Simulation of Power Quality Problems on a University Distribution System

Wu Jun

Tapan Kumar Saha, Senior Member, IEEE

Guangxi Water Resources & Electric Power Design Institute

Nanning 530023, P. R. China

Department of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering,

University of Queensland, Qld-4072, Australia

Abstract This paper presents the power quality research work

damaged under such abnormal tripping, the time

consuming reset/restarting process for the MS instrument
caused inconvenience to the operating personnel. For
monitoring and evaluating the power quality in the
University distribution system, previous research had been
conducted in which a BMI 8010 PQ Node instrument was
installed at several buses in Substation 2, the recorded data
had been processed and initial analysis was reported [10].
The objective of this paper is to formulate the models of
University distribution system components and simulate
several processes related to power quality problems with
the help of ATP which include harmonics distortion,
capacitor switching and voltage sag from system fault and
large motor starting.

on the distribution system of the University of Queensland, St.

Lucia campus. The Alternate Transients Program (ATP) was used
in modelling the distribution system components and simulating
the processes of harmonic distortion, capacitor switching, voltagesag caused by system faults and large motor starting. The
simulation results were analysed and compared with relevant
standards for evaluating the quality of power in the distribution
system.
Keywords Power quality, distribution system, non-linear load,
harmonics, capacitor switching transient, voltage sag, EMTP
modelling and simulation.

I. INTRODUCTION
There is a growing concern of Electric Power Quality in
recent years with the proliferation of modern electronics
such as PCs, variable speed drives and industrial
programmable logic controllers (PLCs). While such
equipments are sensitive to the variation of the supply
voltage, they are also the source for power quality
problems. Due to the non-linear load characteristics of
solid state power conversion equipment, harmonics current
is injected into the power system and causes voltage
harmonics distortion. Apart from harmonics, transient
voltage variations resulted from lightning strikes, switching
of power line/capacitor bank and voltage sags caused by
system faults and large motor starting are common
concerns related to the Electric Power Quality issue.

II. COMPONENT MODELS

One of the typical feeders in the distribution system was
chosen for this study, which involve Substations 10 and 2.
The single line diagram is shown in Figure 1. Both Sub.10
and Sub.2 are responsible for supplying power to a number
of University buildings and the load mainly includes airconditioners, fluorescent lighting, PCs and motors in
laboratories and workshops. The Mass Spectrometry
instrument in the Chemistry building just imported from
the US with a rated voltage of 208/120V. So a 30kVA,
415/208V dry type transformer is used specifically for the
MS instrument.

Power quality research mainly involves four areas:

fundamental concepts and aspect [1][2]; power quality
monitoring and measurement [3]-[5]; modelling and
analysis [6]-[7]; engineering application and problem
solving [8]-[9]. Most of the work is focussed on the
distribution system where the customers sensitive
equipment suffers mal-operation/interruption under various
kinds of power disturbances both from the system and from
the local network.

1. Transformer model
The transformer is modelled with series impedance for
the windings together with a shunt magnetising branch of
the core. For a harmonic study, transformer short circuit
impedance, magnetising characteristics and winding
connections determine harmonic flows. Although the
resistance and leakage inductance of the transformer
windings are frequency-dependent, modelling them as
constant R and L is generally acceptable for typical
harmonics studies [6], [7]. Transformer saturation effect is
neglected since the harmonics generated by a transformer is
insignificant compared with the harmonics from non-linear
loads. The phase-shift effect due to a transformers
connection has been included in the three-phase
transformer model. For the high frequency transient study,
such as the lightning induced transient and line switching,
the transformer winding stray capacitance and bushing
capacitance have to be included in the transformer models.
Basic transformer parameters (as supplied by a local
manufacturer) used to generate input data for transformer
models are shown in Table 1.

