Outdoor Insulation and Gas Insulated Switchgears

This book focuses on theoretical and practical developments in the performance of high-voltage transmission line against atmospheric pollution and icing. Modifications using suitable fillers are also pinpointed to improve silicone rubber insulation materials. Very fast transient overvoltage (VFTO) mitigation techniques, along with some suggestions for reliable partial discharge measurements under DC voltage stresses inside gas-insulated switchgears, are addressed. The application of an inductor-based filter for the protective performance of surge arresters against indirect lightning strikes is also discussed

Effect of water on electrical properties of Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) as electrical insulating material

This paper describes the properties of refined, bleached, deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) as having the potential to be used as insulating liquid. There are several important properties such as electrical breakdown, dielectric dissipation factor, specific gravity, flash point, viscosity and pour point of RBDPO that was measured and compared to commercial mineral oil which is largely in current use as insulating liquid in power transformers. Experimental results of the electrical properties revealed that the average breakdown voltage of the RBDPO sample, without the addition of water at room temperature, is 13.368 kV. The result also revealed that due to effect of water, the breakdown voltage is lower than that of commercial mineral oil (Hyrax). However, the flash point and the pour point of RBDPO is very high compared to mineral oil thus giving it advantageous possibility to be used safely as insulating liquid. The results showed that RBDPO is greatly influenced by water, causing the breakdown voltage to decrease and the dissipation factor to increase; this is attributable to the high amounts of dissolved water

Electricity distribution networks’ analysis with particular references to distributed generation and protection

Electric power systems have served well the consumers need for continuous, uninterrupted power supply of good quality and at the minimum possible cost. However, nowadays, the worldwide increasing demand on electric power, coupled with governmental policy changes towards “green” energy and emissions reduction have led to significant changes in the electric power generation. These changes have introduced many serious issues and problems to the electric power systems and although they have been efficiently addressed in the past years, now they need to be restudied and reanalysed taking into consideration all new developments. Distributed generation (DG), constitutes one of the most important developments in modern electric power systems and introduced many benefits as well as drawbacks. DG units are connected to the electric power system near load centres, thus, directly to the distribution network. DG units are larger in number than the more massive conventional power stations and are linked to the introduction of bidirectional power flow. As a result, the configuration of the traditional electric power systems and the networks’ operation have been prominently altered over the last years as soon as DG was introduced into the electric network. This progress has offered many challenges that need to be addressed such as those in terms of control and protection of electric power systems and particularly of distribution networks. The current PhD Thesis attempts to offer a contribution to the electricity distribution networks’ studies with particular reference to distributed generation and protection. In particular, the problems and the issues arising from the installation of DG units in distribution networks are studied. Research on the methods for improving voltage profiles and for reducing real and reactive power losses in distribution networks caused by DGs installation is conducted. Moreover, a decision making algorithm is developed and proposed for selecting the optimum size and location of DG in distribution networks. Furthermore, a new technique based on syntactic pattern recognition for the identification of power system signals used by protective relays is developed in an effort to contribute in the deterrence and reduction of faults. Finally, extensive studies in a distribution network have been conducted, with and without DGs, which aimed to identify the influence of several important parameters in the network’s lightning performance and with its main goal the limitation of lightning faults

Lightning-induced overvoltages in medium voltage distribution systems and customer experienced voltage spikes

In Finland, distribution transformers are frequently subjected to lightning strokes for which they are continuously protected by spark-gaps. So, the breakdown probability of medium voltage (MV) spark-gaps is modeled using the Gaussian distribution function under an impulse voltage test in accordance with the IEC 60060-1 standard. The model is presented in the form of the well-known Gaussian tail probability. Accordingly, a modified probabilistic model is proposed to study the effect of impulse voltage superimposed on the ac voltage on the breakdown probability of MV spark-gaps. The modified model is verified using experimental data, where the experimental setup is arranged to generate a range of impulse voltages superimposed on the ac voltages. The experimental verification shows evidence of the efficacy of the proposed probabilistic model. Furthermore, the proposed model is used to evaluate single-phase, two-phase and three-phase spark-gap breakdown probabilities in the case of lightning induced overvoltages. These breakdown probabilities are used along with the simplified Rusck expression to evaluate the performance of MV overhead lines above a perfectly conducting ground under lightning-induced overvoltages using a statistical approach. In order to study the overvoltages propagating through the transformer to its low voltage side, the high frequency model of the transformer is investigated. First, the investigation is carried out using model introduced by Piantini at no-load condition. This model is modified to take more than one resonance frequency into consideration. Therefore, the frequency response of the simulated transient voltage is improved. A verification of the modified model is carried out through the comparison between the experimental and simulation results, in which the time domain simulation is carried out using ATP/EMTP while MATLAB is used to identify the model parameters. As this model is found suitable only for unloaded transformer, an accurate and simplified model is proposed concerning unloaded and loaded conditions as well. The proposed high frequency transformer model is experimentally verified under different balanced load conditions considering two different practical distribution transformers. Then the impact of low voltage (LV) network feeder numbers, lengths, types and loads on the lightning-induced overvoltage reached at the service entrance point is investigated with and without MV spark-gap operation. The high frequency model representation of the distribution transformer and low voltage network are combined in a single arrangement in the environment of ATP/EMTP. A simplified low voltage surge arrester model is represented and verified. Finally, a study is carried out to mitigate the overvoltages by allocating the surge arrester at secondary side of the distribution transformer with concerning MV spark-gap operation

Investigating lightning arrester behaviour in substations.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu- Natal, Durban.Abstract available in PDF

7th EEEIC International Workshop on Environment and Electrical Engineering : Wroclaw - Cottbus, 5 - 11. May 2008

