On the Problem of Shunt Reactor Tripping during

Single- and Three-Phase Auto-Reclosing

Daniil A. Panasetsky1,2 , Alexey B. Osak1
1
Melentiev Energy Systems Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
2
Irkutsk National Research Technical University
Irkutsk, Russia
Email:[email protected]

Abstract—The application of shunt reactors (both controlled (TPAR) auto-reclosing. The resonance overvoltage may occur
and uncontrolled) on HVAC overhead transmission lines im- only during SPAR.
proves operational characteristics, but at the same time it brings
One of the most effective solutions to both problems is
the line closer to the resonance. Operation of the shunt reactor-
compensated transmission line that is close to the resonance, the resonance detuning by shutting down the shunt reactor(s)
causes a large number of problems which in particular can during TPAR and SPAR. However, as is shown below, the
be solved by temporary tripping of the reactor(s). The article tripping of the shunt reactor(s) in this situation may also be
focuses on some aspects of the SF6 shunt reactor circuit breaker fraught with difficulties, related to the possible occurrence
operations during one-phase and three-phase auto-reclosing. In
of not-breaking currents with a high content of aperiodic
particular, the problem of accident-free shunt reactor tripping,
as well as possible ways to solve it are discussed. components flowing through the CB of the reactor. And, as
Index Terms—circuit breakers, energy dissipation, power sys- will be shown later, apparently, none of the standard technical
tem simulation, short-circuit currents, transmission lines, zero solutions for linear SF6 CB can be directly applied to the
current switching. identified problem for reactor SF6 CB. Thus, the objective of
the paper can be summarized as follows:
I. INTRODUCTION 1) Attract the attention of technicians and equipment
Shunt reactors (SR) (both controlled and uncontrolled) in manufacturers. The final answer to the question about
HVAC transmission lines are applied to compensate for the the need for special measures can be provided only by
excess reactive power. Being very important components of full-scale experiments, but not by mathematical models.
electric power systems, they have to be protected against ab- If necessary it is proposed to introduce a new CB
normal conditions. From this perspective, the most crucial ele- parameter that would characterize the maximum amount
ment is a reactor circuit breaker (CB) whose failure may lead of energy that can be safely dissipated by one pole of
to serious consequences not only for the nearby equipment, the breaker.
but for the power system as a whole. The SR circuit breaker 2) Offer an alternative solution and discuss its advan-
switching characteristics depend on the installation method. tages and disadvantages. It is proposed to solve the
In [1] two most typical cases were studied and compared problem by introducing a power resistor unit into the
– installation at line terminals and at a substation busbar. circuit of the SR.
Reactors compensating the reactive power of a long HVAC
transmission line are usually switched on and off simultane- II. OPERATING FEATURES OF COMPENSATED LINES
ously with the line, their breakers are connected directly to the
line and not to the substation bus bars (Fig.1). On the one hand, Let us briefly explain the necessity for tripping the SR of
the application of SR improves operational characteristics, but the compensated transmission line during SPAR and TPAR.
on the other hand, it brings the line closer to the resonance. The degree of compensation for capacitive reactance of the
Operation of the line that is close to the resonance, causes a transmission line using the SR is defined by the following
large number of problems associated with overvoltages, and formula [3]:
with the necessity for small aperiodic current tripping. The
problem of small aperiodic current tripping is particularly
relevant for the modern SF6 circuit breakers [2], especially of
auto-compression type. The problem of small aperiodic current
tripping may occur during single-phase (SPAR) or three-phase

