Current Transformers

Abdul Basit

Power System Protection

Introduction to Current Transformer
• Current and voltage signals are derived for all electrical
measurements and relaying decisions
• Since relaying hardware works with smaller range of current (in
amperes and not kA) and voltage (volts and not kV), real life signals
(feeder or transmission line currents) and bus voltages have to be
scaled to lower levels and then fed to the relays. This job is done by
current and voltage transformers (CTs and VTs).
• CTs and VTs also electrically isolate the relaying system from the
actual power apparatus and thus provides safety of both human
personnel and the equipment as well.

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Introduction to Current Transformer
• CT and VTs are the sensors for the relay.
• They function like ‘ears' and the ‘eyes' of the protection system.
They listen to and observe all happening in the external world.
• Relay itself is the brain which processes these signals and
issues decision commands implemented by circuit breakers,
alarms etc.
• Clearly, quality of the relaying decision depends upon
‘faithful' reproduction on the secondary side of the
transformer.
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 Equivalent Circuit of CT

Fundamental difference: regular power

transformers are excited by a voltage source,
a current transformer has current source
excitation
Primary winding of the CT is connected in series
with the transmission line. The load on the
secondary side is the relaying burden and the
lead wire resistance.
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Equivalent Circuit of CT
• Total load in ohms that is introduced by CT in series with the
transmission line is insignificant and hence, the connection of the CT
does not alter current in the feeder or the power apparatus at all.
• From modeling perspectives: reasonable to assume that CT primary
is connected to a current source.
• The remaining steps in modeling are as follows:
• As impedance in series with the current source can be neglected, we can
neglect the primary winding resistance and leakage reactance in CT modeling.
• For the convenience in analysis, we can shift the magnetizing impedance from
the primary side to the secondary side of the ideal transformer

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Equivalent Circuit of CT

ZH can be ignored, since it does not

influence either the current I/n or the
voltage across Xm.. The current
flowing through Xm is the excitation
current Ie
Equivalent Circuit of CT
• Secondary winding resistance and leakage reactance is not neglected
as it will affect the performance of CT.
• Total impedance on the secondary side is the sum of relay burden,
lead wire resistance and leakage impedance of secondary winding.
• Therefore, the voltage developed in the secondary winding depends
upon these parameters directly.

E = 4.44 f N2 Фm

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Equivalent Circuit of CT
• Фm is the peak sinusoidal flux developed in the core. If corresponding
to this flux is above Bm (magnetic flux density) the knee point, it is
more or less obvious that the CT will saturate
• During saturation, CT secondary winding cannot replicate the primary
current accurately and hence, the performance of the CT
deteriorates.
• Thus, in practice, while selecting a CT we should ascertain that it
should not saturate on the sinusoidal currents that it would be
subjected to.

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Equivalent Circuit of CT
• Use of numerical relays due to their very small burden improves the
CT performance.
• CT is to be operated always in closed condition. If the CT is open
circuited, all the current Ip/N, would flow through Xm.
• This will lead to the development of dangerously high level of voltage in
secondary winding which can even burn out the CT.
• One of the major problems faced by the protection systems engineer
is the saturation of CT on large ac currents and dc offset current
present during the transient.
• When the CT is saturated, primary current source cannot be faithfully
reflected to the secondary side.