The power distribution system of the University of

Queensland consists of twenty four 11 kV substations,
approximately 8 km of 11kV underground power cable
with a maximum load level of 14MW. The distribution
system is supplied by the local utility through a 33kV
substation, which is located on the University campus. The
load pattern of the distribution system mainly includes airconditioners, fluorescent lighting, PCs, heaters, workshop
motors, etc. Some power quality related disturbances were
reported in the University distribution system over the past
few years. The motors in the central chiller plant tripped
occasionally. The newly installed Mass Spectrometry (MS)
instrument in the Chemistry Building which had been put
into use for about 8 months suffered nuisance tripping
during operation. Though no equipment had been severely

2. Underground power cable model

A cable equivalent circuit with PI circuit was used to
construct the three-phase underground cable models. First,

the unit-length series impedance and shunt admittance

paraTable 1 Transformer basic parameters
Capacity
Io
No
Trans
(kVA)
(%)
Rating
(kV)
1 33/11
16,000
0.25
2 11/0.415
1,000
0.85
3 11/0.415
750
0.80
4 0.415/0.
30
0.60
208

pnl
(kW)

Psh
(kW)

Z
(%)

10.0
1.0
0.8
0.25

75.0
9.0
7.1
0.85

10.0
5.0
5.0
4.0

The 33kV system source is modelled as a standard

voltage source with the equivalent system impedance,
which is converted from the three-phase short circuit
strength at the 33kV bus. The capacitor bank is represented
by a standard EMTP capacitor component with the threephase kVAR rating converted to F value.
6. Mass Spectrometry instrument
The Mass Spectrometry instrument consists of a rotary
vacuum pump, turbo-molecular pump and diffusion pump
(single phase induction motor and resistive heater) and the

-meters are computed according to the geometrical and

physical arrangement of the cable while the earth return
effect is taken into account by Carsons homogeneous earth
model. The earth resistivity is selected as a typical value of
100 ohm-m due to the lack of data. For the long-line
effects, it was reported that the estimated critical cable
length is 90/n mile, n is the harmonics number [6]. The
length of the cable in this study is just several hundred
meters, so the long-line effect is ignored. Under such
consideration, the [Z] and [Y] matrices are simply the unitlength parameters multiplied by the cable length.
3. Harmonics source model
Non-linear load, such as PCs, fluorescent lights and
ASDs are modelled as constant harmonics current sources.
The harmonics current spectrum is determined according to
previous research [5] and is listed in Table 2.
Table 2 Non-linear load harmonics current spectrum (Ih / I1)
H 3
5
7
9
11
13
PC
0.81
0.53
0.25
0.09
0.05
0.04
Flu.
0.16
0.086
0.029
0.02
0.014
0.008
light
ASD
0.175
0.111
0.045
0.029

process control units of vacuum control, voltage control

and gas control together with a PC work station. The
various pumps are modelled as generalised linear loads
while the control units and the PC facilities as single-phase
AC-DC static converters. Induction pumps and the resistive
heater can tolerate most power quality problems. However,
the process controllers are very sensitive and it is
reasonable to presume that some kind of network
disturbances can cause the interruption of the process
controller and can lead to the overall shut down of the MS
instrument during normal operation.

III. SIMULATION RESULTS

A
Harmonic distortion
The harmonic current is injected into the distribution
network when the PC, fluorescent light and ASD are
supplied with sinusoidal voltage due to the non-linear
characteristics of the load. The distorted current flow
through the network will produce a voltage drop across the
network impedance and result in a distorted voltage.

15
0.03
0.004

The periodic voltage or current distorted waveforms can

be represented by the sum of a series of multiple frequency
terms of varying magnitudes and phase (Fourier series) as
shown in Formula 1.
(1)
f(t)=a0+[an cos (nt+n)]
n = 1,2,3,.
The individual harmonic distortion (HD) and total
harmonic distortion (THD) are defined as follows.
HDn= an /a1
n = 2,3,4,.
THD= [(an2) / (a12)
Where an is the magnitude of the nth harmonic
frequency, a1 is the magnitude of the fundamental

I1- fundamental frequency load current.

