Three-Phase Five-Limb Transformer Harmonic

Analysis under DC-bias

Talent T. Murwira; Sizwe Mkhonta; David T.O. Oyedokun; Komla A. Folly and C. T. Gaunt
Electrical Engineering Department
University of Cape Town
South Africa
ttmurwira@gmail.com
 Abstract— Geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) are dc-
like currents that cause transformers to become a source of
harmonics in a power system. This paper investigates the
harmonic profiles and thresholds of GIC currents that affect
the operation of transformers subjected to dc current.
Laboratory tests and Finite Element Method (FEM)
simulations were conducted to examine the harmonics in three-
phase five-limb (3p5L) transformers. The results show that
there is high distortion in the transformer’s magnetizing
current under dc-injections. This is characterized by the
presence of even and odd harmonics in the transformer. The
paper shall also give the DC current thresholds that causes the
maximum allowable harmonics to be generated by the
transformer.
Keywords— Triplen harmonics, magnetizing current, finite
element method.
I. INTRODUCTION
Geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) are quasi-dc
currents with frequencies that range between 0.001~0.1 Hz
[1]. GICs are not the sole source of DC currents in power
grids. DC current may be injected from HVDC lines
operating near ac grids, photovoltaic systems connected to
the grid via inverters, and ac and dc drives. Their effects on
the power system are costly to power utilities. In South
Africa, several transformers were damaged during the
Halloween Storm [2]. The primary effect of GIC current to
transformers is asymmetrical saturation. Asymmetrical
saturation lead to increased harmonics, noise, magnetization
current, voltage drop, hot spot temperature rise and reactive
power demand. Large excitation currents flowing in the
power system under dc-bias have also been found to cause
false tripping of relays especially in capacitor banks and
static var compensators. Tripping of these reactive power
reserves may lead to catastrophic events such as blackouts
or even permanent damage to insulators, capacitors, static
var compensator (SVC) firing thyristors and transformers.
Mal-operation of relays is also linked to even and odd
harmonics generated by saturated transformers conducting
GIC. The main focus of this paper thus dwells on the
harmonic content of transformers under GIC attack, and the
levels of dc current causing such damages. High magnitudes
of magnetizing current that is rich in harmonics results in
high flux in the core and its surroundings. The increase in
flux results in increased core losses and hotspot temperature
within structural parts of the transformer. This additional
heating causes insulation degradation that may cause
premature failure of the transformer.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Asymmetrical Saturation Caused by GIC
The primary effect of GIC current to transformers is
asymmetrical saturation. DC flowing in power transformers
causes an upward shift in the voltage and this drives the
transformer in saturation region. In deep saturation, the
transformer’s inductance is lowered, allowing more
magnetizing current to flow in the transformer. Figure 1
shows a waveform for an asymmetrically saturated
transformer, measured on a 15 kVA five-limb used in this
investigation.
Figure 1: Asymmetrical saturation on 3p5L transformer.
Under GIC bias, the saturated core becomes a much
higher reluctance path which requires more ampere-turns to
produce the same amount of flux in order to sustain the
system sinusoidal voltage level. Also, the core nonlinearity
demands extremely large harmonic components in the
exciting currents. Reduced core permeability and increased
exciting magnetic gradient result in a large amount of stray
flux being generated. As a consequence, stray flux heating
could occur in windings, structural metallic parts, winding
supports, and the tank plate. Local hot spots could develop
which could damage paper insulation and cause gassing and
transformer oil combustion.
B. Hypothetical Mitigation Strategies
Different methods have been proposed to mitigate the
effects of GIC [3]. The methods proposed vary in the
techniques used: GIC blocking devices and monitoring and
control techniques. The GIC blocking devices proposed can
either be installed in the phases or on the neutrals of
grounded transformers. Transmission line series capacitors
can be used to block the flow of GIC on power lines – this
method has been found to be ineffective in the US power
grid [4]. A capacitor can be installed in the neutral of the
transformer to block GIC currents from entering the
transformer. The drawbacks of this method are that it would
bring considerable uncertainty and risk of impedance
changes and ferroresonance concerns on the network. Partial
GIC blocking can also be done by installing a resistor in
neutral of the transformers. The neutral GIC blocking
resistor can reduce overall GIC levels by approximately 60
to 70% [4]. Monitoring and control techniques involves
measuring the dc current and relates them to known network
parameters that changes under dc conditions. The
parameters that can be used are:
• Voltage and/or var swings.
• Abnormal temperature rise and transformer noise
• Dissolved gases
• GIC related harmonics
Accurate modelling of these indicators of the presence of
GIC is required in the power system industry. That is why it
is very important to find thresholds and trends of harmonics,
reactive power, dissolved gases and temperature rise under
dc-bias.
C. 3p5L Transformer Structure and its Response to GIC parameters of the real transformer. The equivalent circuit
The 3p5L transformer is mostly used in European parameter are shown in Table 1.
networks but it is also available in the South African
network. The transformer has two return paths for flux, this TABLE 1: THE EXACT EQUIVALENT PARAMETERS OF THE
is not the case in a three-phase three-limb (3p3L) TRANSFORMER.
transformer. In a 3p3L transformer conducting GIC, the flux
must travel through a high reluctance path outside the core 3p5L, 380/380 V, 15 kVA Transformer
to complete its circuit. The stray flux is believed to cause Parameter Impedance (�)
heating of the tank and other structural parts of the 1800.1775
transformer. Most studies have reported that there is no stray j923.273
flux outside the core in a five-limb transformer. Thus, it is 0.2357
envisaged that, heating of the tank in the five-limb 0.2357
transformer cannot occur as a result of GIC flow. However,
j0.2357
this does not dismiss that heating of other structural parts of
the transformer does not occur. There was a fast rise in the j0.2357
flux in the core as measured using search coils tied around
the core in the investigation that we carried out in the
III. LABORATORY TESTING SYSTEM
laboratory. This rise in flux may cause heating of the core,
tie plates and core bolts in power transformers. This investigation was conducted on power
transformers through a series of laboratory experiments. The
voltage and current total harmonic distortion (THD)
measurements with a Yokogawa WT1800 power analyzer,
up to the 60th component, are shown below. Figure 3 is a
representation of the experimental setup. The system was
supplied from a power supply with 1.1% voltage THD,
much less than the standard limit of 5% according to IEEE
standards [5].

