IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. PWRD-1, No.
2, April 1986
HARMONICS FROM TRANSFORMER SATURATION
H.W. Dommel, Fellow, IEEE
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
ABSTRACT
Saturation effects in transformers and shunt
reactors can produce harmonics in power systems. Their
magnitude can sometimes be found with an electro-
magnetic transients program, by going from an approxi-
mate linear ac steady-state solution directly into a
transient simulation in which the nonlinear effects are
included. In lightly damped systems, such simulations
can take a long time, however, before the distorted
steady state is reached. Therefore, another method was
developed which uses superposition of steady-state
phasor solutions at the fundamental frequency and at
the most important harmonic frequencies, with nonlinear
inductances represented as harmonic current sources.
This method can either be used by itself, or as an
improved initialization procedure for electromagnetic
transients programs.
1. INTRODUCTION
Saturation effects in transformers and shunt
reactors can produce steady-state harmonics, as well as
transient harmonics and temporary overvoltages. The
steady-state harmonics are usually not as high as those
produced by converters, but they are somewhat more
difficult to calculate. In converters, the magnitude
of harmonics is reasonably well known, and these har-
monics can therefore be represented as given current
sources or voltage sources behind impedances in har-
monic power flow programs. In contrast, harmonics
generated by saturation effects of transformers depend
critically on the peak magnitude and waveform of the
voltages at the transformer terminals, which in turn
are influenced by the harmonic currents and the
frequency-dependent network impedances.
A simple, iterative procedure is described here,
which can be used to obtain the magnitude of harmonics
from transformer saturation with sufficient accuracy.
Other harmonic sources, whose magnitude is known, are
easily included in the solution as additional current
or voltage sources.
The method was primarily developed as an initial-
ization procedure for the Electromagnetic Transients
Program (EMTP), but it could be incorporated into other
programs as well. Since EMTP studies are usually done
with three-phase representations, the method was tested
for single-phase as well as three-phase cases. Single-
phase studies may not always be accurate enough. For
example, the dominant third harmonic zero sequence
current in transformer saturation depends on voltages
85 SMI 381-9 A oaoer recrernended and aoorcveo
by the IEEE Trarns.r15ission arnd Distr ibut ior Commit tee
of tte 1Q Power Enl iireerinq
Q Societv for oresenta-
tion at the IEEE/PES 1985 Summer Meetinc. Vancouver.
B.C., Canada, July 14 - 19, i9t4t. Manuscriot sub-
mitted January 29, 1985; made availanie for orintino
+ Or: a .30, 1 9,g,>
0885-8977/86/0004-0209$01 .00X
209
A. Yan, Member, IEEE Shi Wei
University of Idaho Xian Jiaotong University
Moscow, Idaho, U.S.A. Xian, People's Republic of China
which are mostly positive sequence. It is therefore
best to use three-phase representations, because
coupling effects are then automatically included.
2. OBTAINING HARKDNICS WITH THE EMTP
A simple method for obtaining saturatiorr-generated
harmonics is to perform a transient simulation with the
EMTP which starts from approximate linear ac steady-
state conditions. For the initial ac steady-state
solution, the magnetizing inductances of transformers
are represented by their unsaturated values (linear
part of the nonlinear flux/current-curve). In the
transient simulation, the only disturbances will then
be the deviations between the linear and nonlinear
magnetizing inductance representations. The transients
caused by these deviations will often settle down to
the distorted steady state within a few cycles.
An example for this approach is described in [1].
In that example, a power plant was feeding an unloaded
345 kV-line of 398 km length. The saturation was
caused by the step-up transformers in the power plant.
For the simulation, the generator representation was a
simple, though not quite accurate, voltage source E
behind Xd", which was combined with the transformer
short-circuit reactances into a three-phase Thevenin
equivalent circuit seen from the 345 kV-side (positive
and zero sequence values converted to self and mutual
values with Eq. (6) of [2] to obtain the phase values).
The nonlinear magnetizing inductances were connected
phase-to-ground on the high side of the step-up trans-
formers. Again, this is not quite correct. As pointed
out in [2], the nonlinear inductances should be corr-
nected between the terminals of those windings which
are closest to the iron core, at least in designs with
cylindrical winding construction. Construction details
were not available, however, and placing it anywhere
else would have made it impossible to use the simple
Thevenin equivalent circuit for the power plant. More
importantly, the chosen representation brought simula-
tion results close enough to field test results, so
that a more detailed model was really not justified.
Fig. 1 shows the simulation results for the voltages at
both ends of the line, with the simulation starting
from the approximate linear ac steady-state solution
with unsaturated magnetizing inductances. In this
particular case, the final distorted steady state was
reached fairly quickly within approximately 3 cycles.
The simulation results compare reasonably well with the
field test results (Fig. 2).
Modern high-voltage transformers with grair-
oriented steel cores saturate typically somewhere above
1.0 to 1.2 times rated flux, with a sharply defined
knee (Fig. 3). Often, a two-slope piecewise linear
inductance is sufficient to model such curves. The
slope in the saturated region above the knee is the
air-core inductance; it is almost linear and fairly low
compared with the slope in the unsaturated region. In
the study resulting in Fig. 1 and 2, a two-slope piece-
wise linear inductance was accurate enough; going to a
more detailed 5-slope inductance changed the results
very little.
O1986 IEEE
 210