Here h = Harmonics order,
Ih- h harmonic current,
4. Generalised linear load model
Linear loads are represented by parallel R and L
elements. The value of R and L can be computed by the
active power P and reactive power Q of the load according
to the following formula:
R=V2/P; L=V2/(2f0Q)
5. System source and capacitor bank

with the IEEE injected harmonic current limitation, and the

harmonic current distortion level was found to exceed the

frequency ,n is the phase angle of the nth harmonic

frequency and is the fundamental frequency.
Reference [11] summarises the known effects of power
system harmonics on equipment. There are two major
categories of harmonic effects on equipment. The first is
overheating in power handling equipment such as
transformers, capacitors and motors, which could reduce
the equipments operating life. The second category is
disruption of operation for electronic controlled equipment
such as PCs, ASDs, PLCs etc. To evaluate the possible
harmonic effects on the electronic equipment in the
University distribution system, the ATP simulation was
conducted to attain the voltage and current harmonic
distortion level at various buses. The voltage and current
waveforms for some typical buses are shown in Figures 2-5
and the harmonic spectrum are shown in Tables 3 and 4.
20000

IEEE requirement at all locations except BUS 1 and BUS

3.
Table 3 Harmonic voltage spectrum HDn and THD (%)
N
Bus 1 Bus 2
Bus3
Bus4
Bus5
1
1
1
1
1
1

Bus6
1

3
5
7
9
11
13
15
THD

0.008
0.0055
0.019
0.0026
0.0017
0.0002
0.0003
2.26

0.0013
0.0113
0.0208
0.0005
0.0018
0.00149
0.0002
2.41
200

Voltage(V)
10

0.0108
0.0065
0.0156
0.0032
0.0004
0.0012
0.0013
2.09

0.0048
0.0083
0.019
0.0013
0.0010
0.0009
0.0003
2.21

0.0023
0.0082
0.015
0.0009
0.0016
0.0022
0.0006
1.79

0.014
0.0036
0.015
0.0045
0.0023
0.0021
0.0013
2.17

V o lta g e (V )

100

10000

t(S )
0 .0
.1 6 0 0

.1 8 0 0

.2 0 0 0

.2 2 0 0

.2 4 0 0

0.0
.0250

.0750

.1250

.1750

.2251

-100

t(S)

-200

-10000

Figure 4 Bus 4 Voltage Waveform

400

V o lt a g e (V )

-20000

200

Figure 2. Bus 2 Current waveform

40

0.0

C u rre n t(A )

.1600

.1800

.2000

.2200

.2400

t(S )

-200

20

-400

0.0
.1 6 0 0

.1 8 0 0

.2 0 0 0

.2 2 0 0

.2 4 0 0

t(S )

Figure 5 Bus 5 Voltage waveform

-2 0

Table 4 Harmonic current spectrum HDn and THD (%)

N
Bus 1
Bus 2
Bus 3
Bus 4
Bus 5
Bus 6
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
0.0003
0.139
0.069
0.149
0.200
0.173
5
0.074
0.085
0.045
0.094
0.092
0.077
7
0.032
0.038
0.024
0.049
0.047
0.022
9
0.0006
0.015
0.0077
0.017
0.023
0.021
11
0.0056
0.0066
0.0032
0.0084
0.0086
0.0076
13
0.0062
0.0059
0.0028
0.0072
0.012
0.068
15
0.0003
0.0046
0.0023
0.0058
0.005
0.0029
THD
8.09
16.88
8.62
18.48
22.73
19.19
Note: BUS1 current refer to the current of 11kV Sub2 & Sub10 feeder
at BUS1, the other BUS current refer to the incoming main feeder current
at the lower voltage panels.

