DC reactor type transformer inrush current limiter

M. Tarafdar Hagh and M. Abapour

Abstract: A new inrush current limiter (ICL) is presented to limit the inrush current of transfor-
mers. The proposed ICL consists of three similar sets. Each set includes a diode-bridge and a
single DC reactor and is connected in series with the individual phases of transformer. The ICL
has almost no effect on normal operation of transformer. It needs no control, measurement and
gate driving system and has a simple power circuit topology. The equivalent instantaneous induc-
tance of transformer is used for analysis of circuit operation. The theoretical analysis, design
features, power losses and voltage distortion because of using ICL are presented. The proposed
method has been tested by simulation and laboratory experiments. Both results show that the pro-
posed ICL successfully limits the inrush current.

rS equivalent resistance of source and transmission

List of Symbols
line
L1d primary leakage inductance LS equivalent inductance of source and transmission
r1 primary effective resistance line
u1 primary terminal voltage Xm magnetising reactance of transformer
i1 primary current Rp transformer iron core resistance
iM magnetising current Rsc resistance in the primary and secondary winding
w mutual flux linkage Xsc the leakage impedance in the primary and sec-
ondary winding
L 20 d secondary leakage inductance referred to primary
ir ripple current in DC reactor
r 20 secondary resistance referred to primary
IDC average current in DC reactor
u 20 secondary terminal voltage referred to primary
Imax maximum of utility current
i 20 secondary current referred to primary
PDC DC reactor power loss
LM instantaneous magnetising inductance of the
transformer PBridge average power loss of diode-bridge
Zpr primary impedances of transformer PTotal total power loss of ICL
0
Z sec secondary impedances of transformer referred to
primary
0 1 Introduction
Z load load impedance referred to primary side
LNS magnetising inductance when the iron core is not
The transformer inrush current is a transient current that
saturated
occurs in an electric circuit when a transformer has been
LSa magnetising inductance when the iron core is energised. This current depends on different parameters
saturated such as the magnitude of voltage, the switching-on angle,
Zs equivalent impedance of source and transmission the remanent flux, the hysteresis characteristics of core,
line the resistance in the primary circuit and others [1]. The
Ze equivalent impedance of transformer and load magnitude of the inrush current may be several times
higher than the transformer rated current. This could
re resistance of Ze result in high mechanical and thermal stresses. If the
Le inductance of Ze inrush current is suppressed by some methods, these pro-
rd resistance of DC reactor blems may be avoided. There are two basic methods for lim-
Ld inductance of DC reactor iting the inrush current:
VDF forward voltage drop across rectifier diodes (a) Interior improvement methods [2, 3],
id DC reactor current (b) Additional control circuits [4 – 6].

