Paper accepted for presentation at 2003 IEEE Bologna Power Tech Conference, June 23th-26th, Bologna, Italy

Practical Experiences in the Analysis of Abnormal Voltages due to Neutral Instability

A. C. O Rocha, W. M. Souza and J. C. Mendes, Member IEEE
connected secondaries have been applied. In this connection, the voltage across the break in the delta is used to operate relays which give an alarm in case of an incipient fault condition. Depending upon the parameters of this circuit as capacitances, magnetizing reactance of the VT and system operating voltage, practical experience has shown that such a circuit may be instable generating abnormal voltages to ground, while the three - phase line- to-line voltage, fixed by the source, are balanced and sinusoidal [1]. This phenomenon is called in the literature Neutral Instability and can frequently endanger connected equipment in the ungrounded system besides creating special relaying, synchronizing and metering problems [2]. CEMIG experience is related to the intermittent operation of a relay connected to the broken delta-secondary of a voltage autotransformer in the delta tertiary of a 345/230-13,8kV, 225/225-75MVA autotransformer in its Taquaril substation. Although the function of this relay is to indicate the existence of a possible fault to earth in the ungrounded tertiary, in this case no fault actually existed although very high voltages to ground were measured in two phases. A similar disturbance took place in Lafaiete substation where ground fault detection relay operated during the energization of a 345/138-13,8kV, 150/150/50 MVA autotransformer. Due to the possible risks created by neutral instability, CEMIG started a thorough analysis of these disturbances in order to confirm its occurrence and take measures to avoid it. Another occurrence of neutral instability described is related to ABB experience during the synchronizing of a generatorsystem that led to abnormal operation of some protection relays. II. NEUTRAL INSTABILITY The physical nature of neutral instability and the criteria to predict its occurrence based, on the circuit parameters and operation voltage, are well discussed in [1], [2], [3]. The circuit in which neutral instability may occur is represented in Fig. 1. This circuit consists of an Y-connected bank of singlephase grounded-neutral voltage transformers connected to an ungrounded source of supply, in CEMIG system the 13,8kV tertiary delta winding of an autotransformer. The three capacitors represent the

Abstract-- Practical experience has shown that the neutral of an isolated three-phase system may become subject to an instability phenomenon under apparent normal condition. This instability may lead to high abnormal voltages to ground, constituting a possible hazard to system apparatus, besides creating special relaying and synchronizing problems. This paper presents the investigation carried out by CEMIG Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais and ABB Asea Brown Boveri to analyze the occurrence of this phenomenon in its power system, pointing out the conditions that led to the abnormal behavior of the circuit. A methodology using a simple model of the system to predict a possible occurrence of neutral instability is discussed and proved very effective in the cases analyzed. Also it is shown that overvoltages calculated with Alternative Transients Program (ATP) compared favorably with recorded results. As a conclusion, the paper presents the different successful measures implemented to avoid the disturbance. Index Terms neutral instability, overvoltage protection, switching transients, voltage transformer.

I. INTRODUCTION Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais CEMIG is the electrical power utility of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, with an installed capacity of 6012MW and an extra-high voltage transmission system comprising 30 substations and 6587km of transmission lines at voltages ranging from 230kV to 500kV. CEMIG supplies electricity to 96% of the State of Minas Gerais, which is located in the Southeastern region of Brazil. The area supplied is 560 thousand square kilometers and is equivalent to a country the size of France. It is a common practice in CEMIG extra-high voltage system to perform its power reactive control by means of installing reactor and capacitor banks at the 13.8kV delta tertiary of its transformers. These banks are switched throughout the day according to the necessity of the system operation. In order to provide a means of ground fault detection in this ungrounded system inductive groundedneutral Y voltage transformers (VT) with broken deltaA. C. Rocha is with Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil (e-mail: acrocha@cemig.com.br) W. M. Souza is with Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil (e-mail: weber@cemig.com.br) J. C. Mendes is with Asea Brown Boveri Ltda, Guarulhos, SP, Brazil (e-mail: jose-carlos.mendes@brabb.mail.abb.com)