-4 0

Figure 3 Bus 4 Current waveform

The simulation results show that the /Y0 connection of

the 11/0.415 kV distribution transformer contribute to the
blocking of triplen (3rd, 9th, 15th) harmonics current from
entering the 11kV side. The 11kV Sub 2 & Sub 10 feeder
have a low current distortion level due to the blocking of
triplen harmonics. The harmonics distortion levels vary
with the load level at the customer side. The harmonics
monitoring at Sub 2 [10] indicated that at the 415V Bus,
current THD falls in the range 10%-25% with voltage THD
of 1.5%-3.2%.

B
Capacitor switching
Capacitor switching is a daily utility operation for the
purpose of power factor correction. Because the capacitor
voltage can not change instantaneously, energization of a
capacitor bank results in an immediate drop in system
voltage towards zero, followed by a fast voltage recovery
(overshoot) and finally an oscillating transient voltage
superimposed on the 50 Hz fundamental waveform. The
peak voltage magnitude depends on the instantaneous
system voltage at the moment of switching and can reach
2.0 times the normal system peak voltage under extreme

IEEE standard 519-1992 describes recommended

practices and requirements for harmonic control in electric
power system; this also specifies requirements on the user
as well as on the utility. Comparing the simulation result of
voltage harmonic distortions at different bus (Table 3) with
the IEEE standard, both the individual harmonic and THD
meet the IEEE requirements. The simulated current
distortions at various locations (Table 4) were compared

conditions. The magnitude is usually less than this due to

damping by system load and network resistive elements.
Typical distribution system overvoltages due to capacitor
switching range from 1.1-1.6 pu with transient frequencies
ranging from 300-1000Hz.

The possible maximum voltage at 11 kV, 415V and

208V buses caused by the capacitor switching is 1.69 pu,
Table 5 Statistical switching of 5 MVAR capacitor bank, 200 shots, overvoltage
Maximum
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Bus1 Voltage
15253V
11564V
0.201
(8980V Crest)
(1.698 pu)
(1.29 pu)
Bus4 Voltage
266V
202.6V
0.188
(169.7V Crest) (1.57 pu)
(1.19 pu)
Bus5 Voltage
517V
392V
0.197
(338.8V Crest) (1.53 pu)
(1.16 pu)

The capacitor-switching transient was simulated and

Figures 6-8 show the voltage waveforms at various buses.
Since the voltage waveforms at the 415V bus of Sub 2 and
Sub 10 are identical, only the Bus 5 voltage is plotted. The
overvoltage at 11kV, 415V and 208V Bus are 1.69 pu, 1.50
pu and 1.53 pu respectively. This refer to the worse case of
capacitor switching in which the capacitor is energised at
the instant when system voltage is at its peak. In order to
obtain the maximum anticipated overvoltages and the
overvoltage distribution trends; the EMTP statistical
switching (random switching) simulation was conducted.
20000

Table 6 Statistical switching of 5 MVAR capacitor bank, 200 shots, trends

V1.2
V1.3
V1.4
V1.5
pu
pu
pu
pu
BUS 1
113 shots
86 shots
66 shots
38 shots
(11 kV)
(57%)
(43%)
(33%)
(19%)
BUS 4
83 shots
61 shots
36 shots
25 shots
(208V)
(42%)
(31%)
(18%)
(13%)
BUS 5
78 shots
61 shots
33 shots
10 shots
(415V)
(39%)
(31%)
(17%)
(5%)

V o lta g e (V )
10

10000

1.53 pu and 1.57 pu respectively. While indicating the

switching transients is damped by the network when it
propagates downstream, it also shows that the transients
remain almost undamped when it passes through the stepdown transformer due to the low frequency character of the
capacitor switching transients. The trend study illustrates
similar tendencies that the low voltage BUS (415V, 208V)
has less probability of overvoltage than the high voltage
BUS (11kV). Even so, the 208V BUS4 where the MS
instrument is connected will still have about 42%
probability of overvoltage exceeding 1.2 pu under a
capacitor switching condition. Some kinds of sensitive
electronic equipment have a low overvoltage protection
threshold to protect the semiconductor components. For
example, the ASD (pulse- width modulated (PWM)) has a
low tripping level of 1.17 pu at the dc Bus. The capacitorswitching transients may cause nuisance tripping for such
kinds of equipment.

