Propagation of Harmonics in the Tasmanian Hydro Power System

M.J. Ringrose, M. Negnevitsky, SMIEAust* M. Piekutowski, K. Aryal** *University of Tasmania **Hydro Electric Corporation Tasmania Abstract: Simultaneous harmonic measurements have been conducted at five key locations around the Tasmanian hydro power transmission system. These measurements were taken at approximately onehour intervals under various loading and system configurations. The data was then analysed to see the extent of harmonic propagation through the system. The purpose of the analysis was to determine the possibility of monitoring the major sources of harmonic distortion on the transmission system, from only a few key locations. In order to establish the relationship between the sources of harmonics and the measured harmonic levels at the five locations, a harmonic model of the system was constructed. The simulation results were compared to the measured ones to check the validity of the model. 1. INTRODUCTION Tasmania has a relatively small, but complex power transmission system. It consists of 47 Hydro generators, 163 transformers, 173 transmission lines and15 major industrial power consumers in its standard configuration. The three largest power consumers in the state are identified as being the major sources of harmonics in the HV system. These are Comalco and Temco in Georgetown in the north of the state and Pasminco E.Z. in Hobart in the south of the state. These are the sources that have been concentrated on in this paper. Estimates of the harmonics produced at smaller sites have been used to compare the relative contributions of harmonics around these smaller consumers. Comalco is an approximately 290MVA aluminum smelting plant with the majority of the load consisting of three pot lines fed by 36 pulse and higher rectiformers. Tempco is a 100MVA manganese smelting plant consisting of four arc furnaces. Pasminco is a 136MVA zinc smelting plant consisting of four electrolytic cell lines fed by either 12 or 24 pulse rectiformers with harmonic filtering. This experiment was part of ongoing research into power quality and an automatic disturbance recognition system at the University of Tasmania [1]. As part of the research, a system for monitoring the quality of power in the HV transmission network from a few key locations is being investigated. In order to do this, the extent of propagation of disturbances through the system must be established. This paper describes a set of measurements and analysis that were undertaken to look at the harmonic aspect of the power quality monitoring. The experiment involved taking simultaneous harmonic measurements at different locations around the state under different operating conditions. These measurements were then used to construct a singlephase harmonic model of the transmission system. The extent of propagation of harmonics created by individual sources was then investigated. 2. MEASUREMENT SCHEME The harmonic measurements were taken simultaneously at five different locations around the power system. These were at the Comalco site in Georgetown, Pasminco site in Hobart and three other locations that were determined by selecting remote buses with a high degree of coupling at various harmonics. These turned out to be located at the Scottsdale substation in the states north-east, Rokeby substation south of Hobart and the Chapel St. substation in Hobart. Refer to Figure 6 for the schematic locations of these sites. The effects of different system configurations and disturbances created during configuration changes were also a consideration in the experiment. Measurements were taken before, during and after configuration changes in the system so that changes in harmonic levels due to other phenomenon could be eliminated to a degree. As the measurements were taken during operation of the system, it was important not to create any problems for power consumers. It was also important to make changes that would a measurable affect on the harmonics in the system. The approximate timetable of the experiment was as follows: Comalco: 1) 10:00-10:20 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min)

10:20-10:25 Switching on/off combinations of rectiformer from potline(s) (snapshots every 30sec1min) 10:25-10:45 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) 2) 11:00-11:20 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) 11:20-11:25 Startup and shut down sequence for potlines (snapshots every 30sec-1min) 11:25-11:45 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) 3) 12:00-12:20 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) 12:20-12:25 Transfer of potline between 220/33kV power transformers (snapshots every 30sec-1min) 12:25-12:45 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) Pasminco: 4) 1:00-1:20 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) 1:20-1:25 Switching on/off combinations of 11kV shunt capacitors with filter (snapshots every 30sec1min) 1:25-1:45 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) Hydro Electric Corporation: 5) 2:00-2:20 Monitoring (snapshots every 5min) 2:20-2:25 Switching on/off 220kV transmission line Palmerston-Sheffield (snapshots every 30sec-1min) Synchronisation of the measurements at the different sites was performed by means of a conference telephone line. This limits the timing accuracy of the measurements to several seconds or more. Both voltage and current harmonics were measured on all three phases in both magnitude and phase. The measurement points were taken from transformer voltage and current measurement transformers (VTs and CTs) already installed. The measurements were at the 220kV level at Comalco, 22kV at Scottsdale and 11kV at Pasminco, Chapel St. and Rokeby. Current measurements at Comalco were taken on phases A and C only as phase B did not have a CT installed. 3. MEASUREMENT RESULTS As a large amount of data was collected, only the first measurements taken are shown in the results. A brief summary of any effects that the configuration changes have produced is given in this section. Harmonics were measured up to the 63rd, but only the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 23rd and 25th harmonics are studied in this paper as these are the characteristic harmonics produced by the major loads. Measurements above the 11th harmonic have been considered inaccurate due to on-transformer mains frequency VTs and CTs being used for initial voltage division. Tables 1 through 3 summarise the first measurement taken at Comalco, Pasminco and Scottsdale substation. Due to space limitations the measurements at Chapel St. and Rokeby substations have been omitted but show similar harmonic levels as

at Pasminco, except for having higher 5th harmonic component.

