Comparison of switching surges and basic lightning

impulse surges at transformer in MV cable grids

Tarik Abdulahović #1 , Torbjörn Thiringer #2
#
Division of Electric Power Engineering, Department of Energy and Environment,
Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
1
tarik.abdulahovic@chalmers.se
2
torbjorn.thiringer@chalmers.se

Abstract— The electric transients generated during the switch- The BIL defined by standards for dry-type and oil-
ing of a breaker placed near the transformer in a system with impregnated transformers is given in Table I.
a substantial amount of cables can have a very short rise time
and can reach very high magnitudes. In practice, the magnitude TABLE I
of the voltage surges is usually limited using the surge arresters N OMINAL S YSTEM VOLTAGE AND BASIC L IGHTNING I MPULSE
while the rise time of the surge to which the apparatus is exposed, I NSULATION L EVELS (BIL) FOR D RY- TYPE AND O IL - FILLED
remains unchanged.
T RANSFORMERS [1], [2]
In this paper, the characteristic of the switching transients
generated in the MV cable grids are analyzed. For this purpose,
BIL (kV) 45 60 75 95 110 125 150 200
cases with both dry-type and oil insulated transformers are Unom
studied. These cases are typical for a MV industrial grid and 8.7 (DT) S 1 1
a wind park (WP) collection grid. Furthermore, the case with 15 (DT) S 1 1
and without surge arrester protection is analyzed in order to 24 (DT) 2 S 1 1
observe the impact of the surge arresters on the voltage surges. 34.5 (DT) 2 S 1
Simulations show that the magnitude of the voltage surges 8.7 S
exceeds the basic lightning impulse insulation level (BIL) defined 15 S
by present standards. Furthermore, the rise time of the voltage 24 S
surges is much shorter compared to the rise time of the lightning 34.5 S
impulse especially in the case of the dry-type transformers and
the WP collection grid. When surge arresters are used, the Where S is referred as the standard value, 1 as an optional
magnitude of the surges is limited to the BIL but the rise times higher level where the transformer is exposed to high overvolt-
of the surges can be twenty five times shorter compared to the
BIL. Only when surge arresters are used with other fast transient ages, 2 is the case where surge arresters are used and found
mitigation equipment such as RC protection or surge capacitor to provide appropriate surge protection and DT is dry-type
protection, the magnitude of very fast voltage surges are brought transformers.
down. This data is used for comparison with strikes obtained by
measurements and simulations. For the presentation of the
I. I NTRODUCTION - T HE S TANDARD L IGHTNING I MPULSE voltage strikes in the scatter plots, the magnitudes of the
T EST voltage strikes are shown in per unit, where 1pu presents
The results obtained in this work are compared to standard the nominal voltage of the transformer. This is done because,
values of the basic lightning impulse voltage level (BIL). The the maximum magnitudes of the voltage strikes obtained at
results obtained in this section are measured at a non-standard any voltage level with properly calculated surge arresters is
voltage level which is set below the rated voltage of the the same when presented in per unit. However, the BIL for
transformers, cables and other equipment. This is performed each voltage level has a different value when expressed in
in order to avoid damages on the equipment used for testing pu making the direct comparison meaningless. For example,
since the simulations showed that transient overvoltages of for the 8.7kV level, the basic lightning insulation level is
very high magnitudes are expected during some tests. 5.2pu for dry-type transformers and 8.6pu for oil insulated
The standards for both dry-type and oil filled transformers transformers while for the 34.5kV level the BIL values are
define for each voltage level the BIL at which the transformer 3.6pu (with surge arrester used) and 5.8pu respectively. For
will not show any signs of insulation damages. These voltage this reason, the minimum value in per unit is used as the
impulse tests are considered as the strongest stress that can reference value for the dry-type and the oil insulated trans-
occur to the insulation of a transformer and therefore, if formers. The comparison is done for both standards since the
the transformer is able to withstand this voltage without any magnitude of the voltage strikes is the same for both dry-type
damages, its insulation will most probably survive other high and oil insulated transformers, while the difference is in the
frequency transients. rise time of the strike.