0 .0
.0 2 5 0

.0 7 5 0

.1 2 5 0

.1 7 5 0

.2 2 5 1

t(S )

-1 0 0 00

-2 0 0 00

Figure 6 Bus 1 Voltage waveform, capacitor switching

400

V o lta g e (V )

200

0 .0
.0250

.0750

.1250

.1750

.2251

t(S )

-200

-400

Figure 7 Bus 4 Voltage waveform, capacitor switching

8 00

C
Voltage Sag
Voltage sag is the decrease in the RMS voltage
magnitude lasting between one cycle and several seconds,
which is usually caused by faults on the power system and
motor starting. Voltage sags due to system fault normally
lasts 3-6 cycles, which is the total time for fault detection
and breaker operation to clear the fault. The duration of the
sag caused by motor starting is generally longer, but with a
smaller sag magnitude.

V o lta g e (V )

4 00

0 .0
.0 2 50

.0 7 50

.1 2 50

.1 7 50

.2 2 51

t(S )

- 4 00

Previous research on monitoring distribution system

power quality indicates that the majority of voltage sags
have a magnitude around 80% and a duration of 4-10
cycles [3]. The controller tripped at about 80% voltage
regardless of the duration. To evaluate the voltage sag
condition in the University distribution system, the
simulation of sags due to system faults and motor starting
was conducted.

- 8 00

Figure 8 Bus 5 Voltage waveform, capacitor switching

The statistical closing target time is the maximum phase

A voltage at the capacitor bank and the random closing was
allowed to vary over 1 cycle of 50 Hz (20ms) using a
Gaussian (normal) distribution. Table 5 and 6 show the
results of 200 shots of statistical capacitor switching.

C1 Voltage sags due to system faults

Most of the faults on the utility transmission and
distribution system are single line to ground faults
4

(SLGFs). These faults are the most common cause of

voltage sags for distribution system customer. The voltage
sag simulation presumes that SLG fault occur at phase A in
the 33kV system for a duration of 6 cycles before the fault
is cleared. The resulting waveforms in bus 4 are shown in
Figures 9-11. The 415V bus voltage at Sub10 and Sub2 are
similar since the two substations are nearby and both of the
11/0.415 kV transformers power rating and windings
connection scheme are identical. Table 7 lists the threephase voltage sags magnitude due to 33kV system phase A
SLG fault.

200

V o lta g e (V )

100

t(S )
0.0
.0 2 5 0

.0 7 5 0

.1 2 5 0

.1 7 5 0

.2 2 5 1

-100

-200

Table 7 Voltage sags magnitude due to 33kV system SLG fault (phase
A)

208VBUS4
(169.7V Crest)
415V BUS5
(338.8V Crest)

PhaseA
169.7V
(1.0 pu)
300V
(0.886 pu)

PhaseB
125V
(0.737 pu)
300V
(0.886 pu)

Figure 10 Bus 4 phase B voltage waveform

PhaseC
125V
(0.737 pu)
220V
(0.649 pu)

200

V o lta g e (V )

100

0 .0
.0 2 5 0

.0 7 5 0

.1 2 5 0

.1 7 5 0

.2 2 5 1

t(S )

The transformer winding connections between the point

of the fault and the equipment terminal attributes to
different three-phase voltage sag pattern at BUS4 and
BUS5. The SLG fault in the 33 kV system will result in the
extreme voltage sag of 0.737 pu at BUS4 and 0.649 pu at
BUS5 for about 6 cycles respectively. This is severe
enough to trip the sensitive equipment such as the process
controller which can not tolerate a sag below 0.80 pu [12].

