2018 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATION OF POWER, ENERGY, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION (ICCPEIC)
Estimation and Analysis of VFTO at Various
Locations in 132kV GIS Substation.
Sharique Bamne
Electrical Engineering Department
Sardar Patel College of Engineering
Mumbai, India
shariquebamne@gmail.com
Abstract- Gas Insulated Switchgear Substation (GIS Substation)
has high reliability, easy maintenance, less area requirement etc.
Due to this, it has found wide range of application in power
system sector over last few decades. But the unique problem with
GIS substation is generation and propagation of very fast
transient overvoltage (VFTO) due to switching operation of
circuit breaker, disconnector switches or due to earth faults. The
generated VFTO causes stress on the insulation of equipment’s
like power transformer, bushings, spacers etc. connected to the
GIS. The origin of VFTO, its propagation and impacts on GIS
have been discussed in this paper. In this paper the components
of 132 kV GIS substation is modelled more accurately and
considered for simulation. Electromagnetic Transient Program
(EMTP-RV) software is used for the simulation for various
switching condition. The variation in VFTO magnitude along the
GIS bus nodes for different magnitudes of trapped charge has
been studied. The VFTO peak along the GIS bus nodes during
circuit breaker operation and disconnector operation is
compared. The results show that VFTO magnitudes are higher
along the GIS bus nodes in case of circuit breaker operation as
compared to disconnector switch operation. The results also show
that the increase of trapped charge on the line increases the
VFTO levels.
Keywords- EMTP-RV, VFTO, GIS Substation, Trapped Charge.
I. INTRODUCTION
In past few decades there has been a growing demand
for installing gas insulated substation (GIS), due to several
advantages over conventional air insulated substation(AIS).
Some advantages are higher personal and operational safety,
978-1-5386-2447-0/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Nandkishor Kinhekar
Electrical Engineering Department
Sardar Patel College of Engineering
Mumbai, India
n_kinhekar@spce.ac.in
easy installation, maintenance and commissioning. GIS
requires approximately 10% of the area of the conventional
AIS.
Despite these advantages, the GIS has its own unique
problems. These problems include generation of very fast
transient overvoltage (VFTO). VFTO’s are generated during
switching operations of circuit breaker and disconnetor switch
within GIS. These VFTO generated have a very short rise time
and followed by oscillations having high frequencies. The
range of short rise time is of 4-100ns [1]. According to IEC
standard VFTO belongs to the category of highest range of
frequencies (30kHz to 100MHz).
VFTO has detrimental impacts on equipment connected in
substation and causes undesired effect on high voltage
equipment such as power transformer, which is the most
important asset in substation. As dominant frequencies of
VFTO are in the range of few megahertz, they may coincide
with the natural frequency of power transformer connected to
a GIS and may cause internal resonance within the power
transformer winding resulting in possible catastrophic damage
to the power transformer.
In this paper, the VFTO at various locations in Gas Insulated
Substation for various switching operations is estimated. Also
the VFTO magnitude for circuit breaker operations in
comparison with disconnector switching operation is
investigated. The effect of different magnitude of trapped
charge on the VFTO magnitude is studied.
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 2018 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATION OF POWER, ENERGY, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION (ICCPEIC)

Fig 1. SLD of 132kV Gas Insulated Substation.

