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Transient Overvoltage Analysis During the Restoration Process in Electric Power Systems
Juan J. Jimnez, Student Member, IEEE, and Javier Chaparro, Student Member, IEEE
Electrical & Computer Engineering Department University of Puerto Rico at Mayagez Mayagez, PR 00681-9042 safely after a failure. During a power system failure or a blackout, many or all loads in the power system grid are unserved until a restoration action is taken. The restoration process has the objective to reestablish the electric energy to the costumers (service to loads) as quickly as possible keeping a feasible configuration in all stages after a power system failure or blackout. These stages may be considered as switching operations turning on transmission lines, transformers, loads, generation units or capacitor banks. The initial system topologies are quite different from well integrated systems during normal operations. There are several problems that pertain to these non-normal topologies that are of common concern to operators and need to be addressed. One of these problems is the overvoltage from transient phenomena. During early stages of restoring a system, switching transient may affect the devices turned on in the restoration path. After a major power system failure, the first stages of the restoration process are very critical because the transient phenomena may arise and cause damage to the equipment. Prompt and effective power system restoration is essential for the minimization of both, downtime and costs to the utility and its customers, and to avoid any damage to any equipment in the system. II. POWER SYSTEM RESTORATION Utilities have broached the problem of power system restoration after a major power failure by developing restoration procedures to handle services interruption by minimizing its impact and to restore supply as soon as possible to all costumers. Global strategies for restoration procedures differ from one utility to another because the different characteristics of the system network and their components and due to the system topology. In general, the objective of restoration is not only to speed up the process but to carefully prevent the risk of equipment damage due to overvoltages and avoid situations which can delay the overall process. The power system restoration process commonly consists of two main sequential steps. First, the optimal system configuration target is obtained from the set of feasible network configurations. Second, switching operations are performed in order to achieve the optimal target configuration obtained in the first step, maintaining the system operating within its feasible limits. That means, all voltages, reactive power, power flows on the transmission lines, and generator

AbstractIn this paper a transient analysis is performed to the early stages of the restoration process for power systems. During the restoration process some transient voltages or switching surges may arise destabilizing the system and causing damage to equipment. For this reason we studied the surge phenomena in the first stages of the restoration method presented in [1]. We compared two approaches for the restoration process in order to validate the proposed method in [1]. The transient analysis was performed to the first two stages of the restoration plan for the WSCC Nine-Bus system. The results validate the approach of [1] and recommend a minimum time between the switching operations that establish the restoration path. Index TermsBlackout, power system restoration, switching operation, surge phenomena and transient analysis.

I. INTRODUCTION LACKOUT, as result of a power system disturbance, interrupt the service to many, or all loads in the area. Blackout can occur due to several reasons; most of them can be classified as the following categories: Faulty conventional protection and control Weather other than lightning Lightning Solar magnetic disturbances Faulty high voltage equipment Excessive customer demand Human error (system operators) Sabotage (vandalism or terrorism) Other major disturbances Some samples of these disturbances are reviewed and discussed in [2]. In general, one or a combination of these circumstances may lead to an eventual breakdown causing uncontrolled cascading events that must be contained in order to avoid propagation to other parts of the system causing a blackout [3]. It is difficult to avoid system failures and blackouts. However, control actions can be taken in order to reduce the number of occurrences and their consequences. In this latter, it is included the power system restoration process. Power systems are becoming more complicated and higher reliability is required in recent years, under these circumstances, is mandatory to restore the system quickly and
This work was part of the main project of the graduate course: INEL6077 Surge Phenomena in Power System, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at The University of Puerto Rico Mayagez.