0-7803-7967-5/03/$17.00 2003 IEEE

capacitances of buses, bushings, autotransformer, etc., to ground. The overvoltages to ground due to the instability are a peculiarity of only that portion of the circuit, shown in Fig. 1, and do not involve the supply, which is fixed, and independent.

its nominal voltage. It can be observed that the region of instability is in the range 0.01 < Xco/Xm < 2.8 and it has a strong relation with the system voltage. The broken delta voltage, which represents the unbalance of the phase- toground voltage also, presents frequencies other than 60Hz, depending upon the Xco/Xm. III. DESCRIPTION OF EVENTS A. Case 1 Taquaril Substation represents an important power supply to the eastern part of Minas Gerais State where most of CEMIG large industrial consumers are located. In this substation, three single-phase autotransformer banks T1,T2, T3, 345/23013.8kV, 225/225-75MVA, connect CEMIG 345kV extra-high voltage system to the 230kV grid that supplies these consumers. This substation also contributes to the load supply of the Metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais State. A simplified diagram of Taquaril substation is shown in Fig. 3. The delta 13.8kV tertiary of autotransformer bank T1 is connected to two capacitor banks, 24MVAR, for power reactive control. The tertiary circuit is similar to the one shown in Fig. 1, with an inverse time overvoltage relay (59N) connected to an inductive VT broken delta secondary to detect any incipient phase - to- ground fault based on the value of the sum of the zero sequence voltages (3Vo ). The VT ratio in use was 15.5/3 kV-115V, 1000VA This scheme is illustrated with more detail in Figure 4.

Fig. 1. Typical neutral instability circuit

Theoretical and laboratory studies have been carried out to understand the origin of this phenomenon. It was concluded that it is a result of a combination of the volt-ampere characteristic of the saturating inductance of the VT and the shunt capacitances to ground under certain operation condition. The instability condition is expected when an increasing voltage corresponds to a decrease in the current and may be triggered by a switching that causes the VT to saturate. When this happen there is a displacement of the neutral of the system from its normal position. The displaced neutral can be either inside, on the edge or even outside the delta line-to -line voltage triangle [2]. Fig. 2 shows regions of possible instability related to the circuit of Figure 1. This curve was the result of an experimental study with a miniature system transient analyzer, varying the circuit parameters and the amplitude of the source [1]. The abnormal condition were obtained by suddenly energizing the system, by applying and removing a fault to ground and also in some cases, by gradually raising the voltage of the ungrounded source[1]. It is also pointed out that this instability may persist in the steady state condition and die out eventually.

Fig. 3. Simplified Diagram CEMIG Taquaril Substation

Fig. 2. Regions of possible instability

The ratio Xco/Xm is plotted against the normal operating voltage in per unit of the nominal VT voltage. Xco represents all the capacitive reactance to ground in parallel with the VT and Xm is the inductive reactance of the VT corresponding to

Autotransformer bank T1 had its phase B completely repaired due to previous failure and after it was put into operation, the ground fault detection relay started to present intermittent operations. It operated whenever there was an energization of the transformer bank but also during normal condition of system operation. On all occasions the capacitor banks were out of service. Inspections in the field did not find any sign of an arc to ground that would produce an unbalance high enough to operate the relay. The transient unbalance due

to the autotransformer bank inrush energization phenomenon was also not long enough to justify its operation.

The correspondent primary phase-to-ground voltages were 16.8kV in phase A, 14.2kV in phase C and 3kV in phase B. This situation simulated a false phase B - to - ground fault although with higher voltages (more than 2 pu compared with normal operating voltage for phase A ) that could have caused surge - arrester explosions, leading to a high current shortcircuit in the tertiary of the autotransformer . This occurrence was a typical case of the neutral instability described in the literature and was triggered by the energization of the autotransformer bank, lasting more than 4 hours.