Total harmonic distortion is the common principle to

express harmonic magnitudes. THD is defined as the ratio of
Figure 2: Positioning of air search coils around the 3p5L, 15 kVA the root-sum-square value of the harmonic content of
transformer.
voltage or current to the root-mean-square value of the
A dc current of 12 A per phase was injected in the five- fundamental voltage or current and it is mathematically
limb transformer and air search coils were installed in the expressed as:
positions shown in Figure 2. The search coils outside the
core (AC1-AC6) did not show any leakage flux – which is
widely reported in literature. Taking a different approach, (4)
we decided to install search coils (1-16) in the inner
windows and the results show that leakage flux can be (5)
measured starting from 0.33 A per phase of dc current. None
of the papers that discuss the effects of dc current were able
to figure out that while there is no outward leakage flux,
some leakage flux can be found in the inner windows of the
five-limb transformer.

D. Finite Element Method

The Finite Element Method (FEM) is a powerful tool to
model electromagnetic devices such as the transformer. It
involves the creation of a geometry and the object or
geometry is broken down into small elements i.e. finite
elements. These elements are then represented by a set of
Maxwell’s equations, expressed below:

(1)
(2)
(3)

A 3p5L model was developed using the exact Figure 3: Test system for transformer response to GICs
dimensions provided by the manufacture. Short circuit and
open circuit tests were conducted to find the equivalent
circuit parameter of the transformer. The equivalent circuit
parameters are required for refining the model to match the
 IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The laboratory experiments have shown that there is
severe increase in harmonics in transformers conducting dc
current. The tests compared the effects of harmonics under
different load types. FEM simulations were also done and
they showed that there is a wide harmonic spectrum of both
odd and even harmonics under dc conditions.
A. Magnetizing Current
The transformer magnetization current waveforms at 0
A, 1 A and 6 A of dc current injected in the transformer
neutral showed an increase in the magnetizing current.
Figure 4: Magnetizing current waveforms under dc-bias
The transformer hysteresis loop represents the
transformer’s inductance, and as it enters in saturation
region the inductance drops heavily allowing more
magnetizing current to flow. The current waveform is
distorted as seen from Figure 4 above, which results in
harmonics generation in the transformer.
B. Harmonics on Load
Several researchers have said that triplen or third order
harmonics are predominant in transformers conducting GIC
[6, 7]. This research has shown that this is the case at no
load only for 3p5L transformers as seen from Figure 5.
When the transformer is loaded, both even and odd
harmonics exist with no specific order being predominant.
Figure 5: Voltage harmonic magnitudes at no load.
Triplen harmonics are zero sequence currents that flow
in the phases and back into the neutral. That is why neutral
conductor will need to be oversized (compared to phase
conductors) to carry out these extra-currents. For example,
in the presence of around 10 Amps of 3rd order harmonics
in each of the 3 phases, will mean an extra current of around
30 Amps in the neutral conductor (at 150 Hz in a 50 Hz
installation). Other effects of triplen harmonics are
excessive neutral currents, transformer failures, excessive
heating of motors, electronic device failures, failed capacitor
banks, breakers and fuse tripping, and interference in
communication systems [8].
C. Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
The results for the THD variation at the input side is
shown in Figure 6. Current and voltage THD with a load of
1.5 kW is 1.2% and 1.1% with no dc injected into the
system. A dc current approximately 2.2 A is sufficient
enough to give a THD rise of current beyond the IEEE
threshold of 20% [5]. In contrast, voltage THD needs a
much higher current of to surpass the IEEE threshold of 5%.
It can be seen that there is a very steep rise in current THD
between 1 A and 12 A in the neutral. At higher values of dc
the THD will stabilize because the inductance of the
transformer will be almost constant in deep saturation. It is
believed that as more dc current is injected, the transformer