This work was supported by the Russian Scientific Foundation under project
“Development of an intelligent system for preventing large-scale emergencies
in power systems,” Grant No.14-19-00054. Fig. 1. The test system. 500 kV transmission line
 cross zero. This feature is evaluated as positive when
XT L disconnecting small inductive currents, because this will
K= (1)
XSRT cause the minimum overvoltages (due to the absence of
where XSRT = XSR /N is the total inductive reactance of current chopping). Sometimes this effect is enhanced by
N reactors, connected to the transmission line; XT L - total means of synchronizers [9]. However, with respect to
capacitive reactance of the transmission line. If K is close to the considered aperiodic current tripping problem, this
1 then the transmission line is close to the resonance. positive characteristic is negative, since it leads to a
Further analysis will be performed using a 500 kV transmis- prolonged arcing. Long arcing leads to the burning of
sion line, presented in Figure 1. Studies were carried out using the contacts, to the overheating of the sulfur hexafluoride
MATLAB/Simulink. In our studies we used the simplified and to the extreme increase of the pressure inside arc
grounded wye connected model of the 160 MVAR shunt re- chute. In the absence of a valve that relieves pressure,
actor with the following parameters [4]: R = 12 M Ω/phase, there is an explosive destruction of the breaker poles
L = 5.3 H/phase, r = 30 Ω/phase, C = 14 nF/phase. with damage of the surrounding equipment. Air circuit
There are two main problems associated with the discon- breaker has a surplus of air under constant pressure; it
nection of compensated lines: the problem of aperiodic current extinguishes the arc with intensity that does not depend
tripping and the problem of resonance overvoltage during on the current strength, without waiting when the current
SPAR. goes through zero.
To solve this problem the following methods can be used:
A. Aperiodic current tripping 1) Application of a synchronization device that controls
This problem is particularly relevant for the modern SF6 the moment when each phase is reclosed close to the
circuit breakers, especially of auto-compression type. It is voltage maximum [10], [11]. However, shunt reactor-
caused by the fact that the tripped currents of a compensated compensated transmission lines present an additional
line do not cross zero for a long time because of the higher complexity on the voltage waveshape across the open
aperiodic component as compared to the periodic one [5], [6]. CB [12], [13], and when 0.7 < K < 1.3, the stan-
The following conditions should be met [7]: dard controlled switching devices may not always be
1) there is at least one unfaulted phase in the compensated efficient [14].
line which is switched on only from one side; 2) Installation of closing resistors that will accelerate the
2) the phase is switched on at the point closer to voltage decay of aperiodic components. This technical solution
zero crossing; is associated with high financial cost [15], [16].
3) the phase is switched off without time delay. 3) Tripping of the reactor (reactors) during TPAR to
Such conditions may occur during unsuccessful TPAR. detune the resonance. This solution is effective from a
Figure 2 shows the transmission line currents in the case of technical viewpoint and has a low price.
two-phase-to-ground fault with unsuccessful TPAR. SR is in Thus, the shutdown of the reactor is the most appropriate
operation during the transient. In the course of reclosing the control action to deal with the problem. Figure 3 again shows
current of the unfaulted phase C does not cross zero for more
than 0.2s, which may result in damages of the circuit breaker.
This problem does not exist, for example, for air circuit
breakers. An analysis carried out by independent experts from
ABB Group [2] and from St. Petersburg [8], shows that the
reasons why tripping of SF6 CB may lead to accident can be
summarized as follows:
1) SF6 CB creates an emergency situation due to the
nature of the switch-on process. The probability of
contact closure for air CB is close to 1 near the voltage
maximum, i.e. the closing results from the air gap
breakdown . In this case the DC component of the
current is minimal. Unlike air CB, the contacts of SF6
breaker can be closed near zero voltage. This leads to a
significant DC component. This behavior is due to high
insulation properties of sulfur hexafluoride.
2) SF6 CB creates an emergency situation due to the
nature of the switch-off process. SF6 CB has closed arc
chutes wherein the intensity of arc extinction depends on
the energy of the arc defined by the breaking current. Fig. 2. Line currents. Two-phase-to-ground fault with unsuccessful
SF6 switch cannot turn off low currents until they TPAR. Without shunt reactor tripping.
the transmission line currents in the case of two-phase-to-
ground fault with unsuccessful TPAR, but this time the reactor
CB is switched off in the dead time.

