Potential and Current

Transformers
Engr. Syed Muhammad Munavvar Hussain
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit
to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A
varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in
the transformer's core, and thus a varying magnetic field through the secondary
winding. This varying magnetic field induces a varying electromotive force (EMF)
or "voltage" in the secondary winding. This effect is called mutual induction.

Figure 1: Transformer-Basic Construction

If a load is connected to the secondary, an electric current will flow in the

secondary winding and electrical energy will be transferred from the primary
circuit through the transformer to the load. In an ideal transformer, the induced
voltage in the secondary winding (VS) is in proportion to the primary voltage (VP),
and is given by the ratio of the number of turns in the secondary (NS) to the
number of turns in the primary (NP) as follows:
 By appropriate selection of the ratio of turns, a transformer thus allows an
alternating current (AC) voltage to be "stepped up" by making NS greater than NP,
or "stepped down" by making NS less than NP. In the vast majority of
transformers, the coils are wound around a ferromagnetic core, air-core
transformers being a notable exception.

Transformers come in a range of sizes from a thumbnail-sized coupling

transformer hidden inside a stage microphone to huge units weighing hundreds
of tons used to interconnect portions of national power grids. All operate with the
same basic principles, although the range of designs is wide. While new
technologies have eliminated the need for transformers in some electronic
circuits, transformers are still found in nearly all electronic devices designed for
household ("mains") voltage. Transformers are essential for high voltage power
transmission, which makes long distance transmission economically practical.

Instrument transformers

Instrument transformers are used for measuring voltage and current in

electrical power systems, and for power system protection and control. where a
voltage or current is too large to be conveniently used by an instrument, it can be
scaled down to a standardized, low value. Instrument transformers isolate
measurement, protection and control circuitry from the high currents or voltages
present on the circuits being measured or controlled.

Figure 2: Current transformers, designed for placing around conductors

 A current transformer is a transformer designed to provide a current in its
secondary coil proportional to the current flowing in its primary coil.

Voltage transformers (VTs), also referred to as "potential transformers"

(PTs), are designed to have an accurately-known transformation ratio in both
magnitude and phase, over a range of measuring circuit impedances. A voltage
transformer is intended to present a negligible load to the supply being
measured. The low secondary voltage allows protective relay equipment and
measuring instruments to be operated at lower voltages.

Both current and voltage instrument transformers are designed to have

predictable characteristics on overloads. Proper operation of over-current
protection relays requires that current transformers provide a predictable
transformation ratio even during a short circuit.

Potential Transformer (PT)

The instrument potential transformer (PT) steps down voltage of a circuit

to a low value that can be effectively and safely used for operation of instruments
such as ammeters, voltmeters, watt meters, and relays used for various protective
purposes.

Figure3: A Potential Transformer (PT)

 Potential transformers can be used with voltmeters for voltage
measurements or they can be used in combination with current transformers for
watt-meter or watt-hour meter measurements. They are used also to operate
protective relays and devices, and for many other applications, since they are
used in a monitoring capacity, they generally require much greater accuracy in
design.

Potential Transformer is designed for monitoring single-phase and three-

phase power line voltages in power metering applications. The primary terminals
can be connected either in line-to-line or in line-to-neutral configuration.

A Potential Transformer is a special type of transformer that allows meters

to take readings from electrical service connections with higher voltage
(potential) than the meter is normally capable of handling without at potential
transformer.

Potential transformers are designed to provide as accurate a voltage step-

down ratio as possible. To aid in precise voltage regulation, loading is kept to a
minimum: the voltmeter is made to have high input impedance so as to draw as
little current from the PT as possible. As you can see, a fuse has been connected
in series with the PTs primary winding, for safety and ease of disconnecting the
PT from the circuit.

A standard secondary voltage for a PT is 120 volts AC, for full-rated power
line voltage. The standard voltmeter range to accompany a PT is 150 volts, full-
scale. PTs with custom winding ratios can be manufactured to suit any
application. This lends itself well to industry standardization of the actual
voltmeter instruments themselves, since the PT will be sized to step the system
voltage down to this standard instrument level.

The potential transformer is designed for measuring the voltages ranging

in kV or even higher. The simple voltmeters may easily burn upon measuring
these voltages. So these transformers are designed to eliminate this harm and
successfully recording the power system voltages.

Principle of operation

The standards define a voltage transformer as one in which "the secondary

voltage is substantially proportional to the primary voltage and differs in phase
from it by an angle which is approximately zero for an appropriate direction of
the connections."

This, in essence, means that the voltage transformer has to be as close as

possible to the "ideal" transformer. In an "ideal" transformer, the secondary
voltage vector is exactly opposite and equal to the primary voltage vector, when
multiplied by the turns-ratio.

In a "practical" transformer, errors are introduced because some current is

drawn for the magnetization of the core and because of drops in the primary and
secondary windings due to leakage reactance and winding resistance. One can
thus talk of a voltage error, which is the amount by which the voltage is less than
the applied primary voltage, and the phase error, which is the phase angle by
which the reversed secondary voltage vector is displaced from the primary
voltage vector.

The Task of Measuring Voltage

In the world of electricity, the typical measurement is that of voltage. A

volt meter will measure the voltage, usually within a range of up to hundreds of
volts. In the power industry, the transmission of electricity occurs at thousands
and tens of thousands of volts. This would destroy nearly all typical voltmeters.
How then, do technicians measure the high voltages they encounter every day?
The trick is to use a potential transformer.
The Potential Transformer

The potential transformer works along the same principle of other

transformers. It converts voltages from high to low. It will take the thousands of
volts behind power transmission systems and step the voltage down to something
that meters can handle. These transformers work for single and three phase
systems, and are attached at a point where it is convenient to measure the
voltage.

