9A1-3

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014

Secondary Arc Modeling using ATPDraw

Study Case Tasikmalaya-Depok
Extra High Voltage Overheadlines
Muhammad Nurdin

Nanang Hariyanto

Arifin Wijaya

School of Electrical Engineering

and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung, Indonesia
nurdin@power.ee.itb.ac.id

School of Electrical Engineering

and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung, Indonesia
nanang.hariyanto@stei.itb.ac.id

School of Electrical Engineering

and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung, Indonesia
arifin.wijaya@hotmail.com

Abstract Single line to ground faults is a problem that most

often occurs in extra high voltage overhead lines, and generally
temporary. This type of disturbance can be quickly eliminated by
using a single phase auto reclosures, but a secondary arc
phenomenon often makes single phase auto reclosures in the
extra high voltage overhead lines failed to work. This research
aims to obtain a proper modeling of the secondary arc using
ATPDraw. Secondary arc modeling has been successfully
obtained and implemented in the Tasikmalaya-Depok extra high
voltage overhead lines.
Keywords- auto reclosures;
ATPDraw; Tasikmalaya-Depok

I.

modeling;

secondary

arc;

INTRODUCTION

Extra high voltage overhead lines is used to transfer

electricity for long distances. Single line to ground faults on
extra high voltage overhead lines reaches ninety percent of the
total disturbance, and most of them are temporary which can be
switched off by single phase auto reclosures [1]. Single phase
auto reclosures is used to improve system stability, power
transfer, reliability, and availability of a transmission line
during a single line to ground fault [2].
Thus, the success of single phase auto reclosures, which is
strongly determined by relations between dead time settings,
secondary arc extinction, and reignition voltage [3].
Appropriate mechanism, after the single line to ground fault is
detected, the relay will command the circuit breaker on both
sides of the disturbed line to open and during that event, the
other two healthy phases still working and trasnfer the power.
During this dead time, there is inductive and capacitive
coupling between the faulty phase and the healthy phases, as
well as between other conductors of parallel circuits [2]. The
result, a small current will continue to flow along the arc path
that relies heavily on the recovery voltage and temperature will
affect the dielectric strength of the insulation [3], this flow is
called the secondary arc.

978-1-4799-6402-4/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

Taking the typical EHV transmission line in Finland for

example, a model of secondary arc is bulid using Fortran
Statement in the TACS field of ATPDraw. Using that
parameters, a secondary arc model will be applied at the
Tasikmalaya-Depok overhead lines in a further effort to obtain
minimization of the secondary arc. Modeling and simulations
will be made using ATPDraw software.
II.

BASIC THEORY

A. Single Phase Auto Reclosure

Single line to ground faults on extra high voltage overhead
lines reaches ninety percent of the total disturbance, and most
of them are temporary which can be switched off by single
phase auto reclosures [1].
When a ground fault is isolated by single pole switching,
the faulty phase remains coupled to the healthy phase and a
relatively small current continues to flow through the arc [5].
Two other healthy phases will still work, and continue to bring
about 50% of the power before the disturbance [6]. The
stability of the power system can be disrupted when the
disturbance is permanent because the poles will be open.
Nevertheless, if the disturbance is dissapear and a single pole
reclosing is success, then the system will remain stable.
Single phase auto reclosure is used to improve system
stability, power transfer, reliability, and availability of a
transmission line during a single line to ground fault [2]. Thus,
the success of single phase auto reclosures, which is strongly
determined by relations between dead time settings, secondary
arc extinction, and reignition voltage [3].
Typically, single phase auto reclosure dead time settings is
about half second until one second [7], but for the extra high
voltage system in Jawa-Madura-Bali, dead time is set for nine
hundred milliseconds. Single pole auto reclosure also have the
reclaim time that must be set to provide a power circuit breaker
an opportunity to prepare the next open-close-open (OCO)
cycles. Typical reclaim time is set for 40 seconds [7].

19

9A1-3

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014

B. Arc Modeling
Arc modeling itself can be divided into primary arc, when
fault occurs, and a secondary arc, when fault was isolated [8].
In this paper, secondary arc model based upon the Kizilcay
model. The mathematical model of the arc was derived as [9]:

line length. R(t) represents the dynamic resistance of the fault

arc, and Rf is the resistance of the fault and the pylon tower to
ground - which will be henceforth termed the fault resistance
and i_f is the fault current. SW is a time operated switch
representing the short circuit fault from the transmission line to
the pylon.