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CT saturation
• Excitation current results in CT errors
• excitation curve are calculated for proper functioning of CTs.
• Magnetization current of a CT depends on
• cross-section and length of the magnetic circuit, number of turns in the
windings and the magnetic characteristics of the material.
• Voltage across the magnetization impedance is directly proportional
to the secondary current.
• Voltage reaches the so-called saturation voltage when the peak induction just
exceeds the saturation flux density and the magnetization current becomes
sufficiently high enough to produce an excessive error.
CT saturation
• Curve is called the saturation at
which an increase in the
excitation voltage of 10%
produces an increase of 50% in
the excitation current.
Types of CTs
• Based on construction, types of CTs are:
• Wound Current Transformer
• Bar-type Current Transformer
• Toroidal Current Transformer
• Wound Current Transformer
• transformers primary winding is physically connected in
series with the conductor that carries the measured
current flowing in the circuit
• magnitude of the secondary current is dependent on the
turns ratio of the transformer.
Types of CTs
• Bar-type Current Transformer
• uses the actual cable or bus-bar of the main circuit as the
primary winding, which is equivalent to a single turn.
• fully insulated from the high operating voltage of the system
and are usually bolted to the current carrying device.
• Toroidal Current Transformer
• do not contain a primary winding. Instead, the line that
carries the current flowing in the network is threaded
through a window or hole in the toroidal transformer.
• Some current transformers have a “split core” which allows
it to be opened, installed, and closed, without disconnecting
the circuit to which they are attached.
Classification of CT
• Measurement CTs
• It has much lower VA capacity than a protection grade CT.
• accurate over its complete range e.g. from 5% to 125% of normal current. In other
words, its magnetizing impedance at low current levels.
• due to non-linear nature of B-H curve, magnetizing impedance is not constant but
varies over the CT's operating range. It is not expected to give linear response
(secondary current a scaled replica of the primary current) during large fault
currents.
• Protection CTs
• linear response is expected up to 20 times the rated current
• performance has to be accurate in the range of normal currents and up to fault
currents
• magnetizing impedance should be maintained to a large value in the range of the
currents of the order of fault currents

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Classification of CT
• When a CT is used for both the purposes, it has to be of required accuracy class
to satisfy both accuracy conditions of measurement CTs and protection CTs.
• In other words, it has to be accurate for both very small and very large values of current.
Typically, CT secondary rated current is standardized to 1A or 5A (more common).
• Unreasonable to assume that the linear response will be independent of the net
burden on the CT secondary.
• quite obvious that the driving force required to drive the primary current replica will increase
as this burden increases.
• If this voltage exceeds the designer's set limits, then the CT core will saturate and hence
linear response will be lost. Hence, when we say that a CT will give linear response up to 20
times the rated current, there is also an implicit constraint that the CT burden will be kept to
a low value.
• In general, name-plate rating specifies a voltage limit on the secondary (e.g., 100 V) up to
which linear response is expected. If the CT burden causes this voltage to be exceeded, CT
saturation results

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Relay Burden
• Burden of a CT is the value in ohms of the impedance on the secondary side of the CT
due to the relays and the connections between the CT and the relays.

• Secondary terminal voltage rating is the CT secondary voltage that the CT will deliver
when it is connected to a standard secondary burden, at 20 times rated secondary
current, without exceeding a 10% ratio error
Selection of CTs
• Important to ensure that the maximum load is equal or lower than the
rated current of the CT
• fault levels do not result in saturation of the core.
• Fundamental concept about CT saturation checking is to guarantee an
operating point on the CT such that the excitation voltage lies within the
linear portion, or below the so-called ‘knee point’ of the CT saturation
curve.
• Saturation can be caused due to the AC and DC components.
• Secondary excitation voltage has to be calculated with the secondary
excitation current multiplied for the total burden that represents the
summation of the impedances of the CT windings, the wires and the
impedances of the instrument connected
Selection of CTs
Example 1
• A 1200/5, C400 CT with excitation curves, is connected to a 2.0 Ω
burden. Based on the accuracy classification, what is the maximum
symmetrical fault current that may be applied to this CT without
exceeding a 10% ratio error?

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Example 2
• A 1200/5, C400 CT is connected on the 1000/5 tap. What is the
maximum secondary burden that can be used and we can maintain
rated accuracy at 20 times rated symmetrical secondary current?

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Example 3
• Assume that secondary burden of a 300:5 class C CT is 5 Ω. The relay
setting is 2A and the CT ratio is 300/5. Using figure of slide 12 for
Class C CT, calculate the primary current required to operate the
relay?

