Research on Protection Measure for Very Fast
Transient Over-voltage of GIS
Hongsheng Li
Xing Yuan Electric Power Survey&Design Co. Ltd
Hunan Power Company Loudi Electric Power Bureau
Loudi, China
AbstractüBased on Tian huangping GIS Substation, very fast
transient over-voltage caused by disconnecting switch
operation of GIS is simulated and calculated in this paper with
ATP-EMTP program. The effect of protection measures on
equipments is compared and analyzed, such as adding opening
and closing resistor, MOA, R-C absorber, and Ferrite Rings.
Also the measures are analyzed with considering the actual
situation, which can provide reference for the implementation
of the practical project.
Key words: ATP-EMTP; VFTO; protection measures
I. INTRODUCTION
Gas Insulated Substations have found a broad range of
applications in power systems because of their high
reliability, easy maintenance, small ground space
requirements etc. The study shows that operation of
disconnector switches and breakers can cause very fast
transient overvoltages (VFTO), tip of which is very steep
[1]
accompanied with high frequency oscillation .VFTO not
only influent the operating reliability of GIS, but also causes
great threat to the insulation of the high-voltage equipment,
especially to windings of the transformer, its reasons can be
concluded to two aspects[3]:1)the instant of contacts
breakdown can generate VFTO, whose tip is very steep,
which make the voltage distribution on the windings uneven;
2) when the frequency of the oscillating harmonic wave is
matched to the natural frequency of the equipment in the
VFTO, harmonic overvoltage is caused and its amplitude is
very high, which can damage the insulation of the
equipment. The failure accident of transformer has occurred
Figure 1
in Bay Nuclear Power Station and Tian Huangping Pumped
978-1-4244-2487-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 Crown
Lingxia Gan, Lei Li, Yuanyuan Zhou, Yinfeng Xu
College of Electrical and Information Engineering
Changsha University of Science & Technology
Changsha, China
Storage Power Station[4]. Fast operating disconnector
switches are usually used to reduce time of the breakdown,
however, it can not eliminate the harm of the VFTO. Several
inhibition methods are simulated in this article, which can
provide the new reference for the protection of VFTO.
II. THE MODEL BUILDING AND PARAMETERS SELECTION
This paper selected the Tian Huangping pumped storage
power station to build the model. The equivalent wiring
diagram is showed in Fig.1. Six pump turbines generating
sets which capacities are 300MW have been erected in Tian
Huangping pumped storage power station. It takes on the
function of peak shaving, off-peak filling, phase modulating,
frequency modulating, emergency reserving, and so on. Thus
it makes conversion operations much frequently. Since
power station ran in September 1998, discharge counters of
MOA unit 1 and unit 2 in 500kV GIS underground acted
frequently owing to operation, especially opening and
closing operation of DS. To early July 2000, they have acted
189 and 100 phase times each and it also happened
insulation breakdown of primary transformer unit.

Equivalent circuit diagram of Tian huang ping GIS Substation
 The circuit model of GIS component proposed by TABLE I EQUIPMENT EQUIVALENT CAPACITANCE