 II. S WITCHING T RANSIENTS
As mentioned before, the case with only surge arresters
connected to the transformer terminals is taken as the base
case. The reason for having surge arresters connected all the
time is just a precaution in order to avoid any damage of the
transformers during experiments performed for the verification
purpose. However, a simulation case without any surge pro-
tection devices is presented to illustrate the magnitude of the
generated surges. This case is simulated only for the opening
operation of the breaker since the highest magnitudes of surges
are obtained during re-ignitions due to the voltage escalation.
It is important to underline that an interruption of an induc-
tive load is an extreme case performed to obtain the worst case
scenario. However, it does not represent a normal operation in
a MV cable grid where it should not be normal practice to
open the breakers and switches when the transformer is fully
loaded. This case could still happen accidentally, because of
malfunction or other reasons. Furthermore, even if such an
accident happens, the risk of generation of multiple reignitions
and the voltage escalation is quite low since this phenomenon
can appear only if the contacts open during a very narrow time
window when the current is below the current chopping level.
A. Test Setup
An experimental setup is built in ABB Corporate Research,
Västerås, Sweden for the purpose of high frequency transient
analysis. The simulation models are developed and the simula-
tion results are verified with good accuracy [3], [4]. The same
setup is used for the analysis in this article. Additionally, a test
case with dry-type transformers is presented. The test setup is
presented in Fig.1.
Fig. 1. The cable lab measurement setup
The rating of the equipment installed in the cable lab is as
follows:
• Cable SC1, SC2 and SC3, 20kV XLPE three core cable
with 240mm2 cross section of conductor;
• Cable SC6, 20kV XLPE single core cable with the same
conductor cross section;
• Transformer TX1, 20.5/0.41kV /kV , 1.25M V A, Dyn11
Zk = 5.4%;
• Transformer TX2, 20/0.69kV /kV , 1M V A, Dyn11 Zk =
5.1%;
• Breaker rated at 12kV , 3.15kA;
• Two blocks of ZnO connected in series with continuous
operating voltage COV = 14.3kV , with characteristic
points of 1mA@17.2kV and 10kA@28.5kV ;
• Inductive load with 0.318mH inductance.
Due to the limitations imposed by the breaker, tests are
operated at 11.6kV voltage at buses B2, B3 and B4. The
transformers used in the experiments are of the oil-insulated
type and the stray capacitances are measured [5] in order to
obtain a transformer model suitable for the high frequency
transient analysis. However, the dry-type transformers were
not available for the experiments and accordingly their stray
capacitances are estimated. The value of the stray capacitances
of the dry-type transformers are in order of hundreds of pico
Farads [6] or approximately ten times lower compared to those
of the oil-insulated type.
B. Switching Surge Analysis
Since the worst case scenario is chosen for the opening
of the breaker, voltage escalations occur. The number of
reignitions is very high due to the very fast transient recovery
voltage (TRV). A base case is obtained with surge arresters
connected to transformer TX1 and the voltage plot presented
in Fig.2 shows phase voltages at the high voltage side of
transformer TX1 terminals.
20
10
(kV)
TX1
0
U
−10
−20
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
t (ms)
Fig. 2. The base case voltage transient at transformer TX1 - simulation
Since the high frequency transients transients contain a large
number of voltage strikes of different rise times where the
steepest ones are obtained during the voltage breakdowns (BD)
between the contacts of the breaker, a characterization method
is introduced [3], [4] where voltage steps are sorted by its
rise time and magnitude. For illustration, a very narrow time
interval which shows voltage escalations recorded during an Plots marked by BIL-DT and BIL-OI represent cases of BIL
experiment is presented in Fig.3. for the dry-type transformer with surge arrester used which
is marked by ’2’ in Table I and BIL for the oil-insulated
transformer marked by ’S’ in the same table, respectively.
20 BD voltage step Blue, red and green dots present voltage steps in phase A,
TRV
phase B and phase C, respectively. Although the magnitude
Voltage oscillations
during HF current of the voltage strikes never reached the level of 5.8pu defined
10
by standards, the rise time of breakdown voltage steps reached
0.46µs which is 2.5 times quicker than the BIL.
U(kV)

