Transformer Differential Protection

Scheme

SIPROTEC 4 7UT6 Differential Protection Relay for Transformers Connection of

transformer differential protection with high impedance REF (I7) and neutral current
measurement at I8

Introduction
Differential protection is a unit-type protection for a specified zone or piece of
equipment. It is based on the fact that it is only in the case of faults internal to the

zone that the differential current (difference between input and output currents) will
be high.
However, the differential current can sometimes be substantial even without an
internal fault.
This is due to certain characteristics of current transformers (different saturation
levels, nonlinearities) measuring the input and output currents, and of the power
transformer being protected.
With the exception of the inrush and overexcitation currents, most of the other
problems, can be solved by means of the percent differential relay, which adds to the
normal differential relay two restraining coils fed by the zone-through current, by
proper choice of the resulting percent differential characteristic, and by proper
connection of the current transformers on each side of the power transformer.
Percentage restraint differential protective relays have been in service for many
years. Figure 1shows a typical differential relay connection diagram. Differential
elements compare an operating current with a restraining current.
The operating current (also called differential current), Id, can be obtained from
the phasor sumof the currents entering the protected element:

Figure 1 Simple
diagram connection for differential power transformer protection

Id is proportional to the fault current for internal faults and approaches zero for any
other operating (ideal) conditions.
There are different alternatives for obtaining the restraining current, IRT. The most
common ones include the following:

Where k is a compensation factor, usually taken as 1 or 0,5.

The differential relay generates a tripping signal if the differential current, Id, is
greater than a percentage of the restraining current, IRT :

http://electrical-engineering-portal.com/download-center/books-and-guides/powersubstations/transformer-differential-protection-scheme

Transformer Differential Protection

Principles
P OST ED NOV 1 20 12 BY E DVA RD I N PR OT EC TI ON , TRAN SF OR ME RS W IT H 13 C OMM EN TS

Transformer Differential Protection Principles (on photo Penelec Collinsville transformer

substation 4 by PA Powerliner @ Flickr)

Inter-winding faults //
Similar to bus protections, transformers are protected by differential relays .
Inter-winding faults (short circuits) and ground faults within power transformers can
be detected by this protection scheme.
Failure to detect these faults and quickly isolate the transformer may cause serious damage
to the device.

Remember that a differential relay is basically an instantaneous overcurrent relay that

operates on the difference of current flowing into and out of the protected zone.
For transformers the differential protection (Figure 1) is basically the same as that for
a bus but there are certain differences that we will look more closely at.

These differences are a direct result of three characteristics or a transformer:

1. A transformer has a turns ratio so the current in is not really equal to the current
out. The current transformers are not likely exactly matched to the transformer turns
ratio so there will always be an unbalance currentin the operating coil of a transformer
differential relay.
2. Transformers require magnetising current. There will be a small current flow in the
transformer primary even if the secondary is open circuited.
3. A transformer has an inrush current. There is a time period after a transformer is
energized until the magnetic field in the core in alternating symmetrically. The size and
the length of this inrush depends on the residual field in the core and the point in the
ac cycle the transformer is re-energized.
In large transformers in might be ten or twenty times the full-load current initially and it
might take several minutes to reduce to negligible values.

Figure 1
Transformer Differential Protection

Transformer differential relays haverestraint coils as indicated in Figure 1. The value

of the operate current has to be a certain set percentage higher than the current
flowing in the restraint coils. For this reason transformer differential relays are said to
percentage-differential relays.

Referring again to Figure 1, you will notice that when the transformer is first
energized, there will not be any current flowing in CT2. The CT1 secondary
current I1s flows through both the restraint and operate coils and prevents operation
unless the current is very high.
The restraint coils also prevent relay operation due to tap-changes, where the ratio
of transformer input to output current can continuously vary.
One other item included in transformer differential relays, but not shown in the diagram, is
second harmonic restraint.

