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Thermal Effect of the Recloser Operation Cycle on Bare Overhead Conductors

Constantinos D. Halevidis, Member, IEEE, Constantinos G. Karagiannopoulos, and Perikles D. Bourkas
AbstractA new calculation method of the temperature rise generated from multiple (consecutive) short circuits, to which bare overhead conductors are subjected, is proposed in this paper. Multiple short circuits are common in medium-voltage lines protected by reclosers due to their operation cycle. The proposed method treats each short circuit as a separate event. In additiony, the cooling between each short circuit is taken into account. The results of the proposed method are compared to the results given by the method of the IEC 60865-1 standard. The application of the proposed method results in greater temperature rises when the equivalent thermal current density is greater than a threshold. Furthermore, alterations to the recloser operation cycle are performed in order to investigate its effect on the generated temperature rise, namely, alterations to the reclosing interval between successive tripping operations and the ratio of fast to delayed trips. Finally, the proposed method was compared to an exact numerical solution of the heating process. Index TermsAutomatic circuit reclosers, medium-voltage distribution systems, multiple short circuits, overhead bare conductors, short-circuit current, thermal effect.

I. INTRODUCTION

USTOMER outages are mainly caused by faults in the medium-voltage (MV) network [1]. The usage of reclosers as protection media for MV lines can signicantly improve the network reliability indices (such as the system average interruption duration and frequency index, etc.) [1], [2]. This improvement can be attributed to the recloser mode of operation. When a recloser detects a ground or phase fault with a duration greater than a predetermined value, it breaks the circuit and subsequently recloses the circuit. If the fault is persistent, the recloser repeats the circuit breakingcircuit reclosing operation two times and then trips permanently. Reclosers perform either two fast and two delayed operations or one fast and three delayed ones. The time interval (reclosing interval) between successive operations is equal to 12 s. The majority of faults in overhead lines are transient with a duration of a few seconds at most [3]. Thus, a recloser averts a line de-energizing due to a transient fault. Research has been conducted on the effects of the recloser operation cycle on the network and other protection apparatus [4], [5]. However, the temperature rise (TR), due to the reclosers four tripping operations has not been sufciently

addressed. Power corporation practice and standards [6] approximate the temperature rise by aggregating the individual short-circuit durations to calculate the conductor temperature rise and do not take into account the effect of one tripping operation to the subsequent operations. Namely, the increased conductor resistance (due to their increased temperature due to previous faults) through which the short-circuit currents of the subsequent trip operations pass and, by extension, the increased heat release as well as the cooling during the reclosing interval are not taken into consideration. The purpose of this paper is the development of a new method for the calculation of the temperature rise of MV line conductors protected by a recloser. The proposed method treats each short circuit as a separate event, and the increased conductor resistivity due to the increased temperature is taken into account. The cooling of the conductors during the reclosing interval is considered as well. In addition, a comparison of the results given by the proposed method to the results of the method of the IEC 60865-1 standard is made. Furthermore, alterations to the time parameters of the recloser operation cycle are performed in order to investigate its effect on the generated temperature rise. Finally, the proposed method was compared to an exact numerical solution of the heating process. II. PROPOSED METHOD Many papers have been published on the thermal effects of short circuits on cables and conductors [7][9]. However, the temperature rise due to multiple consecutive short circuits has not been addressed. Multiple short circuits are common on MV lines protected by reclosers. International standard IEC 60865-1 gives the equivalent and the equivalent duration of multiple thermal current according to the following temporally-close short circuits relationships:

(1) This approach does not take the increased conductor temperature into account and, consequently, the increased ohmic conductor resistance met by the th short circuit due to the previous ones. Therefore, it can be concluded that the th short circuit releases more heat per unit current. In addition, the cooling between each short circuit is not taken into account. These omissions create the need for a revised method for the calculation of temperature rises caused by multiple short circuits.

Manuscript received November 07, 2010; revised October 11, 2011; accepted January 07, 2012. Date of publication February 22, 2012; date of current version March 28, 2012. Paper no. TPWRD-00853-2010. The authors are with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, High Voltage and Electrical Measurements Laboratory, National Technical University of Athens, Athens 15780, Greece (e-mail: khalev@central.ntua.gr; ckarag@central.ntua.gr; pbourkas@central.ntua.gr). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRD.2012.2183682

0885-8977/$31.00 2012 IEEE

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Fig. 2. Considered MV line.