S.Ogawa is utilized in this research. Since the whole system

CB(pF) DS(pF)
is three phase symmetry, single-phase circuit can be used to CVT PT MOA
Fracture Two ends Fracture Two ends
stimulate it. The literature [5] indicates that exciting current (pF) (pF) (pF)
Capacitor to ground Capacitor to ground
can hardly be measured in the wave process experiment for
5000 400 300 100 40 40 50
transformer. Power transformer with bushing mounted is
modeled as lumped capacitance to ground of 5000pF㧘 III. SIMULATION AND CALCULATION OF THE VFTO AND
transformer tied to the generator is modeled as lumped ANALYSIS OF RELATED MEASURES
capacitance and inductance. Length of each line is 37.36km.
The CB has specialized arc-extinguishing devices, when
The surge impedance of each overhead line is taken as 350
open, the arc would not restrike. However, When DS is
ǡ and wave velocity is 300m per Ǵs. The value of surge
opened or closed in GIS, it will bring an instantaneous
impedance of GIS bus bar, which is modeled as transmission
change in voltage with a very short rise time, and it is
line, is taken as 80ǡ and wave velocity is 231m per Ǵs.
normally followed by oscillation having frequencies. It is
The surge impedance of 500kV XLPE-800 cable is taken as
owing to restrikes or prestrikes between contacts and very
68.8ǡ and wave velocity is 103.8m per Ǵs. GIS casing is
short distance of GIS bus bar in which the transient voltage
modeled as lumped capacitance to ground of 550pF, cable
travels. When CB5012, CB5023 and CB5053 are already
termination is modeled as lumped capacitance to ground of
open, amplitude of the residual charge is -1.0pu, then
500pF, earthing switch is modeled as lumped capacitance to
disconnector switch on the side of CB5053 is opened, the
ground of 45pF. Length of the transmission line is
maximal recovery voltage between contacts will reach 2pu.
considered infinite, a grounding resistor is linked to the end
At the same time the restrike that caused VFTO happened
of the line, value of which is equal to surge impedance of the
most badly. Transformer B2 is close to arc burning point, its
overhead line. When the wave of the over-voltage transmits
VFTO waveform is showed in Figure 2, amplitude up to
to the end of the line by GIS, there is no reflection wave.
1.6pu. The low-frequency part of oscillation frequency is
Circuit breaker, when open condition, is modeled as fracture
about 102kHZ, the high frequency is about 5mHZ, the
capacitor of 300pF in series between contacts, joints at both
largest oscillating range is 0.63pu. Over-voltage on the main
ends is modeled as lumped capacitance to ground of 100pf.
transformer is not high, but the rising steepness is very high
The simulation of the disconnector switch is the same as the
in voltage-degree, there is so much high-frequency
circuit breaker. Electromagnetic potential transformers
component, it will affect turn-to-turn insulation of the
mounted at the end of transformer, is modeled as lumped
transformer.
capacitance to ground of 400pF Switch operation mode has
two forms, open and closed. When open, recovery voltage 1.6

between contacts is much higher and VFTO is higher 1.4

correspondingly since the other contact has residual charges. 1.2

So followed operations are pointed to opened operation of 1.0
DS. When restrikes appear, the spark is modeled as a small
0.8
series resistance of 2ǡ. Step length is 2 ns and total
0.6
calculation time is 30Ǵs. System source voltage is 550kV.
0.4 *10-6
In the course of calculation, arc restrikes when voltage
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
between contacts exceeds medium recovery strength.
Otherwise arc extinguishes as soon as current flows at zero. Figure 2 The waveform of VFTO
 A. Installation of the opening and closing resistor
At present, the installation of opening and closing
resistor has a certain application in order to inhibit the VFTO
in GIS. The calculation used disconnector switches with
500ȍ opening and closing resistor. After installing the
opening and closing resistor, the VFTO waveform of the B2
transformer is showed in Figure 3.According to the
calculation result, the access of parallel resistance accelerates
the decay of the transient process. The amplitude of VFTO
of the equipment decreases obviously, the maximal voltage
to ground of transformer reaches 1.18p.u and the steepness is
limited. By analyzing the frequency spectrum of VFTO in
Figure 4, components are inhibited obviously, the main
frequency of the high-frequency part is 1.5MHz and the
low-frequency part is about 98 kHz.
1.20
1.15
1.10
1.05
1.00
0.95
0 5 10 15 20 25
Although installing opening and closing resistor can
make undamped free oscillation of the VFTO change into
damped oscillation, also the amplitude of the VFTO is
decreased obviously, however, from a technical and
economic point of view, as the compact structure of the GIS,
the installation of closing resistance must bring difficulty in
technology and production and increase the investment in
equipment, more seriously it weakens the system reliability ,
the more components, the poorer reliability. The closing
resistor should equip with actuator devices in application,
which operate frequently, the probability of failure are great.
Therefore, the method needs to combine practical
considerations.
B. Installation of the metal oxide surge arrester
MOA is particularly applicable to protect GIS
equipment, the volt-second characteristic of which is flat.
MOA can not be stimulated only by non-linear resistor duing
to the high frequency of VFTO, the main capacitance and
stray capacitance of the valve blocks should be taken into
account. When a set of arresters are installed at the out-line
cable which is in the side of transformer B2, the VFTO
waveform of the transformer B2 is showed in Figure 5, the
amplitude decreases to 1.512pu.
*10-6
30 1.6

