Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Review

High voltage AC underground cable systems for power transmission

A review of the Danish experience, part 1
Claus Leth Bak , F. Faria da Silva
Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Pontoppidanstrde 111, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper is a rst of two presenting a review of research results in underground cable transmis-
Received 4 November 2014 sion obtained by the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University ET/AAU and Danish TSO
Received in revised form 12 May 2016 Energinet.dk within the last 6 years. The main core of the results are obtained by PhD students research-
Accepted 27 May 2016
ing electrical engineering topics related to using underground cables for power transmission at EHV level
Available online 23 June 2016
and including the 420 kV level. The research topics were laid down by ET/AAU and Energinet.dk in the
DANPAC (DANish Power systems with AC Cables) research project. The main topics are discussed on the
Keywords:
basis of 39 references published by ET/AAU and Energinet.dk.
Underground cable transmission
Time domain simulations
Part I of the paper explains the events that lead to the research project, reactive power compensation,
Electromagnetic transients modelling for transient studies, including eld measurements and improvements to the existing models,
Cable modelling and temporary overvoltages due to resonances.
Insulation coordination Part II covers transient phenomena, harmonics in cables, system modelling for different phenomena,
Fault location main and backup protections in cable-based networks, online fault detection and future trends.
2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
2. Transmission cable system description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987
3. Reactive power compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988
3.1. Reactive power compensation considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988
3.1.1. Maximum unit size of shunt reactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
3.1.2. Compensation patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
3.1.3. Case example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
3.2. Summary of reactive power compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
4. Modelling of long high voltage AC cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
4.1. Introduction to transmission cable modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
4.2. Field measurements at transmission cable systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990
4.3. Cable model improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990
4.4. Summary of cable modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
5. Overvoltage analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
5.2. Series resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
5.3. Parallel resonance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
5.4. Fault clearing and system islanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
6. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: clb@et.aau.dk (C.L. Bak).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsr.2016.05.034
0378-7796/ 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994
1. Introduction
Electric power is an essential part of modern societys infrastruc-
ture. The transmission network is an unavoidable part of the overall
concept of producing and consuming electrical energy; it is sim-
ply necessary for enabling transport of electrical energy between
various sources of production and load centres. Furthermore, it is
necessary to interconnect several sources both in-country and also
with respect to neighbouring countries in order to achieve power
exchange and to improve a fair reliability of the power system. The
electric power transmission network undertakes this important
role and all societies having gone through the industrial revolution
has a transmission system. In order to transmit large quantities of
electric power, voltage of the transmission lines has been gradually
increasing during the last century [1], see Fig. 1.
Most recent development includes a circuit breaker for a 1.2 MV
test plant in India [2]. Overhead lines are almost exclusively used
for power transmission, except in urban areas, in locations hav-
ing natural beauty preservation status and for water crossing. An
example of water crossing is the 500 kV the cable link between
mainland Canada and Vancouver Island installed in 1984 [3]. Tokyo
is an example of a large urban area having employed 500 kV AC
transmission cable systems with a cable length of 40 km and com-
missioned in 2000 [4]. Italy has also employed cable technology,
notable examples are the 400 kV AC submarine cable link between
the mainland and Sicily [5], the 380 kV double-circuit cable in a
hybrid cable-OHL line between Turbigo and Rho [6] or the 118 km
long connection between Sicily and Malta [7]. Another important
milestone in cable development was the rst 400 kV XLPE cable in
Berlin in 1998 [8]. An economic and technical comparison between
undergrounding and overhead lines is available at [9], whereas [10]
presents a comparison between different undergrounding options.
In the years before 2000, Denmark has mainly used cables for
transmission purposes at 145 and 170 kV in larger cities, for con-
necting power plant units located close to or in city centres and
when crossing short paths of land having natural beauty. Thus, the
cables installed in Denmark up to 2000 have either been of short
length or part of an OHL transmission line. The rst experience
in Denmark leading to an increased focus on the highly different
electrical characteristics and the thereby associated behaviour of
cable transmission systems comes from the putting into operation
of a combined 400 kV OHL/cable line in Jutland, between the cities
of Aarhus and Aalborg. The line had to cross two areas of natural
Fig. 1. Major AC systems in chronological order of their installations [1].
985
beauty, a fjord and a river, and the OHL was replaced by 400 kV
XLPE cable in these areas [11], see Fig. 2.
The line consisted of three overhead line sections, two cable
sections and a permanently connected shunt reactor in Hornbk
with Q = 100 MVar. A single line diagram is shown in Fig. 3.
The line was energised for the rst time in 2004 and as the Dan-
ish transmission system operator Energinet.dk did not have much
experience with such a hybrid line, much emphasis was put on
thorough registration of the lines electrical behaviour. Chief engi-
neer H.P. Elmer monitored voltages and currents of the line when
energised for the rst time, and he found that nothing much special
happened, except for the DC offset due to the shunt reactor. How-
ever, when they switched off the line, he certainly saw something
he had never seen in his long career. This rst switch-off measure-
ment presented in Fig. 4 is obtained by monitoring the voltage at
the line when the last of the two line circuit breakers is opened
and the line is liberated from the rest of the power system. As can
be seen from Fig. 4, the voltage at the line did not immediately go
towards zero as for a usual line, but kept oscillating in a modulated
way for several seconds. Even more worrying was the fact that the
line experienced overvoltage in two of the phases and that these
were only decaying slowly.
Apparently, there was a kind of behaviour here which demanded
an explanation. The rst attempts pointed towards the likelihood of
some kind of oscillation between capacitances, mainly of the cable
and the shunt reactor inductance, but why did we see different
modes of oscillation which were different in all three phases and
where did the overvoltage come from? These questions gave rise to
cooperation between Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg
University and Energinet.dk as a masters student, Kim Sgaard,
undertook the task of explaining the above questions in his mas-
ters thesis. The main ndings are published in [1114] and will
be outlined briey in this introduction, as they belong to a certain
category of cable transient phenomena.
Three frequencies are recognisable in the voltage measurement,
a change from 50 Hz to a lower (app. 35 Hz) when switching off and
two modulating frequencies (app. 3 Hz for all three phases and app.
0.4 Hz for phase S and T). Overvoltages are visible in phase R and S.
The overall explanations to such ndings are straightforward, when
realised
When switching the line off the 50 Hz system, it will start res-
onating with a frequency equal to its resonant frequency given
by its inductances and capacitances, which are dominated by the
shunt reactor inductance and the cable capacitance. In this case,
this frequency is around 35 Hz.
The differences in appearance for the three phases are due to the
slightly different resonant frequencies of each phase (caused by
reactor and line asymmetries), which are coupled by mutual cou-
plings (also unsymmetrical, both inductive and capacitive, or just
inductive, as the phenomenon was also registered in a pure cable
line [15]) between phases and thereby added. Adding two sinu-
soidal with slightly different frequency yields such low-frequent
modulations. In this way, numerous shapes and appearances
(frequencies, amplications, attenuations) of last-end switch off
voltage decay can form [12,13].
The overvoltage stems from the summation of both the capacitive
and inductive induced voltages as the frequencies are slightly dif-
ferent per phase, and thereby, the induced voltages in one phase
(from the other two) will either more or less add to the phase volt-
age and thereby increase the voltage or subtract from the phase
voltage lowering it [12,13].
The fact that the three phases are not switched off at exactly
the same time, due to current interruption in current zero in
the circuit breaker, adds to the non-aligned adding of the phase
voltages.
986 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994

Fig. 2. Danish 400 kV line from Nordjyllandsvrket (Aalborg) to Trige (Aarhus) [11].

Fig. 3. Single line diagram of the 400 kV line showing OHL sections as well as the to cable sections of 4.5 km and 2.8 km [11].

A further question came up as the line is a hybrid line and single-
phase autoreclosure is used for the overhead line. Suppose the
feeder protection opens one phase due to a fault, could we expect
that the energy induced into the switched-off phase would be suf-
cient to maintain the fault arc and thereby preventing a successful
autoreclosure [14]?
The recognition that a line, mainly laid out as OHL and only hav-
ing cable around 8% of the line length, was able to react so different
to an ordinary OHL, not even considering cross-bondings or having
a line utilising full length cable, gave rise to a decision to conduct
research in order to have full knowledge of transmission cable
systems, so such could be designed and operated with the same
condence and reliability as overhead lines at transmission level.
In Denmark, receiving public and political pressures to under-
ground its OHLs, Energinet.dk published a report on the future
expansion and undergrounding of its transmission grid on the 3rd
of April 2008 [16]. The report proposed and compared six principles
(AF in Fig. 5). From these six principles, the Danish government
has selected Principle C in which all new 400 kV lines will basically
be undergrounded.

Fig. 4. Phase voltages for the 400 kV line NVV-TRI when performing last-end disconnection. Timescale horizontal 6.5 s between bars and voltage peak before instant of
switching (before left bar) is equal to 335 kV.
 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994 987

Fig. 5. Six principles for the future grid expansion [16].

Realising this as a major technical challenge, because all 132 conductor cross sectional area in order to obtain the same current
and 150 kV OHL should be replaced with cable lines over a period capacity as for Al conductor. The advantage of Al compared to Cu is
of approximately 20 years and almost all new 400 kV should be laid that Al has lower density. The cable in Fig. 6 has a stranded Al con-
as cable, Energinet.dk launched a research programme together ductor. Typically, for sections larger than 1200 mm2 of copper and
with the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University. 1600 mm2 of aluminium, the conductor has a segmented design
This project has investigated the electrical research challenges of which is commonly known as Milliken conductor [23,24]. More-
undergrounding the transmission system and laid a path, from a over, in order to achieve very high ampacity levels some special
level of knowledge almost only related to the use of cable technol- solutions can be used [25].
ogy for very short lines and towards the nal goal of being able There are two main types of dielectrics for extruded HV and EHV
to design and operate an entirely cable-based transmission system cables, cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and ethylene-propylene
with full knowledge of all important design studies and param- rubber (EPR). The difference is that EPR is less sensitive to insu-
eters. The work was carried out by 4 PhD students, a number of lation impurities than XLPE, while XLPE has less dielectric losses
masters students, Energinet.dk employees and Aalborg University. in comparison to EPR. The purpose of the insulation is to ensure
The major ndings of this research study are reviewed in this paper. no electrical connection between the two current-carrying com-
Full insight into every detail can be accessed through the PhD the- ponents of the cable, the conductor and the metallic screen. The
ses [1720] which eventually have led to further work resulting in insulation between the two conducting layers resembles a very
as well a book published [21], as a Cigr technical Brochure [22] long cylindrical capacitor. AC loads will therefore draw a capaci-
and numerous publications of which the most important are used tive charging current IC which is superimposed on the load current.
throughout this paper and listed in the references. The semi-conductive (SC) layers are placed between the insulation
and the conductor and between insulation and the metallic screen.
The purpose of the SC is to make an electrical eld stress optimised
2. Transmission cable system description
transition between potential surfaces of conductor and screen and
the main insulation.
Transmission systems using underground cables differ strongly
Cable models do normally not include SC layers. Instead, the SC
from overhead lines, not only due to their inherent different
layers are considered part of the insulation, where the thickness
appearance, but also their mechanical, electrical and thermal
and the permittivity of the insulation are changed accordingly.
behaviour is highly different. The description in this chapter mainly
The purpose of the cables metallic screen is to have a metallic
originates from [17].
covering used as an electrostatic screening as well as a return path
The use of extruded cables at transmission level began in
the 1960s. Since then, XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) cables
on higher voltage levels have become more popular than FF
(uid-lled) cables and GF (gas-lled) cables. This is due to less
environmental hazards, as gas or oil leaks are no longer an
issue and lower costs because no external accessories such as
pumping and pressurising systems are needed. A typical HVAC
underground power cable is formed by 4 main layers, namely;
conductorinsulationscreeninsulation. In addition to these main
layers, the cable also has semi-conductive screens, swelling tapes
and metal foil. A cross section of a 400 kV 1200 mm2 XLPE single
core cable is shown in Fig. 6.
The purpose of the conductor is to transmit the required current
with low losses. The transmission capacity of cable systems with
natural cooling is signicantly lower than the transmission capac-
ity of OHL of the same nominal voltage and cross-section, because
of thermal resistance in the surrounding soil. It is therefore often
necessary to use several parallel cable systems, even though such
can increase the risk for resonance circuits. The conductor in HV
and EHV cables is either made of copper (Cu) or aluminium (Al)
where Cu has a lower specic resistance which leads to a smaller Fig. 6. Cross section and layers of a typical XLPE cable [17].
988 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994
Fig. 7. Cross-bonding scheme for underground cables [17].
for the cables charging current and a conduction path for earth
fault current in case of a fault on the cable [26].
To avoid screen over-voltages at cable terminals, the metallic
screen is grounded, except for very short cables not suffering from
unallowable sheath voltages during faults [17]. In normal oper-
ation, the metallic screen will carry the cable charging current,
which would result in steady-state losses, due to the metallic screen
being grounded in both ends. Grounding the metallic screen only at
one terminal can lead to overvoltage at the ungrounded end. Long
cables employ cross-bonded screens to lower the losses, see Fig. 7.
By using this cross-bonding method, the induced screen
currents can be largely cancelled, and by grounding in between,
the screen overvoltage can be reduced. The cross-bonding points
demarcate part of the cable, called a minor section, and the ground-
ing points demarcate a so-called major section. The cables metallic
screen is usually formed by a wired screen and a metallic tape (lam-
inate layer), separated by a thin SC swelling tape, but it can also be
made of lead in combination with the above [22]. In some cases
the screen may also consist only in a metallic tape or a corrugated
sheath. The wired screen and metallic tape are directly connected
together both at each junction and cable ends and therefore consid-
ered as a single conducting layer in cable modelling. The laminate
layer is included for water resistance. The swelling tape between
the wired screen layer and the laminate layer is SC in order to
ensure no potential difference between the two conducting screen
layers. The two conducting layers are not touching each other in
order to protect the laminate from mechanical stress because of
bending and for thermal protection. It is common practise when
modelling the screen in EMT-based software to model it as a single
solid hollow conductor with the resistivity being a function of both
conducting layers, with a correction done in function of the number
of wires as explained in [22].
Cables are usually laid in a at formation in order to improve
heat dissipation and thereby increasing the ampacity, but they may
also be laid in trefoil formation that is advantageous regarding
space, costs and electromagnetic eld issues.
The at formation laying and the cross-bonding are sources of
both asymmetric and discontinuous impedances, respectively, and
an electric behaviour which poses additional design efforts as com-
pared to overhead lines.
Research conducted in the area of dynamic impedance of
grounding systems [2729] has proven that the proper representa-
tion of grounding impedance networks is of paramount importance
in order to get correct results when simulating higher frequency
dynamics in the time domain and a hybrid MATLAB/PSCAD-EMTDC
method is proposed in [27]. The similar behaviour to this is to be
expected for cross-bonded cable systems so attention should be
paid to a proper representation of ground connections. Such must
be assured and validated via measurements in order split occur-
rence of dynamics between the cable model itself and dynamics
originating from grounding system and methods. Generally, it is
seen that grounding in cable systems can be done by lumped ele-
ments, except for some high frequency cases where the substation
grounding network must be represented with higher resolution in
order to get results, which compares fully to measurements.
3. Reactive power compensation
Transmission cables high capacitance makes reactive power
compensation a must for cables with a length similar to usual OHL
transmission lines.
3.1. Reactive power compensation considerations
Reactive power compensation design is thoroughly covered in
[19,22,30] and the following accumulates the most important nd-
ings.
The reactive power compensation is necessary due to the fol-
lowing reasons:
- Suppress the steady-state overvoltage around the cable line
- Suppress the steady-state overvoltage at the cable open terminal
- Prevent the reduction of the active power transmission capacity
both in the cable and system due to the large charging current;
however, in order to prevent the reduction of transmission capac-
ity in the cable itself, the reactive power compensation must be
installed along the cable, ideally distributed by several points
- Reduce the leading current owing through the line breaker so
that it becomes lower than the leading current interruption capa-
bility of the line breaker
When a compensation rate of 100% is adopted, the installation of
the cable line does not affect the reactive power balance around the
cable line. Hence, a compensation rate of 100% is usually preferred
in the planning of cable lines.
However, in some cases, the compensation rate near 100%
cannot be achieved due to the unit size of shunt reactors and near-
power frequency resonances. For example, when a cable line has a
charging capacity 250 MVar, two units of 100 MVar shunt reactors
may be installed for the compensation, resulting in a compensa-
tion rate of 80%. In order to raise the compensation rate, the unit
size needs to be increased to, for example, 120 MVar, but this is not
always a cost-effective selection as it depends on the manufacturer.
When the compensation rate becomes lower than 100%, it will lead
to steady-state overvoltage.
The low compensation rate also leads to higher temporary over-
voltage [19]. It is highly recommended to study the temporary
overvoltage in the feasibility study or at an earlier stage as this
may affect the decision on the reactive power compensation in the
planning process.
Precise reactive power compensation requires the impedances
and admittances of the cable to be precisely calculated. Derivation
 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994 989

Table 1 As an example, voltage variations and transmission capacity for

Examples of compensation patterns [19].
Pattern 1 Pattern 2 Pattern 3
Sending end 300 Mvar 250 MVar 150 MVar
Middle of line 0 MVar 0 MVar 300 MVar
Receiving end 300 MVar 300 MVar 150 MVar
Compensation rate 100.7% 92.2% 100.7%
of theoretical formulas for sequence currents is presented in [31]
as the usual formulas given by IEC 60909-2 are for normal bonding
and ignore grounding resistance at substations [19]. The devel-
oped method is relatively easy to use and gives results which are
very close to sequence currents obtained by means of time domain
simulations.
3.1.1. Maximum unit size of shunt reactors
Maximum unit size can be determined from the allowable volt-
age variation in switching operations, which usually is in the range
of few percent (in Denmark 4%). Shunt reactors connected to the
400 kV buses are switched in normal operating condition for volt-
age control. In this case, the switching of the shunt reactor should
not cause voltage variation exceeding the limits. In contrast, shunt
reactors connected directly to the cable line are generally not
switched for the voltage control since they are installed to meet
leading current interruption or to suppress temporary overvoltage
and usually have no circuit breaker. Severe conditions of the net-
work as i.e. off-peak conditions and varying short circuit power
must be considered [19,30].
3.1.2. Compensation patterns
In addition to the unit size limitation, the switching of the cable
with the shunt reactors should not cause a voltage variation exceed-
ing 4%. This requirement can set restrictions on the compensation
rate.
The following items are considered to determine compensation
patterns, and they suggest that a compensation rate near 100% is
preferable:
- Voltage variation when switching the cable with shunt reactors
- Leading current interruption
- Ferranti phenomenon (sustained temporary overvoltage)
- Voltage prole under normal operating conditions (no-load and
maximum load)
- Active power losses
- Effect on transmission capacity
3.1.3. Case example
During the design of a new 400 kV line in Denmark, the com-
pensation patterns in Table 1 were examined with respect to the
above criteria. Detailed results are to be found in [19].
an 800 MW power ow is shown in Fig. 8.
Pattern 4 Patterns 1 and 2 provide the same voltage prole, as the only
150 MVar difference is the reactive power of the reactor in the sending end
250 MVar in which voltage is kept constant in the study. As can be seen from
150 MVar Fig. 8, the installation of a shunt reactor in the middle of the line
92.2% attens the voltage prole and increases transmission capacity. It
should be noted that the actual reactive power ow can be affected
by the network surrounding the cable line. Therefore, the compar-
ison only gives a relative comparison between the four patterns. In
this case, all four patterns showed satisfactory performance com-
pared to design criteria, hence, pattern 1 was chosen because
It will be the cheapest solution due to the small number of shunt
reactor units.
It uses only 300 MVar units, which is an advantage in keeping
spare reactors in stock.
3.2. Summary of reactive power compensation
Reactive power compensation can hardly be avoided in laying
realistic length transmission lines as underground cables. The rat-
ing and location of shunt reactors and whether they are directly
connected to the line or switchable makes a difference both with
regards to compensation of reactive power in steady-state oper-
ation as well as switching states of the cable. The latter can for
instance be switching overvoltage and zero-miss, which is a severe
condition for the line circuit breaker. These issues are addressed in
later chapters of this paper and part 2 of this paper.
4. Modelling of long high voltage AC cables
4.1. Introduction to transmission cable modelling
Chapters II and III as well as the introductory example in chapter
I reveal that a cable transmission line is a highly complex electrical
machine which behaviour is governed by the laws of physics.
Cable transmission lines are appreciably different than OHL with
regards to most electrical and physical quantities. Moreover, we
can expect cable systems to perform differently compared to OHL
with regards to switching transients, lightning propagation and
harmonic phenomena [32]. The power system sound operation
relies on a number of conditions fullled with a certain safety
or margin. Insulation coordination or, in other words, the power
systems ability to sustain and survive overvoltage conditions
without short- or long-term damage to the electrical insulation is a
paramount design study to conduct for transmission systems. The
computation of overvoltage in a widespread transmission system
demands accurate simulation models of each of power systems
components. For a long time, models for OHL have been considered

Fig. 8. Consequence of 4 different compensation patterns, left gure showing system voltage along line, and right showing transmission capacity [19].
990 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994
Fig. 9. The 400 kV cable system for measurement #1 [22].
and validated as being sufciently accurate for the simulation stud-
ies used to analyse and thoroughly design a transmission system.
This is not the case with the models for the cables in a cable-based
transmission system. A cable can be modelled with simple means
such as the pi-section for non-frequency dependent studies. How-
ever, studies which demand an accurate representation of several
frequencies and need to consider travelling waves must use fre-
quency dependent models. The PSCAD/EMTDC software is widely
used for power system transient simulation and it includes the fre-
quency dependent phase model (also known as the universal line
model [33]). Such models must be trustworthy if one is to trust sim-
ulation results. Models can only be trustworthy if they represent the
real-life behaviour of the component they intend to model. Ranges
of validity must be known; can one use the model to accurately
predict for instance travelling wave phenomena? The only way to
validate a model is by using high quality real-life measurements to
compare with the model output. Hence, we must have credible and
solid measurement results for cable systems in order to validate
the simulation models. Such measurements reveal discrepancies
between model output and the true behaviour of the cables and
thereby form the basis for further improvement of the models.
4.2. Field measurements at transmission cable systems
The thesis by Gudmundsdottir [17] documents four sets of mea-
surements of sending and receiving end voltages and currents.
#1 400 kV at prole cross-bonded cable system
#2 150 kV tight trefoil single minor section
#3 150 kV tight trefoil single major section
#4 150 kV tight trefoil multiple major section
Methods and results of #1 will be described in the following. Full
details are available in [17,34,35] of which the latter paper describes
both frequency sweep measurements as well as impulse testing.
The cable line for #1 consists of two parallel three-phase cable
systems with a 400 kV single core 1200-mm XLPE cables. The cross
section of the single core cable is shown in Fig. 9. The cables are laid
in at formation with 0.3-m lateral distance between the phases,
6 m between the two systems, and 1.3 m below the surface (see
Fig. 9).
The measurement setup is shown in Fig. 10. One of the outer
phases is energised with an impulse voltage (phase 1), while the
other two phases are grounded through a 500  resistor. A 500 
load is connected to the receiving end of all phases. All sheaths are
grounded at the sending and receiving end through a 1  resistor
[17]. Core voltages and core currents are measured, and the impulse
generator used is a HAEFELY PC6-288.1 surge tester. Sending end
voltage is set to 4.08 kV 1.2/50 s. The voltage and current were
measured in all three phases at both cable ends.
One measurement result, both phase quantities and the asso-
ciated modal quantities obtained after mathematical treatment, is
shown in Fig. 11, which will be seen to provide a very important
clue to discrepancies between measurements and a PSCAD/EMTDC
frequency dependent phase model simulation.
Around 50 s, some deviation appears between measured cur-
rent (black curve in Fig. 11b) and simulated current (blue curve in
Fig. 11b). This is explained by the presence of the intersheath mode
at exactly the same instant (pink curve Fig. 11a). In other words; the
presence of intersheath mode current, which is strongly affected
by the actual current distribution in the sheaths, will give rise to a
lack of model accuracy. The current distribution in the intersheath
modes is strongly dependent on proximity effect [36] which is not
modelled in the simulation model.
The presence of cross-bonding points in long cables causes exci-
tation of intersheath modes in a different way compared to having
no cross-bondings [37,38]. This reveals the need for an improve-
ment of the simulation model to better represent the intersheath
mode wave propagation.
4.3. Cable model improvement
As suggested by the measurements campaign, one way to con-
tribute to a better model accuracy, especially at higher frequencies,
would be to make a better model of the screen conductive path. The
screen is usually modelled as a solid cylindrical shell, but as can be
seen from Fig. 9, this is not the case, as the screen is made of a
number of spiralled single conductors and a metallic tape as well
 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994 991

