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MEASUREMENT OF VERY FAST TRANSIENT OVERVOLTAGES (VFTO) IN A GIS MODULE

M. Mohan Rao, H.S. Jain, S. Rengarajan, K.R.S. Sheriff and S.C. Gupta
BHEL Corporate R&D, Hyderabad (India)

1. ABSTRACT
Gas Insulated Substations (GIs) have found a wide range of acceptance in power system for their compactness, high reliability and freedom from periodic maintenance (large mean time between failures). This paper deals with the design and development of capacitive voltage dtvider for measuring VFTO, as encountered in GIS. The short response time for the divider is achleved by forming the high voltage arm of the dtvider in the gas insulated bus-duct itself. Further, the simulation of VFTO has been carried out using Electromagnetic E m The ) . comparison of Transient Program ( measured and the simulated VFTO validates, satisfactonly, the performance of the ncw dtvider. strength) of the gap. The withstand voltage is decided by the &stance between the contacts, contact profile, operating pressure of the gas and the characteristics of the gas at the instant of the stnke. Further, the voltage collapse between the contacts takes place withm 3 to 20 nsec depending on the above parameters. This short rising pulse, thus starts at switching contacts and travels along the gas busduct on either side and reflects Mcrently at Mercnt components. The superimposition of reflected waves on the origml wave modifies the magnitude and frequency of the resultant wave, termed W O . When the current is interrupted during opening operation or malung current during closing opcration, a spark is formal, which equalizes the potential on both sides of the contacts. W O developed because of the abovc, can continue for a fraction of a ps to several ps, depending upon the configuration of the GIs. Just before spark extinction, the load side and the source side voltages become equal. Following the spark ex~nction, source side voltage will follow the supply voltage, while the load side voltage will remain as the trapped voltage. The shape of these VFTOs, therefore, depends on the configuration of GIS. To measure these fast transient overvoltages, capacitive voltage dtviders havc been prescribed [2].

2. INTRODUCTION
In GIS. very fast transient overvoltages are caused by switching operations and h e to enclosure faults. The transient overvoltages superimposed on the system voltage, defined as Very Fast Transient Overvoltages(VFTO), may cause of concern to the equipment connected to gas insulated systems, especially in Extra figh Voltage (EHV) range[l]. Compact co-axial geometry and smooth conductor profile of gas insulated system, help in generation and propagation of very fast transients. The measurement and characterisation of these transients in GIS has been of interest to both manufacturer of GIs and the utility. The VFTOs are characterised by a wave cluster, lasting for a few microseconds. The individual wave has very steep-front in nano-second range. The switching operations may be disconnectors, circuit breakers or earth switches. The disconnector and earth switch contacts in GIS move relatively slowly in thc order of few c d s . The slow movement causes numerous restrikes duringopening operation and prestllkes during closing operation, between the contacts. Restrikes or prestrikes occur as soon as the inter-contact voltage exceeds the withstand voltage (&electric
High Voltage Engineering Symposium, 22-27 August 1999 Conference Publication No. 467, 0 IEE, 1999

3. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF VOLTAGE DIVIDER

The capacitive voltage dtvider utilizes the gas space between the central conductor and sensor plate as high voltage arm capacitance. The low permitivity of the gas aid large gas gap results in low capacitance per unit area of the plate. The low loss high voltage a r m of the divider, thus constructed has the merit of short response time. A thin Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) film of a few microns thickness between sensor plate and grounding holder is formed as the low voltage a r m

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capacitance of the voltage divider. The circular sensor plate of approximately 90 mm dlanietcr is supported by a groundmg holder with PTFE insulation. Figure 1 shows thc devcloped voltagc divider for measuring VFTO.
A thm layer of SF6 gas in series with the PET film, makcs the capacitance of the low voltage a r m less than the designed static capacitance. To overcome tlus problem. both the sides of the PET film are coated with silver paint, ensuring a proper contact of the PET f i l m with scnsor plate and the groundmg holder. Thc low voltagc arm with this arrangement is stable at all measurement frcquencies. The Qvider is self-contained and can be mounted in any GIS with a circular opening of 100 mm. To control the electrical stress on the sensor plate to a small value, it is aligned in the plane of the enclosure inner surface, which is at ground potential.

response is mcasurcd at the output of the Qvider. A 1 GHz bandwidth oscilloscope, with a sampling ratc of 4GS/scc and memory of 500 Kbytcs is used, for measuring the fast transients. Thus. an observation time of several microseconds with a rcsolution of 250 picosecond per point is available. The developed voltage dividcr is locatcd near the spark gap. In the present studies, the spark gap is adjusted in such a way that, VFTOs are observed at both peaks of an ac cycle. Measurements have becn conducted at 25 kV rms.

5. SIMULATION OF VFTO
To calculate the levels and waveforms of W O , the Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP) has been used. In EMTP calculation, each component of GIS. has to be represented with an equivalent circuit. The supported insulators are simulated by a lumped capacitance of 10 pF. The surge impedencc of the bus-duct is calculated from Qametcrs of central conductor and groundcd enclosure. Velocity of the travelling wavc in GIS module is considered as velocity of light [4]. The time interval of the calculation is 50 pic0 second. The variation of the resistance during spark channel formation is simulated using the Toeplers spark lawl5l. Ths equation explains the variation during the spark channel development. Once the spark bridges the gap. a spark resistance of 5 to 10 SZ is considered, to simulate the attenuation in measured waveform. The losses due to the slun effect is neglected in co-axial bus-duct, under fast transient overvoltages.

