EE450: High Voltage Engineering

Lecture 18

Farhan Mahmood, PhD

Department of Electrical Engineering
UET, Lahore

January 25, 2017

Outline

Generation of High Voltages

• Generation of High AC Voltages

˗ Step-up Transformers
˗ Resonant Circuits
Generation of High AC Voltages

• The insulation of power system equipment may experience overvoltages at rated

power frequency for a short duration due to abnormal conditions.
• Generally, AC voltage tests are performed on all equipment at power frequency.
• AC test voltages should be,
˗ Sinusoidal in shape
˗ Vpk/Vrms = √2 ±5% tolerance
• Test voltage generated is single-phase voltage to ground. This implies that the
insulation of one phase of the equipment can be only test at a time.
• There are two methods for the generation of high AC voltages,
˗ Testing transformers
˗ Resonant Circuits
Single-Stage Testing Transformer

• Single-stage testing transformers are used up to

300 kV.
• High-voltage testing transformer usually has one
end of high-voltage winding earthed.
• The iron core is also earthed and one-terminal of
low-voltage (LV) winding may also be earthed.
• The LV winding may be fed from a motor-
generator set or through an induction voltage
regulator.
• The rating of primary winding is usually less than
1 kV, but typically 230-240 V.
Single-Stage Testing Transformer

• For the same voltage rating, a testing transformer usually has low power rating
compared to a power transformer.
• The flux density in the core should be kept low so that it does not draw large
magnetising current which would otherwise saturate the core and produce higher
harmonics
• A testing transformer designed at rated voltage and frequency may also be used at
rated voltage and high/low frequency.
• Two types of construction are possible for the testing transformer,
˗ Tank-type
˗ Insulated enclosure type
Single-Stage Testing Transformer
Single-Stage Testing Transformer

(1) Iron core.

(2) Primary LV or exciting winding.
(3) Secondary HV winding.
(4) Field grading shield.
(5) Grounded metal tank and base.
(6) H.V. bushing.
(7) Insulating shell or tank.
(8) H.V. electrode

Single unit testing transformers. (a) Tank-type. (b) Insulated-enclosure

Single-Stage Testing Transformer

Single unit testing transformers. (a) Tank-type. (b) Insulated-enclosure

Cascaded Transformers

• For voltages higher than 400 kV, it is desired to cascade two or more transformers
depending upon the voltage requirements.
• Advantages:
˗ The weight of the whole unit is subdivided into single units and, therefore,
transport and erection becomes easier.
˗ Transformer cost for a given voltage may be reduced, since cascaded units need
not individually possess the expensive and heavy insulation required in single
stage transformers for high voltages exceeding 345 kV.
Cascaded Transformers
Cascaded Transformers

Three cascade transformers with an output voltage of 1050 kV (General Electric

Company)
Cascaded Transformers

• The disadvantage of cascading is the heavy loading of the primary windings for
lower stages.
• Let Zp, Zs, and Zt are the impedances associated with each winding with
corresponding number of turns Np, Ns, and Nt.
• The impedances are obtained either from calculated or experimentally-derived
results of the three short-circuit tests between any two windings taken at a time.
Cascaded Transformers

• Let Zps = leakage impedance measured on primary side with secondary short
circuited and tertiary open.
• Zpt = leakage impedance measured on primary side with tertiary short circuited
and secondary open.
• Zst = leakage impedance on secondary side with tertiary short circuited and
primary open.
• If these measured impedances are referred to primary side, then
Cascaded Transformers

• Solving the equations,

• Assuming negligible magnetising current, the sum of the ampere turns of all the
windings must be zero.

• Assuming lossless transformer, we have,

Cascaded Transformers

• Let Np = Nt for all stages, the equivalent circuit for a 3-stage transformer
Cascaded Transformers

• The resulting short circuit reactance Xres is obtained from the condition that the
power rating of the two circuits be the same.
• Here currents have been shown corresponding to high voltage side.

instead of 3(Xp + Xs + Xt) as might be expected.

