High Voltage Engineering

ELE323
Lecture 8-P2 : Power System Overvoltages: Analysis and Protection

Prof. Dr. Nehmdoh A. Sabiha

Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Menoufia University.
Contents

❑ Sources of Overvoltages in the Power System

❑ Power System Overvoltages Analysis

❑ Overvoltage Protection
Sources of Overvoltages in the Power System
❑ Lightning
❑ Switching Events:
➢ De-energizing of transmission lines, cables, shunt capacitor, capacitor
banks, banks, etc.
➢ Disconnection of unloaded transformers, reactors, etc.
➢ Energization or reclosing of lines and reactive loads.
➢ Sudden switching off of loads.
➢ Short circuits and fault clearances.
➢ Resonance phenomenon like ferro-resonance, arcing grounds, etc.
Typical temporary,
switching and lightning
surges
 Lightning Phenomenon
❑ The lightning is a natural phenomenon generated during thunderstorm
by electrostatic discharge which produced electromagnetic radiations.

❑ The main source of lightning is rainstorms, and it is rarely occurred

during snowstorms.

❑ The lightning is occasionally associated with thunder due to the

electric current passing through the lightning channel.
Rocket triggering the cloud
 Cont. Lightning Phenomenon
Types of lightning discharges:
Lightning discharges can be classified into three main types:
1. Intracloud discharge,
2. Cloud-to-cloud discharge and
3. Cloud-to-ground discharge.

From the power system point of view, cloud-to-ground discharge is the

frequent type that generates lightning overvoltages on electric NW.
 Mechanism of Lightning Strokes

Stage 1
❑ A streamer is generated from the thunder cloud to
the ground when the electric field of the negative
charges center reached 10 kV/cm.

❑ This streamer propagates with high velocity

(one-tenth the light speed).
 Cont. Mechanism of Lightning Strokes

Stage 2

❑ A second streamer is generated after the occurrence of first

streamer taking the same path of the first one. Therefore, the
ionized channel is propagated a little more.

❑ This process continued several times (stepped leader

stroke), in each time, the ionized channel length is increased
by 10 to 100 m.
Cont. Mechanism of Lightning Strokes
Stage 3
Finally, when the stepped leader becomes near to the
earth in a range of 15 to 50 m, an electric field is
generated with a sufficient value to produce an
upward streamer crossing the gap.

The stepped leader produces high neutralized current

flowing through the ionized channel to neutralize the
charge. This current is called return stroke current
and its value is high where it can reach to 200 kA.
However, its average is statistically evaluated 20 kA .
Propagation of lightning channel
There are three possible discharge paths
that can cause surges on the line.

Geometry of lightning leader stroke and transmission line

path (1): from the leader core of the lightning stroke to the earth
path (2) : between the lightning head and the earth conductor.
Path (3) : between the leader core and the phase conductor.
Direct and Indirect Lightning Strikes
Procedure of OV Analysis
For OV analysis, the period of concern may be seconds, milliseconds, or
microseconds.
1- Appropriate model selection of individual power system components
(TL, Tr., SA, grounding, switching,…….)

2- the transient overvoltages for a specific event can be determined using

Analysis methods. These methods can be classified into:
a. Graphical methods,
b. Analytical methods,
c. Numerical methods.
Bewley Lattice Diagram
➢This is a convenient diagram devised by Bewley, which shows at a glance the
position and direction of motion of every incident, reflected, and transmitted wave
on the system at every instant of time. The diagram overcomes the difficulty of
otherwise keeping track of the multiplicity of successive reflections at the various
junctions.

➢The diagram consists of monitoring all traveling waves on a line. It provides, for
every point in a system, all the waves present and the time at which they arrive.
From this information, the actual voltage waveform at a specific point can be
constructed as the superposition of all waves at that point.
 Reflections
at
3 substation
system

Bewley Lattice Diagram

3 substations A, B and C are spaced 75 km apart. B and C are connected
together by a cable (velocity of propagation 2  108 m/s), and the
remaining connections are all overhead lines (velocity of propagation 3 
108 m/s). The attenuation factors and the surge impedances of the lines
are shown alongside the lines. The overhead lines beyond A and C on
either side are extremely long and reflections need not be considered
from their far ends.
Determine using the Bewley lattice diagram the overvoltages at the 3
substations, at an instant 1 ms after a voltage surge of magnitude
unity and duration ¾ ms reaches the substation A from the outside.
High Voltage Engineering, Second Semester, Academic year 2021/2022
Lightning Overvoltage Protection
The basic objective of overvoltage protection of power systems is to avoid
insulation breakdown and associated outages or damage to equipment.

