1
Switching Transients in Distribution Systems whith
Distributed Generation
E.A. Cano-Plata1, Senior Member, H. E. Tacca2, Member IEEE, F. Bertolotti3
Abstract— This paper describes methods used to analyze
power system transients. Overvoltage analysis techniques are
evaluated. The complete system, including power cables and
power generation is simulated using the ATP version of the
Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) in addition with
several experimental cases. A new method to power quality
analysis, and detection of switching of the reclose rele and cable
voltage reflections using wavelets, is proposed. Comparisons
between the power cable models are included. Experimental
results of adverse effects in a power generation distributed along
the feeder and power cables from transmission lines are shown.
Keywords—Wavelets; ATP-EMTP; Reclose; Power cable;
Transients.
I. INTRODUCTION
The major difficulty in calculating transient voltages
and currents throughout a distribution system is the need for an
adequate equivalent to represent the distribution generation (DG)
system, line transmission and transformer machine from
consumers' loads fed radially from each busbar.
It is to see that the use of equivalents circuit without a
comprehensive check on the effect of all impedances actually
present can lead to inaccurate estimation of transient over
voltages and currents in the transmission system. On the other
hand, it is not practicable to obtain and represent all the system
details.
A detailed analysis of distribution systems, loads and
other system elements is carried out, models discussed and a
simple but more realistic approach adopted It consists basically
of representing the dominant characteristics of the network using
alternative configurations and models. Also simpler equivalents
for extended networks are suggested [1].
The basic assumptions used in this paper are as follows:
• Distribution lines and cables (say, 33 – 13.2kV, for
example) should be represented by an equivalent pi
using the Bergeron approach [2]. For short lines, it is
not possible to estimate the total capacitance at each
voltage level due the big error in the transient
estimation.
• Transformers between distribution voltage levels
should be represented by a no-linear saturation
inductance.
• The rotating machines can be represented by the
1. E.A. Cano Plata is Full Professor at the Universidad Nacional de
Colombia, Manizales, 170003 Colombia (e-mail:
eacanopl@unal.edu.co).
2. H.Tacca is Full Professor at Universidad de Buenos Aires Paseo
colón 850 1er piso CABA(e-mail: htacca@fi.uba.ar).
3. F. Bertolotti, JTP at the Universidad de Buenos Aires Paseo colón
850 1er piso CABA(e-mail: fbertol@fi.uba.ar).
interaction between an active source a corresponding
the active and reactive power demand at the
fundamental frequency by the reactance sub transient.
• Power factor correction (PFC) capacitance should be
estimated as accurately as possible and allocated at the
corresponding voltage level [1].
• Other elements, such as, inductors, filters and
generators should be represented according to their
concentrated parameter equivalent such a R,L;C series
circuit.
• The representation should be detailed a long of the
distribution line. Simpler equivalents, either for the
transmission and distribution systems don´t should be
used.
• For distribution system studies all the elements may be
assumed to be uncoupled three-phase branches with no
mutual, but allowing unbalanced parameters per
phase.[1]
A distribution system is detailed as a block diagram in
the figure 1. The distribution circuit configuration depends on
the particular load requirements. In general, a considerable
number of loads are located so close together and supplied from
the main distribution point, that they can be considered from a
circuit breaker due the energy benchmarking to produce the
transient. For the majority of Distributed Generation installation,
whether supplying a small factory, domestic/commercial
consumers, or a large plant, a simple radial system is used. A
typical modern distribution network is shown in Figure 2.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the power distribution system
II. CABLE MODELING
The transient behavior of cables has been documented in
detail in many textbooks and papers [2]-[4], [8]. ATP includes
routines to compute parameters and to simulate cable transients
[13]. Series impedance and shunt susceptance matrices are
computed from cable parameter routines, using multiport
theory. Boundary conditions like cables transposition or earth