Figure 2 shows the equivalent circuit of the VFTO measuring system. Here, C1 and C2 are h~gh voltage a r m capacitance and low voltage a r m capacitance, respectively. The output of the capacitive voltage Qvider is connected to the oscilloscope via a hlgh frequency co-axial cable of one meter length and characteristic impedance of 50Q. The response characteristics of the developed voltage dwider have been stuQed by applying fast rising pulses of suitable magnitude, to the coaxial gas insulated bus-duct model, from a Function Generator [3]. The response of the Qvider is sufficicntly good for measuring fast rising pulses. The response of the developed voltage Qvider is able to reproduce the rising portion of the square pulse. However, flat portion has been observed to be decaying fast. Th~sbehavior of the divider is because of the limitation of lowcr cut-off frequcncy of the voltage divider.

6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 4 shows the VFTO waveform measurcd at the output of the dnider. From this, the voltage collapse timc is appeared to be around 3 nsec. Figure 5 shows thc simulated W O waveform with 3 nscc voltage collapse time, ignoring the attenuation caused by the spark channcl resistance variation. Upto sixth pcak, the mcasured and simulated waveforms agree well. From scvcnth peak onwards, the measured waveform reveal considerably large attenuation. In order to simulate this, a spark resistance of 5 to 10 Q has been considered after ten nanoseconds of voltage collapse time. Figure 6 shows the simulated VFTO waveform, with a spark resistance of 10 SZ. Further, the voltage collapse time depends on the operating pressure and the breakdown voltage. Experimentally, it was cleared that with a constant SF6 gas pressure, voltage collapse time increases with increase of breakdown voltage. Further, for a given operating voltage, voltage collapse time increases with incrcase of gas pressurc 161,

4. VFTO GENERATION SET-UP

The VFTO generation set-up is shown in

Figure 3. This set-up comprises of a central HT

conductor, supported by epoxy insulators, placed in a grounded metal enclosure, and filled with SF6 gas at a pressure of 1 atm. The disconnector switch operation is simulated by means of a gas insulated spark gap. The source side conductor of the spark gap is supported by one of the insulator and load side is a metal inserted cone insulator. The set-up is energsed from a 100 kV-test transformer via a 1 MC2 resistor. For the travelling waves inside the GIS module, this resistor acts as an open end, with a reflection factor close to unity. The resistor also limits the lugh frequency current flowing in the gas insulated busduct, under conditions of W O . To measure VFTO in actual system, breakdown is created in coaxial gas bus duct and

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The risc time of thc VFTO pulses is in the range of 2 nscc. The VFTO waveform is attenuatcd withm 150 nsec. The tinic, over which the VFTO continucs, depends on configuration of the GIs. In thc prcscnt studies, the length of thc gas insulatcd system is short and both sides of the spark gap arc terminated filth open ends. Thc maximum VFTO level is observcd at the sourcc sidc open cnd. Further, tlic reprcscntation of spark channel dwelopmcnt and its variation w.r.t timc is also essential, along with GlS components for estimating VFTO more accurately. The lower cut-off frequency of the Hence, measured system is in the range of 1 W . t h s technique of measurement is limited to measure the fast rising pulses only. By increasing the terminating resistance of the measuring system from SO fi to 1M!Z the lower cut-off frequency can be increased. Therefore, to measure all types of pulses, like, AC, LI and VFTO. the terminating resistance of 1 MR has to be adopted. In the prcsent studes, the temfinating resistance of 50 R has been used for nicasuring VFTO. voltages in GIS, Elcctrical Engmccring in Japan vol. 115, No. 1, 1995. M. Mohana Rao, H.S. Jain and S.C.Gupta, Capacitive voltage divider for measuring steep rising pulses in G I s , Fourth Workshop & Conference on EHV Technology, Bangalore. 1998. M. Mohan Rao and M.S. Naidu, Secondary Breakdowns in GIS, Tenth International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering (ISH97), MONTREAL, CANADA, v01.2, pp.367-70, 1997. T G. Engel et. al, The pulsed dscharge arc resistance and its functional behaviour., IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, vol. 17. No. 2. 1989. S. Yanabu et. al, Estimation of Fast Transient Overvoltages in Gas Insulated Substation, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vo1.5, No. 4. 1990.

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Correspondence for Author

M. Mohan Rao Engmeer Gas Insulated Power Equipment Lab. B E L , Corporate R&D Division Vkas Nagar, Hyderabad - 500 093, India. e-mail : gip@md.bhcl.co.in Fax : 91 40 3078271

7. CONCLUSIONS
The developed voltage divider is capable of measuring VFTO in GIS with a reasonably good accuracy. The PET film a material for the low voltagc side capacitor, coatcd with silver paint on either sidc of thc film, provides stable capacitance in the very high frequency range. Further, the dcvclopcd voltage divider has been found to bc luglily reliable. The representation of the spark channel dcvclopnient and its variation w.r.t timc is also esscntial, along with represcntation of GIS components, for estimating VFTO more accuratcly. Further, if the voltage collapse timc is not considercd, large high frequency componcnts arc superimposed on the fundamental frequency componcnts. The samc mcasurcmcnt techruque can help to identi@ the defects in GIS as well, whcn uses as a UHF sensor.

8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to thank to the Management of Bharat Hcavy Elcctricals Limited, Corporate R&D dnision, for their permission for the publication of this work.

9. REFERENCES
1. E.E. Henriksen. Study of very fast transient
ovenroltages in transformcrs(VFTO), ELECTRA, No. 179, August 1998. 2. Masafunu Yashinlrt et al.. Capacitive voltage sensor for measuring very fast transient over

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Fig.4 Measured VFTO signature on DSO. Fig.1 The capacitive voltage divider set-up.

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Fig.2 Equivalent circuit of the W O measuring system.

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Fig.3 Experimental set-up for W O measurement.

Fig.6 Simulated VFTO waveform with 10 Ohm resistance.