Generation of High

Voltage
By
Debidasi Mohanty
Asst. Professor
VSSUT, Burla
Types of High voltages

 High d.c. voltages

 High a.c. voltages of power frequency.
 High a.c. voltages of high frequency.
 High transient or impulse voltages of very short duration such as
lightning over voltages, and transient voltages of longer duration such
as switching surges
 Rectifier (HWR/FWR)

DC voltages are used for the testing of HVDC

components and HVAC cables.
Cap. is used to smoothen the DC voltage.
C is charged to Vmax through the diode D.
when the i/p voltage becomes less than Vmax
Disadv:
• The size of the circuit is very large if high and
pure DC o/p voltages are required.
• The transformer may get saturated of o/p
current is high.
 For applications at high voltages of 50 kV and above, the rectifier valves used
are of special construction. Apart from the filament, the cathode and the
anode, they contain a protective shield or grid around the filament and the
cathode. The anode will be usually a circular plate. Since the electrostatic field
gradients are quite large, the heater and the cathode experience large
electrostatic forces during the non conduction periods. To protect the various
elements from these forces, the anode is firmly fixed to the valve cover on one
side. On the other side, where the cathode and filament are located, a steel
mesh structure or a protective grid kept at the cathode potential surrounds
them so that the mechanical forces between the anode and the cathode
rereflected on the grid structure only.
 In modern high voltage laboratories and testing installations, semiconductor
rectifier stacks are commonly used for producing d.c. voltages. Semiconductor
diodes are not true valves since they have finite but very small conduction in
the backward direction. The more commonly preferred diodes for high voltage
rectifiers are silicon diodes with peak inverse voltage (P.I.V.) of 1 kV to 2 kV.
However, for laboratory applications the current requirement is small (a few
milli amperes, and less than one ampere) and as such a selenium element
stack with PJ.V. of up to 500 kV may be employed without the use of any
voltage grading capacitors.
 Greinacher voltage doubler circuit
Both full wave and half wave rectifier circuits produce a d.c.
voltage less than the a.c. maximum voltage. When higher d.c.
voltage are needed, a voltage doubler or cascaded rectifier doubler
circuits are used.
Cascaded voltage doublers are used when larger output voltages
are needed without changing the input transformer voltage level.
Voltage Multiplier circuit

Cascaded voltage multiplier circuits for higher

voltages are cumbersome and require too many
supply and isolating transformers. İt is possible
to generate very high d.c. voltages from single
supply transformers by extending the simple
voltage doubler circuits. This is simple and
compact when the load current requirement is
less than one milliampere, such as for cathode
ray tubes, etc. Valve type pulse generators may
be used instead of conventional a.c. supply and
the circuit becomes compact.
Ripple voltage for a n-stage I 1 2 3 n
V  [ '  '  '  ............  ' ]
Voltage multiplier circuit 2 f Cn Cn  1 Cn  2 C1

I * n(n  1)
V 
4 fC

Voltage drop for a n-stage I 2 3 n2 n

V  [ n   ]
Voltage multiplier circuit fC 3 2 6

2 In 3
V 
3 fC

2 In3
Maximum output voltage V0 max 2nVmax 
3 fC
Electrostatic Generator
 Electrostatic generator convert mechanical energy to electrical energy.
 Also known as Vande Graff generator and it generates very high DC voltage. The Vande
Graff generation is one of the methods used to obtain very high voltage. However they can’t
supply much currents & the power output is restricted to low current applications. Hence,
their use is restricted to low current application.
 The generator uses an insulating belt as the carrier of charge. It consists of low voltage source
with corona discharge taking place at the +ve end of the source.
 The corona formation is caused by a core like structure with sharp points.
 Charge is sprayed onto an insulating moving belt by means of corona discharge points which
are at some 10 kV from earth potential.
 The belt is driven at about 15–30m/sec by means of a motor and the charges conveyed to the
upper end where it is removed from the belt by discharging points connected to the inside of
an insulated metal electrode through which the belt passes. The entire equipment is usually
enclosed in an earthed metal tank filled with insulating compressed gases.
Electrostatic Generator/Vande Graff Generator
 The higher voltage of the upper electrode arises from the fact that for the same charge, a
smaller capacitance gives a larger voltage. The upper electrode has a smaller capacitance to
earth on account of the larger spacing involved.