Fig. 1. Method application and conductor temperature evolution.

The proposed method treats each short circuit as a separate event whose effects are a function of the conditions at the beginning of the recloser operation. The TR from the th short circuit is dependent on the conductor temperature acquired from the previous short circuits. Specically, the application of the method for the case of a recloser is shown in Fig. 1. The resistivity (from which the temperature rise can be calculated) after the th recloser operation is given by [6] (2) where is the resistivity, is the temperature, is the specic heat capacity, is the density, is the linear temperature coefcient, and th is the equivalent thermal current density as given by IEC 60865-1. For temperatures greater than 140 C, the linear dependence of resistivity on temperature is not accurate, as it underestimates the actual value [10]. This underestimation leads to smaller short-circuit TRs and, consequently, in an overestimation of the conductors capability to handle the thermal effect of the short circuit. For this reason, a third-order curve, approximating experimental results, is used [11]. The curve is given as (3) Since the resistivity is calculated from (2), (3) is solved for the conductor temperature at the end of the recloser operation. The linear temperature coefcient used in (2) is the derivative of the third-order curve evaluated for the conductor temperature at the start of the th short circuit. The conductors, during the reclosing interval, cool down (nonadiabatic process). The cooling decreases the resistivity and should be taken into account. The differential equation describing the cooling time evolution with heat-loss mechanisms through radiation and natural convection is [12]

is the conductor heat capacity per unit length (in ), and are the heat losses through natural convection and radiation, respectively (in watts per meter), is is air density at the conductor diameter (in millimeters), ), is the emissivity coefcient, and lm temperature (in the ambient temperature (in C). The rate of solar heat gain is considered equal to zero since it is negligible compared to the heat-loss rate. The differential equation is solved numerically, as it contains nonlinear terms. The numerical solution used a time step equal to 0.02 s (sufciently small compared to the reclosing interval). The solution of the differential equation gives the initial temperature and resistivity for the next short circuit. In conclusion, the rst step of the method is to calculate the resistivity at the end of the th short circuit using (2). For the second step, the temperature is derived from the resistivity through the inversion of (3). Finally, the solution of (4) gives th short circuit. The the temperature at the start of the resistivity is given by (3). This procedure is repeated until the nal line opening. III. CASE STUDY As a case study, this work examines a typical overhead MV line composed of three horizontally positioned conductors. The conductors used are aluminum conductors steel reinforced (ACSR) of 50, 95, and 199.4 mm equivalent copper cross sections. The conductor characteristics are shown in the Appendix. The line is protected by a recloser and its length is equal to 90 km (Fig. 2). The nominal voltage of the line is 20 kV. The transmission transformer is rated at 50 MVA 150/20 kV with equal to 0.2 and its ohmic a per unit impedance voltage is equal to 0.006. component The network upstream of the high-voltage (HV) transformer bars is considered innite. Consequently, the fault is a far-fromgenerator one. Although these assumptions lead to greater calculated fault currents and temperature rises than the actual one, this approximation can be considered acceptable. The short-circuit current calculations are performed according to the international standard IEC 60909 [13]. (equal to the The initial symmetrical short-circuit current steady-state current , as a far-from-generator fault is considered) is given by

where

(5) where is the voltage factor, is the nominal voltage, is the total fault impedance, is the distance from the transformer, and are the ohmic resistance and reactance per unit

(4)

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Fig. 3. Extremely inverse timecurrent recloser curve.

length of the conductor, respectively, and and are the ohmic resistance and reactance of the HV transformer after the use of the impedance correction factor, respectively. The time current curve (TCC) chosen for the recloser is an extremely inverse (EI) per IEEE standards. The pickup current setting was chosen to be equal to 160 A. This choice was made so that the inrush current of the medium-to-low-voltage transformer at the end of the line does not cause nuisance tripping, and the minimum short-circuit current is 1.5 times the pickup current setting. The TCC is given according to (6)

Fig. 4. Temperature rise calculation owchart.