setting can be included. Finally, two options for transient
simulation are possible lumped parameter models (cascade π
circuits) or distributed parameters models.
Fig. 2. Tipical distribution system whit distributed generation (DG)
Cascade π-sections computed at a given frequency [4] are
computationally fast. Although this model does not include
frequency dependent parameters, a frequency dependent
behavior is achieved by the cascade connections.
However, lumped circuits are not a good representation of
distributed parameter effects. For example, when travel waves
or switching transients on a long power cable appears. If the
particular problem includes high frequencies, a great number of
π circuits must be used. Numerical error can appear due to big
differences of the π parameters respect to the network.
3 Output line capacitor is a low-cost method of conditioning
2
Voltage in pu
1 Observing Fig. 4 and Fig. 6 shows the behavior for a line of
0
0.0074 0.0076 0.0078 0.008 0.0082 0.0084 0.0086 0.0088 0.009 0.0092
Time(seconds)
Fig. 3. Natural oscillation for a power cable of 200 meter length
In distributed parameter models, the frequency dependence
and the distributed effects of the cable parameters are taken
into account [3], [4]. However, the validity of these models is
restricted because modal transformation matrices are assumed
to be real and constant.
In this work, J.Marti's routine was selected to carry out the
simulations. The transformation matrices were computed at
the critical frequency of the transient. It yields more critical
transient that Semlyen's model. Similar results using cascade π
sections were obtained.
2
III. EVALUATION OF MITIGATION METHODS
There are many mitigation techniques which might be
employed to solve different problems in the system, however
consider the power cables overvoltage’s can occur at the
terminals of the load. In this work, behavior of two solutions
methods [14] when the power cable is considered were
explored:
1) A capacitor in parallel with the load, at the circuit
breaker terminals. It works as a passive low pass filter.
2) A line RLC filter at the cable connection. It works as
low pass filter in the output of the feeder.
The major disadvantages of passive filtering are: they are
expensive, they require extra mounting space, and they
introduce extra losses in the system. And they are designed at
frequency to be filtered (depends on the load at the feeder ).
The system under test for the simulation are composed of
an AC source and four loads are connected at different times,
the capacitor bank and the RLC filter are connected to the
loads in order to correct different problems. In Fig. 3 voltage
at load terminals is shown. The simulation does not include a
power cable. The effect of the transient recovery voltage
action without switching transient can be seen. Voltages,
including cables of 500 and 1000 meters are shown in fig. 4
and 5. Sharp peaks from cable and load interaction are very
important.
A. Output Line Capacitors
the feeder output voltage. It reduces the harmonics injected to
the load, and therefore it will reduce the dv/dt seen at the load
terminals. Lumped capacitor joined to load inductance
introduces oscillations and a voltage overshooting. They are of
lower frequencies than pulses. They increase first peak voltage
and distort pulse top form. Fig 6 shows voltage at load
terminals using this mitigation method.
500m and 1000m, focusing on two aspects: 1) Consider the
parameters of a line includes overvoltage peak and frequency
of wave reflection; 2) In longer lines peak voltage is higher but
the frequency of reflection is reduced. Fig. 6 shows a much
larger overvoltage and transient is far slower.
12
[kV]
10
8
6
4
2
-0,2
15 16 17 18 19 20 [ms] 21
(file CASO1_System_Without_PC.pl4; x-var t) v:1A
Fig. 4. Simulation without consider power cable model
 3

12 B. RLC filter
[kV]
10 This filter uses output inductors, shunt capacitors and
8
damping resistors (when necessary) to form a conventional
low-pass filter. High-frequency harmonic currents are short-
6
circuit. Lower-frequency fundamental current pass to the
4 motor.
2
The result is a near sinusoidal wave being applied to the
load in terms of both, voltage and current. It can be seen in
-0,2
15 16 17 18
(file CASO2_Systema_PC_500m.pl4; x-var t) v:1A
19 20 [ms] 21 Fig. 8.
It is important to remark that:
Fig. 5. Simulation with 500 meters of power cable 1) No transient overvoltage appear at the terminal of the
load (see curve A in Fig.9).It is a new transient, the
12 magnetizing current it is referred at the inductor´s load
[kV]
10 that is showed in curve B in the Fig. 9
8

-0,2
15 16 17 18 19 20
(file CASO3_System_PC_1000m.pl4; x-var t) v:X0014A [ms] 21

Fig. 6. Simulation with 1000 meters of power cable

20
[kV]
15
Fig. 9. Magnetizing current inrush (curve B) and voltage (curve A) from an
10 inductor

5 2) There is lower thermal stress in the dielectric.