Harmonic Vab Vbc Vca Ia Ib Ic (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) 3 0.368 0.389 0.043 0.382 0.496 5 0.583 0.549 0.675 0.156 0.313 7 0.137 0.137 0.202 0.094 0.412 9 0.031 0.040 0.029 0.076 0.293 11 0.343 0.287 0.363 1.153 0.952 13 0.205 0.070 0.058 0.785 0.644 23 0.252 0.257 0.258 0.287 0.077 25 0.550 0.667 0.568 0.161 0.043 THD 1.02 1.06 1.04 1.52 1.63

Table 1. Harmonic Measurement at Comalco 220kV.

Harmonic Vab Vbc Vca Ia Ib Ic (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) 3 0.943 0.848 0.320 1.372 0.793 1.026 5 0.143 0.420 0.481 1.323 0.979 0.447 7 0.063 0.042 0.019 0.173 0.224 0.253 9 0.051 0.237 0.236 0.191 0.125 0.288 11 0.201 0.152 0.078 0.228 0.072 0.165 13 0.446 0.416 0.555 0.815 0.611 0.764 23 0.360 0.289 0.234 0.268 0.285 0.220 25 0.212 0.236 0.222 0.188 0.185 0.162 THD 1.27 1.22 1.07 2.44 1.67 1.63

Table 2. Harmonic Measurement at Pasminco 11kV

Harmonic Vab Vbc Vca Ia Ib Ic (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) (%fund) 3 0.242 0.212 0.060 0.638 0.401 0.258 5 1.042 1.046 1.142 0.980 0.975 1.038 7 0.123 0.169 0.167 0.293 0.384 0.492 9 0.019 0.042 0.027 0.066 0.030 0.033 11 0.193 0.196 0.142 0.381 0.360 0.327 13 0.307 0.216 0.286 0.046 0.050 0.055 23 0.082 0.137 0.124 0.189 0.163 0.185 25 0.125 0.132 0.095 0.183 0.121 0.116 THD 1.14 1.15 1.24 1.32 1.21 1.25

Table 3. Harmonic measurement at Scottsdale 22kV. Below is a summary of the changes in harmonic levels at the monitoring points during the configuration changes: Event 1: All harmonic voltage levels stay approximately the same except for the 5th harmonic in the north of the state. This rise from an average of 0.602% to 0.761% at the Comalco site during the startup and shutdown sequences for the rectiformers. The current into the plant at this harmonic rose from 0.235% to 0.637%. A rise in the 5th harmonic levels was also observed at the Scottsdale substation. The rise there was from an average of 1.08% to 1.19%. Little effect was seen at the three monitoring stations in the south of the state. Event 2: A rise in the 5th harmonic current at the Comalco site was observed as the load levels dropped to almost zero. The current injection rose from an average of 0.403A to 2.71A. This caused the voltage at this

harmonic to rise to an average of 0.913%. No effect could be seen at the other monitoring sites. Event 3: A similar situation as for event 2 was observed with the 5th harmonic current levels rising as the load at the plant dropped. Event 4: Significant increases in most of the characteristic harmonics at Pasminco were observed. Table 4 summarises the changes in the harmonics.
Harmonic Phase A voltage Phase A with filters voltage without (%fund) filters (%fund) 3 0.746 0.534 5 0.361 1.05 7 0.044 0.172 9 0.191 0.145 11 0.155 2.17 13 0.464 2.19 23 0.221 0.873 25 0.174 0.69 THD 1.25 3.81

equivalent series impedances with harmonics producing loads including parallel harmonic current injections. Reasonable values for the magnitude and phase of the injections at Comalco and Temco for the 5th and 7th harmonics had been previously established by studies conducted by Comalco and the Hydro Electric Corporation. The higher order harmonics at these sites and the injections at Pasminco have been established from the measurements taken in this series of experiments. Averages of the measured harmonic currents in phase A have been used to estimate these current injections. As the load at Temco consists mostly of Arc furnaces, the magnitude and phasing of each harmonic changes rapidly due to the erratic nature of the arcing process. Some investigation of the effects of different phasing of the harmonics produced at Temco has been performed, with best and worst case scenarios looked at. Presented is a typical set of values. Below is a table displaying the current injections used in the model of the system. Each of the three pot lines at Comalco have separate injections with slightly different magnitudes. Shown is the current injections for one of the pot lines at the 33kV level. Similarly, the injections for one arc furnace at the 11kV level is shown for Temco and one cell at the 11kV level at Pasminco. The phase reference difference between Georgetown and Pasminco has been accommodated by including a 5 phase shift in the current injections at Pasminco.
Comalco Potline 2 Temco furnace 1 Pasminco Cell 1 Harmonic Magnitude Phase Magnitude Phase Magnitude Phase (A) (deg) (A) (deg) (A) (deg) 5 5.68 49 18.78 0 7.23 -5 7 3.14 128 12.94 0 1.57 -125 11 20.34 151 5.23 0 1.29 -55 13 12.81 -69 3.56 0 5.27 -80 23 5.3 -110 0.43 0 2.03 -110 25 4.11 20 0.38 0 1.48 15