What Gives a Transformer Potential?

The biggest feature that a potential transformer has over regular

transformers is the voltage conversion is constant and linear. That is to say, if the
first day of operation 50,000 volts is stepped to 50 volts, then on the last day of
operation 50,000 steps to 50 volts. Linearity states that when the voltage drops
in a linear fashion, then the stepped down voltage drops accordingly. This feature
ensures that the meter will scale accordingly. The potential transformer makes
the measure of very high voltages much easier.

Applications

• The potential transformers that we manufacture are widely used to scale

down the line to neutral voltage of Wye (Y) system or the line-to-line
voltage of a Delta system to the rated input scale of the meter (typically
120 V).
• Transformers can also be used in electrical instrumentation systems. Due
to transformers' ability to step up or step down voltage and current, and
the electrical isolation they provide, they can serve as a way of connecting
electrical instrumentation to high-voltage, high current power systems.
• They are used in the transmission lines for the purpose of voltage
measurement, power metering, and the protection of the lines.
 • The potential transformers (like the current transformers) are used for the
substation service.

Current Transformer (CT)

The instrument current transformer (CT) steps down the current of a

circuit to a lower value and is used in the same types of equipment as a potential
transformer. This is done by constructing the secondary coil consisting of many
turns of wire, around the primary coil, which contains only a few turns of wire. In
this manner, measurements of high values of current can be obtained. A current
transformer should always be short-circuited when not connected to an external
load. Because the magnetic circuit of a current transformer is designed for low
magnetizing current when under load, this large increase in magnetizing
current will build up a large flux in the magnetic circuit and cause the
transformer to act as a step-up transformer, inducing an excessively high
voltage in the secondary when under no load.

Figure 4: A simple Current Transformer (CT)

Because CTs are designed to be powering ammeters, which are low-

impedance loads, and they are wound as voltage step-up transformers, they
should never, ever be operated with an open-circuited secondary winding.
Failure to heed this warning will result in the CT producing extremely high
secondary voltages, dangerous to equipment and personnel alike. To facilitate
maintenance of ammeter instrumentation, short-circuiting switches are often
installed in parallel with the CT's secondary winding, to be closed whenever the
ammeter is removed for service: (Figure 5)

Figure 5: Short-circuit switch allows ammeter to be removed from an active

current transformer circuit.

Though it may seem strange to intentionally short-circuit a power system

component, it is perfectly proper and quite necessary when working with current
transformers.

The reason why a current transformer is used in place of the ordinary

ammeter (current measuring device), is that the ammeter can not measure the
very high amounts of current in the high voltage (HV) applications. Therefore
there is a need for an instrument that can measure the high values of currents
without any harm or burning of the device itself.

Principle of operation

A current transformer is defined as "as an instrument transformer in

which the secondary current is substantially proportional to the primary current
(under normal conditions of operation) and differs in phase from it by an angle
which is approximately zero for an appropriate direction of the connections."
This highlights the accuracy requirement of the current transformer but also
important is the isolating function, which means no matter what the system
voltage the secondary circuit need be insulated only for a low voltage.

The current transformer works on the principle of variable flux. In the

"ideal" current transformer, secondary current would be exactly equal (when
multiplied by the turns-ratio) and opposite to the primary current. But, as in the
voltage transformer, some of the primary current or the primary ampere-turns is
utilized for magnetizing the core, thus leaving less than the actual primary
ampere turns to be "transformed" into the secondary ampere-turns. This
naturally introduces an error in the transformation. The error is classified into
two-the current or ratio error and the phase error.

Applications

• The current transformers are used for control circuits as well as for
instrumentation in high current power applications.
• These transformers can be used to detect single-phasing on a three phase
power system. If one phase of the power line to a three phase motor
becomes defective, the motor would run under increased current and
stress. The current transformer on each phase could detect the loss of
current in the line and open a control relay to take the motor off the
circuit.
• The current transformers perform the roles for safety protection and
current limiting.
• They can be used for the current monitoring of the power systems, when
the current reaches a specified level. Current monitoring is necessary at
frequencies from the 50 Hz/60 Hz power line to the higher frequencies of
transformers that range into the hundreds of kHz.
Basic Difference between the PT & CT

• The potential transformers are used as the high voltage voltmeters, as the
ordinary voltmeters. The current transformers are used in place of the
ordinary ammeters, to measure the high values of the currents in the high
voltage power applications.

• There are several different windings of the primary in the potential

transformer. But in the current transformer, there is only the single
winding i.e. the main live line.

• PT is used to step-down the higher magnitudes of the power transmission

voltages, stepping-up the current. On the other hand, the CT steps-down
the high values of currents and steps-up the voltage at the same time.

• There is one potential transformer required for the three phase

transmission line. But for the same three phase line, three current
transformers are needed, one on each phase.
Summary

• Transformers can be used to transform impedance as well as voltage and

current. When this is done to improve power transfer to a load, it is called
impedance matching.

• A Potential Transformer (PT) is a special instrument transformer designed

to provide a precise voltage step-down ratio for voltmeters measuring high
power system voltages.

• A Current Transformer (CT) is another special instrument transformer

designed to step down the current through a power line to a safe level for
an ammeter to measure.

• Transformers can be used in electrical instrumentation systems and for

the protection purposes.

• The current transformers are used for control circuits as well as for
instrumentation in high current power applications. They can also be used
to detect single-phasing on a three phase power system. The current
transformers perform the roles for safety protection and current limiting.