IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 59, NO.
5, MAY 2010
Real-Time Digital Compensation of Current
Transformers Over a Wide Frequency Range
Daniele Gallo, Member, IEEE, Carmine Landi, Member, IEEE, and Mario Luiso, Member, IEEE
Abstract—The advance in power electronics causes, over the
years, an increasing diffusion of nonlinear loads. Moreover, elec-
trical generation systems are going to include a growing amount
of solar and wind energy, characterized by time-variant flow of
energy and, very often, with a relevant distortion. These aspects
give more and more emphasis to the monitoring of conducted
disturbances on power systems over a wide frequency range, and
consequently, voltage and current transducers adopted for this
aim must have a proper frequency bandwidth. Voltage trans-
formers (VTs) and current transformers (CTs), which are the
most installed transducers in electrical power systems, are typi-
cally constructed to operate only at the industrial frequency, i.e.,
50/60 Hz, but it is clear that their substitution would require an
unsustainable cost. Therefore, in this paper, a method for real-time
digital compensation of the CT frequency response over a wide
range is presented. An implementation of the proposed method
is shown, and the compensated CT is characterized and tested
in some practical situations, with waveforms affected by typical
power quality disturbances.
Index Terms—Compensation, current transformer (CT), digital
filter, field-programmable gate array, frequency response, power
quality.
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE AMOUNT of disturbances on the electrical network
is increasing year after year, mainly due to the wide
diffusion of switching power converters. In addition, the im-
proved performance of power electronics on one hand and the
growing energy needs on the other encourage the integration
of renewable energy sources into the electric energy systems.
Because of the conversions (ac to ac or dc to ac) and the time-
variant generation level that are typically related with renewable
energy technologies, the connection to the power grid often
becomes an issue. All these issues let us perceive that the
correct measurement of conducted disturbances on power sys-
tems (power quality) is becoming a key task in the new energy
scenario for compatibility verification and the identification of
unsafe situations.
Reliable power quality measurements require analyses over a
wide frequency range. Since voltage and current transducers are
the first part of any power quality instrument, their frequency
responses deeply influence all measurement results. Voltage
Manuscript received June 30, 2009; revised January 20, 2010. Current
version published April 7, 2010. The Associate Editor coordinating the review
process for this paper was Prof. Alessandro Ferrero.
The authors are with the Department of Information Engineering, Second
University of Naples, 81031 Aversa, Italy (e-mail: daniele.gallo@unina2.it;
carmine.landi@unina2.it; mario.luiso@unina2.it).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2010.2044616
0018-9456/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
1119
transformers (VTs) and current transformers (CTs) are the most
installed transducers in electrical power systems, but typically,
they are constructed only to operate at the industrial frequency,
i.e., 50/60 Hz. It is clear that their substitution would require
an unsustainable cost, even if it could be justified by the
growing cost linked to bad power quality. Nevertheless, the
adoption of an add-on device would enhance the metrological
characteristics of the transformers. In the scientific literature,
several papers face the issue of characterizing and compensat-
ing CTs and VTs [1]–[6]. All presented techniques perform
compensation of measuring transformers only at the industrial
frequency. The authors have already proposed a technique for
improving CT performance in the frequency range of 20 Hz to
10 kHz in [7] and [8]; some power quality phenomena have not
been taken into consideration yet. Therefore, in this paper, an
improved technique for compensating CTs in a wider frequency
range, i.e., 1 Hz to 40 kHz, is presented. It is based on the
identification of a digital filter compensating the transformer
frequency response. The filter is implemented on an FPGA
board, provided with analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and
digital-to-analog converters (DACs) for experimental verifica-
tion purposes.
Specifically, Section II is focused on the compensation
method, which is based on an optimization technique. In
Section III, there is the description of an automated test system
adopted for the characterization of CTs. Data available from
characterization are then used in the identification procedure:
the optimization results are shown in Section IV. Finally,
Section V presents experimental results related to the character-
ization of the compensated CT and its testing in some practical
situations, with waveforms affected by typical power quality
disturbances.
