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Compared to conventional ac cables, the current rating of HVDC cable circuits is more complicated because the permissible current is not only limited by the operating temperature, but also by the electrical stress within the insulation. Therefore the IEC60287 current rating standard is considered insufficient for some HVDC applications because it fails to include the stress limitation. This paper presents an analytical methodology to calculate an electrical stress-limited rating for HVDC cables, which considers the maximum dielectric stress as the current limiting factor. This paper represents the first part of a project which has comprehensively reviewed cable rating calculations for mass impregnated HVDC cable systems.

Disconnecting switch operations in gas insulated equipment cause transient voltages with risetimes as steep as 5 to 20 nanoseconds and magnitudes as high as 2.5 pu. There is very little information on the effect of these transients on oil-paper insulated equipment. There have been reports, however of transformer and bushing failures caused by these transients. The electrical breakdown characteristics of oil-paper insulation under steep front impulse were studied in this project, which was co-sponsored by the Canadian Electrical Association and BC Hydro. V/sub 50/ (50% breakdown probability voltage) breakdown data was obtained with steep front (10 ns/2500 /spl mu/s), lightning and switching impulse waveforms. Insulation breakdown voltage vs breakdown time (V-t) data and multiple impulse breakdown data were obtained with the steep front impulse waveform. The V/sub 50/ results showed that the breakdown strengths were lower for steep front impulses than for lightning impulses. The multiple impulse breakdown results showed that oil-paper insulation breakdown strength can be lower than 100 kV/mm. These results are alarming, since they suggest that oil-paper insulated equipment subjected to steep front transients will fail at voltages below the lightning impulse design level (BIL). The volt-time data had a discontinuity. The breakdown process at risetimes below about 50 ns was different from the breakdown process at risetimes above 50 ns. >

Dielectric testing techniques, in both time and frequency domains, are currently widely used by power utilities for assessment of the condition of transformer oil-paper insulation systems. However, it has been reported that results of these tests are highly influenced by the operating temperature during measurements. The distribution, migration and equilibrium of moisture between oil and paper in a complicated insulation system is highly temperature dependent. It requires adequate experience and proper understanding to interpret the dielectric response results in the presence of temperature variations and thermal instability. Proper analysis of the dielectric test result is only possible with an understanding of the physical behavior of the insulation system in response to temperature. A circuit model, which describes the dielectric behavior of the transformers main insulation system, has been investigated in this paper. The values of the parameters of the model have been identified from the dielectric tests. A correlation has been observed between the operating temperature and the equivalent model parameters that can be used as additional information for better interpretation of the dielectric test results. This paper thus reports a detailed study on the effects of temperature on dielectric measurements of a transformer under controlled laboratory conditions. Some results of practical on-site testing are also presented to demonstrate the possibility of errors that may be introduced in dielectric test results analysis unless temperature effects are taken into consideration.

Knowledge about moisture content in oil impregnated paper insulation is essential when estimating remaining lifetime of power transformers. Direct evaluation of moisture content is rarely possible due to inaccessibility of the internal insulation system in transformers. Therefore, various indirect estimation techniques are utilized. Frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) measurements of transformer insulation belong to this group. To perform high quality interpretation of results of FDS measurements a good knowledge on dielectric responses in oil impregnated pressboard and paper is required, especially as it refers to their variation with water content and temperature. The aim of this paper is to provide an open access to the frequency domain spectra of oil impregnated paper and pressboard samples, which can then be used in modeling of the results of diagnostic measurements in power transformers.

An extensive revision of the IEEE C37.011 "Application Guide for TRV for AC High-Voltage circuit Breakers" has been in process for the last four years. The main aim was to introduce the two- and the four- parameter description of the transient recovery voltage (TRV) as used in IEC Switchgear standards that have been introduced in the revisions of Standards C37.04 and C37.06. These two standards are being concurrently revised, but IEEE C37.011 provides the necessary explanations on TRV characteristic in advance. Non-specialist engineer users of the guide will better understand these standards

Test methods for evaluating flashover voltage of ceramic and nonceramic insulators under ice, snow, and cold-fog conditions are recommended. The paper describes the procedure to be followed at various stages of an evaluation test including preparation of the test object, insulator precontamination, ice, snow, and cold-fog deposits as well as voltage applications and flashover voltage evaluation. Some relevant parameters for ice accretion, flashover voltage evaluation, artificial pollution, and power source requirements are taken from IEC 60129, IEC 60507, and IEEE Std.-4-1995 on standard techniques for high-voltage testing.

Recently developed monitoring-systems show the need as also the possibilities for online- and offline-onsite-diagnostics. The limit in sensitivity for electrical pd-measurements according to IEC 60270 which is reached using filters for sinusoidal disturbances and compensation for corona impulses is still not satisfactory. The acoustic partial discharge measurement (pd-measurement) is also a well known and reliable method often used by transformer manufacturers in testing. In laboratory setups a gain in sensitivity of the acoustic in comparison to the electrical pd measurements could be established. This is reached by adapting the sensors to the propagation path, a modern but moderately priced acquisition hardware and the introduction of new signal processing algorithms. The developed sophisticated measuring systems show remarkable results in online acoustic pd-measurements onsite.

