ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY
IN OPEN AIR SUBSTATIONS
Martin HB de Grijp'
') ESKOM - Transmission Group, Switchgear Engineering
PO Box 1091, Johannesburg 2000, Republic of South Africa.
') ULTImate Technology B-V., Energiestraat 36,
1411 AT Naarden, The Netherlands.
ABSTRACT
An investigation was conducted into the Electro-Magnetic
Compatibility (EMC) behaviour of the TRI transient
measurement truck during Shunt Capacitor Bank Field tests
at the Impala Substation. The measurement configuration
during the measurements, the various measurement
transducers and measurement cables used are analysed for
their possible influence on the measurement results.
Interference coupling mechanisms are discussed and
different measurement methods, reducing or eliminating
interference in the measurement results, are discussed.
The measurement results of the shunt capacitor bank close,
trip, and disconnector switching operations are examined for
signs of Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI). Specific
measurements to investigate the influence of common mode
currents, flowing on coaxial cable shields, on the
measurement results were carried out and analysed.
Several effects were observed which result from interference
with the measurements and recommendations are made to
prevent this occurring in future measurements. Suggestions
are made for future measurements which would answer
questions raised about the EMC behaviour of the
measurement truck.
INTRODUCTION
Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) can be defined [l]
as: "The ability of an electrical installation to function
satisfactorily in its electro-magnetic environment without
causing interference in other installations". Electro-Magnetic
Interference (EMI) can be defined [l] as: "The influence of
electro-magnetic events on circuits, apparatus and systems.
When EM1 takes place it can be analysed by considering
three Eundamentai components: interference source, coupling
mechanism and interference victim. This automatically leads
to the conclusion that to prevent EM1 from taking place there
are three options:
1. Prevent the interference from coupling into the victim.
2. Stop the interference source from emitting interference.
3. Increase the interference immunity level of the victim.
To stop the interference at the place where this can be done
most effectively and economically the whole chain of
interference, from source to victim, has to be considered.
.--
8 1996 IEEE.
0-7803-3019-6/96/S3.00
Camiel Bonn2
From an economical point of view it is necessary to find an
optimum mix between EM1 prevention and EM1
improvement. Some EMC and EM1 related aspects
experienced during shunt capacitor bank and disconnector
switching have been investigated. The electrical networks
employed by a power utility can be split into two functional
classes. The Primary System: The primary system consists
of ail the apparatus and circuits that generate electrical
energy and transport it to the end users. The Secondary
System: The secondary system consists of all the apparatus
and circuits that measure, command and supervise
brotection) the electrical energy flow in the primary circuits.
plants and Hv substations.
Interference sources:
Primary circuits: Primary circuits normally carry 50
Hz currents and voltages. During switching, lightning and
fault conditions the primary circuits can carry currents and
voltages with frequency components up to 10 MHZ. These
can be the source of electric and magnetic fields far in excess
of normal conditions.
Primarv auuarams: Primary apparatus can be the
source of high frequency fields under normal and transient
conditions. Transformers can, depending on their transfer
function ampllfy switching transients in an unexpected way.
Power electronic devices like for instance High Voltage
Direct Current (HVDC) convertor installations or Static VAr
Compensators (SVC) can be the source of high amplitude
interference levels.
Secondarv circuits: Transient voltages can occur in
inductive secondary circuits due to switching operations.
Inductive secondary circuits include breaker and
disconnecter command circuits incorporating coils and all
other circuits incorporating relays.
Measurement simals: During transient conditions
in the primary circuits the current (CT) and voltage (VT)
measurement signals will also contain frequency components
above their normal values. The transfer function of the VTs
and CTs is normally very small above 10 kHz therefore the
measurement signals will not reflect the full transient
frequency spectrum of the primary circuit disturbance.
Lightning: Lightning stnkes, wether direct into the
primary circuit or in close proximity, can cause interference
in secondary apparatus, secondary circuits, measurement,
command and protection signals. This coupling can be
I 044
through electro-magnetic radiation or through voltage
differences in the earth grid as a result of the strike.
