Analysis of the Energization Switching in Ultra-High-Voltage Transmission Lines
Ultra-High-Voltage transmission; Transmission line energization; Overvoltages; Reactive compensation; Surge arrester; Pre-insertion resistor; Controlled switching.
The challenge of transporting large blocks of energy over long distances with low cost and high efficiency has attracted several studies for the application of transmission lines above 1000 kV. In this work, an analysis of the energization switching in UHV (Ultra-High-Voltage) lines is performed for lines with voltage levels between 1000 kV and 1200 kV, long lines above 900 km and considering the variation of the reactive compensation. This analysis seeks to find the most severe overvoltage levels, looking for methods to mitigate such disturbances in the energization of the lines. Besides the overvoltage analysis, the work also compared different configurations for the line compensation, defining, therefore, the one that presented the best configuration among them. The overvoltages resulting from the simulated operations were obtained with the PSCAD (Power System Computer Aided Design) software, commonly used for the simulation of electromagnetic transients in power systems. In the end, a comparison for the suppression of these overvoltages was performed involving three possible methods: surge arresters, pre-insertion resistor, and the controlled switching of the lines.