will reach air core saturation and that subsequently lead to
the THD to drop.
Figure 6: Current and voltage THD as measured from the input side
 The input and output THD of voltage is shown in Figure
7. As explained earlier, in both cases, a dc current of 25 A dc
in neutral is required to surpass the IEEE threshold of
voltage. This current is 36.71 percent of the rated current of
the transformer used in the investigations.
Figure 7: Input and output voltage THD
The voltage THD at varying loads was also investigated
in order to establish the effect of load type on THD. Three
different loads that were used are; THD r1 – at 1.5 kW load,
THD r2 – at 3 kW load, THD rl3 – at 6.4 kVA. The
conclusion is that voltage THD is lower for resistive loads
than inductive loads, while it is slightly maintained for
resistive loads. This means power utilities will suffer the
effects of GIC more when they have inductive loads. Figure
8, shows the variation of voltage THD at varying loads.
Figure 8: Voltage THD at varying loads
D. FEM Results
The FEM model that was developed using the data
described in section 2.4 is shown below. Figure 10 shows
the harmonic profile compiled at 18 A of dc current in the
neutral.
Figure 9: 3p5L, 15 kVA transformer FEM model
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) results showing increasing
harmonic content for a 3p5L transformer, with magnitudes
of harmonics decreasing at higher order.
Figure 10: FFT harmonic profile for a 3p5L transformer.
V. DISCUSSIONS
This paper investigated the harmonics generated under
varying dc conditions. There is an increase in the harmonics
generated. This will lead to a number of effects which
include: transformer heating, mal-operation of relays, static
var compensators tripping.
A. Considerations for Large Power Transformers
The THD threshold for large power transformer is 1.5%
[9] in accordance with IEEE standard. Using the results for
smaller power transformer, it takes a current of 3 A to
surpass this standard. This result correlates with experiments
done on MVA range power transformers [10, 11]. The limit
for transmission transformers is very low because if the
supply has a higher THD, the resultant THD in distribution
systems will be very much high. The results have shown
that inductive loads cause an increase in the system THD.
This is why the THD becomes high in distribution networks.
VI. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
These results are part of an ongoing research on 3p3L
and 3p5L transformers response to geomagnetically induced
currents. The results forms part our hypothesis which seeks
to obtain thresholds of GICs initiating degradation in power
transformer. In summary the following conclusions were
drawn from this study:
• A current of 8.33 A/phase or 25 A in the neutral is
required to surpass the IEEE harmonics limit for distribution
transformer of 5%. This current is 36.71 percent of the rated
current of the transformer used in the investigations.
• The increase in harmonics is more severe with
reactive loads compared to resistive loads. This was noticed
in the experimental results.
• The 3p5L transformer saturates quickly with very
low currents. This leads to a quick rise in the percentage
content of harmonics. However, the harmonic content
stabilizes for current above 10 A in the neutral before it
starts dropping.
• There is correlation in the dc current threshold
obtained from tests with smaller transformers with those that
were performed on larger power transformers.
 Further analysis shall be done in the FEM domain to
consider the harmonics generated in grid transformers and
the harmonic limits thresholds can be extrapolated. This will
benefit the power utilities, transformer manufacturing firms
and relay manufacturing transformers to understand the
harmonics and come up with measures to reduce the effects
of GIC generated harmonics on the power system.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Much appreciation and recognition goes to Mr. Hilary
Chisepo and Dr. Leslie Borill for their mentorship. Further
appreciation goes to Mr. Chris Wozniak, Mr. Philip Titus,
Mr. Hoosein Salie and Mr. Maysam Soltanian for their
guidance and assistance with the laboratory work. This
research is supported financially by the Open Philanthropy
Project. Laboratory testing space and source transformers
were provided by Eskom distribution at Brackenfell, South
Africa.
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