient events have a short duration and need special treat-
ment in modeling to consider the wide range of frequencies. The
range of frequencies, attendant to transformer energization, varies
from fundamental power frequency up to about 1 kHz, therefore
the frequency dependent modeling of different system equipment
such as main transformers and cables should be conducted. The
studies used PowerFactory DIGSILENT program. The whole sys-
tem consists of the external grid, transformers, transmission lines,
and cables. The following subsections describe different system
elements modeling.
2.1. Source (External Grid)
The Egyptian transmission grid at substation 2, shown in Fig. 1,
has max S.C current of 16.6 kA, and X/R ratio is 8.8. It is modeled
according to PowerFactory DIGSILENT manual [18].
2.2. Main transformers
There are two main transformers in under-study system shown
in Fig. 1. The basic parameters of these transformers are shown in
Table 1. The transformer model is based on type/time simulation.
The time for needed simulation here is short, and currents would
flow such as displacement currents in the capacitive of windings.
Thus, capacitances between windings and winding to ground
should be included in the transformer model [3]. Fig. 2 shows val-
ues of different capacitances in the main transformers taken from
onsite tests after transformer installation. The values of stray
capacitance are taken from the transformers datasheet in the
Zafarana WF.
 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743 733

Fig. 1. System under study.

Table 1
Basic parameters of the main transformer.

Rated power (MVA) Voltage (kV) Vector group No load loss (kW) Impedance voltage (%) Short circuit loss (kW)
75 220 / 22 Yn D 11 43 11.78 215

The nonlinear magnetizing curve is shown in Fig. 3a. When the

transformer is de-energized, the magnetizing current goes to zero
directly and magnetizing field strength is removed while the flux
follows the hysteresis loop of the core as shown in Fig. 3b. As a
result, the Ferromagnetic material of the transformer core retains
some remnant flux [8]. The magnitude and direction of remnant
flux are based on instant of de-energization and transformer core
material. This remnant flux will be stored in the magnetic core till
another energization. It is modeled in DIGSILENT as psimd event
(residual flux) which is assumed to be 0.9p.u as a worst value
[18]. The magnetizing characteristics depend mainly on data given
in Table 2 in addition to basic data given in Table 1.

2.3. Transmission lines and cables

Fig. 2. Stray capacitances of the 220/22 kV transformer.
In order to simulate nonlinear electromagnetic transients such
as transformer inrush currents, the core saturation (magnetizing
characteristics) must be included in the transformer model [19].
The distributed parameters models are used for modeling
OHTLs in PowerFactory DIGSILENT. The parameters of OHTLs are
shown in Table 3.
There are high numbers of medium/low voltage cables in wind
farms. The cable model should take into consideration frequencies
attendant to transformer energization which ranges from funda-
734 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743

Fig. 3. Main transformer characteristics; (a) nonlinear magnetizing curve, (b) hysteresis loop curve.

Table 2 are modeled using the frequency dependent distributed parameter

The magnetizing curve data for main transformers. model in DIGSILENT program, according to J Marti model [21]. The
Knee voltage (p.u) Magnetizing current (%) Saturated reactance (p.u) parameters of cables are taken from manufacturer catalog [22].
1.19 0.07 0.09

3. Methodology

mental power frequency to 1 kHz [20] due to the changing of con- As discussed before, the energization of main power trans-
ductor impedance with applied power frequency. Therefore, cables former may cause harmonic resonance overvoltage (HRO), if the

Table 3
The parameters of overhead transmission lines.