II. C OMPENSATION M ETHOD
Far from power transformers, CTs can be considered as linear
devices based on some considerations. Transformer nonlinear-
ity is almost completely due to the magnetic core saturation
[9]: it is directly proportional to the primary current root-mean-
square (rms) value, and it is minimized by a large turn ratio,
a small burden, a small remanence flux, a large core area, and
small secondary resistance. In general, CTs are constructed to
meet the last three requirements; regarding the burden, it has
to be chosen according to the maximum power transferable
from primary to secondary to maintain the accuracy class.
Finally, for what concerns the primary current rms, according
to international standards [10], [11], the accuracy class has
to be maintained in the range from 5% to 120% of the rated
1120 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 59, NO. 5, MAY 2010
current: of course, this rms depends on the amplitudes of
the fundamental and other frequency components. Since the
contribution to the core magnetic flux is inversely proportional
to the frequency [9] and, in most cases, harmonic amplitudes
are much smaller than the fundamental one, for the specific
purpose, they can be neglected. Therefore, under the assump-
tion that the primary current does not exceed 120% of its rated
value, a CT can be considered a linear device, as it is considered
in most scientific papers proposing compensation techniques
[1]–[5]. All the mentioned techniques, even those reaching
considerable performance improvement in terms of both ratio
and phase errors, do not consider the possibility of improving
CT performance over a wider frequency range.
Therefore, a CT with a low linearity error can be considered
as a linear system, and its frequency response can be ex-
pressed by
1 i.e., from dc to half sampling frequency, and so, there might
Y (f ) = X(f ) (1)
R(f )e−jϕ(f )
where X and Y are the spectra of the signals, both before and
after the transduction. R and ϕ are the systematic modifica-
tions introduced by the transduction in amplitude and phase,
respectively, on the spectral components of the input signal.
Once the CT has been metrologically characterized and its
frequency response has been found over a certain frequency
range, cascading a device with a frequency response equal to
a CT inverse one, systematic deviations are compensated over
all the considered frequency range. For this purpose, a filter can
be adopted, whose frequency response Hd (f ) should exactly be
given by
X(f )
Hd (f ) = R(f )e−jϕ(f ) = (2)
Y (f )
for any frequency f in the range of interest. The analog im-
plementation of transfer function (2) is not easily practicable,
and it can lead to acceptable results only if applied to a very
limited frequency range. Better results can be obtained with
digital filtering. Obviously, for a real-time compensation, a
digital processor has to implement such digital filtering. In the
following, the procedure for identifying the filter is described,
while the hardware that executes it in real time is shown in the
next sections.
Two main implementations for digital filters exist: finite-
impulse response (FIR) and infinite-impulse response (IIR).
FIR filters are relatively simple to compute and inherently sta-
ble, but their main drawback, compared with IIR filters, is that
they may need a large number of coefficients to approximate
a desired response; moreover, they can only introduce a delay
in phase frequency response. This makes them ineffective for
the aim of this paper. An IIR filter is generally modeled by a
transfer function in the z-domain that can be written as
b0 + b1 z −1 + · · · + bm z −m
H(z) = . (3)
1 + a1 z −1 + · · · + an z −n
With this approach, filter design requires the choice of the
best values for parameters a1 , . . . , an and b0 , b1 , . . . , bm so
that the transfer function of the filter approximates a desired
frequency characteristic.
The problem of choosing the best coefficients can be formu-
lated, from a mathematical point of view, as an inverse problem
[12] and solved by adopting optimization techniques [13]. An
objective function describing the difference between the desired
frequency response and the obtained values has to be defined
and minimized by an optimization algorithm. The choice of
the objective (or cost) function affects the optimality and the
computational complexity of the solution.