Couuling mechanisms
Common imuedance couuling: If two circuits share
a common impedance transients in one circuit will be
transferred to the second circuit through this impedance. This
coupling mechanism is therefore quantified by the shared
impedance of the two circuits. The shared impedance is
commonly known as the transfer impedance Z,.
Inductive or magnetic coupling: If two circuits
intercept a common magnetic flux they are said to be
inductively or magnetically coupled. Interference in one
circuit is transferred to the other circuit through this
magnetic coupling.
Capacitive coupling: If two circuits have
components which are close together or if the victim circuit
is of high impedance then interference can be transferred by
the capacitance between source and victim.
Radiation coupling: If the circuit dimensions of
source or victim are small compared to the wavelength of the
interference fields the resulting mode of coupling is known
as radiation interference.
Interference victims
Secondarv circuits: High fiequency fields can
couple interference currents and voltages into the sometimes
very long secondary circuits. The interference immunity
level of secondary circuits can be increased by using a
correct grounding and cabling philosophy.
Secondary auparatus: High frequency fields can
cause problems in susceptible secondary apparatus. The
interference immunity level of secondary apparatus can be
increased by shielding and insuring cables entering or
leaving the apparatus do so correctly.
Definition: For future reference the terms VDM,I,, and I,
are defined. A signal source V, transports a signal through
a differential mode circuit to a load (Z) as shown in figure 1.
A common mode circuit exists if signal source and receiver
are both earthed or grounded. Even if no dedicated earth or
ground connection is present for either transmitter or
receiver there will still be a common mode circuit due to
stray capacitance's. In the common mode circuit a common
mode current IC,,will flow.
* IOU
..........-...................-..-.-....
~
VDU
a current will flow on the outside of the coaxial cable shield.
-
I L
b4-J
L-Lu^-- --
.d".4.~5-'"?&?y.-
& . - & - A
b bit resolution. The measurements were recorded at a lMHz
Figure I : a) Coaxial cable above groundplane,
b) Electrical equivalent.
0 1996 IEEE.
0-7803-3019-6/96/S3.00
SHUNT CAPACITOR BANK MEASUREMENT
CONFIGURATION
A circuit breaker point on wave controller was used for the
closing and opening operations of the 275 kV - 100 MVAr
shunt capacitor bank. The circuit breaker was a singple pole
operated breaker. Switching capacitor banks can cause
severe disturbances in the various primary and secondary
circuits in a substation. This severity depends mainly on the
point on wave the breaker closes, if the breaker restrikes, the
substation configuration and the three components
mentioned in the introduction. During the measurements no
restrikes have occurred, all trip operations gave clean current
interruptions.
I I 4 h
IV.
Figure 2: Single phase capacitor bank configuration.
Measurement cables and connectors
The cables used in the measurements are RG-214/u coaxial
cables. The cables were connected using BNC connectors.
The coaxial cables were not raised above the ground plane
but kept close to the substation surface where possible.
Braided cable was put parallel to the coaxial cables to reduce
the common mode current on the cable shields. This is also
illustrated in figure 1. It shows that the common mode
current is coupled with the differential mode signal circuit
(V,,, IDM) through thie transfer impedance (ZJ. This
coupling mechanism, resulting in interference on the
transferred signal, can be reduced by providing an alternative
path for the common mode current (parallel braided cable)
andor reducing the transfer impedance of the coaxial cable
(low transfer impedance cable andor low transfer impedance
connectors). The RG214Ju cable has a relatively low transfer
impedance compared to the widely used conventional
RG58/u cable while the BNC connector has a relatively high
transfer impedance compared to for instance N type
connectors. For high Ikequencies a decoupiing between
differential mode and common mode currents takes place
due to the skin effect. The current associated with the
differential mode will flow on the inside of the coaxial cable
shield while the current associated with the common mode
I
The digitizer used to record the measurements was a Nicolet
500 scope. This scope his digitizer cards with either 12 or 8
sampling frequency.
