Analysis of Lightning Surge Phenomenon and Surge Arrester Performance of A 400kV Transmission System
Analysis of Lightning Surge Phenomenon and Surge Arrester Performance of A 400kV Transmission System
Analysis of Lightning Surge Phenomenon and Surge Arrester Performance of A 400kV Transmission System
Abstract: - Lightning causes abrupt interruption in electrical power network. In this study a 400kV transmission
system has been modelled to observe the influence of lightning surge current front time and tail time, back
flashover phenomenon and performance of transmission line surge arresters. At first, induced voltage on the top
of the tower has been observed for different front times and tail times of the same surge current function. A
dynamic insulator flashover simulation model is also developed based on the voltage–time characteristics curve
of the insulator string to observe the insulator flashover phenomenon. Effect of front time of the surge current
on insulator flashover has been observed for the mentioned two different cases such as direct strike on the
overhead ground wire and tower top of different surge currents and it has been found that insulator flashover
phenomenon takes less time to occur for lower front times. Simulation results also show that although flashover
occurred across the insulators placed on two horizontal ends of the transmission tower for lightning strike on
the overhead ground wire and top of the tower, no flashover has occurred across the insulator placed on the
horizontal midpoint of the tower. To implement transmission line surge arresters IEEE, Pinceti and Farnandez-
Diaz surge arrester models were compared and the one with the better accuracy has been applied to observe the
effectiveness of surge arresters against lightning surges. Three different cases containing different surge
currents such as direct strike on the overhead ground wire, tower top and phase conductor have been taken into
account for the surge arrester performance analysis. The induced overvoltage on the phase conductors with and
without surge arresters has been analyzed for each cases using ATP Draw. In first two cases the induced
voltage on the phase conductors are greater than the Basic Impulse Level (BIL). In case of direct strike on the
phase, induced voltage is greater than BIL where the lightning strikes. Applying surge arresters has effectively
reduced the induced voltage below the BIL thus preventing line outages in each case and it has been observed
that for greater induced voltage arrester’s percentage overvoltage suppression becomes higher.
Key-Words: - Lightning surge, Transmission Tower model, Flashover, Surge Arrester, ATP/EMTP.
tower model [2] in [3]. In [4], M.Ishii’s proposed 2 Transmission System Modelling
equivalent circuit of transmission tower [1] was 2.1 Transmission Line Model
adopted to express a 132kV transmission tower for 400kV transmission tower with two overhead
EMTP analysis. In [5], for a 77KV transmission ground wires are considered for this study. The
tower a comparison between tower models in [1]
wires are 300km long. ACSR AFL-8 was taken as
and [2] was conducted. Representing the tower as a
phase conductors with a resistance of 0.0557 per
loss-less Constant-Parameter Distributed Line, back
flashover event was observed across insulator kilometer [14] and AFL-1, 7 as the overhead ground
strings when lightning strikes the overhead ground wires conductors with a resistance of 0.417 per
wire and phase conductor in [6]. In [7], transmission kilometer [15]. In ATP Draw phase wires and
tower was expressed in M. Ishii’s proposed ground wire are modeled separately using LCC
equivalent circuit [1] to analyze the performance of template. For simplicity one transmission tower
line surge arresters using EMTP-RV software. It along with two tower spans has been considered.
was stated that direct strike on the overhead ground Line termination at each side is carried out by
wire or top of the tower will induce voltage on the terminating the phase conductors with AC operation
phase conductors and across insulator string and voltages and grounding the overhead earth wires to
induced voltage on the phase conductors and across avoid any reflection that might affect the simulated
insulators was later investigated for back flashover high-voltages around the point of impact following
using PSCAD in [8]. [16].
Surge Arresters do not operate under normal
voltage and provide a low impedance path to ground 2.2 Transmission Tower Model
for a surge wave when lightning strikes. Thus surge In this study M. Ishii’s proposed tower modelling
arresters exhibit a non-linear behavior. In recent method has been applied which is shown in Fig. 1,
days, metal oxide or ZnO surge arresters have
to model the 400 kV transmission tower presented
garnered more attention for surge protection.
in Fig. 2 [17]. Tower surge impedance is
According to [9] ZnO surge arrester cannot be
calculated from CIGRE recommended equation
represented only by a non-linear resistance since its
residual voltage is highly influenced by the [18]:
magnitude and rate of rise of the surge current and (1)
an equivalent model to represent ZnO arrester was Where, the equivalent radius of the tower can
also proposed by IEEE Working Group in [9]. be determined with the help of Fig. 3a using the
Another model was suggested by Pinceti based on following equation:
the preceding model in [10]. Based on the IEEE
model a simple and effective surge arrester model (2)
was presented by Farnandez-Diaz in [11]. In [6]
Surge arrester was represented by the equivalent
model presented in [10]. Surge arresters were
implemented to the power system using Pinceti
model [10] in [7]. Transmission line surge arresters
were represented according to [9] in [12]. A
comparative study between the surge arrester
models has been conducted for a 132kV
transmission system concluding that the Farnandez-
Diaz model is more accurate in [13]. In this paper
effect of surge front time and tail time during
lightning surge event and performance of surge
arresters for a 400kV transmission system have been
studied.
