INRUSH CURRENT MITIGATION TECHNIQUES

 Switching using a pre-insertion resistor

To mitigate the risks arising from transformer inrush currents, the magnitude of these currents can be
reduced using pre-insertion resistors in the circuit breakers. This method includes the insertion of
three phase resistance in series with the energizing breaker.

The voltage drop across the pre-insertion resistor produced by the inrush current will decrease the
voltage on the transformer windings, which in turns reduces the magnetic over flux in the core
resulting in the decrease of the magnitude of the transient magnetizing currents. Once the inrush
transient current has decreased, the resistance is then bypassed.

The following are few of the major drawbacks of this method,

 The pre-insertion resistor should be sized adequately to thermally withstand the short time
inrush currents. To reduce the voltage dip to within 10%, the inrush current would have to be
reduced to a value less than 2 pu of FLA which would require a large resistor.
 The resistors have to be included in the circuit breaker design also leading to additional
maintenance requirements.
 The time of the resistance insertion along with the time at which it is bypassed are the
parameter that influence the effectiveness of this method. The circuit breaker could end up
being severely damaged if the pre-insertion resistor is not successfully bypassed after the
switching operation.

 Controlled switching devices

If the transformer is energized at a random instant, it is possible that no transient inrush current will
occur, but in most cases a transient inrush current will arise. This is because the transient inrush
currents depend not only on the instant of energization, but also on the residual flux of the previous
de-energization.
Controlled switching devices (Point-on-wave switching controllers) operate on the principle of
energizing at the instant where the prospective flux (derived from supply-side voltage) matches the
residual flux, which negates the flux asymmetry and minimizes the inrush current. The optimal time of
energization is when the transformer core residual flux prior to the energization is equal to the
transformer core prospective flux.
 Control Switching Methodologies,
 Point-on-Wave (POW) for Single pole circuit breakers.
 Synchronized switching method for three pole circuit breakers.

 De-fluxing or demagnetizing the core prior to energization

De-fluxing the transformer core prior to energization will reduce the magnitude of the worst-case
inrush currents. However, practicality of this approach needs to be considered depending on number
of switching operations, since this operating procedure would need to be followed for every energizing
scenario.