In [7], the structure (3) for the filter transfer function and an
objective function accounting for the improvements, in terms
of reductions in ratio errors and phase displacements, obtained
with the introduction of the filter were used. Moreover, the best
filter was identified in the frequency range of 10–10 000 Hz,
using a sampling frequency of 160 kHz. Nevertheless, in such
a way, the filter operation is not defined in its entire bandwidth,
be situations in which it might give unreliable results. A more
robust design should account for the filter response in its entire
bandwidth.
As better illustrated in the following section, the automated
station used for calibrating CTs operates in the range of dc to
50 000 Hz; therefore, the best filter is identified in this range,
and thus, for the sampling frequency, 100 kHz has been chosen.
For the dc value, zero gain has been imposed.
Identifying a filter, assigning frequency response data in
its entire bandwidth, is a more complicated task, since its
transfer function has fewer degrees of freedom. An efficient
solution has been found by choosing different expressions for
the filter transfer function and the objective function. As it is
said in [14], if the filter transfer function H(z) is factorized
in second-order sections (SOSs), the frequency response is less
sensitive to changes in coefficient values. This factorization can
be expressed as

N
1 + b1,k z −1 + b2,k z −2
H(z) = K . (4)
1 + a1,k z −1 + a2,k z −2
k=1
In addition, for the objective function [15], the following
expression is used:
1
M
F (P ) = W · |log10 H(fi , P ) − log10 Hd (fi )|2
2 i=1
·[log10 fi+1 − log10 fi−1 ] (5)
where P is the vector of the 4N + 1 variables of (4), M is the
number of the frequency points involved in the identification
procedure, and W is the vector of the weights. The cost function
(5) weighs the ratio, rather than the difference, between the
model frequency response and the frequency response data at
each frequency. In addition, a logarithmically spaced frequency
interval has been used. Practically, it is like including Bode’s
concept in the cost function; in fact, it weighs the difference
between the Bode diagrams of the model frequency response
and the frequency response data. It is important to note that this
is the real problem, as what is really requested is to minimize
GALLO et al.: REAL-TIME DIGITAL COMPENSATION OF CURRENT TRANSFORMERS OVER A WIDE FREQUENCY RANGE
the difference between the Bode diagrams of the model and
the data.
The optimization problem studied here has a nonlinear ob-
jective function with 4N + 1 independent variables. Therefore,
the research space should be R4N +1 , with R being the whole
set of real numbers. Nevertheless, this interval can be re-
duced by adopting some constraints on solution characteristics.
The constraints divide the research space into feasible and
infeasible regions with remarkable reduction in computational
burden [16]. Considering this, a constraint results in filter
stability: the poles of the digital filter must have a modu-
lus smaller than one, so a nonlinear inequality constraint is
imposed.
To numerically study (5), a hybrid scheme based on the com-
bination of a stochastic and a deterministic approach has been
adopted [17], [18]. The two approaches are used in a combined
way to take advantage of their complementary characteristics.
In fact, the deterministic approach is the fastest way to work
out a solution, but the quality of the results strongly depends on
the choice of the starting point. Nondeterministic approaches
do not depend on the initial choice, and they are usually slow
in finding out the optimal solution. Starting from these consid-
erations, an initial exploration of space of solutions is made
by a genetic algorithm having a population size greater than
the number of coefficients chosen as target. Then, the obtained
values are used as initial points to run a constrained deter-
ministic approach based on sequential quadratic programming
(SQP) [16] to find the optimal solution. The SQP algorithm was
preferred over simpler algorithms (such as zero-order methods)
taking into account the information about the derivative of the
objective function and, in addition, including, in direct way, the
aforementioned constraints.
The described procedure has two parameters, which can ar-
bitrarily be chosen before solution research starts: the sampling
frequency and the number of SOSs.
The sampling frequency, according to previous considera-
tions, has been chosen to be equal to 100 kHz. The number
of SOSs should be fixed very carefully because it is directly
proportional to the number of independent variables of the
objective function and to the complexity of the obtained filter.