Frequently, the saturation curve is not supplied

SENDING END flux/current-curve *=f(i), required for
trar-
400 _
sient
\ _,><
simulations, but as an RMS-voltage/RMS-current-
curve VRMS-f(IRMS) instead. A simple conversion tech-
B nique is described in Appendix 1, which is based on the
c)
0°~ / -
¢ / V 0\ §
\ -- \/2
\ /
-
/
4 ( )
40(nms)
assumption that the influence of
current

saturation
losses
curve
and

can
of

be
winding

ignored.
hysteresis
resistances
The
and
on

contains
eddy
the
a

H X< support routine CONVERT which this conversion

o
-400-
> ~~~~~~~~~~~Amethod.
The simple method described in this section for
RECEIVING END obtaining harmonics
torted steady stateworks
is only quickly
reached well ifinthea few
finalcycles.
dis-
For lightly damped systems, it may take a long time
before the final steady state is reached. Fig. 4 shows
400 the voltages at both ends of a 500 kV-line with shunt
B reactors which go into saturation at 0.92 p.u. of rated
flux at the sending end and at 1.05 p.u. of rated flux
at the receiving end. Because of low damping, the
\40(ms) steady state is reached only after a long time. It is
for such cases why the steady-state solution method
0° A described in the next section has been developed.
-400
SENDING END
Fig. 1. Voltages with harmonic distortion on a 345 kV
line (simulation starts from approximate B
linear steady state). 400

400- 0
SENDING END
-4
0
O>
200 - > , ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-400
7 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A
0

>
-200X
---- computation RECEIVING END
field tests
-400 B
400

RECEIVING END
>
0004 0 2~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 40(ms)
0-~~~~~~~~~~~
0 ~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~-0
H ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A
-200 --computation
field tests
-4001 ~~~~~~~~~~Fig.4. Voltages with harmonic distortion on a 500 kV
line (simulation starts from approximate
linear steady state).
Fig. 2. Comparison between simulation and field test
results. 3.
HARNDNICS WITH
STEADY-STATE SOLUTIONS

To obtain the steady-state solution with harmonics

directly from phasor equations, the nonlinear induc-
krated tances are replaced by voltage-dependent current
1.1e sources at the fundamental frequency and at the har-
monic frequencies (Fig. 5). The network itself is then
linear, and the voltages at any frequency are then
I

i/lrated ~~~~~~~~easily
the form
found by solving a system of nodal equations of
-1.1
[Y][V] = [I] (11 )
where the nonlinear effects are represented as currents
Fig. 3. Typical saturation curve, in the vector [I]. The solution is found with two
 /-A*~ .0f
211

iterative loops. In these "power flow" iterations at fundamental

First, "power flow" iterations are
used to obtain an approximate solution at fundamental
frequency, while the second "distortion" iterations
take the higher harmonics into account.
node m
(a)
node m
frequency, the VRMS/IRMS-curve is used as an approxi-
mation to the curve relating the fundamental frequency
current I1 to the fundamental frequency voltage
V1.
While VRMSis equal to V1, IRM5 contains all harmonics.
This approximation does provide a good starting point,
however, for the following "distortion" iterations, in
which harmonics are included.
If the network contains nonlinear loads of the
power flow type, e.g., active power Pm and reactive
power Qm specified rather than current Imn then the
adjustments to achieve constant power are incorporated
into this iterative loop by recalculating
P - i Q
m V * (2)
m

at the beginning of each iteration step.

