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750 kV reactive power control, automatic

reclosing and overvoltage protection

Conference Paper · July 2003

DOI: 10.1109/PTC.2003.1304292 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 Paper accepted for presentation at 2003 IEEE Bologna Power Tech Conference, June 23th-26th, Bologna, Italy
750 kV Reactive Power Control, Automatic
Reclosing and Overvoltage Protection
G. BÁN, Fellow, IEEE L. PRIKLER, Member, IEEE G. BÁNFAI, Member, IEEE
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Abstract - The paper reports on studies, which supported the
projecting, reconstruction and modification of a 750 kV, 479
km long transmission line. The changes were demanded by the
technical development and the alteration of the role of the line
in the power transmission. Authors analyse various ways for
influencing on the interaction of the reactive power control,
relaying and overvoltage protection. The possibility of the
operation with incomplete, asymmetrical shunt reactor and
arrester sets is investigated. The paper describes a simple way
of controlled three-phase and adaptive single-phase reclosure.
Keywords: automatic reclosing, controlled switching, EHV
transmission, metal oxide arrester, overvoltage protection,
power systems transients, shunt compensation.
I. INTRODUCTION
A 479 km long 750 kV transmission line was put into
exploitation between Hungary and Ukraine in 1979 in order
to create a strong connection between the Hungarian power
system and the Russian-Ukrainian EHV grid. The line was
planned for the transmission of nearly 2000 MW active
power. A reconstruction was effectuated in the Hungarian
750 kV substation (Albertirsa) in the middle of the eighties,
based on the experiences of the initial operation. The 750
kV line was put out of operation in 1993 due to the political
and economical changes. After a long interruption the line
has restarted to operate in spring of 2002. The present
system configuration significantly differs from the old one:
the supply system in the Ukrainian side became weaker and
the transmitted power lower. The line construction and the
substation equipments have been modified to some extent.
The new situation necessitated a revision of controlling the
reactive power, the overvoltage protection and the efficiency
of reclosing automation. The paper reports on the studies,
which preceded and prepared the above-mentioned
modifications.
II. INITIAL YEARS: INTERACTION OF
THE REACTIVE POWER CONTROL,
RELAY PROTECTION AND
INSULATION CO-ORDINATION
Two shunt reactor sets serve for controlling the reactive
power on both ends of the line. The neutrals of the shunt
reactor sets were earthed in the original plan. Since the 750
kV transmission has been effectuated by means of a single
circuit line, single phase reclosing plays a cardinal role in
the relay protection. On the other hand TNA studies and
field tests showed, that the self-extinction time of the
secondary arc could exceed the dead time of single phase
reclosing automation, which was limited by stability
conditions. Therefore both shunt reactor sets in Albertirsa
and one of the sets in the Ukrainian substation were
provided with neutral reactors. Namely, there is a possibility
to suppress the secondary arc current and reduce the
duration of arcing by means of neutral coils of suitable
selected inductance.
0-7803-7967-5/03/$17.00 ©2003 IEEE
Fig. 1 shows the scheme of the overvoltage protection of the
Albertirsa substation. Conventional silicon carbide arresters
with passive gaps served for the limitation of overvoltage
protection in both ends of the line. Arresters A2 protected
the shunt reactors, while A1 the transformer. Being the ratio
of the protecting level of conventional arresters to the rated
voltage quite large, a high shunt compensation degree was
required to keep the temporary overvoltages below the
permitted level.
The initial overvoltage protection of Albertirsa substation.
Fig. 1.
On the other hand, high shunt compensation is not
economical when transmitting high power. To solve this
problem, shunt reactor circuit breakers have been equipped
with air gaps G (see Fig. 1) that had to connect the
temporarily disconnected shunt reactors to the line
automatically, when overvoltages arose. The breakdown
voltage of the gap was between 1.4 p.u. and 1.8 p.u. It was
supposed, that the steep front wave initiated by the
breakdown of the gap, travelling along the long shunt
reactor - gap bus and finally being reflected at the reactor
will result in a transient voltage peak exceeding the SI
protecting level of the arrester (2.1 p.u.). According this idea
this overvoltage protection scheme accelerates the operation
of arresters: the 2.1 p.u. arrester operates as soon as the
overvoltage reaches 1.6 p.u., i.e. at 76% percent of its 2.1
p.u. protecting level. It was taught, that such a co-operation
of the gap, the long bus and arrester provides the line
insulation with a favourable protection.
Air blast circuit breakers CB1 and CB2 served for
connecting and disconnecting the shunt reactors. They
demanded a frequent maintenance, moreover produced
numerous restrikes and high voltage peaks at switching off
the shunt reactors. Both restrikes and current chopping
overvoltages could be responsible for the failures occurred
in the shunt reactor windings.
Fig. 2 shows the phase voltages at the shunt reactor and the
enlarged record of the multiple restrike. The reduced
amplitude of the voltage oscillation following the
disconnection refers to an arrester operation initiated by
relatively high current chopping.