Typically, better results are obtained by increasing the filter
order. It is fundamental to keep the filter computational burden
low. For this reason, the procedure is repeated a certain number
of times, varying, in each run, the number of SOSs, to find the
best values for them.
The identification procedure is made in this way: First,
Hd (f ), which is defined in (2), is constructed in a numerical
way, linearly interpolating experimental data obtained from cal-
ibration. The optimization algorithm runs in two nested loops,
varying the number of SOSs; in the inner loop, the procedure
is repeated a certain number of times. This is required based on
the fact that the utilized hybrid optimization technique includes
a stochastic algorithm that returns different results in every run.
The number of frequency points is chosen to be equal to four
times the total number of variables [19]. Among the solutions,
referring to the same number of SOSs and coming from the
inner loop, the solution that minimizes the cost function is
chosen.
1121
Fig. 1. Block scheme of the realized calibration station.
III. C HARACTERIZATION OF CT S
For the metrological characterization of uncompensated and
compensated CTs, an automated measuring station has been
set up: it is based on a power amplifier, which is numerically
controlled, and a PXI platform. Its block scheme is shown in
Fig. 1. It includes two modules for data acquisition and one
module for waveform generation. The data acquisition modules
both have eight synchronous analog inputs and a ±10-V input
range, the first one has a 16-bit resolution and 500-kHz maxi-
mum sampling rate per channel, and the second one has a 14-bit
resolution and 2.5-MHz maximum sampling rate per channel.
The generation module has one analog output at 16 bits,
±12-V output range, 100-MHz maximum generation fre-
quency, and a memory of 256 MB. Through the generation
module, the desired waveforms are generated and then ampli-
fied. The utilized power amplifier is the Kepco 15-20 M; with
output ranges of ±15 Vpeak for voltage and ±20 Apeak for
current, the frequency bandwidth is in the range of dc to 50 kHz.
A power resistor is inserted at amplifier output to generate the
desired current waveforms. The current reference is obtained by
a current shunt (Lem Norma Triax Shunt) with an input range
of ±30 Arms and a resistance of 10 mΩ, i.e.,10 A–100 mV;
in the frequency range of dc–100 kHz, it has a maximum ratio
error of 0.03% and a phase displacement smaller than 1.7 mrad.
Measurement software has been developed in LabWindows/
CVI, a C programming environment, measuring instruments
oriented, distributed by National Instruments. The operation
of such an automated station has been described in detail
in [20].
The case in question, a CT with a ratio of 150/5 A/A, an
accuracy class of 0.5, and a rated power of 5 VA has been
utilized; using 12 primary supplementary turns, its rated ratio
becomes 12.5/5 A/A. At the secondary winding, a resistive
shunt of 100 mΩ has been inserted. A preliminary test to de-
termine the ratio, at a frequency of 50 Hz and a current of 10 A,
has been conducted with the use of two multimeters (Fluke
8846A) [21]: it is 28.010 mV/A with an expanded uncertainty
(coverage factor equal to 3) of 0.075 mV/A.
The uncompensated CT has been characterized at its rated
current, generating sinusoidal waveforms in the frequency
range of 1–50 000 Hz. The extensions of the definitions of ratio
error and phase displacement reported in the international stan-
dards [10], [11], which are aimed to include other frequencies
1122 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 59, NO. 5, MAY 2010

Fig. 2. Ratio error and phase displacement of the CT.

