MODULE 4

Overvoltage Phenomenon &

Insulation Coordination in Electric
Power System

Prepared by
Vineeth Kumar P K
Assistant professor
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Syllabus
• Overvoltage Phenomenon and Insulation
Coordination in Electric Power Systems:
National Causes for Over voltages - Lightning
Phenomenon, Overvoltage due to Switching
Surges, System Faults and Other Abnormal,
Principles of Insulation Coordination on High
Voltage and Extra High Voltage Power
Systems.
10 Hours
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OVERVOLTAGE DUE TO SWITCHING SURGES:

• Over voltages are irregular (oscillatory or unipolar) and can be of high frequency or
power frequency with its harmonics.

Introduction:

• The making and breaking of electric circuits with switchgear may result in abnormal
over voltages in power systems having large inductances and capacitances.

• The over voltages may go as high as six times the normal power frequency voltage.

• In circuit breaking operation, switching surges with a high rate of rise of voltage may
cause repeated restriking of the arc between the contacts of a circuit breaker, thereby
causing destruction of the circuit breaker contacts.

• The switching surges may include high natural frequencies of the system, a damped
normal frequency voltage component, or the restriking and recovery voltage of the
system with successive reflected waves from termination.

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Characteristics of Switching Surges:
The wave shapes of switching surges are quite different and may have origin
from any of the following sources.

• De-energizing of transmission lines, cables, shunt capacitor, 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.

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Switching Over voltages In EHV and UHV Systems:

• The insulation has the lowest strength for switching surges with regard to
long air gaps.

• Further, switching over voltages are of relatively higher magnitudes as

compared to the lightning over voltages for UHV systems.

• Over voltages are generated in EHV systems when there is a sudden

release of internal energy stored either in the electrostatic form (in the
capacitance) or in the electromagnetic form (in the inductance)

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Factors Causing Over Voltages Due to Switching:

• single pole closing of circuit breaker.

• interruption of fault current when the L-G or L-L fault is cleared.

• resistance switching used in circuit breakers.

• switching lines terminated by transformers.

• series capacitor compensated lines.

• sparking of the surge diverter located at the receiving end of the line to
limit the lightning over voltages.

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Power Frequency Over voltages in Power Systems:

The power frequency over voltages occur in large power systems and they are of
much concern in EHV systems, i.e. systems of 400 kV and above. The main causes
for power frequency and its harmonic over voltages are

• Sudden loss of loads.

Sudden load rejection on large power systems causes the speeding up of
generator prime movers.

• Disconnection of inductive loads or connection of capacitive loads.

• Ferranti effect, unsymmetrical faults.
Long uncompensated transmission lines exhibit voltage rise at the receiving end.
Single line to ground faults cause rise in voltages in other healthy phases.

• Saturation in transformers.
When voltages above the rated value are applied to transformers, their
magnetizing currents (no load currents also) increase rapidly and may be about the
full rated current for 50% overvoltage.
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Protection of Transmission Lines against Over voltages:
• shielding the overhead lines by using ground wires above the phase wires.
• using ground rods and counter-poise wires.
• including protective devices like expulsion gaps, protector tubes on the lines,
and surge diverters at the line terminations and substation.

Protective Devices Against Over Voltages:

• Expulsion Gap
Expulsion gap is a device which consists of a spark gap together with an arc
quenching device which extinguishes the current arc when the gaps break over due
to over voltages.
• Surge arrester
These are non-linear resistors in series with spark gaps which act as fast switches.

• Protector tubes
• Rod gaps

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The measures taken to control the over voltages are:
• one step or multi-step energisation of lines by pre insertion of resistors.

• phase controlled closing of circuit breakers with proper sensors.

• drainage of trapped charges on long lines before the reclosing of the lines.

• limiting the over voltages by using surge diverters.

Control of Over voltages Due to Switching:

• Energization of transmission lines in one or more steps by inserting resistances
and withdrawing them afterwards.
• phase controlled closing of circuit breakers.
• drainage of trapped charges before reclosing.
• limiting switching surges by suitable surge diverter.
• use of shunt reactors.