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Example 4
• A relay is expected to operate for 7000A primary current. The class C
CT ratio is 600/5 (see figure). Secondary burden is 3.5 Ω. Will the CT
saturate at this burden? Also, comment on the ratio error.

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Example 5
• What will be the approximate % error if a 500:5 class C CT is
connected to a secondary burden of 2.5 Ω and the secondary current
is 68A.

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Example 6
• If a 300:5 class C CT is connected to a meter with resistance 1Ω and secondary
current in the CT is 4.5A; find out the primary current, voltage developed across
the meter and % ratio error. Lead wire resistance secondary resistance RL = 0.02
Ω of a 300:5 CT = 0.15 Ω

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Example 7
Consider a 13.2-kV feeder that is carrying a load of 10 MVA at 1.0 power factor.
Associated with this circuit is a 500/5 CT feeding a measurement system whose
total load is 10 VA. The equivalent circuit of the CT referred to the secondary side is
shown in below Figure. Calculate the voltage that would occur in the secondary
circuit of the CT if the measurement system was accidentally opened.
 CT Saturation and DC Offset Current
• Typically, fault current consists of
symmetrical ac component and a dc
offset current.
• To understand this issue, consider an
unloaded transmission line excited by a
voltage source. The fault strikes at time
t=to.
• This can be simulated by closing the
switch. If R + jωL models the line Ƭ = Lline/Rline
impedance, then the fault current in the
line is given by
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 DC offset current
• Fault current can be decomposed
into two components
• steady state sinusoidal ac response
• dc offset current due to the presence
of inductance in the circuit and
therefore a consequence of
maintaining initial condition

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DC offset current
• The peak value of dc offset current I0 can be worked out by setting the current
i(t0) to zero

We have considered a single phase current,

a 3 phase fault on a 3 phase transmission
line would always induce dc offset current
in at least two phases. DC offset has
adverse impact on CT performance.
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 CT Saturation due to DC - Offset Current
• Due to CT core saturation, the
secondary current would not
faithfully replicate the primary
current. In fact, in practice it is
observed that CT secondary
current is clipped that leads to
“blinding” of the relay which
cannot function any further. Hence,
CT saturation in presence of dc
offset current is a serious problem
which relay designers have to face.
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CT Saturation due to DC - Offset Current
• AC voltage induced flux has zero average value. However, dc offset induced
flux does not have this nice feature. The total instantaneous flux in ideal CT
core is a summation of ac flux and dc flux
• DC flux accumulates gradually depending upon the transmission line time
constant (Ƭ).
CT Over sizing Factor
• X/R is the transmission line X/R ratio.
• For a 220KV line with X/R = 10, this would imply that transformer core
should be oversized by a factor of 11. For a EHV line, with X/R is 20,
this would imply an oversizing requirement of about 21 times the
usual design.
• Clearly, this high amount of oversizing is not practical. Thus, an
important conclusion is that, protection engineers have to live with
the saturation problem. Under the situation one should try to quickly
reach the decision, before CT saturates. However, this brings in the
picture, the well discussed 'speed vs accuracy conflict'.

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Caution in CT selection
1. The CT rating and continuous load current should match. For example, if
maximum load current is 90A, a 100:5 CT may be acceptable but 50:5 is
not acceptable.
2. The maximum fault current should be less than 20 times the CT rated
current. For example, 100:5 CT can be used, so long as burden on the CT
is within the rated values and maximum primary fault current is below
2000A.
3. The voltage rating of CT should be compatible. For example, 100:5 C100
would give linear response, upto 20 times rated current provided CT
burden is kept below(100/20 x 5 = 1Ω ). With 2 Ω burden, this CT can be
used only if maximum current is limited to 1000A. Paralleling of CT's e.g.
in differential protection, or with SLG fault can create significant errors in
CT performance. One should generally ascertain that magnetizing
current is kept much below the pick up value
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