Fig. 4. Phase To Ground Protection Scheme - Ungrounded System

The relay pick-up was set to 40 V, one second temporized, a value higher than usual in CEMIG system due to an expected inherent unbalance in this case since the repaired autotransformer had slight different capacitances compared to the autotransformer s of the other phases. The unbalance expected through calculation was approximately 19V considering the natural unbalance of the power system, measured before the repair, and of the autotransformer different capacitances. The monitoring carried-out by CEMIG of the broken delta voltage presented very high values during the occurrences, confirming the presence of significant unbalances. Table 1 shows some of these values, measured with a digital recorder, their durations and the system operation condition during four relay operations. It is interesting to notice in Table 1 that two events started under normal system operation condition and may have been triggered by a small variation in the system voltage.
TABLE 1 Summary of measurement results during relay operation Date 01/29/99 05/07/99 05/16/99 06/21/99 Tertiary Capacitor Banks None None None None Broken delta Voltage (V) 395 54.9 89.2 42.1 System Operation Condition T1 Energization Normal T1 Energization Normal Unbalance Duration 4h and 20 minutes 20 minutes 5 minutes 2 minutes

Fig. 5. Neutral displacement Taquaril substation occurrence A N = 16.8kV; B N = 3.0kV; C N = 14.2kV

The analysis performed to justify the appearance of the phenomenon comprised two steps, presented below: 1) Circuit Xco/Xm calculation In order to check if the 13.8kV tertiary circuit could fall in an instability region, according to Figure 2, the ratio Xco/Xm was calculated and the normal operation voltage considered in relation to the VT nominal voltage. The Xco calculation took into consideration the capacitances of the bus, VT bushing and the autotransformer, resulting in a value of 0.1504 Mohms. The Xm of the VT, taken from its test report, was 1.42 Mohms leading to a calculated ratio Xco/Xm of 0.106. The line-to-ground voltage was 8.2kV corresponding to 0.9 pu of the nominal VT voltage. With the results above, it could be concluded that, based on Figure 2, the 13.8kV tertiary circuit could fall into an instability region where a 60Hz broken delta voltage was expected. This result was in accordance with what was experienced in the field. It is interesting to observe that none of the disturbance happened when the capacitors banks were in operation. This can be explained by the fact that the capacitors banks increased very much the value of Xco, and consequently the Xco/Xm ratio, taking the circuit into a region of stability. 2) Transient simulation As the majority of the cases were related to the energization of the bank, ATP simulations [5] were performed to try to reproduce the instability for this condition.

One of the measured value (01/29/99 occurrence) was greater than the one that it would be expected for a phase-toground fault, 307V in this case, indicating that the fluctuating neutral went out of the 13.8kV delta voltage triangle, illustrated in Fig. 5.

The autotransformer bank and the VT were modeled considering their saturation curves with the ATP transformer model. The capacitances were considered lumped and the relay was modeled as a high impedance in the broken delta secondary of the VT. Cemig 345kV and 230kV grid were simulated as an equivalent mutually coupled RL elements, type 51,52,53, and type 14 sinusoidal sources. These sources were considered balanced so the results reflected only the unbalances due to the instability and the differences of the autotransformer capacitances. A statistical simulation of two hundred energizations was carried out. The steady-state broken delta-voltages were found to be higher than the relay pick-up voltage in approximately 90% of the cases. Table 2 presents some of the results.
TABLE 2 Summary of transient simulation results Simulation Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Broken delta-voltage (VRMS) 46 62 133 85

The Fig. 7 shows a simplified diagram of Lafaiete substation. The delta 13.8kV tertiary of T3 autotransformer is connected to three capacitor banks, 18MVAR, also for power reactive control. Similar to Taquaril substation, there is an inverse time overvoltage relay, connected to a VT broken delta secondary, which detects any ground-fault on the tertiary by monitoring the sum of zero sequence voltages 3Vo. On the other hand, the VT ratio in use there is 13,8kV-115V, 2000VA. According to Fig. 7, it is important to note that there is an insulated cable, with 78 meters of length, connecting the delta tertiary to the capacitor bank. This cable has a significant capacitance to ground which can influence the behavior of the circuit.

