Viability of permanent single-phase opening of lines in extra high voltage systems. I. Secondary arc extinction

This paper discusses the viability of permanent single-phase opening of lines in extra high voltage systems as a system planning criterion. To apply such criterion it is necessary that: (i) the secondary arc that appears after a single-phase fault clearing is quenched; (ii) after a single-phase opening, the current imbalances of negative and zero sequence in the electric system are compensated. Power electronics are used to meet targets. Only the secondary arc extinction condition is analyzed in part I.