Power Supply Quality and Reliability EPCE Dept

CHAPTER 2

TRANSIENT OVER VOLTAGES

Sources of transient over voltages, principles of over voltages protection, - Devices for Over
Voltage Protection - utility capacitor switching transients, - Utility Lightning Protection – Load
Switching Transient Problems - Computer Tools for Transient Analysis

3.1 INTRODUCTION
• A transient is defined as a subcycle disturbance in. the AC waveform (i.e.) a significant sharp
discontinuity of the waveform.
• That is, transients are subcycle events, lasting less than one cycle of the AC waveform.
• Routinely we say that transients can span several cycles to satisfy the absolute definition, the
transient occurring in the next cycle is not considered an extension of the transient in the
previous cycle.
• Transients are difficult to detect because of their short duration. Conventional meters are not
able to detect or measure them due to their limited frequency response or sampling rate.
• For eg, if a transient occurs for 2 m/sec and is characterized by a frequency content of 20 KHz,
the measuring instrument must have a frequency response or sampling rate of at least 10 times 20
KHz (or) 200 KHz, in order to fairly describe the characteristics of the transients. For faster
transients, higher sampling rates are necessary.
• Large electromagnetic devices such as transformers and motors are practically not responding
the effects of transients.
• Due to the sensitivity of microelectronic devices and circuits used as control elements of the
power system only problems arise.

3.2 SOURCES OF TRANSIENT OVER VOLTAGES

There are two main sources of transient over voltages on utility sys-tems:
1. Capacitor switching
2. Lightning.

3.2.1 Capacitor switching

• One of the more common causes of electrical transients in switching of capacitor banks in
power systems.
•On distribution feeders with industrial loads, capacitors are frequently switched by time clock
in anticipation of an increase in load with the beginning of the working day.
• Electrical utilities switch capacitor banks during peak load hours to compensate the lagging
KVAR demand of the load.
• Switching of capacitor banks produce a surge or current which is initially limited by
characteristic impedance of the power system and resistance of the line.

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• A sharp reduction in the voltage is followed by a voltage rise, which decays by oscillation at a
frequency determined by inductance and capacitance of the circuit.
• The voltage rise due to capacitor switching operation can attain values 1.5 to 2 times the
nominal voltage.
• If the insulation systems of power equipment is weaken and a point is reached when the devices
will fail.
• Adjustable Speed Drives [AsDs] and solid-state motor controllers are quite sensitive to voltage
rises resulting from capacitor bank switching operations.
• ASD might shut down the motor due to voltage on the system rising beyond the max tolerance.
• Figure 3.1 shows the one-line diagram of a typical utility feeder capacitor-switching
situation.

Figure 3.1 One-line diagram of a capacitor-switching operation corresponding to the waveform in Fig. 3.2.

Figure 3.2 Typical utility capacitor-switching transient r e a c h i n g 134 percent voltage, observed upline
from the capacitor.

• When the switch is closed, a transient similar to the one in Fig. 3.2 may be observed upline
from the capaci- tor at the monitor location.
• In this particular case, the capacitor switch contacts close at a point near the system voltage
peak. The voltage across the capacitor at this instant is zero. Since the capacitor voltage cannot
change instantaneously, the system voltage at the capacitor location is briefly pulled down to
zero and rises as the capacitor begins to charge toward the sys-tem voltage. Because the power

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system source is inductive, the capaci- tor voltage overshoots and rings at the natural frequency of
the system.
• The overshoot will generate a transient between 1.0 and 2.0 pu depending on system
damping.
• In this case the transient observed at the monitoring location is about 1.34 pu. Utility
capacitor-switching transients are commonly in the 1.3- to 1.4-pu range but have also been
observed near the theoretical maximum.
• The transient shown in the oscillogram propagates into the local power system and will
generally pass through distribution transform-ers into customer load facilities by nearly the
amount related to the turns ratio of the transformer.
• If there are capacitors on the secondary system, the voltage may actually be magnified on the
load side of the transformer.
• Figure 3.3 shows the phase current observed for the capacitor-switching . The transient current
flowing in the feeder peaks at nearly 4 times the load current.

