EEE 483

High Voltage AC Generation

A H Chowdhury, PhD
Professor
EEE, BUET
January 2020
 Content

▪ High voltage AC generation

▪ Cascaded transformers

▪ Resonance transformers

▪ Tesla coils
 Application of HVAC

• Testing of high voltage equipment

▪ Transformers

▪ Insulators

▪ Circuit breakers etc.

• In general, all a.c. voltage tests are made at nominal power

frequency of test objects
– For iron-cored windings (CT, PT), frequency has to be raised to avoid
saturation of core
 Characteristic Parameters of HV Voltages

• In HV engineering, peak value and rms value are of particular importance

• Waveshapes must be nearly pure sinusoidal, both half-cycles closely alike
• Small deviations from a sinusoid acceptable
→ if ratio of peak-to-r.m.s. values equals 2 within 5%
→ this requirement can be met if rms value of harmonics does not exceed 5% of
rms value of fundamental

• RMS value

For HV tests this is defined as the

• Nominal value of test voltage test voltage (IEC-Publ. 60-2, 1973)

• For a pure sinusoidal Vpeak /√2 = Vrms

 Test Transformer Circuits
Two basic circuits for test transformers
Single pole isolated Fully isolated

?
Length of arrows indicates magnitude of
stress on insulation between HV winding (H)
and excitation winding (E) or iron core (F)

• Transformers for generating high alternating test voltages usually have one
end of HV winding earthed
▪ For generation of high DC and impulse voltages, fully isolated windings required
• Fully isolated winding may be earthed if necessary-
▪ at either of two terminals, or
▪ at center tap [in this case output voltage will be symmetrical w.r.t. earth]
 Test Transformer Circuits

• For voltages of less than a few hundred kV → single-stage transformers

• Problems at higher voltages-

● Insulation problems ● Expenses, transportation, erection

• For higher voltages → cascading several transformers of relatively small

size with their high-voltage windings connected in series

– Individual transformers must be insulated for voltages corresponding to those

of lower stages

– Excitation windings of transformers of all stages except the lowest operate at

high potential
 Construction of Test Transformers

• For rating of not more than a few kVA, construction is

similar to voltage transformers with same test voltage

• For voltages up to about 100 kV epoxy resin

insulation is widely used; oil-impregnated paper or oil
with insulating barriers used at higher voltages

• At higher powers cooling of windings becomes

important → construction features resemble those of
power transformers
– Oil with barriers and oil-impregnated paper
predominate as insulation

Cross-section of a test transformer

with cast resin insulation
Construction of Test Transformers

Epoxy resin insulation

Oil with insulating

barriers for higher voltages
 Construction of Test Transformers
• Bushing required because of
grounded metal tank
• Instead of a bushing, a coaxial
cable could also be used

(a) Diagram
(b) & (c) Different construction units

1) Iron core 5) Grounded metal tank and base

2) Primary LV or exciting winding 6) HV bushing
3) Secondary HV winding 7) Insulating shell or tank
4) Field grading shield 8) HV electrode
 Construction of Test Transformers

Oil-insulated test transformers

Tank type construction

Active parts (core and windings)

enclosed in a metal container

▪ Container surface of which

provides useful self-cooling
▪ Disadvantage - more space and
costly bushing required at high
voltages
 Construction of Test Transformers

• Primary winding ‘2’ close to iron core; surrounded by HV

winding ‘3’
– This coaxial arrangement reduces magnetic stray flux, increases
coupling of both windings
• Beginning (grounded end) of HV winding ‘3’ located at the side close
to core, and end close to a sliced metal shield, which prevents high
field intensities at HV
• Turns are arranged in layers, insulated from each other by solid
materials (paper sheets)
• Origin of trapezoidal shape of cross-section
Adjacent layers form coaxial capacitors of high values, and if those
capacitances are equal – produced by reduced width of single
layers with increasing diameters –potential distribution for
transient voltages can be kept constant
 Construction of Test Transformers
Oil-insulated test transformers
Insulated enclosure type construction
▪ Active parts in an insulating cylinder
▪ Contain relatively large quantity of oil → have
large thermal time constants in case of
overloading
▪ Heat dissipation through insulated enclosure
very small → closed circuit cooling by means
of external heat exchanger necessary at high
continuous rating
▪ Advantage - no bushings required and HV
electrodes with large radii of curvature can
easily be fitted
 Construction of Test Transformers
2-stage cascade with common iron
core at mid-potential
Common iron core F at mid-potential
→ requires insulated mounting
U/2
• Symmetrical arrangement of windings → E1
or E2 can be chosen for primary excitation
• To cascade further, the unenergized winding
used as coupling for next higher stage
• For excitation via K1, K2 , a symmetrical HV
w.r.t. earth is obtained
• Figure shows voltages to earth which occur
when right HV terminal is earthed
 Construction of Test Transformers

• Two HV windings (‘3a’ and ‘3b’) on one iron core connected in series,
junction connected to core and to a metal tank (used as a vessel)
• Primary winding ‘2’ placed around HV winding ‘3a’ [its inner layer,
which is at half-potential of full output voltage, connected to core]