Positive sequence parameters Zero sequence parameters

Resistance R (O/km) Reactance X (O/km) Susceptance B (lS/km) Resistance Ro (O/km) Reactance Xo (O/km) Susceptance Bo (lS/km)
0.06 0.306 3.25 0.13 0.83 2.3
 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743
system has low resonance frequency and if one of the harmonics
produced due to transformer energization inrush current coincides
with this resonance frequency. In the following parts, the HRO fol-
lowing the transformer energization is investigated in the system
shown in Fig. 1 using the PowerFactory DIGSILENT program, with
the aid of transient model, discussed before. The first transformer
(TR1) is energized (by closing S1) from 220 kV side while the sec-
ondary side is open (S2 in Fig. 1 is always open). The energization is
examined in two cases as follows:
i. Absence of on-line transformers
In this case, TR1 is energized while no other transformers are
connected. The influencing elements on produced overvoltage are
the external grid and OHTLs. In this case, lengths of OHTLs (L1
shown in Fig. 1) are equally changed from 70 to 120 km with
5 km step. The produced HRO is examined in each step. The over-
voltage peak at PCC (Point of Common Coupling) is recorded and
examined to investigate the effect of OHTLs lengths on resultant
overvoltage.
ii. System with one on-line transformer
In this case, TR1 is energized (by closing S1) from 220 kV side at
no load (S2 is open) with existence of one on-line transformer TR2
(S3 and S4 were previously closed). This case has five subcases of
energization; the subcases are different in number of feeders con-
nected to secondary TR2 side. In each subcase, the lengths of MV
Copper cables (L2, L3, L4, L5, and L6 shown in Fig. 1) are equally
changed from 1 to 20 km with 1 km step and in each step, TR1 is
energized.
The overvoltage peaks at PCC are recorded to investigate the
effect of on-line transformer as well as the effect of the MV feeders
(quantity and the lengths) on resultant overvoltage. The voltage
source and the instant of circuit breaker closing are constant in
all simulations. The general form of the instantaneous voltage
wave at PCC after transformer energization is shown in Fig. 4.
The harmonic overvoltage peak at PCC, shown in Fig. 4, is recorded
in all simulations.
4. OHTLs lengths effect
In this case study, the main transformers are energized in
absence of on-line transformers during the energization. The
drawn inrush current by the energized transformer flows from
the external grid passing through both OHTLs, and as a result;
the OHTLs’ parameters have a dominant effect on produced
HRO. In such case, the system generation units cause low damp-
ing for voltage fluctuations as discussed above. There are two
OHTLs in the system under study as shown in Fig. 1. The effect
of their lengths on HRO peak value produced from transformer
energization is investigated in this section during system
restoration.
The produced inrush current has a very high magnitude that
exceeds 2100A in its first half cycle of phase (A) and hence, the
remnant flux in phase (A) has been chosen at maximal. This value
has a slight change in the different simulations. Fig. 5 shows the
effect of OHTLs lengths on overvoltage peak produced during ener-
gization of a single transformer, TR1, while TR2 is off-line.
Transformer energization leads to high magnitude of inrush
currents rich in harmonics. The transformer under such conditions
is considered as a current source injecting harmonics current
including a frequency component equal to the resonance fre-
quency [16,14]. The AC grid produces fundamental frequency com-
ponent only. Increasing the OHTLs length will increase system
overall parallel capacitance. The system natural frequency is given
in Eq. (1).
735
 pffiffiffiffiffiffi
f n ¼ 1= 2p LC ð1Þ
Since the natural frequency is inversely proportional to the
square root of system capacitance, it can be deduced that with
increasing the OHTLs length, the system natural frequency will
decrease as clearly shown in Fig. 5. In addition, Fig. 5 shows that
there is one system natural frequency corresponding to each OHTL
length. The relation between HRO and OHTLs lengths does not
have a regular trend and cannot be expected as shown in Fig. 5.
This is because the variation of the HRO with OHTLs lengths is
based on two factors; the system resonance frequency (which is
affected by OHTLs length as discussed before) and the related har-
monic inrush current contents (which may randomly have high or
low values affected by the nonlinear magnetization or energized
transformer saturation).
5. MV cables lengths effect
In the previous case study, the energization of a single trans-
former is done while the second one is off-line. The overvoltage
peak of a 1.22p.u occurred at a 551 Hz natural frequency as shown
in Fig. 5. In the next case study, the transformer is energized in
existence of another on-line transformer connected to MV feeders
on its secondary side. The effects of the number/lengths of the MV
feeders on the produced overvoltages are evaluated. HRO in this
case study is examined at the 95 km length of the OHTLs.
i. Changing overvoltage peak values with lengths of main
cables
Fig. 6 shows the effect of the number and lengths of MV feeders,
connected to the secondary on-line transformer (TR2) on HRO
peaks. It is shown that overvoltage peak values start with small
values when using small MV cables lengths. Increasing lengths will
increase overvoltage peak values reaching severest values at
lengths equal or closer to 10 km. Increasing cable lengths beyond
certain limit will decrease overvoltage peak values. This sequence
occurs when using one, two, three, four, or five feeders.
ii. Changing of the overvoltage peak values with system nat-
ural frequencies (resonance frequencies)
The system natural frequencies are changed due MV cables’
length changing. Fig. 7 shows that the overvoltage peaks at PCC
varies with the variation of the system natural frequencies which
varied with the number of MV feeders connected to the secondary
of the already-connected transformer TR2. Fig. 7 shows that ener-
gization of main transformer in existence of an on-line transformer
connected to one, two, three, four, or five feeders on its secondary
side will nearly produce a natural frequency range from 495 Hz to
560 Hz.
The 560 Hz frequency occurs with small lengths of MV cables
(near 1 km). The 495 Hz frequency occurs with relatively long
lengths of cables (near 20 km). That is because increasing MV
cables lengths will increase system capacitance which in turn
decreases the system natural frequency, as discussed earlier. Exis-
tence of on-line transformer connected to MV cables in its sec-
ondary side with a low length of their main cables results in an
addition of relatively inductive impedance parallel to the system.
This causes an overall decrease in system inductance which in turn
increases the natural frequency from 551 Hz as shown in Fig. 5 to
nearly 560 Hz as shown in Fig. 7.
The feeders consist of WTTs and wind turbine generators that
have nearly inductive impedances. Adding a new feeder will cause
a decrease in overall system impedance due to addition of new
parallel impedance. Decreasing system impedance provides more
damping due to the decrease in parallel resonance impedance
736 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743