1.4
Figure 3 The waveform of VFTO after installed resistor
1.2
8
x 10
1.0
16
0.8
14

12 0.6
Amplitude

10 0.4 *10-6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
8

6
Figure 5 The waveform of VFTO installed arrester
4

2 However, it is worth noting that, MOA only inhibit the

0 amplitude of the VFTO, its steepness basically has no effect.
0 1 2 3 4 5
Frequency (Hz)
x 10
6 Its high-frequency components still exist, steepness is still
great. Although VFTO will not cause the turn to turn
Figure 4 The amplitude-frequency characteristic of VFTO installed insulation breakdown directly, the main transformer maybe
resistor withstand VFTO thousands of times in a relatively short
 period of time, and steep waves of the VFTO role similar to
the chopped wave. Thus for the main insulation, each
impulse, the nature of which is similar to the chopped wave,
is tantamount to accept a aging test , that will bring a degree
of injury to insulation, the injury accumulated to a certain
degree would bring risk to the main transformer.
C. Installation of the R-C filter
RC filters have been widely used in vacuum circuit
breaker to suppress overvoltage of the arcing, tits principle is
to use R to make energy attenuate and capacitors C toreduce
the circuit oscillation frequency so that damping oscillation
of the over-voltage happens as soon as possible. In this
article RC filter is paralleled next to the main transformer
B2.Changing the value of R and C, then at end of the main
transformer amplitude of VFTO is calculated. The result
shows that, when R takes 100ȍ and C takes 0.2ǴF, Voltage
amplitude and steepness drop faster. The waveform is
showed in Figure 6, the over-voltage amplitude dropped to
1.32pu, a decrease of about 17.8 percent. With analysis of
Figure 7, the maximal frequency of VFTO decreases and
frequency band gets narrower. High frequency component is
about 1MHZ, the main reason of which is that capacitor
absorbs the high-frequency component and finally energy is
consumed on the resistor.
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7 *10-6
0.0 5.8 11.6 17.4 23.2 29.0
Figure 6 The VFTO waveform of transformer B2 installed R-C filter
x 10
8
15
Amplitude
10
5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (Hz) 6
x 10
Figure 7 The amplitude-frequency characteristic of VFTO
installed R-C filter
VFTO does great harm to transformer mainly because of
its high frequency. Therefore, from this point of view, R-C
filter is very effective to the protection of transformer.
However, this method can not protect the equipment in GIS.
In addition, since there are different selections of R and C
for different equipments and different conditions, which
would bring inconvenience of the installation.
D. Installation of the ferrite ring
Installation of opening and closing resistor will bring a
lot of shortcomings. The literature [6] puts forward installing
ferrite rings at conductor pole of the disconnector switch in
order to damp traveling wave, which opens up a new way for
inhibiting VFTO. However, this method is not applied in the
actual project. Ferrite ring is modeled as resistor and
inductance, when the equivalent resistor of the ferrite ring is
equal to the surge impedance of GIS bus bar and the
equivalent inductance is 0.02mH, inhibition of the VFTO is
the largest[7]. This article after adding ferrite ring, VFTO
waveform of the main transformer is showed in Figure 8.
The maximal over-voltage is 1.06pu, which reduce 33.75
percent than taking no measure and its steepness has also
been reduced.
 1.10
1.01
0.92
0.83
0.74
0.65 *10-6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Figure 8 The waveform of VFTO installed ferrite rings.
Through the test, we find that the saturation characteristic
of the magnetic ring material have a great impact on VFTO,
