CAUSES OF TRANSIENTS

Mrs. L. NAGALAKSHMI
AP/EEE
S.A ENGINEERING COLLEGE
• Causes of Overvoltages:
• The overvoltages on a power system may be broadly divided into two
main categories viz.
• 1. Internal causes
• Switching surges
• Insulation failure
• Arcing ground
• Resonance
• 2. External causes
• lightning
• Internal causes do not produce surges of large magnitude.
Experience shows that surges due to internal causes
hardly increase the system voltage to twice the normal
value. Generally, surges due to internal causes are taken
care of by providing proper insulation to the equipment in
the power system. However, surges due to lightning are
very severe and may increase the system voltage to
several times the normal value. If the equipment in the
power system is not protected against lightning surges,
these surges May cause considerable damage. In fact, in a
power system, the protective devices provided against
over voltages mainly take care of lightning surges.
• Internal Causes of Overvoltages:
• Internal causes of over voltages on the power system
are primarily due to oscillations set up by the sudden
changes in the circuit conditions. This circuit change
may be a normal switching operation such as opening
of a circuit breaker, or it may be the fault condition
such as grounding of a line conductor. In practice, the
normal system insulation is suitably designed to
withstand such surges. We shall briefly discuss the
internal causes of over voltages.
• Switching Surges: The overvoltages produced on the power
system due to switching operations are known as switching
surges.
• (i) Case of an open line: During switching operations of an
unloaded line, travelling waves are set up which produce
overvoltages on the line. As an illustration, consider an
unloaded line being connected to a voltage source as shown
in Fig.
• When the unloaded line is connected to the voltage source, a voltage
wave is set up which travels along the line. On reaching the terminal
point A, it is reflected back to the supply end without change of sign.
This causes voltage doubling i.e. voltage on the line becomes twice
the normal value. If Er.m.s. is the supply Voltage Surge, then
instantaneous voltage which the line will have to withstand will be
2√2 E This overvoltage is of temporary nature. It is because the line
losses attenuate the wave and in a very short time, the line settles
down to its normal supply voltage E. Similarly, if an unloaded line is
switched of the line will attain a voltage of 2√2 E for a moment before
settling down to the normal value
(ii) Case of a loaded line: Overvoltages will also be produced during the switching operations of a loaded
line. Suppose a loaded line is suddenly interrupted. This
will set up a voltage of 2 Z n i across the break (i.e. switch) where i is the instantaneous value of current at the time of opening of line and Z n is the natural impedance of the line. For example, suppose the line having Z n=1000Ω carries a current of 100 A (r.m.s.) and the break occurs at the moment when current is
maximum. The voltage across the breaker (i.e. switch) = 2 √2 x 100 x 1000/1000 = 282.8 kV. If V m is the peak value of voltage in kV, the maximum voltage to which the line may be subjected is = (V m + 282.8) kV.
• (iii) Current chopping: Current chopping results in the
production of high voltage transients across the contacts of
the air blast circuit breaker. It is briefly discussed Unlike oil
circuit breakers, which are independent for the effectiveness
on the magnitude of the current being interrupted, air-blast
circuit breakers retain the same extinguishing power
irrespective of the magnitude of this current. When breaking
low currents (e.g. transformer magnetizing current) with air-
blast breaker, the powerful de-ionizing effect of air-blast
causes the current to fall abruptly to zero well before the
natural current zero is reached. This phenomenon is called
current chopping and produces high transient voltage across
the breaker contacts. Overvoltages due to current chopping
are prevented by resistance switching.
 INTERNAL CAUSES-INSULATION
FAILURE
• The most common case of insulation failure in a power
system is the grounding of conductor (i.e. insulation failure
between line and earth) which may cause overvoltages in
the system.
• Suppose a line at potential E is earthed at point X. The
earthing of the line causes two, equal voltages of -E to
travel along XQ and XP, containing currents -E/Zn and
+E/Zn respectively. Both these currents pass through X to
earth so that current to earth is 2 E/Zn.
 INTERNAL CAUSES-INSULATION
FAILURE
Arcing ground: In the early days of transmission, the neutral of three phase lines
was not earthed to gain two advantages. Firstly, in case of line-to-ground fault, the
line is not put out of Secondly, the zero sequence currents are eliminated, resulting
in the decrease of interference with communication lines. Insulated neutrals give no
problem with short lines and comparatively low Voltage Surge. However, when the
lines are long and operate at high voltages, serious problem called arcing ground is
often witnessed. The arcing ground produces severe oscillations of three to four
times the normal voltage.
The phenomenon of intermittent arc taking place in line-to-ground fault of a
3Φ system with consequent production of transients is known as arcing ground.
The transients produced due to arcing ground are cumulative and may cause serious
damage to the equipment in the power system by causing breakdown of insulation.
Arcing ground can be prevented by earthing the neutral.
• 4.Resonance: Resonance in an electrical system occurs
when inductive reactance of the circuit becomes equal
to capacitive reactance. Under resonance, the
impedance of the circuit is equal to resistance of the 
circuit and the pl. is unity. Resonance causes high
voltages in the electrical system. In the usual
transmission lines, the capacitance is very small so that
resonance rarely occurs at the fundamental supply
frequency. However, if generator e.m.f. wave is
distorted, the trouble of resonance may occur due to 5th
or higher harmonics and in case of underground cables
too.
EXTERNAL CAUSES OF TRANSIENTS-
LIGHTNING
• Types of Lightning Strikes:
•
There are two Types of Lightning Strikes may strike the power
system (e.g. overhead lines, towers, sub-stations etc.),namely;

