Paper acceptcd for prcscntation at PPT 2001

2001 IEEE Porto Power Tech Conference

IOth -13 September, Porto, Portugal

Testing EHV Secondary Arcs

G . Ban, Fellow, IEEE

L. Prikler, Member, IEEE

Abstract--The protection of the environment requires

compact EHV tower constructions. This trend results in
decreasing the clearances and phase-to-phase distances. It is
expectable, that both the number of faults and the amplitude
of the secondary arc current will grow in the future. All these
make necessary to improve the efficiency of single-phase
reclosing. Secondary arc duration values gained at field tests
show a big spread and therefore they do not provide a reliable
basis for selecting a suitable dead time. Analyzing the main
processes affecting on the secondary arc duration, authors
conclude that traveling wave phenomena arising in the
intermittent period of secondary arcing have a determining
effect on the arc duration. Considering the difficulties
connected with field tests and the big influence of the weather
conditions on the secondary arc duration, authors propose to
complete laboratory test circuits by such components, which
effectuate the simulation of the wave processes. A method for
the detection of the secondary arc extinction of good
experiences on 750 and 400 kV lines is mentioned, which offers
a possibility to prevent inefficient reclosures.
Index Terms--Compacting power lines, dead time, EHV line
faults, field test, laboratory test, secondary arc, shunt reactor,
single-phase reclosing, traveling wave process.

I. INTRODUCTION

0 integrate transmission lines into the environment, the

dimensions of the towers, the clearances, phase-tophase spacing are to be reduced. Besides it is difficult to find
a new right-of-way. To operate lines on a higher voltage
level, than their original nominal voltage offers a possibility
to overcome this problem. Transmission lines of lower
voltage level contain single phase-conductors. When
uprating lines, they have to be replaced by bundle
conductors or the number of subconductors has to be
increased. All these solutions result in decreasing the
clearance and increasing the phase-to-phase capacitance. It
is expected, that the number of faults due to lightning
strokes will increase, if the dimensions of the towers will be
reduced in proportion of the possible rate of switching
overvoltages limitation.

The activity reported in the paper has been partly supported by the
Hungarian Research Fund under contract No. OTKA T 026054.
Gabor Ban, Laszl6 Prikler and Gyorgy BBnfai are with the Department of
Electric Power Systems, Budapest University of Technology and Economics,
Egry J. U. 18, H-1 1 1 1 Budapest, Hungary.
Authors e-mail addresses: ban@vmt.bme.hu, I.prikler@ieee.org

0-7803-7139-9/01/$10.00 02001 IEEE

G . Banfai, Member, IEEE

Single phase reclosing seems to be an efficient tool to

compensate the expectable growth in the number of EHV
line faults, since they are single phase-to-ground ones and
not permanent in the overwhelming majority of cases.
Stability requirements determine the upper limit of the dead
time; generally dead times exceeding 1.5 - 2 s are not
permissible. When tripping the faulty phase, a secondary arc
forms in the hot plasma remaining from the primary arc.
The secondary arc is sustained by the capacitive and
inductive coupling between the healthy and faulty phase
conductors. The amplitude of the continuous secondary
current lies in the range of 10 Amps. The secondary arc
extinguishes spontaneously as a rule, however its duration
depends on many factors. Long duration secondary arcs
endanger the efficiency of single-phase reclosing, if the
secondary arc does not extinguish during the dead time, the
reclosure is followed by three-phase tripping the line.
Consequently, the lower limit of the dead time to be adjusted
in the reclosing automation is prescribed by the expectable
duration of the secondary arcs. Considering the increased
phase-to-phase capacitance of compact and uprated lines,
higher secondary arc currents have to be expected, that will
result in longer secondary arc duration.
Numerous tests have been carried out on real lines and in
laboratories to get a picture about the expectable secondary
arc duration. However, the results published in technical
papers show a significant spread. To prescribe the lower
limit of the dead time starting from the longest secondary
arc extinction time experienced does not seem economical.
On the other hand, utilities want to keep the same reliability
level for compact lines with reduced clearances and
increased phase-to-phase capacitance, as for the
conservative line constructions. It is easy to see, that exact
and reliable data about the expectable secondary arcing
times are necessary for the new tower constructions and it is
recommendable to reconsider the technique of secondary arc
testing.
Authors participated in field testing of a 420 kV
interconnecting line of 3 10 km length, without shunt
compensation, in November and December 1999. Seven
staged faults were carried out, aiming to predict the
expectable secondary arcing times. The shortest extinction
time recorded during the tests reached 0.05 s and the longest
4 s. The secondary arc did not extinguish during 27 s on one
test, so the line was tripped. The T, = 4 s and T, > 27 s

