EE6002

POWER SYSTEM TRANSIENTS

LT P C

3003

OBJECTIVES:
To study the generation of switching transients and their control using circuit
theoretical concept.
To study the mechanism of lighting strokes and the production of lighting surges.
To study the propagation, reflection and refraction of travelling waves.
To study the impact of voltage transients caused by faults, circuit breaker action, load
rejection on integrated power system.
UNIT I
INTRODUCTION AND SURVEY
9
Review and importance of the study of transients - causes for transients. RL circuit transient
with sine wave excitation - double frequency transients basic transforms of the RLC circuit
transients. Different types of power system transients - effect of transients on power systems
role of the study of transients in system planning.
UNIT II
SWITCHING TRANSIENTS
9
Over voltages due to switching transients - resistance switching and the equivalent circuit for
interrupting the resistor current - load switching and equivalent circuit - waveforms for
ransient voltage across the load and the switch - normal and abnormal switching transients.
Current suppression - current chopping - effective equivalent circuit. Capacitance switching effect of source regulation - capacitance switching with a restrike, with multiple
restrikes.llustration for multiple restriking transients - ferro resonance.
UNIT III
LIGHTNING TRANSIENTS
9
Review of the theories in the formation of clouds and charge formation - rate of charging of
thunder clouds mechanism of lightning discharges and characteristics of lightning strokes
model for lightning stroke factors contributing to good line design - protection using ground
wires - tower footing resistance - Interaction between lightning and power system.
UNIT IV TRAVELING WAVES ON TRANSMISSION LINE COMPUTATION OF
TRANSIENTS
9
Computation of transients - transient response of systems with series and shunt lumped
parameters and distributed lines. Traveling wave concept - step response - Bewelys lattice
diagram - standing waves and natural frequencies - reflection and refraction of travelling
waves.
UNIT V TRANSIENTS IN INTEGRATED POWER SYSTEM
The short line and kilometric fault - distribution of voltages in a power system Line
dropping and load rejection - voltage transients on closing and reclosing lines over voltage
induced by faults -switching surges on integrated system Qualitative application of EMTP for
transient computation.
TOTAL : 45 PERIODS

OUTCOMES:
Ability to understand and analyze power system operation, stability, control and
protection.
TEXT BOOKS:
1. Allan Greenwood, Electrical Transients in Power Systems, Wiley Inter Science, New
York, 2ndEdition, 1991.
2. Pritindra Chowdhari, Electromagnetic transients in Power System, John Wiley
and Sons Inc., Second Edition, 2009.
3. C.S. Indulkar, D.P.Kothari, K. Ramalingam, Power System Transients A statistical
approach, PHI Learning Private Limited, Second Edition, 2010.
REFERENCES:
1. M.S.Naidu and V.Kamaraju, High Voltage Engineering, Tata McGraw Hill, Fifth
Edition, 2013.
2. R.D. Begamudre, Extra High Voltage AC Transmission Engineering, Wiley Eastern
Limited,
1986.
3. Y.Hase, Handbook of Power System Engineering, Wiley India, 2012.
4. J.L.Kirtley, Electric Power Principles, Sources, Conversion, Distribution and use,
Wiley, 2012

UNIT I- INTRODUCTION AND SURVEY

CONTENTS

Review and importance of the study of transients

causes for transients
RL circuit transient with sine wave excitation
double frequency transients
basic transforms of the RLC circuit transients
Different types of power system transients
effect of transients on power systems
role of the study of transients in system planning

REVIEW AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY OF TRANSIENTS

ELECTRICAL TRANSIENTS :

An electrical transient is a temporary excess of voltage and /or current in a electrical circuit
when a fault occurs on a system or a switch opens or closes.