The 85VRMS value is very close to the one measured in one of the events, 89.2VRMS. This case is illustrated in Figure 6 that shows the steady state unbalanced seen by the relay.

Fig. 7. Simplified Diagram CEMIG Lafaiete Substation

In 2002, autotransformer T3 was taken out of service due to a substation maintenance. During the autotransformer reenergization, the ground fault detection relay operated indicating a 3Vo steady state voltage a little bit higher than its pick-up. On this occasion, the insulated cable and capacitor banks were out of service. Similar to case 1, maintenance procedures in the field did not find any sign of an arc to ground and the transient unbalance due to the autotransformer bank inrush energization phenomenon was also not long enough that could justify the relay operation.
Fig. 6. Broken Delta-Voltage 85VRMS Taquaril substation occurrence

The simulation results were considered in good accordance with the field experience, showing a significant probability of the phenomenon to occur. B. Case 2 Lafaiete Substation is an important power supply to the Southeastern region of Minas Gerais State with a great amount of CEMIG residential and industrial consumers supplied by it. Two three-phase autotransformer T3, T4, 345/138-13.8kV, 150/150-50MVA, connect CEMIG 345kV extra-high voltage system to the 138kV grid that supplies these consumers.

The relay pick-up had been set to 19V secondary, 1,4 seconds delayed, and the steady state 3Vo measured was 21V secondary. Some autotransformer energizations were carried-out, with and without the insulted cable and capacitor banks, in order to monitor the broken delta voltage. The results are summarized in Table 3. It can be observed that when the insulated cable was connected the 3Vo voltage was negligible compared with the one found during the energization without the insulated cable. The presence of the capacitor banks did not change the results.

TABLE 3 Summary of steady state measurements results Insulated Cable Out of service In service Broken delta-voltage (VRMS) 19,5 2,5

As in case 1, this disturbance was considered to be another occurrence of neutral instability, although overvoltages to ground were not detected, indicating a smaller neutral displacement . The analysis of the phenomenon started with the calculation of the Xco/Xm ratio. The Xm of the VT, taken from its test report, was 3.50 Mohms. The calculated ratio Xco/Xm was 0,039 without taking into account the insulated cable capacitance and 0,0166 with its capacitance considered. The line-to-ground voltage was 7.97kV corresponding to 0.58 pu of the nominal VT voltage. These results were analyzed according to Figure 2 and it was concluded that the 13.8kV tertiary circuit fell into an instability region when the insulated cable was out of service, leading to a neutral displacement. When the cable was connected, the circuit is in the threshold of the instability region. These results were in accordance with the measurements. Some months before this event, there had been an explosion of T3 tertiary circuit-breaker at the time the capacitor banks were switched off due to a generalized overvoltage in the 345kV system. It was found out that the cause of the circuitbreaker failure was dielectric, probably as a consequence of an overvoltage to ground. This overvoltage could be explained by some neutral displacement, triggered by the switching transient of the capacitor banks and system overvoltage. Unfortunately, 3Vo measurements were not available during the occurrence. C. Case 3 ABB Brazil is the largest power transformer factory in Brazil, located in the Sao Paulo metropolitan area with thorough competency and condition to design and manufacture transformers up to 800kV. In 2000, ABB Brazil delivered a large single-phase step up transformer (Core type, 60Hz, 235MVA, 19-19/525kV) to a large power plant in Brazil. This unit was meant to replace one of the phases of original Shell type unit of the three-phase bank. Thus, a step up transformer bank was set up with a hybrid two-phase Shell and one-phase Core type transformer. Due to natural differences between core and shell type transformer technologies, capacitances to ground of the low voltage (LV) windings may have different values. As the LV windings of the transformer bank is Delta connected, it was established the condition for a neutral displacement with consequent unbalance of the corresponding phase- to- ground voltages [1].