is the tripping time; is the short-circuit current; where , , , and are constants; and is the time-dial setting which is set differently for the fast and delayed tripping operations of the recloser. The recloser operation cycle consists of one fast and three delayed tripping operations, and the reclosing interval is set equal to 2 s. The recloser curves are shown in Fig. 3. The thermal equivalent short-circuit current th is given by [6] and [13] (7) where is the factor for the heat effect of the ac component (equal to unity as the fault is a far-from-generator one), and is the factor for the heat effect of the dc component. The factor is given by [6] and [13] (8) and are the where is the fundamental frequency, and , respectively. ohmic and reactive components of The thermal effect calculation owchart of the recloser operation cycle is shown in Fig. 4. The procedure is iterative, consisting of four iterations (one for each tripping operation). IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results given by the proposed method are shown in Figs. 57. The proposed method results in greater conductor
Fig. 5. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 50 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle (extremely inverse TCC).

TRs compared to the results of the IEC method in the rst 100 m and smaller TRs further down the line for the ACSR 50 mm . This can be explained through (2). The IEC method uses the aggregate fault duration as an exponent. The proposed method uses the sum of the temperature rises. The ratio of the two methods is approximately given by (9)

The TR ratio of the two methods is shown in Fig. 8. It can be concluded that the IEC method underestimates the conductor temperature rise from multiple short circuits for fault locations for which (9) is less than unity. In the case study, this holds for

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Fig. 6. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 95 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle (extremely inverse TCC).

Fig. 9. Temperature rise ratio between the constant  method and proposed method.

Fig. 7. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 199.4 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle (extremely inverse TCC). Fig. 10. Extremely inverse and moderately inverse timecurrent recloser curves.

short-circuit currents of this method compared to the proposed one (due to the constant conductor resistance). The TR ratio of the two methods is shown in Fig. 9. Subsequently, the great degree of dependence of conductor TR on the time current curve is shown. For this purpose, a moderately inverse (MI) timecurrent curve is chosen. Constants , , and are equal to 0.02, 0.0515, and 0.114, respectively. (The curves are shown in Fig. 10.) The time current curve is given as
Fig. 8. Temperature rise ratio between the IEC method and the proposed method.

(10) The results of the methods are shown in Figs. 1113. The relative behavior of the methods is identical to the one exhibited in Figs. 57 (EI timecurrent curve). It should be noted that for faults in the rst 100 m, temperatures greater than 660 C (melting point of aluminum) appear for the ACSR 50 mm and, consequently, are not plotted in Fig. 11. In addition, the temperature rises signicantly increase compared to the ones associated with an EI recloser. Based on the aforementioned results, it can be concluded that the use of an extremely inverse relay is suggested when the line is protected by means of a recloser. The temperatures reached by ACSR conductors of 50 mm equivalent copper cross section exceed the 180 C limit for aluminum strands. In addition, the repeated automated attempt of

distances from the HV substation of less than 100 m, and for the ACSR, it is 50 mm . For the rest of the line length, the ratio is greater than unity. In addition, the ratio is greater than unity for the larger conductors (95, and 199.4 mm ) for the entire length of the line. The constant resistivity method follows the methodology of the proposed method without taking into account the increase in resistivity. This method results in smaller temperature rises compared to the proposed method for faults near the transmission transformer as the increased heat release per ampere th) is neglected. However, for greater distances, it results in greater temperature rises. This can be attributed to the greater

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Fig. 11. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 50 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle (moderately inverse TCC).

the time interval between successive operations and the number of fast to delayed tripping operations. Initially, the recloser operation cycle is altered from one fast and three delayed tripping operations to two fast and two delayed. When an extremely inverse TCC recloser is used, the maximum temperature decrease is less than 1 C (namely, 0.73, 0.09, and 0.02 C for the ACSR 50, 95, and 199.4 mm conductors, respectively). Consequently, this alteration can be considered insignicant. When a moderately inverse TCC recloser is used, the alteration yields greater results. The maximum temperature decrease reaches 98, 8.49, and 0.96 C for the ACSR 50, 95, and 199.4 mm conductors, respectively. It should also be noted that due to this alteration, the melting point of aluminum is not reached by the ACSR 50 mm conductor. Second, the time duration between successive operations (reclosing interval) is altered. This change affects the cooling time. The reclosing interval is increased from 2 to 10 s. Since cooling is proportional to the temperature difference between the conductor and the environment, raised to a power greater than unity, the effect of this alteration is expected to be greater for a moderately inverse TCC. Indeed, in the case of an extremely inverse TCC, the maximum temperature decrease is 8.57, 0.6, and 0.05 C while in the case of a moderately inverse TCC, the maximum decrease is 25.08, 1.21, and 0.08 C for the ACSR 50, 95, and 199.4 mm conductors, respectively. V. NUMERICAL METHOD

