K.L.N.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
(An Autonomous Institution, Affiliated to anna university)
Department of Electrical And Electronics Engineering

20EE701 - PROTECTION AND SWITCHGEAR

VII Semester EEE
1 UNIT - I
OVER VOLTAGE PROTECTION
Syllabus:
2 UNIT – I : OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION
 Causes and Effects of Over Voltages
 Switching and lightning over voltages
 Lightning Mechanism
 Lightning Arresters and surge diverters
Over voltage sources in power network:
3 Over voltage Sources

μs ns ms
Very fast Lightning Switching Temporary
transients Over voltage power frequency
voltage

Disconnector Internal
operation

Direct Indirect Back

lightning lightning Flashover System Fault

Energisation of L-G fault

Lines, cables, Ferro resonance
transformers, Ferranti effect
External Load throw off
Capacitors etc.,
Lightning phenomenon:
4  When an electric field intensity near the cloud exceeds the breakdown value of air
(10kV/cm) an electric streamer(leader stroke) starts towards the earth.
 It can’t be seen by direct eyes. It is also called as Pilot streamer.

 The leader stroke may travel about 50m around only due to insufficient electrical gradient.
But after some interval (100μs), pilot streamer again starts towards the earth.
 The travelling path of the pilot streamer is changed into several branches depends on the
ionization of air surrounding the pilot streamer.
 Thus the pilot streamer reaches the ground by several branches called as stepped leader.

When the stepped leader touches the ground, the Return stroke starts towards the cloud. At
the time the stroke reaches the ground, the electric field intensity sufficiently large. To
compensate this, positive charge return to the cloud through the same ionized path to
neutralized the negative charge and hence a heavy current flow (1000 to 250,000A) through
the path. It’s duration is 100μs. The velocity of progression of the return stoke is very high and
may reach half the speed of light

There may be another group of charges in the cloud nearer to the neutralized charged cell. This
charged cloud will try to neutralize through the existing ionized path. This streamer is known
as Dart leader
 The discharge current in the return streamer is relatively very large but as it lasts only for a few
microseconds. Thus the energy contained in the streamer is small and hence this streamer is
5 known as Cold lightning stroke.

The dart leader is known as Hot lightning stroke because even though the current in this
leader is relatively smaller. But it lasts for some milliseconds and hence the energy contained in
this leader is relatively larger.

1 2 3 4

5
1. Pilot leader.
2. Stepped leader (20ms)
3. Return stroke
4. Neutralized cloud
5. Dart leader
 Direct stroke:
When the charge on the cloud is directly discharge on to a transmission line is called as direct
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stroke. It is most severe form of stroke and it is rare one.

Indirect stroke:
• Cloud develops the positive charge on earth objects like transmission line and towers by
induction principle.
• When the cloud discharges to some earthed object other than the line, the transmission line
is left with a huge concentration of charge (positive)which cannot leak suddenly.
• Transmission line and the ground will act as a huge capacitor charged with a positive charge
and hence over voltages occur due to these induced charges. This would result in a stroke
and hence the name induced Lightning stroke".

Back Flashover:
• When direct lightning stroke occur on a tower, the tower has to carry huge impulse current.
• If the tower footing resistance is high, the potential of the tower also high which will result
the breakdown of insulator discs and leads a line to ground fault.
• This flashover will take place from tower structure to power conductor and it is known as
back flashover.
Mathematical model for lightning:
 During charge formation cloud is considered as a non-conductor. Hence various potential
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may assumed in different parts the cloud.
 Due to high potential gradient it is possible for local breakdown and this local breakdown
leads to complete breakdown between cloud and the air.
 Lightning stroke may considered as a current source of Io with source impedance Z0
discharged to ground.
 If the lightning strikes the ground object (Tower) of impedance Z, induced voltage across the
object is
 V=I0 Z

 Where (Z/Z0) is considerably small.

