Effects of Lightning Impulse on Power Transformer

Insulation Level
Thanapong Suwanasri1, Somchai Homklinkaew1 and Cattareeya Suwanasri2
The Sirindhorn International Thai – German Graduate School of Engineering
1
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkkok, 10800 Thailand
2
Faculty of Engineering, Naresuan University, Muang, Phitsanulok, 65000 Thailand, E-mail: cattareeyaa@nu.ac.th

Abstract-. The overvoltage stresses due to lightning impulse has

been studied by using simulation tool and a typical Thailand sub- Underground
transmission system. The effect of lightning is considered as back- Overhead Line Cable

flashover at the insulator and shielding failure. Then, transmission

line, tower, switchgear and transformer are modeled together as a
system. The effect of tower footing resistance, underground cable
connection between overhead line and switchgear as well as opened
circuit breaker on overvoltage stress has been thoroughly investigated.
The result is used to determine the insulation level of power GIS
transformer and other high voltage equipment in power system.

I. INTRODUCTION Figure 1. Typical sub-transmission system for simulation.

Power transformer is one of the most important and A. Lightning Current Source
expensive equipments in electrical power system. Damage of The shielding failure and back flashover of suspension
transformer certainly causes utility to loss some revenue from insulator are represented by two modes of lightning current
energy supply to its customers. Moreover, the utility must pay sources in the simulation. Table I describes the critical
repairing cost. In addition the system reliability is decreased if characteristic of lightning such as steepness, amplitude and
contingency plan is not well prepared. The principal cause of duration for both mentioned cases [1].
transformer damage is overvoltage due to lightning or TABLE I
switching. In case of such overvoltage exceeds the basic TYPICAL LIGHTNING CHARACTERISTICS
lightning impulse insulation level (BIL) of transformer Sm (max th (time to half
insulation, the damage of internal or external insulation could Im (crest value) tf (front time) value)
steepness)
unavoidably occur. Unlike transmission line with self-restoring 75 μs
150 kA 7.1 μs 42.77 kA / μs
insulation, transformer insulation is non-self restoring. Thus, if 75 μs
7 kA 2.55 μs 16.7 kA / μs
insulation level is not well selected and designed, permanent
damage could occur and subsequently need to be repaired as
soon as possible. The objective of this work is to study the Flashovers caused by lightning are divided into two groups.
effect of lightning impulse on insulation level of transformer The first group, back flashover, means that the stroke
regarding to various system parameters such as footing terminates on a structure or shield wire. Consequently, the
resistance, cable length, back flashover of suspension insulator potential of the structure rises significantly and subsequently
and shielding failure. The result of this study will be used to causes a flashover to the phase conductor. The second group,
improve system reliability in order to reduce the impact of shielding failures, means that the stroke terminates directly on
overvoltage and as a guideline for selection of transformer the phase conductor.
insulation level.
Lightning can be suitably modeled by using the CIGRE
II. WORKING PROCEDURE characteristics such as concave front slope as shown in Fig. 2.
In this work, the Alternative Transients Program (ATP) with To represent lightning impulse, the concave front slope is
ATPDRAW, graphical pre-processor, is used to study the practically more suitable than a straight line. Similarly, the
effects of lightning transient overvoltage on transmission line Heidler lightning model from ATP can also perform this
as well as on underground cables and in a substation. A typical function.
115 kV sub-transmission system from Metropolitan Electricity B. Overhead Transmission Line
Authority (MEA), Thailand is applied in the simulation. It Fig. 3 shows the model of overhead line, transmission tower
consists of overhead transmission lines on concrete poles, and footing resistance used in this study.
underground cable, gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and power
transformer as shown in Fig. 1. Details of each component
modeling are described in the following sections.