Fig. 3. Improvements in ratio error and phase displacement as functions of
in addition to fundamental frequency [22], [23], have been the number of SOSs.
adopted, and they are shown as follows:
  TABLE I
1 COEFFICIENTS OF THE BEST COMPENSATION FILTER
ΔR(fk ) = 100 −1 (6)
R(fk )
Δϕ(fk ) = ϕ(fk ) (7)
where R and ϕ are defined in (1). Fig. 2 shows the ratio error
and phase displacement of the CT: it is evident that the ratio TABLE II
error is close to zero at 50 Hz but is much greater at different PERFORMANCE OF THE CT AND T HAT OF THE
frequencies. SIMULATED COMPENSATED CT

IV. O PTIMIZATION R ESULTS

Data available from the calibration of the uncompensated CT
are used in the optimization procedure to find the digital filter
that, minimizing the ratio error and the phase displacement,
could compensate CT frequency response. As it is previously
said, the sampling frequency of a digital filter is chosen to
be equal to 100 kHz. The number of SOSs has been chosen Improvements in ratio error and phase displacement, varying
from the range of 2–20. The reason of this choice is that the number of SOSs from 2 to 20, are in the ranges of about,
higher orders would require high computational power, which respectively, 25–32 and 2–10. Depending on the performance
is not compatible with the hardware used for implementing the of compensation hardware, lower or higher order filters can be
compensation filter. The inner loop is repeated three times. To chosen. In Fig. 3, IR and Iϕ , as functions of the number of
evaluate the filters’ performance, overall, the input frequency SOSs, are shown. Regarding the filter with two SOSs, it seemed
range, the ratio errors, and the phase displacements have to be to be the best choice with respect to the tradeoff between
evaluated before and after filter introduction. Those before filter performance and complexity. Filter coefficients are shown
introduction are reported in (6) and (7), while those after filter in Table I.
introduction are given as follows: Considering the frequency range 10–1000 Hz, from simula-
 
|H(fk )| tions, it comes that the compensated CT has mean quadratic
ΔRC (fk ) = 100 −1 (8) values for the ratio error and phase displacement of 0.49%
R(fk )
ΔϕC (fk ) = arg H(fk ) − ϕ(fk ) (9) and 5.5 mrad, respectively; the original CT has mean quadratic
values for the ratio error and phase displacement of 0.70% and
where H(f ) is the frequency response of the implemented filter. 52.0 mrad, respectively. Therefore, IR and Iϕ are, respectively,
Starting from the definitions (6)–(9), the following two 1.4 and 9.4. Considering the entire frequency range, from sim-
indices in have been used to characterize improvements ulations, it comes that the compensated CT has mean quadratic
introduced by the filter; they describe the relative mean values for the ratio error and phase displacement of 1.86% and
quadratic improvements, respectively, in ratio error and phase 121.4 mrad, respectively; the original CT has mean quadratic
displacement: values for the ratio error and phase displacement of 47.28%
 
1 Nf 2 and 353.9 mrad, respectively. Thus, the chosen filter introduces
ΔR 2 Nf k=1 [ΔR(fk )] improving factors of 25.4 in ratio error and 2.9 in phase
IR = =  (10)
ΔRC 2 1 Nf 2 displacement. In Table II, the performance of the CT and that
N k=1 [ΔR C (fk )]
 f  f of simulated the compensated CT are summarized. Fig. 4 shows
1 N 2
Δϕ2 Nf k=1 [Δϕ(fk )] the magnitude (first subgraph) and the phase (second subgraph)
Iϕ = =  . (11) frequency response of the filter and the inverse of the CT. The
Δϕ2C 1 Nf 2
Nf k=1 [ΔϕC (fk )] results underline the compatibility between the inverse of the
GALLO et al.: REAL-TIME DIGITAL COMPENSATION OF CURRENT TRANSFORMERS OVER A WIDE FREQUENCY RANGE
Fig. 4. Magnitude and phase frequency response of the filter and that of the
inverse of the CT.
TABLE III
FREQUENCY RESPONSES OF THE CT AND THE
SIMULATED COMPENSATED CT
Fig. 5. Block scheme of the compensated CT.
experimental CT and the filter frequency response. Table III
summarizes, in a tabular form, Fig. 4.