1045
Busbar voltage measurements
The busbar voltage was measured using a Haefely high
voltage divider. The output of the low voltage ann of this
divider is matched to the 75Q cable by a 7 9 2 ‘in line’
resistor. The coaxial cable (50m long) is connected to a
Burch termination inside the truck. The Burch termination
adds an extra 23: I attenuation. A braided cable is kept as
close to the coaxial cable as possible. This has the h c t i o n
of providing a path for common mode current while
preventing these currents from flowing along the coaxial
cable shield. All the connections are made with BNC
connectors. The drawback of this measuring method is that
common mode currents will result in interference on the
measured signal.
line
measurement nu&
Figure 3: Busbar voltage measurement configuration.
Capacitor bank voltage measurement configuration
The capacitor bank voltage was measured by placing a
medium voltage divider across one of the capacitor bank
cans. There was no divider available to measure across the
entire capacitor bank. The voltage across the entire capacitor
bank can be calculated by multiplying the measured voltage
by the ratio of the capacitive divider that has now been
created. This method of measuring the capacitor bank
voltage has the following drawbacks:
0 The capacitor bank is not designed to be low
inductive for higher frequencies as a measurement
capacitive divider would be. This will cause
distortions in the high frequency part of the
measured voltage.
0 The changing magnetic flux through area A
between the capacitor can and the divider will result
in a difference between the measured voltage and
the actual voltage across the capacitor can. This
follows from the Maxwell equation
- between different CTs.
j E d Z = - $ . The changing magnetic ‘flux
will result from changing currenth the capacitor
stack being measured on and from the changing
current in the other two phases of the capacitor
bank. This follows from the Maxwell equation
jHdl= I
0 Common mode current on the cable shield will
result in interference on the measured signal.
Q 1996 IEEE.
0-7803-3019-6/96/f3.00
Cwacitor bank current measurements
The currents in the phases of the capacitor bank and the
8
P-
+
1
I ri
current to earth are measured by coupling a Pearson coil
(type 110 for phase currents and type 301X for earth
currents) with the secondary of the substation CTs. To
increase the coil output (*lo) the output of the substation CT
is wound 10 times through the Pearson coil. The Pearson
coiIs are shielded from earth by insulation material to
prevent common mode current from flowing. For higher
frequencies however the stray capacitance from coil to earth
will cause a common mode current to flow despite the
insulation. The Pearson coils have a metal shield around the
measurement coil, which forms a big closed loop. This will
reduce the changing magnetic flux through the hole by
permitting an induced current to flow. The net flux tends to
be zero. There is a stray capacitance between shield and the
electromagnetic environment and between the shield and the
measurement coil. It is essential for the Pearson shield to be
connected to the cables shield as this cancels the voltage
between Pearson shield and coil. The local grounding of the
Pearson shield is not essential. The advantage of this local
grounding would be that it provides a short path for the
capacitive current. The disadvantage can be an increase in
the common mode current on the cable shield by providing a
path for current coupled with changing magnetic flux
through the loop of the coil.
The substation CT operates on the magnetic transformer
principle. This is suitable for 50Hz measurements but at
higher frequencies the transfer function can be very different
from the 50Hz (800:l or 400:l in this case) ratio. The
frequency components higher then a few kHz will be
strongly attenuated. More seriously resonant conditions in
the CT can cause distortions in the measurement results. The
nature and magnitude of these effects is dependent on the
internal configuration of the CT and can vary widely
1046
 MEASUREMENT RESULTS
Tripping the shunt caDacitor bank
The busbar voltage decreases slightly when the capacitor
bank is tripped. With the point on wave controller the current
was interrupted with varying arcing times, no restrikes
occurred on any of the tripping operations. The capacitors
have a trapped charge after tripping. When the system is
balanced and stable (within one cycle after switching the
capacitor bank in) the current from star point to earth is zero.
This remains the case until one of the phases is opened. From
the moment the first phase is opened until the second phase
is opened a current to earth resulting from unbalance (a
balanced two phase system would have a 180' phase shift
and not 120' as in this case) starts flowing. When the second
phase is opened the current to earth is equal to the phase
current in the remaining phase. The measurement resuits are
in agreement with the above. The current to earth is found to
be relatively small (h300A peak) compared to the close
operations. The result is practically zero in the tripping
experiments. Tripping of the capacitor bank has very little
eifect on the current in the coaxial cable shields and the earth
current of the measurement truck. Only a deformation of the
normal current shape while the earth current is flowing is
observed.
