Overvoltages of 40.

5 kV Vacuum Circuit Breaker Switching Off Shunt Reactors

Yonggang Guan, Wensheng Gao, Weidong Liu
Department of Electrical Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing, China guanyg@tsinghua.edu.cn

Ning Du, Zutao Xiang

Power System Department China Electric Power Research Institute Beijing, China duning@epri.sgcc.com.cn

AbstractTo investigate the reason of the severe overvoltage failures of 40.5 kV vacuum circuit breakers during switching off shunt reactors, a series of field tests were carried out. The transient process is analyzed, and the magnitude and the characteristics of the transient recovery voltages (TRV) are analyzed. The experiment results indicate that multi-reignition in 35 kV system is much more serious than that in 10 kV system, and the inter-phase overvoltage is especially critical. Additionally, the relationship between the breakdown voltage and the operating moment is exponentially fitted. The result could be used to simulate the overvoltage process when vacuum circuit breakers switch off shunt reactors. Keywords-Vacuum circuit breaker, shunt reactor, overvoltage, transient recovery voltage.

dividers were installed at both sides of the VCB, and the current transformer (CT) installed at the load side of the VCB. Thus, the three-phase voltages at both sides of the VCB were measured, as well as the three-phase currents through the VCB.

Figure 1. Field test circuit arrangement

I.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, more and more 40.5 kV voltage level vacuum circuit breakers (VCB) were used in the power system. Meanwhile, the overvoltage problem with such VCBs catches more and more attention. Especially, breakdowns occur at the switchgear, such as insulation breakdowns in the switch cabinets, explosions or inter-phase breakdown of the vacuum chambers [1], whereas breakdowns mostly occurred at the loads such as motors for the case of lower voltage (like 12 kV) [2]-[6]. Furthermore, the similar protections used in the case of lower voltage level have no longer obvious effects. It is obviously that the overvoltage phenomena and mechanism of 40.5 kV VCBs are different from those of lower voltage levels. In this paper, field tests on 40.5 kV VCBs switching off shunt reactors were carried out. Voltage and current waveforms were measured, and the transient process and overvoltage characteristics under this condition were investigated. II. FIELD TESTS

B. Transient Process Totally, 73 times of switching were carried out during the field test. Fig. 2 to 4 present the waveforms without any protections, including the voltages at both source and load sides of the VCB, and the three-phase currents. In addition, the waveforms of inter-phase voltages at the load side and the transient recovery voltages (TRVs) were obtained through subtracting of the original voltage waveforms. The whole transient process lasts about several milliseconds, which are from less than 1 ms to 5 ms for all 73 sets of data, and then the voltage waveforms turn to a damped oscillation. Furthermore, high-frequency surges can be observed in all three phases. The current of the first phase (phase C) chops at the current zero of the power frequency, and the TRV appears between the two contacts of this phase. Because the recovering speed of dielectric strength of the VCB was slower than that of the TRV at that moment, there was a breakdown leading to a highfrequency surge, which will be coupled to the other two phases, and may cause forced current chopping there. Multi-reignition and voltage escalation can also be observed in these figures. The number of multi-reignition in the last two phases to clear could be up to several dozens, while there are less multi-reignition in the first phase. The slope of the TRV in the first phase to clear is much lower than that in the last two phases, as shown in the partial enlargement figures. Especially, multi-reignition occurs almost each time during the tests, while it is rare in 10 kV and lower systems [6]-[7].

A. Field test circuit The field tests were carried out in the 35 kV side of a 220 kV substation. The single phase diagram of the circuit is shown in Fig. 1, whereas the tests were performed in three-phase system. The VCB in Fig. 1 was used to switch off the shunt reactors in the tests. The neutral point of the three-phase shunt reactors was isolated to ground, and the VCB and reactors were linked by a long three-core cable. The identical capacitor

Project Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (50907037).