Figure 3.3 Feeder current associated with capacitor-switching event.

3.2.2 Magnification of capacitor-switching transients

• A potential side effect of adding power factor correction capacitors at the customer location
is that they may increase the impact of utility capacitor-switching transients on end-use
equipment., As there is always a brief voltage transient of at least 1.3 to 1.4 pu when capacitor
banks are switched. The transient is generally no higher than 2.0 pu on the primary
distribution system, although ungrounded capacitor banks may yield somewhat higher values.
• Load- side capacitors can magnify this transient overvoltage at the end-user bus for certain
low-voltage capacitor and step-down transformer sizes.
• The circuit of concern for this phenomenon is illustrated in Fig. 3.4. Transient overvoltages
on the end-user side may reach as high as 3.0 to 4.0 pu on the low-voltage bus under these
conditions, with potentially damaging consequences for all types of customer equipment.
• Magnification of utility capacitor-switching transients at the end- user location occurs over
a wide range of transformer and capacitor sizes. Resizing the customer’s power factor
correction capacitors or step-down transformer is therefore usually not a practical solution.
• One solution is to control the transient overvoltage at the utility capacitor. This is sometimes
possible using synchronous closing breakers or switches with preinsertion resistors.

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Figure 3.4 Voltage magnification of capacitor bank switching.

• It is important to note that the arresters can only limit the transient to the arrester protective
level. This will typically be approximately1.8 times the normal peak voltage (1.8 pu). This may
not be sufficient to protect sensitive electronic equipment that might only have a with- stand
capability of 1.75 pu [1200-V peak inverse voltage (PIV) rating of many silicon-controlled
rectifiers (SCRs) used in the industrial environment].

Figure 3.5 Arrester energy duty caused by magnified transient.

• At the customer location, high-energy surge arresters can be applied to limit the transient
voltage magnitude at the customer bus. Energy levels associated with the magnified transient
will typically be about 1 kJ. Figure 3.5 shows the expected arrester energy for a range of low-

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voltage capacitor sizes. Newer high-energy MOV arresters for low-volt- age applications can
withstand 2 to 4 kJ.
• In many cases, there are only a small number of load devices, such as adjustable-speed motor
drives, that are adversely affected by the transient. It is frequently more economical to place
line reactors in series with the drives to block the high-frequency magnification tran- sient. A 3
percent reactor is generally effective. While offering only a small impedance to power
frequency current, it offers considerably larger impedance to the transient. Many types of drives
have this protection inherently, either through an isolation transformer or a dc bus reactance.

3.3 LIGHTING TRANSIENTS

• Lightning is a powerful source of impulsive transients. We will concentrate on how lightning
causes transient overvoltage’s to appear on power systems.

Figure 3.6 Lightning strike locations where lightning impulses will be con- ducted into load facilities

• Figure 3.6 shows some of the places where lightning can strike that result in lightning currents
conducted from power system to the loads.
• The most obvious conduction path occurs during a direct strike to a phase wire,either on
primary or the secondary side of the transformer.
• This can generate very high over voltage in the system.
• Very similar transient over voltages can be generated by lightning currents flowing along
ground conductor paths.
• One of the lightning current path is indicated by the, dotted lines in the figure (3.7), includes
primary ground, secondary ground and the structure of load facilities.

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Figure 3.7.Coupling of impulses through the interwinding capacitance of transformers

• Thus many more lightning impulses may be observed at loads.

• When the surge current is dissipated into the ground connection closest to the strike, then there
will be a substantial surge current flow in other connected ground conductors in the first few
microseconds of the strike.
• Lightning may simply strike near the line and induce an impulse by the collapse of the electric
field.
• Lightning surges enter loads from the utility system through the inter winding capacitance of
the service transformer as shown in figure 3.8.