Reliability and power quality are two of the most discussed topics in the utility industry today. Many groups have performed power quality studies with varying results. One large industrial customer (Champion International) in northern New York State, which experienced numerous process interruptions in its paper mill due to power system disturbances, is the focus of this study. Monitoring methods, results, inadequacies of standards, and unique mitigation techniques used to conquer their problems are discussed in this paper.

Many utilities still have paper-insulated pipe type cables in service. In the near future they may have to replace some of these systems due to local increases in electric power demand or aged cable insulation. In many cases the steel pipes are well protected against corrosion and thus suitable for further use. For retrofitting in such installations, XLPE-insulated cables offer several advantages. Felten & Guilleaume Energietechnik AG has developed a new three-core XLPE-insulated 64/110 kV cable with reduced insulation thickness (10 mm), that can be pulled into a pipe. In co-operation with VEW ENERGIE AG, the cable performance is being investigated in a field test, that started in October 1996. This long-term loading cycle test will last for three years. The test voltage, applied between conductor and earth, amounts to 127 kV. The temperature is measured with the help of an optical-fiber measurement system. This device is computer controlled and works as a remote monitoring system.

This paper briefly describes the special publication, "Fault and Disturbance Data Requirements for Automated Computer Analysis", prepared by working group III of the Relaying Practices and Consumer Interface Protection Subcommittee of the IEEE Power System Relaying Committee. The publication describes the analysis objectives and the data necessary to facilitate automated analysis.

A review is given of the performance of the +or-250 kV HVDC mass-impregnated, solid-type submarine cables installed between Denmark and Norway. The cables, which have been partly overloaded, have successfully met all requirements. Three mechanical failures have occurred, two due to heavy beam trawls and the third during stormy weather. On two occasions the cables were repaired in stormy weather. They have been hit by a great number of trawlboards and fisherboats' anchors without any significant damage. Tests and investigations of the insulation have demonstrated that this type of cable can be used for far higher voltages than assumed before. Migration of the impregnant is of less significance than previously believed. The cable can tolerate very high mechanical strains, such as those arising during layering at very great sea depths. Bending tests were made on cable pieces at tensions up to 72 metric tons; the results of the subsequent electrical tests were excellent, and no visible traces of damage of the insulation were found. The design stresses are considered, and suggestions are made for the design of cable for very deep waters. >

Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in using transformer monitoring systems. Some monitoring systems use models to predict the value of certain variables. One of the key variables to be monitored is moisture content in oil, as moisture has a high influence on transformer exploitation. In this paper, the theoretical foundation of a model for monitoring moisture in transformer oil is reported. The moisture model estimates moisture content in transformer oil under certain working conditions. Comparing the value of estimated moisture with the measured one, the model is able to detect failures producing an abnormal water content in the transformer. The model considers the equilibrium relations between paper and oil, the transients that take place until the steady-state equilibrium is attained, and the water increase caused by the insulating paper ageing. In addition, the model can alert to the possibility of oil saturation and the consequent free water formation in the transformer. In this paper, the theoretical foundation of the moisture model is described; in a companion paper, its experimental verification is reported.

For Part I see ibid., p.1417-22, 2005. In the companion paper, a model to detect failures leading to an increase of the water content in transformer oil was proposed. In this paper, the experimental verification of the model is presented. The model was tested in a 1500-kVA test transformer constructed as a reduced scale model of a 60-MVA 220-kV transformer. In order to load the transformer to have the capability of varying load and power factor over a wide range, the opposition method described in IEC 60076-2 Standard was used. Sensors to measure temperature and moisture in oil were installed in the test transformer. The model was adjusted and validated using a set of data corresponding to different operating conditions. The transformer was submitted to an accelerated aging process studying the model response in such a case. In order to verify the model's ability to detect failures, a water ingress in the transformer was simulated.

All electrical utilities deal with the task of determining the residual life of their in-service power transformers. Given the difficulties experienced with the use of first and second generations of markers (carbon oxides and 2-furfuraldehyde), several organizations are now considering the use of methanol for this purpose. Hydro-Quebec, which discovered this approach, uses this molecule on a regular basis to evaluate the state of the cellulose insulation of in-service power transformers and applies it to Electricite de France's nuclear power plant transformers. In this paper, some examples of the application of methanol in the field are presented against the information received from the early marker generations.