Interior improvement methods usually make use of mag-

# The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2007
doi:10.1049/iet-epa:20060511
Paper first received 26th December 2006 and in revised form 12th May 2007
The authors are with the Power Electronics and FACTS Laboratory, Faculty of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
E-mail: tarafdar@tabrizu.ac.ir
808
netising characteristics of transformer core. One idea is
using a virtual air-gap which its equivalent thickness is con-
trollable [3]. It needs an auxiliary winding inside the mag-
netic core. A DC current is injected in auxiliary winding
to make a local magnetic saturation with the permeability
closed to m0 . So the saturated zone is similar to an
IET Electr. Power Appl., 2007, 1, (5), pp. 808 –814
air-gap. Inserting the virtual air-gap inside the magnetic
core reduces the remanent flux and decreases the peak
value of inrush current. However, this idea needs a DC
current source and result in complex design of transformer
and increasing the cost. In addition, the auxiliary winding is
redundant after startup mode of transformer. In [2], another
interior improvement method for transformer design with
an asymmetric winding configuration is proposed. This
method can provide the high inrush equivalent inductance
and suitable leakage inductance for a transformer. The
transformer designs with the three-layered S-P-S and the
four-layered S-P-S-P structures for changing the cross-
sectional area of the primary winding where P and S
stand for primary and secondary windings. It seems that
the complex design of multi-layer structure of transformer
is the main disadvantage of mentioned method.
On the other hand, there are some methods for additional
control circuits such as
(a) controlling the switching on angle [5 – 7],
(b) resistor insertion,
(c) combination of (a) and (b) [5, 6],
(d) power-electronic-based methods [4].
All of the first three methods require additional control cir-
cuitry outside the transformer. These methods suffer from
uncertainty factors in circuit breaker (e.g. springs), rema-
nent flux, measurement of instantaneous magnitude of
residual flux and direction at the instant of transformer exci-
tation and so on.
For power-electronic-based methods, there are two main
approaches which are
(1) controlling the switching-on angle by using SCR,
(2) series compensator.
The disadvantages of the former are the on-state voltage,
power consumption, and using control, protection measure-
ment and gate driving circuits.
As an example for the latter, in [4] an inverter-based
series compensator using the current-mode control is pro-
posed. But, it needs controlled semiconductors, a DC
capacitor, a series transformer, control, measurement and
gate driving circuits. In addition, it needs the short-circuit
protection and voltage regulation of DC capacitor.
This paper proposes a new series compensator-based
circuit for limiting inrush current of transformers. This
circuit consists of a diode-bridge type DC reactor that con-
nects in series with each phase of transformer. It does not
need any control, measurement and gate driving circuits.
The power circuit simplicity, reliable operation and
almost no effect on normal operation of transformer are
other advantages of proposed inrush current limiter (ICL).
Fig. 1 Power circuit arrangement of proposed system
IET Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 1, No. 5, September 2007
In addition, it requires no information of power-on angle
of circuit breaker and measurement of residual flux.
Theoretical analysis, power losses computations and the
effect on voltage quality are presented. Simulation and
experimental results are obtained to verify the performance
of proposed ICL in transient and steady states.
2 Power circuit topology of proposed ICL
Fig. 1 shows the single-phase power circuit topology of pro-
posed ICL. The source is assumed to be sinusoidal. An R-L
load is connected to secondary side of transformer. The ICL
consists of a diode bridge and a DC reactor. The rd and Ld
stand for resistance and inductance of DC reactor, respect-
ively. By choosing an appropriate value for Ld , it is possible
to achieve a nearly DC current in DC reactor at steady-state
operation of transformer. Therefore the DC reactor has no
significant role in normal operation of system.
Unfortunately, because of forward voltage drop across the
rectifier diodes VDF , the DC reactor will discharge gradually
and there would be a current ripple through it.
3 Mathematical model of transformer
The equivalent T circuit for a two-winding transformer with
its load referred to primary side is shown in Fig. 2a, where
L1d: primary leakage inductance
r1: primary effective resistance
u1: primary terminal voltage
i1: primary current
iM: magnetising current
w: mutual flux linkage
L 20 d: secondary leakage inductance referred to primary
r20 : secondary resistance referred to primary
u 20 : secondary terminal voltage referred to primary
i 20 : secondary current referred to primary
Considering Fig. 2a, we have
di1 dw diM
u1 ¼ r1 i1 þ L1d þ
(1)
dt diM dt
where iM ¼ i1 2 i 20 .
The LM represents the instantaneous magnetising induc-
tance (IMI) of the transformer and is defined by
dw
LM ¼ (2)
diM
The approximate solution of IMI shown in (3) can be
obtained when the voltage drops in r1 and L1d are ignored,
809
Fig. 2 Transformer and load model during the inrush current