extinction times have been measured at calmness and

T,= 0.05 s - 0.69 s values at small wind velocity (3 - 4 d s ) .
The big spread of the extinction times and very long arcing
times experienced in two cases correspond to the data about
extinction times published in former papers containing
generalizing diagrams [3]. The voltage and currents records
as well as shots made about the arc movement make possible
to investigate the secondary arcing process in details. The
purposes of this investigation are:
- to explain the big spread of the secondary arc extinction
times,
- to study the factors influencing on the secondary arcing
process,
- to improve the technique of field tests to get more reliable
data,
- to elaborate a correct test circuit for laboratory studies,
- to find a way for establishing a dead time which is
acceptable both from stability and single phase reclosure
efficiency point of view.
Authors considered also their former experiences and results
gained at former field tests on a shunt compensated 750 kV
line of 479 kilometers length and numerous 400 kV lines.
The paper analyses the following points:
- the shape and the amplitude of the secondary arc current,
- the impact of the wind velocity,
- the technique of the secondary arc initiation,
11. THESHAPE AND THE AMPLITUDE
OF THE

SECONDARY
ARCCURRENT
The dependency of the secondary arc extinction time on
the sinusoidal, steady state arc current is given in the
generalizing papers. This current can be calculated using the
circuit in Fig. 1, where Ua, U,, U, are the phase voltages,
Cab-thephase-to-phase, Co-thezero sequence capacitance,

&-the secondary arc current. The fault is modeled by switch

S,. The secondary current contains an induced component
as well due to the inductive coupling between the phase
conductor and an inductive one caused by the distributed
character of C a b and the lumped character of the fault. The
induced and the inductive components may be neglected
usually due to their small amplitude. These components play
an important role only when the capacitive component is
compensated artificially (e.g. by neutral reactors).
The predominant part of the published laboratory tests
was carried out using the circuit in Fig. l/b. However, this
circuit gives a reference about the steady state secondary
current only. As numerous records of single phase switching
tests on transmission lines show the character of secondary
arcing is intermittent during a significant part of the
process. The extinction of the secondary arc is always
preceded by an intermittent interval, containing current
impulses. The amplitude of these impulses can be much
higher than in the steady-state interval (Fig.2). This part of
the arcing process can be explained by the thermal effect of
the high current primary arc which generates a.powerfu1 air
movement resulting in a speedy elongation of the secondary
arc and producing separated from each other plasma clouds.
Wind can have the same effect on the secondary arcing.
When the transient recovery voltage, arising along the arc
channel, exceeds the critical value, sufficient to reignite the
arc, traveling waves start on the line. The superposition of
the reflected waves produces a current zero at the fault and
mostly partial arc extinction. The length of the current
impulses depends on the place of the fault. If the fault is in
the middle point, the impulse length is equal to the travel
time along the line (T). For the predominant part of the line
length, the duration of the impulse is 2T. The shape of the
impulse and its thermal effect is depending on the line

a.

600

400

200
0

b.

-200

-400

a) three-phase network
Fig. 1.

b) equivalent circuit

-600
0.6

07

08

0.9

1 .o

Typical secondary arc voltage and the current (measured)

Fig. 2

1 1

............

.........

............

.........

-u,/2
LO
Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit for shunt compensated lines

............
....................

400
0.67

,1

........

.........................

........

'I

0.69

0.71

0.73

0.75

0.77

Fig. 3. Measured secondary arc voltage and current

configuration (discontinuity points) as well. The actual value

of the recovery voltage at the moment of the restrike
determines the peek value of the current impulse. The
energy of the current impulse is higher, when the restrike
occurs near to, but before the peek of the recovery voltage
(see Fig.3).

A high current impulse containing a relatively high

amount of energy is able to re-ionize a large amount of
plasma, to shift back the process into the quasi-sinusoidal
interval and elongate the secondary arc duration. From these
effects it emerges, that traveling wave phenomena have a
big influence on intermittent arcing process and
consequently on the secondary arc duration. Thus circuits
applied for testing secondary arc in laboratory cannot
furnish correct data without modeling the wave processes
during the intermittent interval. The shape and the
amplitude of the recovery voltage arising after the partial
extinctions of the secondary arc must have also an effect on
the arc duration. These parameters also strongly depend on
the wave phenomena.
Shunt reactors connected directly to a power line affect
both on the arc current and the recovery voltage. From the
equivalent circuit created for this configuration (Fig. 4)
follows, that here the recovery voltage is of beating
character, it contains two frequencies: the power and the
transient frequency of the circuit. Consequently the partial

