Chapter 3

Special Purpose Current Transformer

 Class PS
Also know as Class PX / Class X

Protection CTs for special applications such as:-

-Biased differential protection
- Restricted ground fault protection
- Distance protection schemes

Class PS is proposed when

- It is hard to identify the class of accuracy, the accuracy limit factor and the rated
burden of the CTs
-Full primary fault current is required to be transformed to the secondary without
saturation, to accurately monitor the level of fault and/or unbalance.
The type of application and the relay being used determine the knee point voltage.
The knee point voltage and the excitation current of the CTs now form the basic design
parameters for such CTs.
They are classified as class 'PS' CTs and can be identified by the following characteristics:

- CTR = lp/Is
- Rated test winding current
- Nominal turn ratio (the error must not exceed ± 0.25%)
- Knee point voltage (kpv) at the maximum secondary turns;

Vk ≥ 2Vft

Vk = knee point voltage

Vft = maximum voltage developed across the relay circuit by the other group of CTs during a
severe most through fault.
• Maximum magnetizing (excitation) current at the voltage setting
(Vft) of the relay or at half the knee point e.m.f. to be ≤ 30 mA for
1A CTs for most high impedance schemes.
– proper iron core is carefully selected to limit this parameter hence to help
reduce the effective relay current setting and improve its sensitivity.
Magnetizing characteristics, Vf versus Im (Vf being the CT secondary voltage
under rated conditions).
– CT knee point saturation characteristic is provided by the manufacturers.
• Maximum resistance of the secondary winding corrected to 90°C
or the maximum operating temperature considered.
– In fact, it should be substituted by the actual operating temperature. We
discuss below a high-impedance differential protection scheme to provide
a detailed procedure to select PS Class CTs.
1 High-impedance differential protection
scheme
The scheme is proposed to detect:
- inter-turn fault (winding of gen, tx, reactor)
- ground fault
- phase fault.
• Spill current = difference between the currents drawn
by the two sets of CTs, flows through the relay.
• two sets of CT parameters, such as
– ratio,
– secondary resistance,
– magnetizing current, should be identical
• The secondary lead resistances, from the CTs to the
relay terminals, should also be identical.
• small spill currents under healthy condition = minimum
relay setting, Ist.
 Selection of class PS CTs

• If1, If2, = If = CT secondary current

• Im1,Im2 = Im = CT excitation currents (this is important in
selecting class PS CT)
• Ic1, Ic2 = Ic = circulating current
• Ire = spill current through relay
• Vf1, Vf2, Vf = CT secondary voltages under rated
condition (relay is defined by these two value current
& voltage setting)
• Rr = resistance of relay coil = VA/Ist2 , VA = relay burden,
Ist = relay current rating 1A/5A or current setting. For
example, relay burden = 1VA, Ist = 0.05 A, Rr =
1/(0.05)2=400 Ω
• Ist = relay setting
• R11, R12 = R1 = max resistance of connecting leads (from
CT terminals to relay)
• XCT1, XCT2, XCT = equivalent excitation reactance of the
CT sec winding . Ring type CT = XCT very low =
Negligible.
• RCT1, RCT2, RCT = equivalent resistance of CT sec winding
• Healthy condition
• If1 = Im1 + IC1
• If2 = Im2 + IC2
• And Vf2 = (If2 – Ic2).Xct2
• =Ic2 (Rct2 + R12) + (Ic2 - Ic1)(Rst + Rf)
• Ire = Ic2 – Ic1 = If1 - Im1 – (If2 - Im2 ), If1 = If2 ; Im1 =Im2
• Ire = Ic2 – Ic1 =0 -> no spill current = relay not
operate
• Through-fault condition {not severe/moderate}
• For, fault outside the protective zone, CTs in parallel
share almost equal amount of fault current depend on:
– Location of the fault.
– Impedance of each CT circuit up to fault point.
• Polarities of the two set of CTs opposite each other and
neutralize most of the unbalanced current (Ic2 – Ic1)
through the relay.
• Minimum relay setting depends on the small spill current
in order to avoid mal-tripping during moderate fault.
• Through-fault condition {severe}
• It is possible that one or more CTs in the faulty circuit may saturate on a severe
through-fault and create a short circuit (Vf2 = 0) across the magnetizing circuits of
all the CTs that are saturated.
• CT resistance exists across the relay circuit. While assuming other CTs remain
functional, this will create a heavy unbalanced current through relay and will
cause unwanted trip.

