N. N.

Nam / GMSARN International Journal 12 (2018) 41 - 46

A Simple Simulation Model for Analyzing Very Fast

Transient Overvoltage in Gas Insulated Switchgear

Nguyen Nhat Nam

Abstract— The paper presents an simple model based on ATP-EMTP software to analyze very fast transient
overvoltage (VFTO) phenomenon in Gas-Insulated Switchgear or Substation (GIS). The accuracy of this model is
confirmed in a simple benchmark case study. The presented model is then applied to compute VFTOs in Binh Tan
220kV GIS in Vietnam. The computation results show that VFTOs generated by switching operations can be high
enough to decrease the reliability in normal operations of the GIS. In addition, some VFTO-mitigating methods are
introduced, and a feasible one is selected to apply to the GIS. The effectiveness of the chosen method is then validated
by the simulation model. The obtained results in this research demonstrate that ATP-EMTP is a useful tool for transient
analysis in high voltage engineering.

Keywords— Very fast transient overvoltage, gas-insulated substation, VFTO mitigation, ATP-EMTP.

of the suggested mitigation solution.

 The structure of this article consists of 4 sections. The
1. INTRODUCTION
first one is the introduction while the second one presents
Gas-insulated substations with main insulation of SF6 the circuit model of ATP-EMTP for VFTO analysis. The
are more and more popular because of their ability to next section is written for discussion about the obtained
fulfill high energy demands with small space allocation simulation results and a reasonable solution to mitigate
and high reliability [1]. In GIS, during the operation of VFTOs. Finally, some conclusions are presented at the
disconnecting switches (DS), flashovers in forms of pre- end of the paper.
strikes and re-strikes occur in SF6 and lead to the
appearance of VFTOs [2]. For the rated voltage up to
2. CIRCUIT MODEL OF ATP-EMTP FOR VFTO
550kV, design of GIS is mainly based on the impulse
ANALYSIS
withstand voltage [3]. Hence, VFTO level is not
concerned in the design stage of GISs. However, this 2.1 Model of GIS components
phenomenon can have negative impacts on the insulation
Fig. 1 is the cross-section view of a single-phase
of equipment in GISs [3].
encapsulated GIS. This configuration is popular in GISs
The need for VFTO analysis in GISs is inevitable.
in Vietnam. Binh Tan 220kV GIS, which is the
There are two popular approaches proposed to solve this
substation under VFTO analyzing in this paper, was also
requirement as in [2-11]. The first one is based on the
built with this structure and has been in operation since
circuit model, in which all components of GIS are
2012.
presented in forms of electrical elements and distributed
transmission lines (TLs). This circuit based method is
very convenient and can be applied to analyze a whole
system of GIS, as in [4, 7-10]. The second approach is
developed using Finite Element Method (FEM), hence it
can solve full-wave Maxwell’s equations. Although this
method is able to provide a high level of accuracy, it can
only be used to analyze a single module of GIS because
of its high requirement of computation. A typical
application of this approach can be seen in [5].
In this study, a simple but effective circuit model is
presented, and then applied on the platform of ATP-
EMTP for analyzing VFTO phenomenon in Binh Tan
220kV GIS. The simulation results show that the
generation of VFTOs can become a hazard to the
substation. Therefore, a suitable mitigation method is
Fig.1. Cross-section view of single phase enclosure type.
introduced to attenuate VFTOs in this substation. Then,
the ATP-EMTP model is used to verify the effectiveness
Under VFTO analysis based on circuit model, each
bus duct section of GIS can be presented by a distributed
N. N. Nam is with Faculty of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, TL as in Fi.2 with the parameters as follows.
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology – VNU-HCM, Ho Chi
Minh city, Vietnam. Email: [email protected].

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Table 1. The equivalent circuits of GIS components

No. Component Description

1 Disconnected + Closing:
Switch distributed TL
(DS)
+ Opening:
Fig.2. Distributed TL 1 series capacitance
2 Circuit Breaker + Closing:
(CB) distributed TL
(1)
+ Opening:
1 series Capacitance C1
(2)
and 2 shunt capacitances
C2
(3)

(4)

In the above equations, C(F/m) and L(H/m) are the

per-unit length capacitance and inductance, respectively;
Z(Ω) is the surge impedance; v(m/s) is the the surge
travelling velocity; a(m) and b(m) are the outer radius of 3 Spacer T-joint Shunt capacitance
the bus duct and the inner one of the enclosure; ε and μ 4 Current Distributed TL and shunt
are the permittivity and the permeability of gas FS6, Transformer capacitance
respectively.
In GIS, surges travel along many connected modules 5 Potential Shunt capacitance
with the average velocity lower than the one in Eq. 4 due Transformer
to the presence of spacers, elbow joints, T-shaped joints,
6 Earthing Switch Shunt capacitance
etc. Hence, the average velocity can be calculated by Eq.
5 suggested by IEC 60071-4. 7 Gas to Air Bushing Distributed TL and shunt
capacitance on the side of
(5) air