.
Figure 3.8 Lightning impulse bypassing the service transformer through ground connections

• Even though the inductance of the winding blocks the first part of the lightning impulse wave,
the interwinding capacitance may offer a ready path for the high frequency surge.
• It will generate greater voltage on the secondary winding than what the original turns ratio of
the windings.
• The winding to ground capacitance may be greater than the winding-to-winding capacitance
and more of the impulse may be coupled to ground than to secondary winding. In any case, the
resulting transient is a very short single impulse or train of impulses, because the interwinding
capacitance charges quickly.
• Sometimes there is a oscillatory longle impulse in the secondary when there is a strike in the
utility's primary transformer.

• This is due to conduction around the transformer through the grounding system as shown in
figure 3.9

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Figure 3.9
• The main power quality problems with lightning stroke entering the ground system are below.
1. They raise the potential of the local ground above other grounds in the vicinity by
several kilovolts. Sensitive electronic equipment that is connected between two ground
references, such as a computer connected to the telephone system through a modem, can fail
when subjected to the lightning surge voltages.
2. They induce high voltages in phase conductors as they pass through cables on the way
to a better ground.

3.4 FERRORESONANCE
• The term ferroresonance refers to a special kind of resonance that involves capacitance
and iron-core inductance. The most common con- dition in which it causes disturbances is when
the magnetizing imped- ance of a transformer is placed in series with a system capacitor. This
happens when there is an open-phase conductor. Under controlled con- ditions, ferroresonance
can be exploited for useful purpose such as in a constant-voltage transformer .
• Ferroresonance is different than resonance in linear system ele- ments. In linear systems,
resonance results in high sinusoidal voltages and currents of the resonant frequency. Linear-
system resonance is the phenomenon behind the magnification of harmonics in power systems
(see Chaps. 5 and 6). Ferroresonance can also result in high voltages and currents, but the
resulting waveforms are usually irregular and chaotic in shape. The concept of ferroresonance
can be explained in terms of linear-system resonance as follows.
• Consider a simple series RLC circuit as shown in Fig. 3.10 Neglecting the resistance R for the
moment, the current flowing in the circuit can be expressed as follows:

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Figure 3.10 Simple series RLC circuit.

Where E driving voltage

XL reactance of L
XC reactance of C

• When XL |XC|, a series-resonant circuit is formed, and the equation yields an infinitely large
current that in reality would be limited by R.
An alternate solution to the series RLC circuit can be obtained by writing two equations
defining the voltage across the inductor, i.e.,

where v is a voltage variable.

• Figure 3.11 shows the graphical solution of these two equations for two different reactances, XL
and XL1. XL1 rep- resents the series-resonant condition. The intersection point between the
capacitive and inductive lines gives the voltage across inductor EL. The voltage across capacitor
EC is determined as shown in Fig. 3.11.
• At resonance, the two lines will intersect at infinitely large voltage and current since the |XC|
line is parallel to the XL1 line.
’

• Now, let us assume that the inductive element in the circuit has a nonlinear reactance
characteristic like that found in transformer mag- netizing reactance.

Figure 3.11 Graphical solution to the linear LC circuit.

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Figure 3.12 Graphical solution to the nonlinear LC circuit.

• Figure 3.12 illustrates the graphical solution of the equations following the methodology just
presented for linear circuits. While the analogy cannot be made perfectly, the diagram is useful
to help understand ferroresonance phenomena.
• It is obvious that there may be as many as three intersections between the capacitive
reactance line and the inductive reactance curve. Intersection 2 is an unstable solution, and
this operating point gives rise to some of the c h a o t i c behavior of ferroresonance.
Intersections 1 and 3 are stable and will exist in the steady state. Intersection 3 results in high
voltages and high currents.
• Figures 3.13 and 3.14 show examples of ferroresonant voltages that can result from this simple
series circuit. The same inductive characteristic was assumed for each case. The capacitance
was varied to achieve a different operating point after an initial transient that pushes the
system into resonance. The unstable case yields voltages in excess of 4.0 pu, while the stable case
settles in at voltages slightly over 2.0 pu. Either condition can impose excessive duty on power
system ele- ments and load equipment.