Fig. 12. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 95 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle (moderately inverse TCC).

Finally, the proposed method is compared to a numerical solution of the differential equation describing the heating time evolution of the conductor due to the short-circuit current. The is [8] analytic equation of the short-circuit current (11) (12) (13) where is the time constant of the circuit, is the short-circuit phase angle, and is the short-circuit current making angle. is taken equal to zero since this choice maximizes the Joule Integral of the short-circuit current (if its duration is greater than approximately 0.01 s for a system frequency of 50 Hz) [8] and, consequently, maximizes the temperature rise. The differential equation describing the adiabatic heating process is given as (14) is the heat capacity per unit length (in ) of the conductor aluminum content. The choice of using the heat capacity only due to the aluminum content is made in order to conform to the proposed method (and the IEC method) which utilizes the aluminum cross section to calculate the equivalent thermal current density th [6]. This differential equation is solved numerically, similar to the cooling differential equation. The numerical solution of the heating differential equation utilized a time step equal to 0.0001 where

Fig. 13. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 199.4 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle (moderately inverse TCC).

the recloser and the following manual attempts of the repair crew to re-energize the line (in order to locate the position of the fault) lead to a temperature rise many times greater than the permissible. These temperatures could cause a signicant decrease of the conductors tensile strength and an increase of line sag leading to possible violation of safety distances [14]. In addition, due to thermal expansion, the aluminum strands relax favoring conductor corrosion. Thus, ACSR conductors of the 50 mm equivalent copper cross section are deemed unsuitable for the rst few kilometers downstream of the HV substation. Furthermore, an attempt is made to investigate the effect of the recloser time parameters on the temperature rise, by altering

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Fig. 14. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 50 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle as calculated from the numerical and proposed methods (extremely inverse TCC).

Fig. 16. Temperature rise as a function of the equivalent thermal current density for the numerical, IEC, and proposed methods (ACSR conductor of 50 mm equivalent copper cross section, extremely inverse TCC).

TABLE I CONDUCTOR CHARACTERISTICS

VI. CONCLUSION In this paper, a new method for the calculation of the temperature rise from multiple successive short circuits, to which bare overhead conductors are subjected, was developed. This method treats each short circuit as a separate event and takes into account the cooling between successive short circuits. The proposed method, when compared to the IEC 60865 method, yields greater temperature rises near the HV substation and smaller further away for the ACSR 50 mm conductor, and smaller temperature rises for the entire length of the line for the ACSR 95 and 199.4 mm conductors. In addition, the effects of the recloser time parameters on the temperature rise were studied. Namely, it was found that a moderately inverse timecurrent curve results in much greater temperature rise compared to an extremely inverse TCC. Also, the reclosing interval was found to have a small effect on the temperature rise while the number of fast to delayed tripping operations can have a signicant effect. APPENDIX The characteristics of the conductors used in the case study are presented in Table I. REFERENCES
[1] J. Haakana, J. Lassila, T. Kaipia, and J. Partanen, Comparison of reliability indices from the perspective of network automation devices, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 15471555, Jul. 2010. [2] R. M. Cheney, J. T. Thorne, and G. Hataway, Distribution single-phase tripping and reclosing: Overcoming obstacles with programmable recloser controls, in Proc. Power Syst. Conf., Mar. 1013, 2009, pp. 110.