Transient surges are defined as momentary bursts of energy that are induced upon power,
data, or communication lines. They are characterized by extremely high voltages that can
drive tremendous amounts of current into an electrical circuit for a few millionths, up to a
few thousandths of a second.
Surge activity is often assumed to be an outside engendered anomaly. Lightning induced
electrical energy bursts, for example, typically come to mind as the primary source of surge
activity. However, while lightning induced surges represent are the most formidable transient
related equipment menace, most surges are originate from internal sources within a facility.
Internal transient generators range from copiers to coffee makers, from vacuum cleaners to
variable speed drives, and from fluorescent light ballasts to furnace igniters. Studies have
verified that approximately 80% of transient activity at a given facility is internally generated.
Copiers and laser printers, for example, are notorious transient generators as are heating and
air conditioning systems. Any time an inductive load, whether it is a vacuum cleaner or a
heavy duty variable speed drive, is either powered on or off it generates a low magnitude
surge impulse that propagates back through the electrical distribution. While internally
generated transient activity can weaken equipment over time, the threat posed from lightning
activity is particularly disconcerting due to its capability of delivering vast amounts of energy
into unsuspecting electronic equipment loads.

CAUSES OF POWER SYSTEM TRANSIENTS

There are different causes for power system transients. For example, lightning strokes to the
wires in the power system or to ground and component switching

either

of network

components or end user equipment can produce transients. Nature of power system transients
are very much event dependent.
Short duration events can be classified into three classes:
1. Events that can be identified by their fundamental frequency magnitude. Voltage
magnitude in such events goes through significant changes for long periods. The changes are
well apart and observable with respect to time. This enables magnitude estimators to identify
and resolving events having significant changes. These are observed mainly in fault induced
events, transformer saturation, induction motor starting, etc. Voltage dips with duration
typically between 50ms and several seconds and interruptions with duration from several

seconds up to many hours are associated with such transient events.

2. Events having significant changes in the fundamental frequency magnitude but of short
duration. In such events, it is very difficult to extract voltage magnitude of transients. These
are normally observed in fuse-cleared faults and self-extinguishing faults.
3. Events of very short duration (transients) for which the fundamental frequency magnitude
does not offer important information. For this class, the higher frequency components of the
signal must be considered for a thorough characterization and classification.
Based on waveform shape, power system transients, can be classified into
1.Oscillatory transients
2.Impulsive transients
3.Multiple transients

1) IMPULSIVE TRANSIENTS
An impulsive transient is defined as a sudden change in the steady state condition of voltage,
current or both, that is unidirectional in polarity either positive or negative. Analysis of
impulsive transients is done by their rise and decay times. Impulsive transients are damped
quickly by the resistive circuit elements and do not propagate far from their source. Thus
their effects are localized.
Impulsive transients are common during lightning. Lightning stroke may appear directly or
by indirect induction. When a lightning stroke hits a transmission line (direct stroke) an
impulsive over voltage is induced. They have high magnitude. Lightning over voltage can
also be induced by nearby strokes to the ground or between clouds. These over-voltages are
of lower magnitude than those produced by direct strokes. Normally impulsive transient
shows a sudden rise followed by an exponential decay. But in some cases, lightning transient
shows a sudden rise followed by a sudden drop and an oscillation with relatively small
amplitude.

2) OSCILLATORY TRANSIENTS
Oscillatory transient is alternating in nature. It shows a damped oscillation with a frequency
ranging from a few hundred hertzs up to several Mega hertzs. Oscillatory transients can be
mathematically derived by the homogenous solution to linear differential equations. As the
electric power system can approximately be described by a set of linear differential equations,
oscillatory transients are the natural transients in electric power system. For this reason,
oscillatory transients dominate over impulsive transients. For example, oscillatory transient
can be caused by the energizing of a capacitor bank where, frequency of oscillation is mainly
determined by the capacitance of the capacitor bank and the short circuit inductance of the
circuit feeding the capacitor bank (capacitor energizing). Another common cause of
oscillatory transient is event of energizing of transmission line.