3) There are more losses in the system.
0

IV. PHYSICAL REALIZATION

-5
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 [ms] 26 An experimental implementation was realized in order to
(file CASO4_System_1000m_Capacitor.pl4; x-var t) v:X0012A
show the electrical real shape waves. Figure 2 shows a
schematic diagram of the distribution system that was used.
Fig. 7. Mitigation of transient overvoltage capacitor bank at load terminals
A LC circuit, between circuit breakers-rele and the
12
distribution feeder, was used to operate the power cable
[kV] feeding a power generator system, it is a small hydroelectric
10 machine.
8

-0,2
15 16 17
(file caso5_system_pc_1000m_rlc.pl4; x-var t) v:X0011A
18 19 20 [ms] 21

Fig. 8. Mitigation of transient overvoltage RLC at inverter AC output

Fig. 10. Power cable models


The figures 11 and 12 show the wave shapes of voltages at
load terminal without power cables.
Fig. 11. Transient voltage at hidroelectric machine terminals without
considering power cable
Figures 11 and 12 show the wave shapes of voltages at load
terminals with power cables. The long power cable was
simulated by series connection of model 1 and model 2.
Fig. 12. Voltage at load terminals without consider power cable
Reflection wave’s detected using model 1 for the long
power cable simulation are depicted in figure 13.
Fig. 13. PWM Transient voltage at motor terminals taking into account power
cable model 1
4
V. POWER QUALITY ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE
A. Multiresolution Analysis
In multiresolution signal decomposition (MSD), wavelet
functions and scaling functions are used as building blocks to
decompose and construct the signal at different resolutions
levels [20]. The wavelet function will generate the detail
version of the decomposed signal and the scaling function will
generate the approximated version of the decomposed signal.
This mathematically can be presented as:
f ( t ) =  c jo, k φ ( t − k ) + 
k k k
j −1
(
d j ,k 2 j 2ψ 2 j t − k ) (1)
Where, Cjok is the “jo” level scaling coefficient and djk is the
wavelet coefficient at scale “j”. φ(t) and ψ(t) are the scaling
function and wavelet function respectively and k is the
translation coefficient.
The translated function and scaled version of the wavelet,
ψ(2jt-k), (both used in MSD) will give a time-frequency
picture of the decomposed signal.
Multiresolution signal decomposition is used to obtain two
important capabilities: The first one is the time localization
capability for any transient phenomena, which will be noticed
by the presence of large coefficients at the time of disturbance.
The second capability is the signal energy partition in different
frequency bands, which gives some idea of the frequency
content of the distorted signal.
B. Wavelet Transforms of the Signals it and vt
The power signals may be represented by the
multiresolution analysis as follows: If it the current of the
system and vt the voltage of the system represent square-
integral density functions (it, vt ε L2), they can be represented
as
it =  c jo, k ,t φ jo, k ( t ) +   d j , k ,tψ j , k ( t ) (2)
k j ≥ j0 k
where
c jo, k ,t = it , φ jo, k and d j , k ,t = it ,ψ j , k (3)
vt =  c ' jo, k ,t φ jo, k ( t ) +   d ' j , k ,t ψ j , k ( t ) (4)
k j ≥ j0 k
c ' jo, k ,t = vt , φ jo, k and d ' j ,k ,t = vt ,ψ j , k
(5)
t = α, β,0
The scaling level j0 is the lowest band of the original signal
and includes the fundamental frequency component of the
power system. The wavelet levels j include the signals of the
successively higher octave frequency bands.
The scaling functions φj0,k and the wavelet basis ψj,k are
biorthonormal, having the following properties:
φ jo, k , φ jo,k =1, ... φ jo,k ,ψ j , k = 0, where j ≥ j0 (6)
ψ j , k ,ψ j ,k =1, ... ψ j ,k ,ψ i , k = 0, where j ≠ i (7)
Fig 14, shows the results of applying the MSD analysis to
the real energy in the source; in this figure, is shown the
 5