Fig. 15. Temperature rise of an ACSR conductor of 95 mm equivalent copper cross section due to the recloser operation cycle as calculated from the numerical and proposed methods (extremely inverse TCC).

s, signicantly smaller than the one used for the solution of the cooling equation. This was necessary due to the periodic component of the short-circuit current. The conductor resistance per is updated in every time step. Thus, the nuunit length merical method takes into account the increase of the conductor ohmic resistance during the short-circuit event. It should be noted that the solution of the differential equation describing the cooling time evolution (during the reclosing intervals) is achieved as in the proposed method. The results of the numerical method compared to the proposed method for the ACSR 50, and 95 mm conductors, are shown in Figs. 14 and 15. The proposed method results in greater temperature rises, compared to the results of the numerical method, in the rst 1.25 km, and 0.15 km from the substation, and smaller rises further down the line, for the ACSR 50 mm , and 95 mm conductors, respectively. In the case of the ACSR 199.4 mm conductor, the numerical method results in greater temperature rises for the entire line length. The proposed method achieves good agreement with the exact numerical method. In addition, the proposed method overestimates the temperature rise, compared to the numerical method, when the equivalent thermal current density is great (i.e., when the conductor cross section is small and the fault is close to the substation), erring on the side of caution (Fig. 16).

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[3] J. M. Gers and E. J. Holmes, Protection of Electricity Distribution Networks, Herts. London, U.K.: Inst. Elect. Eng., 2004, p. 109. [4] A. J. Allen and S. Santoso, Modeling distribution overcurrent protective devices for time-domain simulations, in Proc. IEEE Power Eng. Soc. Gen. Meeting, Jun. 2428, 2007, pp. 16. [5] C. J. Cook, The use of cooling-factor curves for coordinating transformer-primary fuses and feeder reclosers in rural substations, in Proc. IEEE Rural Electric Power Conf., May 68, 2007, p. C3-C3-5. [6] Short-Circuit CurrentCalculation of Effects, IEC Standard 865-1, 1993. [7] S.-B. Liu, Calculation of the steady-state and transient temperature rises of round cable bundles, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 12291235, Jul. 2010. [8] M. Tartaglia and M. Mitolo, An analytical evaluation of the prospective I t to assess short-circuit capabilities of cables and busways, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 13341339, Jul. 2010. [9] A. D. Polykrati, C. G. Karagiannopoulos, and P. D. Bourkas, Thermal effect on electric power network components under short-circuit currents, Elect. Power Syst. Res., vol. 72, pp. 261267, 2004. [10] S. L. Chen, W. Z. Black, and H. W. Loard, Jr, High-temperature ampacity model for overhead conductors, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 11361141, Oct. 2002. [11] D. R. Lide, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 1994, p. 12_39. [12] IEEE Standard for Calculating the Current-Temperature of Bare Overhead Conductors, IEEE Standard 738, 2006. [13] Short-Circuit Currents in Three-Phase a.c. Systems, IEC Standard 60909, 2002. [14] F. Jakl and A. Jakl, Effect of elevated temperatures on mechanical properties of overhead conductors under steady state and short-circuit conditions, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 242246, Jan. 2000. Constantinos D. Halevidis (M10) was born in Athens, Greece, in 1987. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical computer engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Athens. His research interests are diverse, including topics such as power transmission and distribution, highvoltage testing, electric contacts, and ELF elds.

Constantinos G. Karagiannopoulos received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical and electrical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece. His working experience includes posts in the industry and in a great number of projects in the eld of civil constructions. Since 2005, he has been a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of AthensIndustrial Electric Devices and Decision Systems Division. His research activities and technical experience involve electric measurements and high eld effects, high-voltage engineering, electrical insulating materials and apparatus, as well as electromechanical installations in industry and buildings.

Perikles D. Bourkas is Professor Dr. Dipl. Eng. (Electrical Engineer) at the National Technical University (NTU) of Athens, Athens, Greece. His working experience includes positions such as President of the Technical Council of the Ministry of Health, Director of the Technical Services at the Ministry of Health, and Director Electrical Engineer of the Athens General Hospital. He has also been an electrical engineer in various industries (AGET Ltd., Metallotechnica-Electra-Westinghouse Ltd., Co-Mechanical Engineer in Telestar AEBE, etc.). Currently, he is Professor Emeritus at the NTU of Athens. His technical experience and research activities involve highvoltage engineering, electrical measurements, electrical insulating materials, electromechanical installations in industry and buildings, hospital installations, and biomedical technology.