V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
To perform experimental verification of the filter, which was
designed in the previous section, a compensating device has
been implemented with a real-time digital processor, which
is opportunely equipped with ADCs and DACs. For the case
in question, an FPGA board has been used. Its features are:
1) Xilinx Virtex-II 1 megagate FPGA with 16 BUFGMUXs,
324 external IOBs, 227 LOCed IOBs, 40 MULT18X18s,
40 RAMB16s, and 5120 SLICEs [24]; 2) a clock rate equal
to 40 MHz; 3) 96 digital lines; 4) eight analog inputs, with
independent sampling rates up to 200 kHz, 16-bit resolution,
and ±10 V; and 5) eight analog outputs, with independent
update rates up to 1 MHz, 16-bit resolution, and ±10 V. The
block scheme of the compensated CT is shown in Fig. 5, where
I1 is the primary current, I2 is the secondary current, V2 is the
voltage across the shunt at the secondary winding, V2k is the
∗
sampled version of V2 , V2k is the filtered version of V2k , and V2∗
∗
is the analog version of V2k and the output of the compensated
CT. This way, the compensated CT continues to be an analog
1123
Fig. 6. Photo of the experimental setup.
device, thus offering the possibility of being employed in any
measuring system.
The utilization of FPGA resources for the implementa-
tion of the filter is given as follows: BUFGMUXs = 2,
External IOBs = 227, LOCed IOBs = 227, MULT18X18s = 5,
RAMB16s = 1, and SLICEs = 891.
The compensated CT has then been characterized with the
same measuring station described in Section III, but now,
the sampling frequency is fixed at 100 kHz. A photo of the
experimental setup is shown in Fig. 6.
In Section V-A and B, two kinds of experimental tests are
shown. The first one is focused on finding out the ratio error and
phase displacement of the compensated CT. In the second one,
the performance of the CT and that of the compensated CT are
compared in practical situations, with test waveforms affected
by typical power quality phenomena disturbances. All the tests
have been performed with the compensated CT provided with
an FPGA board, which implements compensation filter in
real time.
A. Ratio Error and Phase Displacement of the
Compensated CT
For verification of the compensated CT, to find the ratio error
and the phase displacement, tests similar to those described
in Section III have been performed. Sinusoidal waveforms
with CT rated current amplitude and frequency variable in
the range of 1–40 000 Hz have been generated: a number of
100 frequency test points have been chosen. The frequency
range has been limited to 40 kHz due to the adopted low-cost
hardware.
Fig. 7 shows, in the first subgraph, ratio errors of the CT and
the compensated CT; in the second subgraph, there is a zoom,
over the range 10–10 000 Hz, of curves in the first one.
The mean squared values of ratio errors are 25.4% for the CT
and 1.6% for the compensated CT, resulting in an improvement
factor of about 16. These experimental values are consistent
with the experimental results in Section III and simulation
results in Section IV. In fact, here, the ratio error of the CT is
smaller than that in Section IV, but it does not include frequency
points from 40 to 50 kHz, which are the most critical points.
The same notes are valid for the compensated CT.
1124 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 59, NO. 5, MAY 2010
Fig. 7. Ratio errors of the CT and the compensated CT over the entire
frequency range (first subgraph) and over the range of 10–10 000 Hz.
Fig. 8. Phase displacements of the CT and the compensated CT without (first
subgraph) and with (second subgraph) compensation of time delay.
Some considerations stem from analyzing Fig. 7. First, ratio
errors are close to zero at 50 Hz. Then, the ratio error of the CT
is in the range of ±0.5% from 25 to 800 Hz: over this range,
it maintains its original accuracy class. The ratio error of the
compensated CT, instead, is in the range of ±0.5% from 25 Hz
to 30 kHz, and it is always smaller than ratio error of the CT.