It can be concluded that during tripping very little
iaterference on the measurement data due to common mode
currents on the cable shields can be expected. By adding the
coaxial shield current and the truck earth current, it is found
that the s u m is practically zero. From this it follows that the
measurement cable shields are the only source of common
mode current to the truck during trip measurements. The
substation supply voltage and the supply voltage inside the
truck did not show any distortion. It can be concluded that
tripping of the capacitor bank is not a source of significant
interference for either the measurements or the substation. It
must be noted that the observations are valid for a restrike-
free situation only.
Closing the shunt capacitor bank
The point on wave controller was set to close the breaker at
maximum busbar voltage. This results in the maximum
possible currents in the phases and consequently the
maximum disturbance of the system.
Busbar voltages: From the moment the first phase
breaker is closed there is significant distortion in the
measured busbar voltages of the other two phases (white and
blue). To compare the distortion in the busbar voltages the
50Hz component of the busbar voltage is subtracted from the
switching transients. This reveals that from the moment the
red phase closes until the blue phase closes there is a striking
similarity between the distortion on the white and blue phase.
Possible mechanisms which can explain this effect are:
Distortion in the measurement results due to common mode
currents on the coaxial cable shielak. Common mode current
on the coaxial cable shield can lead to interference in the
0-7803-3019-6/96/$3.000 1996 IEEE.
measurement result. Trcmnsformers connected to the busbar
result in a significant, much more then the normal between
busbar cables in air, capacitance between the phases. This
capacitive coupling causes the white and blue busbar voltage
to be influenced by the fast changing voltage on the red
busbar. The overall shape of the distortion on these two
phases is similar to the shape of the transient on the red
phase. As the transformer coils of the different phases are
wound on the same magnetic circuit in the transformer there
will be magnetic coupling between the different phases
through that magnetic circuit.
Capacitor bank currents: On closing the maximum
inrush currents are 3.5 kA to 4 kA. Studying these currents,
reveals that there is a significant oscillatory component in the
phase currents with a frequency of between 20 kHz and 27
kHz.Based on the measurement data it was concluded that
the substation CT has internal resonant conditions at the
20/27 lcHz frequency giving rise to a significant
measurement error. The main reason why this effect can be
assumed to be not an accurate measurement of a real current
is that such a high frequency phenomenon would not be able
to pass through the substation CT.
CaDacitor bank voltages: The voltage across the
capacitor bank is obtained by multiplying the measured
capacitor voltage with the steady-state ratio between busbar
voltage and capacitor voltage. The voltage across the
damping reactor is very. much influenced by the closing of
the blue and white phases. The coupling between the phase
coil voltages can to some extend be explained by the
'transformer' formed by the three reactor coils. The magnetic
circuit is made in air causing the coupling factor to be small.
From the measurement results it could be concluded that the
capacitor bank volta!:e measurement with the used
configuration is a very inaccurate measurement.
Earth current cauacitor bank: There are two ways of
extracting the earth current from the measurements. First by
direct measurement. Second by adding up the currents in the
three phases. As the phase currents-were measured in the
direction opposite to ,I adding them in fact results in -I-.
The earth current also has a significant 20i27kI-E~oscillatory
component raising the same questions as discussed for the
phase currents. The directly measured earth current has some
very high frequency c w e n t peaks at the moment of closing
any of the three phases;. This is much less the case on the
calculated -I., The most likely cause of this phenomena, as
explained for the phase current measurements, is a direct
coupling of an electromagnetic pulse with the Pearson coil or
the common impedance coupling through the coaxial cable.