All 3-core cables require fillers to fill the space between insulated cores and the belt insulation or a sheath. The equations given in IEC 287 and in the Neher-McGrath paper (1957) for the internal thermal resistance of 3-core cables were developed for paper insulated cables. For such cables, it was assumed that the insulation and filler materials have the same thermal resistivities. In reality, in 3-core cables a variety of materials are used as fillers. The majority of these will have a higher thermal resistivity than the insulation. In the previous paper, a new formula was developed to compute the value of the internal thermal resistance of belted cables taking into account the thermal resistivity of the filler. In this paper, screened cables are considered and a new formula for the computation of the internal thermal resistance of such cables is presented. The effect of filler resistivity on cable ampacity is also discussed.

This paper describes the results of a long-term reliability test of a newly developed 500 kV DC oil-filled cable and accessories that transmit up to 2800 MW. This is the largest capacity ever used for submarine cables. The test line was 500 m and consist of submarine cables, land cables and several kinds of accessories. An optical fiber sensor was first installed in the oil duct of the cable to measure the conductor temperature directly under application of DC voltage. From 1994 to 1996, the authors carried out an accelerated electrical and thermal aging test equivalent to 40 years, a load cycle test, a polarity reversal test and a transient overloading current test. Satisfactory breakdown strength was confirmed in the residual test which followed the long-term test. These results have been instrumental to the decision to construct 500 kV DC commercial submarine cable lines.

A reduced wall 138kV HPOF pipe-type cable having a 700 kcmil (355 mm2) compact round copper conductor and 348 mils (8.8 mm) of insulation and two types of joints have been developed for re-conductoring existing 69kV HPOF feeders utilizing 5 inch (127 mm) outside diameter pipes on the Florida Power & Light Company (FP& L) system. Laboratory test results on the cable and two joints, one employing hard paper and the other high density crepe paper tapes, are reported. The commercial cable installation is described. Test results are also given on an improved design reduced wall 138kV HPOF pipe-type cable having a 2000 kcmil (1015 mm2) compact segmental copper conductor and 379 mils (9.6 mm) of insulation and a high density crepe paper joint intended for re-conductoring a 69kV HPOF pipe-type feeder using the existing 6-5/8 inch (168 mm) outside diameter pipes. The cable and joint satisfactorily passed all requirements of AEIC CS2-82 (4th Edition) [4].

The Neher/McGrath paper and the IEC Standard 60287-2-1 contain the formulae for the calculation of the external thermal resistance of cables installed in backfills or duct banks. These models are based on several assumptions, which often are not valid for practical installations. This paper examines the applicability of the Neher/McGrath model and proposes a new solution for the calculation of the external thermal resistance for such installations. Numerical examples illustrate the difference between the two methods.

This paper proposes a new modulated model predictive control method for the control of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) in voltage source converter-high voltage dc systems. The proposed method retains the advantages of the conventional finite control set-model predictive control methods by programing the nonlinear properties of the MMC into the design calculations while minimizing the ac line and circulating current ripples and steady-state error by generating modulated switching signals with a fixed switching frequency. In this paper, first, the predictive modeling of the MMC is provided. Next, the proposed control method is described. Then, the application of the proposed method to an MMC system is detailed. Finally, experimental results from an MMC system connected to a three-phase grid are provided to validate the theoretical outcomes.

When designing utility substations, it is necessary to consider all directional components of the electromagnetic reaction forces during short-circuit faults to properly account for their effects on substation equipment. IEEE 605 assumes straight long parallel conductors in its two-dimensional (2-D) force calculations while ignoring any bends and 3-D placement of conductors. CIGRE's Brochure 105 provides practical information on the mechanical effects of short-circuit currents in HV and EHV open air, conventional substations. Although these computational methods are easy to implement, they have several limitations and are sometimes too conservative. Previously published papers address such conservatism using dynamic analysis approaches that provide more accurate results when compared to experimental data. This paper provides two extensions to IEEE 605 and CIGRE 105 for calculating fault current reaction forces. A closed-form equation defining the simplified 2-D short-circuit force time history during a fault based on CIGRE 105 and a computationally inexpensive numerical 3-D force calculation technique are presented.

Vibro-acoustic measurement on a transformer's on-load tap changer (OLTC) can provide indications on its mechanical condition. Recently, a joint vibro-acoustic and arcing measurement system has been proposed, which can correlate the vibro-acoustic signal to mechanical events of OLTC's operation. However, there are still considerable difficulties in extracting useful information from both vibro-acoustic signal and arcing signal in a synchronized manner without any distortions in the extracted signals. In this paper, Savitzky–Golay filter is introduced to process the signals acquired from a joint vibro-acoustic and arcing measurement system installed on in-service OLTCs. It proves that the Savitzky–Golay filter can process both vibro-acoustic and arcing signals induced by OLTC, extract essential information without any time delay from both types of signals, and retrieve voltage phase information from the arcing signal. The methodologies developed in this paper can improve the visibility of OLTC's mechanical operation for an effective online condition monitoring.

