Inter national J our nal of P o wer Electr onics and Dri v e Systems (IJPEDS) V ol. 12, No. 4, December 2021, pp. 1953 1965 ISSN: 2088-8694, DOI: 10.11591/ijpeds.v12.i4.pp1953-1965 r 1953 Series F A CTS contr ollers in industrial lo w v oltage electrical distrib ution netw orks f or r educing fault curr ent le v els V ishnu Charan Thippana 1 , Ali v elu Manga P arimi 2 , Chandram Karri 3 1 Deputy General manager , T ata Projects, Hyderabad, T elang ana, India 2 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, Hyderabad, T elang ana, India 3 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, BITS Pilani, Goa campus, GO A, India Article Inf o Article history: Recei v ed Jun 18, 2020 Re vised Mar 26, 2021 Accepted Aug 28, 2021 K eyw ords: F A CTS F ault current Lo w v oltage switchgear Motor control centre Static synchronous series compensator Th yristor control series capacitor ABSTRA CT In this paper , series Fle xible A C transmission systems (F A CTS) de vices lik e Th yristor control series capacitor (TCSC) and Static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) with designed control logic used to reduce the f ault current located in L V distrib ution netw ork at the L V b usbar . The electrical distrib ution netw ork in small and medium scale industries such as steel plants, process and po wer plant s is through lo w v oltage switchgear (L VS) fed from motor control centre (MCC) switchgear through step do wn transformer of 11kV or 33kV /415V . The designed switchgear in the L V side for these utilities usually is at 50kA. Ho we v er , the process loads are continuously increasing and sustained with additional feeders with the e xisting switchgear . Consequently , the f ault current at the b usbar of the switchgear increases which may require the replacement of entire switchgear to the ne w design f ault current. Ho we v er , upgrading the e xisting switchgear is not a n economical solution to the industries. Alternati v ely reducing the f ault current at the b us bar is feasible. Controller design implemented for reducing the short circuit current with series F A CTS de vices. A study carried on 800MW Thermal po wer plant Ash handling L VS in ET AP and Matlab . It is observ ed that the results are encouraging to use series F A CTS de vices ef fecti v ely in the L VS. This is an open access article under the CC BY -SA license . Corresponding A uthor: Chandram Karri Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering BITS Pilani, Goa campus GO A, India Email: chandramk2006@gmail.com 1. INTR ODUCTION Industrial plants are fed from 33 kV/11 kV utilities feeder and v oltage is step do wn through a dist ri- b ution transformer to lo w v oltage (L V) of 415 V . This v oltage is pro vided to dif ferent process loads from load centers through motor control centre (MCC) and switchgear arrangement consisting of circuit break ers, fuses, protection equipment, and metering boards. The transformers supply to the L V panel which distrib utes po wer to the total demand of the group of loads in the industries as sho wn in Figure 1. A short-circuit or f ault current rating determines the interrupting capability of the switchgear and the mechanical strength of the bracing and support systems. The load b us f ault current mainly depends on impedance and load currents of source transformer . Switchgear f ault le v el and distrib ution transformer impedance are sized to meet the designed f ault le v el of 50 kA under normal loading conditions. Ho we v er , loads of industries and capacities of the Plants are e xpanding as per the demand in the Indian mark et. Due J ournal homepage: http://ijpeds.iaescor e .com Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1954 r ISSN: 2088-8694 to addition of loads the b us f ault current will increase be yond of designed v al ue of 50 kA. A consequence of increased f ault is sho wn in Figure 2. Figure 1. Lo w v oltage side electrical distrib ution system with and without F A CTS de vice Figure 2. Ef fect of f ault current on switchgear Thus the electrical distrib ution netw ork is to be readjusted without ef fecting e xisting circuit designed parameters. As a general industrial practice, plant o wners recommend to replace the switchgear to meet the f ault current le v el and occasionally the source transformer should be upgraded. Fle xible A C transmission systems (F A CTS) [1], [2] de vices ha v e been implemented and follo wing are some research papers describing the methodology for reduction of f ault current. 