because they are almost negligible for large transformers where r ¼ rS þ rd þ re , L ¼ LS þ Ld þ Le . rS and LS stand
u1 for equivalent resistance and inductance of source and trans-
LM ¼ (3) mission line. From (5), the current equation in charging
diM =dt mode between t0 to t2 is shown by
Considering (3), it is possible to obtain LM by using the  
(r=L)(tt0 ) V 2VDF
measured instantaneous primary and secondary windings i(t) ¼ e  sin(vt0  u) þ
currents and primary winding voltage in the transformer z r
(6)
[8]. Considering this fact that the inrush current is a result V 2VDF
of the transformer core saturation shows that the iron core þ sin(vt  u) 
z r
alternates between the saturation and non-saturation p 2 2
during the inrush current. This will result in a drastic vari- where: z ¼ ðr þ (Lv) Þ, u ¼ tan1 (Lv=r), i(t0) ¼ 0,
ation of the IMI, as shown in Fig. 2b. In this figure, LNS i(t) ¼ id (t)
is the magnetising inductance when the iron core is not satu- The discharging mode begins at t ¼ t2 when the inrush
rated and LSa corresponds to a high degree of saturation in current reaches to its maximum value. As shown in
the iron core. Therefore the IMI variation is an inherent Fig. 4a, during this mode the inrush current is less than
feature of the inrush current, which can be used to detect DC reactor current and all of diodes turn on because of
and modelling the inrush current. In Fig. 2a, Zpr stands for charged current in DC reactor. Indeed, the DC reactor is
0 0
the primary side impedance and Z sec and Z load stand for short circuit by diodes and it has no effect on circuit oper-
the secondary and load impedances referred to primary ation as shown in Fig. 3b. In discharging mode, we have
side, respectively. The equivalent impedance of transformer
and load is as follows did (t)
Ld þ rd id (t) þ 2VDF ¼ 0 (7)
0 0
dt
Ze ¼ re þ jvLe ¼ {(Zsec þ ZLoad )k(jvLM )} þ Zpr (4)

where re and Le stand for resistance and inductance of Ze ,

respectively. The equivalent impedance of transformer
and load Ze is used for circuit analysis and simulation.

4 Circuit analysis

The proposed ICL has two modes of operation:

1. Charging,
2. Discharging.

The single-phase equivalent circuits of mentioned modes

are shown in Fig. 3. The utility voltage is assumed to be
sinusoidal and the equivalent impedance of source and
transmission line is shown with Zs . Fig. 4 shows the
inrush and DC reactor currents for a typical transformer.
Considering Fig. 4a, the charging mode begins at t0 and
continues until t2 . When the transformer energises at
t ¼ t0 , the inrush current begins to rise. At t0 the diodes
D1 and D3 turn on and DC reactor connects in series with
utility as shown in Fig. 3a. In this mode, the voltage
across Ld causes the limitation of inrush current of transfor-
mer. When t ¼ t1 , the transformer saturates and LM changes
its value from LNS to LSa . In charging mode, we have the
following equation
di(t)
V sin(vt) ¼ ri(t) þ L þ 2VDF (5)
dt Fig. 3 Single-phase equivalent power circuit topology

810 IET Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 1, No. 5, September 2007

Fig. 4 Inrush and DC reactor currents when transformer energised

From (7), the DC reactor current in discharging mode is Using (12), it is possible to calculate the desired value of
Ld as follows
 
