Switching of Inductive Currents and Dimensioning of RC-Snubbers with PAMSUITE

In order to control the voltage in distribution and transmission networks shunt reactors can be used for compensation of reactive power. Due to the switching of their inductive currents, unacceptable switching transient voltages might occur which can lead to damage of equipment. Furthermore, the breaker must be able to withstand the transient recovery voltage (TRV), amplitude and rate of rise (RRRV) respectively. One possibility to mitigate these switching transients are so-called RC Snubbers. They have to be dimensioned according to the topology and the values of R and C can be optimized with the PAMSUITE tool. In this presentation the modelling and the results of the TRV due to shunt reactor switching is discussed and the mitigation with RC Snubbers with the help of PAMSUITE is shown.