Coaxial cable shield current and earth current truck
The earth current of the capacitor bank and the current on the
coaxial cable shields showed a great similarity. Two
mechanisms can result in current in the coaxial shield: Firstly
current resulting fiom the changing magnetic flux coupled
with area A. Secondly current in the earth grid taking a
detour through the coaxial cable shield. This is,
paradoxically, aided by the low impedance of the coaxial
1047
cable shield used. Fortunately only a small part of the earth
current will take a detour through the coaxial cable shields.
The place where the coaxial cable shield is connected to the
substation earth gnd (where the Heafely's are positioned} is
going to have a great influence on this effect By adding I,hjcld
and I+m& it is shown that there is only a smali c o m o n mode
current flowing through the power supply leads (the only
other possible source of common mode current to the truck).
There are peaks on the Ia.rmdr+ Irhleld
signal just after the close
operation on any of the phases. Possible explanations for this
phenomena are: The low (lh4Hz) sampling frequency. If a
signal is digitized by two measurement channels at a much
lower sampling frequency then the frequency content of the
signal itself then the difference of these two signals is not
going to be zero (there is always some finite difference
between the exact sampling moment on two different
channels). It also demonstrates that the measured current is
only very high frequency until a few ms after the circuit
breaker close. An alternative explanation for this would be
that the measured high frequency current just after the close
results from the Pearson coil being excited by the radiated
electromagnetic pulse at that time. Common impedance
coupling through the transfer impedance of the coaxial
cables is another souce of problems.
Inhreldhas peaks up to 60A.. During the Impala measurements
the Burch terminations were placed at the point where the
coaxial cables entered the truck and earthed there. The Burch
terminations are not constructed to be used with extra coaxial
cables between Burch and digitizer so modifications are
therefore suggested. The high current on the coaxial cable
shields can be expected to result in interference on the
measurement results.
Figure 6: Relation between the various earth currents.
Supply voltage V,, from substation and inside
truck:The substation supply voltage is derived from an extra
winding on one of the substation transformers. The
measurement shows that at the moment the red phase is
closed there is a very significant distortion in Vaub.The
distortion on Vrubdoes not have the exact same shape as the
distortion on Vb,rd. This results from the fact that the
transformer used to derive VNb from will not transfer the
high frequency components of the disturbance on Vb,* very
well. The disturbance on V,, has obviously a lower high
frequency content then the disturbance on Vb,* which has
very sharp peaks. The resulting disturbance on V, is very
small and should not interfere with the operation of the
0-7803-3019-6/96/S3.00 0 1996 IEEE.
equipment.
Disconnector switching
A disconnector has a much smaller opening and closing
veloc*. 'This gives rise to resmkes on opening and
prestrikes on closing. The load being switched is normally a
short line or a piece of busbar which is equivalent to a small
capacitance to earth. The rate of rise and amplitude of these
pulses is very high and the resulting interference frequency
spectrum is significant up to 3 MHz [XX]. The number of
pulses is mainly dependant on the openingiclosing velocity
of the discomeetor. The interference effect can last up to 2
seconds, Hand operated disconnectors will cause more
interference then (faster) motor operated disconnectors. With
this knowledge in mind we have done some attempts to
capture the situation in one of our substations. All the
disconnector switching operations were done in a no-load
situation. The disconnectors were closed and opened several
times. Only one Close operation was recorded as the digitizer
failed to capture the data the other times. The measured
busbar voltages show spikes of up to 45 kV, superimposed
on their normal voltage wave. The peaks are not the same on
all phases. Probably because the common mode current on
the coaxial cable shields couples with the measurement
through the transfer impedance of the coaxial cables. The
coaxial cable shield current Irhleldand the earth current of the
truck have magnitudes of about 70A. This is sufficient
to account for the effects observed on the other
measurements. The coaxial cables to these Pearsons were
relatively short (*4m) it is unlikely common impedance
coupling could account for the measurement. Direct coupling
of the electromagnetic pulses generated by the disconnecter
switching could however have had an influence on this
measurement. The measurements prove that the spikes on the
individual measurement channels occur at the same moment.
Also it becomes clear that the sampling frequency was too
low to show the shape of the transients on the measurement
accurately. Despite the incomplete measurement results we
would definitely conclude that disconnector switching is the
most importaut source of interference-in a substation.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Based on the measurement results and the principles of
interference coupling with the measurement configuration
the following improvements can be made to the
measurement facility.
