CURRENT AND POTENTIAL

TRANSFORMERS

G.GIRIJA
SHORT CIRCUIT LABORATORY

Instrument Transformers

To transform currents or voltages from usually a high value

to a value easy to handle for relays and instruments.
To insulate the relays, metering instruments from the
primary high-voltage system.

To standardize the rated current and rated voltage for relays

 Current
Voltage

transformers
transformers

Equipment Standards

Current Transformer = IEC 60044-1 / IS 2705

Inductive Voltage Transformer = IEC 60044-2 /
IS 3156 / Part 1 & II & III
Capacitor Voltage transformer = IEC 60044-5 / Part
1 & Part 4

Current Transformer
Main Parts : 1. Primary winding
2. Secondary winding
3. Core
4. Burden
According to constructions:

Bar Primary CT

Wound Primary CT

Ring CT

Dry type CT

Liquid immersed

Equivalent circuit of Current transformer

Ip

I2

Is
Ie

Rct
Rb

Es
Lm

Rwm

Xb

Vector diagramIdeal CT

Vector diagramPractical CT

NsIs = NpIp

NpIp
NpII1( =NsIs)

NpIe

RsIs

RsIs
XsIs

NpIm

Es

NsIs

XsIs
NsIs

Es

NpIw

Types of Current Transformers

# Metering Current transformers

# Protective Current transformer
# Protective Current transformers for special purpose
applications (PS class)

Difference between Metering and

Protective current transformer
Metering CT Very accurate,
saturate fast and protects the instruments
(meters) from over current.
Protective CT Reasonable accuracy to be maintained upto
ALF times the rated current

Difference between Protection class and PS class

Protection class Non- balance circuits.

prime requirement is the maintenance of
accuracy up to ALF times the rated current.
PS class

- Balance schemes of protection requires CTs

having high degree of similarity in their
characteristics

Protection class
Over current Protection

CT must be capable of developing a sufficiently high value

of secondary induced emf in order to give the secondary
current corresponding to the maximum primary fault current
at which protection device must operate.
Rated secondary limiting emf Ess = Is X ALF ( Zb + Rsw)
Max. secondary induced emf is required to be developed
to operate a relay Ew = Ir X plug setting ( Zbs + Rsw)

PS Class CT
Differential protection
A

B
(monitored area)

id

Rst
Protection
(Rp)

PS Class CT

Knee point voltage & excitation current

Turns ratio
Secondary winding resistance
Kp = k. Is ( Rct + Rb)
k - to be specified by the manufacturer,
depends on system fault level and relay
characteristics.

CURRENT
TRANSFORMER (CT)
Metering CT

Protection CT

Spl Purpose CT

Accuracy

Current error &

phase angle

Knee-point voltage
and exciting current

Instrument
security factor

Composite
error

Turns ratio, secondary

winding Resistance

Instrument security current test

It is the ratio of the saturation flux density to the

operating flux density for Metering CT
ISF should be as low as possible so that CT
saturates & secondary does not reflect the
primary conditions when there is an over current.
To protect connected instruments from over
currents.
eg: ISF < 5, 10, 15.

Instrument security current is termed as the

rated instrument primary limit current (IPL) and
is defined as the minimum primary current at which
composite error is equal to or greater than 10%

Determination of errors
Accuracy / current and phase
displacement error
- Rated primary current is passed through
the standard CT & test CT
Test CT secondary is connected with
required burden
Secondary current of the test CT is
compared with that of the standard CT

Measurement of current and phase angle error

CT-PT COMPARATOR

Burden

STANDARD
CT

SOURCE OF PRIMARY
CURRENT

CT UNDER
TEST

Composite error
By Indirect method

With the primary winding open

circuited a voltage equal to the
secondary limiting emf is applied to the
secondary terminals and excitation
current is noted down.
Ec = (Ie/(ALF X Is)) X 100

Measurement of composite error

CT under test

Pri

Sec

Ec = (Ie/(ALF X Is)) X 100

Accuracy
Class

Current
error
at rated
primary
current

Phase
displace
ment at rated
primary
current

Composite
error at
rated
accuracy
limit primary
current

min

5P

60

10P

10

Test on PS class

Declared Kp is applied to the secondary with

the primary open circuited and Ie noted.

Kp is increased to 10% & Ie should not

increase more than 50%.

Turns ratio should be within 0.25%

Secondary resistance should be within the

value specified.

Short-time current test

Effect of Short circuits
Electro dynamic stress - Mechanical forces
Thermal stresses - Heating
Insulation failure - recovery voltage

Short-time current test

Short- time thermal current test
To check the thermal stability
Primary winding has to carry the Ith (sym.) for a
specified time. with secondary winding shorted

Dynamic current test

To check the mechanical design
Primary winding has to carry the Idyn = 2.5 Ith
(Assym.) for atleast one peak with secondary
winding shorted

Mounting Arrangement for STC

Test requirement

No visible damage
The errors at rated burden after STC do not
differ from the values recorded before STC
by more than half limits of the accuracy
class
CT should pass the dielectric tests at 90 %
of the rated value.

Failure on Current Transformer after STC test

Over-voltage test

To check the inter-turn and inter layer

insulation
Primary winding is open circuited
Required voltage is applied to pass 1A or 5A
in the secondary for 1 minute
(90 % after STC)-

HVPF tests

High voltage power frequency

withstand test on primary windings
High voltage power frequency
withstand test on secondary windings.
HVPF test on sections
Test voltages as ratings / standard
Test duration one minute

Potential Transformer

Types
1. Inductive Voltage transformer
2. Capacitor voltage transformer

Equivalent circuit of IVT

(Ns/Np)xIpZp

Is

Up

IsZs

IsZb
Ie

Us

CVT Schematic

C1

E1
C2

E2

E3

Electromagnetic unit

E1 input voltage
E2 Output voltage from divider
E3 output voltage from CVT
C1, C2 Divider capacitance

Unlike CT, the demands on VT in terms of input

variations are less.
The transformers can therefore supply a
secondary voltage at good accuracy.

Voltage

transformers are usually connected phase

to earth. In the event of a disturbance in the
network, the voltage across the winding may
increase considerably -the voltage factor times the
nominal rated performance voltage.
Standard specifies following values for voltage
factor:
1.5 for systems with solidly earthed neutral.
1.9 for systems not being solidly earthed
Hence voltage transformers operate with low flux
density at rated voltage

Thank You