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OVERVOLTAGE DUE TO SWITCHING SURGES:
• over voltages are irregular (oscillatory or unipolar) and can be of
high frequency or power frequency with its harmonics.
Introduction:
• The making and breaking of electric circuits with switchgear may
result in abnormal over voltages in power systems having large
inductances and capacitances.
• The over voltages may go as high as six times the normal power
frequency voltage.
• In circuit breaking operation, switching surges with a high rate of
rise of voltage may cause repeated restriking of the arc between
the contacts of a circuit breaker, thereby causing destruction of
the circuit breaker contacts.
• The switching surges may include high natural frequencies of the
system, a damped normal frequency voltage component, or the
restriking and recovery voltage of the system with successive
reflected waves from terminations.
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Characteristics of Switching Surges:
The wave shapes of switching surges are quite different and may
have origin from any of the following sources.
• De-energizing of transmission lines, cables, shunt capacitor,
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.
• Short circuits and fault clearances.
• Resonance phenomenon like Ferro-resonance, arcing
grounds, etc.
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Switching Over voltages In EHV and UHV
Systems:

• The insulation has the lowest strength for switching surges

with regard to long air gaps.

• Further, switching over voltages are of relatively higher

magnitudes as compared to the lightning over voltages for
UHV systems.

• Over voltages are generated in EHV systems when there is a

sudden release of internal energy stored either in the
electrostatic form (in the capacitance) or in the
electromagnetic form (in the inductance)
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The other situations of switching that give rise
to switching over voltages of shorter duration
and lower magnitudes are:

• single pole closing 6f circuit breaker.

• interruption of fault current when the L-G or L-L fault is
cleared.
• resistance switching used in circuit breakers.
• switching lines terminated by transformers.
• series capacitor compensated lines.
• sparking of the surge diverter located at the receiving end of
the line to limit the lightning over voltages.

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The measures taken to control or reduce the
over voltages are:
• one step or multi-step energisation of lines by pre insertion of
resistors.
• phase controlled closing of circuit breakers with proper
sensors.
• drainage of trapped charges on long lines before the reclosing
of the lines.
• limiting the over voltages by using surge diverters.

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Control of Over voltages Due to Switching:
The over voltages due to switching and power frequency may be
controlled by
• energization of transmission lines in one or more steps by
inserting resistances and withdrawing them afterwards.
• phase controlled closing of circuit breakers.
• drainage of trapped charges before reclosing.
• limiting switching surges by suitable surge diverter.
• use of shunt reactors.

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 PRINCIPLES OF INSULATION
COORDINATION ON HIGH VOLTAGE AND
EXTRA HIGH VOLTAGE POWER SYSTEM
• Electric power supply should ensure reliability
and continuity to the utility concerns.
• The power lines and sub-stations are to be
operated and protected against Overvoltages.
• Generally, sub-stations contain transformers,
switchgear, and other valuable equipment with
non-self restoring insulation, which have to be
protected against failures and internal
destruction
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• For apparatus, which contain self-restoring
insulation, like string insulators, they may be
allowed in flash over in air.
• Lightning and switching surge protection
requires establishment of protective voltage
levels called shunt protection levels, by means
of protective devices like lightning arresters.
• The lightning impulse withstand level known
as the Basic Impulse Level (BIL) is established
for each system nominal voltage for different
apparatus.
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• For system voltages below 400 kV, the switching
surges are not of importance.
• For higher system voltages, since the switching surges
are of higher magnitude compared to the lightning
overvoltages , switching surge magnitudes are of
importance and the following criterion is to be
considered.
i. The flashover voltage of a protective device is chosen such
that it will not operate for switching overvoltages and other
power frequency and its harmonic overvoltages.
ii. For EHV systems, it may be economical to use a protective
device for limiting the overvoltages due to lightning as well as
switching surges to a particular level.

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• The ideal requirements of a protective
device connected in parallel or in shunt
are:
(a) It should not usually flashover for power
frequency overvoltages .
(b) The volt-time characteristics of the device
must lie below the withstand voltage of the
protected apparatus or insulation.
(c) It should be capable of discharging high
energies contained in surges and recover
insulation strength quickly.
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Surge Diverters /Lightning arrester/surge arrester
• These are non-linear resistors in series with
spark gaps which act as fast switches.
• A number of non-linear resistor elements
made of silicon carbide are stacked one over
the other into two or three sections. They are
usually separated by spark gaps .
• The entire assembly is housed in a porcelain
water-tight housing.