Figure 3.13 Example of unstable, chaotic ferroresonance voltages.

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Figure 3.14 Example of ferroresonance voltages settling into a stable operating point (intersection 3) after an
initial transient.

• For a small capacitance, the |XC| line is very steep, resulting in an intersection point on the
third quadrant only. This can yield a range of voltages from less than 1.0 pu to voltages like those
shown in Fig. 3.14.
• When C is very large, the capacitive reactance line will intersect only at points 1 and 3. One
operating state is of low voltage and lagging cur- rent (intersection 1), and the other is of high
voltage and leading cur- rent (intersection 3). The operating points during ferroresonance can
oscillate between intersection points 1 and 3 depending on the applied voltage. Often, the
resistance in the circuit prevents operation at point 3 and no high voltages will occur.
• In practice, ferroresonance most commonly occurs when unloaded transformers become
isolated on underground cables of a certain range of lengths. The capacitance of overhead
distribution lines is generally insufficient to yield the appropriate conditions.

3.5 PRINCIPLES OF OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION

• The fundamental principles of overvoltage protection of load equipment are
1. Limit the voltage across sensitive insulation.
2. Divert the surge current away from the load.
3. Block the surge current from entering the load.
4. Bond grounds together at the equipment.
5. Reduce, or prevent, surge current from flowing between grounds.
6. Create a low-pass filter using limiting and blocking principle.
• Figure 3.15 illustrates the principles of overvoltage protection.
• The surge arresters and transient voltage surge suppressors [TVSSs] are used to limit the
voltage which appears between two points in the circuit.
• The arresters are placed directly across the sensitive insulation that is to be protected therefore
the voltage across the insulation is limited to a safe value.

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Figure 3.15 Demonstrating the principles of overvoltage protection.

'• Surge suppression devices should be located nearly by the insulation with minimum lead
length.
• The arresters are located commonly at the main poles and subpanels, and they are also applied
at power lines near load equipment.
• The best location of arrester is actually inside the load device.
• In the above figure, the first arrester limits the line voltage V1 from rising too high voltage to
neutral and ground voltage at the panel.
• It provides low impedance path fog' the surge current to the ground.
• In this case, most of the surge energy will be discharged through the first arrester directly into
the ground. Therefore this arrester can also be called a "surge diverter".
• The surge arrester at the panel and is electrically too remote to provide adequate load
protection. Therefore, another arrester is provided across the insulation to be protected need the
sensitive load.
• The arresters must be applied at each load along the path to increase the protection where surge
currents are diverted into other load circuits.
• In case, if a load is located very closer. to another load, a routinely monitoring by operators or
sensitive equipment may be required and these equipment will be in cant :t with both the loads.
• This increases the possibility of lightning strike) and this may raise the potential of one ground
much higher than the others.
• It can produce flashover across the insulation between the two ground references(or) may cause
physical harm to operators.
• Therefore all the ground reference conductors should be bonded (joined) together at the load
equipment.

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• This phenomenon may cause the fail ire of electronic devices. This occurs in TV receivers
connected to cables, computers connected to modems, etc.
Blocking of high-frequency surge currents from lightning strokes and capacitor switching events
is also effective.
• But the power frequency currents must pass through the surge suppressor with min impedance
and it is also difficult to build filters in large size to differentiate between low frequency surges
and power frequency currents.
• Blocking of high frequency transients can be done by connecting an inductor, or choke, in
series with the load.
• Since inductor produces some damage to the insulation, the choke alone is used to block high
frequency transients.
• Normally each facility should have only one ground path.
• But many facilities have more than one or multiple paths. for eg., there is a ground near a
substation and an another ground a water well. If lightning strikes the bulk of the surge current
will flow towards the well.
• This will produce a excessive high voltage across the insulation in the substation side.
• The amount of current flowing between the grounds may be reduced by improving all the
intentional grounds at the service entrance and nearby on the utility system.
• If. We want to control the surge current between two ends, both the grounds must be protected
with voltage limiting devices to increase the adequate protection.

