MODERN DEVICES/TECHNIQUES IN THE

PROTECTION OF TRANSFORMERS
A.J. Onah
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Michael Okpara University, Umudike,
Umuahia. Abia State NIGERIA.
Abstract
The development of modern power systems has resulted in the design of wide range
of transformers with sizes from a few KVA to several hundred MVA. Very large
transformers are used to step up generation voltage of about 25KV to transmission
level, such as 330KV. Various sizes and ratings of transformers are employed to
step down this 330KV voltage to 132KV and then to distribution level of 33KV,
which is further stepped down to 415V for domestic supply. The eects of thermal
stress and electro-dynamic forces in transformers must be reduced as much as
possible so as to ensure steady electricity supply. Hence the protection package
should be able to minimize the duration of a fault within a transformer. The
application and size of a transformer determines the protection package to be
applied. Until recently, electro-mechanical relays had been in use in protective
equipment because of their simplicity and durability. Nevertheless, they have been
replaced by solid-state relays. The rapid progress in electronic devices including
the introduction of reliable integrated circuits, logic gates and microprocessors
has made it possible to produce equivalent relays using both analogue and digital
processing. This paper examines the methods of protecting transformers, applying
modern equipment.
Keywords: transformer, protection, relay
1. Introduction
Because of their static nature, transformers
are normally regarded as very reliable unit.
However, there is possibility of failure due to
internal faults, which can as well be caused by
stresses from external sources. Smaller distri-
bution transformers require only fuse protec-
tion or inverse denite minimum time (IDMT)
/ instantaneous over-current and earth fault
relays. This type of protection is economi-
cal and eective enough for through faults or
external faults. However, coordination with
down stream power system protection is nec-
essary, and so this type of protection would
lead to time delayed fault clearance for some
faults. This is unacceptable for large dis-
tribution, transmission and generator trans-
formers, where the eects on system operation
and stability must be taken into considera-
tion. Thus high-speed protection is needed to
take care of both external and internal faults.
Faults in transformers can be classied as:
Winding and terminal faults.
Core faults and oil deterioration.
Abnormal operating conditions like over-
voltage, over-uxing, overload and over-
heating.
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3, October 2011.
104 A.J. ONAH
Sustained external faults - heavy through
current, producing heavy mechanical
stresses on windings and insulation.
The protection scheme must be properly de-
signed to take care of these faults individually.
Hence factors such as magnetizing inrush cur-
rent, winding arrangements, winding connec-
tions and connection of protection secondary
circuits must be considered.
In electro-mechanical relays, movement of
armatures or discs is used to operate contacts
which in turn cause the tripping of circuit
breakers. When the input current exceeds the
set value, the disc rotates. The speed of ro-
tation depends on the magnitude of the in-
put current and the eddy-current braking pro-
duced by a permanent magnet. Moving con-
tacts are driven by the rotating disc until con-
tact is made with stationary contacts. When
this happens, the trip coil of the associated
circuit breaker is energized and the breaker
will open.
Modern electronic relays use digital cir-
cuitry to process incoming signals derived
from current and voltage transducers. Ana-
logue to digital converter (A/D) is used to
sample and encode the input signals which
are then processed to extract relaying infor-
mation. Any desired time/current character-
istic can be produced in the electronic relay
as a result of the inherent exibility of the cir-
cuitry involved; sluggishness and overshooting
are eliminated. However Reliable power sup-
plies and immunity to electrical interferences
from other power equipment in the vicinity
must be provided for the modern solid-state
relays [2].
2. Protective Devices and Schemes
A typical protection package for a large dis-
tribution transformer is shown in gure 1.
The protective devices and schemes are de-
scribed as follows:

Figure 1: Typical Transformer Protection Pack-
age. Legend: WT - Winding temperature, B -
Buchholz, OT - Oil temperature, 87 - Biased Dif-
ferential, 64 Restricted earth fault (REF), 51N -
Standby earth fault (SBEF), 50N - Instantaneous
earth fault, 51- IDMT over-current, ICT - Inter-
posing Current Transformer.
2.1. The biased dierential relay (87)
This is a high-speed protection scheme
which is used to clear faults on the LV wind-
ing as well as the HV winding, using the ba-
sic dierential principle that HV and LV CT
secondary currents entering and leaving the
zone of protection should be equal under load
and through fault conditions, but unequal un-
der internal fault conditions, and a dierential
current will cause the relay to operate. Cur-
rent transformer locations dene the zone of
protection. In many cases the HV and LV
CT primary ratings will not exactly match
the transformer winding rated currents and
winding connections in the transformer lead
to phase shift in the secondary voltage. As an
illustration, a 15MVA, 33/11KV, Dyn1 trans-
former has 262.4A as the primary winding
rated current, and there is no current trans-
former with the ratio 262.4/1 to match. Sim-
ilarly there is no current transformer with the
ratio 787.3/1 to match the secondary current
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3. October 2011.
Modern Devices/Techniques in the Protection of Transformers 105
rating of the power transformer. The Dyn1
connection symbol of the transformer shows
that the secondary voltage is phase-shifted 30