0 For the case where surge arresters are not used, higher
magnitudes of the voltage steps are obtained while the rise
−10
time remained the same. This is because the rise time is
determined by the stray capacitance of the transformer and
the surge impedance of the cable. Simulation results obtained
−20 without any surge arresters used, is presented in Fig.5.
8.06 8.08 8.1 8.12 8.14 8.16
t (ms)
7 BIL−DT
Fig. 3. Characteristic voltage steps during transient - measurement BIL−OI
6 phase A
The green line in Fig.3 present the recorded signal, while phase B
red lines are voltage steps identified by the characterization 5
phase C
processing performed during data analysis. Once the voltage
UTX1(pu)

steps are identified, scatter plots are made where x-axis shows 4
the rise time and y-axis shows the magnitude of the voltage
steps.
3
C. Switching Surges With Oil-insulated Transformers
2
The simulation results are presented using the scatter plots
where a voltage step with its magnitude and rise time are
shown. The fastest voltage steps are the result of the voltage 1
breakdown between the contacts of the breaker and in the case 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
of the oil-insulated transformer rise time is reduced to less than t (µ s)
rise
half compared to the BIL. This is observed in Fig.4.
Fig. 5. Voltage strikes at TX1 - oil-insulated transformer without surge
arrester protection (simulation)
7 BIL−DT
BIL−OI In Fig.5 it can be seen that the magnitude of the highest
6 phase A voltage steps surpasses the BIL set by IEEE standards for the
phase B
oil-insulated transformers. Furthermore, the rise time of the
phase C
5 highest voltage steps is approximately 2.5 times shorter than
the rise time of the BIL which makes recorded voltage strikes
UTX1(pu)

4 potentially even more dangerous to the insulation according

to similar studies performed on induction machines [7].
3
D. Switching Surges With Dry-type Transformers
2
The case with dry-type transformers is also performed with
and without surge arresters installed. In this case, transformer
TX1 is a dry-type transformer and all other parameters of the
1
test circuit are the same as in the previous case.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Simulation results obtained when the transformer is protect-
t
rise
(µ s) ed using surge arresters are presented in Fig.6.
The simulation results are compared to plots marked by
Fig. 4. Voltage strikes at TX1 - oil-insulated transformer with surge arrester BIL-DT2 and BIL-DT1 which correspond to the BIL for dry-
protection (simulation) type transformers with surge arrester installed and optional
 7 BIL−DT2 7 BIL−DT2
BIL−DT1 BIL−DT1
6 phase A 6 phase A
phase B phase B
phase C phase C
5 5
UTX1(pu)

UTX1(pu)
4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

t (µ s) t (µ s)
rise rise

Fig. 6. Voltage strikes at TX1 - dry-type transformer with surge arrester Fig. 7. Voltage strikes at TX1 - dry-type transformers without surge arrester
protection (simulation) protection (simulation)

higher level marked by ’2’ and ’1’ in Table I, respectively.
In Fig.6 it can be seen that the magnitude of the voltage
steps is on the limit defined by the IEEE standards. However,
the rise time of the voltage strikes is much shorter now and
reaches approximately 50ns which is nearly ten times quicker
compared to the voltage steps generated with oil-insulated
transformers. This is expected since the stray capacitance of
the dry-type transformer is ten times smaller.
Although standards for induction motors define for such
very fast transients much lower magnitude of the voltage step
when compared to the BIL [7], that is not the case with
standards for transformers.
When the case of a dry-type transformer without any surge
arresters installed is observed, magnitudes of the voltage step
reach approximately the same level as in the case with an
oil-insulated transformer. This is shown in Fig.7.
In Fig.7 it can be seen that the voltage steps have higher
magnitudes than the optional higher level defined by the IEEE
standards. Furthermore, the rise time of the voltage steps is
approximately 50ns which is almost 25 times quicker than
that of the lightning impulse.
E. Surge Capacitor Protection
Surge capacitors have been commonly used as protection
device to mitigate transients. The combination of surge ca-
pacitors and surge arresters has been used to protect medium
voltage induction motor windings from steep-fronted voltage
surges [8]. The purpose of using the surge capacitor is to
reduce the rise time of the surge [9]. The rise time of
the transient is determined by the capacitance of the surge
capacitor and the surge impedance of the cable connected
to the protected device. Since the capacitance of the surge
capacitor is much larger than the stray capacitance of the
protected device, its stray capacitance is neglected, which gives
trise = 2.2Zcab Ccap . (1)
In order to set the rise time of the transients to be slower
than the lightning impulse, the minimum capacitance of the
surge capacitor is set by
2.2Zcab
Ccap ≥ . (2)
1.2 × 10−6
In order to have a more realistic simulation, the inductance
of the leads which connect surge capacitors to the terminals of
the protected transformer is accounted. An inductor of 1.3µH
inductance is added in the simulation to account for stray
inductance of the surge capacitance lead.
The results of the surge capacitor protection are shown only
for the case with dry-type transformers since the impact of
the protection is the same for both transformer types, where
in the case with the dry-type transformer substantially quicker
voltage steps are obtained.
In Fig.8 simulation results of the case with a dry-type
transformer and a case with surge arrester and a surge capacitor
can be observed. It can be seen that the magnitude of the
transients decreased significantly. The rise times of some
voltage steps are still short due to the stray inductance of the
surge capacitor leads.
F. RC Protection
The RC protection is used for mitigation of the very fast
transients and protection of transformers and induction motors
[10], [11]. It is very effective and proved to reduce the number
of reignitions [10]. The principle of an RC protection is very
simple. The wave reflections which give the highest magnitude
of transient overvoltages occur in the systems where the
 In Fig.9 it can be seen that the RC protection combined
7 BIL−DT2 with surge arresters protected the transformer as good as the
BIL−DT1 combination of surge arresters and surge capacitors.
6 phase A Both RC and surge capacitor protection combined with the
phase B
phase C
surge arresters provided good protection of the transformer by
5 lowering the magnitude of the voltage steps and increasing
their rise time. With this protection added, the protected
UTX1(pu)