Multiple restrike and arrester operation produced by air blast circuit breaker
at shunt reactor switching off.
Fig. 2.
III. RECONSTRUCTION IN THE MIDDLE
OF THE EIGHTIES
The air blast shunt reactor circuit breakers have been
replaced by SF6 ones that were suitable for controlled
switching off operation. The distance between the contacts
of the new circuit breakers reached the value necessary to
the arc extinction within 10 ms. The way of controlling,
elaborated by the authors, effectuated the possible shortest
arcing time at every disconnection. This minimized the
erosion of the contacts and reduced the probability of
current chopping. To check the efficiency of controlling, 50
tests have been carried out without controlling the new
circuit breakers and in 90% restrikes were experienced. On
the other hand, no restrike was recorded during numerous
tests carried out with controlled switching off. Thus,
restrikes have been completely eliminated by controlling the
disconnecting operation of the new circuit breakers. Shunt
reactors were used for reactive power control of the
Hungarian 400 kV system between 1993 and 2002, so a 17
years positive experience is available with controlled
operation of the shunt reactors. No shunt reactor failures
occurred since starting the controlled switching off.
The construction of the new breakers precluded the
possibility of connecting an air gap in parallel with one of
the interrupting units. The lack of the gaps has been
compensated by a metal oxide arrester (MOA) set,
connected directly to the line (see Fig. 3).
The overvoltage protection in Albertirsa substation after the reconstruction.
Fig. 3.
MOAs have a favourable feature among others: the ratio of
the protective level to the rated voltage is smaller for a
MOV than a silicon carbide arrester. This offers a way for
reducing the protective level of the arrester, i.e. the stress of
the insulation. Besides this ratio depends on the duration of
temporary overveoltage (TOV) stressing theMOA.
Consequently, it can be decreased when taking into account
the real operation time of the relay protection. So replacing
the SiC arresters by MOAs renders possible to reduce the
requirements against the insulation.
However, for keeping TOV below the limit permissible for
conventional shunt reactor arresters one had to push the
advantage offered by MOAs in another way. The insulation
of the line and the substation corresponds to the protective
level of the conventional arresters. So MOA with special
parameters was selected: its level of protection was only
slightly lower than that of the conventional arrester, but its
permissible 1s TOV level was 1.7 p.u. (1.4 p.u. for the
conventional arrester). The high permissible value of the
rated voltage made unnecessary high shunt compensation
during arrester operation.
The completed protection in Albertirsa substation rendered
unnecessary to accelerate the operation of shunt reactor
arresters. The cooperation of the conventional SiC arresters
with metal oxide ones, moreover the co-ordination of the
different overvoltage protection philosophies at the
Hungarian and the Ukrainian line ends were checked as
well.
IV. RESTARTING THE OPERATION OF
THE LINE
A. Overvoltages
An isolated part of the Ukrainian network supplies the line
provisionally. Both temporary and transient overvoltages
have increased due to the weak supply system in comparison
with the normal operation for which the transmission was
planned originally. Overvoltage studies showed, that this
growth of the overvoltage level could be compensated in the
majority of cases by keeping the lowest permissible level of
the operating voltage.
Considering the nine years interval of being out of operation
one had to suppose, that the state of certain substation
components would not meet the reliability requirements
temporarily. The conditions of operation with incomplete
shunt reactor and arrester sets were elaborated in order to
take precautions against the temporary single-phase lack of
such apparatuses. The investigation extended to the
accidental asymmetries in the Ukrainian substation as well,
taking into account various rates of the coincidence of
unexpected events. From this viewpoint the former
completion of the overvoltage protection with a MOA set in
Albertirsa substation proved favorable. The operation of the
convential arresters is not endangered by an asymmetry in
one of the reactor sets because the same circuit breaker
connects the reactor and its arrester to the line.
Consequently, the arrester of a disconnected reactor is
separated from the line as well.
These studies aimed the improvement of the reliability of
the line for the further stage of the operation.
B. Single phase reclosing
A basic tool of the reliable operation of the single circuit
750 kV line is single phase reclosing of high efficiency.
Disregarding permanent faults, the successfulness of
reclosing is endangered by long duration secondary arcs.