(1)

(1) 1 shows a primary arc model connected to a power

Figure
system in ATPDraw. Using that circuit, the value of the arc
variable will be obtained during the simulation period. The
parameters of the active networks are shown in Table 1.

dg/dt = 1/ (G-g)

Where:  is the arc time constant; g is the time varying arc

conductance, G is the stationary arc conductance.
The value of the stationary arc conductance can be obtained
through the following equation [5]:
G = |i|/ust = |i|/(u0+R|i|)l

(2)

(1)

Where u0 is the voltage parameter of the arc per unit length

(voltage gradient); R is the resistive component of the arc per
unit length; i is the instantaneous arc current; l is the time
dependent arc length.
The arc time constant can be derived as [9]:
 = 0 (larc/l0 )^

(3)

(1)

Where: 0 is the initial time constant; l0 is the initial arc

length; larc is the instantaneous arc length;  is the coeficient in
the range -0.1 to -0.6.
There are two main methods of constructing arc models in
the ATPDraw software: black-box models and white-box
models. Black-box models are models that constructed in a
single TACS block and programmed using Models. A whitebox model is one that is constructed in the TACS field using
Fortran statements.
C. Secondary Arc
Secondary arc is the current flowing in the arc after a single
pole switching is done. When a ground fault is isolated by
single pole switching, the faulty phase remains coupled to the
healthy phase and a relatively small current continues to flow
through the arc [5]. This small and long current is often cause
the single phase auto reclosure failed to work. Therefore,
proper modeling of the arc is very important to do simulation
disturbances in electric power transmission systems.
The secondary arc is an unconstrained long low current arc
that is influenced by a variety of factors, including the
atmospheric conditions [1]. Secondary arc will be extinguished
permanently when the arc reignition voltage exceeds the
voltage impressed across the discharge path.
III.

PRIMARY ARC MODELING

Power systems are used for this simulation consists of two

400 kV active power networks connected by a 100 km long
overhead transmission line. U_A and U_B represent active
power networks at each end of the line, T_A and T_B represent
the equivalent transformer models, L represents the line
impedance up to the fault, and D-L represents the line
impedance from the fault to T_B where D represents the total

Figure 1. Power system and dynamic arc model in ATPDraw

TABLE I.

NETWORKS PARAMETERS [9]

Networks

Parameter

ULL,RMS (kV)

416

400

1 ()

-20

R ()

1.0185892

0.6366183

L (H)

0.0509295

0.0318309

R0 ()

2.0371785

1.2732366

L0 (H)

0.1018589

0.0636618

TABLE II.

TRANSPOSED LINE PARAMETERS [9]

Parameter

p-sequence

0-sequence

Resistance (/km)

0.02021

0.1024

Inductance (mH/km)

1.07

3.82737

Capacitance (nF/km)

10.938

7.815

Transposed line is selected in the modeling of the primary

arc. The transposed line parameters can be seen in Table 2
using the 400 kV transmission line topology in Finland where
the authors obtained parameters and the geometrical

20

9A1-3

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014

configuration of the line completely. The line mode used is a

Jmarti line model, and the geometrical configuration of the
line model is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 4. Arc resistance

Figure 2. Jmarti distributed-parameter transmission line model configuration

[9]

The arc voltage comprised of two main components: U0,

and R|i|. In this study case, the voltage gradient has been a
given value of 14 V/cm, as found by Strom [12]. l is the length
of the arc, in this case assumed to be static at 100 cm [9]. The
rest of the arc voltage is made up of the R|i| component.
A single line to ground fault was simulated on the model
power system from Figure 1. The fault was initiated at 0.02s.
The fault was simulated occurs at a distance of 80 km from
network A. The parameters of the arc were set at: U0 = 14
V/cm, R = 0.8 m/cm, T = 1 ms, l = 100 cm.
By using the above parameters, the simulation has been
performed with primary arc model connected and the results
are as follows:

Figure 5. Arc conductance

From the simulation results above it can be concluded that

the primary arc modeling has been successfully obtained. In
this case, the model does not use limiters circuit as in [9]. It can
be seen that the arc current is still in sinusoidal waveforms, but
there was a distortion of the voltage and current waveforms due
to the capacitance of the line. Fault voltage and current are also
still in-phase. Due to the arc length and constant voltage
magnitude, the arc resistance and conductance will be constant
too.
IV.

SECONDARY ARC MODELING

As explained previously that the secondary arc will

elongates throughout its duration, so the modeling of the
secondary arc is done by adding a series of TACS to show the
effect of arc elongation. In addition, the secondary arc model
has been further extended to include the variable time constant
from (3).

Figure 3. Arc voltage and arc current

Figure 3 shows the arc voltage and current waveforms. The

arc voltage is not purely sinusoidal similar tp that seen in the
real arc, while the arc current retains a sinusoidal waveforms
throughout its duration. Due to the voltage and current
amplitude are relatively constant, the arc resistance and
conductance amplitudes remain constant too as shown in the
figure 4:

When the arc is initiated, the switch SW2 is open as the

primary arc has a static length and thus does not need the
elongation function. After a certain period of time, circuit
breakers CB_A and CB_B open to isolate the faulted phase
(phase A) thus simulating single pole switching, while at the
same time the switch SW2 is closed. The arc is then maintained
by the coupling between the healthy phases are still in
operation and the faulted phase.
 = 0 e^( ln(larc/l0))

(4)

A single line to ground fault was simulated by using the

modeling power system as shown in Figure 6 where the
transmission line was set at 100 km long. With a tower
resistance, Rf = 1, a single line to ground fault was simulated
at 30 km along the line from terminal A. The fault was initiated
at 0.02 s, at the same time both circuit breaker CB_A and CB_B
were set to open phase A. The parameters of the arc were set

21

9A1-3

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014

at: U0 = 14 V/cm, R = 0.8 m/cm, T = 1 ms, l = 100 cm, Tp =

0.8 ms,  = -0.5.

Figure 9. Secondary arc current

The primary and secondary arc conductance are shown in

Figure 10. The conductance of the low voltage high current
primary arc is relatively high, and the conductance of the high
voltage low current secondary arc is much lower. A closer
view of the secondary arc conductance is given in Figure 11.

Figure 6. Power system with primary and secondary arc model connected

Figure 10. Primary and secondary arc conductance

Figure 7. Primary and secondary arc voltage and current

By using the parameters mentioned above, the arc voltage

and current is shown in Figure 7. It is obvious that the arc goes
through two distinct periods: the primary arc and the secondary
arc. Primary arc has a relatively low voltage compared to the
secondary arc voltage that increases until the arc extinguishes
just after 1 s.

Figure 11. Secondary arc conductance

The resistance of the arc is shown in Figure 12, it can be

seen that the primary arc resistance is very low comparison
with the secondary arc resistance, which grows exponentially
until the arc is finally extinguished. Figure 13 shows a closer
view of the primary arc resistance.

Figure 8. Primary and secondary arc voltage and current

Figure 8 gives a closer view of the primary arc voltage. As

already mentioned earlier that when the secondary arc period,
there will be an arc elongation that can be seen in Figure 9
below:

Figure 12. Primary and secondary arc resistance

22

9A1-3

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014

second circuit. The tower footing resistance for this simulation

was set at 20 .
TABLE IV.

Figure 13. Primary arc resistance

The time constant of the primary arc was set at 0.8 ms, in
accordance with [6]. When it enters the secondary arc period,
the value of the time constant will be smaller due to the
secondary arc time constant that was determined using (3). The
value of the time constant is presented in Figure 14.

TRANSPOSED LINE PARAMETERS [9]

Parameter

Primary Arc

Secondary Arc

u0 (V/cm)

9.6 13.5

9.6 13.5

R (m/cm)

1.6 1.0

 (ms)

0.8 1.1

l (cm)

 350

1.6 1.0
1.3 0.3
continously decreasing
350 2800
continously increasing

The arc parameters used for this simulation were taken

from Table 4. Monte Carlo simulation with 1% of error is used
to obtain the values of the arc parameters. Here are the results
of Monte Carlo simulation parameters used in this modeling:
U0 = 11.5 V/cm, R = 1.4 m/cm, Gain (k) = 15.1, l0 = 350 cm,
Tp = 0.8 ms,  = -0.5.

Figure 14. Arc time constant

V.

TASIKMALAYA-DEPOK OVERHEAD LINES STUDY CASE

In this section the model of the secondary arc will be

applied at Tasikmalaya-Depok overhead lines. TasikmalayaDepok overhead lines is one of the important part of the 500
kV Jawa-Madura-Bali interconnection system. Electrical power
is transmitted from Tasikmalaya to Depok through 500 kV
extra high voltage overhead line, single tower, double circuit.
The line are transposed twice at tower 220 and 445, with total
of 666 towers and a total length of 278.53 km [7].
TABLE III.
Parameter
ULL,RMS (kV)

NETWORKS PARAMETERS [9]

Networks
Tasikmalaya

Depok

500

500

1 ()

40

R ()

10

X ()

62.8

47.1

Table 3 shows the Tasikmalaya-Depok network parameters.