Vft = Isc (Rct + R1)

• Vft = maximum voltage developed across the relay circuit due to other groups of
fully-function CTs during a severe through-fault.
• Isc = maximum fault current through the secondary of the CTs, on a severe
through-fault.
• In this case, stability limit of the protection scheme define the minimum
voltage setting of the relay. This setting also will consider the safety margin
as the knee point voltage, Vk of the CTs is considered quite high Vk ≥ 2Vft
hence the saturation is possible under severe fault condition.
• Therefore, the level of Vft developed by the CTs may not be as high as
thought and when the relay is set at this voltage it will provide sufficient
stability.

• Note
• For this scheme, advisable to select low secondary current CT of 1A. reason:
-> to permit a lower relay setting for the voltage and the current trip coils.
• Stability level of protection -> auto improve when voltage across the relay
reduces.
• Sensitivity -> Ability of the scheme to detect the weakest internal fault.
• Stability -> Ability of the system to remain inoperative during healthy condition and also during the most severe
external fault. The system should be immune to
– Momentary voltage or
– Current transients and
– Normal harmonic contents in the circulating current.

• Use of stabilizing resistance

Sometimes Vft may become high and will cause a spill current on a through-fault higher than the relay pick-up
current, Ist.

Function of stab resistance Rst:To ensure that no spill current higher than the relay setting, I st will flow through the
relay circuit under a through-fault condition.
– Differential circuit will act like a high impedance path for this spill current, compared to the very low magnetizing impedance of
the saturated CT

• Normal practice -> Choose Rst based on setting voltage required.

• Vft is the minimum voltage required across the relay branch (Rr + Rst) for pushing a current equal to Ist to ensure that the relay stays
immune on a through-fault.
(Rr + Rst) ≥ Vft / Ist
• Internal fault current more than Ist -> hence it is
easy to detect.
• Select high Rst to limit the relay current during a
through fault to less than its pickup current.
(assuming that one of the CTs is fully saturated)
Solving the previous equation for Rst
Rst ≥ (Vft / Ist ) - Rr
or
Rst ≥ (Vft / Ist ) – VA/Ist2
• Rst supplied with the relay by the relay
manufacturer.
• Rst is a variable type resistor;
– to suit system conditions and the actual fault level.
– The maximum value of Rst depends upon the type
of protection (ground or phase or both) and the
relay setting.
– Value between 50 - I500Ω.
• Fault within the protected zone
• Same polarity of the CTs causes currents as the two sets add up
and result to a high-imbalance spill current through the relay.

Ire = Ic1 + Ic2 = (Isf2 – Im2) + (Isf1 –Im1) = Isf2 + Isf1 – 2Im

• The additive characteristic of the scheme has high stability then

– prevents the relay from operating on moderate external faults
– sensitive to small spill currents for all internal ground and phase faults,
including winding faults.
• 2 Current setting of the relay

If IPf = minimum fault current through the primary (chosen on the basis of the rated full-
load current of the machine or the system being protected)required to trip the relay.
Also know as the minimum primary operating current (POC) of the scheme.
Ipf, In terms of the secondary = n x Isf
n = turn ratio of the CTs
Im = corresponding to the V,, to account for the most severe through fault
Ist = relay current setting, i.e. minimum spill current required to operate the relay
Then
Isf = Im + Ist