Braided cable
During the measurements braided cable was put parallel to
the coaxial cables to decrease the common mode current
flowing on these coaxial cable shields. The measurement
results have shown that despite this measure significant
common mode currents still flows on the coaxial cable
shields. To prevent common mode currents from flowing on
the coaxial cable shields it would be preferable to place
braided cable around the coaxial cables. See figure 16b. This
is most urgently required for the coaxial cables to the
1048
Haefely dividers and the coaxial cables to the medium
voltage dividers. The reason for this is that in those cases the
coaxial cables shields are earthed (grounded) at both sides
permitting common mode currents to flow freely. This
measure would also be beneficial for the coaxial cables to the
Pearson coils as common mode currents can still flow on
these coaxial cable shields due to stray capacitance between
the Pearson coil and earth or between the coaxial cable shield
and earth.
coaxial able
a
- ..............................................
.y ...........................
T-, !??*
7
L_
b
Figure 7: a) Parallel braided cable I C M ~= Igl
b ) Enclosing braided cable Ic,v2 c c Ig2
and k M 2 cc ICMI
Earthing coaxial cable shields to truck
Common mode current on the coaxial cable shield reaching
the digitizer can flow to earth in several manners. Through
the earth strap of the digitizer ICM1. Since the individual
channels of the digitizer are formed by 'push in' cards the
common mode current has to flow through the card, through
the card connector and from the digitizer frame through the
earth strap to earth. Common.mode current flowing through
the digitizer card can cause malfunction or even damage to
the card. Or secondly through the communication cable ICMZ.
The second path for the common mode current to flow to
earth would be through the communication cable between
the digitizer and the computer. This can interfere with the
data communication. The reason why it can be assumed that
this is sometimes the case is that there have been error
messages, especially during disconnecter switching
operations, which indicate the communication between
digitizer and computer was compromised. This results in the
measurement being lost.
Burch terminations
The currently used Burch terminations have the drawback
Figure 8: Possible current paths for common mode current.
0-7803-3019-6/96/S3.00 0 1996 IEEE.
that they can only be placed directly (0.921-11) in front of the
Nicolet scope. This makes it difficult to provide proper
connection of the coaxial cable shield to the measurement
truck. The only practical, way to do this is by stripping part of
the insulation from the coaxial cable to provide a contact
area for making this connection. Using a long, 3 meters at
least, braided cable to make a connection from Burch to
truck is not an ideal solution. Cables carrying, possibly high
frequency, common mode currents should be kept outside
the truck as much as po!uible. The most ideal solution would
c msmon
however be to modify the Burch terminations in such a way
that a longer coaxial ca.ble can be used between Burch and
Nicolet digitizer.
M U secbon
;io'i
,--_
4
Coaxial cables
The coaxial cables coming from the Pearson coils and other
(non Haefely) dividers can be earthed to the truck by making
a junction box at the entrance to the truck. The BNC
connector of these cataxial cables are connected to the
(earthed) junction box and a second coaxial cable connects
the junction box output with the Nicolet. For the coaxial
cables coming from the Haefely dividers this configuration is
however not correct. The low voltage arms of these dividers
are matched to a specific 50m length of 75W RG214Iu cable
and adding any further length of cable (which should be
75W as well as the connectors used) would be incorrect. The
only options in this case are using the Burch termination as
explained before or striipping part of the cable insulation and
connecting the shield to the truck at that place as
Power supply of truck
The measurements have shown that the currently used
combination of isolation transformer and UPS are quite
successful in filtering out unwanted interference on the
substation power supply. The supply voltage inside the truck
can however even be further improved by the following
measures:
0 Use an isolation transformer with earthed shield
between the windings.
0 Use a properly designed mains filter.
0 The power supply lead to the truck is quite long.
This can under conditions of fast changing load
(switching o d o f f of air-conditioning or fridge) lead
to dips in the voltage. This can be prevented by
using a supply lead with a current rating much
higher then required for the steady state purpose.