or final arc extinctions are followed by a modulated voltage

oscillation, the amplitude of which may be rather high,
depending on the compensation degree of the line.
As another effect of shunt reactors, a DC component
occurs in the initial part of the secondary arc current, caused
by the magnetic energy stored in the reactor at the moment
of tripping the faulty phase. The circuit in Fig. 4 simulates
this DC component, which affects on the arc duration only
when four legged shunt reactor sets are connected to the
line. Besides, the shunt reactor of the faulty phase generates
a DC component in the secondary arc during each arc
reignition. Fig. 5 shows, that the shunt reactor current (Ir) is
opposite to the current wave I,, reflected at the line end, if
the arc reignites before the peek of the recovery voltage UIec.
In case of a reignition after the peek of U,, (this happens
frequently when the gaps in the secondary arc channel
increase) the directions of I, and I,, are equal. As a result,
the first zero transition of the arc current becomes very
steep, and the arc can not extinguish in the first current
zero, the length of the restrike elongates by 10 milliseconds.
Occurring long duration restrikes can delay the final
extinction of the secondary arc for a long time. As a matter
of course the circuit shown in Fig. 4 does not simulate the
wave process.
111. THEEFFECTOF THE WIND VELOCITY

The secondary arc forms inside the plasma left by the

primary arc which is moving upwards due to its high
temperature and in horizontal direction due to the wind.
After a short while individual plasma clouds will be
separated from each other by cold channel zones due to the
elongation of the arc channel and the thermal losses.

0.10

0.12

0.14

0.i6

o.is

0.50

upper curves: I, (green) and Iarc=I,+lcw,lower curve: U,

Fig. 5 .

0.52

The secondary arc extinguishes finally, when the voltage

necessary to break down the high resistance channel zones,
exceeds the recovery voltage. So it is evident, that the wind
velocity is a determining factor of the secondary arc
extinction process. Unfortunately, most papers do not
publish the wind parameters during the tests.
At calmness no horizontal component of the arc motion,
the plasmas left by the primary arc and generated by the
secondary one move slowly, without any significant channel
elongation (Fig. 6/a). Ions generated during the intermittent
arc interval remain in the environment of the arc. These
circumstances make the self-extinction time very long. At
small wind velocities the elongation of the arc is slow. Due
to the electromagnetic field, loops occur in the arc channel
(Fig. 6h). So parts of the arc channel, which are electrically
far from each other, may get close geometrically. If the
recovery voltage is sufficient to produce a breakdown,
bridging a significant length of the arc channel, the arcing
process may return to the condition of steady state burning,
remarkably elongating the self-extinction time.
The formation of loops is of random character; as a
consequence the spread of the self-extinction times is
relatively big at small wind velocities. There is an
interesting interaction of the loop formation and the wave
processes. Being the motion of the arc channel slower, than
increasing the recovery voltage, a breakdown between two
plasma clouds occurs mainly at the peek of the recovery
voltage. Such a breakdown results in a high current impulse
that is not able to extinguish at the first zero transition
producing a high energy elongated restrike (see the first and
second restrikes in Fig. 7), which sets back the intermittent
arcing into the steady-state one.
In strong wind the distances between the active parts of
the inhomogeneous arc channel increase quickly.
Consequently, the re-ignition voltage does not take long to
excess the recovery voltage, resulting in a short extinction
time.
I v . THETECHNIQUE
OF THE SECONDARY ARC INITIATION
Secondary arc tests on real lines are often carried out by
omitting the primary arc; the secondary arc is initiated by a
thin wire in such cases. This method of testing is based on
the conclusion drawn from numerous field tests [6], that the
primary arc does not affect the self extinction time, as far as
the secondary arc duration excesses 0.7 s. Considering, that
the omission of the primary arc makes the tests more simple
and less dangerous for the system, and secondary arc
durations shorter than 0.7 s are allowed from stability point
of view as a rule, this way of testing seems to be attractive.
In case of a real phase-to-ground fault the secondary arc
develops inside the primary plasma, along its whole length
(Fig. 6/c). Our field test results show, that the thickness of

the wire and the way of its connection to the arcing honis
may influence on the self-extinction time, particularly at
middle and big wind velocities, when the speeds of the arc
elongation and wire evaporation are commensurable.
In such cases the arc may extinguish due to the
elongation caused by the wind before the wire evaporates
along its whole length (Fig. 6/d). The arc initiation by
means of a wire may result in shorter extinction times than
under natural conditions.