The value of kt is 50kV/ns cm. Rise time can be estimated in

range of nanoseconds due to the high breakdown field strength
II. Origin of VFTO
In GIS, VFTO’s are generated due to switching operation of of the SF6 gas of(E/P)0=860kV/cm and the GIS gas pressure
circuit breaker of disconnector switch, or by line to ground up to 0.5 MPa [3],[2].
faults. During closing of the switch in switching operation, the
distance reduces between two contacts and the electric field
III. Modelling of various GIS components for simulation.
rises between them until sparking occurs.When the voltage
Fig 1 shows the SLD 132 kV GIS substation which is
across contacts overreach breakdown voltage of gas, the first
considered for VFTO simulation. The GIS substation
reignition of arc occurs.When switch closes, the highest considered has double bus arrangement with 3 Transformers.
amplitude of voltage oscillation happens at the first arc
reignition. The voltage amplitude at the first arc reignition is A. Modelling of bus bar
given by U1 where Vn is rated voltage of the power system as Depending on the voltage rating the three phases can be
shown in eq.1 [3]. arranged in single bus bar or can be arranged in separate bus
bars..
1=23 (1)
The bus barcan be modelled by a constant parameter line with
In case of opening of switch, the behaviour is a complete velocity ‘v’ and surge impedance ‘Z’, as VFTO act likes
reversal of the closing operation.In this case, the highest travelling wave of particular velocity with refractions and
amplitude of voltage oscillation happens at the last arc reflections.
reignition. The voltage amplitude at the last arc reignition is
is the leakage time constant as shown in eq.2 [3].The bus The capacitance and inductance of GIS bus can be calculated
capacitor and leakage resistance are used to calculate the using the following formulas:
leakage time constant.
μ2πlnba (4)
2= 23 (1+exp⁡(−12 )) (2)
2πε lnba (5)
The rise time(tr) of the overvoltage resulting from strike is
given by eq.3. LC (6)

=13.3 ( )0 ℎ (3) Finally, the Surge Impedance is given by,

Where h= field utilization factor ba (7)

(E/P)0= breakdown field strength In aboce equations, ‘a’is the HV bus diameter and ‘b’ is the
inner diameter of the GIS enclosure, C is Capacitance and L is
p= gas pressure. Inductance. According to IEC 62271-4, velocity ‘v’has
value0.95times that of speed of light.
kt=Toepler spark constant
B. Modelling of Power Transformer

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It is modelled as entrance capacitance to ground [4]. Lumped

These capacitors range depends on transformer design. It is Capacitance
towards the
usually in the range of 2 to 10nF [5]. Earthing switch
ground.
C. Modelling of other components. Lumped
Capacitance
In most of the components, the capacitance dominate towards the
the other parameters because of the high frequency Lightning arrestor
ground.
characteristic of VFTO. Due to this, the main capacitance and
stray capacitance of the components must be considered for Transmission line
with distributed
VFTO study [7]. Cable parameters.
The electrical equivalentcircuit for different GIS components
is tabulated in Table 1 [8].
TABLE 1: ELECTRICAL EQUIVALENT CIRCUITS FOR IV. SIMULATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS
DIFFERENT GIS COMPONENTS [8].
A. Electromagnetic Transient Program (EMTP-RV) is
used for the simulation. The VFTO magnitude along the GIS
bus nodes for circuit breaker operation and disconnectorswitch
Models
operation is investigated.

Components The following cases are considered:

Equivalent circuit Notes
1. Circuit breaker 1 (CB1) Operates (closes at 2 μs.)
2. Disconnector switch (DS1) operates when CB1 is
Transmission line
with distributed open
Bus bar parameters
The VFTO waveforms for the disconnector switch and circuit
breaker switching operation at various nodes are shown in fig
In Closed Position
2 and 3 respectively.
Transmission line
withdistributed
parameters.

Capacitance of
Circuit breaker In Open Position theswitching
contactstowards
the ground
isconsidered.

In Closed Position

Transmission line
withdistributed
parameters.

Capacitance of
In Open Position (a)
theswitching
Disconnector switch contactstowards
the ground is
considered.

Lumped
Capacitance
towards the
Potential transformer
ground.

Lumped
Capacitance (b)
Spacer towards the
ground.

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Fig 4FFT analysis of VFTO at T1 terminal.

(c) In case of disconnector switch operation, the nearest node to

the disconnector switch 1(DS1) operated is DS2. In case of
Fig 2 VFTO waveform for case 1. circuit breaker operation, the closest node to the circuit
breaker 1(CB1) is T1. From the VFTO waveform it is
observed that, VFTO has steeper front and has higher
frequencies in comparison with other further nodes in GIS. As
it is displayed in fig 4 VFTO at node T1 has frequency in the
range of few megahertz.
VFTO peak magnitudeis found to be highest at node T1 in
circuit breaker operation. Its value is 2.19 pu as it is shown in
fig 2(a).VFTO peakmagnitude is found to be highest at node
DS1 in disconnector switch operation. Its value is 1.2 pu as it
is shown in fig 3(a).
It is observed that the VFTO peak magnitude are higher near
to the switching point when disconnector switch operates,
where as in when the circuit breaker operates, VFTO peak
magnitude are higher at the end of GIS and near junction of
GIS and overhead line.
(a)
In addition, with comparison between VFTO levels of circuit
breaker operation with disconnector switch operation, it is
observed that higher VFTO magnitudes occur during circuit
breaker operation.