behind the primary voltage. The application

of the well established principles of dieren-
tial protection to transformers demands that
factors, such as phase shift across the trans-
former, imbalance of current transformer sig-
nals on either side of windings have to be
considered. Interposing current transformers
(ICT) [3] are usually provided to correct the
phase shift, correct the ratio error of the main
CT signals and trap LV zero sequence cur-
rent, otherwise the relay will erroneously op-
erate for external LV earth faults. Also dur-
ing inrush conditions or during transient over-
uxing, high level magnetizing current can
cause mal-operation of the relay. Therefore,
the dierential element must be blocked for
these conditions.
Traditionally, phase and ratio corrections
as well as zero sequence current ltering were
achieved by the application of external inter-
posing current transformers (ICT), as a sec-
ondary replica of the main transformer wind-
ing arrangement. However, modern dieren-
tial relays have inbuilt software ICTs. This
feature gives the relay the exibility to cater
for line CTs connected in either star or delta
[4].
2.1.1. Ratio correction
For example, let us consider a two-winding
15MVA, 33/11KV, Dyn1 transformer:
33KV full load current =
15000

333
= 262.4A
HV CT ratio = 300/1
Secondary current of CT = 262.4
1
300
=
0.875A
11KV full load current =
15000

311
= 787.3A
LV CT ratio = 800/1
Secondary current of CT = 787.3
1
800
=
0.984A
The traditional method of applying an ex-
ternal ICT is shown in gure 2. The ICT turns
ratio is determined as follows:
Relay current = 0.875A


Figure 2: Dierential protection circuit.
LV CT secondary current = ICT primary
current = 0.984A
ICT secondary current =
0.875

3
= 0.505
ICT turns ratio =
N
1
N
2
=
I
2
I
1
=
0.505
0.984
=
1
2
The phase correction and zero sequence cur-
rent ltering is achieved by the star-delta con-
nection of the ICT.
But application of a relay with software ICT
will result in the setting of the relay as follows.
Each of these secondary currents is corrected
to 1A (relay rated current).
HV ratio correction factor is
1
0.875
= 1.14
setting applied to relay)
LV ratio correction factor is
1
0.984
= 1.02
setting applied to relay)
Thus, adjustable ratio correction factor
ranging from 0.05 to 2, in steps of 0.01, is
provided in the relay. This application is il-
lustrated in gures 3a and 3b.
2.1.2. Phase correction and zero sequence
current ltering
If a transformer can pass zero sequence cur-
rent to an external earth fault, it is neces-
sary that zero sequence current ltering is
employed in order to prevent the relay from
mal-operation due to out of zone earth faults.
Obviously, zero sequence current will ow in
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3. October 2011.
106 A.J. ONAH
the current transformers associated with the
star winding of Dyn11 transformer if an ex-
ternal earth fault occurs. However, there will
be no zero sequence current in the current
transformers on the delta winding. So the LV
zero sequence current has to be removed oth-
erwise it becomes a dierential current and
cause the relay to operate. Phase shift of the
protected transformer and zero sequence cur-
rent are catered for by software ICTs for each
transformer winding, instead of the scheme in
gure 2. The phase correction settings avail-
able are Yy0 (0deg), Yd1 (-30deg), Yd2 (-
60deg), Yd11 (+30deg), etc. The selection
of any of these will depend on the phase shift
across the transformer and zero sequence l-
tering requirements. The phase correction is
applied either side of the relay element as
shown in gures3a and 3b.
2.1.3.
Magnetizing inrush current is associated
with a transformer winding being energized
with no balancing current present in the other
winding or when a load is suddenly discon-
nected from the transformer raising the volt-
age at the input terminals of the transformer
by 10-20% of the rated value - causing an ap-
preciable increase in transformer steady state
excitation current. The magnitude and dura-
tion of the current depend on the transformer
design, size, system fault level etc. Under
normal steady state conditions, the magne-
tizing current associated with the operating
ux level is less than one percent of rated cur-
rent. But if a transformer winding is energized
at a voltage zero, with no residual ux, the
ux level during the rst voltage cycle is two
times normal maximum ux. Consequently,
core saturation and high non-sinusoidal cur-
rent waveform occur. This current is known
as magnetizing inrush current and may persist
for many cycles, appearing as a large operat-
ing signal for the dierential protection; and
so the relay operates erroneously during in-
rush. In the past, the operation of the relay
under inrush conditions is prevented by a time
delay. When a time delay cannot be tolerated,
the second harmonic component of the current
is used to restrain operation. But if the line
current transformer becomes saturated relay
operation could be slow [5]. Modern electronic
relays overcome this by a technique which rec-
ognizes magnetizing inrush current. A Fourier
technique is used to measure the level of fth
harmonic in the dierential current. The ratio
of fth harmonic to fundamental component
is compared with a setting. If the ratio ex-
ceeds the setting, the dierential protection is
inhibited [6].
2.1.4. Stability Requirements
When saturation occurs in one of the main
CTs, the output from the saturated CT
reduces, resulting in a dierential current
owing through the relay and causing mal-
operation. To overcome this problem, prin-
ciples of high and low impedance protection
are employed [7].
In the case of high impedance protection,
the impedance of the relay circuit is made
higher than the saturated CT by the addi-
tion of a stabilizing resistor R
s
. So the spill
current resulting from asymmetric saturation
of the line CTs will be forced to ow through
the saturated CT rather than through the re-
lay circuit.
Low impedance protection allows the full
spill current to ow through the relay but
raises the relay setting in proportion to the
level of through fault current. Biasing fea-
tures, which eectively increase the currents
needed to operate the relay when high cur-
rents ow are introduced to reduce the degree
of matching needed. The increase in setting
is therefore normally based on a percentage of
the through current and so is usually referred
to as percentage biased dierential protection.
Small amounts of bias are very eective when
high currents are owing to external faults.
If, as an illustration, a current of 20p.u. were
owing to an external fault on the LV side
of the 15MVA transformer referred to above.
Let relay operating current be set at 0.15A. If
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3. October 2011.
Modern Devices/Techniques in the Protection of Transformers 107