v. DETECTION
OF THE SECONDARY ARC EXTINCTION
As it was mentioned before, the final extinction of the
secondary arc is preceded by an intermittent interval during
which the arc current is of impulse character. Every
impulse is initiated by a breakdown between the individual
plasma clouds, as a consequence, the breakdown is followed
by starting steep front waves along the line. Waves, reflected
on the open ends of the faulty phase conductor result in a
current transition and mostly an intermediate extinction at
the place of the fault. So both the front and the tail of the
current impulse are relatively steep, causing two individual
transients on the line. Both transients result in a voltage
oscillation on the line ends. The frequency of the breakdown
transient depends on the situation of the fault. The frequency
of the extinction transient is depending on the line length
only. This frequency can be calculated very exactly, taking
into consideration the effect of the healthy phases on the
process. Therefore it can be used as a signal for the
detection.
The device, elaborated in the Budapest University of
Technology and Economics for the detection of the final
extinction of the secondary arc has been based on sensing
the presence of the extinction transients by means of special
filters on the line ends. As long as the intermittent
secondary arc exists, a high voltage occurs on the outputs of
the filters. Dropping the output voltage to a low level
indicates the final extinction of the secondary arc. The ten
years experience on 750 kV and 400 kV lines was positive:
the disturbance recorders showed, that the devices operated
correctly at every fault.
The scheme has been completed by a sensor which detects
the amplitude of the recovery voltage and serves for
establishing the arc extinction in that rare cases when no
intermittent interval occurs.
Summarizing: one may choose an optimum dead time
from stability point of view, knowing that the above
described device blocks the reclosure when the secondary
arc does not extinguish in time.

b)
secondary arc in middle velocity wind

a)
secondary arc at calmness

c)
formation of the secondary arc inside the primary plasma

d)
extinction of the secondary arc before reaching its whole length

Fig. 6. Secondary arc tests on a 400 kV line

3. One can decide the question about the validity of tests

without primary arc and select the optimal way of arc
initiation using the test circuit mentioned above.

0.8I

4. The negative consequences of the big spread of

extinction times experienced on transmission lines and in
laboratories can be reduced by applying an automation,
which establishes the moment of the final extinction of the
actual secondary arc and prevents the reclosure when it did
not extinguish in time. Such a device has been developed in
Hungary and used on 750 kV and 400 kV lines [7].

0.4

-0.41
I

-0.8
0.096

VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I

0.100

0.104

0.108

0.1 12

Fig. 8. Two restrikes on the power line and in the laboratory test circuit
(calculated). Upper curves: recovery voltage; lower curves: arc current

Authors acknowledge the contribution of the Hungarian

Power Companies Ltd.
VIII. REFERENCES

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Field tests aiming to predict the secondary arc duration
for a new line need long preparation and stress the power
system. On the other hand, a big spread characterizes the
results gained from the individual tests due to the
differences in the wind velocities, arc initiation, line
construction, shunt compensation degree etc. In order to
reduce this spread, correct recording of the wind velocity
and a detailed description of the way of arc initiation are
recommended.
1.

2. Systematic laboratory tests at which the wind velocity

can be controlled and all parameters can be correctly
adjusted, furnish reliable and generalizing data. Laboratory
test circuits have to simulate the wave processes during
intermittent arcing; it can be effectuated by using a simple
reference circuit of the line [5] that takes into consideration
the wave process both in the faulty and healthy phases. As
Fig. 8 shows, one can realize a suitable similarity of the
processes in such a way. The shapes of the current impulses
differ to a certain degree, but the integrals, being responsible
for the thermal effect, are identical.

[l] Fukinishi, M. et al.: Laboratory Study on Dead Time of High

Speed Reclosing of 500 kV Systems CIGRE 1970, Rep.
3 1-03
[2] Haubrich, H.J. et al.: Single-phase Auto-Reclosing in EHN
Systems CIGRE 1974, Rep. 31-09
[3] Rashkes, V.S.: Generalization of the Operation Experiences,
Connected with the Efficiency of Single-phase Reclosing,

Experimental Data about the Extinction Time of the

Secondary Arc Elektricheskie Stancii 1989. No.3 (in
Russian)
[4] Esztergalyos, J. et al.: Single-phase Tripping and Auto
Reclosing of Transmission Lines (IEEE Committee Report),
IEEE Trans. Power Deliveiy, vol. 7, No 1. pp. 182-192,
January 1992
[5] G. Ban, L. Prikler: ReferenceCircuits for the Investigation of
Power Systems Transients in Proc. of International
Conference on Power Systems Transients, Lisbon, 1995,
pp.5 1-56.

[6] Beliakov et al.: Investigation of Single-phase Reclosing on

750
kV
shunt-compensated transmission lines
Elektrichestvo, 1981 No.7 (in Russian).

[7] Ban, G.: Adaptive Single-Pole Reclosing Experience Proc.

of the 33th Session of CIGRE 1990 Gr. 34, pp. 28-29.