High Voltage

Engineering
Chapter (1)
Prepared by: Dr/ Shaymaa Ahmed
 Electrostatic Machines

• The principle of charge transfer technique has been used to develop electrostatic machines
to give very high dc voltage.
• These machines give up to 5000 kV on open circuit.
• One of these machines is named after Van de Graff and it is developed and improved to
give 5000 to 6000 kV in several nuclear physics laboratories.
• One of the major disadvantages of these generators is that they cannot supply a load
current more than 250 mA at very high voltages and their terminal voltage drops quickly
with loading.
• Therefore, these generators are mainly used for research work in nuclear physics
laboratories for providing dc supply to particle accelerators.
 Van de Graff generators

• Electrostatic generators convert mechanical energy directly into electrical

energy. In contrast to electromagnetic energy conversion, however, electrical
charges are moved in these generators against the force of electrical fields,
thus gaining higher potential energies and consuming mechanical energy.
• These generators are in common use today in nuclear physics research
laboratories.
• The schematic diagram of a Van de Graff generator, which is also called
electrostatic belt-driven generator, is shown in Fig.
 Charge is sprayed onto an insulating moving belt by means of corona discharge
points, which are at potential of 10 to 100 kV above earth potential. The width of
the belt may vary widely (few cm up to meters). The belt is driven at about 15-30
m/sec by means of a motor. The charge is transferred to the upper end where it is
removed from the belt by discharging points connected to the inside of an insulated
metal electrode through which the belt passes.
 The entire equipment is usually enclosed in an earthed metal tank filled with
insulating compressed gases of good performance such as air, Freon 12 or SF6. For
simple applications the metal tank can be omitted, so that the insulation is
provided by atmospheric air only.
The main advantages of belt-driven electrostatic generators are:
1. High dc voltages can easily be reached.
2. There is no any fundamental ripple.
3. High precision and flexibility.
The main disadvantages of these generators are:
4. The limited output current.
5. The limitations in belt velocity and its tendency for vibrations.
6. The maintenance necessary due to the mechanically stressed parts.
 Van de Graff generators are useful for very HV and low current applications.
 Controlling the corona source voltage and the rate of charging easily controls the
output voltage.
 The voltage can be stabilized to 0.01%.
 The largest generator of this type is operating at 25 MV.
 For HV testing purposes only a limited amount of generators are in use due to
the limited current output.
The potential of the HV electrode at any instant above the earth is given by:

Where:

q: Is the charge stored in Coulomb.

C: Is the capacitance of the HV electrode to ground in Farad. I: Is the net charging
current to the terminal in Ampere.
S: Is the charge density at the belt in Coulomb/m2.b : Is the belt width in meter.
v : Is the belt speed in meter/second.
 In practice dv/dt may reach a value of 1 MV/sec. The HV electrode will attain a
steady potential when the leakage currents and the load current are equal to the
charging current.
The shape of the HV electrode is made with re-entrant edges to avoid high surface field gradients,corona
and other local discharges. The shape of the
Example
Find the charging current in a Van-de-Graff electrostatic generator having a belt of 0.5 m width driven at
a velocity of 30 m/s if the HV terminal was enclosed in air and the designed value for safety was 2.0.
The permittivity of air is εo=8.85*10-12 F/m. Find also the rate of building up of voltage if the
capacitance C=0.2 nF.
Solution
Eair = 30 kV/cm = 3000 kV/m = 3 MV/m
E = S/ε
S = ε E = 8.85 x 10-12 x 3 x 106 = 2.7 x 10-5 C/m2

But I = S b u = 1.4 x 10-5 x 0.5 x 30 = 0.2 x 10-3 A = 0.2 mA

The rate of building up the voltage is dv/dt = I/C:
dv/dt = I/C = (0.2 x 10-3)/(0.2 x 10-9) = 1 x 106 V/s = 1 MV
Example
A Van-de-Graff electrostatic generator with air as medium of dielectric permittivity ε o=8.85*10-12 F/m.
The electric strength of air is 2.11 MV/m. The belt width is 0.5 m which is driven at a speed of 30 m/s.
The capacitance of the system is 0.2 nF and the factor of safety is 2.0. Determine the rate of building
up of voltage.
Solution
Eair = 2.11 MV/m
E = S/ε
S = ε E = 8.85 x 10-12 x 2.11 x 106 = 1.87 x 10-5 C/m2

