INSULATION COORDINATION

1. Phenomena & Significance

2. Principle & Application
3. Volt-Time Curve
4. Goals & Failure
5. Statistical Insulation Coordination
 INSULATION COORDINATION
Insulation coordination is the correlation of the insulation of
electrical equipment and circuit with the characteristics of the
protective devices such that the insulation is protected from excessive
overvoltages. Thus, equipment insulation must have withstand voltage
levels in excess of the breakdown voltage of the protective device.

The overvoltages occurring in the power system may be classified

as Transient overvoltages and Power Frequency overvoltages.
Transient overvoltage
Lightning overvoltage due to lightning

Switching overvoltage
Opening of a CB to clear a fault
Disconnection of unloaded transformer
De-energization of transmission lines, cables, capacitance
bank, etc.
Energization of transmission lines, cables, capacitance bank
etc
Ferro-resonance phenomenon
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Phenomenon of Insulation Coordination

Lightning & Switching surges

Basic insulation level
Surge Diverters & Arresters
Principles of insulation coordination on
high voltage and extra high voltage power
systems
Principles
Reliable Protected from
Continuous overvoltages
Quality Use of optimum
Cheap insulation level
Insulation Coordination
Lightning & Switching surge protection requires
establishment of protective levels called shunt
protection levels, by means of protective devices
like surge arresters
Lightning Basic Impulse Level (BIL)
Switching Switching Impulse Level (SIL)
Insulation Coordination
Insulation coordination comprises the selection of equipment
and its application in relation to the voltages which can appear
on the system for which the equipment is intended, and taking
into account the characteristics of available protective devices,
so as to reduce to an economically and operationally
acceptable level the probability that the resulting voltage
stresses will cause damage to equipment insulation or affect
the continuity of service.
Insulation Coordination
Correlation of the insulation of the various
equipments in a power system to the insulation of
the protective devices used for protection of those
equipments against various voltages.
Power System
Transformers,
CB,
Bus bars have different breakdown voltages hence,
different V-t characteristics.
To protect all of them proper coordination of insulation
is required.
Volt-Time Curve
The breakdown for a particular insulation of flashover voltage
for a gap is function of both magnitude of the voltage and time
of application of voltage.
overvoltages < 345 kV
System faults, switching operations damage protective
devices
Lightning overvoltage cause damage equipment
overvoltage > 345 kV
Switching overvoltages are dangerous for equipment
The Idea of insulation coordination is
to protect the equipment as well as
protective devices
Insulation Coordination - Goals
1. The electrical strength of the insulation of all system components
2. The phase-to-ground and phase-to-phase clearances
3. The leakage distance of external insulators
4. The rating, type, number, and location of surge arresters and other
possible protective spark gaps.
Types of Insulation
External Dielectric location
Internal
Self-restoring
Non-self-restoring Dielectric performance
 Types of Insulation

External insulation: clearances and insulator surfaces in the open air.

They are influenced by such atmospheric conditions as pollution and
humidity. External insulation can be located outdoors or indoors.
Internal insulation: internal solid, liquid, or gaseous components of
equipment insulation and therefore not exposed to atmospheric
conditions. Insulating oils, compressed-gas insulation, and solid insulation
of cables, transformers, and electric machines belonging to this category
Classification of insulation from dielectric aspect:
Self-restoring insulation: regains dielectric integrity following the
occurrence of a breakdown. Some insulating films in capacitors produce no
permanent leakage path after their breakdown and are therefore called
"self-healing" insulation.
Non-self-restoring insulation: loses its insulating property after a
disruptive discharge and must therefore be replaced. Solid insulation as in
cables, transformers, and machines belong to this type of insulation
Failure Reasons due to Power Frequency
Voltages