B. Resonance overvoltage during SPAR

The tuning of the line close to the resonance causes over-
voltage that occurs after the extinction of the arc in the dead
time. The overvoltage leads to the restriking of the arc, which,
in turn, prevents the successful implementation of SPAR. A
detailed analysis of this phenomenon is given in [17]. Thus,
for the compensated lines the detuning of the resonance is the
only countermeasure against re-ignition of the arc. To this end
one or all three phases of the reactor should be switched off
in the dead time. Figure 4 shows the line voltages in SPAR
with and without tripping the reactor.
The analysis suggests that in practice there can be situations
Fig. 4. Line voltages during SPAR with and without tripping of the
that will need the reactor tripping during TPAR and SPAR.
reactor.
III. T HE PROBLEM
Let us turn analyse the process inside the SR CB. Consider
the following situation (Fig. 5):
1) At some time point there is a single-phase short circuit at
the beginning of the line close to the reactor (Fig.5, A).
2) Linear breakers disconnect the faulted phase from both
sides (SPAR procedure). The arc continues to burn, one
phase of the reactor is discharging to the point of fault
(Fig.5, B).
3) Directly after the disconnection of the faulted phase, the
phase of the reactor must also be switched off (Fig.5, C).
As stated above, this should be done in order to detune
the resonance and thus ensure the extinction of the arc
(Fig.4). In the case of TPAR this should be done to
prevent the damage of the line breaker during reclosing
(Fig.2).

Fig. 5. Explanatory diagram. Tripping of the SR during SPAR.

The oscillograms of phase currents and voltages of the

reactor in the considered situation are shown in Figure 6.
The closer the short circuit to the reactor, the more aperiodic
the reactor current characteristic, the larger the time constant
value, and the worse the conditions for current tripping.
The main question of the paper can be summarized as
follows. In the considered situation, is it possible to switch off
the current (with high aperiodic and low periodic components)
which flows through the reactor? In other words, is it possible
Fig. 3. Line currents. Two-phase-to-ground fault with unsuccessful to perform this operation without the reactor SF6 CB being
TPAR. SR tripping in the dead time. damaged?
 A. Full-scale experiments
To determine the range of acceptable impacts on a shunt
reactor SF6 CB, the problem can be reformulated as follows.
What is the minimum amount of energy that can be dissipated
by one pole of the CB without the breaker being damaged?
The maximum energy stored in a single phase of a SR can be
calculated using the formula:
2
Umax
Wmax = (2)
3 · ω2 · L
where Umax - maximum operating phase-to-phase voltage
(RMS); ω = 2πf0 ; L - phase inductance of the reactor.
If the experiment confirms the existence of the problem, it
is possible to introduce a new parameter (in addition to the
conventional technical characteristics of the HVAC CB) that
would characterize the maximum amount of energy which can
be dissipated by one phase of the CB without the breaker
being damaged. When selecting a CB, this parameter should
Fig. 6. Phase currents and voltages of the SR.
be compared with the value of (2). For instance, for the
considered test system (Fig.1), Wmax ≈ 0.2 M J, and only the
This question was asked to a number of equipment manu- experiment can answer the question of whether this amount
facturers. All of them replied that the final answer will need of energy can damage the SR CB.
a series of expensive full-scale experiments. Finally we were B. Temporary introduction of resistors into the neutral of SR
asked to consider one of the following solutions:
Initially, the introduction of resistors into the circuit of
1) Closing resistors. This option has the following disad- SR was proposed in [7] to solve the problem of aperiodic
vantages. First, currently closing resistors are made only current tripping (Fig.2). In the normal state the resistors are
for linear, but not for the SR CB. Second, as a rule, the bypassed by low voltage CB installed in the neutral (Fig.7).
closing resistor is put into operation only when CB is If necessary, the resistors are temporarily put into operation
switched on, but in our case, the resistor must be put thereby improving the quality of transients. Let us show
into operation when CB is switched off. In addition, as that the same approach can be used to improve SR tripping
noted above, the price of the resistor is quite significant, conditions during TPAR and SPAR.
but the need for its use in our case is not fully justified. The resistance of the power resistor unit is determined by
Also, it should be noted that it is unacceptable to install the insulation level of the SR neutral:
both a closing resistor and a synchronization device in
CB. However, the latter would be useful to improve the U ·R
p max ≤ UN (3)
transients during normal operation or emergency control 3 (R + X 2 )
2
switching.
2) Introduction of a delay before the tripping shunt where Umax - maximum operating phase-to-phase voltage of
reactor CB. This measure will reduce the aperiodic the SR (RMS); R - resistance of power resistor unit; X - SR
current, and in the delay time most of the energy, stored phase reactance; UN - insulation level of the neutral.
in the SR, will dissipate. This solution has the following
disadvantage. If the delay is too long, it may be difficult
to guarantee that SPAR procedure will be successful,
due to the resonance overvoltage to occur (Fig.4). Thus,
the delay should be combined with a means accelerating
the dissipation of the energy stored in SR.
None of the proposed solutions can answer all the questions.
The problem remains unsolved.

