In a three winding transformer with unloaded tertiary, one corner of the Delta

tertiry is brought out, shorted & grounded. Why it is not considered as a single
phase to ground fault?

Sacchidanand ShelgaonkarIncharge Dy. Executive Engineer at M.S.E.T.C.Ltd

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Philippe Mertens
Philippe Mertens
Consultant elektricity Power at Akka Technologies

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Without this connection the delta is on floating potential i.e. nowhere defined. Floating potentials are not allowed
so the potential must be defined somehow. Either this is done by the customer when the delta is brought out by 3
or 4 bushings (to be able to open the delta) or by the mfgr indeed by connecting one corner of the delta to the
tank inside or via a bushing outside. Outside is better for measuring the insulation between tertiary and
tank/core/windings.
So this one connection is only an equipotential connection and will not conduct much current; only capasitive
currents.
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4 Nisan 2012

Sacchidanand Shelgaonkar
Sacchidanand Shelgaonkar
Incharge Dy. Executive Engineer at M.S.E.T.C.Ltd

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Dear Sir, thanks for your valuable reply. I will ask the question in different way. In any loaded delta tertiary
winding, we form the delta in the same way as we do with unloaded tertiary but we do not connect any terminal
to ground. If we will do so, it will cause single line to ground fault. Secondly, any winding which is concentric to
core will induce EMF when it cuts the flux. We do not earth any terminal of this winding directly. What is the
cause that is restricting current to flow through this unloaded delta connected tertiary winding to earth?
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4 Nisan 2012

Philippe Mertens

Philippe Mertens
Consultant elektricity Power at Akka Technologies
Indeed Sacchidanand, there is a line-to ground connection but not necessary a fault. It is only a fault when the 3phase load connected to the delta is a star connected load where the neutral point is connected to ground. When
the star-point of the load is not connected to ground, there will indeed be a voltage on this star-point to be precise
it will have phase-phase voltage devided by sqrt(3). So connecting one line (point of the delta)to ground is not a
fault if the load is connected properly.
One must pay attention that in the two other phases, the phase-earth voltage is now raised by a factor sqrt(3) so
bushings and winding insulation must be suited for this higher voltage. Also surge arresters on the 2 other phases
must be of higher rating.
It is indeed not a symmetrical situation and it is indeed not ideal but it is however common practice to earth one
corner of the delta when it is not certain that the connected load will be star connected and the neutral point
connected to ground.

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You are right on the point that all 3 windings of the delta produce a voltage difference between both winding
ends but there is no real potential definition of this voltage so it is floating. Indeed, the capasitive coupling from
windings to the tank will try to equilibrate the voltage to be more or less symmetrical but in transient conditions
the voltage can reach unacceptable values so all metal parts must be defined to a potential to avoid transient
voltages.
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P Ramachandran
P Ramachandran
Technical Advisor at ABB Ltd

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When you earth one corner of a delta winding, the voltage to earth of other terminals rise to line to line voltage
from line voltage by root3.Any earthing will become a ground fault when the current flows and this can happen
only if a closed path is available for current flow as in neutral earthed star winding.In case of delta winding, this
is not available and hence no current will flow to ground. The reason why we recommend earthing one corner of
a stabilising winding is mainly from safety angle, otherwise any one touching the tertiary terminals soon after
shutting down the transforner will get a severe shock from stored charges.
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Sacchidanand S., Zeki Akal ve 11 kii daha bunu beendi

KASSOUS Mohamed
KASSOUS Mohamed
Software Engineer at - Independent

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I was delving through books and through the net to find an answer until I've found this valuable discussion,
thank you so much. there is still one point; in the case of a bad isolation of one of the tertiary winding with the
tanks or the core will we have a current that circulate through the ground ?
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15 Temmuz 2012

KASSOUS Mohamed
KASSOUS Mohamed
Software Engineer at - Independent
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I think the answer is yes.

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15 Temmuz 2012

Sacchidanand Shelgaonkar
Sacchidanand Shelgaonkar
Incharge Dy. Executive Engineer at M.S.E.T.C.Ltd

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You are welcome KASSOUS...well answer to ur point is

Naturally yes.
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19 Temmuz 2012
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Prakash Acharya
Prakash Acharya
Manager at EL SEWEDY ELECTRIC

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Dear Ramachandran Sir,

Is there any effect of this shorted tertiary link during load loss measurement (copper loss) of the transformer?
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24 Temmuz 2013

P Ramachandran
P Ramachandran
Technical Advisor at ABB Ltd
No effect on load losss mesurement.