-100

-200

Figure 11 Bus 4 phase C voltage waveform

400

200

C2 Voltage sags due to motor starting

Motors draw high reactive current (5-7 times of rated
current) from the supply during the starting process, which
usually lasts for about 30 cycles. This sudden rise of
current flow through the network impedance results in the
voltage sag at the terminal bus. The sag magnitude mainly
depends on the starting motors power rating, the network
impedance and the system source strength. A motor with a
power rating of 150 kW connected to 415V Bus 2 is
simulated for the starting process; the starting current is 6
times of the rated current. The result is shown in Figures.
12-14. Voltage sags at motor terminal, Sub. 10, 415V panel
and at MS lab 208V Bus are 0.82 pu, 0.94 pu and 0.95 pu
respectively. As expected, voltage sags are most severe at
the motor terminal, the other equipment connected with the
starting motor at the same feeder suffers the most. But the
415V main distribution panel and the other feeders
experience insignificant voltage sag during the motor
starting process. The voltage sags due to motor starting are
not severe enough to cause equipment misoperation.
20 0

V o lta g e (V )

0 .0

.07 50

.22 50

.37 50

.52 50

.67 50

t(S )

-200

-400

Figure 12 Motor terminal voltage waveform (motor starting)

400

V o lta g e (V )

200

1
0 .0
.0 7 5 0

.2 2 5 0

.3 7 5 0

.5 2 5 0

.6 7 5 0

t(S )

-2 0 0

-4 0 0

Figure 13: 415V Bus 2 voltage waveform (motor starting)

200

V o l t a g e (V )

100

V o lta g e (V )
t (S )
1
0 .0
.0 7 5 0

.2 2 5 0

.3 7 5 0

.5 2 5 0

.6 7 5 0

10 0
-100

t(S )
0.0
.02 50

.07 50

.12 50

.17 50

.22 51
-200

- 100

Figure 14 208V Bus 4 voltage waveform (motor starting)

- 200

Figure 9 Bus 4 phase A voltage waveform

IV MITIGATION METHOD FOR IMPROVING

TRANSIENTS OVERVOLTAGE

VI REFERENCES
[1] A. Domijan, G. T. Heydt, A. P. S. Meliopoulos, S. S.Venkata, S. West,
Direction Of Research On Electric Power Quality, IEEE Trans. On
Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1993,429-435.
[2] R. C. Dungan, M. F. McGranaghan, H. W. Beaty, Electrical Power
Systems Quality, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1996.
[3] E. W. Gunther, H. Mehta, A Survey Of Distribution System Power
Quality-Preliminary Results, IEEE Trans. On Power Delivery, Vol. 10,
No. 1, January 1993, pp. 322-328.
[4] D. O. Koval, How Long Should Power System Disturbance Site
Monitoring Be To Be Significant, IEEE Trans. on Industry Application,
Vol. 26, No. 4, July/August 1990, pp. 705-710.
[5] A. Mansoor, W. M. Grady, Predicting The Net Harmonic Currents
Produced By Large Numbers Of Distributed Single Phase Computer
Loads, IEEE Trans. On Power Delivery, Vol. 10, No. 4, October 1995,
pp. 2001-2006.
[6] Task Force On Harmonics Modelling And Simulation, Modelling
And Simulation Of The Propagation Of The Harmonics In Electric Power
Networks, Part I: Concepts, Models And Simulation Techniques, IEEE
Trans. On Power Delivery, Vol. 11, No. 1, Jan. 1995, pp. 450-460.
[7] Power Electronics Modelling Task Force & Digital Simulation
Working Group, Guidelines For Modelling Power Electronics In Electric
Power Engineering Applications, IEEE Trans. On Power Delivery, Vol.
12, No. 1, January 1997, pp. 505-513.
[8] J. K. Phipps, J. P. Nelson, P. K. Sen, Power Quality and Harmonic
Distortion On Distribution System, IEEE Trans. On Industry
Applications, Vol. 30, No.2, Mar./Apr.1994, pp. 476-484.
[9] A. A. Girgis, C. M. Fallon, J. C. P. Rubino, R. C. Catoe, Harmonics
And Transient Overvoltages Due To Capacitor Switching, IEEE Trans.
On Industry Application, Vol. 29, No., Nov./Dec.1993, pp.1184-1188.
[10] C. K. K. Victor, Power Line Signal Processing (Power Quality
Monitoring), Bachelor Of Engineering Thesis, The University Of
Queensland, THE12171, PSE Library, University of Queensland, Oct.
1997.
[11] IEEE Task Force On The Effects Of Harmonics On Equipment,
Effects Of Harmonics On Equipment, IEEE Trans. On Power Delivery,
Vol. 8, No.2, April. 1993, pp. 672-680.
[12] J. Lamoree, D. Mueller, P. Vinett, W. Jones, M. Samotyj, Voltage
Sag Analysis Case Studies, IEEE Trans. On Industry Applications, Vol.
30, No. 4, Jul./Aug.1994, pp.1083-1089.