• Direct stroke

• Indirect stroke
1. Direct stroke: In the direct stroke, the lightning discharge (i.e.
current path) is directly from the cloud to the subject equipment e.g. an
overhead line. From the line, the current path may be over the insulators
down the pole to the ground. The overvoltages set up due to the
stroke. may be large enough to flashover this path directly to the ground.
The direct strokes can be of two types viz. (i) Stroke A and (ii) Stroke
B
INDIRECT STROKE
• Harmful Effects of Types of Lightning Strikes:
• The travelling waves produced due to lightning surges will shatter the
insulators and may even wreck poles.
• (ii) If the travelling waves produced due to Types of Lightning Strikes
hit the windings of a transformer or generator, it may cause
considerable damage. The inductance of the wiiidings opposes any
sudden passage of electric charge through it. Therefore, the electric
charges “piles up” against the transformer (or generator). This
induces such an excessive pressure between the windings that
insulation may breakdown, resulting in the production of arc.
•  If the arc is initiated in any part of the power system by the lightning
stroke, this arc will set up very disturbing oscillations in the line. This
may damage other equipment connected to the line.
•A
  CB interrupts magnetizing current of a 100 MVA transformer at
220KV. The magnetizing current of the tr. Is 5 % of the full load
current. Determine the maximum voltage which may appear across
the gap of the breaker when the magnetizing current is interrupted at
53% of its peak value. The stray capacitiance is 2500 microfarad. The
inductance is 30H
Solution: The full load current of the transformer
=(100 X10^6)/(X220X1000) =264.44A
Magnetising current = (5/100)X 264.44=34.44A
Current chopping occurs at 0.53X34.44=25.83A
=
=X
V=2829
CLASSIFICATION OF TRANSIENTS
• BASED ON ORIGIN:
• Switching Transients (milliseconds)-causes equipment failure and data losses
• Lightning transients (microseconds)-causes equipment failure, immediate shutdown and
high replacement cost
• BASED ON NATURE OF TRANSIENTS:
• Impulsive transients & oscillatory transients
• Impulsive transients –lightning transients
• Based on rise time and duration , impulsive transients are classified as
• Nanosecond impusive transients
• Microsecond impulsive transients
• Millisecond impulsive transients
Impulse transient oscillatory transients
• Oscillatory transients
• Based of frequency content, time duration and voltage magnitude,
oscillatory transients are classified as
• Low frequency oscillatory transient- a transient with primary frequency
component less than 5 KHZ and duration from 0.3 to 50ms – occurs in utility
sub-transmission and distribution systems
• Medium frequency oscillatory transient- a transient with primary frequency
component between 5 KHZ and 500KHZ and duration of 20microsecond
• High frequency oscillatory transient-a transient with primary frequency
component greater than 500KHZ and duration of 5microsecond
• BASEDON MODE OF GENERATION:
• ELECTROMAGNETIC TRANSIENTS: It is generated by the interaction
between electric fields of capacitance and magnetic field of
inductance in the power system. It appears as travelling waves on
transimission lines, cables etc.