power outputs are within operation limits. This can be achieved doing switching operations until a safe and stable power system topology has been reach. Several approaches have been proposed to solve the power system restoration problem. In [4], the authors proposed a solution for the power system restoration problem minimizing the number of un-served loads and switching costs. The switching costs were represented by means of the so-called restorative operation costs. In [5], priority loads approach was proposed. The approaches [4] and [5] allow more than one switching operation at each stage. According to [1], in real life, the system operators only perform a switching operation at a time to assure the system stability. The system topology change in each switching operation, so there are not guarantee that control and state variables are maintained within operating limits and that the power balances equations are met between the switching operations at each stage. In [1], a particle swarm optimization approach for solving the electric power system restoration problem was proposed. The authors proposed that each switching operation may be considered as a restoration scenario. Following a switching operation a new network configuration and a new set of voltages and power balance equations are obtained. In this study, we test the approach presented in [1] which is concentrated in obtaining a switching scenario or stage where only a load, a transformer, a transmission line, a shunt capacitor bank or a generation unit is switched one at a time. Also, in each stage all the control and stage variables should be within their limits and the power balance equations should be met once the system reach its steady state. We will analyze the transient phenomena during early stages of a power restoration process where the system is lightly loaded. We will compare the process of performing only one switching operation per stage [1] and the process of performing more than one switching operation per stage [4] and [5]. This study will validate the approach of [1] and will recommend a minimum time between the switching operations that establish the restoration path. III. TRANSIENT PHENOMENA DURING POWER SYSTEM RESTORATION During the early stages of restoring high voltage system, one concern is the switching transients. Transient voltages or switching surges are causes by energizing large segments of a transmission system or by switching capacitive elements. Switching transient, which are usually highly damped and of short duration, in conjunction with sustained overvoltages may result in arrester failures. Transient overvoltages are not usually a significant factor at transmission voltages below 100 kV [6]. At higher transmission voltages, overvoltages caused by switching operations may become significant, because arrester operating voltage are relative close to normal system voltage and lines are usually long so that energy stored on the lines may be large. In most cases without sustained traveling wave transients, surge arresters have sufficient energy absorbing capability to clamp harmful overvoltages to safe

levels without permanent damage. In general, if the steady state voltages are less than 1.2 pu of their nominal values the switching transients can be managed by typical arresters. Severe overvoltages resulting from switching surges may cause flashover and serious damage to equipment. Switching transients are fast transients that occur in the process of energizing transmission line and bus load capacitances immediately after a power source is connected to the network. Inductances of transmission lines and power sources interact with capacitance to cause very fast oscillations in the process. The main cause of overvoltages is ill-timed closure of the breakers, if it occurs at the point when the instantaneous voltage of the source goes through its maximum a large overvoltage may result. The simulations presented in this study show this situation. In general, it is desirable to energize a section of a transmission line as large as the sustained and transient overvoltages will allow. Energizing small section tends to prolong the restoration process. In energizing a large section however, there is the risk of damaging the equipment insulations [7]. The loads at the ends of the line tend to reduce the sustained and transient overvoltages. Therefore, operators need to know the maximum capacity of the load and the right moment to restore it in order to avoid any damage caused by the transient overvoltages. In the transmission system during the restoration process it is of great concern the equipment limitations. Power transformers, surge arresters and circuit breakers will be the earliest equipment affected by overvoltages. A power transformer can survive a seemingly small overvoltage of 1.2 pu for only about one minute. The surge arrester with the power transformer can withstand 1.4 pu voltage for 10 seconds. Above 1.4 pu voltage, surge arrester failure will precede transformer damage. Any voltage above 1.1 pu will put the transformer into saturation, causing core heating and harmonic current generation [6]. The authors of [6] stated that most high voltage circuit breakers could interrupt line charging current at least up to 1.2 pu of maximum rating. They also recommend that no line should be energized if by doing so voltage at the remote end would rise to more than 1.2 pu normal voltage. To analyze the transient phenomena during each switching operation in the process of system restoration, we use the oneline diagram shown in figure 1 with the objective to supply energy to the load.

Figure 1

For example, let said that the system on figure 1 suffered a collapse and switches S1, S2, and S3 are open. As restoration process the first stage is to activate the switches S1 and S2 in

order to reestablish the transmission line that will supply the load. In this case we have the generator, the power transformer and the transmission line without the load. As second stage we will activate the switch S3 that will connect the load. The figure 1 may represent the first two restoration stages presented in [1] using the WSCC Nine-Bus test system. IV. TEST SYSTEM In [1], the approach was tested using the WSCC Nine-Bus system [8]. The following drawing and tables show the on-line system topology and system data:

7 8

8 9

Line Transmission Line Transmission Line

0.0085 0.0119

0.0720 0.1008

0.1490 0.2090

100.0 50.0

V. TRANSIENT STUDY As result of the restoration process in [1], the pre-first stage of the restoration process was to activate the generation unit G1 in bus 1 in a blackout scenario. Due the generation unit G1 was set as the reference, the bus 1 was the slack bus. The generation unit G1 and the transformer 1-4 were active previous the first stage, because transformer 1-4 is the step-up transformer of G1 and it is obvious that both G1 and transformer 1-4 need to be restored simultaneously in order to supply power to the transmission network to be restored. The first stage of the restoration process was to activate the transmission line between buses 4 and 6 according to the optimal result in [1]. Once the line 4-6 is activated, the second stage was to activate the whole load on bus 6. We will test the proposed method on [1], where only one switching operation per stage is recommended. Our test consist in restore the first two stages of the restoration process. Two possible situations will be evaluated. The first situation is to activate the transmission line 4-6 and the load on bus 6 simultaneously, process allowed in [4] and [5]. The second situation is to activate the transmission line 4-6 first and then the load in bus 6 [1]. The load at bus 6 consists of 90MW and 30 MVAR 3 load. As part of our test we assume that all switching operations occur equally to the three phases. So we performed a single phase analysis to the problem.