Diversification of control schemes adopted by inverter-interfaced distributed generators (IIDGs) leads to difficulties in fault current estimation in a microgrid, which might make preexisting protection systems invalid and threaten the safety of power electronic devices. It is therefore important to study fault characteristics of IIDGs. This paper investigates characteristics of fault current of IIDGs caused by both symmetrical and asymmetrical faults. Two kinds of widely used control modes, current control (constant current control and PQ control) and voltage control (V/F control and droop control), are under investigation to provide an intuitive comparison on fault current. In particular, a novel algorithm is proposed to calculate fault current of droop-controlled IIDGs. It is found that different limiters have great impacts on fault response of IIDGs and detailed research works are carried out to identify the effects in this paper. Simulation results based on PSCAD/EMTDC and calculation results based on MATLAB/Simulink verify the correctness of the proposed fault models.

In hydroelectric power plants, which are characterized by particularly high short-circuit current levels and high time constants, conventional current transformer (CT) specifications can result in increased equipment dimensions, thus complicating their installation, especially during refurbishment projects. This paper presents a study to assess the potential of various low power instrument transformers (LPITs) for generator protection applications. Two types of LPITs were evaluated: the optical current transformer (OCT) and the stand alone merging unit (SAMU). To test the OCT, a 65-kA-peak test source was developed using a real-time simulator. This source was used to inject symmetrical and asymmetrical currents into LPITs for the assessment of protection accuracy class. Low-current tests were also performed to assess their metering classes. This paper presents the design of a high-current test bench, measurement uncertainty analysis and analysis algorithms used for device evaluation. Analysis results are then presented and discussed in terms of their applicability to generator differential protection using SAMUs and OCTs.

This paper 1) introduces a new approach for dependable and secure detection of loss-of-field (LOF) events based on estimating rotor signals, 2) implements digital algorithm of the corresponding LOF relay in an industrial hardware platform, and 3) evaluates performance of the LOF relay in a real-time-digital-simulator (RTDS) based control-hardware-in-the-loop (CHIL) environment. The main features of the proposed relay as compared with the conventional approaches include 1) capability to discriminate between system disturbances and LOF events, and 2) dependability and higher speed of the LOF detection mechanism. To evaluate the proposed approach performance for various types of LOF events, a detailed excitation system is modeled and implemented in the RTDS-based CHIL environment. This paper also verifies superior performance of the proposed LOF relay as compared with that of a conventional impedance-based LOF relay, using the RTDS-based CHIL platform.

Low-voltage (LV) feeder voltage magnitude and unbalance are often the constraining factors on a feeder's capacity to absorb rooftop photovoltaic (PV) generation. This paper presents a new probabilistic method for voltage management in distribution networks through the placement of distribution static compensators (dSTATCOMs) and on-load tap changers (OLTCs) considering the reactive capability of PV inverters in multiple LV and medium-voltage distribution networks. The method uses a modified particle swarm optimization. In this paper, several scenarios for the placements of multiple dSTATCOMs with and without embedded energy storage systems using both reactive and real power compensation are investigated in combination with an OLTC equipped with independent per-phase tap-changing control. The voltage constraints in the proposed method are statistically defined using three duration curves. These are the voltage unbalance, maximum voltage, and minimum voltage duration curves. The method is comprehensively tested for varying load and PV generation based on data from a real Australian distribution network with considerable unbalance and distributed PV generation. The results show that PV hosting capacity increases where the proposed approach is applied.

Subsynchronous control interaction (SSCI) is the interaction between the power-electronics control and the series-compensated transmission system that occurs at frequencies below the system nominal frequency. SSCI may occur between the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) control system and the series-compensated transmission line, to which the wind park (WP) is connected. Not only do the DFIG control system parameters, but also the WP operating conditions have a significant impact on SSCI. In this paper, the impact of WP operating conditions and DFIG control system parameters on SSCI is analyzed in detail. Guidelines are presented for modifying the DFIG control system parameters to ensure safe operation and acceptable transient responses due to faults. This paper also examines the accuracies of various analytical tools used for SSCI problem identification and proposes a new frequency scan analysis approach for accurate prediction of potential SSCI problems.

The Nelson River HVDC system currently consists of two thyristor-based bipole schemes: Bipoles I and II. Pole 1 in Bipole I was found to have suffered from a serious thyristor leakage problem (TLP) after 20 years in service. In order to understand, evaluate, and resolve this problem, a comprehensive study was conducted in 2013 at Manitoba Hydro, which involved thyristor voltage monitoring, leakage current measurements, and simulations. The study revealed that the majority of thyristors in two of the three valve groups at both ends were leaky (i.e., exhibiting increased leakage currents) to various degrees. This paper provides an overview of the TLP and related investigation. The effects and symptoms/behaviors of the leaky thyristors are illustrated with the study results for one of the worst valves at each end. The failure mechanism of the leaky thyristors is also discussed. This paper should provide a clear understanding of the TLP from the user's perspective. A question, however, remains with regard to the root-cause of the TLP. Further research is required to answer this question.