The rest of the papers are organized as follows.
Section 2 describes the transmission tower system
with different parameters. Simulation results have
been discussed in section 3. Finally section 4 Fig. 1. Multistory tower model.
concludes the result.
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. 400kV transmission tower [17]. Fig. 3. Equivalent tower model.
Fig. 3b shows the equivalent circuit to represent The withstand capability and back flashover
the tower. The tower modelling equivalent mechanism of the insulator string can be expressed
parameters have been calculated from the following as following [19]:
equations [5]:
(12)
(3)
(4) Where, =flashover voltage, = 400*L,
(5) =710*L, L = insulator length (meter), t =elapsed
(6) time after lightning stroke (µs).
If voltage between the terminals of the insulator
(7) becomes equal or greater than the flashover voltage
(8) from Equation (12), flashover will appear across the
(9) insulator string. Hence the insulator flashover event
(10) simulation model has been developed using a time
dependent voltage controlled switch across the
Where, = surge impedance of the upper insulator strings following the flow diagram in Fig.
section of the tower, = surge impedance of the 4. During simulation period both the voltage across
lower section of the tower, = resistance of the R- the insulator is measured and the flashover voltage
L branch of the upper section of the tower, from Equation (12) is calculated simultaneously at
= resistance of the R-L branch of the lower an interval of Δt, which is actually the sampling
section of the tower, = inductance of the R-L time of the simulation. At any time instant, these
branch of the upper section of the tower, two voltages are compared and if the voltage across
= inductance of the R- L branch of the lower the insulator string is equal or greater than the
section of the tower, = attenuation co-efficient, = flashover voltage, the switch is closed to simulate
tower travel time, = surge velocity and = height the flashover event at the corresponding time
of the tower. instant.
(18) C (21)
(22)
Fig. 10. Induced voltage on tower top for different Fig. 13. Voltage across insulator holding phase C
front times. due to direct strike on overhead ground wire for
different front times.
Table 1
Time to Flashover Occurrence Due To Direct Strike
on the Overhead Ground Wire For Different Front
Times
Time to Flashover Occurrence
Front Front Front Front
Time Time Time Time
1.2µs 3µs 5µs 10µs
Insulator
holding 3.5µs 3.7µs 4µs 9.5µs
phase A
Fig. 11. Induced voltage on tower top for different
tail times. Insulator
holding 5.5µs 6µs 6.8µs 8.6µs
different front times of 1.2µs, 3µs, 5µs and 10µs of phase C
the surge current function voltage wave shapes
across the insulators have been observed which are Similarly in the next case that is lightning strike on
depicted in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 respectively for the tower top 100kA surge current of a fixed tail
insulators holding phase A and phase C. Table 1 time has been injected for different front times of
presents a better understanding by providing the 1.2µs, 3µs, 5µs and 10µs. Fig. 14 and Fig. 15
variation of time to insulator flashover occurrence illustrates the voltage wave shapes across the
with the variation of front time. It appears that insulators holding phase A and phase C
voltage shapes across the insulators are highly respectively. Table 2 shows the time to insulator
influenced by the front time of surge current and flashover occurrence for different front times. For
lower front time causes faster flashover occurrence. the insulator holding phase A flashover occurs only
Fig. 14. Voltage across insulator holding phase A Fig.16. Residual voltage of 336kV ABB PEXLIM Q
due to direct strike on tower top for different front surge arrester for 20kA (8/20µs) surge current.
times. Table 3
Residual Voltage of 336 kV ABB PEXLIM Q Surge
Arrester for 20kA (8/20µs) Surge Current
Observed
Residual
Surge residual
voltage
Arrester voltage in Difference
in Data
Model ATP (%)
sheet
Draw
IEEE 889 kV 2.3%
Table 4
Maximum Voltage on Phase Conductors Due To
Overhead Ground Wire Lightning Strike
Over-
Phase Without With
voltage
Conductor Arrester Arrester
Suppression
A 3.27 MV 0.824 MV 74.8%
B 2.49 MV 0.816 MV 67.2%
C 2.56 MV 0.816 MV 68.1%