Electrical Transients

Introduction: Transient Over-voltage

Short duration (microseconds to milliseconds) and can
be of large magnitude
Cause billions of dollars of losses each year
worldwide due to damaged equipment and lost
production
Also known as surges or spikes

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Defined as the response of an electrical network to a
sudden change in network conditions, either intended or
accidental, (e.g. a switching operation or a fault) or
network stimuli (e.g. a lightning strike)
Transients are sub cycle events, lasting less than one cycle
of the AC waveform
Transients are difficult to detect because of their short
duration
Importance of transient study
Microcontroller
Medical electronic instruments
 Impulsive Transients
Due to lightning strikes
 Oscillatory Transients
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Due to network switching operations
 Impulsive Transient
An impulsive transient is a sudden, non-power frequency
change from the nominal condition of voltage, current, or
both, that is unidirectional in polarity
Characterized by their rise and decay times
An impulsive transient voltage is described as having a
1.2/50 waveshape
Impulsive transients can excite power system resonance
circuits and produce oscillatory transients

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 Impulse transient

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 Characteristics

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 Causes of Impulse Transient
1. Lightning can strike directly to the phase conductors of
overhead power lines producing very high magnitude
transient over voltages
Peak current can be up to 200 kA with voltages over 1 MV

2. Lightning can also strike the overhead earth wire

1. back-flashover
3. Indirect strike
Currents produced in this manner are usually less than 2 kA
with voltages less than 100 kV
4. Overhead conductors at a higher voltage level physically
fall on to lower voltage mains
1. High voltage injection
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 Oscillatory transient
An oscillatory transient is a sudden, non-power
frequency change in the steady state condition of the
voltage and/or current waveforms that swings
(oscillates) both positively and negatively with respect
to the normal voltage waveform
The frequency of this oscillation can be quite high

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 Oscillatory transients are described by their
magnitude, predominate frequency and decay time
(duration).

Subdivided into

Low Frequency Transients

Medium Frequency Transients

High Frequency Transients

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 Low Frequency Transients

Primary frequency component less than 5 kHz

Duration from 0.3 ms to 50 ms, [IEEE Standard 1159-
1995 ].
This category of phenomena is frequently encountered
on sub-transmission and distribution systems and is
caused by several types of switching event.
Capacitor bank energization
300 to 900 Hz and a peak magnitude between 1.3 and
1.5 times the crest voltage of the 50 Hz waveform.
Ferroresonance
Transformer energization

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 Medium Frequency Transient
An oscillatory transient with a predominant frequency
component between 5 and 500 kHz and a duration
measured in tens of microseconds

Transients generated by back-to-back capacitor

energisation and cable switching.

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 High Frequency Transients
Oscillatory transients with a predominant frequency
component greater than 500 kHz and a typical
duration in microseconds

These transients often occur when an impulsive

transient excites the natural frequency of the local
power system network.

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 Causes of Oscillatory Over voltages: Network
switching
Switching of utility capacitor banks
Switching of circuit breakers to clear network faults
Switching of distribution feeders to rearrange the network
for maintenance or construction

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 Oscillatory transient Clearing of fault

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 Capacitor Switching Magnification

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Figure 6: Voltage magnification

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 Figure 7: Arrester energy duty caused by magnified transient

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 Limiting switching transients
High-energy surge arresters
Harmonic filters
Line Reactor

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 Lightning

Figure 8: Lightning strike locations where

lightning impulses will be conducted into
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load facilities
 Figure 8: Coupling of impulses through the
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interwinding capacitance of transformers
 Figure 9: Lightning impulse bypassing the service
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transformer through ground connections
 Ferro resonance

(a)

(b)

Figure 10(a). Series ferroresonant circuit,

(b) Graphical solution of a series ferroresonant circuit
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 Ferroresonant Operating Conditions
Operation point 1:
It is a non-ferroresonant stable operation point.
This is an inductive situation ( XL−linear > XC E = VL –
VC).
Operation point 2:
It is a ferroresonant stable operation point.
This is a capacitive situation ( XL−sat < XCE = VC – VL)

Operation point 3: It is an unstable operating point

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 Figure 11: Evolution of the solution increasing source
voltage E
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 Figure 12: Evolution of the solution increasing capacitance value C

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 Effects of ferroresonance
Ferroresonant states
Fundamental mode
Subharmonic mode
Quasi-periodic mode
Chaotic mode
Effects
Overvoltages and overcurrents
Sustained levels of distortion
Loud noise (magnetostriction)
Misoperation of protective devices
Overheating
Electrical equipment damage
Insulation breakdown
26 Flicker
 Transient system model: Capacitor
 is lead resistance.
L is lead inductance (of the order of μH).
 represents dielectric loss (responsible for capacitor
heating at higher frequencies).
C is the capacitance of the capacitor.

