5/2/2018

U Insulation Coordination
ECE524

I Lecture 44

• We can't prevent transient overvoltages,

so we need to protect against them
• Objective:
– Design system insulation (for all components)
to minimize power interruptions and damage
resulting from steady-state, dynamic and
transient overvoltages in an economic
fashion.

1 Spring 2018

U Primary Areas of Concern

ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Voltage Stress:
– Magnitude of Surge
– Duration of surge
– Distribution of stress
• Current Stress:
– Magnitude of surge
– Length of surge

2 Spring 2018

1
 5/2/2018

U Primary Areas of Concern

ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Dielectric Strength of insulation

• Surge protective devices
– Device characteristics
– Device placement
• Cost

3 Spring 2018

U Types of Voltage Stresses

ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Temporary Overvoltages: Power frequency

disturbances of relatively long duration
• Possible causes:
– Faults (unbalanced)
– Sudden changes in load (usually load rejection)
– Underloaded long lines
– Linear resonances due to transients
• Or driven by harmonic sources
– Ferroresonance
– Electromagnetic and electrostatic induction
– Electromechanical resonances with generators

4 Spring 2018

2
 5/2/2018

U Types of Voltage Stresses

ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Transient Overvoltages: Switching transients and

transients resulting from changes in operating states. High
frequency oscillations can result from these transients,
lasting from microseconds to several cycles.
• Possible causes:
– Line energization
– Reclosing into trapped charge
– Opening breakers (TRV)
– Opening breakers in ungrounded 3 phase systems
– Capacitor switching
– Breaker restrike
– Inductor switching (current chopping)

5 Spring 2018

U Analysis of Transient ECE524

I Overvoltages: Solution Issues Lecture 44

• Analytical solutions
• EMTP-type programs
• Location of transient relative to components is
important
• Ground connections
• Parasitic capacitance, inductance and resistance

6 Spring 2018

3
 5/2/2018

U Analysis of Transient ECE524

I Overvoltages: What to study Lecture 44

• Reproducing the event that has occurred (and

caused a failure)
• Finding worst case timing and location (statistical
study)
• Develop physical understanding

7 Spring 2018

U Types of Voltage Stresses

ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Lightning Transients: Very fast, hundreds of

nanoseconds to a few microseconds
– Direct strike most severe
– Transmission lines are shielded but do not have
adequate insulation for a direct strike
– Overvoltages not normally from lightning striking
phase conductor
• Secondary effects of shield wire or tower strikes
• Backflashover (most common)
• Electromagnetic induction (least severe)

8 Spring 2018

4
 5/2/2018

U Design Issues: Transmission ECE524

I lines Lecture 44

• Conductor to conductor clearances

• Conductor to tower clearances
• Specify insulator strings
• Placement of shield wires
• Placement of ground conductors
• Tower type
• Tower footing resistance

9 Spring 2018

U Design Issues: Transformers ECE524

I and Rotating Machines: Lecture 44

• BIL (basic lightning impulse insulation level),

– Rise time of 1.2sec and decay to 50% in
50sec.
• BSL (basic switching impulse insulation level),
– Rise time of 250sec and decay to 50% in
2500sec.
– Both are used to measure ability of equipment
(and insulation) to withstand overvoltages

10 Spring 2018

5
 5/2/2018

U Characteristics of Self- ECE524

I Restoring Insulation Lecture 44

• Self-Restoring
– Insulator string in air (or other path in air)
– Once the arc clears completely, insulation
back at full strength
– Circuit breakers in this class

11 Spring 2018

U Characteristics of Non-Self- ECE524

I Restoring Insulation Lecture 44

• Non-Self-Restoring
– Insulation failure results in damage to
insulation
– Will need to be isolated and repaired
• Underground cable
• Transformers
• Rotating Machines

12 Spring 2018

6
 5/2/2018

U Methods for Insulation ECE524

I Coordination Studies Lecture 44

• Apply Rules of Thumb to estimate worst case

voltages
• Pre-calculated deterministic studies
– Calculate absolute worst-case
overvoltages
– Over design
• Deterministic and Statistical
• Purely Statistical

13 Spring 2018

U Statistical Variation
ECE524

I Lecture 44

Transient Overvoltage
V
Strength of
Insulation

Probability
14 Spring 2018

7
 5/2/2018

U Rules of Thumb
ECE524

I Lecture 44

• 3 Phase Line Energization with trapped

charge 3.5pu
• 3 Phase Line Energization with closing
resistor and trapped charge 2.3pu
• Energize Ungrounded Capacitor Bank
2-2.5pu
• Capacitor Bank Restrike 3.0pu

15 Spring 2018

U Rules of Thumb
ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Transient Recovery Voltage 2-3pu

• Unfaulted phase, SLG fault 1.73pu

• One approach is to assume these will occur

and design appropriately.

16 Spring 2018

8
 5/2/2018

U Statistical and Systematic ECE524

I Studies Lecture 44

• Transient network analyzers were very good

at doing repeated studies with the same
network configuration and different switching
times/conditions
– Long set up time
– “Real time” run time

17 Spring 2018

U EMTP-like programs
ECE524

I Lecture 44

• Can also be used for statistical studies

• A bit more effort to vary switch timing
• STATISTICS and SYSTEMATIC switch will
allow pseudo-random variation in switching
times

18 Spring 2018