Trafo Winding Configurations and
Differential Relay Compensation
Most engineers have some familiarity with two commonly known delta connections that give
either a +300 or - 300 phase shift of positive sequence voltages and currents, and just these two
configurations seem to cause extensive confusion. There are actually many other ways to
configure a wye or delta that give other phase shifts, and to further complicate matters, there is
the occasional zigzag winding application and the additional confusion over what occurs when
CTs are connected in delta. These alternate transformer winding configurations are sometimes
referred to by terms such as Dy# or Yy#, or Yd#, Dz#, and Yz#, and where the # can be,
seemingly, almost any hour of the clock, hence the term around the clock phase shifting is
sometimes heard. Here the variety of possible winding configuration and give
examples of the nomenclature that is used with them and how these various phase shifts are
created.
Basic Transformer Design Concepts
Before proceeding, let us review a few points on transformer design and review some
nomenclature that will be used in the paper.
Since this paper is aimed at describing transformers that use phase shifts and winding designs
that are more commonly found outside the US market, the phase and bushing names of U, V,
W, will be used generally, rather than A, B, and C, or H and X. The means of specifying phase
shift and transformer connection will be the D-Y-Z + clock method. For instance, a transformer
connection will be Dy1 rather than a DAB/Y, though some dual designations will be used for
clarity.
If one browses transformer sales literature, technical papers and books, and industry standards
such as IEEE C57.12.00 and IEC-60076-1, one will find many variations on the nomenclature
and figures used to show how the phases are identified in a three phase system. Figure 1 is a
composite of some of the identification methods that will be found. Besides the terms seen in
Figure 1, the terms R, S, and T are used in some sources to name the phases. Also, various
color schemes are used. Some use of the colors black, red, and blue, or brown, orange, and
yellow to reference the phases. White is sometimes used rather than blue, but white is also
commonly used for neutral in low voltage applications too. Green or bare copper is generally
used for a ground conductor.
We need to define the term Winding to avoid confusion. In various sources the term winding
can refer to either a single continuous coil of wire on a single core leg, or collectively to a 3
phase set of windings connected to the 1U, 1V, and 1W bushings, or even the group of
windings associated with a particular phase. Herein, a winding is a single continuous coil of
wire on a single core leg, a winding set is the set of three windings that constitute the three
phases, each on different core legs, with a common terminal voltage level (e.g., 1U, 1V, and
1W), and a phase set will refer to the two or more windings that are found on a common core
leg. See Figure 2.
The windings in the transformer figures are given the terms W1-9. The winding sets associated
with the various voltage levels, each on a different core leg, are:
Winding Set 1: W1, W2, and W3
Winding Set 2: W4, W5, and W6
Winding Set 3: W7, W8, and W9 (only seen herein in zigzag transformers).
The windings sharing a common core leg are:
Core Leg 1: W1 and W4
Core Leg 2: W2 and W5
Core Leg 3: W3 and W6
(Windings W7, W8 and W9, used herein for zigzag windings, are hard to classify into a
particular leg since zigzag windings cross-connect core phase legs.)
(In the figures, core leg 1 is abbreviated as A, core leg 2 as B, and core leg as C.)
The windings by themselves are passive devices and which winding is given the number W1,
W2, or W3 (or W4, W5, W6, W7, W8, or W9) will not matter initially, but it will matter when we
connect the second set of windings to the various bushings since this will affect phase shift of
positive (and negative) sequence voltages across the transformer.