This paper proposes a novel scheme to mitigate distributed generation (DG) effects on existing fuse-recloser protection infrastructure in radial distribution networks. The proposed scheme employs a control unit, variable load bank, and dedicated recloser at the point of common coupling (PCC). It detects the increase in the DG terminal current producing a tipping signal when it exceeds a preset value. The proposed scheme also receives a fault detection signal from the head-end recloser via a fast communication channel. Upon verifying both signals, the scheme disconnects the DG unit from the system. Simultaneously, it connects a transfer impedance at the PCC to operate the DG unit at its prefault load-sharing condition. This allows the DG unit to continue supply to the transfer impedance at the prefault load-sharing condition, that is, maintain operation at the prefault level with no need for immediate shut down. Furthermore, it also allows the DG to maintain its speed and frequency at the prefault levels which, in turn, allows faster reconnection of the DG unit to the system after successful reclosing. For the case of unsuccessful reclosing or the case where the fault is not cleared within the set utility time set frame, the proposed scheme shuts the DG source down. The transfer impedance is selected from a variable load bank and is a function of the prefault load-sharing condition; therefore, a sensitivity survey was performed during the investigations of this paper to cover all possible system operating conditions and its corresponding transfer impedances. In the context of this paper, multiple in-depth time-domain simulations are conducted to ascertain the efficiency of the proposed scheme in mitigating the impact of DG sources on existing overcurrent protection infrastructure. Time-domain simulations have been conducted using a typical distribution network in the EMTP-RV software environment for validation purposes.

In this paper, fault location on three-terminal and tapped transmission lines without requiring line parameters is presented, which mitigates the effect of line parameter variations due to weather and loading conditions on fault-location accuracy. For three-terminal lines, a fault-location method is presented, which utilizes postfault measurements of all three terminals. For tapped lines, two methods are presented. The first one uses postfault measurements of the main two terminals. The second one needs one cycle of prefault measurements at the main terminals as well. Synchronized transient-based measurements are used in methods proposed in this paper. In all of the presented methods, the fault-location problem is converted to an optimization problem and then solved to find the line parameters and the accurate location of the fault. The simulations are carried out by alternative transients program/electromagnetic transients program (ATP/EMTP) software, and the presented algorithms are executed by MATLAB. Simulation results assess the effects of fault resistance, type, and inception angle on the accuracy of the presented methods. Further discussion is also provided on the impacts of synchronization errors, noisy measurements, and nonresistive faults.

This paper presents i) an equivalent model of the half-bridge modular multilevel converter (HB-MMC) which is suitable for real-time applications, ii) a hybrid central-processing unit/field-programmable gate array (CPU/FPGA)-based architecture for real-time simulation of electromagnetic transients of systems which include HB-MMC, and iii) a novel arrangement for sorting results referred to as the “sub-module (SM) rank list”, which tackles the bottleneck for parallel implementation of the MMC arm model solver on the FPGA. The Adam–Bashforth (AB) method is used for numerical integration of the HB-SM capacitor model. The second-order AB method provides a constant admittance matrix of the HB-MMC and, thus, reduces computational burden while offering the same accuracy as that of the widely used Trapezoidal method. The CPU/FPGA-based architecture is optimized to obtain maximum parallelism of the HB-MMC model implementation, adopting a standard, single-precision, floating-point computational engine. The proposed sorting arrangement is independent of the utilized sorting algorithm and its application to the odd–even bubble sorting scheme is presented in this paper. The proposed architecture offers a simulation time-step of 825 ns while including the sorting module as the SM capacitor voltage-balancing control unit. This enables accurate analysis of MMC controls based on either software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop approaches. Performance and accuracy of the MMC model and the hybrid CPU/FPGA-based architecture are evaluated based on a set of case studies on a 401-level HB-MMC-based HVDC station and verified based on offline simulation results in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment.

Two key problems in meshed high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission grids are managing line power flows and protection against dc faults. Current flow controllers (CFCs) will be required to balance cable currents in meshed dc grids, in order to prevent individual line power capacity limits restricting overall power flow in the grid. Direct current circuit breakers (DCCBs) will be also required to protect HVDC grids from dc faults. This paper demonstrates that the current flow controller functionality can be added into a hybrid CB's design. This paper proposes integrating an interline CFC into the load commutation switch (LCS) of a hybrid DCCB. The integrated design LCS/CFC is analyzed and a state-space model is derived. The control of the CFC is designed and the performance of the LCS/CFC during normal operation is verified by means of MATLAB Simulink and PSCAD simulations. A comparison of the integrated LCS/CFC and the separate design is given. The case studies show a reduction in total power losses, and improved protection operation times can be achieved.

Power-electronic sources, such as Type 3 wind turbine generators and static synchronous compensators (STATCOM), interface to the grid through, partial- or full-scale, and power converters that have inherently fast switching capability to control their output current during short circuits. The short-circuit current is a function of the specific converter control algorithm and differs significantly from the conventional rotating machine sources without converter interfaces. Therefore, if a transmission-line protection scheme is designed for conventional sources, (not taking into account these differences in short-circuit current characteristics), reliability can be at risk. Using real-life short-circuit currents on lines supplied by sources having a power converter interface, this paper illustrates the reliability risk to conventional line protection schemes, in particular, to those which use negative-sequence quantities for the detection of unbalanced faults. This paper discusses the protection schemes, adopted by BC Hydro–a large Canadian Electric Utility, for transmission lines interconnecting Type 3 wind turbine and STATCOM sources. Their application for ground faults is independent of the converter control algorithm as long as the source is interconnected to the grid via a transformer which is a source of zero-sequence current.

Locating a fault in a series-capacitor-compensated transmission line (SCCTL) is a challenging task due to the action of a metal-oxide varistor a nonlinear element present as a part of the protection system of the series capacitor. In this paper, an accurate fault-location algorithm that uses synchronized measurements from both ends of the SCCTL is presented which provides fault-location results without using the model of MOV or natural fault loop for single-phase-to-ground, and double-phase-to-ground faults. Another salient feature of the proposed technique is that the subroutines for locating faults in different sections transmission line yield almost identical fault-location results regardless of which section the transmission line is faulted. The proposed technique could also be extended to the double-circuit transmission lines. First, the proposed technique is introduced and its features are elaborated through detailed mathematical analysis. Thereafter, a 500- $\text{kV}$ system with an SCCTL is designed in PSCAD, while the fault-location algorithm is modeled in MATLAB. The proposed algorithm is tested through simulations covering various fault scenarios in an SCCTL. For performance evaluation, the comparative analysis of the proposed technique with a well-known existing technique is performed in this paper.

In this paper, the finite-elements method was used to analyze the approximation being typically used in the international standards for the calculation of the touch voltage, appearing at earth faults in power networks. The calculations in this paper were performed on the series of earthing systems applied in practice and the results are compared with the results of the widely accepted approximate method from standards. The origin of discrepancy in the results is analyzed and evaluated. The outcome of this paper is the justification of the application of Thevenin's theorem and the development of the higher accuracy equations for the resistance between feet and remote earth in case of the application of high resistivity additional surface material.

Series compensated transmission lines challenge legacy protection schemes. In this paper, a dynamic state estimation based protection (EBP) method is proposed to address these challenges. The method requires GPS synchronized measurements at both ends of the line and a high-fidelity model of the protection zone. The paper presents the dynamic model of the protection zone and its impact on the performance of the protection scheme. Numerical simulations show that the method can correctly identify faults, independently of position and type. The paper also compares the proposed method versus legacy protection functions such as distance protection and line differential protection. The comparison shows faster detection of internal faults, immunity to current inversion caused by series capacitors (SCs) and improved detection sensitivity for high-impedance faults.

Condition monitoring of circuit-breaker (CB) operating mechanisms is one the most important aspects of predictive maintenance. This paper proposes a contact force monitoring scheme for 10 $\sim$ 35-kV vacuum CB. With specially designed force sensors and a signal-processing method, we can accurately find the instants of contact touch and separation. With the indirectly measured contact touch-and-separation instants, we can measure the opening speed, closing speed, and open gap over the travel of each phase. The accuracy of our online monitoring scheme is compared with the conventional offline methods that can directly obtain the instants of contact touch and separation by measuring the connectivity of the contacts. The results show that the accuracy of the scheme proposed in this paper is satisfactory and it can meet the engineering requirements of online condition monitoring of CBs. By introducing a set of new force sensors, some additional information that is useful for overall condition assessment of CB operating mechanism can also be extracted; this will help us to find new ways to improve our CB condition monitoring systems.

Several methods have been proposed and investigated so far on mitigation of very fast transient overvoltages (VFTO) in gas-insulated switchgear (GIS). The state-of-the-art methods are primarily based on dissipation of the energy associated with electromagnetic waves that the VFTO originate from and are composed of. Present paper reports on an alternative concept of VFTO mitigation based on the principle of controlling voltage conditions preceding voltage breakdown in SF6 gas that leads to VFTO generation. The paper introduces different control algorithms and shows how the algorithms can limit VFTO maximum value and total number of voltage breakdowns during operation of the GIS disconnector. The concept is applied for mitigation of VFTO in ultra-high voltage GIS. As the study case, an 1100 kV test set-up is used as recently reported for Wuhan (China) GIS station, with the disconnector characteristics obtained from 1100 kV development tests.

This paper focuses on estimating the substation grounding resistance to improve the modeling of geomagnetically induced currents (GICs). Grounding resistances are not included in the standard power flow models, and their approximate values are often used for performing GIC studies. This paper provides an algorithm to estimate the resistances from the GIC measurements. This algorithm calculates the linear sensitivity factors of the GICs around the local grounding resistive components and uses linear regression to solve for the resistances. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated using both a small test case as well as a 62 500-bus model of the North American Eastern Interconnection.