Figure 2 TABLE I GENERATION UNITS DATA Bus

1 2 3

Min MW
0.0 0.0 0.0

Max MW
90.0 190.0 100.0

Min MVAR
-15.0 -25.0 -20.0

Max MVAR
45.0 75.0 50.0

TABLE II BUS DATA Bus

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Voltage (kV)
16.5 18 13.8 230 230 230 230 230 230

Load MW
0 0 0 0 125 90 0 100 0

Load MVAR
0 0 0 0 50 30 0 35 0

P3 = 90 MW Q3 = 30 MVAR P1 = 30 MW Q1 = 10 MVAR VLL = 230 KV V = 132,790.562V

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

From (1) and (2) we obtain the single phase load power (3) and (4). From the base voltage (5) we obtain the single phase voltage (6) at the load side. In order to perform the study using program ATP DRAW, it was necessary to convert the load power model to impedance load model.

TABLE III BRANCH DATA From

1 2 3 4 4 5 6

To
4 7 9 5 6 7 9

Type
Transformer Transformer Transformer Transmission Line Transmission Line Transmission Line Transmission

R (pu)
0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0100 0.0170 0.0320 0.0390

X (pu)
0.0576 0.0625 0.0586 0.0850 0.0920 0.1610 0.1700

B (pu)
0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.1700 0.1580 0.3060 0.3580

Rating MVA
100.0 200.0 125.0 75.0 50.0 125.0 75.0

S L = PL + jQL = 30 MW + 10 MVAR S L = 31,622,766.618.435 VA

S L = VL I L

(7) (8)

SL 31,622,776.6 18.435 IL = = V 132,790.5620 L I L = 238.14 18.435 A

(9)

VL = Z L I L ZL = VL 132,790.5620 = I L 238.14 18.435

(10)

Z L = 557.61518.435 Z L = 529 + j176.333 RL = 529 X L = 176.333

LL = X L 176.333 = = 0.46774 H = 467.74mH 2f 2 * 60

(11) (12) (13) (14)

Figure 3

Several simulations were done using different switching scenarios in order to validate the approach presented in [1]. VI. SIMULATIONS The following simulations show the transient analysis during early stages of a power restoration process in order to compare the process of performing only one switching operation per stage [1] and the process of performing more than one switching operation per stage [4] and [5]. The following figure show the legend for the voltage curves in the simulations.

From (7) to (14) we obtain the impedance load model parameters necessaries to simulate the load in the ATP DRAW program. In addition it was necessary to convert the transmission line parameters specified in [8] to the transmission line pi () model.

S BASE = 100 MVA VBASE = 230 KV

(15) (16)

Using base values (15) and (16) we perform base changes to the transmission lines 4-6 and the transformer 1-4 in order to simulate them using ATP DRAW.

Figure 4

Simulation I

S BASE X XMER = 0.0576 pu * 529 = 30.4704 RLINE = 0.017 pu * 529 = 8.993 X LINE = 0.092 pu * 529 = 48.668 BLINE 1 = pu * 529 = 6696.2025 2 0.079 X 30.4704 L XMER = XMER = = 8.825 *10 2 2f 2 * 60 L XMER = 80.825mH X 48.668 LLINE = LINE = = 0.129096 2f 2 * 60 LLINE = 129.096mH 1 1 C LINE = = B 2 * 60 * 6696.2025 2f LINE 2 C LINE = 0.39613F

Z BASE =

(VBASE )

= 529

(17) (18) (19) (20) (21)

Description:

All switches are close to show the steady state of the system with all devices activated. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

(22)

(23)

(24)
Figure 5

From (17) to (24) we obtain the transmission line pi () model and the transformer parameters. The figure 3 shows the system studied using the program ATP DRAW.

Simulation II Description: S1 and S2 are open to show the steady state of the system just before the restoration process beginning in a blackout scenario. This scenario corresponds to the pre-first stage of the proposed method in [1]. Switched On Yes No No

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

Figure 7

Figure 6

Simulation III Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line. This scenario corresponds to the first stage of the proposed method in [1]. Note: At peak voltage the surge phenomena is most notable. Switched On Yes Yes No

Figure 8

Simulation IV Description: S1 and S2 are closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load simultaneously. This scenario reflects the simultaneous switching allowed in [4] and [5]. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

Figure 9

Figure 11

Simulation V Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) and S2 is closed at 10/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load. This scenario corresponds to the second stage of the proposed method in [1]. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Simulation VI Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) and S2 is closed at 5/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load. This scenario corresponds to the second stage of the proposed method in [1]. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