In addition, the series per-unit length resistance of the 8 Lightning Arrester Shunt capacitance –
bus duct R can be extracted from data provided by the (ZnO) resistance
GIS manufacture of the substation under study. 9 Power Transformer Shunt capacitance
The equivalent circuits of GIS components are based
on distributed TLs and lumped electrical elements. In 10 Cable Lumped TL with LCC
addition, these circuits are dependent on the component module consisting of π-
status, and are summarized in Table 1. equivalent circuits
2.2 Model of DS switching operation 11 Overhead TL Distributed TL
To model the DS switching operation, the exponential
spark resistance of arc is proposed by Povh D., et al. in To take the whole procedure consisting of many re-
[6] as follows. strikes, pre-strikes, and trapped charge into account
during opening or closing DS, a new model is developed
(6) by Szewczyk M., et al. in [7-8]. In this model, the
nonlinear resistance R(t) which is based on the
In Eq. (6), r is the arc resistance, R0 is the opening DS suggestion in [6] is controlled by the ATP-EMTP
resistance, and τ is the time constant of SF6 breakdown MODEL tool based on the voltage difference between
duration. In the above model, only the highest-amplitude the two DS contacts and the breakdown voltage of SF6
spark is included in the VFTO analysis and trapped across the DS moving gap. Besides, a controlled switch
charge (TC) on the load side of the operated DS is not is used to include an additional energized capacitance
mentioned in the computation. with an initial voltage into the circuit [8]. The
supplement of this capacitance allows for including the
presence of TC on the floating side of the DS in this
model. It is demonstrated in [7-8] that this model can
analyze the entire VFTO process including many arc
sparks and TC in GIS during a very long interval with a
reasonable precision. However, this model requires

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complex data of GIS such as the breakdown transformers rated 250 MVA in service. The third one of
characteristics of FS6 between the changing gap of DS 250 MVA will be installed in the future. This substation
during operation. was built with the single-phase encapsulated technology
In the state-of-the-art viewpoint, the main concern is to as in Fig. 1.
compute VFTOs generated by the highest-amplitude
spark in a very short duration. Therefore, it is not
necessary to take into account the entire process of many
arc-sparking events. In this study, a simple model of DS
switching operation is presented. This model is based on
the basic ideals of the two above researches proposed in
[6-8]. Its description is outlined in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 3, before DS operation, the load side of DS is
neither connected to the source nor to the ground, hence
it has an electrical role as the potential-floating part. A
voltage source Uc0 is used to charge this floating circuit
up to a trapped charge voltage (TCV). This TCV can be
Fig.3. Model of DS switching operation.
determined based on the voltage source amplitude, the
charging resistance Rc0, and the opening time t1 of switch
K1. Then, switch K2 will be closed at the time t2 to start
an arc-sparking event by including the resistance R(t)
between the two DS contacts. The resistance R(t) is
calculated by Eq. 6 with the arc resistance, the opening
DS resistance and the time constant of 0.5Ω, 10 12Ω and
1ns, respectively [6]. It is noted that K2 is closed after
opening K1 (i.e. t2 > t1) to make sure that the charging
source will not have any impacts on arc-sparking and Fig.4. ATP circuit of simple case study for validation.
surge travelling. The proposed procedure ensures that the
physical basics of these two processes are preserved
perfectly.
2.3 Validation
A simple case study is considered in Fig. 4 for verifying
the accuracy of the presented circuit model. The load
side of the DS is a π-equivalent circuit which consists of
one inductance 1.5 μH and two capacitances 250 pF. The
charging voltage source UC0=1cosin(ωt+π) pu is closed
at -1s and opened at -0.2 s by switch K1. As a result, the
DS load side is charged up to -1 pu at -0.2 s, and it has
this floating potential until K2 is closed at 0 s. Then K2 Fig.5. Comparison between analytical and ATP solutions of
connects the voltage source Us=1cosin(ωt) pu to the load the simple case study.
side of DS through the arc resistance of 2Ω. The reason
of using this linear resistance instead of the nonlinear one
in Eq. 6 is that the analytical solution of potential u(t) at
the DS load side can be obtained by Laplace transform
method. The comparision between this analytical
solution and the one of ATP is displayed in Fig. 5. The
two solutions are well comparable, and this result
demonstrates that the presented model of DS operation
can provide a very reasonable solution in VFTO analysis.

3. SIMULATION RESULTS AND MITIGATION

METHODS
3.1 Introduction of GIS under VFTO analysis
Binh Tan 220kV GIS is designed using the configuration
of double bus and single breaker to connect six circuits
of TLs and two circuits of transformers. Fig. 6 is the
arrangement of a transmission circuit in this GIS. At the
time of this research, there are two 220kV/110kV Fig.6. Transmission line module of Binh Tan 220kV GIS.

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Fig.7. Full layout of Binh Tan 220kV GIS

Fig. 7 presents the full layout of Binh Tan 220kV GIS.

