1

Transient Analysis of Shunt Reactor Switching

(December 2005)
Ariel Rivera-Colón, Student Member, IEEE Juan L. Vargas-Figueroa, Student Member, IEEE

Lionel R. Orama-Exclusa, Member, IEEE

Overvoltage relays may be used to disconnect the reactors

Abstract— This paper presented the study of the transient under extreme high-voltage conditions [9]. However in this
phenomena originating from the shunt reactor energizing and case, the associated transmission line must be de-energized at
de-energizing on the IEEE 14 bus transmission systems. These the same time, otherwise disconnection of the reactors would
shunt reactor were installed in the load busbar to present the
differences between solidly grounded and ungrounded banks.
only further aggravate the overvoltage condition on the
The TRV of Shunt Reactor Bank de-energization is worst for system.
ungrounded reactor bank. The shunt reactors must be to remove The main objective of this paper is to report some transient
under full-load conditions to improve the line loadability. phenomena caused by the energization and de-energization of
Simulations were made using the software program ATP/EMTP. shunt reactors connected on wye grounded and ungrounded in
a substation busbar.
Index Terms— Shunt reactor, Transient Recovery voltage
(TRV), Switching operations, ATP/EMTP.
II. POWER SYSTEM IEEE 14 BUS
I. INTRODUCTION System under study will be the IEEE 14 bus transmission
system presented in Fig. 1.
I nductors and capacitors are used on substation busbars,
medium-length and long transmission lines to increase line
loadability and to maintain voltages near rated values. A high
voltage reactor is relatively frequently switched, during the
periods of the system operations with low loads it is energized
and with the rise of load it is de-energized again. The
inductors absorb reactive power and reduce overvoltages
during light load conditions, also reduce transient
overvoltages due to switching and lighting surges [1, 4]. The
shunt reactors can reduce line loadability if they are not
removed under full-load conditions. During the energization,
high unsymmetrical currents can occur. At de-energization, a
transient recovery voltage occurs in the breaker contacts with
considerable magnitude [10].
The switching overvoltage can be dangerous for the
equipment if their peak value exceeds the rated switching
impulse withstand voltage of the equipment [6]. It is very
Fig. 1: IEEE 14 bus transmission system.
important to know the level of dielectric stress that occurs
during operation in the system in order to avoid insulation III. SHUNT REACTOR PARAMETERS
failures. Each interruption involves a complex interaction
between the circuit breaker and the source and the reactor For the simulations in our study, the wye connected shunt
(load side) circuits. This interaction results in overvoltages reactor was grounded as is shown on figure 2, the following
dependent on system parameters and characteristics of the parameters: R= 2 (MΩ/phase), L= 0.9 (H/phase), r= 5
load [7]. (Ω/phase) and C= 2.4 (nF/phase).

This work is the final project of INEL 6077: Surge Phenomena.

Ariel Rivera-Colón is with the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Campus, P.R. 00680 (e-mail: ariel.rivera@ece.uprm.edu)
Juan L.Vargas-Figueroa is with the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Campus, P.R. 00680 (e-mail: juan.vargas@ece.uprm.edu)
 2

10.0
[kA]
7.5
r

R C 5.0
L

2.5

0.0

C
C

L
-2.5

r
r
-5.0

R
R
-7.5

-10.0
16.66 16.67 16.67 16.67 16.67 16.67 [ms] 16.67
(file case14ATPasineliminarcargasPow er2.pl4; x-var t) c:X0075A-X0288A c:X0075B-X0288B
Fig. 2: Shunt reactor model. c:X0075C-X0288C

Fig. 4: Breaker inrush current at the closing.

The shunt reactors were connected for the simulation in the
14 bus system at the load bus X0172 as shown in Fig. 3. The V. SHUNT REACTOR DE-ENERGIZATION TRANSIENT
system line to line voltage is 115kV. When a circuit breaker interrupts shunt reactor current
several transient phenomena is be observed [7]. However not
all of them occur necessarily during each interruption with
small inductive currents, the medium used for arc
extinguishing will develop fast residual column resistance,
and abrupt current interruption before its natural zero crossing
may occurs [2,3]. Release of energy stored in the reactor
inductance will cause the electromagnetic transients that lead
to switching overvoltages. These transients and their
oscillation modes are dependent by the load and the system
configuration where the reactor is installed.

Fig. 5 shows an increase in the bus voltage, from 87.927kV

to 91.802kV, when the shunt reactor is de-energized with no
load or light load.

Fig. 3: Reactor Bank connected at load bus X0172.

IV. SHUNT REACTOR ENERGIZATION TRANSIENT

During the closing, high unsymmetrical phase inrush
currents with long time constant occurred [3]. Figure 4 present
the inrush currents that pass through the contact breaker with
wye shunt reactors. This is a very fast current transient that
can be near of 10kA and the maximum transient overvoltages
are obtained from closing at an instant corresponding to peak
voltage across breaker poles and their magnitude depends on
the values of the network parameters [5].

Fig. 5: Shunt Reactor voltage effect.

Figure 6 shows the Transient Recovery Voltage that occurs

across the contacts of the breaker when it is opening with the
shunt reactor grounded. This TRV is the difference between
the voltage on the system busbar and the voltage in the
 3

reactor. It depends on the current flowing thought of the Fig. 8 represents the current in the breaker when the grounded
breaker, before the interruption took place. reactor bank was opened.

300
di
VL = L [A]
dt 200

300 100
[A]
200 0

100 -100

0 -200

-100
-300
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 [ms] 16
-200 (file case14ATPasineliminarcargasPow er2.pl4; x-var t) c:X0176A-X0081A c:X0176B-X0081B
c:X0176C-X0081C

Fig. 8 represents the current of the breaker when it was opened.