The high current fault arc (primary arc) drops after the
moment of tripping the faulty phase conductor and a
secondary arc arises in the hot plasma left by the primary
one.
The secondary arc is sustained by the capacitive and
inductive coupling with the healthy phases. Its current
depends mainly on the phase-to-phase capacitance, thus the
line length. Generally high secondary currents lead to long
duration secondary arcs.
a. 750 kV b. 400 kV
Secondary arcing on 750 kV and 400 kV transmission line
Fig. 4.
Figures 4a, and 4b. illustrate the formation of the secondary
arc. Fig. 4a was recorded during a staged fault in the 750 kV
line. This figure shows the initial interval of the primary arc
when the flashover is just developing along the insulator
surface and also the secondary one. Thus the arcs in Fig.4a
are not synchronous. Figure 4b was recorded during a field
test in a 400 kV double circuit line, when the secondary arc
was initiated by a thin wire, without primary arc.
The secondary arc is sustained by the capacitive and
inductive coupling with the healthy phases. Its current
depends mainly on the phase-to-phase capacitance, thus the
line length. Generally high secondary currents lead to long
duration secondary arcs.
In any case, the extinction of the secondary arc is preceded
and prepared by an intermittent interval, consisting of high
current impulses followed by temporary dropping the
restrikes. So mainly the intermittent arcing process
determines the duration of the secondary arc.
.
Secondary arcing.
Upper curve: arc voltage in the intermittent interval.
Lower curve: the fault current and secondary one during single phase
reclosing in the 750 kV line.
Fig. 5.
Secondary arc in long EHV transmission line may be of
long duration first of all due to its large Cab. Besides, when
shunt reactors are connected to the line, a recovery voltage
of beating character occurs at the faulty spot following the
secondary current impulse. Its amplitude can exceed the
peak value of the phase voltage. By inserting neutral coils
between the shunt reactor neutral and the ground, Cab can be
compensated partly or completely.
Uc ~
Cab
L* 2Cab
Ub ~
Cab
~
Ua ~ -Ua/2 A
Co Is K Ls
L** Co
N
Ln
a. b.
C0 – zero sequence capacitance of the line; Ls – resultant inductance of the
reactors
Ln – the inductance of the neutral coil; Is – secondary arc current
Ls L2 **
L* = 3 + s L = Ls+3Ln.
2 2 Ln
Scheme (a) and simplified circuit (b) for understanding the effect of neutral
reactors.
Fig. 6.
The circuit in Fig. 6 explains the condition of compensation.
If L* controlled by the neutral inductance and 2Cab form a
resonant circuit resonating to the power frequency, no
secondary arc current and recovery voltage occur.
To find the optimal neutral inductance to minimize the
secondary current, a detailed study is needed. The optimum
value of Ln depends on the actual compensation degree that
has to be adapted to the actual value of the transmitted
power.
The inductance of the neutral coils in Albertirsa has been
selected in the eighties supposing that every shunt reactor
set on both line ends will have a neutral coil. In the present
situation only in Albertirsa substation are neutral reactors in
operation, so the secondary current is not suppressed
sufficiently. This imperfection is partly compensated by
operating the line on the lowest permitted voltage level: 700
kV rms. In the most dangerous case (a single incomplete
shunt reactor set in Albertirsa and one or two complete sets
in the Ukrainian substation) the expectable peak value of the
continuous secondary current reaches 68 Amps. According
to the international statistics of self-extinction times [6] this
value corresponds to 1.45 s self extinction duration. The
permitted maximum dead time for the investigated 750 kV
transmission is 1.6 s. One has to consider the high amplitude
of the recovery voltage due to the shunt compensation and
the fact that the dead time has to be longer, than the sum of
time delay of tripping the faulty phase and the self-
extinction time. Thus the reserve time does not seem to be
sufficient.
To eliminate the danger of inefficient single phase reclosing,
a variant of adaptive reclosing has been elaborated and
proposed for the detection of the actual extinction time. The
detection is based on the transients taking place in the
intermittent interval of secondary arcing. In this period arc
re-ignitions and extinctions follow each other. Every re-
ignition and extinction initiates subsequent reflections of
steep front waves in the tripped phase conductor.
 1.20
*10 6
The device that detects the final extinction of the secondary
0.76 arc may be utilized in the following ways:
• It effectuates reclosing after detecting the final
0.32 extinction. The dead time is not a constant value.
• Average secondary arc duration is taken as constant
-0.12 dead time. If the secondary arc duration exceeds the
adjusted value, the device elongates the dead time by a
-0.56
pre-determined Δt or prevents it.