3.6 DEVICES FOR OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION

• The following devices are used for protection of overvoltages.
1. Surge Arresters and Transient Voltage Surge Suppressors.
2. Isolation Transformers
3. Low-pass filters
4. Low-Impedance power conditioners
5. Utility surge arresters

3.6.1 Surge Arresters and Transient Voltage Surge Suppressors

• Surge Arresters and TVSSs are used to protect equipments from transient over voltages.
• TVSSs are normally located at load equipment.
• The elements used in these devices are classified into two types.
1. Crowbar devices
2. Clamping devices
• Crowbar devices conduct current during overvoltage transient. Therefore the line voltage will
drop to nearly zero due to the short circuit across the power line.

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• Clamping devices conduct very low amount of current under normal condition.
• Under fault condition, they conduct heavily and their impedance reduces rapidly with
increasing voltage,
• These devices conduct large (i.e.) increasing amounts of current to limit the voltage rise of a
surge.
• This type has the advantage of having voltage not below the conduction level when they begin
to conduct the surge current.

3.6.2 Isolation Transformers

• Figure 3.16 shown an isolation transformer used to protect against transients.

Figure 3.16 Isolation transformer

• They are used to attenuate high frequency noise which passes from one side to other.
• An electrostatic shield is used to eliminate common mode noise as shown in figure 3.17.

Figure 3.17 Isolation transformer with electrostatic shield

• By using the isolation transformer, the high frequency noise and transients are kept away from
reaching the load and the load generated noise and transients are kept away from reaching rest of
power system.
• Isolation transformer is also used to limit the voltage notching due to power electionic
switching.
• Lightning transients and capacitor switching transients can also be attenuated by using isolation
transformer

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• By the use of isolation transformer, a new ground reference value can be defined by the user
and this new neutral-to-ground bond limits neutral-to-ground voltages at sensitive equipment.

3.6.3 Low-pass filters

• Figure 3.18 shows a common hybrid transient protector that contains two surge suppressors and
a low-pass filter to provide maximum protection.

Figure 3.18 Hybrid transient protector.

• Normally, low-pass filters are composed of series inductors and parallel capacitors.
• This LC combination provides a low impedance path to ground for selected resonant
frequencies.
• This hybrid protector uses a gap type protector on the front end to suppress high energy
transients.
• This inductor blocks high-frequency transients and forces them into the first suppressor.
• The capacitor limits the rate of rise of voltage while the non linear resistor (MOV) clamps the
voltage magnitude at the protected equipment.
3.6.4 Low-Impedance power conditioners

Figure 3.19 low-impedance power conditioner.

• Figure 3.19 shows low-impedance power conditioner.

• LIPC differs from isolation transformer in that these conditioners have low impedance and also
a filter.
• These conditioners were previously used to interface with Switch-Mode Power Supplies.
• The filter which is located at the output side of the low. Impedance transformer is used to
protect against high frequency noises and impulses.
• But LIPCs are not suitable for low-to-medium frequency transients.
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3.6.5 Utility surge arresters

• Most of the utility surge arresters now-a-days use MOV [Maximum over Voltage] as the
voltage limiting element.
• Figure 3.20 shows the three common utility surge arrester technologies.

Figure 3.20 Three common utility surge arrester technologies.

• The main ingredient of MOV arrester is Zinc Oxide [ZnO].

• Older technology arresters used Silicon Carbide [SiC] as the energy dissipating non linear
resistive element.
• The addition of an SiC non linear resistance in series with a spark gap allowed the spark gap to
clear and reseal without causing a fault and reduced the spark over transient to 50% of the total
spark over voltage as shown in the figure 3.21.