Figure 2. CIGRE concave front slope wave shape.
Figure 3. Model of overhead transmission line [2]
Overhead line, both phase conductors and shield wire, can be
modeled by a multiphase untransposed distributed parameter
line section. The model can be either frequency-dependent or
constant parameter. In the second case, its parameters should
be calculated at a frequency of 500 kHz, which is derived from
2 µs front wave [2],[3]. In this study the frequency-dependent
model, JMarti model in ATP, is used.
A line termination, by matching impedance at the line end
opposite to the substation, is required to prevent the effect of
reflection wave on the studied system.
Several models of transmission tower are presented in [4]. In
this work the tower is represented as a single conductor
distributed parameter line, which is accurate enough for less
than 50 meters height tower. At the tower base, the footing
impedances is connected and buried in the soil. It is assumed
that the velocity of surge in tower is equal to speed of light or
300m/μs.
The surge impedance of transmission tower (ZT) is
calculated by using Eq. (1).[5]
⎛H⎞ ⎛r ⎞
Z T = 60 ln⎜ ⎟ + 90⎜ ⎟ − 60
⎝r ⎠ ⎝H⎠
where H is pole height (m) and r is equivalent radius of tower’s
base (m).
The footing impedance (RT) can be represented as either a
constant resistance or a non-linear resistance. Its value is
approximated by using Eq. (2) and Eq. (3), respectively.
R
RT = 0 (2)
1+ I / I
g
1 E0 ρ
Ig = • (3)
2π 2
R0
where R0 is the footing resistance at low current and low
frequency, I is the peak value of the stroke current through the
resistance, and Ig is the limiting current to initiate sufficient
soil ionization, ρ is the soil resistivity (ohm-m) and E0 the soil
ionization gradient (400 kV/m).
C. Underground cable
Underground cable can be modeled more accurately if the
frequency dependence model is applied. However in case of
short length cable without cross-bonding, the simple constant
parameter can be used. For fast transient study, the parameter
should be calculated at frequency range of 400-500 kHz.
D. Gas insulated Switchgear (GIS)
The GIS can be modeled as distributed parameter with surge
impedance calculated by Eq. (4). [6]
138 ⎛ r2 ⎞
Z= log⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ (4)
k ⎝ r1 ⎠
where:
Z = surge impedance
r2 = radius of outer GIS tube
r1 = radius of inner conductor
k = permittivity of dielectric (k= 1 for SF6).
In this work, the typical single bus H-scheme is modeled.
The GIS consists of two incoming lines, two outgoing
transformer lines and one bus section as shown in Fig. 1.
E. Power transformer
Power transformer is modeled as capacitance to ground with
a value of 3500 pF. [2]
F. System study
Fig. 4 shows the system modeling in ATP for back-flashover
study and the effect of footing resistance on overvoltage. The
lightning current is injected to the shield wire and then flows
through tower to footing resistance. Whenever the voltage at
tower higher than insulator withstand, the insulator will flash,
which is called back-flashover.
Other case study is the effect of underground cable length on
the overvoltage. The underground cable is inserted between
overhead line and substation. The cable lengths are varied from
100m, 500m and 1000m. The inject point of lightning source is
(1) changed to the phase conductor instead of shield wire in order
to study the effect of shielding failure.
The last case study is the effect of open circuit breaker at the
incoming line of substation on the overvoltage in case of
having underground cable connected between substation and
transmission line and without underground cable.
 LINE1 X0064
LCC V U
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L_imp

I
TWR4 0.1 km

V
LCC LCC LCC LCC LCC LCC

PT1

V
t

t
Tran
V

TR

Figure 4. System modeling in ATP for shielding failure

line starting from 0V is the voltage at the pole top, which is

III. RESULTS
similar to the lightning impulse. The dot line, voltage at phase
The simulation result of the above system is presented in this section A conductor, is the induced voltage from lightning impulse up
according to the variation of footing resistance, with and without to 2.7μs. After that, flashover occurs at phase A insulator,
underground cable connection and the opened circuit breaker. which makes phase A voltage waveform to be similar to
lightning impulse waveform. Due to flashover at phase A, the
Case I : Effect of footing Resistance lightning impulse voltage travels further along the transmission
In this case, the crest value of 150kA lightning current is line to the incoming line and transformer terminal, which leads
selected as lightning current source for worst case study. From to high frequency oscillation around 125 kHz at both locations.
Fig. 5, the voltage at the pole top, similar to lightning impulse The simulated voltages at both locations are similar because of
waveform, increases significantly and exceeds the critical the short distance between incoming line and transformer
flashover voltage of suspension insulator (VCFO ≈ 630kV). terminal in case of using GIS switchgear. This oscillation is
Therefore, the flashover will occur at the insulator. This caused by inductance and stray capacitance in the system. The
overvoltage is more severe in case of higher value of footing shift of simulated voltages from zero axis is due to the assumed
resistance. Thus, it is necessary to keep the footing resistance negative 115kV system voltage.
as low as possible. From MEA electrical system, the footing Polenprojectr10>LINEA
top Phase(Type
A 4) Incoming Line Transformer
nprojectr10>TOP - (Type 4)
resistance is limited to less than 5Ω. nprojectr10>TOWPHA(Type 4) nprojectr10>TRANA (Type 4)
1500000

R=10Ω
nprojectr10>TOP - R=50Ω
(Type 4) R=100Ω
nprojectr100>TOP - (Type 4)

nprojectr50>TOP - (Type 4) 1000000

2000000

1500000 500000
Voltage (V)

1000000 0
Voltage (V)

500000 -500000

0 -1000000
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (us)
Electrotek Concepts® TOP, The Output Processor®
-500000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Figure 6 Voltage profiles of various locations in the system
Time (us)
Electrotek Concepts® TOP, The Output Processor®

Figure 5. Effect of footing resistance to the pole top voltage Case II : Effect of underground cable connection