When transformers are first energized there is over-fluxing (saturation) of the core and
the large inrush energizing current has a distorted waveform. This waveform is
described as having high second harmonic content.
The transformer differential relays make use of this known fact and add in extra
restraint when it detects this second harmonic. This extra feature prevents the
transformer from tripping due to magnetizing current when being energized, but does
not add any time delay.
Because the differential relay will not operate with load current or faults outside the
protected zones (through faults), it can be set to operate at a low value of current
thereby giving rapid operation when a fault occurs. There is no need to time delay the
operation of the relay and therefore a fast acting type of relay can be used.
Resource: Science and Reactor Fundamentals Electrical CNSC Technical
Training Group

http://electrical-engineering-portal.com/transformer-differential-protection-principles

3 Main causes of false differential

current in transformer
P OST ED MA R 21 2016 BY EDVA R D IN P RO TE CT IO N , T RA NS FO RM ER S WI TH 2 C OM ME NT S

3 Main causes of false differential current in transformer

Differential current //
Certain phenomena can cause a substantial differential current to flow, when there
is no fault, and these differential currents are generally sufficient to cause a
percentage differential relay to trip. However, in these situations, the differential
protection should not disconnect the system because it is not a transformer internal
fault.

Differential power
transformer protection scheme

Such phenomena can be due to the non-linearities in the transformer core.

Some of these situations are considered below //
1.
2.
3.

Inrush currents
Overexcitation conditions
Current transformer saturation

1. Inrush currents
Magnetizing inrush current in transformers results from any abrupt change of the
magnetizing voltage. Although usually considered as a result of energizing a
transformer, the magnetizing inrush may be also caused by //

Occurrence of an external fault

Voltage recovery after clearing an external fault
Change of the character of a fault (for example when a phase-to-ground fault evolves
into a phase-to-phase-to-ground fault)
Out-of-phase synchronizing of a connected generator

An example of inrush current following a reclose operation measured at the

distribution substation breaker.

Figure 3 Example
inrush current measured at a substation (many distribution transformers together)

Since the magnetizing branch representing the core appears as a shunt element in
the transformer equivalent circuit, the magnetizing current upsets the balance between
the currents at the transformer terminals, and is therefore experienced by the
differential relay as a false differential current.
The relay, however, must remain stable during inrush conditions. In addition, from the
standpoint of the transformer life-time, tripping-out during inrush conditions is a very
undesirable situation! Breaking a current of a pure inductive nature generates high
overvoltage that may jeopardize the insulation of a transformer and be an indirect cause of an
internal fault).

The following summarizes the main characteristics of inrush currents //

Generally contain DC offset, odd harmonics, and even harmonics.

Typically composed of unipolar or bipolar pulses, separated by intervals of very low
current values.
Peak values of unipolar inrush current pulses decrease very slowly.
Time constant is typically much greater than that of the exponentially decaying dc
offset of fault currents.
Second-harmonic content starts with a low value and increases as the inrush current
decreases.

Read more about practical considerations of transformer inrush current //

READ MORE

Go back to Situations

2. Overexcitation conditions
Overexcitation of a transformer could cause unnecessary operation of transformer
differential relays. This situation may occur in generating plants when a unitconnected generator is separated while exporting VARs. The resulting sudden voltage
rise impressed on the unit transformer windings from the loss of VAR load can cause a
higher than nominal volts per hertz condition and, therefore, an overexcitation event.
This could also occur in transmission systems where large reactive load is tripped
from a transformer with the primary winding remaining energized.
When the primary winding of a transformer is overexcited and driven into saturation,
more power appears to be flowing into the primary of the transformer than is flowing
out of the secondary. A differential relay, with its inputs supplied by properly selected
CTs to accommodate ratio and phase shift, will perceive this as a current differential
between the primary and secondary windings and, therefore, will operate.
This would be an undesirable operation, as no internal fault would exist, with the current
imbalance being created from the overexcitation condition.

Since overexcitation manifests itself with the production of odd harmonics, and since
the third harmonic (and other triples) may be effectively cancelled in transformer
windings, then, the fifth harmonic can be used as a restraining or a blocking quantity in
the differential relay in order to discriminate between the over-excitation and the faulty
state.

SIPROTEC 4 7UT6 Differential Protection Relay for Transformers Connection of transformer

differential protection with high impedance REF (I7) and neutral current measurement at I8

Go back to Situations

3. Current transformer saturation

The effect of CT saturation on transformer differential protection is double-edged.
Although, the percentage restraint reduce the effect of the unbalanced differential
current, in the case of an external faults, the resulting differential current which may be
of very high magnitude can lead to a relay male-operation!

For internal faults, the harmonics resulting from CT saturation could delay
the operation of differential relays having harmonic restraint.
Go back to Situations
Reference // Transformer Differential Protection Scheme With Internal Faults
Detection Algorithm Using Second Harmonics Restrain And Fifth Harmonics Blocking
Logic Ouahdi Dris, Farag. M. Elmareimi and Rekina Fouad