Figure 3.21Comparative lightning wave discharge voltage characteristics for an 8 ×20 µs wave corresponding
to the utility surge arrester technologies in Fig. 3.20.

• Since there is a power-follow current after spark over in SiC material, it leads to arrester
failure.
• The MOV technology eliminated the gaps and this technology could withstand. Continuous
system voltage without gaps and still provide a discharge voltage comparable to SiC arresters.

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• After that the gapped MOV technology was introduced.

• It has combination of resistance graded gaps and MOV blocks.
• It also has a lower lightning-discharge voltage figure. (3.21) and also has a higher transient
overvoltage withstand characteristic than a gapless MOV arrester.
• Utility surge arrestors are manufactured in various sizes and ratings.
• The three basic rating classes are designated distribution, intermediate and station in increasing
order of their energy-handling capability.

3.7 CAPACITOR SWITCHING TRANSIENTS

• The following die the problems related to capacitor switching transients.

1. Switching Times
• The capacitors must be switched coincident with the load increase.
• If not so, transients will occur and they cause several adjustable speed drives to shutdown
shortly after the process status.
• The another way of switching of capacitor is, switching capacitors a few minutes before the
load actually picks up. This will not cause switching transients.
2. Preinsertion Resistors

Figure 3.22 Capacitor switch with preinsertion resistors. (Courtesy of Cooper Power Systems.)
• Preinsertion resistors reduce the capacitor-switching transient.
• The first peak of the transient is dangerous.
• Inserting a resistor into 'h e circuit will damp the first peak of the transient.
• Using preinseftion resistors results in a preinsertion time of approximately onefourth of a cycle
at 60 Hz.
• Figure 3.22 shows capacitor switch with preinsertion resistors.

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• The resistance value depends on capacitor size and short circuit current at the capacitor
location.
• Switches with preinsertion reactors have also been developed for this purpose.
• This inductor limits high frequency transients.

3. Capacitor Location
• A switched capacitor may be located very close to a sensitive load or at a location where
transient over voltages be higher.
• In that case, these capacitors must be brought to downline or to another branch of the circuit to
eliminate the problem.
• To avoid capacitor switching transients, either damping is created with more resistance in the
circuit or impedance must be between the capacitor and the sensitive load.
• When a capacitor is used for relative power compensation, soft switching or switching at
noncritical times must be explored to reduce transients.

4. Synchronous Closing
• Synchronous closing breaker is used to reduce the transients due to capacitor switching.
• Synchronous closing is nothing but the capacitor voltage must match with the system voltage at
time of matching of contacts.
• Figure 3.23 shows a three phase SF6 synchronous closing breaker used in a utility sub
transmission (or) Transmission system.
• It has three independently controllable drive rods and it is capable of closing within 1 ms of
voltage zero.
• Figure 3.24 shows a vacuum synchronous closing breaker. The vacuum switch reduces
capacitor inrush currents by an order of magnitude and voltage transients to about 1.1pu.
• All these switches require a micro processor based control.
• This synchronous closing breaker is more expensive than a normal capacitor switch.

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Figure 3.23 Synchronous closing breakers. (Courtesy of ABB, Inc.)

Figure 3.24 Synchronous closing capacitor switches. (Courtesy of JoslynHi-Voltage Corporation.)

3.8 SWITCHING TRANSIENT PROBLEMS WITH LOAD

• The following are the transient problems related to loads and load switching.

Nuisance tripping of ASDs

• The Adjustable Speed Drives Contain Voltage Source Inverters with dc link capacitor. The
control unit in the ASDs is sensitive to the dc over voltages and it may trip the drive for more
than 110% of voltage level.
• Due to utility capacitor switching also transient voltages will occur and nuisance tripping of the
drive also occurs when voltage exceed 130 percent.
• To eliminate nuisance tripping ofdrives, the drives must be isolated from the power source
using ac choke between power source and drive.
• The inductance in the ac choke reduces transient over voltage magnitude.
• The value and size. of the inductors is selected depends upon the utility capacitor size and
transformer size.

