High Voltage Engineering

Lecture #1
Dr. Ahmed Ismail
Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
Department, Power and Machines Section.
E-mail: A.Ismail@eng.svu.edu.eg
eng.ahmedesmail2015@gmail.com

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 Course Description

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 Course Description

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 Introduction

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 What is high voltage
• A mobile phone is operated from a 4V battery. It

may be destroyed if anyone attempts to operate

it from a 12V car battery. Therefore 12V is quite a
high voltage for a mobile phone.

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 What is high voltage
High voltage is specially referred to electrical
power system .

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 What is high voltage
• Voltage Levels

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 What is high voltage

• However , the exact magnitude of these levels

vary from country to country.
• Hence this system of technical terms for the
voltage levels is inappropriate.
• In most part of the world even 440 V is
considered to be high voltage since it is
dangerous for the living being.
• Hence it would be more appropriate to always

mention the level of voltage being referred

without any set nomenclature.
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 What is high voltage
• Basically it is required for transmission
lines to be able to transmit more
power over the same line.

Therefore we conclude that it is not

wise to increase the line current
transmit more power to over a
keeping the voltage same. line,

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 What is high voltage
• Basically it is required for transmission
lines to be able to transmit more power
over the same line.

Therefore we see that if the transmission

line voltage is increased it is capable of
transmitting more power without
increasing the power loss in the line.

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 Trends in Voltage Growth

ur
uu n mt r ay yt uh pe date
 Trends in Voltage Growth

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 Fields of applications of HV

• Power system engineering

• Research laboratories

• Industries

• Nuclear research, particle accelerators

• Electrostatic precipitators

• Automobile ignition coils

• Medical applications like X-ray machine

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 What we learn in High Voltage Engineering
 Testing of HV equipments like power
transformers, bushings, CB, insulators, cables etc.
 Usually tests are done at a voltage much higher
than the operating voltage.
 Generation, measurement and control of different
types of HV.
 Failure mechanism of HV equipments caused by
HV stress.
 Breakdown mechanism of different types of
insulating materials ( solid, liquid, gas, vacuum)
under different types of voltages (ac, dc.)… ,
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 Course Objective:
To clearly understand the basic concepts of breakdown
phenomena in various insulation materials (Gases, Liquids,
Solids) and how to generate and measure the different
types of high voltages (DC, AC, Impulse.)

Main Topics:
 Introduction
 Breakdown mechanisms in gases
 Breakdown mechanisms in liquids
 Breakdown mechanisms in solids
 Generation of high DC, AC and impulse voltages
 Measurement of high DC, AC and impulse voltages
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 Few future prospects of HV

• For cosmopolitan cities overhead distribution lines are

not allowed any more. HV underground cables of
compact size is the solution.
• Compact all-in-one fix-and-forget type GIS
substations are required in near future.
• HV has some residential and industrial applications
like water treatment plant, insect killer/repeller,
exhaust air purifier etc.

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 Suppose it is said that the
AC High Voltage voltage is 100kV.
Voltage Then this peak value is
In = 100X 103 X 2
kV volt  140kV
In high voltage engineering, we should always be careful
about the peak value of the ac voltage, because this is the
maximum voltage in the system and may be responsible
for initiating breakdown or failure

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 DC High Voltage
100kV
Voltage
In
kV

Time In ms

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 Lightning Impulse
500kv
Voltage
In 90%
kV

500kV
%50

%10

t0
t3 Time
t1 t2 In
μs
Wave front
(1.25=t2-t)1 Wave tail
=t3-t 0
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 Note
• Generation and measurement of high voltage are in the
laboratories.
• Why didn’t we use the air as a cheap insulation rather
than liquid and solid (with higher cost?)
• What is the difference between voltage and potential?
• What are the different type of electrodes that can be used in high
voltage application & which is better for use, why?
• Why we need to clean the surface of insulator regularly?
• Why insulator breakdown under HV application?
• If we open the two electrodes of HV circuit, on which
direction will the arc move? Why?

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 Thank You

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