• For n-stage cascaded transformer,

where Xpi, Xsi and Xti are the short-circuit reactance of the primary, secondary and
tertiary windings of ith transformer.
Cascaded Transformers

1200 kV 900 kV 600 kV

Series Resonant Circuits

• An AC circuit containing reactive elements (L and C) is said to be in resonance when

XL = X c
• At resonance,
Series Resonant Circuits

• Thus, resonance may occur in the circuit suddenly so that

˗ Z becomes minimum
˗ I becomes maximum and will then only be limited by the resistance of the circuit
• Q-factor is defined as:

• For testing purposes, Q-factor usually varies between 40-80.

• Under resonance, the output voltage across test object will be

where V is the supply voltage.

Series Resonant Circuits

• Let L1 = inductance of the voltage regulator and the transformer primary

L = exciting inductance of the transformer,
L2 = inductance of the transformer secondary
C = capacitance of the load.
• Normally inductance L > L1 and L2 and hence its shunting effect can be neglected.
Series Resonant Circuits

• Usually the load capacitance is variable and it is possible that for certain loading,
XL = X c
• Since at resonance,

where Q is the quality factor of the inductor.

• The inductor are designed for high quality factors Q = ωL/R. By properly designing
the reactor, the voltage across the test specimen may go up as high as 20 to 40
times the desired value.
Series Resonant Circuits

• In the past, it was difficult to manufacture continuously variable high voltage and high
value reactors to be used in the series circuit.
• Fig. shows a continuously variable reactor connected in the low voltage winding of
the step up transformer whose secondary is rated for the full test voltage.
Series Resonant Circuits

• If N is the transformation ratio and XL is the inductance on the low voltage side of the
transformer, then it is reflected with N2 XL value on the secondary side (load side) of
the transformer.
• For certain setting of the reactor, the inductive reactance may equal the capacitive
reactance of the circuit, hence resonance will take place.
• Thus, the reactive power requirement of the supply becomes zero and it has to
supply only the losses of the circuit.
• However, the main disadvantage is that the transformer has to carry the full load
current on the high voltage side.
Series Resonant Circuits

• It has now been possible to

manufacture high voltage continuously
variable reactors 300 kV per unit using a
new technique with split iron core.
• With this, the testing step up
transformer can be omitted as shown in
fig.
• The inductance of these inductors can
be varied over a wide range depending
upon the capacitance of the load to
produce resonance
Series Resonant Circuits

• The specific weight of cascaded transformers varies between 10-20 kg/kVA whereas
for series resonant circuit with variable high voltage reactor, it lies between 3-6
kg/kVA.
• With the development of static frequency convertors, it is possible to reduce the
specific weight of the circuit to approximately 0.5 kg/kVA.
• In order to obtain resonance in the circuit, a choke of constant impedance can be
used. As the load capacitance changes, the supply frequency should be changed.
Series Resonant Circuits
Series Resonant Circuits

• An exciter supply, connected to the LV mains, excites the series resonant circuit
with a variable frequency; this supply is therefore designed as a controlled
frequency converter, which are standard devices nowadays.
• This converter supplies again only the losses of the testing circuit, which are
usually less than about 2 per cent of the reactive power of Ct, if frequencies equal
• or higher than 50 Hz are used.
• The chokes can easily be designed for such high-quality factors, which increase
with frequency up to some 100 Hz.
• When testing objects with high capacitance, the saturation of core may take place.
Series Resonant Circuits

• Clean sinusoidal output

• Smaller power requirements
˗ Series inductance compensates test object’s capacitive reactive power
• No high-power arcing and heavy current surges occur if test object fails
˗ Resonance ceases at the failure of the test object
• Cascading is also possible (up to 3000 kV)
• Simple and compact test arrangement
˗ Reactor is considerably lighter than a transformer of equivalent power
Series Resonance Transformer
Resonance Transformer

800 kV
Resonance
Transformer
(Series/Parallel)
Suggested Readings

• Suggested Reading: Chapter 2 (Kuffeel and Zaengl’s book)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION