Zero-Phase Filtering for Lightning Impulse Evaluation: A K-factor Filter for the Revision of IEC60060-1 and -2

The next revision of the international standard for high-voltage measurement techniques, IEC 60060-1, has been planned to include a new method for evaluating the parameters associated with lightning impulse voltages. This would be a significant improvement on the loosely defined existing method which is, in part, reliant on operator judgment and would ensure that a single approach is adopted worldwide to determine peak voltage, front, and tail times, realizing standardization in measured parameters across all laboratories. Central to the proposed method is the use of a K-factor to attenuate oscillations and overshoots that can occur with practical generation of impulse voltages for testing on high-voltage equipment. It is proposed that a digital filter that matches the K-factor gain characteristic be implemented and used for this purpose. To date, causal filter designs have been implemented and assessed. This paper is concerned with the potential application of a noncausal digital filter design to emulate the K-factor. The approach has several advantages; the resulting design is only second order, it can be designed without using optimization algorithms, it is a zero-phase design and it matches the K-factor almost perfectly. Parameter estimation using waveforms from the IEC 61083-2 test data generator and experimental impulse voltages has been undertaken and obtained results show that the zero-phase filter is the ideal digital representation of the proposed K-factor. The effect of evaluating parameters by the proposed method is compared to mean-curve fitting and the challenge of effective front-time evaluation is discussed.