2. LITERA TURE SUR VEY F A CTS [3] de vices can re gulate acti v e and reacti v e po wer as well as v oltage magnitude. Pl acement of these de vices in suitable locat ion can lead to the control of the po wer flo w , b us v oltage and short circuit [3]. characteristics of a f ault current limiter wit h series compensation is pro vided in [4]. UPFC [5], [6] is a series and shunt combination F A CTS de vice, and it is applicable for high v oltage lines. F ault current limiter is used in 11 kV and 3.3 kV system, and it is not an F A CTS de vice it is a nonlinear reactor added in a circuit to limit the f ault current as this reactor is added in series with the circuit there is a v oltage drop. F or compensating v oltage static v ar compensation (SVC) is connected parallel to the circuit. Static Synchronous Series Compensator [7]- [9] has been used for f ault current limit. A no v el h ybrid current-limiting circuit break er for medium v oltage is presented in [10], [11]. Solid-state ci rcuit break ers and current limiters are used in [12]. A series compensator with f ault current limiting function is gi v en in [13]. F ault current limiter by series connected v oltage source in v erter is pro vided in [14]. A series connected VSC [15] has b e en used for limiting the f ault current. a Ne w Dual Functional Series Compensator [16] is applied to limit short circuit current. In this paper , P article sw arm optimisation [17] method as proposed to find optimal location with short circuit le v el and losses. Optimal location can be deri v ed based on losses, as short circuit mainly depends on loading of the line and source, with this approach short circuit limit is not clearly described and also in this grid netw ork is proposed for lo w v oltage Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst, V ol. 12, No. 4, December 2021 : 1953 1965 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst ISSN: 2088-8694 r 1955 distrib ution application is not discussed in this approach. Cascaded H-bridge distrib ution-static synchronous series compensator [18] has been deplo yed for finding the short circuit current.V arious adv antages of TCSC discussed [19] i nterms of po wer flo w control and f ault current reduction. F A CTS based f ault current limiter is used in thermal po wer netw ork, and de vice used in this paper is th yristor protected series capacitor (TPSC) based short circuit current limiter (SCCL) [20]. In this paper SCCL is connected in 400 kV and 230 kV v oltage le v el. And results are compared with 50kA short circui t limit. TCSC wil l be used for both po wer flo w controller as well as short circuit limiter during f aults. Unified po wer flo w controller (UPFC) is used as f ault current limiter [21], in this approach predefined impedance are added series to the line to limit the f ault current. F ault Current Limiter and SVC are used for short circuit c u r ret analysis in [22].Inter line po wer flo w controller (IPFC) w as used to reduce f ault current [23], [24] in this tw o parallel operation of transformer considered to apply IPFC in a circuit. 2.1. Obser v ations and moti v ation Distrib ution static series compensator (DSSC) is used as a f ault current limiter in distrib ution l ine along with shunt connected ST A TCOM. DSSC and ST A TCOM is used to reduce the v oltage during the f ault condition. As per abo v e dif ferent research papers described, f ault current limitation of series F A CTS de vices are more ef fecti v e in high v oltage and me d i um v oltage le v els. In this paper utilization of series F A CTS de vices in 415V distri b ut ion for limiting f ault current belo w design f ault current v alue is described with pre-defined f ault current settings controller as per Indian standards. And also this paper describes the location of series F A CTS de vices in L V switchgear for ef fecti v e control of acti v e and reacti v e po wer control in addition to f ault current limitation. 2.2. Contrib utions Series F A CTs de vices are modelled in ET AP and MA TLAB. Controller design is implemented for reducing the short circuit current. The control strate gy with series F A CTs de vices ha v e been applied to 800 MW Thermal po wer plant Ash handling unit. Simulation results are pro vided. 2.3. Or ganization The series F A CTS controllers ha v e been de v eloped in ET AP and MA TLAB. The rest of the article is as follo ws: section 2 pro vides the information of series F A CTs de vices such as TCSC and SSSC, mathematical modelling of these de vices are gi v en in section 3, controller design for TCSC and SSSC are gi v en section 4, case studies are pro vided in section 5 and finally conclusions are gi v en in the last section. 3. SERIES F A CTS CONTR OLLER T w o series F A CTS controller named TCSC and SSSC are described in this paper . Characteristics of F A CTS de vice are described as sho wn in, 3.1. Th yristor contr ol series capacitor (TCSC) Th yristor control series capacitor (TCSC) is sho wn in Figure 3. Figure 3. TCSC schematic diagram F or achie ving continuous control through the series compensation, th yristor control reactor (TCR) is used in parallel with fix ed capacitor . The TCSC is connected in series with the load circuit to obtain desired Series F A CTS contr oller s in industrial low volta g e electrical distrib ution ... (V ishnu Char an Thippana) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1956 r ISSN: 2088-8694 v oltage rating and operating characteristi cs. The basic requirement of TCSC scheme is to pro vide a contin- uously v ariable capacitance by means of partially cancelling the ef fecti v e compensating capacitance by the TCR.The TCR at the fundamental system frequenc y is a continuously v ariable reacti v e impedance, control- lable by delay angle , the steady state impedance of the TCSC is that of a parallel LC circuit, consisting of a fix ed capaciti v e impedance, X C , and a v ariable inducti v e impedance, X L ( ) , that is sho wn in (1). X T C S C ( ) = X C X L ( ) X L ( ) X C (1) The delay angle measured from the crest of the capacitor v ol tage. The TCSC thus presents a tunable parallel LC circuit to the line current that is substantially a constant altering current source. As the impedance of the controlled reactor , X L ( ) ,is v aried from its maximum (infinity) to w ards its minimum ! L , the TCSC increases its minimum capaciti v e impedance, X T C S C ;min = X C = 1 ! C (this mode is kno wn as capaciti v e compensation). Decreasing X L ( ) further , the impedance of the TCSC, becomes inducti v e. Therefore with the usual TCSC arrangement in which the impedance of the TCR reactor is smaller than that of the capacitor . The characteristics [11], [12] of TCSC are sho wn in Figure 4. When e v er a f ault appears in the system, TCSC senses the lo w v oltage and firing angle mode changes to operate in inducti v e re gion to add additional impedance in the circuit. Figure 4. Characteristics of TCSC 3.2. Static synchr onous series compensator (SSSC) The SSSC is a series com p e nsation de vice of the F A CTS f amily using po wer electronic based v oltage source con v erter and DC link to control the po wer flo w in transmission line. It can control the v oltage at the b us as well as acti v e po wer in a transmission line and further impro v es the transient stability [13], [14]. T ypical single line diagram of SSSC is indicated in Figure 5 where the SSSC is connected in series to the load. Depending on load demand SSSC will inject a v oltage in a respecti v e line or b us to control the po wer in order to compensate additional load requirement in a lo w v oltage distrib ution netw ork. As sho wn in Figure 6 simplified diagram of series compensation with the phasor diagram, where V s is the sending v oltage, V r is the recei ving v oltage, V se is the series injected v oltage of the SSSC, V 1 is the v oltage drop across the Line impedance and is the phase dif ference between V s and V r . Figure 5. SSSC single line representation Figure 6. Phasor diagram of SSSC Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst, V ol. 12, No. 4, December 2021 : 1953 1965 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst ISSN: 2088-8694 r 1957 Line impedance and is the phase dif ference between V s and V r . The SSSC can be stated that depending on increased load demand, the series v oltage injected by the SSSC is in phase with the generated v oltage. It increases the v oltage across the transmission line and thus increases the corresponding line current and transmitted po wer . During f ault conditions controller se n s es the lo w v oltage on f aulted b us and pro vides injection of v oltage in the opposite direction of generated v o l tage,in this re gion it operates in inducti v e mode of operation and net ef fecti v e current will be reduced. The SSSC controls f ault current, impro v es v oltage stability , pro vides po wer oscillation damping and acts as a f ault current limiter . Simplified impedance netw ork of SSSC for 3 phase f ault is sho wn in Figure 7. Figure 7. Simplified Impedance netw ork for 3 phase f ault 4. MA THEMA TICAL MODELS 4.1. Mathematical model with sour ce transf ormer Mathematical model for short circuit current of a typical source transformer connected to a swit chgear sho wn in Figure 5 is deri v ed as per belo w . Consider a 3 phase f ault at the b us, simplifying the Figure 7 netw ork which can be represented as the netw ork sho wn in Figure 8. Figure 8. Simplified Impedance netw ork for 3 phase f ault Solving impedance netw ork for finding I S C and gi v en in (2) and (3). Z S C = Z L Z T Z L + Z T (2) I sc = E 1 : 732 Z S C (3) Using the as sho wn (3), the f ault current at b us can be calculated. Bus f ault current mainly depends on the source transformer impedance. Ho we v er , load impedance is process oriented and it cannot be controlled. F or an y change in f ault current at the load b us, it is required to select the transformer impedance appropriately so as to reduce the f ault current to the desired le v el. 4.2. Mathematical model of TCSC The s ingle line diagram of distrib ution netw ork with TCSC is sho wn in Figure 9. During normal operation TCSC acts lik e a compensation de vice by impro ving v olt age profile at b us and also it compensates the reacti v e po wer by pro viding additional current to the load without af fecting the source parameters. TCSC operates in capaciti v e mode and current flo ws to the load as sho wn in Figure 10. Series F A CTS contr oller s in industrial low volta g e electrical distrib ution ... (V ishnu Char an Thippana) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1958 r ISSN: 2088-8694 Figure 9. TCSC connection in distrib ution netw ork Figure 10. Impedance netw ork of TCSC During this mode currents at b us are added as so that the current will be impro v ed. Figure 11 depicts the f ault condition. During the f ault condition, sensing no v oltage at b us and hi gh current flo w , controller of TCSC operate in inducti v e re gion as sho wn in Figure 12. Figure 11. 3 Phase f ault at b us with TCSC Figure 12. Inducti v e mode of operation of TCSC In this re gion, net current flo ws will be reduced and required current will be controlled with and the ef fect of f ault current will be reduced. As per abo v e schema tics, the f ault current at b us is represented as sho wn in (5) I C = I L I T C R (4) I F = I C + I Load (5) W ith the TCSC operation during f ault condition as in inducti v e reason the net f ault current will be reduced with controlling current. During f ault conditions, the operation of TCSC is in an inducti v e re gion so that the net f ault current will be reduced by controlling the current, I T C R . 4.3. Mathematical model of SSSC In Figure 13, V se , j X se are series injected v oltage and reactance of SSSC and V sef f is a SSSC self- b us v oltage connected between source v oltage and load v oltage, j X L is the line reactance. Assuming f ault occurs at load b us, during f ault condition the current at respecti v e b us starts increasing and v oltage of the same starts decreasing. At this time feedback to controller change the firing angle in order to shift SSSC to inducti v e mode of operation, considering firing angle changes, SSSC starts injecting v oltage in the opposite direction of generated v oltage , as a result net f ault current will be reduced com in comparison to the case without using SSSC. Figure 13, to find f ault current I F . From the (8) the contrib ution of f ault current of source E 1 is reduced due to series v oltage injection of V se 1 with this f ault current can be minimized. From this model it can be observ ed that SSSC can be utilized to impro v e v oltage and support sudden changes of load in a line and also it can minimize f ault current SSSC can limit the short circuit due to f ault in b us. Figure 13. SSSC single line diagram Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst, V ol. 12, No. 4, December 2021 : 1953 1965 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst ISSN: 2088-8694 r 1959 V 1 = V se + I se j X se + V sef f (6) I F = I se + I L (7) I se = V 1 V se V sef f j X se (8) 5. CONTR OLLER LOGIC FOR INJECTION OF V OL T A GE The main function of the controller is to inject the v oltage as per the f ault current at the b us. Th i s controller w orks only when the f ault le v el seen by the current transformer (CT), is greater than 50 KA and as per required ratio, v oltage will be injected into the circuit with phase shift to achie v e inducti v e mode of operation. As sho wn in Figure 14, as a cl osed indirect controller which consists of pre-defined functional blocks with reference to load current. Assuming losses at DC end is minimal and V1 and V2 are source and load v oltages, VDC is generally 1/3rd of the source v oltage and the same v oltage will be injected in series for compensation. Assuming 3 phase f ault at load end and the f ault current is greater than design f ault current of 50 kA, and v oltage of load end on that time as almost zero, and threshold limit is pro vided to 0.4 V2, during this condition Ki is the injection f actor with -1, due to this f actor firing pulse generated will be more than -90o and its injection v oltage will be in –v e direction of generation v oltage0. In addition, the required v oltage to be injected in the ratio of f ault current reduction, this will be achie v ed with Kf f actor which is the ratio of load current (IL) and designed f ault current of 50 kA. Re writing the (6), with minimum losses across the capacitor VDC = V inj. Vse is V inj v oltage and net ef fecti v e current will be reduced belo w designed f ault current. The same control logic will be represented for TCSC as sho wn in Figure 15. V 1 = K f V inj + I F j X se (9) I F = V 1 K f V inj j X se (10) Figure 14. Control schematic diagram for SSSC Series F A CTS contr oller s in industrial low volta g e electrical distrib ution ... (V ishnu Char an Thippana) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1960 r ISSN: 2088-8694 Figure 