Contamination on the surface

Thermal breakdown
PD due to voids and flaws
Aging
Failure Reasons due to Impulse
Voltages
Front Duration
Gap Geometry
& Polarity
Principles of Insulation Coordination
Procedure
starts with evaluating the stresses to which insulation is
subjected
insulation dimension are decided in view of existing
protective devices such that a predetermined level of safety
against insulation failure is ensured
Statistical Insulation Coordination
Conventional Insulation Coordination
Statistical Insulation Coordination
Statistical Withstand Voltage (SWV)
peak value of a switching/lightning impulse voltage at
which the insulation exhibits under specified
conditions a probability of withstand equal to 90%
Statistical Overvoltage (SOV)
switching/lightning overvoltage applied to the
equipment as a result of an event of one specific type
on the system, the peak value of which has a
probability of being exceeded of 2%
Statistical Insulation Coordination
Statistical Safety Factor (SSF)
It is the ratio, for a given type of event, of the
appropriate statistical switching/lightning impulse
withstand voltage and statistical overvoltage,
established on the basis of a given risk of failure, taking
into account the statistical distributions of withstand
voltages and overvoltages.
Determination of BIL & BSL
The figure demonstrates the steps
leading to the determination of the
insulations basic impulse insulation
level (BIL), and basic switching impulse
insulation level (BSL).
BIL withstand under a standard
impulse of 1.2/50 us, BSL refers to
250/2500 us impulse.
The surge withstand voltage of the
system, which is also referred to BIL, is
approximately 3.4p. U for a
transmission system with a rated
voltage Um greater than 200 kV, while
the BSL is about 2.8.
The arrester will limit an over voltage
wave to a certain protection level Vp
under normal operating and temporary
overvoltages conditions.
The protection level of a protective
device is defined as the highest
permissible surge voltage that may
appear at the terminals of the
equipment to be protected; for switching
impulses it is taken directly as the
maximum sparkover voltage, Vs.
Conventional Insulation Coordination
Risk of insulation failure is to be avoided with non-
self-restoring insulation.
Protective device is used, Surge Arrester
It seeks the impulse voltage level at which the
equipment insulation will not show any disruptive
discharge.
Conventional Insulation Coordination
For lightning impulses , however protection level is taken as the
maximum of the following three values:
Maximum sparkover voltage
Maximum residual voltage at specified discharge current
Maximum sparkover voltage in the front divided by 1.15
Failure Reasons at Power Frequency
and Impulse Voltages on Insulation
Power Frequency Voltages
Contamination on the surface
Thermal breakdown
PD due to voids and flaws
Aging
Impulse Voltages
Front Duration
Gap Geometry
Polarity

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The basic philosophy to provide protection are:

Try to reduce the frequency of occurrence of high voltage

surges to the extent possible by providing ground wires and
lightning masts with a large number of ground wires.

Control the amplitude and steepness of the surges by

providing ground wires and counterpoise wires.

Protect the system insulation using shunt devises across

equipment which bypass the surges to earth. Such devices
are also known as surge diverters.

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Surge Diverters

In order to protect the equipment from overvoltage, protective

devices are used. These devices are essentially shunt devices
across equipment insulation and are used to keep the voltage
across the insulation to an acceptable level by allowing a bypass to
the surge to earth. Such devices are also known as surge diverters
or arresters.

A schematic diagram of an insulator and the shunt protective

device is shown in the figure.

Insulation to be
Line protected
Protective
device

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Surge Diverters

An ideal surge arrester should have the following characteristics:

For voltage less than the voltage rating of the protector, it

should have infinite impedance, and no leakage current should
flow through it.
As soon as the voltage exceeds the voltage rating, it should
immediately offer zero impedance irrespective of the
waveshape.
Immediately after the surge has been bypassed and the line
voltage returns to the normal value, the diverter should again
turn itself into a perfect insulator.
Ideal characteristics cannot be met in practice. Therefore
Practical diverters should consists of one or more air-gaps
connected in series that should breakdown when the voltage
exceeds a limiting value.
There should be a fast arc quenching process in place once the
surge current has been bypassed. To this end, nonlinear
resistances may be connected in series with the gap.

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Overvoltage Protective
Devices-Surge Arrester
Function and requirements of a surge
arrester:
It should interrupt the power frequency follow
current after the surge is discharged to ground.
It should not pass any current at normal or
abnormal power frequency voltage.
It should breakdown as quickly as possible after
the abnormal high frequency voltage arrives.
It should not only protect the equipment for
which it is use but should also discharge the
surge current without damaging itself.
 Surge Diverters

The protector must maintain the voltage across the insulation of

the equipment at a level below its withstand capability at all times
so that insulation failure does not take place. For this the volt-
ampere characteristics of the protective device must lie below the
corresponding characteristics of the insulation to be protected as
shown.

The surge impedance of the

protective device should be such that
when the surge current is bypassed
the voltage across it must not exceed
the safe value set for the device to
be to protected.
The surge energy must be completely dissipated in the arrester.
There are three general types of protective devices: Rod gap, the
expulsion type arresters and the valve type arresters.