From the above reason, the footing resistance of 10 Ω is The second case study is shielding failure, 7 kA lightning
chosen for further study. Fig. 6 shows the overvoltage at current is injected directly to phase A conductor. The effect of
underground cable connection on overvoltage is presented in
various locations in the system such as at pole top, phase A
Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 by comparing the voltage at the incoming line
conductor, incoming line and transformer terminal. The dash
and at transformer terminal respectively with variable cable incoming line because it is considered as high surge impedance
length. The most critical overvoltage is in case of without at the opened circuit breaker location. Moreover in case of
underground cable connection, solid high frequency oscillation opened circuit breaker, the frequency of oscillation is nearly
line. With cable connection between the incoming line and twice of the frequency when circuit breaker is closed. When
substation, the voltage decreases because the surge impedance circuit breaker is opened, the inductance and capacitance of
of underground cable is less than overhead line. Therefore, the GIS switchgear and transformer are subtracted from the
transmitted overvoltage through underground cable is reduced. considered system.
The longer cable length results in lower frequency of
Circuit breaker close Circuit breaker open
oscillation. Because the capacitance of cable increases with
cable length, the frequency of oscillation having inverse 2000000
ncable0>LINE1A(Type 4) ncable0open>LINE1A(Type 4)

relationship with the square root of the product between

inductance and capacitance is reduced. According to the above
mention of short distance in the substation, the similar voltage 1000000

waveform at the incoming line and transformer terminal is

obtained.

Voltage (V)
0
cable = 0 m cable = 100 m
ncable0>LINE1A(Type 4) ncable100>LINE1A(Type 4)
cable = 500 m cable =1000 m
ncable1000>LINE1A(Type 4) ncable500>LINE1A(Type 4)
1500000
-1000000

1000000

-2000000
500000 0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (us)
Electrotek Concepts® TOP, The Output Processor®
Voltage (V)

Figure 9 Effect of circuit breaker open at incoming line voltage

-500000

IV. CONCLUSION
-1000000
The overvoltage stresses due to lightning impulse in a typical
-1500000 MEA system has been studied in order to determine the
0 10 20
Time (us)
30 40
insulation level of high voltage equipment. The footing
Electrotek Concepts® TOP, The Output Processor®
resistance has an effect on overvoltage and should be kept as
Figure 7 Effect of cable length at incoming line voltage low as possible. Connection of underground cable between the
incoming line and switchgear can alleviate the severity of
cable = 0 m cable = 100 m
overvoltage. The opened circuit breaker results in higher
cable = 500 m cable =1000 m overvoltage at the incoming line with higher frequency of
oscillation. Because the overvoltages of every case exceed the
ncable0>TRANA (Type 4) ncable100>TRANA (Type 4)

withstand capability of insulation (550 kV for 115 kV system),

ncable1000>TRANA (Type 4) ncable500>TRANA (Type 4)
1500000

surge arrester should be installed in order to limit the

1000000
overvoltage in the system.
REFERENCES
500000
[1] M. M. Osborne, A. Xemard, L. Prikler, and J. A. Martinez. “Points to
consider regarding the insulation coordination of GIS substations with
Voltage (V)

0
cable connections to overhead lines”, International Conference on
Power Systems Transients (IPST’07), Lyon, France. June 4-7, 2007.
-500000
[2] Fast Front Transients Task Force of the IEEE Modeling and Analysis
of System Transients Working Group. “Modeling Guidelines for Fast
-1000000
Front Transients”, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 11, No. 1,
pp.493-506 January 1996.
-1500000 [3] Juan A. Martinez-Velasco, Ferley Castro-Aranda. “Modeling of
0 10 20
Time (us)
30 40 Overhead Transmission Lines for Lightning Studies”, International
Electrotek Concepts® TOP, The Output Processor® Conference on Power Systems Transients (IPST’05), Montreal,
Canada, on June 19-23, 2005
Figure 8 Effect of cable length at transformer voltage [4] J.A. Martinez and F. Castro-Aranda, “Tower modelling for lightning
analysis of overhead transmission lines”, IEEE PES General Meeting
2005, June 2005, San Francisco.
Case III : Effect of opened circuit breaker [5] Zhijing, Z., and et al. 2004. “The Simulation model for calculating the
surge impedance of a tower”. In Proceedings of IEEE International
The third case is also shielding failure. The effect of opened Symposium on Electrical Insulation, Indianapolis, USA,19-22
or closed circuit breaker at the incoming line on overvoltage September.
without underground cable connection is shown in Fig. 9. The [6] Helfried W. Anderl Charles L. Wagner, Thomas H. Dodds. “Insulation
opened of circuit breaker results in higher overvoltage at the Coordination For Gas Insulated Substations”, IEEE PES Winter
Meeting, New York, N.Y., January 28-February 2, 1973