Fig. 4. Instantaneous voltage at PCC after transformer energization in p.u; (a) Instantaneous voltage waveform, (b) Magnification of the period which contains the overvoltage
peak.

Fig. 5. Variation of overvoltage peaks in p.u and corresponding system natural frequencies in Hz at PCC with the lengths of the OHTLs.

[5]. This damping is observed in Figs. 6 and 7 which show that the
severest overvoltage peak for a system including only one feeder is
1.55p.u while the severest overvoltage for a system including five
feeders is 1.49p.u.
iii. Severest overvoltage values
To explain the severest overvoltage production, two-feeder
system is taken into consideration as an example. The system
includes two feeders connected to the on-line transformer sec-
ondary side. The severest overvoltage peak in the two-feeder
system is produced when the length of both cables (L2, L3) is
equal to 10 km as shown in Fig. 6. The system natural fre-
quency, in this case, is 541.2 Hz as shown in Figs. 7 and 8. Ener-
gization of transformer TR1 in this system produced 1.534p.u
overvoltage peak at PCC as shown in Fig. 9. The results of apply-
ing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the waveforms shown in
Fig. 9 are presented in Fig. 10. As expected, the voltage wave-
form contains a high content frequency of 541.5 Hz. Therefore,
it can be deduced that the severest overvoltage value is
expected to appear when the voltage waveform during energiza-
tion contains harmonic equal or very close to the system natural
frequency.
 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743 737

Fig. 6. Variation of the overvoltage peaks at PCC with the lengths of the MV cables using one, two, three, four, and five feeder systems while OHTLs’ length is 95 km.

Fig. 7. Variation of the overvoltage peaks at PCC with the system natural frequencies using one, two, three, four, and five feeder systems while OHTLs’ length is 95 km.

