Generation of Over-voltages in Transmission Line:

The over-voltages in a power system fall under three categories:

1. Resonance Over-voltage

2. Switching Over-voltage

3. Lightning Over-voltage

(2) and (3) – transient in nature, constitute the basis of insulation level of line and
apparatus and devices for surge protection.

(1) – decides the steady state voltage rating of the device.

In the transmission line voltages up to around 230kV, the insulation level is

dictated by the requirement of protection against lightning.

Voltages > 230 kV to 700 kV, both switching transient and lightning over-voltages
must be accounted for in deciding the insulation levels.

Voltages > 700 kV, switching surges cause higher over-voltages than lightning
and therefore, mainly responsible for insulation level decision.

Fortunately, cables are not exposed to lightning and are automatically immune to
the line surges which attenuate upon entering a cable.

Resonance Over-voltage:

Though it is unlikely that resonance can occur in a supply system at normal supply
frequency, it is possible to have this condition at harmonic frequencies. Near
resonance condition may occur under certain type of unsymmetrical fault.

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Temporary over-voltages are also caused by inrush current, when transformers or
reactors are energized (ferro-resonance). Such over-voltages are important in
choosing lightning arrestors, which are not supposed to operate at these voltages.
Thus they indirectly determine the insulation level of the network.

Switching Over-voltage:

These are caused by normal switchgear operation and/or power system faults and
their magnitudes are related to the system operating voltages. These over-voltages
have a very wide range of magnitudes and wave-shapes and last for duration
ranging from a few µs to several seconds.

At EHV levels, the most important causes of switching over-voltage are –

i) Sustained earth fault on phase conductors.

ii) Energisation or reclosure of long lines

iii) Load rejection at receiving end

iv) Fault initiation and reclosure

Lightning Over-voltage:

It is an external over-voltage and naturally occurring phenomenon where in clouds

get charged to several thousand kilovolts and a discharge (stroke) can occur to high
ground objects or even to the ground. Transmission lines and towers being high
objects attract lightning stroke, the UG cables are inherently immune to strokes.
Lightning transients to which power system (lines, towers, substations and
generating stations) are susceptible may occur due to –

(i) Direct stroke, (ii) Indirect stroke

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(i) Direct stroke: It occurs when a thunder cloud directly discharges on to
transmission lines, tower or earth wires. This is the most severe and rarest form of
strokes.

(ii) Indirect stroke:

An indirect lightning strike can happen two different ways-

(a) through a ground current or step potential

(b) through side flash

(a) The first way is through a ground current or step potential. These occur when
lightning strikes an object or the ground and the electricity travels through the
ground until it encounters another object or a person. The current passes from the
strike point, through the ground, and into that person or object.

(b) The second way is through a side flash.

When lightning strikes an object directly then jumps the air to strike another
object, it is called a side flash. A good example of this would be a tree being struck
by lightning with a person standing close it. As the charge travels down the tree, it
jumps through the air to strike the person standing. Humid air is often the culprit
for this sort of behavior.

Height, shape, and isolation of structures/objects are the dominate factors in

determining where lightning will directly strike, though deaths from these strikes
are rare. However, direct lightning strikes can have secondary effects that span for
miles.

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Wave Shape of Stroke Current:

The wave shape varies widely. For testing electrical equipment arbitrary wave
shapes having nature of unidirectional impulses have been standardized. Sucha
wave can be produced by impulse generator.

The wave shape consists of a portion showing the steep rise of voltage up to a peak
or crest value called wave-front. The other portion showing the decay is called
wave-tail. Such a wave is represented by the following equation.

e  E (e t  e  t )

α, β: constants which determine the shape

t1: time taken by the impulse current or voltage to reach its maximum peak.

t2: time when the impulse current or voltage has fallen to half of its peak value.

t1 and t2 both measured from start of wave.