IV. WAYS OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM

The following solutions to the problem can be proposed:
1) Full-scale experiments for the identification of a range
of acceptable impacts on the SR CB. Fig. 7. Explanatory diagram. Connection of power resistor units to
2) Temporary introduction of resistors into the SR neutral. the circuit of shunt reactor.
 For the equipment of 500 kV the typical insulation level price of the necessary 35kV circuit breaker installed in the
of the neutral is 35 kV. Thus, for the considered test system neutral (Fig.7).
(Fig.1), Rmax ≈ 200 Ω. Taking into account the possibility of Disadvantages. Due to the introduction of resistors, tripping
resonance overvoltage (if arc extinguished before the reactor of the reactor should be delayed. For the considered test system
is tripped off) we can finally take R = 150 Ω. Figure 8 shows the delay should be about 0.05-0.1 sec. Note that the minimum
the current of the SR faulted phase during SPAR with and duration of the dead time during SPAR is about 0.8-0.9 sec.
without temporary introduction of a 150 Ω power resistor. It is likely that even if the delay is taken into account, the
Maximum energy consumed by the power resistor is deter- SR will be switched off before the arc is extinguished and the
mined by the SR maximum current flow: overvoltage occurs. The minimum duration of the dead time
during TPAR is about 0.3-0.4 sec. and there is no overvoltage
2
Umax ·R·t after the arc extinction. Hence, it is guaranteed that the reactor
WRN = (4)
3 (R2 + X 2 ) will switch off before reclosing. Thus, despite the fact that the
disconnection process is slightly extended in time, the delay
where Umax - maximum operating phase-to-phase voltage of will not affect the reliability of the relay protection operation.
the SR (RMS); R - resistance of power resistor unit; X - SR However, it should be noted that the delay alone without the
phase reactance; t - operation time of the resistor. introduction of resistors cannot be considered as an adequate
Advantages. The proposed solution is universal. It allows measure.
solving not only the possible problem of SR tripping during
SPAR and TPAR, but also the problem of aperiodic current V. CONCLUDING REMARKS
tripping. At the same time, its implementation cost is lower in
The research has demonstrated that on the one hand switch-
comparison with the cost of preinsertion resistors. The reason
ing of shunt reactor during single and three-phase auto-
for this is that the closing resistors are installed on the high
reclosing is an effective measure for the resonance detuning,
voltage side of the SR (built into the CB), and their price
but on the other hand, this measure may be associated with
is determined by the need to ensure the thermal stability in
some difficulties. As the computer simulations prove, tempo-
case of a close fault on the high voltage side. Maximum
rary introduction of power resistors into the neutral of SR
energy consumed by the closing resistor is determined by the
will resolve not only the problem of shunt reactor tripping
following equation:
during SPAR and TPAR, but also the aperiodic current tripping
2
Umax ·t problem. Only full-scale experiments but not mathematical
WR = (5) models can give the final answer to the questions posed in
R
the paper.
where Umax - maximum operating phase-to-phase voltage of
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