SWITCHGEAR AND PROTECTION
ENGINEERING
Lecture 7
Transformer Protection
Contents
• Introduction
• Common Transformer faults
o Open circuit fault
o Overheating
o Winding short-circuit
• Protection systems for Transformers
• Other protective systems
o Buchholz Relay
o Earth-fault or Leakage Protection
o Combined Leakage and Overload Protection
• Applying Circulating-current System to Transformers
o Circulating-Current Scheme for Transformer Protection
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Introduction
• Transformers are static devices
• Totally enclosed and generally oil immersed
• Chances of faults occurring are very rare
• The consequences of faults may be very
serious unless the transformer is quickly
disconnected from the system
• Hence automatic protection for transformer
against possible faults is highly required
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Introduction
• Small distribution transformers are usually
connected to the supply system through series
fuses instead of circuit breakers
• Consequently no automatic protective relay
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Introduction
HV Drop Out fuses
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Introduction
HV Drop
Out fuses
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Introduction
LV Cut Out fuses
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Common Transformer faults
• Power transformer may suffer from:
– Open circuit
– Overheating
– Winding short-circuits
• Earth faults
• Phase to phase faults
• Inter-turn faults
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Open circuit fault
• An open circuit in one phase of a 3-phase
transformer may cause undesirable heating
• In practice, relay protection is not provided
because this situation is relatively harmless
• On the occurrence of such a fault, the
transformer can be disconnected manually
from the system
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Overheating
• Overheating is usually caused by
– Sustained overloads or
– Short-circuit
– Very occasionally by the failure of the
cooling system
• The relay protection is not provided instead
thermal accessories are generally used to
sound an alarm or control the banks of fans
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Winding short-circuit
• Winding short-circuit (also called Internal
fault) on the transformer arise from
deterioration of winding insulation due to:
– Overheating
– Mechanical injury
– When an internal fault occurs, the transformer
must be disconnected quickly from the system
– Prolonged arc in the transformer may cause oil fire
– Therefore relay protection is absolutely necessary
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Protection systems for Transformers
• Merz-Price circulating-current system is the
most applied in transformers
• There are cases where circulating current
system offers no particular advantage over
other systems
• Under such cases, alternative protective
systems are used
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Protection systems for Transformers
• Merz-Price circulating-current system
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Other protective systems
• Buchholz devices
• Provide protection against all kind of incipient
faults i.e. slow developing faults
– Insulation failure of windings
– Core heating
– Fall of oil level due to leaky joints
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Other protective systems
• Earth-fault relay
– Provides protection against earth-faults only
• Over-current relays
– Provide protection mainly against phase to phase
faults and overloading
• Differential system
– Provide protection against both earth and phase faults
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Other protective systems
• The complete protection of transformer usually
requires the combination of these systems.
• Choice of a particular combination of system
depends on the following factors:
– Size of the transformer
– Type of cooling
– Location of the transformer in the network
– Nature of load supplied
– Importance of service for which the transformer is
required
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Buchholz Relay
• Is a gas actuated relay installed in oil
immersed transformer
• It protects against almost all kinds of faults
• It is used to give an alarm in case of incipient
faults in the transformer
• It disconnects the transformer from the supply
in case of severe internal faults
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Buchholz Relay
• If a fault occurs in the transformer,
an enormous amount of gas is
generated in the main tank
• The oil in the main tank rushes
towards the conservator tank via the
Buchholz relay
• In doing so, tilts the flap to close the
contacts of mercury switch
• This completes the trip circuit to
open the circuit breaker controlling
the transformer
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Buchholz Relay
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Buchholz Relay
• Advantages
– It is the simplest form of transformer protection
– It detects the incipient faults at a stage much
earlier than is possible with other forms of
protections
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Buchholz Relay
• Disadvantages
– It can only be used with oil immersed
transformers equipped with conservator tanks
– The device can detect only faults below oil level in
the transformer. Therefore separate protection is
needed for connecting cables
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Earth-fault or Leakage Protection