Fig. 8. Impedance frequency characteristics when using two-feeder system.

iv. MV cables critical lengths increased from 1.22p.u to nearly 1.55p.u with the existence of
MV cables with critical lengths close to 10 km. Any wind farm with
From Figs. 4 and 9, it is clear that the peak value of the produced definite OHTLs length will have its own critical range of cables’
harmonic overvoltage in a wind farm with 95 km OHTL may be lengths that will produce severest overvoltage peak values. Fig. 7
738 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743
Fig. 9. Instantaneous voltage waveform at PCC when using two-feeder system.
Fig. 10. FFT of the produced overvoltage at PCC in p.u when using two-feeder system.
shows that the operating frequency range with one feeder system
extends from 535 Hz to 548 Hz (narrow bandwidth). This range is
increased gradually when increasing the number of connected MV-
feeders in the secondary of the on-line already connected trans-
former. The range extends from 495 Hz to 560 Hz (wide band-
width) with the five feeder system. The increased operating
frequency range or bandwidth will enable having a wide range of
cable lengths far from the severest overvoltage peak values and
hence providing a more stable system.
6. Sympathetic inrush phenomenon
In this section, the effect of the existence of another on-line un-
loaded transformer in parallel with the transformer to be energized
is investigated. The un-loaded (S4 was previously open) to show
only the effect of the sympathetic inrush current on HRO. The
length of OHTLs is kept constant at 95 km. The results for energiz-
ing TR1 are compared when TR2 is off-line (S3 was previously
open) and when TR2 is on-line (S3 was previously closed). Ener-
gization is achieved by closing S1 in the system shown in Fig. 1
for both cases. Fig. 11 shows impedance-frequency characteristic
seen at system PCC. The natural frequency of such system is
544.1 Hz. The instantaneous voltage waveform at PCC is shown
in Fig. 12. The produced inrush currents in all three phases due
to energization of TR1 are shown in Fig. 13; (a) when S3 was pre-
viously open and (b) when S3 was previously closed.
The existence of the second transformer caused system natural
frequency to decrease from 550.7 Hz to 544.1 Hz due to existence
of TR2. This decrease in frequency is produced due to consideration
of transformer capacitances. The transformer capacitances raise
overall system capacitance; resulting in system natural frequency
decrease. Such decrease increased HRO peak values from 1.221p.
u to 1.433p.u. It is observed that, overvoltage value has been dou-
bled due to existence of on-line transformer. There is lower decay
in duration of inrush current. The sympathetic inrush current is
one of the problems related to inrush current phenomenon. It usu-
ally makes the inrush current behavior worse as it reduces damp-
ing of inrush current causing an increase in its decay time. This
increased duration of inrush current can lead to lower damping
in inrush current related problems such as HRO. The on-line trans-
former, TR2, causes new sympathetic inrush current in its primary
side as shown in Fig. 14 during the energization of TR1. This sym-
pathetic inrush caused longer decay of both inrush current drawn
by TR1 and HRO at PCC.
7. Mitigation of harmonic resonance overvoltages
The followings are the most common used mitigation methods
of inrush current/HRO. The sequential energization of three phases
of transformer (controlled switching of the three phases) and the
pre-insertion resistor are used to damp the worst operational sce-
narios in Zafarana wind farm.
i. Sequential energization of transformer (controlled switch-
ing of the three phases)
One of the widely-used methods to eliminate/decrease inrush
current, drawn when transformer energization is the controlled
switching method of the main CB. A sequential energization of
transformer three phases is made so that each phase a, b, and c will
be energized at 90-deg switching angle [23]. By this method, the
inrush current is reduced and hence, the HROs are eliminated. This
method is not very effective to eliminate inrush current and HRO
unless the remnant flux is controlled. The remnant flux mainly
 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743 739

Fig. 11. Impedance-frequency characteristics at PCC; (a) when S3 was previously open, (b) when S3 was previously closed.