-300
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 [ms] 16
(file case14ATPasineliminarcargasPow er.pl4; x-var t) c:X0077A-X0284A c:X0077B-X0284B
c:X0077C-X0284C Fig. 9 presents the TRV in the contacts of the breaker with
Fig. 6 represents the current of the breaker when it was opened. the shunt reactors grounded. This TRV has a damping ratio
like ungrounded.
When the current change abruptly Fig. 6, this differential of
Breaker TRV
current is higher and consequently the voltage too. 200
[kV]
Fig. 7 presents the TRV in the contacts of the breaker with 150
the shunt reactors ungrounded. This TRV has a damping ratio
100
caused by the internal resistances in the shunt reactors.
The rate of rise of recovery voltage (R.R.R.V.) is important 50

because it gives a measure of circuit severity from a 0

switchgear point of view. Following the American National
-50
Standard for the outdoor circuit breaker, the rating of the rate
of rise of recovery voltage should not exceed 2.0 kV/µs. -100

This peak voltage is around of 260KV that is 2.768988 pu -150

and the rise time is 0.1468 ms, then the R.R.R.V. of the study
-200
case is equal to 1.77 kV/µs which is in the range established 0 10 20 30 40 [ms] 50

by ANSI [8]. (file case14ATPasineliminarcargas.pl4; x-var t) v:X0077A-X0284A

v:X0077C-X0284C
v:X0077B-X0284B

Fig. 9: TRV of wye shunt reactor solidly grounded.

200
[kV]
The peak voltage of this transient is 173.14 kV that is
100 1.843933 pu. This value of peak voltage is close to the 2.0 pu
that is expected.
0
As mentioned before the amplitude of the voltage is 173.14
kV and the rise time is 0.1385 ms, then the R.R.R.V. of the
study case is equal to 1.25 kV/µs which is in the range
-100
established by ANSI [8]. In this case, the TRV can be
observed that the voltage between the contacts of the breaker
-200 at the opening operation is smaller that with the shunt reactor
ungrounded.
-300
0 10 20 30 40 [ms] 50
(file case14ATPasineliminarcargas.pl4; x-var t) v:X0077A-X0284A v:X0077B-X0284B
v:X0077C-X0284C

Fig. 7: TRV of wye shunt reactor ungrounded.

 4

Braker TRV (Zoom)

20 VII. REFERENCES
[kV]
[1] Ching-Yin Lee, Chang-Jhih Chen, Chao-Rong Chen,
-20 Yen-Feng Hsu "Comparison of Transient Phenomena
when Switching Shunt Reactors on the Line’s Two
-60 Terminals and Station Busbar," presented at
POWERCON 2004, Singapore, 21-24 November 2004.
-100
[2] G. W. Chang, H. M. Huang, J.H. Lai, "Modeling SF6
Circuit Breaker for Shunt Reactor Switching Transient
Analysis," presented at POWERCON 2004, Singapore,
-140
21-24 November 2004.
[3] I. Uglesic, S. Hutter, M. Krepela, B. Filipovic, F. Jakl
-180
8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 9.0 9.1 [ms] 9.2 "Transients Due to Switching of 400 kV Shunt Reactor"
(file case14ATPasineliminarcargas.pl4; x-var t) v:X0077A-X0284A v:X0077B-X0284B presented at International Conference on Power Systems
v:X0077C-X0284C
Transients, Río de Janeiro, Brazil, June 24-28, 2001.
Fig. 10: Zoom of Fig. 9
[4] J. D. Glover, M. S. Sarma, Power System Analysis and
Design, Third Ed., 2002.
Fig. 11 shows the system with light load at 91,866V in the bus [5] C. D. Tsirekis, N. D. Hatziargyriou "Control of Shunt
voltage and decrease to 87,528V when the reactor bank is Capacitors and Shunt Reactors Energization Transients,"
connected, then the load is restored and it decrease to 84,134V presented at International Conference on Power Systems
and is needed removed the reactor bank to increase the bus Transients, New Orleans, USA, 2003.
voltage. [6] B. Khodabakhchian, J. Mahseredjian, M.-R. Sehati, M.
Mir-Hosseini, "Potential Risk of Failures in Switching
EHV Shunt Reactors in Some One-and-a-half Breaker
Scheme Substations," presented at International
Conference on Power Systems Transients, New Orleans,
USA, 2003.
[7] D. F. Peelo, E. M. Ruoss, "A New IEEE Application
Guide for Shunt Reactor Switching," IEEE Transactions
on Power Delivery, Vol. 11, No. 2, April 1996.
[8] American National Standard, AC High-Voltage Circuit
Breakers Rated on a Symmetrical Current Basis-Preferred
Ratings and Related Required Capabilities. ANSI/IEEE
C37.06-2000
[9] American National Standard, IEEE Guide for the
Protection of Shunt Reactors. ANSI/IEEE C37.109-1988
[10] A. Greenwood, Electrical Transients in Power Systems,
Second Ed., 1991.

Fig. 11: Load and Shunt Reactor Switching Response

VI. CONCLUSION
.
This paper study the transient phenomena that occur when a
shunt reactor grounded and ungrounded are switching in the
load busbar. The TRV of Shunt Reactor Bank de-energization
is worst for ungrounded reactor bank.
These switching operations of shunt reactor are relatively
frequent on each day and primarily depend on power network
loading. Then of several simulations with ATP/EMTP it is
demonstrated that the major difference using the shunt reactor
grounded is that the transient recovery voltage and the
R.R.R.V. are less than ungrounded. The shunt reactors must
be to remove under full-load conditions to improve the line
loadability.