the remanence also has a certain impact[8]. However, this
measure would not increase the complexity of the structure
of the GIS and it can play a role in the protection of GIS
equipment inside the bus bar. The protection range is bigger
than R-C filter.
IV. CONCLUSION
By stimulating and calculating various measures adopted
to inhibit VFTO in GIS, We can draw the following
conclusions:
1) Installing opening and closing resistor, R-C filter and
ferrite rings can obviously decrease the amplitude and
steepness of VFTO, but installing the opening and closing
resistor weakens the reliability of the system and it should
equip with actuator devices in application, which operate
frequently, the probability of failure are great. Therefore, the
method needs to combine practical considerations.
2) R-C filter absorbs high frequency components,
consumes the energy of VFTO, but the device R and C
paralleled on the device can not protect all the equipment ,
there are different selections of R and C for different
equipments and different conditions, which would bring
inconvenience of the installation.
3) MOA only inhibit the amplitude of the VFTO, but can
not inhibit its steepness and high frequency oscillation.
4) Several measures all have advantages
disadvantages. We should make reasonable operation rules
to reduce the harmful effects of the VFTO. The equipment
which has windings should consider the ability of bearing
chopped wave in design, and strengthen the insulation.
REFERENCE
[1] QIU Yuchang, GIS Device and Its insulation Technology, Beijing
China: Water and Hydropower Publishiong House, 1994.
[2] Fujimoto N, “Mechanism and Analysis of Short Raise-time GIS
Transient,” ICGRE Symposium,1987, pp. 5-7.
[3] Popov M, Vander Sluis L, and Paap GC, “Computation of Very Fast
Transient Overvoltage in Transformer wingrings,” IEEE
Transactionson Power Delivery, vol. 18, pp.1268-1274. April 2003.
[4] YANG Linghui and ZHANG Jiamin, “Research on transient
over-voltage during operation of 500kV GIS disconnecting switch,”
East China Electric Power, vol.32, pp.38-41. Jan 2004.
[5] P.I.Fergestad and T.H.Henriksen, “Transient Oscillations in
Multiwinding Transformers,” IEEE Tr., pp. 89-93, vol.2 1974.
[6] GAN Xianggen, “Characterstic Parameter Analysis on Suppressing
VFTO in GIS by Ferrite,” High Voltage Engineering, China, vol. 30,
pp. 24-26.sep 2004.
[7] GIN Ligun and LIU Weidong, “Research on Suppressing VFTO in
GIS by Ferrite Ring,” High Voltage Engineering, China, vol. 28, pp.
1-3. Jul 2002.
[8] XIANG Zutao and LIU Weidong, “High Voltage Simulation Tests of
Suppressing VFTO in GIS by Magnetic Rings,” Transactions of
China Electrotechnical Society, China , vol. 19, pp. 1-3. Jul 2004.
Author Biographies
Hongsheng Li: was born in Hunan China in 1974, received bachelor degree
from Hehai University in 1999 and works in Hunan Power Company Loudi
Electric Power Bureau Xing Yuan Electric Power Survey&Design Co. Ltd
. The major research direction is substation design and research.
Lingxia Gan: was born in Jiangxi in 1985 and is studying in the High
Voltage Department, School of Electrical Engineering, changsha university
of science and technology, The main research direction is lightning
protection and grounding technology.
Lei Li㧦 was born in Hubei China in 1984. Master candidate in Changsha
University of Science & Technology. The major interesting include
lightning protection and grounding technology.
Yuanyuan Zhou: was born in Hunan China in 1984. Master candidate in
Changsha University of Science & Technology. The major interesting
include high voltage and insulation technology.
Yinfeng-Xu: was born in Hunan China in 1984. Master candidate in
Changsha University of Science & Technology. The major interesting
include high voltage and insulation technology.
and