Fig. 12. Instantaneous voltage waveform at PCC; (a) when S3 was previously open, (b) when S3 was previously closed.

depends on separation instant of circuit breaker poles, so it is ii. Pre-insertion resistor

decreased to minimum value by controlling opening time of the
circuit breaker [24–26].
If the opening/closing times of the circuit breaker poles are con-
trolled so that the switching angle is 90-deg and remnant flux is
zero, then inrush current has a very good damping. In this case,
severest HRO value does not exceed 1.08p.u as shown in Fig. 15.
The pre-insertion resistor declines the harmonic overvoltage by
decreasing the inrush current. The closing resistors are inserted in
series with high voltage circuit breakers, and it is short circuited
after 20 ms as optimum insertion time should be more than
14 ms [27].
740 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743

Fig. 13. Instantaneous inrush current waveforms in kA; (a) when S3 was previously open, (b) when S3 was previously closed.

Fig. 14. Instantaneous sympathetic inrush current waveforms, generated in the primary side of TR2 when TR2 is on-line case.

The minimum value of overvoltage peak is achieved in the
above-described system using a 400-ohm resistor. Choosing a
400-ohm pre-insertion resistor will maintain overvoltage peak to
less than 1.08p.u as shown in Fig. 16. The produced voltage
waveform with this method is smoother and free of ripples and
overvoltages, as shown in Fig. 17.
iii. Comparison between pre-insertion resistor method and
controlled switching method
rich in harmonics decays slowly in case of controlled switching
method. This may increase the probability of HROs production.
On the contrary, with pre-insertion resistor method, the inrush
current instantly decays (within less than one cycle only). This will
damp all possible harmonic frequency components contained in
the inrush current and reserve the system away from HROs. There-
fore pre-insertion resistor method is preferred to damp the inrush
currents and HROs.

The instantaneous inrush current waveforms produced during

worst energization scenario described early with using sequential
energization in case of maximum residual flux and in case of zero
residual flux and with adding the pre-insertion resistor are shown
in Fig. 18.
The controlled switching method is not very effective in elimi-
nating the inrush current or reducing the HRO unless the residual
flux is controlled. Moreover, the produced inrush current which is
8. Conclusion
This paper presents a simulation model to study resonance
overvoltage following energization of a 75 MVA 220/22 kV main
transformer in a weak wind farm system, far from the grid, and
investigates the effect of OHTL and MV cable lengths on the pro-
duced harmonic overvoltage. The results show that the main MV
 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743 741

Fig. 15. Instantaneous voltage at PCC after sequential energization of the transformer three phases without remnant flux when using one feeder system in p.u; (a)
Instantaneous voltage waveform, (b) Magnification of the sequential energization period.

Fig. 16. Overvoltage Peak variation with pre-insertion resistor values while line length is 95 km when using one feeder system (1*13 km main cable lengths).

Fig. 17. Instantaneous voltage at PCC after transformer energization in p.u when using 400-ohm pre-insertion resistor.
742 A. Fouad et al. / Ain Shams Engineering Journal 10 (2019) 731–743

Fig. 18. Instantaneous inrush current waveforms in kA; (a) Using sequential phase energization at 90-deg with 0.9p.u residual flux, (b) Using sequential phase energization at
90-deg with 0p.u residual flux, (c) Adding a 400-ohm pre-insertion resistor.

cables may cause higher levels of harmonic overvoltage compared
to those produced in absence of these cables. Any wind farm with
definite OHTL length will have its own critical range of cables’
lengths which will produce severest overvoltage peak values. The
more the number of feeders is the more the operating frequency
range and system stability. Although Zafarana is an existing wind
farm with existing equipment, the investigated scenarios and
results will contribute in developing power system restoration
procedures for the current wind farm, its extension, and new
planned wind farms in Egypt.
Decreasing the overvoltage peak to a minimum value using the
controlled switching method cannot be done apart from control-
ling the remnant flux as it has a high effect on inrush current. Con-
trolling of remnant flux is done by controlling the instant at which
the transformer is de-energized. The pre-insertion resistor method
gives very good results and eliminates inrush current to low
acceptable values. In addition, the harmonic resonance overvolt-
ages are well damped using pre-insertion resistor. Finally, this
work addresses designers of wind farms in order to be careful
when choosing arrangement of the MV feeders and when develop-
ing the procedures of power system restoration.
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