15. Control schematic diagram for TCSC 6. RESUL TS AND DISCUSSION Simulation is carried for dif ferent case studies and results are compared. The case studies are consid- ered as per belo w . Case-1 In this case f ault current is calculat ed for normal industrial load distrib ution MCC switchgear . F or this case loads are considered at 800MW po wer plant Ash handling (AHP) unit MCC L V switchgear po wer distrib ution board. Short circuit calculation is performed in ET AP . F or this model source trans- former impedance is considered as per IS 1180-2014 [25]. Case-2 From the abo v e case-1 analysis short circuit current reduction methodology is applied by increas- ing transformer impedance. Case-3 TCSC is introduced in series with the circuit and short circuit analysis is performed with SIMULINK model. Case-4 Introduced SSSC in series is introduced with the circuit and short circuit analysis performed with ET AP and SIMULINK model. F or all abo v e cases, results are compared with and without series F A CTS de vices. 6.1. Case-1 normal industrial load distrib ution MCC switchgear As per load distrib ution sho wn in Figure 16, the source transformer is feeding to the load which is connected to MCC switchgear . Source transformer rating is arri v ed as per load condition and its process oper - ating conditions. In this case transformer impedance is considered as 6.25 % as per IS 1180-2014 condition. Generally , design will be carried for the w orst operation condition as single transformer operating with b us coupler closed condition. In this operating condition ET AP short circuit analysis is performed considering 3 phase f ault at switchgear b us, and results are as indicated in belo w Figure 17. Figure 16. Single line diagram of AHP MCC switchgear Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst, V ol. 12, No. 4, December 2021 : 1953 1965 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst ISSN: 2088-8694 r 1961 As per calculations and ET AP analysis f ault current at b us f aults reaches 68.1kA. Standard Lo w v olt- age (L V) switchgear is a v ailable for 50 kA f ault le v el or 65kA f aul t le v el.By increasing f ault current capacity at b us the cost of L V switchgear increases. Alternati v e methods to reduce the f ault current to a less v alue than 50 kA are by increasing the impedance of the transformer or distrib ute the load with another set of transformer . The second approach which adding of an additional transformer is not an economical solution. Figure 17. ET AP Short circuit analysis for AHP MCC 6.2. Case-2 From the abo v e analysis, to reduce f ault current, one of the methods can be adopted is incre asing the impedance of the transformer , reducing the f ault current up to desired le v el. As sho wn in Figure 18, the transformer impedance increased from 6.25 % to 10 %, results in b us f ault current reduces to 48.5kA, which is less than designed f ault current of 50 kA.The disadv antages of increasing impedance of transformer are, v oltage drop increases and design of transformer has to be changed to suit permiss ible losses with increased impedance, with the ef fect of increased impedance cost of the trans former also increases. It is suggested to ha v e series F A CTS de vices in a netw ork for utilizing multiple ef fects. Among these ef fecti v e use is to reduce f ault current at the b us, the same is described in the belo w case studies. The disadv antages of increasing the transformer impedance are: V oltage drop increases T ransformer design has to be modified to suit the permissible losses. Cost of the transformer also increases T o o v ercome these demerits, it is suggest ed to include series F A CTS de vices in a netw ork in order to serv e multiple needs of the netw ork. Figure 18. ET AP Short circuit analysis for increased transformer percentage impedance Series F A CTS contr oller s in industrial low volta g e electrical distrib ution ... (V ishnu Char an Thippana) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1962 r ISSN: 2088-8694 6.3. Case-3 From the abo v e case-1 model simulated in Simulink, the results are sho wn in belo w Figure 19 The f ault current obtained in Simulink model is 65kA. Including the ef fect of TCSC in the same model adding in TCSC in series as sho wn in Figure 20. TCSC connected as a part of L V switchgear and f ault is created at L V switchgear b us. From the results it is sho wn in Figure 21, that when there is a series TCSC de vice is added in a distrib ution netw ork, the f ault current is reduced to 45kA and it is lo wer than the design f ault current of L V switchgear i.e. 50 kA. Figure 19. Bus f ault current without F A CTS de vice Figure 20. Simulink model with TCSC for AHP MCC Figure 21. Bus f ault current with TCSC de vice Int J Po w Elec & Dri Syst, V ol. 12, No. 4, December 2021 : 1953 1965 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.