Effect of shield placement for transient voltage mitigation due to switching surges in a 33/11 kV transformer windings

PLoS One. 2020 Oct 9;15(10):e0240368. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240368. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

This study presents an investigation on the effect of shield placement for mitigation of transient voltage in a 33/11 kV, 30 MVA transformer due to Standard Switching Impulse (SSI) and Oscillating Switching Impulse (OSI) surges. Generally, the winding and insulation in transformers could experience severe voltage stress due to the external impulses i.e. switching events. Hence, it is important to examine the voltage stress and identify the mitigation action i.e. shield placements in order to reduce the adverse effect to the transformer windings. First, the resistances, inductances, and capacitances (RLC) were calculated for disc type transformer in order to develop the winding RLC equivalent circuit. The SSI and OSI transient voltage waveforms were applied to the High Voltage (HV) winding whereby the transient voltages were simulated for each disc. The resulting voltage stresses were mitigated through different configurations of electrostatic shield placements. The resonant oscillations generated due to switching surges were analysed through initial voltage distribution. The analyses on the transient voltages of the transformer winding and standard error of the slope (SEb) reveal that the location of shield placement has a significant effect on the resonant switching voltages. The increment of the shield number in the windings does not guarantee optimize mitigation of the resonant switching transient voltages. It is found that the voltage stress along the windings is linear once a floating shield is placed between the HV and Low Voltage (LV) windings of the disc-type transformer under the SSI and OSI waveforms. These findings could assist the manufacturers with appropriate technical basis for mitigation of the transformer winding against the external transient switching overvoltage surges.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Simulation
  • Electric Capacitance
  • Electric Impedance
  • Electric Power Supplies*
  • Equipment Design
  • Static Electricity

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Universiti Putra Malaysia PUTRA Berimpak in the form of a grant awarded to NA (GPB/2017/9570300) and the Ministry of Higher Education FRGS scheme awarded to NA (FRGS/1/2019/TK07/UPM/02/3) (03-01-19-2071FR). TNB Research Sdn. Bhd also provided support in the form of a salary for MAT. The specific roles of this author are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.