One commonly used method for limiting the transient

overvoltage on the DC bus of the sensitive equipment is to
arrange a reactor in series with the AC input terminal.
EMTP simulation is performed to evaluate the mitigation
effects. The process controllers of the MS instrument is
modelled as single-phase diode bridge rectifiers with a
large filter capacitor connected on the DC side. A series
5% reactor (approximately 0.28 mH) is connected at the
AC input terminal. DC Bus voltages for five different
capacitor switching simulations are shown in Table 8.
Table 8 MS instrument DC Bus voltage under capacitor switching
condition

No.
1
2
3
4
5

No
mitigation
1.57 pu
1.38 pu
1.29 pu
1.34 pu
1.52 pu

With
mitigation
1.09 pu
1.04 pu
1.01 pu
1.01 pu
1.05 pu

The results indicate that the mitigation method of

connecting a series reactor at the AC input terminal of the
sensitive equipment could significantly reduce the
overvoltage at the DC side thus enhance the ride through
capability under capacitor switching conditions.

V CONCLUSIONS
EMTP simulations had been performed in relation to power
quality analysis in a University distribution system. The
voltage harmonic distortion level is relatively low and
within the IEEE 519-1992 limits. However, the harmonic
current injected into the system by most of the customers
loads exceeds the limits. For the switching of an 11kV, 5
MVA capacitor bank, the maximum transient overvoltage
at 415V Bus is around 1.53 pu. Two hundred shots random
switching indicates that about 40% of switching induced
overvoltage exceeds 1.2 pu at 415V Bus which could cause
interruption for some sensitive equipment. Voltage sag at
415V and 208V Bus due to SLGFs in 33kV system is 0.65
pu and 0.74 pu respectively, severe enough to trip sensitive
equipment such as process controllers which can not
tolerate a voltage sag below 0.8 pu. Voltage sag due to
motor starting is insignificant related to power quality
concerns. A 5% line reactor installed at the MS instrument
terminal can significantly reduce the transient overvoltage
at its internal DC bus thus enhance the ride through
capability under capacitor switching conditions.

VII BIOGRAPHIES
Wu Jun graduated with an Electrical Engineering Degree and has been
working with Guanxi Water Resources and Electric Power Design
Institute in China. He worked as a research fellow in the Department of
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland
in 1998. His research interests include power systems and power quality.
Tapan Kumar Saha was born in Bangladesh and came to Australia in
1989. Dr. Saha is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science
& Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia. Before
joining the University of Queensland he taught at the Bangladesh
University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh for three
and a half years and at the James Cook University of North Queensland,
Townsville, Australia for two and a half years. He is a Senior Member of
the IEEE and a Chartered Professional Engineer of the Institute of
Engineers, Australia. His research interests include power systems, power
quality, high voltage and insulation engineering.

VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Mr. Adrian Mengede, Senior Electrical
Engineer of the Property and Facilities Division of the University of
Queensland for his assistance throughout this research.