But I = S b u = 0.935 x 10-5 x 0.5 x 30 = 140 x 10-- A = 0.2 mA

The rate of building up the voltage is dv/dt = I/C:
dv/dt = I/C = (140 x 10-6)/(0.2 x 10-9) = 0.7 x 106 V/s = 0.7 MV/s
 GENERATION OF HIGH ALTERNATING VOLTAGES

• The most common form of voltage for testing HV equipment is the HVAC since most of electrical
networks use it for transmission and distribution.
• Therefore, this type of voltage is widely used in research work for testing electrical insulation
systems.
• Every HV laboratory should be equipped with HV supplies in the range of 10 kV r.m.s up to 1.5 MV
for testing purposes.
• Most of ac voltage tests are carried out at nominal power-frequency (50 or 60 Hz) of the test object.
• For routine testing, the voltage levels for power-frequency testing are always related to the highest
r.m.s phase-to-phase voltage Vm of power transmission systems. This “rated power-frequency short
duration withstand voltage” Vt takes different values for different apparatus used within the
transmission systems.
 Vt /Vm = 1.9 for Vm < 300 kV
Vt /Vm < 1.9 for Vm > 300 kV

• A fundamental design factor for all ac testing supplies is an adequate

control system for a continuous regulation of the high output voltages.
• Testing voltages are usually single-phase although power transmission
systems are mostly of three- phase type.
• The wave shape of this voltage must be nearly pure sinusoidal with both
half cycles closely alike.
• HV insulation or HV apparatus are always considered as capacitor loads with low or
very low power dissipation only.
• The nominal kVA rating Pn may be calculated from the design formula:

• Vn is the nominal r.m.s voltage of the high voltage testing supply

• Ct is the capacitance of the equipment under test,
• k≥1 is a factor which accounts for additional capacitances within the whole test
circuit and some safety factors.
• In=Pn /Vn
• Ct ranges from 10 pF (for single post or suspension insulators) to 10000 pF (for large
rating power transformers), the nominal current In may range from 10 mA for testing
voltages of 100 kV up to several amperes in the mega volt range.
Determine the nominal kVA rating of a testing transformer used to test an insulator with
the followingspecifications:
Insulator capacitance = 100 pF, Insulator voltage level = 66 kV,Supply frequency = 50 Hz
and Capacitance factor k =1.1
Solution

Pn  k V 2  C
2
 1.1  6 610  2  501 0010 12 
3

 14715.624 VA
 14.7 kVA
» 15 kVA
• Proper damping resistors are almost provided between the HV testing supply and the equipment
under test to:
• Reduce the rate of the sudden voltage drop and
• To avoid any over voltages within the test circuit caused by interruptions of the breakdown
phenomena. Nominal values of such damping resistors between 10 kΩ and 100 kΩ will usually
not influence the test conditions. Two main methods for the generation of high ac testing
voltages;
• 1- Transformers 2- Resonant circuits.
• Single unit transformers are used when the test voltage requirements are less than about 300 kV.
• For higher voltage requirements, a single unit construction becomes difficult and costly due to:
• Insulation problems.
• Transportation and erection of large transformers become difficult.
• Therefore, series connection or cascading several identical units of transformers, where the HV
windings of all the units effectively connected in series, is used to overcome the above
mentioned drawbacks.
Cascaded Transformers
• Advantages
• High voltage AC generation at low cost.
• Extension and flexibility of cascading transformers 3-Size and weight of
each individual unit is reduced.
• Disadvantages
• Heavy loading of the primary windings for the lower stages.
• Higher voltage drop.
• Existence of harmonics in voltage waveform.