THE EFFECT OF BURDEN ON THE ACCURACY OF

INSTRUMENT TRANSFORMERS – A CASE ANALYSIS

Deepen Sharma1, Suprit Pradhan2
1 , 2 CoE for Automation Control & Protection, Hydropower R&D Centre

Druk Green Power Corporation Ltd.

Objective Experimental Measurements Particulars Potential Transformers Current Transformers

Effect of • % ratio error within • % ratio error within
• Establish general findings w.r.t the burden of measuring
Applied Primary
50 500 1000 2000
Voltage (V)

Burden
Burden on allowable limits with allowable limits with
current transformer (CT) & potential transformer (PT) Volt Ratio Ph. Disp. Ratio Ph. Disp. Ratio Ph. Disp. Ratio Ph. Disp.
Ampere
(VA)
Ohms (Ω) Error (%) (Deg.) Error (%) (Deg.) Error (%) (Deg.) Error (%) (Deg.)
Accuracy connected burden connected burden
between 25 - 100 % of the between 25 - 100 % of the
0.0 0.0 0.61 0.05 0.65 0.05 0.62 0.05 0.61 0.13

• Analyze their influence on the current/voltage ratio errors &

1.98 2000.0 0.61 0.03 0.65 0.04 0.61 0.04 0.60 0.13

4.06 1000.0 0.59 0.05 0.63 0.03 0.60 0.04 0.59 0.13

18.28 220.80 0.55 0.01 0.57 0.02 0.53 0.02 0.53 0.13 rated burden (50 to rated burden (37 to
phase displacements, defining their accuracies 28.5 140.80 0.48 0.00 0.52 0.00 0.49 0.01 0.47 0.11

51.41

98.7
78.00

40.00
0.40

0.15
0.00

-0.04
0.43

0.18
0.00

-0.07
0.45

0.21
-0.02

-0.06
0.38

0.19
0.10

0.05
200VA) 150VA).
Background
207.05 19.50 -0.34 -0.17 -0.30 -0.15 -0.27 -0.18 -0.29 -0.07

427.9 9.30 -1.25 -0.37 -1.25 -0.36 -1.26 -0.38 -1.31 -0.30

Table 2. Error measurement with PT Test Fig. 2. Dependency of voltage ratio error & • Error measured being • The readings will be read
• Investigation, done to establish the cause of the high auxiliary Specimen phase displacement on the applied burden positive, readings will be lower than the actual
transformation losses, for Chhukha Hydropower Plant (CHP) Applied Primary
Current (A)
300 (5%) 600 (10%) 1200 (20%) 1800 (30%) read higher than the value, with higher actual
Volt
Burden

Ratio Ph. Disp. Ratio Ph. Disp. Ratio Ph. Disp. Ratio Ph. Disp.
actual with lower actual connected burden and
• Replacement of the entire plant’s electromechanical relays
Error (%) (Deg.) Error (%) (Deg.) Error (%) (Deg.) Error (%) (Deg.)
Ampere
(VA)
Ohms (Ω)
connected burden and vice-versa
with numerical type in 2015-2016 0.0

12.68
0.0

0.6
0.29

0.16
-0.04

0.17
0.22

0.23
0.11

0.11
0.23

0.24
0.08

0.09
0.26

0.27
0.06

0.07 vice-versa
58.51 2.5 0.23 0.20 0.20 0.14 0.21 0.09 0.24 0.08

146.96 5.8 0.08 0.22 0.16 0.16 0.18 0.12 0.21 0.10
177.37

• Same is observed in case • Phase displacement is

7.2 0.09 0.20 0.15 0.19 0.17 0.13 0.20 0.12

• Compromised measuring accuracy anticipated as one of the 783.41

1200.00
31.5

50.0
-0.16

-0.5
0.47

0.63
-0.06

-0.32
0.36

0.46
-0.02

-0.26
0.31

0.31
0.02

-0.23
0.21

0.25

causes, owing to lowered effective connected burden of the 2100.00

2700.00
86.0

110.0
-0.75

-0.98
0.80

0.84
-0.61

-0.77
0.53

0.58
-0.50

-0.66
0.36

0.39
-0.50

-0.61
0.35

0.44
of voltage phase seen to mostly vary only
numerical relays Fig.3. Dependency of current ratio error & Table 3. Error measurement with CT Test displacement too. on the positive side
phase displacement on the applied burden Specimen
Research /Project Design Conclusion
• Measurements are for the respective VA burden as seen by them at
• Experimental analyses on the spare instrument transformers respective percentages of applied primary values (voltage / current). • CT & PT measuring accuracies affected with the effective
• % current / voltage ratio error and the corresponding phase connected burden being either too low or beyond rated values -
displacements measured, for varying effective burden • All the measurements are in line with the requirements stated in IEC positive for the lower burden and vice-versa
60044-1 & 60044-2.
• Linear slide rheostat were used as the purely resistive burden
varied from 0.0VA to 427.9VA and 0.0VA to 2700VA in case of • % ratio error is least if the connected burden is optimally
PT & CT respectively. Findings /Discussions maintained between 50 to 100 % of rated value.

Test Specimen Data / Experiment
Particulars
CURRENT TRANSFORMER
Particulars Potential Transformers Current Transformers • For CHP, lowered burden and the associated higher voltage
reading (+ve. error), especially with PT is resulting into a voltage
Actual VA  Related to actual ohms  Related to the actual read higher than actual in the metering devices, recording CHP’s
Burden (R) connected to its sec. ohms (R) connected to its auxiliary consumption.
SPECIFICATIONS
CT / PT Test Specimen
& the rated sec. voltage sec. & the transformed CT
POTENTIAL TRANSFORMER

Type 1Ph / Toroidal 1Ph / 2-Winding

Inject / measure
Current / Voltage of PT ( Vsec = 110 ), sec. current (Isec = Kn* IPri) Application Towards DGPC
Application Metering Metering

No. of Cores 1 1 irrespective of the applied for a given CT pri. current

Ratio 6000A / 5A 11000/√3 V / 110/√3 V
Rheostat Burden pri. voltage during the (IPri), based on the  Adequate compensation of the lowered burdens, to match the
2 rated burden of instrument transformers, especially PTs.
𝑉𝐴 = 𝐼𝑠𝑒𝑐 ∗
Accuracy Class 0.5 0.5

Rated Burden 150 VA 200 VA CPC 100 Primary Injection Kit test, based on the relationship 𝐶𝑇
2
𝑉𝑠𝑒𝑐 𝑅
Table 1. Test specimen technical name Fig. 1. Overall experimental setup relationship 𝑉𝐴𝑃𝑇 =
plate specifications of test 𝑅  Replacing instrument transformers with adequate burden rating,
 varies with the actual to match the actual low burden imposed by numerical relays.
• Multifunctional primary injection kit CPC 100TM from Omicron,  Independent of voltage current flowing in its
was utilized in the experimental analysis. available at its primary primary (transformed sec.  Match the accuracy class of the instrument transformers to that
• The kit’s capability to inject or measure AC voltages up to current) of the energy meter accuracy classes.
2000V and AC currents up to 2000A are utilized