Table 4. Change in measured harmonic voltage at Pasminco 11kV with harmonic filters disabled. Event 5: Removing one of the parallel transmission lines from Palmerston-Sheffield had little effect on the harmonics measured at the sites. A large impulse of 330kV with duration of 6s was recorded at the monitoring point at Comalco (220kV bus) at the time of switching however. 4. MODEL Vharm software has been used to analyse the harmonics in the system. Vharm solves the equation I = [Y]V (1)

to obtain the systems response to injected harmonic currents using sparse matrix techniques [2]. Due to limitations of the software the model was constructed in single-phase only and using detailed system data at the time of the measurements. Harmonics below the 25th only have been considered in this paper and so low frequency models of the system components can be used. Because a single phase representation of the system has been used, the 3rd and 9th harmonic response cannot be modeled correctly and has been omitted from the model. Transmission lines have been represented by lumped pisections. Transformers have been represented by an ideal transformer (including tap settings) with a series impedance. The magnetising branch impedance of transformers has been neglected. Generators have been represented by their negative sequence series impedance as suggested in [3]. Loads have been represented by

Table 4. Current injections used in model. Using the above harmonic injections the model produced the following results:
Voltage (%fundamental)
0.700 0.600 0.500 0.400 0.300 0.200 0.100 0.000 5 7 11 13 23 25

Measured S im u la t e d

Harmonic Number

Figure 1. Comparison of measured and simulated harmonic voltages at Comalco 220kV

0.500 0.400 0.300 M easured 0.200 0.100 0.000 5 7 11 13 23 25 Simulated

0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 5 7 11 13 23 25 Comalco Temco Pasminco

Harmonic Number

Harmonic Number

Figure 2. Comparison of measured and simulated harmonic voltages at Pasminco 11kV.

1.200 1.000 0.800 0.600 0.400 0.200 0.000 5 7 11 13 23 25 M easured Simulated

Figure 5. Contributions to harmonic voltages at Palmerston 220kV bus. It can be seen from Figures 4 and 5 that the three loads contribute similar amounts to the measured 5th harmonic component. Comalco is clearly the major contributor of higher order harmonics at these buses. Similar results have been observed at other key sites in the system. These results display certain difficulties in a system for monitoring the harmonic sources in the system from only a few key locations. The dominating response from Comalco tends to swamp that of the other sources at some locations. This requires that monitoring close to the various harmonic producing loads be performed. The phase relationship between harmonics from the various sources is another difficulty in monitoring from a few locations. Harmonics produced at one plant may reinforce those of another plant at one point in time, but may cancel at another time. Further research is therefore required in order to develop a suitable system for monitoring the harmonics produced by the major loads, from a minimal number of sites. 6. CONCLUSION This paper presents a set of simultaneous harmonic measurements conducted on the Tasmanian HV transmission system and related analysis. The collected data was analysed to produce a model of the system and to study the propagation of harmonics throughout the system. A few key problems were highlighted in the development of a method for monitoring the harmonic sources in the system, from a few locations only. 7. REFERENCES

Harmonic Number

Figure 3. Comparison of measured and simulated harmonic voltages at Scottsdale 22kV. There are obvious differences between the measured and simulated harmonic voltages at the monitoring sites, especially in the 5th harmonic. This can be put down to mostly residential and light industrial loads producing large current injections at the 5th harmonic. These have not been included in the model. The differences in the values obtained at Pasminco are likely to be due to inaccurate estimates of the harmonic current injections given that measurements from only one of the cell lines were taken. 5. PROPAGATION OF HARMONICS To study the propagation of harmonics through the system, the responses at key locations in the system were simulated. Figures 5 and 6 summarise the response at Chapel St. and Palmerston sub stations to the individual harmonic sources studied in this paper.
0.4 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 5 7 11 13 23 25 Comalco Temco Pasminco

Harmonic Number

Figure 4. Contributions to harmonic voltages at Chapel St. 220kV bus.

[1] Ringrose, M.J., Negnevitsky, M., Automatic Disturbance Recognition in Power Systems, Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Australia, Vol. 19, June 1999, pp. 83-90. [2] Gilker, C., Dwyer, R.V., Dugan, R.C., A Program for the Analysis of Power System Harmonics, IEEE Computer Applications in Power, October 1989, pp. 3641. [3] Xia, D., Heydt, G.T., Harmonic Power Flow Studies Part I Formulation and Solution, IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and systems, Vol. PAS-101, No. 6, June 1982, pp. 1252-1265.

Figure 6. One line diagram of the Tasmanian HV transmission system.