The conductors of Tasikmalaya-Depok overhead line are using
bare wire conductor ACSR Dove type while the ground wire is
using single conductor steel 50.

Figure 15. Tasikmalaya-Depok overhead lines system and dynamic arc model
in ATPDraw

By using the parameters mentioned above, the secondary

arc current value is increased due to the effect of arc
elongation. Arc modeling has been successfully obtained and
applied in Tasikmalaya SUTET-Depok. With the single phase
auto reclosures dead time settings on the Jawa-Madura-Bali
interconnection system is set at 900 ms, it can be seen from the
results that after 900 ms secondary arc current still flowing.
That secondary arc current will cause the single phase auto
reclosures failed to work, so it needs effort to minimize the
secondary arc current using a shunt reactor.

A single line to ground fault was simulated at 139 km along

the line from Tasikmalaya terminal. The fault was initiated at
0.05 s and single pole switching was occurred in phase C of the

23

9A1-3

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Power Engineering and Renewable Energy

ICPERE 2014
[2]

Figure 16. Secondary arc current in Tasikmalaya-Depok overhead lines

VI.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, a primary arc model and secondary arc model

are obtained and validated with the references in ATPDraw
software. Arc modeling is obtained by using white-box
models using Fortran Statements. The proposed model is
based upon Kizilcay model and it is successfully applied at the
Tasikmalaya-Depok overhead line. After implementation, it
can be seen that after single phase auto reclosures dead time
settings which is 900 ms, the secondary arc is still continues to
flow that will led the single phase auto reclosures failed to
work.
REFERENCES
[1]

Yu Liu, Jun Wen, "Simulation Analysis of Single-Phase Adaptive AutoReclose on UHV Transmission Lines with Shunt Reactors,"
International Conference on Energy and Environment Technology
(ICEET '09), vol.2, pp.279-282, 16-18 Oktober, 2009.

Johnson Thomai, et al., Single Phase Auto Reclosing and Secondary

Arc Considerations, DAR Engineering, Maret 2011.
[3] T. Lobos, P. Schegner, T. Sikorski, "Assessment of transient
disturbances in HV systems with single-phase autoreclosures," XV
International Symposium on Theoretical Engineering (ISTET), pp.1-4,
22-24 Juni 2009.
[4] Grainger and Stevenson, Power System Analysis. New York, Mc GrawHill, 1992, pp. 482-485.
[5] M. Kizilcay, T. Pniok, Digital Simulation of Fault Arcs in Power
Systems, European Transaction on Electrical Power (ETEP), vol. I,
no. 1, pp. 55-59, Januari/Februari 1991.
[6] L. Prikler, M. Kizilcay, G. Ban, P. Handl, Improved Secondary Arc
Models Based on Identification of Arc Parameters from Staged Fault
Test Records, 14th PSCC, pp.1-6, 24-28 Juni, 2002.
[7] Didik F. Dakhlan, et al., Studi Kegagalan Single Pole Autoreclose
(SPAR) pada SUTET Tasikmalaya-Depok, PT PLN (Persero) Pusat
Penelitian dan Pengembangan Ketenagalistrikan, 2012.
[8] Kevin Marojahan, Karakteristik Secondary Arc Pada Transmisi 500
KV dan Usaha Meminimalkannya Untuk Keperluan Penutupan Balik
Kutub Tunggal, Tugas Akhir, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Mei, 2013.
[9] G.M. Preston, The Location And Analysis Of Arcing Faults On
Overhead Transmission Lines Using Synchronised Measurement
Technology, Disertation, The University of Manchester, 2011.
[10] Sudarmono Sasmono, et.al., EP4050 Manajemen Projek Sistem
Kelistrikan, slide presentasi, Institut Teknologi Bandung, 2014.
[11] V. Terzija, N. Elkalashy, G. Preston, V. Stanojevic, G. Strbac.
Detection of Arcing Faults: Modelling, Simulation, Testing and
Algorithms Aspects. IEEE Power Tech. Conference Lausanne, pp.
1147 1152, 2007.
[12] A.P. Strom Long 60-cycle arcs in air. Trans. Am. Inst. Elec. Eng, pp.
113-117, 1946.

24