For the fast transient study of power transformers, several types of models are available that can be categorized into three groups: white box models, black box models, and gray box models. The identification of their parameters and their usages make the models different. Since white and black box models cannot cover certain cases, such as the failure analysis of a transformer with unknown geometrical data, a new type of model has recently become important for industry and academic researchers. This model, called the gray box model, is intensely analyzed in the current paper, both theoretically and experimentally. The gray box model conceptually lies between the black and white box models. The outcomes of this work have been verified using a suitable test object. The parameter identification of the model is performed by artificial methods. Some useful new ideas, including applying the Weibull Distribution function in inductance estimation and employing an exponential function for the series resistance of windings, are developed in this paper. The number of unknown parameters to be identified in the gray box model is reduced by applying these ideas, which makes the model more simple and feasible.

This paper presents a system which predicts the grounding topologies of grounding systems (GS) with one, two, three, or four ground rods in straight line, when no prior information about the grounding topology, soil or rod properties is given. This is achieved through the exploration of the information contained into the impulse response of the GS together with the pattern recognition framework. The proposed system is composed by four main elements, an excitation system, a high-speed data acquisition system, a feature extraction, and a pattern recognition model. Experimental setup comprises the evaluation of the accuracy of the proposed system in discriminating among four grounding configurations, composed by the topologies of one, two, three, and four ground rods in straight line. This paper also proposes a new data driven approach to improve the classification performance, in pattern classification models, when dealing with undersampling problem in the acquired signal used to extract the features.

During monopolar operation or commissioning of high-voltage direct-current (HVdc) links, ground-return current (GRC) leads to power transformer dc bias issues. A GRC model is proposed in this paper, and the penetration depth, penetration ratio, and earth surface potential of various earth models are simulated. The result indicates that the influence of deep earth resistivity increases rapidly by the increasing distance from substations to HVdc electrodes. The simulation results are compared with measured data of GRCs distribution in the Hubei power grid of China. The result demonstrates that the simulation considering deep earth resistivity is credible and the shallow earth model could lead to poor accuracy. Furthermore, earth resistivity measurements are carried out at different geological regions and the deep earth characteristics and the GRCs distribution are quite different. Thus, it can be concluded that to calculate GRCs distribution using uniform earth structure without measurement is not appropriate. Finally, the relationship between accurately measured earth depth and the accuracy ratio of GRCs calculation is analyzed. The result of this paper contributes to determine the depth of earth model in GRCs simulation modeling and earth resistivity measurements.

This paper proposes a flexible neutral grounding method based on electromagnetic hybrid Petersen coil (EHPC), which consists of a magnetically controlled reactor and an active power compensator (APC). Under normal conditions, the system's neutral point grounds through a reactor of high reactance. When a single line-to-earth fault occurs, the EHPC can be controlled flexibly to suppress the recovery voltage of faulty phase and to reduce the ground-fault current to almost zero. This paper expounds the two operating modes and corresponding characteristics, the measuring method of insulation parameters of the system (mainly including capacitance to earth and leakage resistance), and the full compensation principle for arc suppression based on the equivalent negative impedance of EHPC. This paper also proposes a compound control method of neutral-to-earth impedance based on neutral-point displacement voltage and a compensating method for the harmonic component of the ground-fault current. Compared to traditional grounding methods, this method can be fast and reliably make the residual current approach almost zero without arc reignition while greatly reducing the output capacity of APC and, thus, decreasing the cost of this device. Simulations and experiments verify the correctness of this measuring method and feasibility of this flexible grounding control strategy.

This paper presents an improved solution of the implicitly coupled electromechanical and electromagnetic transient analysis problem using a frequency-dependent network equivalent (FDNE). In previous work, the fundamental frequency equivalent was used as the network equivalent of the external system. While simple, this fundamental frequency equivalent is only accurate for a single frequency, the fundamental frequency. This may lead to an inaccurate equivalent of the transient stability (TS) network. This paper extends previous work by using an FDNE derived from the vector-fitting technique. The FDNE is able to resolve the transient behavior over a wider frequency spectrum leading to a more accurate representation of the TS network. Results demonstrating the accuracy of the proposed scheme are presented on a 3-bus test system and the IEEE 118-bus system.

Resonance and harmonic phenomena can occur when HVDC and Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System devices are inserted into ac grids. Frequency response analysis and electromagnetic transient (EMT) type simulations of converter stations are essential for analyzing and preventing negative effects. This paper presents two approaches for deriving the high frequency response of a converter station: using simplified analytical representation and accurate EMT-type model. Validations with control parameter impacts are presented. This paper also presents a test case, based on a recent HVdc project, where potential resonances can occur between the converter station and its ac network. It is demonstrated analytically that these resonances are mainly due to control system parameters and ac network configurations.