-1.00
C. Three-phase reclosing
0.110 0.115 0.120 0.125 0.130 0.135 [s ] 0.140
(file veiporto2new.pl4; x -var t) v:CA c: -XX0014 v:A A
Three-phase reclosure of shunt compensated lines produces
Transients in the faulty phase after a re-strike.
Upper curves: voltages in the line ends. the highest switching overvoltages and the heaviest stresses
Lower curve: the current of the re-strike. in arresters, since the trapped charge in the healthy phases of
Fig. 7. a shunt compensated line is of beating character due to the
transients in the line mode and ground one.
The fundamental harmonic of the extinction transient Three-phase reclosing endangers mainly those lines, which
depends on the line length only (see Fig 7), while that of the contain polluted or foggy zones. Contamination usually
breakdown transient is highly influenced by the location of extends to a large area, where the line insulation is reduced
the fault, Consequently, the detection of the final extinction during foggy weather. It is presumable, that an intensive
has been based on sensing the presence of the intermittent partial arc activity is going along the surface of many line
extinction transients by means of special filters on the line insulators, when one of them flashes over stressed by the
ends. As long as the intermittent secondary arc exists, a high operating voltage. As a rule, the heating effect of the
voltage occurs on the outputs of the filters primary arc dries the faulted insulator, but a high reclosing
350
[kV]
overvoltage is able to initiate partial arcs on some other
insulators. These arcs may be much longer, than they could
250
be at the operating voltage. The temporary overvoltage
following the reclosing transient and then the operating
150 voltage may sustain and elongate the long partial arcs till
occurring the full flashover. This hypothesis is supported by
50 [5], which reports on ''records of failures to reclose having
contamination flashovers and also many examples of
-50 successful reclosing followed by a subsequent flashover''.
The same tendencies show the data about the efficiency of
-150 reclosing Hungarian HV and EHV lines for a four-years
0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 [s ] 0.50
period 1984 - 1988.
Detection of the final extinction in a 400 kV line
Summer Winter
Upper curve: the output voltage of the filter
Lower curve: recovery voltage at the fault Voltage unsucc success unsuccess length
successful
Fig. 8. level essful ful ful (km)
750 kV 5 0 1 2 479
Dropping this output voltage near to zero indicates the final
400 kV 48 20 28 9 1530
extinction of the secondary arc (see Fig.8. A device
operating according the described principle has been 220 kV 83 28 23 47 1687
constructed and tested on 750 kV and 400 kV lines. Fig. 9
120 kV 2437 65 501 177 7039
shows a record about its operation when a single-phase- to-
ground fault turned into a two-phase-to-ground fault (750 ∑ 2573 113 553 235 10733
kV transmission line). Table I