___________________________________ 978-1-4244-9690-7/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE



200 100 0 -100 -200 0 200 100 0 -100 -200 0 200 100 0 -100 -200 0

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200 100 A A 69.4 69.8 70.2 70.6 Voltage (kV) B 0 -100 69 100 0 -100 -200 69 100 0 C C -100 -200 69 69.4 69.8 Time (ms) 70.2 70.6 69.4 69.8 70.2 70.6

(b) Partial enlargement of voltage waveforms. Figure 5. Inter-phase voltage at the load side
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(b) Partial enlargement of voltage waveforms. Figure 6. The of the transient recovery voltages in three phases



As for the arc extinguishment in all three phases, it can be easily found from the enlarged figures that the arcs in three phases do not extinguish strictly at the same time, instead, the arc of one phase extinguishes first, and arcs of the other two phases extinguish nearly synchronously about 0.1 ms later. III. OVERVOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS

As shown in Fig. 7, when the current of phase C is zero, and the initial values of energy storage components in phase A and B are equal, the circuit can be simplified into a series branch of phase A and B, where branch C is ignored. The oscillation period of the L-C loop is

1 T = 2 2 L C ms, 2
and the corresponding frequency is 1.6 kHz.

(1)

A. Magnitude of Overvoltages Theoretically, the difference of the maximum overvoltage of last two phases should be 1.0 p.u. (The per-unit voltage of 35 kV systems is 33.1 kV.), and the experimental values of overvoltage of three phases obtained directly from Fig. 2 are: 132 kV (A Phase), 162 kV (B Phase), and 105 kV (C Phase). The magnitude of the inter-phase overvoltage between last two phases (A and B) is equal to the sum of the magnitude of their respective phase-to-ground overvoltages because of their opposite directions. The experimental values of inter-phase overvoltages at the load side obtained from Fig. 5 are: 283 kV (A-B), 183 kV (B-C), 220 kV (C-A). According to the test results, the maximum phase-to-ground overvoltage at the load side appears at the last two phases, and the maximum inter-phase overvoltage at the load side occurs across the last two phases. The values of the maximum phaseto-ground and inter-phase overvoltages both exceed 4.0 p.u. (132 kV), which is the specified maximum switching overvoltage in 35 kV systems [8]. Obviously, it is likely to have a breakdown in the last two phases. B. Steepness and Expected Magnitude of TRV The steepness of TRV of the first phase to clear is very low at first, which is usually less than 1 kV/s, whereas increases along with the multi-reignition. On the contrary, the initial steepness of the TRV of the last two phases is quite high, even up to 11 kV/s, whereas generally decreases along with the multi-reignition. Generally, the waveform of TRV varies sinusoidally, and its expected magnitude and frequency can be estimated based on the waveforms. To simplify the analysis, it is supposed that the current of the first phase chop just at the power frequency current zero, and then the last two phases forcedly chop immediately. Fig. 7 illustrates the equivalent circuit and the initial states of the energy storage components, where Um and Im present the phase voltage and current magnitude of power frequency respectively, and all the three switches are open.
3 Im 2

The theoretical magnitude of the power frequency current is

Im =

U m 33.1 1000 = = 265 A, 125 Z

(2)

while the measured value in Fig. 4 is about 222 A. If the current of the first phase chops just at the current zero, and the power frequency current and voltage at this moment in the other two phases are

I f ch = 222 U f ch

1 = 157 A, 2 1 = 33.1 = 23.4 kV. 2

(3) (4)

Suppose that the current in the last two phases is forced chopped at once, and the expected magnitude of the TRV can be estimated as follows:

U TRVm =

Lreactor 2 I f ch + U 2 f ch = 653 kV (5) Ccable

where Lreactor is 398 mH, and Ccable is 23 nF (including the capacitor divider). Thus it can be seen that the expected magnitude of the TRV of the last two phases is greatly high, which is limited by the dielectric strength between the contacts of circuit breaker through reignitions. If the dielectric strength increases, the TRV of the last two phases would increase meanwhile. C. Frequency Characteristics of the TRV Analysis on frequency characteristics of the TRV was carried out by FFT method, and Figs. 8 and 9 show the amplitude spectrum of the TRV of phases A (one of the last two phases to clear) and C (the first phase to clear) respectively. The peak of the TRV appears at about 1600 Hz, which is determined by the reactance of the reactors and the capacitance of the cable at the load side.
5

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| TRVA(f) | (kV)

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1 Um 2

Um

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Figure 7. Equivalent circuit and initial states of energy storage components