 Charging can be made More effective by having an additional charge of opposite polarity
sprayed onto the belt by a self inducing arrangement.
Cascaded Transformer
 Usually used for generation of very high AC voltage.
 Figure shows the basic scheme for cascading three transformers. The
primary of the first stage transformer is connected to a low voltage
supply. A voltage is available across the secondary of this transformer.
 The tertiary winding (excitation winding) of first stage has the same
number of turns as the primary winding and feeds the primary of the
second stage transformer. The potential of the tertiary is fixed to the
potential V.
 The secondary winding of the second stage transformer is connected in
series with the secondary winding of the first stage transformer, so that
a voltage of 2V is available between the ground and the terminal of
secondary of the second stage transformer.
 Similarly, the stage-III transformer is connected in series with the
second stage transformer. With this the output voltage between ground
and the third stage transformer, secondary is 3V. it is to be noted that
the individual stages except the upper most must have three-winding
transformers. The upper most, however, will be a two winding
3-stage cascaded Transformer
 High voltage transformer for testing purposes are purposefully
designed to have poor regulation. This is to ensure that when
secondary is short circuited, the current would not increase to a very
high value and to reduce the cost.
Advantages:
 For voltages higher than 400 KV, it is desired to cascade two or more
transformers depending upon the voltage requirements. With this,
the weight of the whole unit is subdivided into single units and,
therefore, transport and erection becomes easier. Also, with this, the
transformer cost for a given voltage may be reduced, since cascaded
units need not individually possess the expensive and heavy
insulation.
Disadvantages:
 The main disadvantage of cascading the transformers is that the
lower stages of the primaries of the transformers are loaded more as
compared with the upper stages.
Series Resonant Transformer
It is possible to have series resonance at power frequency ,
With this condition, the current in the test object is very large and
is limited only by the resistance of the circuit.
The waveform of the voltage across the test object will be purely
sinusoidal.
The magnitude of the voltage across the capacitance C of the test
object will be
 So, the output voltage is a function of input voltage
and quality factor of the circuit.
 Q usually varies between 40-80. Thus the output
voltage can become several times of the input
voltage.
 SRT is used for cable testing, dielectric loss
measurement, partial discharge measurement, etc.
 Generation of high frequency alternating voltage

 A tesla coil is an air cored resonant transformer. A standard transformer uses tight
coupling between its 10 & 20 windings & the voltage gain is due to transformation
ratio alone. In contrast a Tesla coil uses a relatively loose coupling between 1 0 & 20
& the majority of the voltage gain is due to resonance rather than turns ratio. A
normal transformer uses an iron core in order to operate at lower frequencies, where
as Tesla coil is air cored to operate efficiently at much higher frequencies.
 The spark gap initially appears as open circuit. Currents from HV power supply
flows through a ballast inductor & charges the 10 tank capacitor to a high voltage.
The voltage across the capacitor increases steadily with time as more charge is being
stored across its dielectric.
 Eventually the capacitor voltage becomes so high to hold-off the high electric
field & breakdown occurs. The resistance of the air in the spark gap drops
dramatically & the spark gap becomes a good conductor. The tank capacitor is
now connected across the 10 winding through the spark gap. This forms a parallel
resonant circuit & the capacitor discharges its energy into the 1 0 winding in the
form of a damped high frequency oscillation. The resonant frequency of this
circuit is determined by the values of the 1 0 capacitor & 10 winding & usually in
the low hundreds of kHz.
 During the damped 10 oscillation energy passes back & forth between the 1 0
capacitor & the 10 inductor. Eg is stored alternatively as voltage across the
capacitor or current through the inductor. Eg is dissipated in the spark gap is eg
which is lost from the 10 tank circuit.
 The close proximity of 10 & 20 winding causes magnetic coupling between them.
The high amount oscillating current flow in the 10 causes a similar oscillating
current to be induced in the nearby 20 circuit.
 The self capacitor of the 20 winding & the capacitance CR result in another
parallel resonant circuits being made and the 20 inductance. Its natural resonant
frequency is determined by the values of the 20 inductance & its stray
capacitance.
 The resonant frequency of the 10 circuit is chosen to be the same as the resonant
frequency of the 20 circuit.
IMPULSE VOLTAGE GENERATION