2V 2V
id (t) ¼ e(rd =Ld )(tt2 ) i2 þ DF  DF (8) rT =4
rd rd Ld ¼  LS  Le
ln (ðri2  VDS þ 2VDF Þ=ðVDS þ 2VDF )Þ
where i(t2) ¼ i2 . (13)
In this mode for inrush current we have
where T stands for period of power frequency.
di (t) Fig. 5 shows a typical characteristic of maximum inrush
V sin(vt) ¼ riL (t) þ L L (9) current magnitude against DC reactor inductance (using the
dt
data of simulation results in next part). This figure shows
At t ¼ ta , LM changes its value from LSa to LNS again. So that increasing of Ld results in decreasing of maximum
from (9) the inrush current between t2 and ta is inrush current. Obviously, the suitable value for Ld
depends on electrical parameters of utility and transformer.
  From practical point of view, to avoid saturation effect
(r=L)(tt2 ) V
iL (t) ¼ e i2  sin(vt2  u) and getting the suitable value of Ld , the DC reactor may
z have a core with an air-gap or a non-saturated iron core.
(10)
V A non-saturated iron core (linear reactor) is used for analyti-
þ sin(vt  u) cal, simulation and experimental results.
z
Obviously, it is possible to use a single-phase parallel
p circuit breaker with each phase of proposed ICL to bypass
where r ¼ rS þ re , L ¼ LS þ Le , z ¼ ðr2 þ (Lv)2 Þ, u ¼
1 it during steady-state operation of transformer and cancel-
tan (Lv=r), i(t2 ) ¼ i2 .
ling any possible voltage distortion and power loss of pro-
After t ¼ t2 and limiting inrush current by DC reactor, the
posed ICL [10]. However, the following parts describe the
DC reactor discharges because of its resistance and the
voltage distortion and power loss considerations of pro-
voltage drops of diodes and at t ¼ t3 the reactor current
posed ICL.
reaches again to load current as shown in Fig. 4b.
Fig. 6a shows the load voltage with proposed ICL. This
Between t2 and t3 , the DC reactor has no effect on circuit
figure shows a voltage distortion that is because of DC
operation because there is not any charging mode in its
reactor resistance and voltage drop on diodes. Fig. 6b
operation. Similarly, after t ¼ t3 , the ICL has almost no
shows the total harmonic distortion (THD) against resist-
effect on circuit operation because the DC reactor carries
ance of ICL for various value of VDF . This figure shows
almost DC current. So, the proposed ICL limits the inrush
that the THD increases by increasing the resistance of DC
current without any considerable effect on steady-state
reactor and VDF but it is in acceptable ranges for small
circuit operation.
values of rd . Fig. 6 is obtained by using parameters of
‘simulation results’ part of this article.

5 Design considerations

By substitute the average of rectified source voltage by

(VDS), it is possible to write (11) from (5) [9]

VDS  2VDF 
i(t) ¼ 1  e(r=L)(tt0 )
r (11)
 (r=L)(tt )
þ i0 e 0

where r ¼ rS þ rd þ re , L ¼ LS þ Ld þ Le , VDS ¼ 2V =p.

By choosing the maximum permitted inrush current in
Fig. 4a equal to i2 , from (11) we have

L ri  VDS þ 2VDF
t2  t0 ¼ ln 2 (12) Fig. 5 Maximum inrush current against inductance of DC
r VDS þ 2VDF
reactor
IET Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 1, No. 5, September 2007 811
 From economical point of view, there are five basic items
that should be considered for all power-electronic-based
circuits:

(a) Control, measurement, protection and gate driver

circuits,
(b) Engineering costs (designing, laboratory tests etc.)
(c) Input and output filters
(d) Semiconductor devices
(e) Passive components

The item (a) is cancelled for proposed ICL. The simple

power circuit topology and absence of the circuits men-
tioned in this item would result in considerable reduction
of engineering efforts and cost as item (b), too. For item
(c), the result of voltage distortion analysis showed that
there is almost no need for input and output filters. For
the price of semiconductor devices as item (d), by using
only diodes it is reasonable to have lower price compared
with other methods based on controlled turn on and turn
off switches. For making the DC reactor as item (e), there
are well-known technologies with good prices, too. By con-
sidering the mentioned items, it seems that the proposed
ICL would have reasonable cost for practical applications.