This paper proposes a novel bipolar modular multilevel converter (MMC) topology with dc fault ride-through capability. The proposed bipolar MMC topology is a hybrid of two types of arms: the half-bridge submodule (HBSM)-based arms (HBSM-arms) which are connected to the ground pole, and the unipolar-voltage full-bridge submodule (UFBSM)-based arms (UFBSM-arms) which are connected to the positive or negative pole. During a pole-to-ground or pole-to-pole dc fault, the hybrid-arm design offers the proposed UFBSM-based hybrid-arm bipolar MMC (UHA-BMMC) the capability to provide additional reactive power to support the ac grid while blocking the dc fault current. The topology, operation principle, dc fault mechanisms, and dc fault ride-through scheme of the UHAB-MMC are presented in this paper. Compared with other possible bipolar MMC topologies, the UHA-BMMC provides good dc fault ride-through capability with a small cost of power-electronic devices. The validity and features of the proposed UHA-BMMC are verified by simulation results conducted in PSCAD/EMTDC.

In this paper, a new adaptive single-phase reclosing method for high-voltage transmission lines is proposed. This method employs local voltage magnitude and angle of the faulted phase. It is shown in this paper that the proposed method is able to quickly identify the fault type and the arc extinction if the fault is transient. This method is effective for various system configurations, including ideally and partially transposed transmission lines, untransposed lines, as well as transmission lines with or without a shunt reactor. Superior performance of the proposed method has been verified using 550 case studies simulated in PSCAD and Matlab and a real case related to a 765-kV transmission line.

This paper describes a systematic method for determining an area of vulnerability (AOV) to fault induced voltage sags. The concept of an AOV is very useful for evaluating vulnerability and the relationship between sensitive loads and system voltage sag performance. In general, a system performance assessment pertaining to voltage sags requires a determination of AOVs for system buses. Because voltage sags can be caused by remote faults in a transmission system, to completely identify an AOV, a large part of the power system including adjacent circuits and remote supply systems should be considered. Therefore, accurately calculating critical points and identifying AOVs are challenging tasks. In this paper, we present an effective numerical method to determine an accurate AOV in a large scale power system and to overcome limitations of other well-known methods.

An effective computational tool for the simulation and design of voltage dividers has been realized. It takes advantage of a finite-element procedure for the accurate computation of the divider stray capacitances. These latter are then the input of a circuit solver procedure based on the modified node potential technique, which provides the divider frequency response. Furthermore, a test divider has been set up for the purpose of the tool validation. A very good agreement has been found between measured and computed results. This paper highlights that a correct representation of the resistors is necessary in the finite-element method (FEM) model, during the computation of the stray parameters. This issue has been clarified for the first time in this paper. In addition, a comparison between the FEM and boundary-element method has been carried out before the implementation of the numerical code, stating the superior effectiveness of FEM. The computational tool has been finally tested on a real voltage divider. Good results have been found in terms of computational accuracy. Limited discrepancies between measured and computed results have been found up to 10 kHz, with 5.7% for the scale factor and less than 24 mrad for the phase error.

As the key equipment of ultra-high-voltage direct-current (UHVDC) transmission systems, the converter valve would bear different forms of overvoltage. Consequently, a wideband model for the $\pm $ 1100 kV UHVDC converter valve is essential for the converter system to make overvoltage analysis, insulation design, and electromagnetic disturbance prediction. This paper proposed a wideband modeling method for the $\pm $ 1100 kV converter valve. First, the physics-based wideband model for the key component in the converter valve module is built, of which the parameters could be obtained through genetic algorithm. Second, the parasitic capacitances are obtained through a simplified boundary-element method according to the given structure of the $\pm $ 1100 kV converter valve. By combining wideband models for key components in the converter valve module and the parasitic capacitances of the valve tower, the integrated wideband model for the converter valve could be obtained. The systematic modelling method proposed in this paper could also be of reference value to the modelling of other large-scale complex high-voltage power-electronic equipment. Finally, the experiments for converter valve module and converter tower are carried out, and the corresponding results justified the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed wideband model for the converter valve tower.

This paper proposes a frequency-based synchronization control (FSC) approach for the voltage-sourced converter in rectification and inversion modes of an HVDC station that is connected to a weak ac grid. Similar to the conventional vector current control (VCC) approach, FSC includes a conventional phase-locked loop (PLL), and its outer loop controller generates the current reference for the inner loop. Different from VCC, the inner loop of FSC utilizes a supplementary frequency-based control loop to provide damping for the oscillations due to the PLL and generates the angle/magnitude for the converter ac-side voltage. The inner loop of FSC switches to VCC to limit over-current during fault scenario. This paper develops a linearized dynamic model of VSC-HVDC station, analytically evaluates behavior of the FSC dynamics, and validates the results based on time-domain simulation studies in the PSCAD platform. The eigenanalysis and simulation results show that FSC can effectively mitigate the instability issues of the PLL even under very weak ac grid condition.