 Hence the voltage developed across the object=V = I0 Z
Lightning over voltage:
8  The lightning stroke is that which strikes a phase conductor on the transmission line and It
produces the overvoltage for a given stroke current.
 The lightning stroke strikes the over head line, the current wave divide into two section and
travel on both side of the transmission line.
 Thus the voltage surge at the striking point is
 Assume the lightning current value is 10000A and the surge impedance value is 400Ω. The
produced over voltage is 2000KV
Effect of over voltages in power system:
9  Examination of over voltages on the power system includes a study of their magnitudes,
shapes, durations, and frequency of occurrence.
 Over voltage tends to stress the insulation of the electrical equipment’s and likely to cause
damage to them when it frequently occurs.
 Over voltage caused by surges can result in spark over and flash over between phase and
ground at the weakest point in the network, breakdown of gaseous/solid/ liquid insulation,
failure of transformers and rotating machines.
Switching over voltage:
10 1.Energization of transmission lines and cables:
a. Energization of a line that is open circuited at the far end
b. Energization of a line that is terminated by an unloaded transformer
c. Energization of a line through the low-voltage side of a transformer
 When a no load transmission line is suddenly switched on, the voltage on the line becomes
twice of normal system voltage. This voltage is transient in nature.
 When the voltage source connected to unloaded line, voltage wave travelling along the line.
At terminal point, the voltage wave is reflected back to supply end without change the sign.
 This will cause the voltage doubling
 2. Reenergization of a line:
 This means the energization of transmission line carrying charges trapped by previous
11 line interruptions when high-speed re-closures are used.
 This leads the over voltage when the line is reconnected.
 This trapped charges was removed by inserting resisters.
3. Load rejection:
 Sudden load rejection – speed of the generator rises – increasing frequency – leads over
voltage.
 Automatic voltage regulators are used to prevent this over voltage.
4.Ferranti effect.
5.Unsymmetrical fault.
6.Saturation of transformer.
Over voltage protection:
12  External over voltage: System can be protected by shielding methods. Shielding
methods does not allow the arc path between conductor and the ground.

Example: ground wire system.

 Internal over voltage: System can be protected by non-shielding method. This

method allow the arc path between conductor and the ground.

Example: Spark gap

Non-Shielding method:
13  Based on the principle of insulation breakdown.
 Thus the part of the energy content in over voltage is discharged to earth.
 Breakdown depends upon
 Voltage magnitude.
 Applied time.
 Shape and size of the electrodes.
 Impulse ratio is the method to find out the energy withstand capability of the
insulator.
 Impulse ratio is defined as the ratio of breakdown voltage due to an impulse of
specified shape to the breakdown voltage at power frequency.
 Impulse ratio of the gap is smaller than solid dielectric whereas lightning arrester
has low impulse ratio than the dielectric.
Horn gap:
14  Consist of two horn shape electrodes separated by a small distance.
 One is connected to line and the another one is connected to earth.
 Choke is connected between the equipment to be protected and horn gap. Main
purpose of this choke is
 Steepness of the wave incident on the equipment to be protected is reduced.
 It reflects the surge voltage back to the horn.
 When a surge voltage exceeds the breakdown value of the gap, discharge takes
place and the energy content in the rest of the wave is discharged to the ground.
 Arc is setup between the gap, which is acts as a conductor to discharge the energy
to the ground.
 The major drawback of this method is
 Time of operation is quite large.
 If used on isolated neutral, horn gap may produce the severe arcing ground.
Schematic diagram- Horn gap
15
Rod gap:
16  Simplest, cheapest and most rugged one.
 It is look like arcing ring.
 No current limiting device is present in the rod gap arrangement. Hence series resistance
is used as current limiting device..
 Without a series resistance, the sparking current may high, which is dangerous to the
apparatus.
 Every operation of rod gap results a L-G fault and the breakers must operate to de-energize
the circuit to clear the flashover.
 Generally used as back up protection.
Expulsion type:
 Series gap: used to withstand the normal system voltage and to
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avoid the leakage current across the tube.
 Tube: Has fibre lining in inside the tube. It is highly gas evolving
material.
 Spark gap
 Open vent: located at lower end for gas removal.
 Breakdown voltage of a tube must be lower than that of the
insulation for which it is used
 When the surge voltage occurs, series gap is expanded and the arc is
formed between the electrodes with in the tube.
 Due to the heat of the arc, fibre lining gets vaporized and cause the
high gas pressure in the tube.
 High pressure creates lot of turbulence within the tube and is
expelled out from the open bottom vent of the tube and it
extinguishes the arc at the first current zero.
 Breakdown voltage of expulsion tubes is slightly lower than for plain
rod gaps.
Valve type lightning arrester:
18  Also called as non-linear surge diverter.

 Consist of a divided spark gap ( Several gaps in series) in series with non-linear resister
element. Non-linear resister components offers the high resistance in low current value and
low resistance in high current value.

 All components are placed in leak tight porcelain house which provides the solid protection
against atmosphere changes.

 Each series gap has two electrodes across which a grading resistor is connected to provide a
uniform distribution of voltage across the series gap.

 Slower variation of voltage: No spark over across the gaps.

 Large rapid variation of voltage: Surges mainly concentrate the upper gap and produce the
spark over. This spark over a leads the spark over of a complete lightning arrester
Valve type lightning arrester:
19

Line

Line
Divided spark gap

Porcelain housing

Non
linear
resistor