Fig. 6 Distortion of load voltage with proposed ICL in steady 6 Simulation results
state
The simulation results are obtained by PSCAD/EMTDC
By considering a DC current with negligible ripple software [11] for three-phase power circuit topology of
through DC reactor as shown in Fig. 4b during steady Fig. 7. The parameters are given in Appendix 1.
state (after t3) we have
ir ’ 0 ¼) IDC ’ Imax (14)
where, ir , IDC and Imax stand for ripple current in DC
reactor, the average current in DC reactor and the
maximum of utility current in steady state, respectively.
In this way, the DC reactor power loss PDC is
2 2
PDC ¼ rd IDC ¼ rd Imax (15)
For power loss of diodes, Fig. 3a shows that in charging Fig. 7 Simulated power circuit topology
mode two diodes are in series and their current is IDC
(neglecting ripple current). In discharging mode all of
diodes are on and we have
IDC ¼ [iD1 (t) þ iD2 (t)] ¼ [iD3 (t) þ iD4 (t)] (16)
By assuming a constant VDF , the average power loss of
diode-bridge PBridge is
PBridge ¼ 2VDF  IDC (17)
The total power loss of ICL in each phase would be the sum
of (15) and (17) and is
PTotal ¼ IDC [rd IDC þ 2VDF ] (18)
For example for a 20/0.4 kV transformer with primary rated
current Irms ¼ 50 (A), power factor ¼ 0.9 and installation of
ICL in high-voltage side with parameters rd ¼ 0.01 (Ohm)
and VDF ¼ 3 (V) we have
3PTotal
PTotal ¼ 474W ¼) ¼ 0:0009
PLoad
This shows that the power losses of proposed ICL are very
small percentage of overall distribution feeder rated power
PLoad and it can be acceptable for most of practical
applications. Fig. 8 Primary side current of transformer

812 IET Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 1, No. 5, September 2007

 Fig. 8a shows the primary side current without ICL. At
t ¼ 0.2 (s), the transformer is energised at no-load condition
and at t ¼ 1 (s) induction motor is switched on.
Fig. 8b shows the primary side and DC reactor currents
with ICL. Comparison of Figs. 8a and b shows that using
ICL has resulted in cancelling the transformer inrush
current and decreasing the peak of start-up current of induc-
tion motor from 4200 to 3400 A, too. This shows that using
the ICL is useful in soft-starting induction motors.
Fig. 9 shows the mechanical start-up speed of induction
motor with and without ICL. This figure shows that using
ICL results in a little increase in settling time of motor
speed that is not considerable in most of the practical
applications. Fig. 9 Mechanical speed of induction motor at starting mode
with and without ICL

Fig. 10 Electrical torque of induction motor

Fig. 11 Primary side current of transformer at no-load condition (Time/Div ¼ 50 ms)

Fig. 12 Primary side current of transformer (Time/Div ¼ 50 ms)

IET Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 1, No. 5, September 2007 813

 Figs. 10a and b show the electrical torque of induction superconducting fault current limiter’, IEEE Trans. Appl.
motor with and without ICL, respectively. Comparison of Superconduct., 2003, 13, (2), pp. 2012– 2015
10 Abapour, M., Taghizadegan, N., and Sharifian, M.B.B.: ‘A novel
these figures shows a considerable decreasing of oscillating approach for reducing inrush current in power transformer’. Proc.
torques of induction motor using the ICL that is important to Int. Conf. on Electrical Machines, Chania, Crete Island, Greece,
reduce mechanical stress. 2– 5 September 2006, on CD
11 PSCAD/EMTDC V3.0.8, Power System Simulation Software
User_Manual, Manitoba HVDC Research Center, Canada 2001
7 Experimental results
10 Appendices
An experimental test system is prepared similar to Fig. 7.
The parameters are given in Appendix 2. 10.1 Appendix 1
Figs. 11a and b show the primary side current of transfor-
mer with and without ICL, respectively. These figures show The parameters of simulated power circuit are as follows.
that using ICL has resulted in cancelling the transformer Source data:
inrush current.
Figs. 12a and b show the primary side current of transfor- Zs ¼ 0.01 þ j0.314 (V)
mer with and without ICL after starting up of induction vs(t) ¼ 10 sin(314t) (kV)
motor, respectively. These figures show the effect of pro-
posed ICL on limiting maximum start-up current that DC reactor data:
result in soft-starting of induction motor. Soft starting
induction motor is another advantage of proposed ICL. rd ¼ 0.01 (V)
Ld ¼ 0.2 (H)
VDF ¼ 3 (V)
8 Conclusion
Transformer data:
A new approach for limiting the inrush current of power
transformers by using a series connected diode-bridge DC Transformer MVA ¼ 10 (MVA)
reactor in each phase is proposed. A method is derived to Leakage reactance ¼ 0.1 (p.u.)
calculate the DC reactor value to reduce the inrush Air core reactance ¼ 0.1 (p.u.)
current to a predetermined value. The simulation and exper- Inrush decay time ¼ 0.2 (s)
imental results show satisfactory performance of mentioned Magnetising current ¼ 2% In
ICL in limiting inrush current of transformer. Advantages of Transformer ratio ¼ 1
the proposed ICL transformer are the simple power circuit
topology, reliable operation and no need for control, Induction motor general data:
measurement, protection and gate driver circuits. Rated voltage ¼ 10 (kV)
Furthermore, the ability of proposed ICL for fault current Rated power ¼ 1.2 (MW)
limiting and reduction of start-up current of motors would Stator/rotor turns ratio ¼ 2.6376
be interesting for further research. Mechanical damping ¼ 0.01 (p.u.)

