Transient Recovery Voltage simulation for a 500 kV power breaker

Abstract

Power systems are frequently exposed to configuration changes due to either disturbances or system switching, which produce dangerous over voltages and over currents. One of the most important components in an electric power system are the circuit breakers, which perform the important function of disconnecting equipment either due to a failure in the system or to execute programmed switching for maintenance for example (Lazzarri & De Morais, 2023). Transient Recovery Voltage (TRV) analysis is a type of electromagnetic study designed to prove if a circuit breaker can withstand switching transients (Filipovic-Grcic, et al., 2023).  As a phenomenon, the TRV is defined as the voltage present between contacts of a circuit breaker while interrupting an electrical current. This paper shows a case study to analyze the TRV in a circuit breaker using the simulator ATPDraw (Bonneville Power Administration, 2012). Different cases are simulated in order to identify the severity of each one. The results show that single phase fault causes a more severe TRV than three phase fault and that, for the system analized, a grading capacitor was not useful to reduce the TRV.