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 Transient system model: Reactor
R is winding resistance
C is the combined effect of inter-turn capacitance and
capacitance to earth (of the order of nF).
L is the inductance of the reactor.

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 Transient system model: Transformer

 is the effective capacitance of the primary winding to earth

 is the effective inter-winding capacitance
 is the effective capacitance of the secondary winding to
earth.(Capacitances are of the order of nF)
 and are the primary and secondary winding leakage
inductances respectively
 is the magnetizing inductance of the transformer
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 Transient system model: Power System

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 Other switching transients
Line energization transients
Higher-frequency content than capacitor energizing
transients
Die out in about 0.5 cycle

Energization transients on distribution feeder

Line energizing transients
Transformer energizing inrush
Load inrush
Single-line-to-ground fault

Voltage rise upto 1.4pu

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 Principles of Overvoltage Protection
Limit the voltage across sensitive insulation

Divert the surge current away from the load

Block the surge current from entering the load

Bond grounds together at the equipment

Reduce, or prevent, surge current from flowing between
grounds
Create a low-pass filter using limiting and blocking

principle

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 Figure 14: Principles of overvoltage protection
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 Devices for over voltage protection
Surge arresters and transient voltage surge suppressors
Crowbar devices
Devices that switch into a very low impedance mode to short circuit
the transient until the current is brought to a low level
Triggered by the breakdown of a gas or insulating layer, such as air
gap protectors, carbon block detectors, gas discharge tubes (GDTs)
Very low impedance allows a high current to pass without dissipating
a considerable amount of energy within the device
Disadvantage
 As the device switches or transitions to its breakdown mode the load may
be exposed to damaging overvoltage
 Power frequency voltage drops to zero or to a very low value for at least
on one-half cycle. This will cause some loads to drop offline
unnecessarily
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 Power current from the voltage source follows the surge discharge
 Clamping devices
Zener Diodes/MOVs
Nonlinear resistors (varistors) that conduct very low
amounts of current until an overvoltage occurs.
Then they start to conduct heavily, and their impedance
drops rapidly with increasing voltage.
Advantage over gap-type devices  the voltage is not
reduced below the conduction level when they begin to
conduct the surge current.
MOV arresters have two important ratings.

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 Selection Criteria  Clamping Devices
1. The normal operating conditions of the apparatus or
system, and whether ac or dc voltage is applied
 Maximum continuous operating voltage
 Maximum withstand voltage of protected device > Max.varistor clamping voltage > Max.

continuous operating voltage

2. Determine the repetitive peak current

3. Calculate the energy absorption

4. Package size and style

 Energy rating and surge current amplitudes
 Lead inductance and device capacitance
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 Figure 14: Suppression directly
across mains

Figure 15: Varistors used to

suppress internally generated
spikes in a TV application

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 Low pass filters
Low-pass filters use the pi-circuit principle achieve even
better protection for high-frequency transients
In surge protection usage, voltage clamping devices are
added in parallel to the capacitors

Figure 16: Hybrid transient protector

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 Utility Surge Arresters

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 Switching Transient Problems with Loads
Nuisance tripping of ASDs

Figure 18: Effect of capacitor switching on adjustable-speed-

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drive ac
current and dc voltage
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 Transients from load switching (Electric Fast
Transients)

• High frequency filters

• Isolation Transformers

Figure 20: Fast transients caused by de-energizing an inductive load

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 Transformer Energization
Inrush Currents upto 1s
Voltages upto 1.5 pu
Figure 21: Energizing a capacitor and transformer

Figure 22: Dynamic over-voltages during

43 transformer energizing.