3) MULTIPLE TRANSIENTS WITH A SINGLE CAUSE

Multiple transients are combination of many overlapped transients occurred due to more than
one switching action. For example, in three phase system the switching action in the
individual phases rarely take place at the same instant. Such events produce multiple
transients. Current chopping and re-strike are other two major causes of multiple transients.
Current chopping is done when the current during opening of a circuit breaker becomes zero
before the natural zero crossing. This results in transients of high over-voltages. Re-strike
may occur when a capacitor is de-energized by a slowly moving switch where the voltage
over the capacitor increases faster than the voltage-withstand of the gap between the contacts
of the switch.

RL CIRCUIT TRANSIENT WITH SINE WAVE EXCITATION

A sinusoidal voltage is switched on to a series connection of an inductance
and a resistance (Figure 1.1). This is in fact the most simple single-phase
representation

of

high-voltage

circuit

breaker

closing

into

shortcircuited transmission line or a short-circuited underground cable.

The voltage source E represents the electromotive forces from the

connected synchronous generators. The inductance L comprises the

synchronous inductance of these generators, the leakage inductance of
the power transformers, and the inductance of the bus bars, cables, and
transmission lines. The resistive losses of the supply circuit are
represented by the resistance R. Because we have linear network
elements only, the current flowing in the circuit after closing the switch
can be seen as the superposition of a transient current and a steady-state
current.
The transient current component is determined by the inductance and the
resistance only and is not influenced by the sources in the network (in this
case by the voltage source E). It forms the general solution of the firstorder homogeneous differential equation, whereas the steady-state
current component is the particular solution of the nonhomogeneous
differential equation. In the latter case, the transient oscillations are
damped out because their energy is dissipated in the resistive part of the
circuit.
Applying

Kirchhoffs

voltage

law

gives

differential equation of the circuit in Figure 1.1:

us

the

nonhomogeneous

switch can close the circuit at any time instant and the phase angle can have a value between 0 and 2
rad. To find the general solution of the differential equation, we have to solve the characteristic
equation of the homogeneous differential equation

Ri + Li = 0

(1.2)

The scalar is the eigenvalue of the characteristic equation. We find for =

(R/L), and thus the general solution for Equation (1.1) is

ih(t) = C1e(R/L)t

(1.3)

The particular solution is found by substituting in Equation (1.1) a general

expression for the current

ip(t) = Asin(t + ) + Bcos(t + )

A and B can be determined:

This results in the particular solution for the current

(1.4)

The complete solution, which is the sum of the general and particular solution, is

Before the switch closes (Figure 1.1), the magnetic flux in the inductance L is equal to zero;
this remains so immediately after the instant of closing, owing to the law of the conservation
of flux. Therefore, at t = 0, the instant of closing, we can write

This gives us the value for C1; hence, the complete expression for the current becomes

The first part of Equation (1.9) contains the term exp[(R/L)t] and damps out. This is called
the DC component. The expression between the brackets is a constant and its value is
determined by the instant of closing of the circuit. For [ tan1(L/R)] = 0 or an integer
times , the DC component is zero, and the current is immediately in the steady state. In other
words, there is no transient oscillation. When the switch closes the circuit 90 earlier or later,
the transient current will reach a maximum amplitude, as can be seen in Figure 1.2.
The current in Figure 1.2 is called an asymmetrical current. In the case where no transient
oscillation occurs and the current is immediately in

the steady state, we speak of a

symmetrical current. The asymmetrical current can reach a peak value of nearly twice that of
the symmetrical current, depending on the time constant L/R of the supply circuit. This
implies that, for instance, when a circuit breaker closes on a short-circuited high-voltage

circuit, strong dynamic forces will act on the connected bus bars and lines because of the
large current involved.
When the time constant of the supply circuit is rather high, which is the case for short-circuit
faults close to the generator terminals, the transient and subtransient reactance of the
synchronous generator cause an extra-high first peak of the short-circuit current. After
approximately 20 milliseconds, when the influence of the transient and subtransient reactance
is not present any longer, the synchronous reactance reduces the root-mean-square value (rms
value) of the short-circuit current. Under these circumstances, an alternating current flows
without current zeros for several periods in the case of a fault in one of the phases because of
the large DC component. This current cannot be interrupted because the current zero
necessary for current interruption is lacking.