Fig. 8 shows, in the first subgraph, phase displacements of the
uncompensated and compensated CTs: the contribution of time
delay, which was introduced by the compensation device, to
phase displacement is evident. In fact, the digital compensation
has a time delay: it is due to the analog-to-digital conversion
time, the execution time of calculation related to the filter appli-
cation, and the digital-to-analog conversion time. Therefore, the
analog transfer function of the compensation device does not
correspond to that of the digital filter implemented on the FPGA
board, since the time delays add to its phase frequency response
a linear term decreasing with frequency, as it is highlighted in
[8]. For the considered implementation, the time delay is equal
to 10.15 μs. After a simple postprocessing, which is finalized
to eliminate the contribution of time delay, it results in the
second subgraph of Fig. 8. The mean squared values of phase
displacements are 323.8 mrad for the CT and 590.4 mrad for the
compensated CT, resulting in an improvement factor of 0.55.
Eliminating the contribution of time delay, the phase displace-
ment of the compensated CT is 37.1 mrad, corresponding to an
improvement factor of about 9. The same considerations made
for ratio errors about the consistency of the experimental values
presented in this section with those in Sections II and IV are
TABLE IV
RATIO ERRORS AND PHASE DISPLACEMENTS
OF THE CT AND THE C OMPENSATED CT
TABLE V
PARAMETERS OF THE WAVEFORM USED IN THE FIRST TEST
also valid for phase displacements. Table IV summarizes Figs. 7
and 8 in a tabular form.
In most situations, the time delay can be neglected, as it is
explained in the following. First, the presence of the time delay,
even if it causes a worsening in phase displacement, does not
produce distortion in transduced waveforms, thus preserving
their shape. Then, if the transduced signal has spectral compo-
nents under a frequency of 1 kHz, as in most of the conducted
disturbances, the time delay does not influence transduction
in a significant way. Instead, the most critical usage of such
a compensated CT is in power measurement, which is very
sensitive to phase displacements of both voltage and current
transducers. If the compensation device is equipped with two
or more analog input and output channels, it can be used to
compensate frequency responses of both CTs and VTs. This
way, compensated CTs and VTs have the same time delay, and
its effect is systematically eliminated.
B. Practical Situations: Examples of Power
Quality Phenomena
In this section, the performance of uncompensated and com-
pensated CTs is tested in some practical situations, when power
quality phenomena apply.
As it has been said before, the CT maintains its original
accuracy class, i.e., ±0.5%, over the frequency range from 25
to 800 Hz. Therefore, first, compensation performance has to
be tested in this range.
A typical distorted current waveform of a nonlinear single-
phase circuit is taken from IEEE standard 1459 [25]. The
fundamental frequency is 50 Hz and the rms of the fundamental
component is 6 A. Relative amplitudes and phase angles of
harmonic components are detailed in Table V. Fig. 9 shows
waveforms, with normalized amplitude, transduced by the ref-
erence shunt, the uncompensated CT, and the compensated
CT in the first subgraph; in the second, the errors of the
uncompensated and compensated CTs are shown. As it can be
seen, the maximum error of the compensated CT is 1%, while
that of the CT is 3%.
The second test is aimed to confirm effectiveness of com-
pensation at frequencies lower than the industrial frequency.
GALLO et al.: REAL-TIME DIGITAL COMPENSATION OF CURRENT TRANSFORMERS OVER A WIDE FREQUENCY RANGE
Fig. 9. First test: current waveform with fundamental and harmonic
components.
Fig. 10. Second test: fundamental component and two interharmonics at 5 and
25 Hz.
Therefore, the current waveform presenting interharmonics has
been used. The fundamental frequency is 50 Hz and the rms
of the fundamental component is 6 A. Two interharmonic
components have been added to the fundamental tone: they
have frequencies of 5 and 25 Hz, amplitudes of 5% of the
fundamental tone, and zero phase. Fig. 10 show waveforms,
with normalized amplitude, transduced by the reference shunt,
the uncompensated CT, and the compensated CT in the first
subgraph; in the second, errors, with respect to the reference
shunt, of uncompensated and compensated CTs are shown. As
it can be seen, the maximum error of the compensated CT is
1%, while that of the CT is 6%.