(b)
current The "distortion" iterations
source i
The "power flow" iterations produce a steady-state
solution at fundamental frequency only, without har-
monic distortion. To obtain the harmonics, the RMS
voltages found from the power flow iterations are used
Fig. 5. Replacing nonlinear inductances by current in an initial estimate for the flux. Since v=dp/dt,
sources. (a) Network with nonlinear induc- and assuming that the peak voltage phasor is jVj|e,
tance, (b) network with current source. or

The "power flow" iterations v(t) =

IVi cos(w1t + 4) (3)
In the "power flow" iterations, an approximate as a function of time (w1 = angular fundamental fre-
linear ac steady-state solution is found which repre- quency), it follows that the flux is
sents the VRMS/IRms-curves of the nonlinear inductances
correctly, but does not include harmonic distortion. 4(t) = M sin(lut + *) . (4)
For the nonlinear inductance, say at node m in Fig. 5,
the original data may already be in the form of a
VRMS/IRMS-curve, as shown in Fig. 6. If not, it is With p (t) known, one full cycle of the distorted cur-
straightforward to convert the 41/i-curve into a VRMS/ rent i(t) is generated point-by-point with the p/i-
curve (Fig. 7). If hysteresis is ignored, then it is
IRMS-curve (see Appendix 1). To start the iteration
process, a guess for the RMS voltage Vm is used to find sufficient to produce one quarter of a cycle of i(t),
the RMS current Im (Fig. 6). This current, with the since each half-cycle wave is symmetric, and since the
proper phase shift of 900 with respect to Vm, is second half is the negative of the first half of each
inserted into the current vector [I] in Eq. (1), and a cycle.
new set of voltages is then found by solving the system
of linear equations (1). This solution process is The distorted current i(t) in each nonlinear in-
repeated, until the prescribed error criterion for the ductance is then analyzed with a Fourier Analysis
current Im is satisfied. Note that the admittance Program, which produces the harmonic content expressed
matrix [Y] in Eq. (1) remains constant for all itera- by
tion steps; therefore, [Y] is only triangularized once
outside the iteration loop. Inside the iteration loop,
the downward operations and backsubstitutions are only
performed on the right-hand side [I], by using the
information contained in the triangularized matrix
("repeat solutions").
Fg _
... . .
V
m _._. ~. ._ . .A

