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Optimal design of RC snubber circuit for mitigating transient overvoltage on

VCB via hybrid FFT/Wavelet Genetic approach

Article  in  Electric Power Systems Research · February 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2016.09.035

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 Electric Power Systems Research 143 (2017) 451–461

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Optimal design of RC snubber circuit for mitigating transient

overvoltage on VCB via hybrid FFT/Wavelet Genetic approach
Mohamed A. Ebrahim a , Tamer Elyan a , Fady Wadie b,∗ , Mousa A. Abd-Allah a
a
Faculty of Engineering at Shoubra, Benha University, Shoubra, Cairo, Egypt
b
Faculty of Engineering, Egyptian Russian University, Badr, Egypt

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents a new approach to the analysis of the transient overvoltage (TOV) generated during
Received 15 August 2015 switching of vacuum circuit breaker (VCB). The new technique overlaps the merits of both Fast Fourier
Received in revised form 21 July 2016 Transform (FFT) and Wavelet Transform (WT). The new approach was applied on a real case study of a
Accepted 13 September 2016
pumping station of a wastewater treatment plant located at Abu Rawash, Egypt. The pumping station is
Available online 15 November 2016
driven by induction motors. Alternative transients program (ATP) is used to simulate the selected case
study. The Referential Integrity between FFT and WT analyses (RI-FFT/WT) is employed to choose the RC
Keywords:
snubber circuit parameters (R and C). The optimal snubber circuit parameters design was determined
Switching overvoltage
Vacuum circuit breaker
from the hybridization between genetic algorithm (GA) and RI-FFT/WT. It is evident from the simulation
Induction motor results that the new hybrid GA-FFT/WT approach succeeded in the selection of the most optimal RC-
Fast Fourier Transform snubber circuits required for the mitigation of the TOV.
Wavelet Transform © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction [2–4]. If the TRV exceeds the dielectric strength of vacuum gap, a
reignition of the vacuum arc occurs and a high-frequency current
Vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) are vital elements in the will be superimposed on the power frequency current. If the high-
medium voltage interconnected power systems. Switching of VCBs frequency current due to phase (A) forces the power frequency
causes transient overvoltages across circuit breakers’ contacts. currents of the two phases (B and C) to reach zero, multiple reig-
Switching of VCBs and the accompanied transient overvoltages has nitions will occur in the two phases (B and C), this phenomenon is
been under study by many researchers [1,2]. These studies are known as virtual current chopping [4].
focused primarily on the voltage escalation caused by successive Section 2 describes the system components modeling using ATP.
reignitions of the arc during the switching process. Such oscillation Section 3 presents the simulation of the selected case study and
could cause severe damage to the connected loads. Additional pro- its results. Section 4 gives detailed FFT analysis for the simulation
tection measures including surge arresters and RC snubber circuits results. Section 5 performs WT analysis and its integration to FFT.
were proposed by researchers [2–4]. Selection of the most suitable The RC snubber circuit connection at motor terminal mitigates the
protection and the optimal snubber circuit parameters “R” and “C” transient overvoltages. In Section 6, the values of R and C were cal-
is the target of this paper. culated by three different approaches: trial and error, FFT/Wavelet
To define an adequate protection for the VCB, a simulation of analysis and hybridization of FFT/WT and an optimization tech-
the electrical network understudy should be done. Modeling of nique. Finally, the conclusion was drawn.
VCB and other electrical components would be required. The VCB The main contribution of this research work is the presentation
model depends on defining the events related to switching tran- of a novel approach that determines the optimal sizing of snub-
sient overvoltages including current chopping, multiple reignitions ber circuit parameters (R and C values) based on the hybridization
and virtual current chopping [5]. Current chopping refers to the between FFT/Wavelet analysis and genetic algorithm. The novel
extinction of the arc before reaching its zero crossing leading to approach is more accurate, quicker than the conventional ones
the transient recovery voltage appears across the contacts of VCB applied in literature for sizing the snubber circuit parameters.

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (F. Wadie).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsr.2016.09.035
0378-7796/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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