Modules 1 and 5 are transformer circuits connected to
transformer 1 and 2, respectively while module 10 is a
transformer circuit installed in the future. Besides,
modules 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are transmission line circuits,
which are named Binh Tan – Cau Bong 1 (BT – CB1),
Binh Tan – Cau Bong 2, Binh Tan – Phu Lam 1, Binh
Tan – Phu Lam 2, Binh Tan – Hoc Mon 1, and Binh Tan
– Hoc Mon 2, respectively. Module 4 is the bus coupler
circuit connecting the two main buses in operation.
3.2 Simulation results
The typical case study for VFTO analysis in Binh Tan
220kV is chosen from a practical operation of the
substation. In this situation, BT – CB1 transmission line
is out of service, and other transmission lines together Fig.8. One-line diagram of BT – CB1 GIS module.
with the two transformers are in operation. The two
substation buses are connected through the bus coupler.
BT – CB1 transmission line is required to be back in VFTOs at the two contacts of DS1 and the two
operation in order to connect two substations Binh Tan transformers are presented in Fig. 10 for the case with
and Cau Bong. The procedure is to establish the TCV -1 pu. It is noted that the VFTO at the transformer 1
connection of the line to Binh Tan substation before to which is near the module BT – CT1 is very high with a
Cau Bong. On the GIS module of this line, as illustrated peak of 2.417 pu. This can cause negative effects on the
in Fig. 8, DS1, DS7 and CB will be closed in the transformer and can significantly shorten the lifetime of
chronological order while DS2 is kept open. Hence, this electrical machine.
VFTO analysis is conducted during closing DS1 while
3.3 Mitigation methods
DS7 and CB are still open. It is noted that the load side
of DS1, which is the green part in Fig. 8, is the floating From the obtained results in the previous sub-section, the
potential circuit. need to reduce VFTOs in the GIS is inevitable. Many
VFTOs at the two sides of DS1 are presented in Fig. mitigation methods have been studied to solve this
9a with TCV of -1 pu and in Fig. 9b without TCV. The problem.
peak values of voltages at DS1 contacts are 1.824 pu in A typical solution is using resistor-fitted DSs by Y.
the analysis with TCV of -1 pu and 1.423 pu in the one Yamagata, et al [9]. The DS modified configuration is
without TCV. These results demonstrate the significant suggested as in Fig. 11. During the switching operation
impact of TCV on VFTOs generated during switching of DS, arc-sparks will connect the moving contact with
operations in GISs. the additional resistor instead of the fixed contact.
Hence, a considerable energy of sparks can be dissipated

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by the resistor and VFTOs can be suppressed. 2.5

2
2
1.5

1.5

V(pu)
1

1 0.5
V(pu)

DS1 source side

0 DS1 load side
0.5
Transformer 1
-0.5 Transformer 2
0 DS1 source side
DS1 load side -1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
-0.5 t(s) -6
x 10

-1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Fig.10. VFTOs in the GIS in the case of -1 pu TCV.
t(s) -6
x 10
a) With TCV of -1pu
2

1.5
V(pu)

0.5 DS1 source side

DS1 load side
Fig.11. Configuration of resistor-fitted DS suggested in [9].
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t(s) x 10
-6

b) Without TCV 1.5

Fig.9. VFTOs at the two sides of DS1. 1

Another effective method is to install magnetic rings 0.5

V(pu)

on the bus duct of GIS. This method has been studied in

many researches in [2, 4, 8, 12-14]. 0 DS1 source side
DS1 load side
Beside the two methods above, a modification of bus Transformer1
duct dimmension to form a resonant box, which is -0.5 Transformer2

suggested in [8], can be a potential solution.

-1
In this research, the solution of using resistor-fitted 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

DSs is verified by the presented simulation model. Fig. t(s) x 10

-6

12 shows the VFTOs calculated in the substation with Fig 12. VFTOs in the GIS with 100Ω resistor-fitted DSs in
the DS fitted-resistor of 100Ω . the case of -1 pu TCV.
The results in Fig. 12 show the effectiveness of the
mitigation method. It is observed that the VFTOs in the Table 2. Peak values of VFTOs in the two cases
GIS are suppressed successfully into smaller oscillations.
Besides, a comparison of VFTOs in the original structure Case/At DS1 Transformer 1
and the modified one with resistor-fitted DS is
summarized in Table 2. The peak values of VFTOs in Original 1.824 2.417
this table once again demonstrate the positive impacts of Resistor-fitted DS 1.369 1.328
the mitigation method in reducing VFTOs in the GIS.

4. CONCLUSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENT
In this paper, a simple but effective circuit model is This research is funded by Ho Chi Minh City
presented and applied on the platform of ATP-EMTP for University of Technology – VNU-HCM, under grant
analyzing VFTO phenomenon in Binh Tan 220kV GIS number T- ĐĐT-2016-23.
successfully.
The simulation results show that the generation of REFERENCES
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