4 transformer is exposed only to transients of a magnitude more

3
2 The financial support provided by Vindforsk is gratefully
1 R EFERENCES
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
t (µ s)
rise
Fig. 8. Voltage strikes TX1 - dry-type transformer with surge arrester and
surge capacitor protection (simulation)
surge impedance of the transformer Ztr is much higher than
the cable surge impedance Zcab . In order to prevent such
reflections, a resistor with a capacitor is connected in parallel
to the protected transformer. The resistance of the resistor is
chosen so that it matches the surge impedance of the cable
Zcab . The surge capacitor is added in series with the resistor
in order to increase the impedance for low frequency signals
and to increase the rise times of the voltage surges.
The simulation is performed only with a dry-type trans-
former protected with surge arresters. The results obtained are
presented in Fig.9.
7 BIL−DT2
BIL−DT1
6 phase A
phase B
phase C
5
UTX1(pu)
than two times lower than the BIL.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
acknowledged.
3 [1] IEEE standard test code for dry-type distribution and power transform-
ers, IEEE Std C57.12.91-2001, 2001.
[2] IEEE Standard Requirements for Liquid-Immersed Distribution Substa-
tion Transformers, IEEE Std C57.12.36-2007, March, 2008.
[3] M. Reza, H. Breder, ”Cable System Transient Study - Vindforsk V-
110. - Experiments with switching transients and their mitigation in a
wind power collection grid scale model,” Vindforsk Tech. Rep., Sweden,
January, 2009.
[4] T. Abdulahovic, ”Analysis of High-Frequency Electrical Transients
in Offshore Wind Parks,” Licentiate Thesis, Chalmers University of
Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, April, 2009.
[5] M. Boyra, ”Transient Overvoltages in Cable Systems Part 2 - Exper-
iments on fast transients in cable systems,” Masters Thesis, Chalmers
University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2007.
[6] J. H. Harlow, Electric Power Transformer Engineering, CRC Press,
2004.
[7] B. K. Gupta, N. E. Nilsson, D. K. Sharma, ”Protection of Motors Against
High Voltage Switching Surges,” IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion,
vol. 7, no. 1, March, 1992.
[8] R. L. Doughty, F. Heredos, ”Cost effective motor surge capability,”
in Proc. Petroleum and Chemical Industry Conference, 1995. Record
of Conference Papers., Industry Applications Society 42nd Annual, pp.
91-103, 11-13 Sep. 1995.
[9] D. C. Bacvarov, D. W. Jackson, C. L. Lee, ”Effect of Surge Capacitor
Lead Length on Protection of Motors from Steep Switching Surges,”
IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and Systems, vol. PAS-103, no.
7, pp. 1879-1882, July 1984.
[10] J.P. Eichenberg, H. Hennenfent, L. Ljiljestrand, ”Multiple Re-Strikes
Phenomenon when Using Vacuum Circuit Breakers to Start Refiner
Motors,” Pulp & Paper Canada vol. 98, no. 7, pp. 32-36, July 1997.
[11] M. Popov, L. van der Sluis, G.C. Paap, ”A simplified transformer model
for the simulation of fast surges and adequate protection measures,”
Power Engineering Society Winter Meeting, 2001. IEEE, vol. 1, pp.
323-328, 28 Jan-1 Feb 2001.

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3

t (µ s)
rise

Fig. 9. Voltage strikes at TX1 - dry-type transformer with surge arrester and
RC protection (simulation)