B. Effect of trapped charge on VFTO

The trapped charge must be taken into consideration for
the estimation of VFTO stress. The quantum of trapped charge
present depends on the design of disconnector switch [6]. The
maximum trapped charge magnitude can go as high as 1.0 pu
or even 1.2 pu in the worst case [9].
(b)
The variation of VFTO magnitude for 0.5 pu and 1.0 pu of
trapped charge is investigated to understand the effect of
trapped charge on VFTO magnitudes in GIS.
The conditions considered are:
1. DS1 operates when CB 1 is open without trapped
charge.
2. DS1 operates when CB 1 is open with 0.5pu trapped
charge.
3. DS1 operates when CB 1 is open with 1.0 pu trapped
charge.
(c)
Fig 3 VFTO waveform for case 2

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Fast transient currents and voltage in the GIS," IEEE

It is concluded that VFTO peak magnitudes increases as the
trapped charge increases. But there is no proportionality
between the increased VFTO peak magnitudes and the
increased trapped charge. As well as the effect of trapped
charge on VFTO peak magnitude is higher in the line where
switch is operated.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper modelling of 132 kV gas insulated
substation is done using the EMTP-RV software. It was
observed that VFTO waveforms generated due to switching
operations have higher frequencies and steeper front near the
switching points. During circuit breaker operation, the VFTO
peak generated is higher at the end terminals (near the power
transformer terminal and near the junction of GIS and
overhead line) where the switching is done. During
disconnector switch operation VFTO peak generated is higher
near the switching point. In comparison to disconnector switch
operation, VFTO magnitudes are higher during circuit breaker
operation. The increase in the trapped charge magnitude
increases the VFTO magnitudes, but this increment is not
proportional to increase in trapped charge magnitude.
T&D Asia 2009.
[6] S. A. Boggs F. Y. Chu N. Fujimoto "Disconnect
Switch Induced Transient and Trapped charge in Gas
Insulated Substations", IEEE Trans. on Power
Apparatus and System, vol. 101 no. 6 pp. 3593-3602
Octobr 1982.
[7] Qing Liu, Yufeng Zhang, "Influence of Switching
conditions on Very fast transient over-voltage in 500
kV Gas Insulated Substation," IEEE 2010.
[8] P. R. Reddy J. Amarnath "Nanocrystalline to
Suppress VFTO and VFTC For 245Kv Gas Insulated
Substation", International Journal of Computer
Applications, vol. 70 no. 13 pp. 1-6 2013.
[9] "Modeling Guideling for Fast Transients", IEEE
Trans on power Delivery, vol. 11 no. 1 pp. 493-506
January 1996.
[10] J. A. Martinez P. Chowdhuri R. Irvani A. Keri D.
Povh "Modeling Guidelines for Very Fast Transient
in GIS" ,Report prepared by the very fast transient
task force of the IEEE Working Group on Modeling
and Analysis of System Transients.
[11] M. M. Rao H. S. Jain S. Rengarajan V. V. Kumar
"Estimation and Measurement of Very Fast Transient
Overvoltages (VFTO) in Gas Insulated Substation
(GIS)" Indian Institute of Science 1999.
[12] S. Yanabu H. Murase H. Aoyagi "Estimation of Fast
Transient Overvoltages in Gas Insulated Substation",
IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 5 no. 4 Nov 1990.

REFRENCES

[1] J. Martinez "Statistics Assesment of Very Fast

Transient Overvoltages in Gas Insulated
Substations", Power Engineering Society Summer
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[2] "Very Fast Transient Phenomena Associated with
Gas Insulated Substations" ,GIGRE paper, pp. 33-13
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[3] L Tiechen Z Bo "Calculation of Very Fast Transient
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[4] R. Andrew Hileman, "Insulation coordination for
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