_t ,.,.'
2 _ I -
,
~~~~~, ;I
t ~ ~ ~ ~

.' .S_
'

I
m
I
rms
Fig. 7. Generatinlg i( t) from 4( t) .
Fig . 6. VRMS/IRMS characteristic of a nonlinear
inductance.
212
k 4. DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN STEADY-STATE AND TRANSIENT
i(t) =
I |In| sin(wut + fd, (5) SOLUTIONS
n=l
with As mentioned in the introduction, the method of
Section 3 was primarily developed as an improved
initialization procedure for the EMTP, for cases where
wn = n1, (6)
the initial steady state is already distorted with
being the angular frequency of the n-th harmonic. harmonics. It should be emphasized, however, that it
Experience has shown that it is usually sufficient to can also be used by itself as a harmonics power flow
consider the fundamental and the odd harmonics of program.
order 3 to 15, and to ignore the other harmonics. At
each harmonic considered (including the fundamental), If it is used as an initialization procedure for
the harmonic component from Eq. (5) is entered into [I] the EMTP, discrepancies can appear between the results
with its proper magnitude and angle for all nonlinear from the steady-state and transient solutions. These
inductances, and the voltages at that harmonic fre- discrepancies are caused by the unavoidable discretiza-
quency are then found by solving the system of linear tion error of the trapezoidal rule, which is used for
equations (1). Known harmonic current sources from lumped inductances and capacitances in the EMTP. In
converters and other harmonic producing equipment are the steady-state solution for the n-th harmonic, cor-
added into the vector [I]. rect reactance values wnL are used for inductances. In
the transient solution, the differential equation
Taking the fundamental and the odd harmonics 3, 5, v = L.di/dt is replaced by
7, 9, 11, 13 and 15 into consideration requires 8 solu- v(t) + v(t-At) = L i(t) - i(t-At)
tions of that system of equations, with [Y] obviously 2 At (9)
being different for each of the harmonic frequencies.
For lumped inductances L and capacitances C, it is To understand how Eq . (9) will process the n-th har-
clear that values uwnL and wnC must be used as reac- monic, let us assume that both voltages and currents
tances and susceptances in building [Y]. Lines can be are expressed as complex peak phasors V and I. Then
modelled as cascade connections of i-circuits, as long jutt ju t
as the number of it-circuits per line is high enough to
represent the line properly at the highest harmonic
v(t) = Re{Ve n
I and i(t) = Re{fIe nI (10)
frequency. It is safer, however, to define the line
data as distributed parameters, and to generate an
exact equivalent i-circuit at each frequency with the Inserting Eq. (10) into Eq. (9) and dropping Re{. ... },
well-known long-line equations with hyperbolic func-
tions. For balanced M-phase lines, exact single-phase we obtain
i-circuits are first found for zero and positive
sequence parameters, and the admittances are then con-
verted to phase quantity matrices with jwn t jw(^)(t-At ) jw - jwIe At
Ve + Ve n
=LIe n -lie n

[Y
phase
]
=

[T][Ymode ][T] (7) 2 L At

which can be rewritten as
where [Ymode] is a diagonal matrix, with the first
diagonal element being Yzero, and all other diagonal -ju At
elements being Ypositive' Matrix [T] describes the 2L 1-e n
normalized transformation from af3O-components to phase At ~ -jun At
quantities, which is well-known for three phases and l+e
can be generalized to any number of phases. For M-
or
phase untransposed lines, exact single-phase it-circuits
are first found for all modes 1,...M, and Eq. (7) is tan(un At
then again used to convert to phase quantities. In
V = juwL At I . (11)
that case, [Ymodel is again a diagonal matrix of mode
quantities, and [T] is the eigenvector matrix of the ')n 2
matrix product [Y'][Zt], with [Y'] and [Z'] being the
shunt admittance and series impedance matrices per unit From Eq. (11) it can be seen that the transient simula-
length of the M-phase line [3]. tion with the trapezoidal rule of integration does not
see the correct reactance unL, but a somewhat larger
Once the voltages have been found for the funda- reactance which is increased by the error factor
mental and for the harmonics, an improved flux function tan(Wn A
q(t) can be calculated for each nonlinear inductance (12)
from the peak voltage phasors IViIej¢l, etc., IV3jej¢3, n At
wn 2
k IV n| It can be shown that the susceptance of a capacitance
(4(t) = -n-- sin(u t + 4n) (8)
n=1 n seen by the trapezoidal rule is also too large by the
same factor E . While a small At can keep the error
With 4(t) known, i(t) is again generated point-by-point factor of Eq. e12)
reasonably close to 1.0 (e.g., At=50
as shown in Fig. 7, and then analyzed with the Fourier Ls leads to an error factor of E7=1.0015, or to an
Analysis Program to obtain an improved set of harmonics error of 0.15%, at the 7th harmonic of 60 Hz), it can
