Optimal design of RC snubber circuit for mitigating transient overvoltage on VCB via hybrid FFT/Wavelet Genetic approach

•A novel Referential Integrity between Fast Fourier Transform and Wavelet approach (RI-FFT/WT) had been developed for the analysis of the switching transient overvoltage (TOV).•A VCB operated waste water treatment plant was simulated and presented as case study.•A novel hybridization of RI-FFT/WT analysis and Genetic approach (GA-FFT/WT) had been employed for the optimal design of snubber circuits.•Validation for the hybrid GA-FFT/Wavelet approach considering by comparison with conventional approaches, confirms its applicability.

This paper presents a new approach to the analysis of the transient overvoltage (TOV) generated during switching of vacuum circuit breaker (VCB). The new technique overlaps the merits of both Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Wavelet Transform (WT). The new approach was applied on a real case study of a pumping station of a wastewater treatment plant located at Abu Rawash, Egypt. The pumping station is driven by induction motors. Alternative transients program (ATP) is used to simulate the selected case study. The Referential Integrity between FFT and WT analyses (RI-FFT/WT) is employed to choose the RC snubber circuit parameters (R and C). The optimal snubber circuit parameters design was determined from the hybridization between genetic algorithm (GA) and RI-FFT/WT. It is evident from the simulation results that the new hybrid GA-FFT/WT approach succeeded in the selection of the most optimal RC-snubber circuits required for the mitigation of the TOV.