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• The volt-ampere characteristic of a resistance
element is of the form

I = kV*
Where,
I=discharge current
V=applied voltage across the element
k and * constants depending on materials
and dimensions of element

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Surge arrester/diverters

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Working:
• When a surge voltage is applied to the surge
diverter, it breaksdown giving the discharge
current id and maintains a voltage Vd across it
• The lighter designs operate for smaller duration
of currents, while the heavy duty surge diverters
with active gaps are designed for high currents
and long duration surges.
• If the current is to be more and has to be
exceeded, the number of series elements has to
be increased or some other method to limit the
current has to be used.

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• During lightning discharges, a high voltage is
induced in the coil by the steep front of the
surge, and sparking occurs in an auxiliary gap.
• The permissible voltage and duration depend
on the thermal capacity of the diverter.
• The rated diverter voltage is normally chosen
so that it is not less than the power frequency
overvoltage expected (line to ground) at the
point of installation, under any faulty or
abnormal operating condition

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Surge Diverters for E.H. V. Systems
The selection of surge diverter voltage rating for
EHV and UHV systems depends on
(1) The rate of rise of voltage,
(2) The type of system to be handled, i.e. whether
effectively grounded or grounded through an
impedance etc., and Voltage, kV
(3) Operating characteristic of the diverter.
The usual type of surge diverters used for the above
purposes are
(a) Silicon carbide arresters with spark gaps,
(b) Silicon carbide arresters with current limiting
gaps, and
(c) The gapless metal oxide (zinc oxide) arresters
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Protection of Lines with Surge Dlverters
• surge diverters are devices that provide low
resistance paths for overvoltages through an
alternate ground path, their operating
characteristic and application is of
importance.
• The spark gap inside the diverter acts as a fast
acting switch while non-linear diverter
elements provide the low impedance ground
path.

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• The arrester voltage at its terminal when
connected to a line of surge impedance Z to
ground, is given as
V= [2(R + r)/(R + r + Z)]u(t)
where,
Z is the line surge impedance,
R is the resistance of the non-linear element,
r is the ground to earth resistance, and
u(t) is the surge voltage.

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• The switch S is open for voltages less than the
sparkover voltage of the surge diverter Vs,and closed
for voltage greater than Vs
• The closing of the switch is represented by injecting
a voltage

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Insulation Levels at Sub-stations with Protective Zones
Magnitude and Shape of the Incoming Voltage Surges
• Direct strokes to phase conductors near the station point are very
dangerous as they cause very high currents to flow through the
surge diverte.
• Therefore, to protect arresters the stations are completely
shielded from direct strikes.(this shield is effective upto 2km from
the station).
• Voltage magnitude at the beginning of the protected zone as
equal to 1.3 times the negative critical flashover voltage of the
line insulation.

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Equipment Insulation Level
• For steep fronted travelling waves, the voltages at
different points in the sub-station can exceed the
protective level
• Hence, it is necessary to decide the number of
locations at which surge diverters are to be located and
their ratings.
• Care must be taken regarding switching overvoltages
generated due to current chopping which may destroy
the transformer or the equipment near the circuit
breakers
• The Basic Impulse Level (BIL) is often determined as
simply 1.25 to 1.30 times the protective level offered
by the surge diverter(applicable upto 220kv)

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The Distance Effect
• Usually the circuit breaker, transformer and
other equipment are placed at finite distances
from the surge diverter and connected
through a short distance overhead line or
cable.
• When a surge arises, it suffers multiple
reflections between each of the equipment
• Which gives rise to over voltage of large
magnitude

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• When a surge diverter, a breaker and a
transformer are in line, the voltage that can
build up at a distance D from the surge
diverter point is given as
V(D) = Vp + 2ST
Where
Vp is the sparkover voltage/protective level
S is the steepness of the wave front,
T is the travel time =D/v .
v is the velocity of the wave travel

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Insulation Co-ordination in EHV and UHV Systems

• The insulation design of EHV and UHV stations

is based on the following principles
(1) Stations have transformers and other
valuable equipment that have non-self
restoring insulation
(2)If the basic impulse level for the equipment
or the system is chosen, then this level cannot
give protection against the switching
impulses. Hence, a separate switching impulse
level (SIL) has to be chosen.

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Risk of failure of protection system

• Let P0 (Vi) dVi be the probability of a surge

voltage occurring as an overvoltage
• Let the probability for flashover of the
insulation be Po(Vi).
• probability of both the above events occurring
simultaneously will be given by Po (Vi)Pd(Vi).
Then Risk of failure is given by

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