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Prakash Acharya
Prakash Acharya
Manager at EL SEWEDY ELECTRIC
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thank you sir

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24 Temmuz 2013

Qasim Javed
Qasim Javed
Transformer Design Engineer at Pak Elektron Limited

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It is observe than in most damage transformer its tertiary winding that is damage, i myself have notice this why
is this so?
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24 Temmuz 2013

Vallamkonda Sankar
Vallamkonda Sankar
Owner, Power Transformer Services

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IEEE Transformers Committee has done very good work and a Working Group is working further. For clarity
IEEE defines buried Tertiary as Stabilizing Winding. For details of their work please see
www.transformerscommittee.org
Mr. Ramachandran has clearly answered Mr. Shelgaonkar's question. Grounding one corner of Stabilizing
Winding is for safety. Grounding one corner is not a ground fault as there is no return path. There is no effect on
losses or in operation.
Regarding Mr. Qasim Javed question, is the Stabilizing Winding (Buried Tertiary) design reviewed in Design
Review Meeting. IEEE have voted for the following to become a standard.
1. User should specify MVA of Stabilizing Winding. When user has not specified then the manufacturer has to
determuine the MVA from equivalent circuit and get user agreement of the calculation. If not, the Stabilizing
Winding MVA is 33.3% of main winding.
2. Either by test or calculations the manufacturer has to prove that Stabilizing Winding average gradient and
hotspot rises are per standards (Per IEEE 65 deg. C and 80 deg. C).
Please check the current density of Stabilizing Winding with respect to other windings. Please also check the
cooling of Stabilizing Winding.
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Larry Harboldt bunu beendi

Feroz Hakkim
Feroz Hakkim
Power System Protection Engineer

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Consider the case of a Y system, the neutral (star point) is earthed permanently, no current will flow through this
connection at normal operation as the path is not closed.. if we connect any other point, say R phase to earth, a
closed path is formed and hence the current flows, causing an earth fault..
The same is the case of delta connected.. since there is no neutral point to earth, we connect any phase to earth,
since its the first point of earth connect, no current could flow to earth.. but a second connection will cause
closed path for the earth fault...
Thus as discussed above, if there is any insulation failure, surely an earth fault current will flow.. this current will
be able to be measured by a CT at the earthing terminal of the transformer..
Alternative protection scheme is to bring out all the 3 delta terminal of the tertiary winding, connect VT to each
terminal, and make an open delta with the secondaries of this VTs and connect a voltage sensing relay... Here the
winding will remain unearthed, but still protection is achieved..
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Pablo Pacheco Ramos

Pablo Pacheco Ramos
Electrical Power Transformer Design Engineer en ABB Spain
Hi, just an interesting additional question:
One corner of the compensation tertiary is sometimes grounded via a resistance. I guess it has a similar effect as
grounding rigidly one corner in case of transient voltage distribution, as the floating character of the
compensation tertiary is over. However, during normal operation there should be a difference, as this corner
voltage level may not be 0 kV exactly as for rigidly gorunded corner. So between this corner and ground, do we
have only capacitive currents? No current from the delta tertiary can really scape as there is no return path.

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Thanks a lot in advance.

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P Ramachandran
P Ramachandran
Technical Advisor at ABB Ltd

Yes, only capacitive currents. Third harmonic currents will be circulating inside delta. When we are earthing one
corner, the virtual neutral of the delta will be shifting to the earthed corner. So in case of an appreciable current
to earth through resistor( possibility seems remote), there can be a small shift of this neutral.

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The type of earth detection mentioned by Feroz ( detection by single phase VTs or 5 limbed 3 phase VT with
broken delta windings of 110/3 V ) is usually used only in case of three phase banks where chances of earth
faults in tertiary forming bus cannot be ruled out. But this can sometimes give spurious tripping as residual
voltages can be developed across the broken delta terminals due to neutral inversion-a phenomenon due to
resonance. Solution for this is to provide surge absorbers to delta terminals or load one of the secondaries of VTs
with resistors. I had to face such a situation 30 years back with a bank of 315 MVA 400 kV auto- transformers.
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Pablo Pacheco Ramos

Pablo Pacheco Ramos
Electrical Power Transformer Design Engineer en ABB Spain
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Thanks so much sir. Regards

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Avdhesh Chauhan CEng MIET

Avdhesh Chauhan CEng MIET
Director
I have some extension to the original query.
The Transformer configuration is Yyn+d three winding transformer (Star Primary-Unearthed, Star SecondaryEarthed via 20A NER, Delta Tertiary-Stabilising Winding Unloaded and earthed at its one corner),
Concern / query is - Would the circulating currents in delta (generated by load unbalance in star secondary) find
path via earthed NER and load the NER on a continuous basis. Does this need any further consideration to sizing
of NER for continuous withstand rating other than typically being 10% of NER restriction (i.e. 2A for a 20A
NER restriction).
My initial thought is that the phase unbalance of secondary Star is captured by Delta stablising to provide the
balance ampere-turns and such circulating currents would not flow external to transformer delta via NER even
though Delta corner is earthed as delta corner earth is for equipotential reasons.