(a)
DifferentiaI
EIement
CT
CT
Software
ICT
Dyn1
15MVA, 33/11KV
TRANSFORMER
RELAY
Software
ICT

(b)
Figure 3: Dierential protection circuits.
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3. October 2011.
108 A.J. ONAH
2% bias is to be applied, then:
Through fault current on LV side of trans-
former = 20 800 = 16000A.
CT secondary current
16000
800
= 20A
2% bias = 0.02 20A = 0.4A
New relay setting = 0.15A + 0.4A = 0.55A.
2.2. Inverse Denite Minimum-Time
(IDMT) over-current relay (51)
This is needed to protect the transformer
against external faults. It provides protection
against three-phase faults, inter-phase faults
and overloads. The relay monitors the cur-
rent supplied by the associated current trans-
former and triggers a timing system whenever
the current exceeds the set value. Operat-
ing time decreases as relay current increases,
approaching a denite minimum value. This
feature allows adequate discriminating time
margins to be obtained between relays ap-
plied to adjacent sections of networks during
short-circuit conditions. The minimum op-
erating current of the relay must exceed the
rated current of the transformer. The main
CT output is fed to a step-down ICT in the
microprocessor-based overcurrent relay. After
full-wave rectication, the output of the ICT
is fed to a shunt-connected resistors circuitry.
This circuit is switched by the user to obtain
the desired current setting and associated in-
verse time/current characteristics.[8]
2.3. Restricted earth fault protection
(64)
This is a more sensitive, high speed earth
fault protection applied to the LV winding.
Its operation is limited to detection of earth
faults within the LV winding; hence the name
restricted earth fault protection.
2.4. Standby earth fault, SBEF (51N)
This is a back-up protection device to clear
any sustained external LV faults.
2.5. The instantaneous earth fault re-
lay (50N)
The instantaneous earth fault relay is an
inherently restricted earth fault element as-
sociated with the HV over-current. It is in-
stalled as an earth fault protection for the HV
winding, which is delta-connected and hence
does not pass zero sequence current to the up-
stream HV when LV earth fault occurs. So
this relay can be set to operate without any
intentional time delay, since there is no need
to grade it with other earth fault protection.
Earth fault relays normally have low set-
tings corresponding to 20% or less of the rated
current of protected circuit since they are con-
nected in such a way that they are not aected
by normal balanced currents.
As mentioned before, all these relays now
have solid-state versions which have a number
of time/current characteristics not available in
the old electro-mechanical relays.
2.6. Winding temperature, oil temper-
ature, Buchholz and pressure re-
lief device
These are protective devices which are con-
nected to directly trip the circuit breaker as
well as operate auxiliary relays for agging
purposes. They clear faults that might not be
detected by protection devices operating from
the line current transformers. Such faults in-
clude excessive temperature in the winding or
in the oil, winding inter-turn faults or core
lamination faults.
2.6.1. Winding temperature device
Any transformer generates a large amount
of heat while in operation, due to load current
owing in the windings, inadequate oil circu-
lation arising from faulty pumps or blockages
in ducts or pipes. Traditionally, thermostats
or bulbs containing volatile liquids were po-
sitioned in the oil and within the windings.
These operate remote pressure switches con-
nected to them by small-diameter tubes. In
recent years, a temperature sensitive bimetal
stem is placed near the top of the transformer
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3. October 2011.
Modern Devices/Techniques in the Protection of Transformers 109
tank where the oil tends to be hottest. The
stem is heated by both the surrounding liquid
