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Transient Recovery Voltage

Switching transients or TRV appears across Vacuum or SF6 contacts of a circuit breaker while interrupting an inductive load or an overcompensated transmission line with series capacitors. TRV is the voltage that appears across the contacts of a circuit breaker after arc extinction. Unlike Air or Oil circuit breakers the hard-insulation in a Vacuum or SF6 circuit breaker does not allow the arc to develop during its contact separation process. This abrupt chopping of inductive current raises ...

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Kanai Banerjee
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92 views

Transient Recovery Voltage

Switching transients or TRV appears across Vacuum or SF6 contacts of a circuit breaker while interrupting an inductive load or an overcompensated transmission line with series capacitors. TRV is the voltage that appears across the contacts of a circuit breaker after arc extinction. Unlike Air or Oil circuit breakers the hard-insulation in a Vacuum or SF6 circuit breaker does not allow the arc to develop during its contact separation process. This abrupt chopping of inductive current raises ...

Uploaded by

Kanai Banerjee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Switching Transient Suppressor using LC

Snubber Ckt
Switching transients or TRV appears across Vacuum or SF6 contacts of a circuit
breaker while interrupting an inductive load or an overcompensated transmission line
with series capacitors. TRV is the voltage that appears across the contacts of a circuit
breaker after arc extinction. Unlike Air or Oil circuit breakers the hard-insulation in a
Vacuum or SF6 circuit breaker does not allow the arc to develop during its contact separation
process. This abrupt chopping of inductive current raises an excessive voltage (TRV) that
escalate a re-strike risk. The power system neutral shifts during a fault condition further
results in a high amplitude transient recovery voltage. The Rate of Rise of Recovery Voltage
(RRRV) is the peak transient Recovery Voltage divided by total time from Zero voltage to
Peak voltage. The magnitudes of TRV and RRRV are crucial specifications of a circuit
breaker in determining whether it can clear the fault successfully.   

While the transient recovery voltage and disturbances come close to Basic Insulation Level
(BIL) of MV and HV equipment in industrial and commercial power systems; they do not
pose fatal in their first occurrence. But the prolonged exposure to Power Frequency Over
Voltage transients (PFOV) weaken insulation and reduce the lifespan of power system
equipment. The repetitive transients in medium and high voltage power systems cause
transformer HV insulation failure and CT, PT, HT Fuse and Cable blasting. Further, the
power system transients percolate through different voltage levels and reach into the low
voltage power distribution system. In the LV power system, it causes unwanted tripping and
failure in sensitive equipment like AC/DC Drive, Solar Inverter, HMI, SCADA, UPS and
Data Center server equipment.

Ferroresonance at 21st harmonic frequency in a 33kV Power System


While TRV is a voltage sourced surge, a lightning strike is a current sourced or energy
sourced surge. The energy released by a lightning stroke must reach the earth irrespective of
path resistance. The current magnitude from a lightning bolt does not reduce along with its
flow, but the transient voltage rises following the path resistance. Ferroresonance is another
type of transient characterized by a sudden jump in voltage or current. It happens when
the power system's inductance (XL) equals capacitance (XC) at a harmonic frequency. The
resultant resonance appears typically from few second to tens of minute. Depending upon the
extent of the power surge, it can cause minor to devastating damage to power system
equipment. Power system study could uncover the signature of a Ferroresonance. The
recorded graph depicts a harmonic resonance condition at 21st harmonic frequency on a
33kV utility power supply line. 

Why Transformer Insulation Failure is more noticeable at Low Load

When the arc current in a circuit breaker reduces towards zero the instability of the arc chops
the current just before natural current zero. The level from which the current spontaneously
drops to zero is called Current Chopping. It though happens with all circuit breakers, but with
VCB its magnitude is much higher. When VCB contacts interrupt it abruptly chops current
due to hard-vacuum insulation. This Current-chopping phenomenon drops the current to zero
for a short time just before the natural alternating current comes to zero. Then it continues to
flow as Post-Arc Current due to plasma (ionized particles) between the VCB contacts and the
influence of TRV, which sweeps the post arc current. When VCB opens, it creates a re-
strike at the subsequent current zero which reignites the VCB contacts with a low-value
LC-series circuit that results in a high frequency (kHz range) oscillation. L is the cable
inductance, and C is the self-capacitance (nano-farad range) of the open-circuited
transformer. The transformer insulation comes under attack within a few cycle of this high-
frequency oscillation. When VCB opens a light loaded transformer, the current going towards
zero is small, and the ionic activity is low, which shuts it off much before the natural current
reaches zero. This phenomenon is called Pre-striking, and it leads to a Re-strike that results in
a higher TRV magnitude.        

  

How to Mitigate Transients in a Power System - RC Snubber vs LC Snubber

A snubber circuit employs a surge capacitor and a resistor or inductance in series with the
capacitor. It connects itself in star in parallel with the high voltage bus bar which could be in
star or delta configuration. A Snubber Circuit mitigates all transient types in a power
system, including abrupt voltage and power surge with the following characteristics.

1. It attenuates the fast-rising voltage surge by modifying the steepness of the travelling
voltage wavefront, thereby bringing down the rate of rising of the damaging impulse
voltage. The power system equipment could cope with the reduced rate of change of flux
better than applying a steep impulse voltage across it. While capacitors charge, its rate of
rising of voltage is (I / C) in kV/uS wherein I is capacitor charging current in kA/uS and C is
the capacitance in ufd. Typically capacitors charge to its full voltage within 100uS. 
2. It partially absorbs the surge energy or for that matter the voltage spike. The energy
absorbing capacity of a surge capacitor at its peak charge voltage (kV) is 1/2 x ufd x kV2 in
Joules. The standardized surge capacitor sizes are 0.125ufd, 0.25ufd and 0.50ufd. Surge
capacitors are single bushing type wherein the second terminal connects to the capacitor
body. The star-point of the 3phase surge capacitors connects to ground, which introduces a
disadvantage of unwanted earth fault tripping.   

3. Surge capacitance in ufd range considerably reduce the damaging high-frequency


(kHz range) oscillations of the TRV voltage wavefront, damping the ringing. In-addition it
favourably tilts its slope giving safety to transformer winding.   

4. A resistance in series with the surge capacitor provides a damping effect by lowering
the peak amplitude of the oscillation. In-addition it absorbs partial surge energy in the form
of I2R loss which also is its undoing. It is a question of when, and not if, the resistance will
blast. The standardised value of per phase resistance is 100ohm, but varies from 30ohm to
300ohm with application and voltage level.      

5. An inductance in series with the surge capacitor offers several advantages. First, it
doubles up as LC-Snubber circuit and HV capacitor for reactive power compensation. The
improved Power Factor (PF) reduces current and provides I2R loss saving to the extent
of current saving and power system impedance. Second, the LC-Snubber capacitors are
double bushing type, and the 3phase star point remains un-grounded, thus eliminates
nuisance earth fault tripping. Third, unlike resistance, the inductive impedance increases
steeply with high frequency (Xl = 2.PI.Hz.L), thereby provides better damping and
flattening of the overshoot. Fourth, needs 50% lower footprint and the additional
clearance for heat dissipation not required.          

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