This wave is designated as either (t1/t2) or (t1 x t2). In India 1.2/50 µs is the
standard.

t1 varies from 1 µs to 10 µs

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t2 varies from 10 µs to 100 µs

Maximum value of peak current is 400 kA

2.5% of all the strokes are below 10 kA

84% of all the strokes are below 50 kA

11% of all the strokes are between 50 and 100 kA

2% of all the strokes are between 100 and 150 kA

0.5% of all the strokes are above 150 kA

Over-voltage Protection:

1. Overhead earth wire /ground wire / shield wire

2. Surge Diverter – Rod gap, Lightning Arrester

Overhead Earth Wire

 One of the most common device used to protect the line against lightning

 It is a wire carried by the line supports and runs over the phase conductors.
The purpose of the earth wire is to intercept direct lightning stroke, which
would otherwise heat the phase conductor. It has no effect on switching
surge.

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  It is placed above the main conductors, is supported on the same towers and
is earthed at regular intervals.
Back Flashover:
It should be noted that the earth wire is effective only when the
resistance between the tower footing and earth is sufficiently low. In case the
resistance is not low, the earth wire or the tower struck by the lightning will
be raised to a very high potential, which will cause a flashover from the
tower to one or more phase conductors. Such a flashover is known as back
flashover.
It occurs only when the product of tower current and tower impedance
exceeds the insulation level of the line. Back flashover can be reduced by
reducing tower footing resistance using driven rods and counterpoises where
soil resistivity is high. A counterpoise is a conductor buried in the ground.

α: Shielding angle or protective angle. It is the angle between the vertical through
earth wire and phase conductor to be protected. α should not exceed 40o. It should
be between 20o- 30o (safe value).

The ground wire acts in the following ways to protect the phase conductors-

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1. Ground wire helps to increase the effective capacitance between line conductor
and ground, such that the voltage appearing between conductor and ground
because of the static charge is reduced.

2. It shields the main conductor against direct stroke, though it increases the
probability of direct stroke to itself.

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Rod Gap

This is constituted of a plain air gap between two square rods bent at right angles
and connected between line and the earth as shown for the case of a transformer

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bushing. It is generally used on transformer bushing and at the ends of strings of
suspension insulator. The gap setting should be such that it should break under all
conditions before the equipment to be protected is affected.

When the surge voltage reaches the design value of the gap, an arc appears
in the gap providing an ionized path to ground, essentially a short circuit.

Characteristics of Rod Gap:

For a given gap the time to break down varies inversely with the applied
voltage. It is normally recommended that a rod gap should be so set that it breaks
down at a voltage no less than 30% below the voltage withstand level of the
equipment to be protected.

Advantages:

(i) Simple
(ii) Reliable
(iii) Cheap
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 Limitations:

1. After the surge has discharged, they are unable to prevent the flow of power
frequency current which flows in the gap after the breakdown. This flow of
current sets up an arc which is extinguished by opening of circuit breakers
resulting in supply interruption.

2. Atmospheric conditions such as humidity, temperature and barometric

pressure affect the performance of the gap.

3. The arc set up may produce sufficient heat to damage the rod gap by melting
it and thus alter the gap setting.

4. The polarity of the surge also affects the performance of the gap.

The rod gaps may be used in practice where the continuity of supply is not
of much importance. In such cases they are used with automatic reclosing
circuit breakers, which will operate as soon as the arc current has been
interrupted.
Despite the drawbacks, rod gaps are used with surge diverters so as to
protect the equipment to some degree in case of failure of surge diverters.

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Expulsion type Lightning Arrester (LA)

It is improvement over rod gap. It consists of –

(i) A Series Gap (gap 1) external to the tube which is good enough to
withstand normal voltage, thereby there is no possibility of corona or
leakage current across tube.
(ii) A tube which has a fiber lining or the inner side of the tube is made of a
highly gas evolving material
(iii) A spark gap (gap 2) in the tube
(iv) A vent at the lower end for the gases to be expelled.

