1.

1 Earthing Transformers

Earthing transformers are quite different devices from normal power transformers. They
are intended to be inoperative during balanced voltage conditions, carrying significant
current only during earth faults. Their express purpose is to provide a good earth reference
for an otherwise unearthed part of a power system, (inevitably a part supplied from a delta
winding of a power transformer), and so restrict the voltage rise on the unfaulted, (i.e.
“healthy”), phase or phases during a fault involving earth. Why use earthing transformers?
They help to restrict the voltage rise on the healthy phase(s), and so enable us to use
equipment with lower voltage ratings.

The use of an earthing transformer makes the system what we call “effectively earthed”,
the definition of which is depends on the source impedances to the fault point which must
be such that …

R0 X0
< 1 and <3
X1 X1

If the system is not effectively earthed, the voltages that will occur on the sound phases
during an earth fault on the 3rd phase, may rise to unacceptably high levels. Even on
effectively earthed systems the phase to neutral voltage on the sound phases can rise to
80% of the rated phase to phase value. Otherwise, even higher sound phase to earth
voltages can occur, up to 100% of rated phase to phase voltage for an unearthed system.
(Actually, on an unearthed system where Z0 then consists of only the zero sequence shunt
capacitance, sound phase voltage can even exceed the rated phase to phase voltage.)

The earthing transformer and its associated power transformer are always tripped
together. This is quite reasonable, as the power transformer should not be connected to
the system without the earthing transformer, and the earthing transformer serves no
purpose without the power transformer. The earthing transformer is therefore not provided
with its own circuit breaker.

1.1.1 Construction and Rating

Earthing transformers are constructed with “zig-zag” windings, as shown in figure 2.19.
Under normal, balanced system conditions, an earthing transformer draws only a small
magnetising current, much the same as an unloaded power transformer. When a phase to
earth fault occurs, however, the residual voltage produced by the fault causes significant
current to flow into the fault and back through the earthing transformer windings, as shown
in figure 2.19. It is this flow of fault current that keeps the healthy phase voltages down.
Incidentally, whenever an earthing transformer is used, it is safe to assume that there is no
permanently connected zero sequence source downstream, for if there were, we would not
need an earthing transformer connected to the transformer. This means that in figure 2.19
no current flows to the fault from the load side.
 LOAD

Earthing Transformer

Figure 2.19 : Current flow during a single phase fault on a system with an earthing
transformer

Earthing transformers are small units. For economic reasons they are generally not
supplied with conservators, but instead use diaphragms to accommodate oil expansion,
This lack of a conservator means that the opportunity to install Buchholz protection does
not arise. This, then, is one type of protection we are normally forced to forego in earthing
transformers.

Unless there is a tertiary winding to supply a small local load, the continuous rating of
earthing transformers is very small, of the order of tens of Amperes, just enough to cope
with the small residual voltages that could occur due to load imbalance.

The short time rating is important, and is based on the fault current that the earthing
transformer permits to flow during an earth fault. Earthing transformers are specified to
have a definite impedance, Zet. This impedance is expressed as ohms/phase, and we can
show, (but won’t here), that this is equivalent to its zero sequence impedance. The method
of expressing the impedance of earthing transformers in terms of ohms per phase is a bit
artificial, but serves well enough to calculate the maximum fault current permitted by the
earthing transformer.

1.1.2 Determination of Earth Fault Current

An 11kV earthing transformer has an impedance of 9 Ω/phase. (This also means that the
zero sequence impedance is 9 Ω.) During a single phase earth fault at the earthing
transformer terminals, the maximum fault current is calculated by:
 3 × Vφ
I = 3 × Io = 3 × Iφ _ et =
fault Zφ _ et

11000 1
Thus, in the above example, I = 3• • = 2117 Amps
fault 3 9 Ohms

Note that if the zero sequence voltage at the earthing transformer terminals is zero, (during
a phase-to-phase fault, for example), then the fault current is zero. Therefore, the earthing
transformer draws no current during three phase or phase-to-phase faults, (to a very good
approximation. There is always some magnetising current though.)

1.1.3 Protection of Earthing Transformers

So much for what an earthing transformer does, but how do we protect it? There are
broadly two types of faults we need to consider.

Internal faults - faults inside the earthing transformer, the result of insulation breakdown.

External faults - faults on the system outside the earthing transformer. These can cause
overheating of the earthing transformer if they are allowed to linger for too long.

1.1.4 Overcurrent Protection

An internal fault, such as an interturn, interwinding or winding-to-core fault, upsets the

nicely designed symmetry of the earthing transformer, and causes current to flow into it. In
the absence of Buchholz protection, overcurrent protection on the earthing transformer HV
terminals is commonly used to detect such faults. The overcurrent protection is fed from
delta-connected current transformers, so that earth faults on the system, which generate a
lot of zero-sequence current, are not seen. Since the earthing transformer does not draw
current for external inter-phase faults, we can set the overcurrent relay to an extremely low
setting, so that it is quite sensitive to internal faults. This is illustrated in figure 2.20.
 LOAD

O/C relay does not operate for external O/C relay

earth faults
Def Time and IDMT E/F relays operate for Def Time E/F relay
external earth faults IDMT E/F relay

Earthing Transformer

Figure 2.20 : The application of overcurrent and earth fault protection in earthing
transformers. This figure illustrates how the delta-connected overcurrent relay does
not see external earth faults, while the earth fault relays do.