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 Rod Gap (Horn Gap)
This is the cheapest, simplest and the most rugged shunt protector

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Rod Gap

It has two important disadvantages.

1. It will allow power frequency follow-up current to flow after it

has been flashed over by surges. The circuit must be
deenergized to clear the flashover arc each time the gap
operates.
2. The volt-time characteristic is very steep at shorter peak times
of the surge. This means relatively short gap is required to
protect against surges having steep wave-fronts. It would
have low flashover voltage for long front time waves, resulting
in numerous flashovers due to switching surges and lightning
surges having flatter wave-fronts.

The rod gap is, therefore, generally used only for backup
protection.

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Expulsion type arresters To phase conductor

1 Electrode connected to grounded metallic gap (4)

2 The ring type electrode connected to phase conductor
through the gap S2
3 Fiber lining surrounding the air gap S1
4 A closed grounded metallic gap closing the gap S1
In the event of an over voltage, both the spark gaps break
down, giving a bypass to the overvoltage to the ground.
The heat produced in the internal arc in the tube S1 vaporizes a
portion of the fiber material and an intense emission of gas
takes place. The high pressure gas flows towards the open end
S2 driving away the charged particle, thus extinction
29 of the arc
takes place.
 Expulsion type arresters

The volt-time characteristics of these arresters are slightly

better than those of the rod gaps.
These are used to prevent flashover of transmission line
insulators, isolators and bus insulators.
They are not adequate to protect high voltage transformers.

Valve type lightning arresters

It has essentially flat volt-time characteristic which makes it

ideally suitable for protection of substation transformers.
These types of arresters consist of multiple spark-gaps in
series with a nonlinear resistance blocks. The resistances of
these blocks diminish sharply as the voltage across them
increases. The V-I characteristic of these elements is given
by

I = K Vn n lies between 2 6.

A typical valve type arrester suitable for 6 kV circuit is shown

schematically in the figure. 30
Valve type arresters

When the voltage surge

appears across the arrester
both spark gap S1 and S2
flashover causing the surge
current to flow through the
magnetic coil M and thyrite
(nonlinear) block T. The sharp
rise of the current develops
adequate voltage across gap G
causing it to flashover.
This removes M from the circuit during flashover. The surge current
is essentially limited by the rapidly decreasing value of the
resistance of the thyrite block.
When the surge has been completely bypassed and the power
frequency condition is restored in the line, the resistance of the
block T rapidly rises, thus decreasing the current. Also, the
impedance of M becomes smaller extinguishing the arc in G.
There are three types of valve type arresters: Station type, Line type
and distribution type.

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 Overvoltage Protective Devices-
Metal Oxide Surge Arrester
The V-I characteristics may be divided into three regions
The pre-breakdown region
The pre-breakdown region is for the amplitude of the resulting current
is usually less than 10 mA.
The breakdown region and
At higher currents (hundreds of Amps), the surge arrester starts to
conduct, and has low resistance values.
The upturn region.
Consequently, for kA range, surge arrester becomes non-linear, and at
its lowest resistance values, and full conduction, thus allowing the high
currents to flow through it before being discharged to the ground
Overvoltage Protective Devices-
Metal Oxide Surge Arrester
Figures 1a-d show voltage and current
records measured on a 15kV rated
surge arrester.
The time-to-peak of the current
decreases as the amplitude of the
current increases.
Figure 2 shows the relationship between
time to current peak for different
manufacturers.
It can be seen that the time to current
peak reaches constant value (~1.5 us)
when the arresters are operating in the
high-conduction regime (above ~1 kA).
In this region, most of the intergranular
layers have broken down forming many
current paths.
It is in this region that the resistance of
the ZnO grains becomes the main
limiting factor for conduction.
In contrast, the low-conduction regime
shows time to current peaks ranging
from 1.6us for current amplitudes of
~500A to the order of 5 us for currents
less than 100 A.
Location of A Shunt Protective Device

The protective device should be placed as close as possible to

the equipment to be protected, particularly if the line
terminates at a transformer or it open end. Otherwise, there is
a possibility of building up of a very high voltage at the
transformer terminals or at the open end

Insulation Coordination
Insulation coordination is the correlation of the insulation of
electrical equipment and circuit with the characteristics of the
protective devices such that the insulation is protected from
excessive overvoltages. Thus, equipment insulation must have
withstand voltage levels in excess of the breakdown voltage of the
protective device.