9 References 10.2 Appendix 2

1 Cheng, C.K., Liang, T.J., Chen, J.F., and Yang, W.H.: ‘Novel The parameters of experimental power circuit are as
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IEE Proc. Electr. Power Appl., 2004, 34, pp. 289– 295
follows.
2 Chen, J.F., Liang, T.J., Cheng, C.K., Chen, S.D., Lin, R.L., and Yang, Source data:
W.H.: ‘Asymmetrical winding configuration to reduce inrush current
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Electr. Power Appl., 2005, 152, pp. 605– 611 Frequency ¼ 50 (Hz)
3 Molcrette, V., Kotny, J.L., Swan, J.P., and Brudny, J.F.: ‘Reduction of
inrush current in single-phase transformer using virtual air gap Induction motor data:
technique’, IEEE Trans. Magn., 1998, 34, (4), pp. 1192– 1194
4 Shyu, J.L.: ‘A novel control strategy to reduce transformer inrush Rated voltage ¼ 220 (V)
currents by series compensator’. Int. Conf. on Power Electronics
and Drives Systems, PEDS 2005, vol. 2, pp. 1283–1288 Rated power ¼ 180 (W)
5 Cui, Y., Abdulsalam, S.G., Chen, Sh., and Xu, W.: ‘A sequential phase Rated current ¼ 1.3 (A)
energization technique for transformer inrush current reduction -
Part I: simulation and experimental results’, IEEE Trans. Power DC reactor data:
Deliv., 2005, 20, (2), pp. 943– 949
6 Xu, W., Abdulsalam, S.G., Cui, Y., and Liu, X.: ‘A sequential phase rd ¼ 0.07 (V)
energization technique for transformer inrush current reduction – Part Ld ¼ 0.2 (H)
II: theoretical analysis and design guide’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv.,
2005, 20, (2), pp. 950–957 VDF ¼ 1.2 (V)
7 Mahgoub, O.A.: ‘Microcontroller-based switch for three-phase
minimization’. Proc. of the IEEE Int. power electronics congress, Transformer data:
Cuernavaca Mexico, 1996, pp. 107– 112
8 Baoming, G., de Almeida, A.T., Zheng, Q., and Wang, X.: ‘An Transformer power ¼ 2 (KVA)
equivalent instantaneous inductance-based technique for Voltage ¼ 220/110 (V)
discrimination between inrush current and internal faults in power Xm ¼ 731 (V)
transformers’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2005, 20, (4),
pp. 2473– 2482 Rp ¼ 1622 (V)
9 Hoshino, T., Salim, K.M., Kawasaki, A., Muta, I., Nakamura, T., and Rsc ¼ 1.4544 (V)
Yamada, M.: ‘Design of 6.6 kV, 100 A saturated DC reactor type Xsc ¼ 0.493 (V)

814 IET Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 1, No. 5, September 2007