Figure 8. Amplitude spectrum of the TRV of phase A



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CONCLUSIONS

8 | TRVC(f) | (kV)

A series of field tests on 40.5 kV VCBs switching off shunt reactors have been carried out. The transient processes have been analyzed. And the following conclusions can be obtained. 1) For 40.5 kV VCBs switching off shunt reactors, there are reignitions in all three phases after the current chopping of the first phase, and the probability of reignitions is much larger than that in 10 kV and lower systems. And the arcs of three phases do not extinguish exactly synchronously. 2) The switching overvoltage is quite high, up to 132 kV (4.9 p.u.) phase-to-ground and 283 kV (8.5 p.u.) inter-phase. The inter-phase overvoltage is especially critical. Consequently the inter-phase insulations should be designed stronger than phase-to-ground ones. 3) The rate of rise of the recovery voltage (RRRV) of the first phase is usually less than 1 kV/s at first, whereas that of the last two phases is up to 11 kV/s. 4) The relationship between the breakdown voltage and the operating moment can be fitted exponentially. REFERENCES

0 0

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Figure 9. Amplitude spectrum of the TRV of phase C

Similar analysis on the current of phases A and C shows that the peak of the current appears at about 250 kHz, which is determined by the reactance and capacitance of the cable at the load side. As the values of L0 and C0 are about 0.4 H/m and 183 pF/m per phase respectively, and the length of the cable is about 120 m, the theoretical frequency is:

f =
IV.

v 1 = = 244 kHz. 4l 4l L0C0

(6)

RATE OF RECOVERY OF DIELECTRIC STRENGTH

[1]

It is difficult to determine the exact moment of switching in the field tests. To reduce the error of calculations, 5 sets of data are selected from the total 73 sets, whose first breakdown voltage is lower than 5 kV. And the current chopping moment is considered as the operating moment approximately. The relationship between the breakdown voltage and the operating moment is illustrated in Fig. 10. Obviously, the breakdown voltage represents the dielectric strength between the contacts of VCB. The fitting relationship can be calculated as follows:
0.927 ud = 37.6tsw kV,

[2]

[3]

[4]

(7)

[5]

where the unit of tsw is millisecond. The probability of breakdowns shall be in conformity to the Weibull distribution [9]. Fig. 10 shows the experimental points and the fitting curve with plus-minus 1~3 standard deviations. The fitting results could be used for simulating analysis.
150

[6]

[7]

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Voltage (kV)

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[9]

X. G. Chen, Analysis on explosion causes of circuit breakers during cutting on/off reactors in parallel, Electric Power Construction, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 10-14, May 2003. J. Panek, and K. G. Fehrle, Overvoltage phenomena associated with virtual current chopping in three phase circuits, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-94, no. 4, pp. 13171325, Jul./Aug. 1975. A. H. Moore, and T. J. Blalock, Extensive field measurements support new approach to protection of arc furnace transformer against switching transients, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-94, no. 2, pp. 473481, Mar./Apr. 1975. M. Murano, T. Fujii, H. Nishikwa, S. Nishikawi, and M. Okawa, Three-phase simultaneous interruption in interrupting inductive current using vacuum switches, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-93, no. 1, pp.272-280, Jan. 1974. Y. Murai, T. Nitta, T. Takami, and T. Itoh, Protection of motor from switching surge by vacuum switch, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-93, no. 5, pp. 1472-1477, Sep. 1974. G. S. Sun, Research on multi-reignition overvoltages caused by vacuum circuit breakers switching off high-voltage motors, Master dissertation, Dept. Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China, 1980. S. H. Telander, M. R. Willheim, and K. B. Stump, Surge limiters for vacuum circuit breaker switchgear, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. PWRD-2, no. 1, pp. 107-116, Jan. 1987. GB311.1-1997, Insulation Co-ordination for High Voltage Transmission and Distribution Equipment, State Bureau of Technical Supervision of the People's Republic of China, 1997. B. J. Wang, C. C. Wang, and K. X. Tan, Applications of Mathematical Statistics in High Voltage Technology, Beijing: Water Power Press, 1990.

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Figure 10. Experimental points and fitting curve with 1~3 of the relationship between the breakdown voltage and the operating moment solid line - the fitting curve; dash lines - the fitting curve with 1~3.