DOUBLE FREQUENCY TRANSIENTS

The circuit-breaker S may have L and C parameters on its two sides, as shown in Figure 3.3.
Before clearance the points a and b are at the same potential. After the fault is cleared, he, the
8F? has been extinguished, both the circuits oscillate at their own natural frequencies, a
composite double frequency transient appears across the circuit breaker S

The frequencies are given by

f n1 =

1
2 L1 C 1

and

f n2 =

1
2 L2 C 2

The magnitude and the Waveform for the total voltage is proportional to the
inductances and is given by:
1cos 1 t
a1 ()+a 2(1cos 2 t )
TRV = E
E
Where
a1=

L1
L2
a1=
L1 + L2
L1 + L2

1 =

1
1
2=
L1 C 1
L2 C 2

BASIC TRANSFORMS OF THE RLC CIRCUIT TRANSIENTS.

Transient Responses
So far all the calculations we have performed have led to a Steady State solution to a problem
i.e. the final value after everything has settled down.
There are in fact two parts to the total response of a system to an input, these are:
The Steady State which lasts indefinitely and The Transient Response, which decays to zero,
leaving only the steady state.
The steady state values can be determined using circuit laws and complex number theory. The
transient is more difficult as it involves differential equations.

For an inductor:

For the circuit:

but

giving us: second order.

Once again we can use as a solution:

This gives us

This can be solved but begins to become complicated especially if the value in the square root
is negative and we end up with complex values.

Solving for transient conditions is therefore not easy. To make the solving of these problems
easier we use Laplace Transforms.
Laplace Transformation.
What we are able to do is to take a problem in the time domain (t) and to convert it into the
Laplace domain (s).
The conversion is carried out using a simple set of rules
Rules

1.If a function of time is multiplied by a constant then the Laplace transform is multiplied by
the same constant. e.g. a step of 6v to an electrical system is the same as 6 times a unit step
and therefore has the value 6/s.
2.If an equation contains the sum of two separate quantities that are functions of time then the
transform is the sum of the individual transforms.
3.The Laplace transform of a first derivative of a function is:

Transform of
where

is the value of the function at t=0

DIFFERENT TYPES OF POWER SYSTEM TRANSIENTS

Based upon the origin
1. Of atmostpheric origin ie., lightning
2. Of switching origin ie., all switching operations, load rejection and faults.
Based upon the mode of generation of transients
Classification can be done based upon the mode of generation of transients.
1. Electromagnetic transients
Generated predominantly by the interaction between the electrical fields of
capacitance and magnetic fields of inductances in power systems. The
electromagnetic phenomena may appear as travelling waves on transmission
lines,cables,bus sections and oscillations between inductance and capacitance

EFFECTS OF TRANSIENTS ON POWER SYSTEM

Transients are very much related to the operation and performance of different parts of power
system as well as loads and measuring and protective devices also. Nature and duration of
_power system transients are related to correct operation of circuit breakers, and over voltage
due to switching of high voltage lines. High magnitudes of voltage transients break
insulations of the system. High magnitude of current transients can burn out devices and
instruments. Transients can cause mal-operation of relays and mal-tripping of circuit
breakers. Frequent number of direct or indirectly induced oscillatory transients may change
the magnetic properties of core materials used in electric machines.
ROLE OF THE STUDY OF TRANSIENTS IN SYSTEM PLANNING

Overvoltages from lightning strikes, electrical failures or switching actions, as well as other
transient phenomena, may significantly impact system performance and equipment condition.
Respective modeling, analysis and insulation coordination studies build the foundation for the
resilience of equipment and systems.
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