Fig. 10. Measurement setup for obtaining sending and receiving end quantities for a 400 kV cross-bonded cable system [14,22].

as semi-conductive layer. Furthermore, screens can, especially in
tight trefoil, be placed so close that proximity effect will play a
role for the current distribution and thereby for both resistive and
inductive behaviour of the screen.
The model is improved in two steps: First, the layering of the
screen is modelled accurately [39] which gives rise to an impedance
matrix of higher accuracy, yielding a better damping of the simula-
tion results compared to measurements. High frequency damping
still shows to be inadequate, so the next step is to model proximity
effect for the screens and include this in the model.
Secondly, the proximity effect is well-known and can be
included in impedance calculations for a number of simple geome-
tries. However; the degrees of freedom for the physical location
and shape of a cable systems screen conductors put up so many
difculties compared to traditional methods that a new approach
is needed. This is developed in [17] and relies on dividing the
screen conductor into exponentially distributed sub-conductors
(see Fig. 12) and calculating self- and mutual GMD, thereby obtain-
ing an impedance matrix including proximity effect in a way which
is similar to the method used in OHLs.
The mathematical development is lengthy and can be found in
detail in [17]. Left to present here is the outstanding accuracy of the
improved cable model when including layering of the sheath and
proximity effect. Validation against measurement #3 is shown in
Fig. 13.
It is evident that the inclusion of layering of the screen and
proximity effect yields a much better resemblance between the
measured results and the simulation (red curve) as the damping
becomes larger when including the proximity effect and the effect
of layering the screen.

Fig. 11. Comparison of simulated and measured receiving end current (a) modal quantities and (b) phase quantities [17,35]. (For interpretation of the references to colour
in the text, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
992 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994

Fig. 12. Distribution of elements and element types for subdivision of conductors [17].

Fig. 15. Example of TOV due to series resonance [19].

Fig. 13. Comparison of the measured (black) and simulated core current at the
sending end of the energised phase for the single major section cable line. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in the text, the reader is referred to the
web version of this article.)
4.4. Summary of cable modelling
The most prominent results are that todays state-of-the-art
cable models can be trusted for most transient simulation stud-
ies related to overvoltage magnitudes. Todays cable model(s) have
been proven to be inaccurate when it comes to modelling the inter-
sheath mode. The actual physical layout of the screen is modelled
more accurately by use of a layered screen, thus resulting in a
more accurate damping of the lower frequencies (below 10 kHz).
The proximity effect is also included, resulting in more accurate
simulation results at higher frequencies (above 10 kHz) [17].
5. Overvoltage analysis
5.1. Introduction
Due to the larger capacitances of cables and the presence of
shunt reactors, temporary overvoltages (TOV) are more likely to
occur in a cable than in an overhead line of equivalent length and
voltage level [22,40]. As a result, phenomena such as the energisa-
tion of transformers and cables, fault clearances, load shedding and
system islanding can result in TOV with longer duration because of
the low frequency [22]. Surge arresters are typically used as coun-
termeasures to TOVs and their energy absorption capabilities must
be evaluated for these longer TOVs when compared with OHLs.
5.2. Series resonance
A scenario that may result in a TOV is the energisation of a
cable near a series resonance circuit, created by the capacitance
of another cable and the inductance of a transformer (Fig. 14).