*During fault -> the p.f. is low, all these quantities may be considered in phase with each
other.
• In a GF protection scheme all the 3 CTs of all the feeders
being protected together will fall in parallel,
– a combined GF and phase fault protection scheme, only one third
of these CTs will fall in parallel.
• The CT in the faulty circuit must be able to draw enough
current to feed the magnetizing losses of all the CTs falling in
parallel and the relay pickup current, Ist .
• The sensitivity of the differential scheme can be expressed
as:
Isf = N x Im + Ist (N being the number of CTs falling in parallel)
and in terms of the primary Ipf = n(N x Im + Ist)
• Isf must be kept as low as possible to detect
even a small fault.
• High sensitivity can be achieved as:
– To have the CTs with a low Im
– To keep the number of CTs in parallel as small as
possible
– To protect individual feeders, rather than many
feeders together
• Relay -> only one current setting for all types of faults,
– recommended to keep around 20 - 40% of the rated current
of the system being protected.
– Reason: This setting -> sufficient to meet the CT’s
magnetizing current requirements and also trip the relay.
• GF scheme -> recommended to consider lower setting
to ensure effective detection.
– actual ground fault current may be larger than is being
detected by the relay due to a higher impedance of the
ground loop than assumed previously.
• Choose POC within 30% of the estimated GF
current (recommended by IEC 60255-6)
• The CTs are designed for the worst conditions of fault,
even when the scheme is designed to detect only a
ground fault.
• Phase to phase and ground fault -> severe unbalance.
The iron core of such CTs -> possess near-linear
magnetizing characteristics for the purpose of
compensating the fault level of the system being
protected.
– to achieve the magnitude of the fault in the secondary (15 to
20 times or more of Ir). In generators, it can increase up to 21.
Ir
• Secondary voltage of the CTs is defined by its
knee point voltage (kpv), Vk.
• Vk will depend upon
– the type of relay,
– its VA burden and
– the required stability of the system.
• It is common practice to make this at least twice the
relay setting voltage on the most severe through-
fault, Le. Vk ≥ 2Vft.
• Greater number of CTs means greater POC ->
A high POC may not be desirable, as it may
underprotect the system.
• It is advisable to apply the scheme individually
by dividing the system into more than one
circuit (example 15.6).
• 3 Suppressing system harmonics
• For instantaneous relay
– highly sensitive
– operate at low spill currents
• Instantaneous relay detects the residual current of the system,
due to third-harmonic components contained in the current, it
will operate.
• How To avoid operation of the relay under this condition? to
integrate a tuned filter at relay coil such as
– LC circuit to filter out the third-harmonic components.
– The capacitance of the filter circuit reduces a steep rising TRV (during a
momentary transient condition and protect the relay.
• 4 Limiting the peak voltage
High-impedance scheme -> can result in very high voltages across the CTs and the relay
especially during internal faults.
Voltage across the relay circuit must be limited to 3 kV in order to protect CTs and relay
(IEC60255-6).

Peak voltage across the relay,

Vp = 2 √2 √Vk (Vm - Vk)

Vp = peak voltage across the relay and

Vm = theoretical maximum CT secondary voltage across the relay circuit at the maximum
internal fault current. (The maximum internal fault current is the level of fault of the
system under protection).
If the cumulative fault current is Iscc then the maximum CT secondary voltage will be;
Vm = lscc x impedance of the relay circuit.
• How to limit the peak voltage?
• Answer: Use a non-linear resistance called
Metrosil across the relay.
– Function: This resistance will provide a low-
resistance parallel path to the current and limit
the voltage across the relay to about 1 kV. The
current, I through the non-linear resistance is
given by
Vm = K x Iβ (K and β are constants)
Stabilizing resistor and Metrosil
• 5 Selecting class PS CTs
• The following example shows the procedure
to select class PS CTs for a typical G/F scheme.
• This scheme would be more appropriate for
phase and ground fault protections, as
illustrated in Figure 15.22.
 Example 15.5
• Example 15.5
Consider a generator, 10 MVA, 3.3 kV, for ground fault
protection having a sub-transient reactance xd” = 12 ±
10%.
Grounding method: solidly grounded
Overload capacity: 150% for 30 seconds (as in IEC 60034-1
)
Relay type: differential
Rating: 1 A
VA: 1, at the setting current, lSt
 Example 15.6
• Consider a power distribution system as shown in Figure 15 32,
where a transformer of 50 MVA, 33/11 kV, having a fault level
of 750 MVA, is feeding a bus connected to six feeders of
different ratings. All the CTs for a combined phase and ground
fault may be connected in parallel as illustrated The CTs on the
primary side of the transformer will be similar to those on the
outgoing feeders, except for the insulation system and the turn
ratio, to provide identical secondary current and magnetizing
characteristics, as on the secondary side of the transformer The
relay may be set for a slightly higher value to account for the
slight error introduced and the consequent spill currents to
avoid an unwanted trip.