• Additional windings (‘4a’ and ‘4b’) rated for low voltages, act as compensating windings
→ placed close to core; reduce high leakage reactance between ‘3b’ and ‘2’
• Exciting winding ‘5’, rated for low voltages, will be needed for cascading of transformers
 Cascaded Transformers
Three-stage test transformer cascade; introduced in
1915 by W. Petersen, F. Dessauer and E. Welter

Relative magnitude of power

carried by a winding

• E windings supplied from K windings of stages immediately below

• Individual stages, except the uppermost, consist of three-winding
transformers
• K and E windings of lower stages transmit higher powers than those of
upper ones → have to be designed for higher loading
 Cascaded Transformers

• LV supply connected to winding ‘1’

of transformer I, HV output of V
• Exciting winding ‘3’ supplies primary
of second transformer unit II
• Tank of transformer I earthed; tanks
of transformers II and III at high
potentials, must be insulated

1 - Primary windings
2 - Secondary HV windings
3 - Tertiary exciting windings
Cascaded
transformer
Photo courtesy: General
Electric Company
 Cascaded Transformers
3000 kV, 4 A
 Cascaded Transformers

Disadvantage of transformer cascading

• Heavy loading of primary windings

for the lower stages

• Output kVA rating - 3P

• Each of HV windings ‘2’ carry a

current of I (= P/V)

• Adequate dimensioning of the

primary and exciting coils necessary
 Cascaded Transformers

Equivalent circuit of one

stage in a cascade
ZE, ZH or ZK – impedance attributed to each
winding
→ Each impedance connected in series with an ideal 3-
winding transformer with corresponding number of turns
NE, NH or NK

• For each stage sum of ampere-turns of all the

windings must be equal to zero [neglecting
magnetizing current]
 Cascaded Transformers
?
Magnetization current
can be neglected as
• Neglecting magnetizing current - long as there is no
saturation of iron core
• Neglecting losses -

• Assumed ratio of the number of turns same for all stages -

Dashed reactances refer

to the respective high-
voltage winding

Equivalent circuits of
a 3- stage cascade
 Cascaded Transformers

Simplified equivalent circuit

Short-circuit reactance Xres obtained from the
condition that power rating be the same:

Short-circuit reactance of an n-stage cascade:

 Cascaded Transformers

• Or in a simplified form,

• Assuming three equal transformer units, resultant reactance →

• This is much higher than the expected value of,

 Cascaded Transformers

Testing of insulation

• Load is primarily capacitive, a compensation of this capacitive load by LV

reactors, which are in parallel to the primary windings, is possible

• Reactors must be switched in accordance to the variable load → additional

expense

• Tuned filters may be needed to improve waveshape of output voltage and

reduce higher harmonics

• Without any compensation, overloading of lower stage transformers

introduces a relatively high internal impedance of the whole cascade
circuit
 Cascaded Transformers

• Insulation load is capacitive → test transformers output voltage increases

with load
• Transformer loaded by capacitor forms series resonant circuit
• With nominal load, exciting frequency is well below resonance frequency
→ output voltage increase proportional to load
• If testing transformer primary voltage higher than half the rated voltage,
output voltage oscillate with resonance frequency → amplitude may
become higher than rated voltage
 Performance of Test Transformers

Short-circuit impedance → Rk+jωLk

Total capacitance on HV side

C = Ci + Ca

Rk << ωLk and U2 almost in phase

with U’1

Working performance of test transformers always less than 1

a) Circuit diagram
b) Equivalent circuit → series resonance leads to a capacitive
c) Phasor diagram enhancement of secondary voltage
 Performance of Test Transformers

Amount of capacitive voltage enhancement

• Transformed short-circuit voltage uk of the transformer, when capacitive

load C just takes rated current In at rated voltage Un and nominal frequency –

• Thus a test transformer with uk = 20 % will show a voltage enhancement of

25% at nominal frequency when a capacitive load takes the rated current
 Performance of Test Transformers

• Voltage enhancement has to be taken into account for test transformers

with high values of transformed short-circuit voltage, and particularly at
higher frequencies
– Ratio of primary to secondary voltage no longer fixed

– Determination of HV output by measurement on low-voltage side will indicate

values well below real ones

→ test object as well as test transformer could be endangered

 Performance of Test Transformers

• Test transformers in cascade connection represent spatially extended

networks capable of oscillation

• Harmonics of primary voltage and magnetization current may excite

natural oscillations at various frequencies → can lead to considerable
distortion of secondary voltage

• Since harmonics of HV show pronounced dependence upon load current

and value of set voltage → deviation of HV from sinusoid of fundamental
frequency should be limited to 5% of peak value
 Resonance Transformer

Impedance of transformer Impedance of trans. L >> L1, L2 so it can be neglected

primary + voltage regulator secondary

Trans. shunt
impedance

Equivalent circuit of straight test set consisting

of a transformer and test capacitance

Accidental resonance occurs if by chance ω(L1+L2) = 1/ωC

→ Instantaneous voltage application can be 20 times intended HV
→ Possibility of very HV on secondary side of a test transformer by series
resonance with a capacitive load
 Resonance Transformer