As a consequence, during the first switching operations to energize the hybrid shell+core transformer bank, it was detected misoperation of the protection system, which blocked the generator-system synchronization [4]. In this case, the differences in the capacitance values, due to the different projects, played an important role in triggering the appearance of the neutral displacement. IV. MITIGATION A. Case 1 In order to avoid another occurrence of neutral instability in the 13.8kV tertiary of autotransformer T1, Taquaril substation, CEMIG installed a VT 13.8kV- 115V, 1000VA to replace the existing one. This action was taken considering the 14.2kV operating voltage that, in the new condition, was 0.6pu of the VT nominal voltage. It can be observed in Figure 2 that, for this condition, the circuit falls into a stable region (Xco/Xm=0.106, 0.6 pu operating voltage) The effectiveness of the connection of a higher nominal voltage VT was checked by measuring the broken deltasecondary voltage with a digital recorder, during some energizations of the autotransformer bank T1. With no neutral instability, the broken delta voltage was expected to be in the range of 12VRMS to 18VRMS, depending on the normal system unbalance and operating voltage value. The measurement results were in agreement with the expected voltage range. Figure 8 shows the measurement results during one of autotransformer bank T1 energization. It can be observed the transient and the steady state part of the broken delta voltage. The steady state value was found to be 16.0 VRMS. CEMIG kept monitoring the broken delta-secondary voltage for some months to verify the unbalance during different load periods. The results were very satisfactory, with a medium value of 15VRMS. ATP simulations were also performed similarly to the previous ones but considering the 13.8kV-115 VT characteristics. Figure 9 illustrates the relay steady state voltage for the case with only 2% of probability of being exceeded. Its value was 11VRMS and as it did not reflect the normal system unbalance, it can be considered very close to the measured ones.

Phase AG Voltage Phase BG Voltage Phase CG Voltage Broken delta voltage

16.0 VRMS

disconnected, the 3Vo voltage did not reach 12V secondary, proving the problem was solved.

Phase AG Voltage Phase BG Voltage Phase CG Voltage Broken delta voltage

10.3 VRMS

Fig. 8. Broken delta-voltage measured by digital recorder Taquaril substation Fig. 10. Broken delta-voltage measured by digital recorder Lafaiete substation

C. Case 3 Following the protection misoperation and synchronizing blocking associated with the autotransformer bank energization and neutral displacement, ABB proposed an advanced mitigation solution to the voltage unbalance. The performance of the solution was thoroughly evaluated by digital simulation (steady state and transient conditions) and further certification on site through safe and reliable energization and synchronization. The adopted solution included the introduction of a resistor series connected in the broken delta secondary winding of an existing LV (19kV-side) inductive VT. The aim of the resistor was the same described in case 2. The application of this solution was innovative and introduced a reliable upgrade of power plants and substations where hybrid autotransformer banks of shell and core units or even core form units of different manufacturers or designs may be placed together in a bank. V. CONCLUSION This paper presented CEMIG and ABB experience in investigating practical occurrences of neutral instability due to the connection of Y-grounded voltage transformer circuit in an ungrounded system. It was discussed the factors affecting the appearance of the phenomenon and the mitigations that were used in each case to avoid it. In Taquaril substation the connection of a VT with a higher nominal voltage was sufficient to bring the circuit to a stable condition. In Lafaiete substation, it was necessary to install a resistance in parallel with the ground fault relay. Both substations belong to CEMIG extra-high voltage system and neutral instability caused intermittent relay operations and high voltages to ground. Simulations results with ATP program were in agreement with the ones obtained by field measurement.