BIL Refers to the basic impulse insulation level expressed in

impulse peak voltage with a standard wave not longer than 1.2/50
s.
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Insulation Coordination
The best method to achieve a coordination between insulation
levels in a station and the preceding line is to satisfy the
following three requirements:
i. Select a suitable basic insulation level (BIL)
ii. Ensure that the breakdown voltage of all insulation in the
station will exceed the BIL
iii. Choose proper protective devices giving good protection at
a viable cost.

The BIL is often determined by giving a margin to the

protective level of surge diverter and then selecting the next
standard BIL as given in standards for such values.
The margin that should exist between the BIL of the insulation
to be protected and the protective level is the difficult question
to answer. It will depend upon
. Shielding of the substation
. Location of the lightning arrester
. The breakdown and discharge voltages
. Insulation level of the line insulation
Normally the margin is chosen as 30% of BIL for lightning
surges and 15% for switching surges when the diverter is also
used. 35
Insulation Coordination

The figure shows the volt-time characteristics of various

equipment in substation for proper insulation coordination

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Insulation Coordination

An example of insulation coordination for a 132-kV substation

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Propagation of Lightning Current and Voltage along the
Transmission Lines
Let V1 and I1 be the incident voltage and current waves in a
transmission line with characteristic (surge) impedance Z1. When
it meets a junction of another line with characteristic impedance
Z2, let V2 and I2 be the reflected voltage and current wave and V3
and I3 be refracted voltage and current waves.
V3, I3 V1 = Z1 I1
V2 , I2
V1, I1 V2 = -Z1 I2
V3 = Z2 I3
Z1 Z2 V1+V2 = V3
I1+I2 = I3
Then, the reflection coefficient of voltage

The reflection coefficient of current I2 Z Z2

1
I1 Z1 Z 2

The refraction coefficient of voltage V3 2Z 2

V1 Z1 Z 2

I3 2Z1
The refraction coefficient of current
I1 Z1 Z 2

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 V3 2Z 2

V1 Z1 Z 2
For rectangular waves
Case 1: The line with characteristic impedance Z1 is open-ended.
Here Z2 = . So
V2 = V1 and V3 = 2V1
This means that the voltage at the open end rises to twice that
of the incident wave when it reaches the open end.

Case 2: Line is short circuited. Z2 = 0.

V2 = -V1 , V3 = 0, and I2 = I1 and I3 = 2I1
This means that the voltage at the shot circuited end is zero and
the current rises to twice the value of the incident current.

Case 3: Line is terminated by a resistance equal to its surge

impedance. Z2 = Z1.
V2 = 0 and V3 = V1 and I2 = 0 and I3 = 1
There is no current and voltage reflection at the termination.
I2 Z Z2 I3 2Z1
1
I1 Z1 Z 2 I1 Z1 Z 2

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Example

A rectangular voltage wave of 2000 kV is traveling along a line of

surge impedance 300 towards a lightning arrester. The arrester
protective level is 1200 kV and is assumed to be fairly constant at
all current values discharged by the arrester. Calculate (i) the
current flowing through the line before the surge voltage reaches
the arrester terminal, (ii) the current through the arrester, and (iii)
the reflection and refraction coefficients of voltage at the arrester
terminals.

(i) Surge current in the line = 2000/300 = 6.67 kA

(ii) The current through the arrester is

Computed using Thevenin equivalent.

The open circuit voltage across the arrester terminal when the
incident wave reaches the arrester terminal = 2 x 2000 = 4000 kV
The looking in impedance at the arrester terminal = characteristic
impedance = 300 .
Hence the current through the arrester
= (4000 1200)/300 = 9.33 kA 40
 I1 = 6.67 kA; I3 = 9.33 kA; Therefore I2 = I3 - I1 = 2.67 kA

V1 = 2000 kV V3 = 1200 kV; Therefore V2 = V3 - V1 = -800 kV

(iii)
Reflected current in the line = I2 = 2.67 kV
Reflected voltage in the line = V2 = -800 kV
Refracted voltage into the arrester, V3 = 1200 kV
Reflected coefficient of voltage = V2/V1 = -800/2000 = -0.4
Refraction coefficient of voltage = V3/V1 = 1200/2000 = 0.6

(iv) The arrester resistance = 1200/9.33 = 128.6

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