Lec-5: Series Compensation on Transmission Lines ||

Effect on performance of Distance Protection

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=ERaQwkIumOs&list=PLTMjDkUVSoJZTvjJIlwabe3EjO57h87Y8&index=5

Series Compensated Transmission Line:

What is Series Compensation
Why series compensation is used
What is the effect of Series Compensation
What are the protection of Series Compensated capacitors itself.
Current & Voltage inversion
Effect of Series Compensated Transmission line on Distance Protection.

Series Capacitors used to increase power transmission and system stability.

We know to transmit power from BUS M to BUS N the equation is
P=Vs.Vr.Sinʓ/XL

From the equation, to increase the power transfer we may do the followings:
1. Increase Vs and Vr
To increase the Vs.Vr we need to increase the Line Voltage, for example 400KV line need to
upgrade to 750KV. Which is very costly approach.

2. Increase the Delta of Sine

We cannot increase Delta beyond certain limit as it will affect the stability of the power system.

3. Reduce the XL:

We can reduce the XL by adding a parallel line (Double Circuit), which is also not advisable as it
is time consuming, costly and many other issues.
However by adding a Series Capacitor we can reduce the Line Reactance by
XL= j(XL-XC)
XC=Capacitance of series capacitor
XL= Line reactance.
As we have seen that due to increase in Delta the power output increases, and at same delta
there are more power flowing and more margin. So it will
Now assume a fault in the location F. Due to the series compensated capacitance, the line
impedance got reduced and due to reduced impedance there would be very high fault current.
Due to this high fault current, there would a high voltage across the capacitor.
Now to protect the capacitors from high voltage MOV (Metal Oxide varistor is used).

Assume that the current flowing across capacitor is 100-1KA and Capacitor is 50ohms. Due to
this current voltage drop across capacitor would be 5KV. Now in fault condition if the current
becomes 10KA then the voltage across capacitor would be 500KV.
To overcome this issue one device could be installed to bypass the Capacitor. And that device
should carry the current when the voltage across capacitor rises beyond its design limit.
Normally MOV used for this purpose, MOV is a non-linear varistor. MOV will provide low
resistance path during high fault current.
Once MOV starts conducting fault current, as it has some resistance, it there will be heat
generation across MOV. It is not allowable to flow the high fault current across the MOV for a
longer duration of time.
Now we need to employ some device to take the fault current when MOV temperature reaches
certain point, or the accumulated energy across MOV crosses the rated limit. This additional
device is called spark gap. Protection device will trigger command to operate the spark gap.
However, this spark gap cannot operate for a longer time and another additional device is used
to bypass the Spark gap. Circuit breaker is used to bypass the Spark Gap.
This is how the compensated capacitor scheme is utilized.

During high fault current only MOV will be operated and for low fault current MOV will not
operate.
During low fault current only series capacitor will operate. This different types of scenario
creates many problem in Distance Protection relays mainly in terms of direction. Forward fault
may be seen as reverse fault. It may also affect the Zone reach. It will cause current and voltage
inversion.
Current Inversion:
In the case of Xc > (Xlf+Xs) then the current IR will be inverted. And in that case Current IF will
lead the voltage Vs.
Transmission line reactance is normally inductive in nature.
Generally in forward fault loop will encounter the line reactance and line reactance is inductive
in nature, so the fault current will lags the voltage.
Numerical relays always monitors the phasors and when it detects the current lagging voltage it
will consider it as a forward fault.

Now if the Xc>Xs+XL, then IR leads the Voltage Vs and the relay sees the fault current in reverse
direction.
-jXsIrpre drop is 90degree lagging from current Irpre due to its inductive nature.

Vr is the pre fault voltage at Bus M.

Vs is source Voltage.
Irpre is pre-fault current.
Irpre is lagging behind the Voltage Vs due to its inductive nature.
During fault if Xc>(XL+Xs) Current inversion will occur. We can see that, the fault Voltage VRF
gets bigger than Vs, which is another problem. So due to current inversion, Bus voltage get
increased than the pre-fault voltage.
So it creates problem in Bus Voltage as well as directionality of the Relay.
Voltage Inversion:

Voltage seen by the relay at Bus M is given above.

In the above example, Vrpre is the pre-fault voltage, Irpre is the pre-fault current.
Now during fault, if Xc>Xlf then the voltage Vrf gets inverted and the Voltage will lead the
current. And the direction of fault changed in relay. It will see the forward fault as reverse fault.
However, practically Xc>Xlf will only occur in case of 3 phase fault.
In single line to Ground fault all the sequence components like Positive, negative and zero
sequence impedance will connected in series, so total impedance will of higher magnitude.

During low current fault the MOV will not come in action and the Capacitor keeps in operation,
which effects the line impedance.
Equivalent Impedance of the Capacitor arrangement:

During low current operation some current will divert to MOV and some current will go
thorough capacitor. And there will be Capacitive & resistive effect in the circuit.

During high current fault series capacitor will be bypassed and most of the current will go
through MOV only and that condition effect will be purely resistive.
From the above characteristics we can see that during low current fault the Impedance is
towards Resistive Plane.

For fault in Line M-N, the actual impedance have some angle, depending upon the line angle.
Z-actual is the fault impedance without any resistance. Any type of relay characteristics will give
coverage for this impedance.

However, when the fault is involved with some resistance, (for example arc resistance, tower
footing resistance, resistance due to some other factors). In that case the actual impedance
measured by the relay will be at some others location in the characteristics.
During high current fault the actual impedance measure by relay will be the
Z-actual= Actual Line Impedance + MOV resistance.

High current fault impedance location is marked as red in the above characteristics.

During low current fault some current will be flowing through MOV and some current will be
flowing through capacitor depending on the magnitude of the fault. The impedance will be
reduced by the addition of capacitance and it will be towards the resistive plane due to the
resistance of the MOV.

During this type of fault if we use MHO characteristic the relay may see the Zone-1 fault in
Zone-2.
It might also happen that relay at other end see the Zone-2 fault at Zone-1 and it might operate
incorrectly.