Taming the total harmonic distortion on the 132kV Arlington Traction Station

Abstract

The 132kV Arlington Traction Station is fed from the krooonstad Switch Station. The 132kV Arlington network is further broken down into 22kV feeders to supply rural substations like Steynsrus, Goedehoop and Klippan which are islanded networks without back feeds. These activities resulted in harmonic generations. A study conducted on the network quality of the 132kV network by the Eskom proved that the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the Arlington traction network was above the 4% limit for HV and EHV networks as stipulated by NRS048 — 2007. This paper, therefore, proffers three strategies, the harmonic filtering, 12 or 18 pulses rectifiers and phase shifting transformer, to mitigate the harmonics generated within the network. Phase shifting transformer performs better in terms of technical effectiveness and financial simplicity. Also, the paper proposes the installation of 1×10MVA; 22kV substation to ensure a ring feed on the network and allows future development.