expressed as Eq. (5). These are then again used to never be avoided completely. Even small errors can
find an improved set of harmonic voltages. This itera- shift the resonance frequencies of the network. Fig. 8
tive process is repeated until the changes in the har- compares the impedance at the location of the nonlinear
monic currents are sufficiently small. Experience has inductance in the problem of Fig. 1, as it would be
shown that 3 iterations are usually enough to obtain seen by a steady-state phasor solution and by a tran-
the harmonic currents with an accuracy of +5%. sient solution with the error factor of Eq. (12). To
 213

7 * > fE A - with error factor E Fig. 9 shows the transient simulation results for
the same case used for Fig. 1, except that the ini-
6 o -
without error tialization procedure of Section 3 was now used. It
factor E can be seen that the initial conditions must have con-
5 tained more or less correct harmonics because no dis-
turbance is noticeable after t=0. Fig. 10 shows simi-
-4 lar results for the case used in Fig. 4, with the ini-
tialization procedure of Section 3. The improvement
3
from the inclusion of harmonics in the initialization
is quite evident in this second example.
5. FERRORESONANCE

An attempt was made to apply the method of Section

3 to ferroresonance cases, but with little success. In
J FREQUENCY (Hz)
ferroresonance phenomena, more than one steady-state
0 solution is possible. It depends very much on the
400 410 420 430 initial conditions and on the type of disturbance which
one of these possible steady states will be reached.
Fig. 8. Frequency response with and without error The method of Section 3 is therefore not useful for
factor E (At = 200 ps).
ferroresonance studies. The EMTP can be used for the
emphasize the differences in Fig. 8, the line was simulation of ferroresonance phenomena, however, though
it will not give any insight into all possible steady-
modelled as a cascade connection of three-phase i-
circuits, rather than with distributed parameters.
Since the EMTP uses other, more accurate, methods for SENDING END
solving the equations of distributed-parameter lines,
the differences would be much less with distributed- B
parameter representations.
In the transient simulation, the discretization
error factor of Eq. (12) is unavoidable, and the
answers will therefore be slightly incorrect. In such 40 (ms)
situations, it may be best to introduce the same error EH
C
factor into the initialization with the steady-state 0
solution method of Section 3, to avoid discrepancies
between initial conditions and transient simulations. A
With this modification, the discrepancies between the
initialization procedure of Section 3 and subsequent
transient simulations of an otherwise undisturbed net- RECEIVING END
work become practically negligible.
B
SENDING END
400
B=
0S 40 (ms)
:4 0(ms) E-4 C
0
20 C H
H
0
A
-400

Fig. 10. Same case as in Fig. 4, except simulation

starts from steady state with harmonics.
RECEIVING END
state conditions. In that sense, EMTP simulations are
400 somewhat similar to transient stability simulations,
which also do not give global answers about the overall
B
stability of the system.

0 40(ms) 6. CONCLUSIONS
clD
-H
0 C
A phasor solution method for calculating steady-
state conditions with transformer-generated harmonics
0
A
-400 has been presented. It can be used by itself, or as
part of a harmonic power flow program [4]. It can also
be used as an improved initialization procedure for
Fig. 9. Same case as in Fig. 1, except simulation electromagnetic transients programs for cases where
starts from steady state with harmonics. harmonics are already present before the disturbance
being simulated occurs. In transient simulations,
discretization errors are unavoidable. Their influence
on the accuracy of harmonics is briefly discussed.
214

APPENDIX 1. CONVERSION OF SATURATION CURVES If the (/i-curve thus generated is used to re-
compute a VRMS/IRMS-curve, it will match the original
Often, saturation curves supplied by manufacturers VRMS/IRMS-curve, except for possible round-off errors.
give RMS voltages as a function of RMS currents. Con- This conversion procedure is used in the support rou-
version from a VRMS/IRms-curve to a flux/current-curve tine CONVERT of the EMTP. As an example, it would
(p=f(i) is easy if convert the table of per-unit RMS exciting currents as
a function of per-unit RMS-voltages,
1. hysteresis and eddy current losses in the iron-
core are ignored, VRMS (p *U *)
2. resistance in the winding is ignored, and if
IRMS (P *U *)
3. the (p/i-curve is to be generated point by point O 0
at such distances that linear interpolation is 0.9 0.0056
acceptable in between points. 1.0 0.0150
1.1 0.0401
For the conversion it is necessary to assume that the