• Resonance of a harmonic can also occur

– Harmonic currents are present due to transformer iron core

– Power supply voltages may contain large amount of harmonics

– 3rd harmonics have been observed of greater amplitude than

fundamental

– 13th harmonic can give 5% ripple on voltage waveform

• Harmonic resonance causes greater voltage distortion than other effects

and occurs cumulatively at particular capacitance loads

→ Conventional instrumentation usually do not notice this

 Resonance Transformer
A Single transformer/reactor

Almost pure capacitive

load of test object

Constant power supply

frequency assumed

• A continuously variable reactor connected to LV winding of a step-up

transformer, whose secondary winding is rated for the full test voltage
– By this means, impedance of reactor converted to HV side
• Inductance of reactor tuned to match impedance of capacitive load → idle
power of load is completely compensated
• Step-up transformer has to carry full load current - a disadvantage
 Resonance Transformer

B Two or more units in series

• Inductors designed for high-

quality factors Q = ωL/R within
limits of inductance variation →
Feed transformer injects losses of
circuits only

Resonance transformers of types

A and B have been produced
up to about late 1960s
→ since it was not possible to design
continuously variable reactors for
HV
Q factor relates maximum energy stored in reactance
to energy dissipated (in resistance) during each cycle
of oscillation
→ A ratio of resonant frequency to bandwidth
→ Higher the Q, smaller the bandwidth
→ Higher the Q, smaller the power dissipation
 Resonance Transformer

• New technique involves split iron cores with

variable gap [see ref.]
– Provides continuously variable HV reactors
up to about 300 kV per unit

– Testing step-up transformers can be omitted

– Inductance of these HV reactors may be

changed by up to 10 to 20 times

– Allows to tune the circuits with capacitances

Ct, which vary within the same order

1. R. Reid, “High voltage resonant testing,” IEEE PES Winter Meeting 1974, Conf. Paper C74038-6.
2. F H Airey, “An inexpensive high-voltage AC source for laboratory use,” Meas. Sci. Technol. 1
(1990) 1297-1300
Resonance Transformer

2 .2 MV series resonant circuit

(Hitachi Research Laboratory)
 Resonance Transformer
Serries resonance test circuit with variable test frequency
• As load capacitance cannot be kept within narrow limits, supply frequency
must be continuously variable to achieve resonance
 Resonance Transformer

Normalized operating characteristics of the circuit

Ln - nominal inductance; designed according to a nominal capacitance Cn (= Ct)
Cn - highest capacitance that can be tested with full rated voltage Vn and nominal frequency fn
fn - nominal frequency (the lowest frequency within the rated voltage)

Resonant frequency → →

Maximum or nominal current In, which either

overheats the coil or saturates iron core →

Losses are very small → neglect R << ωLn

For every cycle magnetic energy of
inductor coil equivalent to electric energy
stored within test specimen →
 Resonance Transformer

Test object capacitance (Ct) different from Cn → resulting testing frequency f

will be different from fn

Variation of frequency →

For Ct ≤ Cn, reactor Ln can be used up to the full rated voltage Vn

Load current will always be lower than In

Relationship of normalized current for Ct ≤ Cn →

 Resonance Transformer

For Ct > Cn, this circuit may still be applied, if testing voltage V = Vt
decreased to keep current at its nominal value In

Current always proportional to testing voltage →

Necessary reduction of testing voltage for Ct > Cn, if we limit I to In →

 Resonance Transformer

• For small test specimens test frequency f may be limited by addition of a

permanent HV capacitor as, e.g., a capacitor voltage divider
• Relatively modest variation of frequency for large capacitors under test
improve flexibility of applications, i.e. for testing of power cables
• Actual limitations in testing of very large test specimens with voltages lower
than Vn are given by reduction of Q for too low frequencies, and frequency
for which exciter transformer saturates
 Resonance Transformer

Operating characteristics of the circuit

 Resonance Transformer

Advantages of series resonant circuit

1. Feed transformers rated for nominal currents of inductors; voltage rating
can be as low as V/Q, [V - full output voltage, Q - worst quality factor of
whole circuit]
2. Voltage waveshape improved by (i) elimination of unwanted resonances, (ii)
attenuation of harmonics already in power supply
• Amplification of fundamental voltage amplitude on resonance is between 20 and 50
times for power frequencies
• Higher harmonic voltages divided in series circuit with a decreasing proportion
across capacitive load → harmonics in supply become insignificant
3. Low power from supply → about 5% of main kVA with a unity power factor
4. If a failure of test specimen occurs, no heavy power arc will develop → only
load capacitance will be discharged
 Resonance Transformer

5. Series or parallel operation of HV reactor or LV reactor/HV transformer

units is simple and very efficient
• Any number of units may be put in series without high impedance problems
associated with a cascaded testing transformer group
• Equal voltage distributions for series connections easily provided by proper control
of individual reactor impedances
• For heavy current testing → possible to parallel reactor or reactor/transformer units,
even if impedances are different, by controlling each associated reactance

6. Various degrees of sophistication are possible concerning auto-tuning

devices keeping the set in tune, if supply frequency or load capacitance
varies during a long-term test, or concerning auto-voltage control