The proposed solution meets the latest trends in world power engineering and has the lowest ecological costs amongst the accessible power engineering solutions. It is also in accordance with the Polish power engineering law, which takes into account the recommendations of the European Economic Commission, the Second Sulphur Protocol and the Framework Convention of the United Nations (concerning the changes of climate)

Single phase earth faults in high impedance grounded networks : characteristics, indication and location

The subject of this thesis is the single phase earth fault in medium voltage distribution networks that are high impedance grounded. Networks are normally radially operated but partially meshed. First, the basic properties of high impedance grounded networks are discussed. Following this, the characteristics of earth faults in distribution networks are determined based on real case recordings. Exploiting these characteristics, new applications for earth fault indication and location are then developed. The characteristics discussed are the clearing of earth faults, arc extinction, arcing faults, fault resistances and transients. Arcing faults made up at least half of all the disturbances, and they were especially predominant in the unearthed network. In the case of arcing faults, typical fault durations are outlined, and the overvoltages measured in different systems are analysed. In the unearthed systems, the maximum currents that allowed for autoextinction were small. Transients appeared in nearly all fault occurrences that caused the action of the circuit breaker. Fault resistances fell into two major categories, one where the fault resistances were below a few hundred ohms and the other where they were of the order of thousands of ohms. Some faults can evolve gradually, for example faults caused by broken pin insulators, snow burden, downed conductor or tree contact. Using a novel application based on the neutral voltage and residual current analysis with the probabilistic method, it is possible to detect and locate resistive earth faults up to a resistance of 220 kΩ. The main results were also to develop new applications of the transient based differential equation, wavelet and neural network methods for fault distance estimation. The performance of the artificial neural network methods was comparable to that of the conventional algorithms. It was also shown that the neural network, trained by the harmonic components of the neutral voltage transients, is applicable for earth fault distance computation. The benefit of this method is that only one measurement per primary transformer is needed. Regarding only the earth faults with very low fault resistance, the mean error in absolute terms was about 1.0 km for neural network methods and about 2.0 km for the conventional algorithms in staged field tests. The restriction of neural network methods is the huge training process needed because so many different parameters affect the amplitude and frequency of the transient signal. For practical use the conventional methods based on the faulty line impedance calculation proved to be more promising.reviewe

PV System Information Enhancement and Better Control of Power Systems.

abstract: Due to the rapid penetration of solar power systems in residential areas, there has been a dramatic increase in bidirectional power flow. Such a phenomenon of bidirectional power flow creates a need to know where Photovoltaic (PV) systems are located, what their quantity is, and how much they generate. However, significant challenges exist for accurate solar panel detection, capacity quantification, and generation estimation by employing existing methods, because of the limited labeled ground truth and relatively poor performance for direct supervised learning. To mitigate these issue, this thesis revolutionizes key learning concepts to (1) largely increase the volume of training data set and expand the labelled data set by creating highly realistic solar panel images, (2) boost detection and quantification learning through physical knowledge and (3) greatly enhance the generation estimation capability by utilizing effective features and neighboring generation patterns. These techniques not only reshape the machine learning methods in the GIS domain but also provides a highly accurate solution to gain a better understanding of distribution networks with high PV penetration. The numerical validation and performance evaluation establishes the high accuracy and scalability of the proposed methodologies on the existing solar power systems in the Southwest region of the United States of America. The distribution and transmission networks both have primitive control methodologies, but now is the high time to work out intelligent control schemes based on reinforcement learning and show that they can not only perform well but also have the ability to adapt to the changing environments. This thesis proposes a sequence task-based learning method to create an agent that can learn to come up with the best action set that can overcome the issues of transient over-voltage.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Electrical Engineering 201

Electrical transient interaction between transformers and the power system: case study of an onshore wind farm

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science in Electrical Engineering June 2016Through the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program (REIPPPP) the South African government has awarded opportunities for growth of renewable energy through bidding rounds. Round 1 saw a total capacity of 397 MW being awarded to independent power producers (IPP). Subsequently Rounds 2, 3 and 4 each had a total capacity of 333 MW auctioned. The advent of renewables on the market has brought upon its own associated problems with regards to power quality issues and failure of HV equipment. This thesis will address transformer failures that occurred at an onshore wind farm. The nature of the transformer failures suggest transient overvoltages are mainly to blame. A comparison between transformer failures in South African and Brazil suggest a common failure mechanism. The failure starts with an inter-turn insulation failure which propagates to an inter-layer insulation. In worst cases the failure mode results in a puncture through the LV-HV barrier and punctures through the LV winding. An extensive literature review was performed to find appropriate methods to predict and explain the failure mode in wind turbine LV-MV step-up transformers. Of the different models which were reviewed the most notable was the Multi-conductor Transmission Line (MTL) model which was chosen as the preferred model due to its ability to predict the inter-turn/inter-layer voltage stresses. Verification of the developed MTL model by the author was then compared to published results of an MTL model of a disc winding transformer. The results of the comparison revealed a relatively good agreement between the developed model and the published model. The application of the MTL model to represent the voltage stresses in transformer windings was then extended to two specially constructed wind turbine step-up transformer prototypes. The prototypes differed in the winding arrangement of the MV coil. The other used two separate MV coils separated by an oil gap whereas the other had a single MV coil. To validate the model accuracy, a comparison of measured results versus those obtained analytically was done for the two prototypes. The analytical and measured results also had a relatively good agreement for the two prototypes considered. Measurement of switching surges was done on-site at the wind farm to understand the nature of the transients. Using analysis tools such as FFT and frequency domain severity factor it was possible to understand the impact the nature of these transients would pose on the transformer insulation. Different mitigation techniques which can be used to alleviate the transient overvoltages to within safe levels were investigated. The most notable protection device considered was the RL choke device which offered a significant reduction of the pre-strikes and is virtually transparent under power frequency operation.MT201