Fig. 14. Left: Example of series resonance for a cable energisation. Blue dashed line shows the propagation of the voltage into the series resonance circuit: Right: Equivalent
circuit using lumped parameters.
 C.L. Bak, F. Faria da Silva / Electric Power Systems Research 140 (2016) 984994
Fig. 16. Example of a parallel resonance circuit created by the parallel of the cable capacitance with the inductance of the shunt reactor, excited by the transformers inrush
current.
Fig. 17. Equivalent circuit of system islanding [19].
The energisation of a cable generates a transient voltage wave
which frequencies depend on the cables electric parameters,
length and bonding arrangements, as well as the busbar short-
circuit power [18,22,41]. The voltage waves generated at the
switching propagate both into the cable being energised and the
surrounding system; the magnitude of the voltage in each depend-
ing on the respective surge impedances. Under these conditions, a
TOV may appear if the natural frequency of a series resonance cir-
cuit present in the network is excited by the dominant frequency of
the transient voltage. Fig. 15 shows an example of the phenomenon.
5.3. Parallel resonance
A TOV may also be generated by a parallel resonance circuit cre-
ated by a cables capacitance and the inductance of a shunt reactor.
A classic example is the energisation of a transformer connected to
a long cable in a weak network (Fig. 16). This generates current har-
monics with low frequency, low damping and long duration [19]
that may excite the resonance frequency of the parallel resonance
circuit. Other possible sources of current harmonics are power elec-
tronics, and, in the case of the transmission network, HVDC links.
Parallel resonances are associated with high impedances and
the circulation of the harmonic currents in the parallel resonance
circuit is not expected. The exceptions are systems with low short-
circuit power, e.g., a system during a network restoration or weak
grids. In this case, the impedance of the network seen from the
busbar increases (L0 in Fig. 16) and part of the inrush current ows
into the parallel resonance circuit, originating a TOV.
5.4. Fault clearing and system islanding
System islanding creates a transient voltage with two compo-
nents, one at power frequency and a second at resonance frequency,
which dependents on the grid parameters (e.g., cables capacitance,
short-circuit power, reactive power compensation, etc.), similar to
an energisation. Fig. 17 shows the single-line diagram of a possible
system islanding which voltage is given by (1).
V (t) = Vm sin(t) sin(0 t)
0 [9] R. Benato, D. Napolitano, Overall cost comparison between cable and overhead
 (1)
Em L 1 1
with : Vm = , 0 = + [10] Cigr JWG B3/B1.27, Factors for Investment Decision GIL vs. Cables for AC
L0 (1 2 LC) + L L0 C LC
993
Fig. 18. Overvoltage caused by bus fault leading to system islanding [19].
The equation shows that the resonance component is larger
for low resonance frequencies. Island networks are typically weak
networks, meaning a high value of L0 and lower resonance fre-
quency (0 ). Under these conditions, a large resonance voltage is
present, adding to the steady-state voltage resulting in an oscilla-
tory overvoltage as observed in Fig. 18.
System islanding is unlikely (but not impossible) to occur in
meshed networks, such as the European transmission networks,
because of their strong redundancy. An exception is the connection
to offshore wind farms. An example of this is the TOV registered
due to system islanding for the Horns Rev 1 offshore wind farm
and respective transmission cable after a disconnection of the land
connection [42]. The overvoltage was unusually large because of
the converters in the wind turbines [43], but the phenomenon may
also occur with synchronous generators.
6. Conclusions
The conclusions are to be found in High voltage AC under-
ground cable systems for power transmission A review of the
Danish experience, part 2.
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