Figure 10

Figure 12

scenario corresponds to the second stage of the proposed method in [1]. Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2) Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Figure 13

Simulation VII Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) and S2 is closed at 9/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load. This scenario corresponds to the second stage of the proposed method in [1]. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Figure 15

Simulation IX Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2) Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) and S2 is closed at 7/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load. This scenario corresponds to the second stage of the proposed method in [1]. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

Figure 14

Simulation VIII Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) and S2 is closed at 8/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load. This
Figure 16

Simulation X Description: S1 is closed at 1/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) and S2 is closed at 6/60 seconds (Generation unit peak voltage) to activate the transmission line and the whole load. This scenario corresponds to the second stage of the proposed method in [1]. Switched On Yes Yes Yes

Device: Generation unit and Step-up transformer Transmission line Switch #1 (S1) Load Switch #2 (S2)

results validate the proposed method presented in [1], where authors define a restoration scenario with only one switching operation allowed per stage. As a result we also recommend establishing a minimum time interval between each switching operation to be approximated more than five voltage periods, or better more than ten voltage periods. This time may depend of the system and the current restoration stage. In real life, this will not be an issue because we are talking about milliseconds that do not slow or delay the restoration process performed by system operators. VIII. CONCLUSION In this paper a transient analysis was performed to the early stages of the restoration process. The transient overvoltage in the first stages of the restoration method presented in [1] was studied. A direct comparison between two approaches for the restoration process was performed. The transient analysis was performed to the first two stages of the restoration plan for the WSCC Nine-Bus system according to [1]. The results validated the approach of [1] and the consideration of minimum time between the switching operations was recommended. IX. REFERENCES
[1] J. J. Jimenez and Jose R. Cedeno, A Particle Swarm Optimization Approach for Electric Power System Restoration, Proceeding of the 35th North America Power Symposium 2003. North America Electric Reliability Council, Review Of Selected Electric System Disturbances In North America, http://www.nerc.com/~filez/dawg-disturbancereports.html. A. J. Wood and B. F. Wollenberg, Power Generation, Operation and Control, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY, 1996. T. Nagata, H. Sasaki and R. Yokoyama, "Power System Restoration By Joint Usable Of Expert System And Mathematical Programming Approach", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 10, No. 3, August 1995. J. C. Mendes, O. R. Saavedra and J. O. Pessanha, "Power System Restoration With Priority Loads Using An Evolutionary Strategy Approach", 34th North America Power Symposium, Tempe, Arizona State University. M. M. Adibi, R. W. Alexander and B. Avramovici, "Overvoltage Control During Restoration", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 7, No. 4, November 1992. M. M. Adibi, R. W. Alexander and D. P. Milanicz, "Energizing High And Extra-High Lines During Restoration", IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 14, No. 3, November 1999. P. M. Anderson and A. A. Fouad, Power System Control and Stability, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Son, New York NY, 2003.

[2]

[3] Figure 17 [4]

VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The simulation I and II show the steady state of the system before and after the restoration process. Simulation III shows the fast transient overvoltage at the end side of the transmission line. Note that the load was not switched on at this time. Figure 7 shows the voltage attenuation through the time. This scenario corresponds to the first stage of the proposed method in [1]. Simulation IV reflects the scenario where the transmission line and the load were switched on simultaneously as allowed in [4] and [5]. Note that a transient peak voltage at the load raises twice the nominal voltage at the load bus. So the load is badly affected by this transient overvoltage. From simulation V to X, we have the scenario corresponding to the second stage of the method proposed in [1]. Note that both, the transmission line and the load, are switched on in different voltage peaks in order to obtain the worst case scenario for transient overvoltages at buses. In these simulations the load was not so affected as in simulation IV. The restoration process stated by simulation III in conjunction with simulation V, VI, VII, VIII, IX or X protect the load from the transient overvoltages. On the other hand, the simulation IV exposes the load to a transient overvoltage that can damage the equipment attached to the bus. These
[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

J. J. Jimnez was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. He obtained his Bachelor Degree in Science of Electrical Engineering with Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus in May, 2002. Actually, he is working in his Master Degree in Science of Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus. His special fields of interest include Power system and evolutionary computing. Mr. Jimnez is a CIAPR active member. J. Chaparro was born in Mayagez, Puerto Rico. He obtained an Associate Degree in Electronic Technology with Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla Campus in May, 1997. He obtained his Bachelor Degree in Science of Electrical Engineering with Magna Cum Laude from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus in May, 2002. Actually, he is working in his Master Degree in Science of Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus. His special fields of interest include Power system distribution and transmission.