• An earth-fault usually involves a partial
breakdown of winding insulation to earth
• The resulting leakage current is considerably less
than short-circuit current
• The earth-fault may continue for a long time and
cause considerable damage before it develops
into a short-circuit and removed from the system
• It is therefore important to employ earth-fault
relays in order to ensure the disconnection of
earth-fault or leak in the early stage
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Earth-fault or Leakage Protection
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Earth-fault or Leakage Protection
• Under normal operating conditions, the vector
sum of the three phase currents is zero
• Therefore no resultant flux in the core of
current transformer
• Consequently, no current flows through the
relay
• Then relay remains inoperative
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Earth-fault or Leakage Protection
• However, on the occurrence of an earth-fault,
the vector sum of three phase currents is no
longer zero
• The resultant current sets up flux in the core of
the CT
• This flux induces e.m.f. in the secondary winding
• This energizes the relay to trip the CB and
disconnect the faulty transformer from the
system
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Combined Leakage and Overload
Protection
• The core-balance protection cannot provide
protection against overloads
• If a fault or leakage occurs between phases,
the core-balance relay might not operate
• It is therefore important to provide combined
leakage and overload protection for
transformers
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Combined Leakage and Overload
Protection
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Combined Leakage and Overload
Protection
• In this system of protection, two overload
relays and one leakage or earth relay are
connected as shown
• The two overload relays are sufficient to
protect against phase to phase faults
• Therefore, with the energizing of either
overload relay or earth relay, the circuit
breaker will be tripped
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Applying Circulating-current System to
Transformers
• Merz-Price circulating current principle is
commonly used for the protection of power
transformers against earth and phase faults
• The system is applied the same way as in
generators
• However, it has complicating features to
discuss
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Applying Circulating-current System to
Transformers
• Problem 1
• In power transformers, currents in the primary
and secondary are to be compared
• As these two currents are usually different,
therefore, the use of identical CTs will give
differential current and operate the relay even
under normal operating conditions
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Applying Circulating-current System to
Transformers
• Solution
• The difference in the magnitude of currents in the
primary and secondary of power transformer is
compensated by different turn ratios of CTs
• If T is the turn-ratio of power transformer, then
turn-ratio of CTs on the l.v. side is made T times
that of the CTs on the h.v. side
• Fulfilling this, then the CTs will carry identical
currents under normal load conditions
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Applying Circulating-current System to
Transformers
• Problem 2
• Most transformers have means for tap
changing
• Tap changing will cause differential current to
flow through the relay even under normal
operating conditions
• Solution
• Adjust the turn-ratio of CTs on the side of the
power transformer provided with taps
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Applying Circulating-current System to
Transformers
• Problem 3
• Magnetizing in-rush current
• Under normal load conditions, the magnetizing
current is very small
• However, when a transformer is energized after it
has been taken out of service, the magnetizing or
in-rush current can be extremely high for a short
time
• Since in-rush current represents a current going
into the transformer without a corresponding
current leaving, it appears as a fault to differential
relay and may cause relay to operate
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Applying Circulating-current System to
Transformers
• Solution
• To overcome this, differential relays are set to
operate at a relatively high degree of
unbalance
• This method decreases the sensitivity of the
relays
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Circulating-Current Scheme for
Transformer Protection
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Circulating-Current Scheme for
Transformer Protection
• The figure in the above slide show a Merz-
Price circulating-current scheme for the
protection of a 3-phase transformer against
phase to ground and phase to phase faults
• During normal operating conditions, the
secondary of CTs carry identical currents
• Therefore the currents entering and leaving
the pilot wires at both ends are the same and
hence no current flows through the relays
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Circulating-Current Scheme for
Transformer Protection
• If a ground or phase to phase fault occurs, the
currents in the secondary of the CTs will no
longer be the same and the differential
current flowing through the relay will clear the
breakers on both sides of the transformer
• The protected zone is limited to the region
between CTs on the high voltage side and the
CTs on the low-voltage side of the power
transformer
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