Overvoltages due to lightning strokes can be avoided or minimized by:

➢ Air (Spark) Gaps.

➢ Surge arresters.
➢ Lightning Protection Using Shielding Methods.
The basic requirements of a surge diverter are:
➢ It should not pass any current at normal or abnormal (normally 5%
more than the normal voltage) power frequency voltage.

➢It should breakdown as quickly as possible after the abnormal high

frequency voltage arrives.

➢It should not only protect the equipment for which it is used but should
discharge the surge current without damaging itself.

➢It should interrupt the power frequency follow current after the surge is
discharged to ground.
Air (Spark) Gaps, rod gap
 Cont.: Air (Spark) Gaps, Rod gap
When the voltage across the air gap exceeds a certain value, an arc will initiate
between the electrodes. The voltage across the arc will depend on the current of
the arc, the length of the arc, and time.

Spark-gap Operation
 Lightning Arresters
Arresters Classification

Gap type arrester Gap type arrester Gapless metal

without current- with current-
oxide varistors
limiting functions limiting capability

The most commonly used lightning arrester for overvoltage protection is

the gapless ZnO arrester.
Cont.: Lightning Arresters
 Advantages and disadvantages of metal oxide arrester
The advantages of the metal oxide arrester in comparison with the
silicon carbide gapped arrester are:
1. Simplicity of design, which improves overall quality and decreases
moisture ingress.
2. Improved protective characteristics, primarily a result of the
elimination of the sparkover gap.
3. Increased energy absorption capability.
The disadvantages
Without a gap, the normal power frequency voltage is continually
resident across the metal oxide and produces a current of about one
milliampere.
PV System with back flow current
Lightning Protection Using Shielded Wires or Ground Wires
➢ The ground wire is a conductor running parallel to the power conductors
of the transmission line and is placed at the top of the tower structure
supporting the power conductors
➢ one or two ground wires based on configuration of the power line
conductors.
➢ These ground wires or earth wire divert all the lightning strokes to the
ground instead of allowing them to strike directly on the transmission
conductors.
➢ These wires are properly grounded at each transmission tower.
➢ The ground wire is made of galvanized steel wire or in the modern high
voltage transmission lines ACSR conductor of the same size as the
power conductor is used.
Protective angle Protection afforded by two ground wires
Young's recommended shielding angles
The basic requirement for the design of a line based on direct stroke are:
➢ The ground wires used for shielding the line should be mechanically
strong and should be so located that they provide sufficient shield.

➢ There should be sufficient clearance between the power conductors

themselves and between the power conductors and the ground or the
tower structure for a particular operating voltage.

➢ The tower footing resistance should be as low as can be justified

economically
Rolling-Sphere Method
• The overvoltage protection of substations consists of shielding against
direct lightning strikes and application of protective devices (surge
arresters) to protect specific power apparatus.
• The basic idea of the rolling-sphere method is illustrated in the following
figure. Let Sc be the critical striking distance.

where Ic is the critical stroke current, kA. The rolling-sphere method postulates
that by rolling a sphere of radius Sc over the shield system of the substation,
the protected equipment are those which are not crossing the path of the
sphere.
Illustration of the basic idea of the rolling-sphere method
In addition to the shielding system, protection must be provided
against overvoltages resulting from:

(1) lightning strikes to the shielding system and

(2) surges entering the substation from the transmission lines.

Quiz

The shown figure illustrates shield wire protecting a transmission line.

• A lightning stroke of peak 10 kA and rise time 0.5 µs with duration 55 µs
• The distance between the towers is 124 m.
• Each tower ground resistance is 70 .
• The inductance and capacitance of the shield wire are 2.5 µH/m and 6.5 pF/m,
respectively.

Find
The incident voltage wave on tower C, for two cases:
Cas#1: when lightning stroke hits the tower C
Case#2: when lightning stroke hits the midspan shield wire between B and C

Draw the corresponding Bewley lattice diagram until 1.5 µs after wave incident
instant.
End of Lecture #8-P2