What lower limit do we place on the overcurrent setting? It clearly must be greater than the
magnetising current, which we can draw from test certificates. It must, however, also be
greater than the maximum inrush current that can occur on energisation. There is no
simple, accurate way to calculate this, as it depends on the earthing transformer’s B-H
characteristics, the point-on-wave of the energisation and the remanence of the core. We
can estimate an upper bound for it, however, and one such estimate of the maximum
inrush current is 50x the magnetising current, generally measured at the highest system
voltage.

1.1.5 Earth Fault Protection

Apart from internal faults, we must provide protection for the case where a long term
residual voltage occurs which causes earthing transformer current greater than the
continuous rating to flow. This is thermal overload protection, something that is provided
by overtemperature devices in power transformers. Since overtemperature sensors are
generally not provided in earthing transformers, and since overloads can occur quite easily
- an unbalanced load, for example, can cause a zero sequence voltage to appear - we
must provide thermal protection. Earth fault protection, as shown in figure 2.20, will serve
this purpose if we select the earth fault characteristic properly.
To provide thermal overload protection with an earth fault device, we need to consider
both the continuous and short-time ratings. In figure 2.21 are shown the continuous and
short-time thermal rating curves for a typical earthing transformer. The actual thermal
rating curve will asymptotically approach these two curves, as indicated by the upper line
in figure 2.21. Unfortunately, this actual thermal rating curve is rarely, if ever, known, so we
inevitably work with a composite curve that is the combination of the continuous and
adiabatic characteristics.

To ensure adequate thermal protection, we must make provision to trip the transformer for
current-time values below and to the left of our composite thermal curve, making sure that
all currents up to the maximum attainable earth fault current are adequately covered. The
usual way to provide this protection is with a combination of IDMT and definite time relays.
This is also shown in figure 2.21. The IDMT relay will generally have to grade over
downstream earth fault relays, so that its current setting will not be a matter of open
choice, but will have to be greater than a set minimum. It will therefore provide protection
only down to a current just above its setting. Below this, the definite time earth fault relay
provides protection. The setting of the definite time earth fault relay should be slightly less
than the continuous rating, enough to provide a safety margin, given the known errors of
the CT’s and relays used. An adequate margin should also be maintained between the
composite thermal curve and the IDMT earth fault curve - again just enough to allow for
CT inaccuracies and relay characteristic inaccuracies. (The adiabatic and continuous
ratings will not require a margin for error, as they are guaranteed figures.)

5 actual thermal limit

1 10

2300
30

adiabatic
4
thermal limit
1 10

3
1 10
TIME - SECONDS

earthing transformer E/F relay - Definite Time

100

10

earthing transformer
1
E/F relay - IDMT
downstream E/F relay

0.1 3 4
10 cont 100 1 10 max E/F 1 10
rating EARTH FAULT CURRENT - AMPS current
30A 2300A
EARTHING TRANSF THERMAL PROTECTION

Figure 2.21 : Providing thermal protection for an earthing transformer, using a

combination of IDMT and definite time earth fault protection relays.

The example shown in figure 2.21 is for an 11kV, 9 ohm earthing transformer with an
adiabatic rating of 2300A for 3 seconds, and a continuous rating of 30A. The impedance is
guaranteed to lie within a tolerance of +20% and -0% of the nominal impedance of 9
ohms.

The setting of the next downstream relay is 160A, 0.4 TMS, SI curve. The earthing
transformer setting is chosen to be 180A, 0.6 TMS, in order to provide at least 0.4 s
margin at the maximum ground fault level of 2300A. The definite time earth fault relay
current setting is chosen to be 24A, less than 30A with an adequate safety margin. The
definite time selected is 400sec. At currents just below 200A the IDMT relay takes over the
protection.

1.1.6 Biased Differential Protection

Earthing transformers are always included in the biased differential zone of the power
transformer with which they are associated.

Special attention needs to be paid to connection of the current transformer connections so

that the differential system remains balanced, and therefore stable, for external earth
faults. Current transformers can be placed in each phase at the neutral end of the earthing
transformer, but it is almost universal practice to place them in the neutral conductor, as
shown in figure 2.22, but with a different ratio, (by a factor of three), than if they were
placed in the phases. This is equivalent to placing them on the phases, since the phase
currents, consisting only of zero sequence components, are always the same as each
other.

400/0.577
A 132 / 33 kV 1600/1
0
a
0
B 0 b

C c

all 1600/0.333
external
N earth
fault
0

Figure 2.22 : Connections for biased differential protection in a system that includes
an earthing transformer

Consider now how then need for these earthing transformer neutral CT’s may be
eliminated by employing a modern microprocessor based relay. Note that in the system
shown in figure 2.22, the LV CT’s are star connected and these thus allow zero sequence
current from the earthing transformer to be transformed into the biased differential relay
system. Introducing the earthing transformer neutral CT’s, with ratios 3 times that of the
main LV CT’s, effectively negates the I0 current from the main CT’s (or at least prevents it
from entering the protection relay itself).

Conversely, if we employ a microprocessor based relay that includes zero sequence

current suppression, then the earthing transformer neutral CT’s will not be required. The
relay will instead automatically exclude I0 from its algorithm. To achieve this …
• HV CT’s will be star connected (instead of delta as shown in figure 2.22).
• The relay’s HV CT setting will then be D11. This will introduce a 30° phase shift and
also exclude I0 from the protection algorithm.
• LV CT’s will continue to be star connected.
• The relay’s LV CT setting will be D0. This will introduce no phase shift, but will exclude
I0 from the protection algorithm, thus maintaining scheme stability.