flux varies sinusoidally at fundamental frequency as a with base power = 50 MVA and base voltage = 635.1 kV,
function of time, because it is most likely that the into the following flux/current relationship:
VRMS/IRMS-curve has been measured with a sinusoidal
terminal voltage. With assumption (2), v=d(p/dt. (p(Vs) i(A)
Therefore, the voltage will also be sinusoidal and the
conversion of VRMS values to flux values becomes a 0 0
simple re-scaling: 2144.22 0.6235
2382.46 2.7238
VRMS/2 (13)
2620.71 7.2487
(p= This (q/i-curve is then converted back into a VRMS/IRMS-
curve as an accuracy check. In this case, the VRMS and
IRms values were identical with the original input
data.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
.- : -7
- . . The financial assistance of the System Engineering
Division of B.C. Hydro and Power Authority, Vancouver,
Canada, through a Power System Research Agreement, is
gratefully acknowledged. The data conversion routine
described in Appendix 1 was developed with the assis-
tance of C.F. Cunha, CEMIG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Fig. 11. Recursive conversion of a VRMS/IERMS-curve The authors are also indebted to the reviewers of
into a (p/i-curve. this paper for their valuable suggestions, which were
incorporated in the final version of this paper.
The rescaling of currents is more complicated, except
for point iB at the end of the linear region A-B: REFERENCES

iB = IRMS-B . (14)
The following points ic, iDI ... are found recursively
(Fig . 11): Assume that iE is the next value to be
found. Assume further that the sinusoidal flux just
reaches the value fE at its maximum,
[1] C.A.F. Cunha and H.W. Dommel, "Computer simulation
of field tests on the 345 kV Jaguara-Taquaril
line" (in Portuguese). Paper BH/GSP/12, presented
at "II Seminario Nacional de Producao e Trans-
missao de Energia Eletrica" in Belo Horizonte,
Brazil, 1973.

( BE sin ut . (15) [2] V. Brandwajn, H.W. Dommel, and I.I. Dommel,

Within each segment of the curve already defined by its
end points, in this case A-B and B-C and C-D, i is
known as a function of ( (namely piecewise linear), and
with Eq. (15) is then also known as a function of time.
Only the last segment is undefined inasmuch as iE is
still unknown. Therefore, i=f(t,iE) in the last seg-
ment. If the integral needed for RMS-values,
In/ 2
F = 2- i 2d(t)
is evaluated segment by segment, the result will con-
tain iE as an unknown variable. With the trapezoidal
rule of integration (reasonable step size = 10), F has
the form
F = a + biE + ciE2
2
with a,b,c known. Since F must be equal to IRMS-E by
definition, Eq. (17)
can be solved for the unknown
value iE' This process is repeated recursively until
the last point iN has been found.
"Matrix representation of three-phase n-winding
transformers for steady-state and transient
studies". IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol.
PAS-101, pp. 1369-1378, June 1982.
[3] H.W. Dommel, "Transmission line models for har-
monics studies". Int. Conf. on Harmonics in Power
Systems, Worcester, Mass., Oct. 22-23, 1984, pp.
127-131.
(16) [4] D. Xia and G.T. Heydt, "Harmonic power flow
studies. Part I - Formulation and solution. Part
II - Implementation and Practical Application."
IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-101, pp.
1257-1270, June 1982.
(1 7)

Discussion
Adam Semlyen (University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada): I would like
to congratulate the authors for their timely paper. I consider it impor-
tant and useful that phasor solutions should exist for the periodic steady
state in a network with nonlinear elements that generate harmonics.
I would appreciate clarification on the following problem. In the
general step of "distortion" iterations, the output from the nonlinear
element contains the base current Il together with its harmonics. Thus
a "power flow" update is implicit in this step. What is the rationale for
having separate (possibly converged) "power flow" iterations? Would
it be possible, and perhaps faster, to use only the general iterative pro-
cedure described by the authors, starting with Eq. (8) of the paper?
Manuscript received July 24, 1985.
R. A. Walling (General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY): The
authors are to be congratulated on publishing this very useful method
of analyzing the steady-state effects of transformer nonlinearities.
This discusser has independently developed a program that closely
parallels their method. It has been used in a stand-alone basis, indepen-
dent of a time domain solution, to calculate harmonic overvoltages oc-
curring as a result of transformer saturation, particularly in low-frequency
resonant circuits. This program has been verified against time domain
simulations and has been found to be useful and efficient as a screening
technique to indicate critical cases for transient studies. My experience