The third test is aimed to confirm the effectiveness of com-
pensation at frequencies higher than the industrial frequency.
Therefore, the current waveform presenting high-order harmon-
ics has been used. The fundamental frequency is 50 Hz and
the rms of the fundamental component is 6 A. Five harmonic
components have been added to the fundamental tone: their
parameters are shown in Table VI. Fig. 11 shows waveforms,
with normalized amplitude, transduced by the reference shunt,
the uncompensated CT, and the compensated CT in the first
subgraph; in the second, errors, with respect to reference shunt,
of uncompensated and compensated CTs are shown. As it can
be seen, the maximum error of the compensated CT is 2%,
while that of the CT is 18%.
In all the tests, the performance of the compensated CT is
better than the performance of the original CT, both at low and
high frequencies.
1125
TABLE VI
PARAMETERS OF THE WAVEFORM USED IN THE THIRD TEST
Fig. 11. Third test: fundamental component and high-order harmonics.
VI. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, a real-time digital method for the compensation
of CTs in the frequency range of 1–40 000 Hz, based on field-
programmable gate arrays, has been presented. It is based on
the identification of a digital filter, with a frequency response
equal to the inverse one of the CT, implemented on an FPGA
board, which is opportunely equipped with ADCs and DACs.
Experimental results have shown that the performance of the
compensated CT is better than the performance of the original
CT over the entire frequency range; the ratio error increases by
a factor of about 16, and the phase displacement increases by a
factor of about 9, accounting for time delay compensation. Such
improvements are obtained with a fourth-order filter, which can
be executed in real time even on low-cost microcontrollers. In
addition, a low computational burden allows adopting only one
compensation device for compensating a set of CTs and VTs
for measurements on three-phase systems.
The compensated CT has been tested in some practical sit-
uations, with test waveforms affected by typical power quality
phenomena. Its performance is always better than those of the
original CT.
Another important consideration is that if the compensation
device accidentally goes off, as it does not modify CT opera-
tion, the uncompensated CT output can still be adopted and all
connected devices keep operating normally, and it does not alter
measurement and protection chains of electrical systems.
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Daniele Gallo (M’00) was born on August 4, 1974.
He received the Laurea degree in electronic engi-
neering and the Ph.D. degree in electrical energy
conversion from the Second University of Naples,
Aversa, Italy, in 1999 and 2003, respectively.
He is currently a Researcher with the Department
of Information Engineering, Second University of
Naples. His main scientific interests are related to the
setup of digital measurement instrumentation and the
handling of automatic measurement systems.
Carmine Landi (M’96) was born in Salerno, Italy,
in 1955. He received the B.S. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Naples, Naples,
Italy, in 1981.
From 1982 to 1992, he was an Assistant Profes-
sor of electrical measurement with the University
of Naples. From 1992 to 1999, he was an Asso-
ciate Professor in electrical and electronic measure-
ments with the University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila,
Italy. Since 1999, he has been a Full Professor with
the Department of Information Engineering, Second
University of Naples, Aversa, Italy. He is the author of almost 200 international
papers in the field of real-time measurement apparatus, ATE, high-precision
power measurement, and power quality measurement. His main scientific
interests are related to the setup of digital measurement instrumentation, the
automatic testing of electrical machines such as asynchronous motors and
power transformers, measurement techniques for the characterization of digital
communication devices, and the use of DSP for real-time measurements.
Mario Luiso (S’07–M’08) was born in Naples, Italy,
on July 6, 1981. He received the Laurea degree in
electronic engineering (summa cum laude) and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical energy conversion from the
Second University of Naples, Aversa, Italy, in 2005
and 2007, respectively.
He is currently a Researcher with the Department
of Information Engineering, Second University of
Naples. His main scientific interests are related to the
setup of digital measurement instrumentation and the
handling of automatic measurement systems.
Dr. Luiso is a member of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society.