Transients from load switching

• When the inductive circuits are de-energized such as relays and contactors will generate very
high frequency impulses.
• This over voltages will have 5ns rise times and 5Ons durations.
• This type of Electrical Fast Transient Produces spikes upto 1KV, due to cycling motors, such as
air conditioners and elevators.
• The duration of each impulse is short compared to the travel time of that impulse.
• Propagation of these impulses can be analyzed with travelling wave theory.
• The impulses attenuate very quickly within a fraction of time.

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• The only protection needed is electrical separation.

• Physical separation is also required because these transients will damage sensitive equipment.

Transformer Energizing
• When a transformer is energized, a large harmonic current is produced for a period of up to
1sec.
•Because of these harmonic frequency current over voltage will result and it can cause allure of
arresters and problems with sensitive equipment.
• This problem will raise when large transformers are energized simultaneously with large power
factor capacitor back as shown in figure 3.25.

Figure 3.25 Fast transients caused by de energizing an inductive load.

• The dynamic overvoltage waveform caused by a third harmonic resonance as shown in the
circuit Figure 3.26.

Figure 3.26 Energizing a capacitor and transformer simultaneously can lead to dynamic overvoltage.

• This problem can be overcome by not energizing the capacitor and transformer together.

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3.9 Computer Tools for Transients Analysis

The most widely used computer programs for transient’s analysis of power systems are the
Electromagnetic Transients Program, commonly known as EMTP, and its derivatives such as the
Alternate Transients Program (ATP). EMTP was originally developed by Hermann W. Dommel
at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in the late 1960s15 and has been continuously
upgraded since. One of the reasons this program is popular is its low cost due to some versions
being in the public domain. Some of the simulations presented in this book have been performed
with a commercial analysis tool known as PSCAD/EMTDC, a program developed by the
Manitoba HVDC Research Center. This program features a very sophisticated graphical user
interface that enables the user to be very productive in this difficult analysis. Some power system
analysts use computer programs developed more for the analysis of electronic circuits, such as
the well-known SPICE program16 and its derivatives.
Although the programs just discussed continue to be used extensively, there are now many other
capable programs available. We will not attempt to list each one because there are so many and,
also, at the present rate of software development, any such list would soon be outdated. The
reader is referred to the Internet since all vendors of this type of software maintain websites.
Nearly all the tools for power systems solve the problem in the time domain, re-creating the
waveform point by point. A few programs solve in the frequency domain and use the Fourier
transform to convert to the time domain. Unfortunately, this essentially restricts the addressable
problems to linear circuits. Time-domain solution is required to model nonlinear elements such
as surge arresters and transformer magnetizing characteristics. The penalty for this extra
capability is longer solution times, which with modern computers becomes less of a problem
each day.
It takes considerably more modeling expertise to perform electromagnetic transient’s studies
than to perform more common power system analyses such as of the power flow or of a short
circuit. Therefore, this task is usually relegated to a few specialists within the utility organization
or to consultants.
While transients programs for electronic circuit analysis may formulate the problem in any
number of ways, power systems analysts almost uniformly favor some type of nodal admittance
formulation. For one thing, the system admittance matrix is sparse allowing the use of very fast
and efficient sparsity techniques for solving large problems. Also, the nodal admittance
formulation reflects how most power engineers view the power system, with series and shunt
elements connected to buses where the voltage is measured with respect to a single reference.
To obtain conductances for elements described by differential equations, transients programs
discretize the equations with an appropriate numerical integration formula. The simple
trapezoidal rule method appears to be the most commonly used, but there are also a variety of
Runge-Kutta and other formulations used. Nonlinearities are handled by iterative solution
methods. Some programs include the nonlinearities in the general formulation, while others, such
as those that follow the EMTP methodology, separate the linear and nonlinear portions of the
circuit to achieve faster solutions. This impairs the ability of the program to solve some classes
of nonlinear problems but is not usually a significant constraint for most power system problems.

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