Fig. 9. Stead State broken delta-voltage 11VRMS Taquaril substation with VT 13.8kV 115V

The simulation results were in accordance with the practical ones showing that the installation of a VT with higher nominal voltage prevented the instability occurrence in Taquaril substation. B. Case 2 Based on Taquaril substation experience and on the results of the analysis performed, a 33,8 ohms resistor was series connected in the delta secondary winding of the VP, in parallel with the overvoltage relay, according to Fig. 4. The idea was to introduce a burden which, referred to the VT primary side, would help damping a possible oscillation between the VT reactance and capacitances to earth, taking the system to a region of stability. It was verified if this additional resistance was in accordance with the VT voltampere rating. In order to verify the efficacy of the solution, field measurements of the broken delta voltage, with the resistor installed, were performed during the T3 energization with insulated cable and capacitor banks on and off the tertiary circuit. The results are presented in Fig. 10 and show that even when the insulated cable and capacitor banks were

The paper also presented ABB experience with this phenomenon, which, in this case, caused synchronizing problems in a generator-system. The solution to prevent it was the introduction of a resistor in the Delta connection of secondary windings of existing LV (19kV-side) inductive voltage transformer. In conclusion, the application of grounded-neutral Yconnected voltage transformers in temporarily or permanently ungrounded system should be well analyzed. Depending upon the circuit parameters, this application can endanger connected equipment due to very high voltages it can provoke in addition to creating special relaying, synchronizing and metering problems. VI REFERENCES
[1] H. S. Shott and H. A. Peterson, Criteria for Neutral Stability of WyeGrounded-Primary Broken-Delta-Secondary Transformer Circuits, in Transactions November 1941,Vol.60, pp.997-1002. [2] A. Boyajian and O. P. Mccarty, Physical Nature of Neutral Instability, presented at the Southern District Meeting No.4, of the A.I.E.E., Louisville, Kentucky, November 19-22,1930. [3] C.T.Weller, Experiences with Grounded-Neutral Y-connected Potential Transformers on Ungrounded System, presented at the Southern District Meeting No.4, of the A.I.E.E., Louisville, Kentucky, November 19-22,1930. [4] Mendes, J. C. - CI TPT/D 00-091 Desequilbrio de Capacitncias para a Terra, Deslocamento de Neutro, Conseqncias para a Energizao e Anlises de Sobretenses de Manobra, no Lado de 19kV ABB, Novembro de 2000. [5] K.U. Leuven EMTP Center, Alternative Transients Program RuleBook.

Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais CEMIG for 17 years. He joined CEMIG as an operation substation technician and started as a Protection Engineer in 1995 at the Transmission Operation Planning Department. As a Protection Engineer, he is responsible for relay setting studies, disturbances analyses, commissioning and planning of the protection systems of CEMIG extra-high voltage grid. His areas of interest include analysis of the behavior of protections systems, fault location in transmission lines, digital protection, single-phase automatic reclosure of transmission lines, substation and synchronous generators protection.

VII BIOGRAFIES
Jose Carlos Mendes received his doctor degree from the Polytechnical School of the University of So Paulo, with a thesis in the area of transient behavior of transformer windings including resonances and fast transients. He is an IEEE and Cigr member, having published technical papers in Brazil and abroad. He has more than 22 years of experience in design, development and failure analysis and diagnosis of transformer and reactors. He worked more than 3 years in Siemens, being since then in the Transformer Division of BBC Brown Boveri, now ABB Asea Brown Boveri. His areas of interest comprise analysis of transient behavior of transformer winding, electromagnetic fields applied to power transformers and failure diagnosis involving the interaction between transformers and the power system. Anglica da Costa Oliveira Rocha, received her B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Federal University of Juiz de Fora. Upon graduation, she joined Companhia Energtica de Minas Gerais as a System Protection Engineer. Shortly after, she joined the Transmission Operation Planning Department, specializing in switching transient studies. She has more than 20 years of experience in system disturbance analysis, regarding the transient behavior of substation equipment, and in system operation transient studies involving system restoration after blackout, threephase/ single-phase automatic reclosure of transmission lines and special equipment switching. She is a Cigr member and has authored and coauthored several technical papers. Weber Melo de Sousa, received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Federal University of Minas Gerais in 2002. Sousa has been with