Fast transients in the operation of an induction motor with vacuum switches

Abstract

Generally in industrial plants, overvoltages of impulse type are not considered, hence the impulse test of the equipment is not specified. This paper shows one of these cases, but high and fast voltage transients can arise in a 2.3 kV system, when the starting autotransformer of a 1750HP motor is operated through a vacuum switch, and can explain the power failure of autotransformer. A model was built in the ATP for simulating switching operations that are not easy to be tested in the real system or difficult to record such as multiple reignitions of the arc in the circuit breaker. MODELS was used to build the control logic that simulates the multiple re-ignitions of the arc.