The ratio of the summarized unsuccessful reclosing to the

successful is 0.044 in summer and 0.425 in winter.
Transmission line faults originate mainly from lightning in
summer and predominantly from foggy weather in winter.
Considering, that the unsuccessful/successful ratio in winter
reaches a nearly 10 time higher value, than in summer, a
significant limitation of the reclosing overvoltages is
recommended for the lines containing polluted or foggy
sections to prevent unsuccessful reclosing.

The voltage difference across circuit breaker contacts (∆U)

in the dead time contains power frequency, line mode
Upper curves: phase voltages; lover curve: signal for permission of frequency and ground mode frequency components. The
reclosing.
Fig. 9.
amplitude of ∆U may exceed the double the phase voltage.
Highest overvoltage arises, when reclosing at the maximum
∆U.
Controlled reclosure proves to be advantageous to avoid
overstresses. The mechanical operation accuracy of the air
blast circuit breakers of the 750 kV transmission did not
prove satisfactory for precise controlling (as point of wave
or polarity control). A simple and efficient way of
controlling the reclosure has been elaborated that does not
require a very precise operation of the line circuit breakers.
The idea is based on the relatively long periods of the
beating minima that offer a possibility for controlled
reclosing. It seems to be reasonable to reclose in one of the
minimum intervals, i.e. to take the dead time duration for an
integral multiple of the beating period of ∆U. The time
locations of ∆U minima usually are not simultaneous in the
individual phases and depend on the kind of the fault. When
selecting the value of the neutral coil according to the
equation Ln= Ls*Cab/C0 the capacitive coupling between the
phase conductors ceases during the dead time and the
location in time of ∆U minima becomes constant:
simultaneous an independent on the kind of the fault [4].
Being the symmetry of the investigated 750 kV line not
perfect (the causes of that will be analyzed in the next
chapter), the location in time of ∆U minima would not
completely simultaneous even if every shunt reactor set
would be provided by neutral coils. Fig.10. involves ∆U
voltages in the healthy phases for single-phase-to-ground
and two-phase-to-ground faults with the supposition that
each reactor sets are four legged ones.
1 .5
[M V ]
1 .0
0 .5
0 .0
- 0 .5
- 1 .0
- 1 .5
0 .0 0 .2 0 .4 0 .6 0 .8 [s ]
Fig. 10.
The possibility of utilizing the favourable effect of the
neutral coils for controlling the 750 kV line circuit breakers
in the present configuration, the time position of ∆U minima
has been studied for the case, when only in Albertirsa
substation are neutral coils.
Fig. 11 involves ∆U voltages in the healthy phases for
single-phase-to-ground and two-phase-to-ground faults.
EMTP simulation of the 750 kV transmission.
Fig. 12.
Comparing the amplitudes of ∆U minima in Figs. 10 and 11
one it is evident, that the case with four neutral coils (Fig.
10) is more favourable, then the real configuration (Fig. 11).
Nevertheless looking at the curves in Fig.11, one finds
suitable minimum intervals in which the reclosure would
result in relatively low three-phase reclosing overvoltages in
the healthy phases. Thus 0.6 s is recommended as the most
reasonable dead time.
1.5
[MV]
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
[s ]
Fig. 11
According to Fig. 8 one can find suitable minimum intervals
in which the reclosure results in relatively low overvoltages
in the healthy phases. Thus 0.6 s dead time is recommended.
V. THE METHODS OF THE
INVESTIGATION
Transient network analyser (TNA) of the Budapest
University of Technology and Economics served as the
main tool before and during the commissioning the line and
substation in the seventies. A sophisticated line model
formed the fundamental component of the TNA, that was
verified by numerous field tests. Later 750 kV transients’
studies were carried out by means of a coordinated
application of TNA and the Electromagnetic Transient
Program (EMTP). In the nineties a complete changeover to
EMTP has been realized. Transformers and components of
1 .0
supplying systems were often simulated by lumped
parameter models in the former studies. The recent 750 kV
simulation considers every component as a distributed one
and the 750 kV tansformer models are highly sophisticated.
The architecture of the model used for the recent studies is
shown in Fig. 12. The Hungarian substation Albertirsa
(AISA) and the simulation of the Hungarian system are in
the left side.
The real line shows various asymmetries. The tower
constructions of the Ukrainian and the Hungarian part are
not the same. Therefore the longitudinal symmetry is not
perfect. Besides, one of the ground wires has replaced by
OPGW conductor in the Hungarian side before restarting the
operation of the line and the OPGW ground wire has been
earthed at every tower. The earthing of the other,
conventional ground wire has been effectuated only in the
substations and at the state border, corresponding to the
original design. All the asymmetries have been taken in
account in the system simulation shown in Fig. 10.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
The application of metal oxide arresters of special
characteristics significantly weakens the strong connection
between the degree of shunt compensation, the relay and
overvoltage protection.
The efficiency of single-phase reclosing can be improved by
a simple variant of detecting the secondary arc extinction
time.
Using the effect of four legged shunt reactors on the
capacitive coupling between phase conductors, a cheap
method of controlled three-phase reclosing can be
effectuated for older types of circuit breakers as well.
Controlled disconnecting offers an efficient protection for
shunt reactor insulation.

VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The activity reported in the paper has been partly supported

by the Hungarian Research Fund under contract No. OTKA
T-035178.

VIII. REFERENCES

[1] Akopyan, A.A. et al.: “Switching Overvoltages and the System of

Protection against them in 750 kV Networks of the USSR” CIGRE,
1972. Rep. 33-07
[2] Benko, I. Ban,G., Banfai, G.: "Interaction of the Reactive Power
Compensation and the Insulation Coordination at a 75O kV Power
Transmission" CIGRÉ 199O Rep. 33-2O1.
[3] Prikler, L., Ban,G. Banfai,G.: ''EMTP Models for Simulation of
Shunt Reactor Switching Transients'' Electrical Power & Energy
Systems, Vol.19, No.4. pp. 235-240, 1997.
[4] Ban, G., Prikler, L., Said, A.R.:: “Use of Neutral Reactors for
Improving the Successfulness of three Phase Reclosing” Proc. of
IEEE Power Tech’99 Budapest, 1999
[5] Kawai, M.'' Research at Project UHV on the Performance of
Contaminated Insulators Part I. Basic Problems''. IEEE PAS vol.
PAS-92, 1973. pp.1102-1110
[6] Rashkes, V.S.: “Generalization of the Operation Experiences
Connected with the Efficiency of Single-Phase Reclosing,
Experimental Data about the Extinction Time of the Secondary
Arc” Elektricheskie Stancii 1989 No. 3. (in Russian)

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