transient produced by the capacitor switching in the first levels The measurements given the technique pqAT at each point
of the MSD analysis. At the transient produced near 10 ms in of connection is shown in the Fig 15 for real power and in the
the four levels, it can be produced a change at the polarity. Fig 16 for reactive power.
Caso 11:Descomposi
Decomposition ción de la energy
of the actual energía real Epmeasured
medida en la Subestaci
in the ón substation As it can be seen, in the reactive power there is a change in
2000 the polarity in the capacitor, therefore it could be needed an
Nivel 1
Level 1
0
-2000 x 104 scheme considering bi-directional flows; this reaction could be
10 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 misunderstood as a fault.
0 Nivel 2
Level 2 5
x 10 Real Power
-1 x 104 20
50 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 Load B
Capacitor
0
4
Nivel 3
Level 3 Load C
-5 x 10 15 Source
10 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 Load D
0 Load A
-1 Nivel 4
Level 4
-2
-3
10
1500 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
1000

Watts
500
0 Nivel 5
Level 5
-500 5
x 10 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
5
Time [seconds]

Fig. 14. Levels of decomposition in the real energy of the source

0

C. Deviation Quality Index -5

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
It is defined as the noise/signal relation [15], [16]. This set Decomposition levels

an important difference with others definitions of power

Fig. 15. Levels of decomposition in the real energy of the source
quality index [21]-[24].
The noise/signal relation is here defined as the relation x 10
5 Reactive Power
between the real power of the level j and the fundamental real 10
Load B
power energy band; that is in percent and sustained the sign of Capacitor
8 Load C
the power flow band [16]. Source
Load D
Load A
Pstd
6

RDD _ p =
Pmean 4
(8)
VAR

Qstd
RDD _ q = 2

Qmean
0
Pmean = active power
Pmean = reactive power
-2

Qstd = reactive standar deviation -4

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Decomposition levels
Pstd = active standar deviation
Where Pstd, Qstd, Pmean and Qmean are the coefficient standard
Fig. 16. Levels of decomposition in the real energy of the source
deviations and mean value of the active and reactive power at
each decomposition level. With all this, the std_MSD curve
[16]-[18] may be traced by mean of plotting the RDD_q and D. Distribution Generation –Cable trasnmision system
RDD_p against each decomposition level. Analysis
The trajectory of the RDD_p and RDD_q allows a detection In fig. 17 the real power is measured in 30ms. The solid
of transient phenomena related with the higher frequencies of curve corresponds to the K.C.Lee model while the dot curve to
a sudden switching transient. The analysis of the plotted the simulated using π model.
trajectory is known as pqAT [15].The travel wave models are
analyses using pqAT [16] based on the following rules:
1) Measurement of va, vb, vc and ia, ib, ic.
2) Transformation to it, vt in the wavelet domain.
3) Real and imaginary power calculation [16].
4) std_MSD Noise/Signal vector formation and
visualization of p q, the flow of the real power is
maintained.
5) RDD_q and RDD_p quality index deviation
calculation from (8).
 6

4000
Real Power of coefficients (the noise/signal curve), allows the right
Not cable present. physical characterization of the kind of reflection wave in the
π model
2000 K.C. Lee model
overvoltage problem.
0 Given the results of section V, there can be seen an
-2000
important need to study and characterize the power quality
phenomena of bidirectional flows and how can affect the
Watt

-4000 coordination schemes in distributed generation (DG).

-6000
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-8000
This work was supported by the “Universidad Nacional de
-10000 Colombia” – Resolución DFIA 582 y DFIA 619 de 2016.
-12000
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
Time in sec. REFERENCES
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Fig. 17. Real power in an hidroelectric power generation-Cable distribution
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0.8
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0.6
0.4
Not cable
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
1 2
Fig. 18. Std_MSD curve by each model simulated at the DG System
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VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, two important aspects of feeders systems were
investigated:
Inclusion of cable models in simulations was analyzed.
 Different cable models were tested. Good agreements
were obtained between different cable models.
 Tow mitigation techniques were evaluated: the R
damping and the traditional filter methods.
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