Voltage Stress in a Transformer Winding During Very Fast Transients Caused by Breaker Closing Event

Transformers connected at the medium-voltage level in cable grids, such as wind park collection grids and industrial grids, are exposed to the stress of very fast transients. These electric transients are mainly generated during breaker switching operations and the rise time of the transient voltage in such systems is much shorter compared to the rise times of transients generated in transmission systems at a high-voltage level. In this paper, the internal voltage stress is studied during very fast transients generated during transformer energization. Instead of using a breaker, the energizing tests are performed using a low-impedance pulse generator that can generate lightning impulse-shaped waveforms and voltage steps with rise times varying between 35 and 500 ns. Experiments show that during very fast transients with a 35-ns rise time and 1-p.u. magnitude, the interturn voltage exceeds the level obtained with a lightning impulse-shaped voltage waveform of 4.4 pu. Furthermore, during a specific switching scenario with delta-connected transformers, where the winding is excited from both ends, the same 1-p.u./35-ns voltage step generates an interturn voltage that exceeds the 1-p.u. level, which is more than 2.5 times higher voltage stress than during a lightning impulse test.