Common mode interference: Common mode
current flowing to the measurement truck can interfere with
the measurement. To prevent this from occurring the path to
earth of this current has to be engineered in such a way that
it is not harmful. The common mode current can be
decreased by using a BALUN (BALance-UNbalance
transformer) filter. The BALUN is a filter for the common
mode circuit and has no influence on the differential mode
circuit. The BALUN u:;ually takes the form of ferrite sleeves
or beads through whiclh the circuit leads are passed. For the
power supply circuit. some residual differential mode
1049
impedance is acceptable. The main effect is a self inductance
for the common mode current. The filter has to be mounted
directly onto the wall of the measurement truck to provide a
low impedance path for interference current
Connectors
The transfer impedance of BNC connectors is relatively high
especially at higher frequencies. For example N type
connectors have a much lower transfer impedance. However
for long coaxial cables (30m, 5Om) the total transfer
impedance of cable and connectors is mainly determined by
the cable and using better connectors will make little
difference.
Station current transformers
Currently the primary circuit currents are measured using the
substation CTs. This has serious drawbacks. The substation
CT's are designed for accurate measurements at 50Hz. This
means that limiting of stray capacitance or saturation due to
unidirectional switching currents are not included in the
design criteria. On the whole a substation CT will only
transfer the low frequency components (< 3kHz) of the
primary circuit current without to much attenuation and can
be expected to have internal resonant conditions causing
further distortion of the measurement results. These
problems can be prevented by using Rogowski coils to
measure the primary circuit currents directly. Rogowski coils
can be constructed to measure high currents with a wide
(MHz) bandwidth.
CONCLUSIONS
Shunt capacitor bank closing
0 The substation current transformers have a limited
bandwidth for transient currents.
The method of measuring the capacitor bank voltage is
limited in its transient response.
e The current on the coaxial cables shields is large enough
to make interference with the measurement results likely
and measures to protect the digitizer vital.
0 The supply voltage inside the truck V, is not affected by
the switching event.
Shunt Capacitor Bank Tripping
It can be concluded that tripping of the capacitor bank is not
a source of significant interference for either the
measurements or the substation. It must be noted that the
observations are valid for a restrike-free situation only.
Disconnector switching
a The voltage interference on the measurement cables
is largest on the Haefely divider measurement
followed by the medium voltage divider. The
voltage interference on the current measurements is
even lower but the effect on the measurement is
0-7803-3019-6/96/$3.008 1996 IEEE.
significantly higher for the 301X Pearson compared
to the 110 Pearson.
0 The interference level can depend on the phase (low
on the white busbar voltage, high on the blue busbar
current).
0 The common mode current flowing on the coaxial
cable shields was high (*70A)
0 The interference effect was high kequency (higher
then could be accurately measured at a lMHz
sampling frequency).
0 Disconnector switching is the most important
source of interference in a substation.
Measuring facility
0 The transfer impedance Z,, of a closed coaxial shield, is
frequency dependent and quite small for higher
frequencies due to the skin effect.
0 To prevent interference from common mode current
flowing on cable shields all incoming cable shields have
to be connected to the measurement truck when entering
it. The measurement truck functions as an EMC cabinet.
0 The Pearson coils used during the measurements are
shielded. This reduces possible interference due to the
changing flux through the hole. For the shield to be
effective against capacitive coupling it has to be
grounded to the cable shield.
It is possible to distinguish between differential mode
and common mode interference on the power supply
lines. Both interference modes can be effectively
reduced using a, properly installed, mains filter.
REFERENCES
1.
Electromagnetic compatibility in high-voltage
engineering, by M.A. van Houten, Doctoral Thesis,
Eindhoven University, Group EHC, 1990.
2 . Investigations into impala Capacitor Bank switching
measurements, by C Bonn, M.Sc. Thesis, Eindhoven
University, Group EHC, 1995. .
3. Switching transient fields in substations, by C.M.
Wiggins and S.E. Wright, IEEE Transactions on Power
Delivery, Vol. 6 , No. 2, April 1991.
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