and observations engender the following comments and questions.
1. I have also found the representation of the transformer saturation
curve by two slopes to be quite adequate. In fact, the unsaturated
magnetizing impedance can be considered infinite in most cases as
it is many orders of magnitude greater than the air core impedance.
The use of more than two saturation curve slopes will primarily in-
crease the accuracy of the higher-frequency harmonics as the two slope
representation generators a slightly excessive amount of these com-
ponents due to the sharp transition between the slopes.
2. I have obtained adequate results with truncation of the computation
to the ninth harmonic and below. Excellent results have been obtain-
ed by including up to the 15th harmonic, with negligible improve-
ment beyond this frequency. Have the authors established any criteria
for determining the range of harmonics to be calculated?
3. Is there any particular advantage to calculating an RMS saturation
curve and using this for the initial fundamental frequency solution?
Would not use of the same algorithm and instantaneous flux-current
curve as the "distortion" solution, but limited to fundamental fre-
quency, be a more straightforward way to calculate an initial guess
for the distortion iterations? My program uses this second approach
for fundamental frequency and then adds one harmonic at a time,
iterating until convergence to coarse tolerances are reached for all har-
monics that have been included to that point. When the last desired
harmonic is added, iterations are performed until the specified final
tolerances are achieved. This method tends to achieve convergence
in less total iterations than the method offered by the authors, par-
ticularly when the system is resonant near a low-order harmonic.
215
4. Have the authors experienced cases where this algorithm fails to con-
verge? I have found that the use of the last calculated voltage spectra
to calculate the flux for the next iteration can lead to instability, par-
ticularly if the system has a poorly damped resonance near a harmonic
injected by the transformer and the transformer is greatly overexcited.
I use a weighted average between the latest and preceding voltage
spectra.
5. This technique is also extendable to the quasi-steady-state harmonics
injected by a transformer with offset flux. In poorly damped systems,
flux offsets caused by energization, etc., decay very slowly. Steady-
state solution techniques can be used to calculate the distorted
waveshapes produced by asymmetric saturation, provided the even
harmonics are also calculated.
It is hoped that these questions and comments are useful to the authors
and others.
Manuscript received August 5, 1985.
Hermann W. Dommel and Andrew Yan: We would like to thank the
discussers for their valuable comments and questions.
We fully agree with Mr. Walling's comments on the adequacy of the
two-slope representation of transformer saturation, and we are happy
to see that he reached more or less the same conclusions with respect
to the number of harmonics that must be considered. We did not establish
clearly defined criteria for determining the range of harmonics to be
calculated, but such criteria clearly would be desirable. Ignoring har-
monics above order 15 is simply based on experience with a limited
number of test cases.
Dr. Semlyen and Mr. Walling both ask whether the initial "power
flow" iterations at fundamental frequency are really necessary. We use
them only as a starting algorithm to obtain a somewhat better intial guess
for the "distortion" iterations with the flux-current loop. In a typical
case, the initial power flow converged in three iteration steps, and reduced
the number of iterations in the flux-current loop from three to two. One
iteration in the power flow loop requires one solution of [Y1 [V1' = [1];
whereas one iteration in the flux-current loop involves the generation
of the ,6(t) and i(t) curves, the Fourier analysis of i(t), and a solution
of [ Y] [V] = [1] eight times if odd harmonics of order up to 15 are re-
tained. Three iterations in the power-flow loop therefore take less time
than one iteration in the flux-current loop. Whether this saving is large
enough to justify the initial power-flow loop depends on many factors.
In our program, not much extra code was needed for this initial loop.
In our limited experience, we have not come across convergence pro-
blems, even though we used the last calculated voltage spectra to calculate
the flux for the next iteration. Maybe the initial power-flow loop im-
proves convergence through a better initial guess, or maybe we just have
not yet come across a case where convergence is more difficult.
Once again, we thank the discussers for sharing their valuable ex-
perience with us.
Manuscript received September 3, 1985.