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It is desired that the breakdown voltage of a tube must be lower than that
of the insulation for which it is used.
When a surge voltage is incident on the expulsion tube, the
series gap is spanned and an arc is formed between the electrodes within
the tube. The heat of the arc vaporizes some of the organic material of the
tube wall causing a high gas pressure build up in the tube. The resulting
neutral gas creates a lot of turbulence within the tube and is expelled out
from the open bottom vent and it extinguishes the arc at the first current
zero. The device therefore has a self-clearing property. Very high
currents have been interrupted using these tubes. Because of the
vaporization of the tube material and weathering effect, the tube requires
frequent replacement and lack of proper maintenance may lead to
occasional outage.
The breakdown voltage of expulsion tube is slightly lower than
that of plain rod gaps for the same spacing. It is not of much use
nowadays.

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 Insulation Coordination:
Insulation coordination is the correlation of the insulation levels of various
equipment of a high voltage power system so as to minimize damage and loss of
supply due to over-voltages.

The insulation level of equipment is defined as the combination of voltages

(power frequency and impulse) that characterizes the insulation with regard to its
ability to withstand various stresses. A proper insulation coordination has to
ensure –

1. That the system insulation will withstand all normal, and most of the
abnormal stresses.
2. That the over-voltages (generated internally or externally injected) are
efficiently discharged to ground.
3. During external flashovers the equipment will be protected against
failure, such as puncture or breakdown of insulation.

The insulation coordination in a power system requires –

(a) The determination of line insulation level.
(b) The selection of the basic insulation level (BIL) and insulation level
of other equipment.
(c) The selection of proper protective devices, such as LAs, so as to
provide to the equipment economically justifiable protection.

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 BIL (Basic Insulation Level) or Basic Impulse Insulation
Level:
It is defined as the maximum impulse crest voltage that the
insulation will withstand without damage. It is measured
using a standard wave not longer than 1.2 x 50 µs. Apparatus
insulation levels as demonstrated by suitable tests should be
equal to, or greater than the BIL.
BIL measures the ability to withstand test voltages
without disruptive discharge.
Ex: A transformer for 400 kV system tested successfully at
900 kV peak. What is the value of BIL in p.u?
900
𝐵𝐼𝐿 = 𝑝. 𝑢 = 2.76 𝑝. 𝑢
400√2
√3
Standard Impulse Test Wave:
Impulse tests are generally carried out with typical impulse test wave called
“1.2 x 50 µs standard test wave” which reaches 90% of its peak value in 1.2
µs and falls to half the peak value in 50 µs as shown.

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This also typifies lightning surges. The standard test wave is obtained from an
impulse generator, where capacitors are charged in parallel and discharged in
series through resistors.

Insulation Coordination:
Proper insulation coordination should ensure that the volt-time curve of the
protective device such as lightning arrester over the whole range of the volt-
time curve should be as shown in the following figure.

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The weakest piece is always the transformer, the single most expensive equipment
with intricately formed insulation. It is easily seen here that the incoming voltage
surge which would have otherwise damaged the transformer insulation is reduced
to that of the volt-time curve (residual voltage) of the lightning arrestor such that
the transformer is fully protected.

In order that line insulators do not flashover, their volt-time curve should lie over
that of possible strongest surge wave except for rare surges of extreme strength, in
which case insulation failure is accepted as an economic design. Thus, the line
insulation is sufficient to prevent flashover for power frequency overvoltages and
switching surges taking into account all the local unfavorable conditions, such as
rain, dust, insulator pollutions, which decrease their flashover voltage. The
substation bus is always designed to have the highest located volt-time curve such
that it can even withstand an occasional direct stroke.

Based on the hand book data appropriate safety margins are provided among the
various equipment volt-time characteristics as illustrated in the figure, the modern
practice, however, is to make use of probability and statistical procedures for close
adjustment of insulation. These methods are, though tedious, proving useful and
economical.

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