and a heater element which is fed from a cur-
rent transformer connected to one of the phase
windings The combination of the two temper-
atures is indicated on a device, known as Dial
Hot Spot Thermometer. When an unaccept-
able over-heating occurs, resistance bridges,
comprising of heat-sensitive resistors (sensors)
are used to produce imbalance output signals
that initiate either alarms or the opening of
appropriate circuit breakers [9]
2.6.2. Buchholz relay
Any fault, such as insulation puncture,
shorted turns, poor contact, which occurs in-
side a transformer in operation is generally ac-
companied by the evolution of gas as a result
of the decomposition of oil or solid insulation.
This gas bubbles rise to the surface and nally
nd their way to the conservator. On its way
there, the gas is collected in what is known
as Buchholz relay installed on a stub pipe be-
tween the tank and conservator. The Buch-
holz relay has an upper and a lower oat. As
gas collects in the relay housing, it displaces
oil out of it. The top oat drops, and its mer-
cury switch completes an alarm circuit. In the
case of more serious fault, such as an inter-
turn short, and the like, the gas is usually
librated in an explosive fashion and a large
amount of oil is forced from the tank into the
conservator. This causes the lower oat to
rise and close its mercury switch, thereby ac-
tivating a tripping circuit which disconnects
the transformer from supply line and averts a
major breakdown [10]
2.6.3.
In order to avoid irreparable damage to the
tank in the case of a heavy gas evolution, a
pressure relief device is installed on a trans-
former. This is a low steel pipe communicat-
ing with the tank at one end and closed by a
disc of thin glass at the other. When the pres-
sure inside the tank rises dangerously, the disc
bursts, so that excess oil and gas are expelled
Figure 4: Single line diagram of 33 / 11KV substation. Legend: IS
- Isolator, CT - Current transformer, PT - Potential transformer, LA -
Lightning Arrester, A - Ammeter, AS - Ammeter switch, V - Voltmeter,
VS - Voltmeter switch, W - Wattmeter, CB - Circuit breaker.
into the atmosphere before the tank has time
to be deformed.
Figure 3 is the single line diagram of a
33/11KV substation, showing the associated
protective devices.
3. Conclusion
Transformer is one of the most important
equipment in the electrical power system. In
specifying a protection scheme, the economic
eect of the loss of the transformer and the
cost to repair a major breakdown should be
taken into account. If the transformer HV
voltage is above 33KV, high-speed protection
can be justied. If the voltage is less, the cost
of the protection scheme must be related to
the value of the transformer[10]. Thus the im-
portance and ratings of a transformer are the
Nigerian Journal of Technology Vol. 30, No. 3. October 2011.
110 A.J. ONAH
factors that determine the type of protective
equipment applied. Transformers rated up to
5MVA and used at voltage levels below 33KV
can eectively and economically be protected
with fuses. The rating of these fuses must be
above the maximum exciting-current surges.
As for larger transformers IDMT overcurrent
and earth fault relays are used for protection.
Current and time settings of these relays must
be such that they should not operate when the
maximum exciting-current surges ow, and
also, correct discrimination with other protec-
tive equipment on associated networks must
be provided for by the settings. These relays
can also serve as back-up protection for all
large transformers, where the main protection
is the current-dierential scheme. This type
of protection works on the principle that the
current entering a circuit is equal to the cur-
rent leaving it under healthy conditions. The
zone of protection is marked by the positions
of current transformers on the primary and
secondary sides of the transformer. Trans-
formers are also protected by other protective
equipment that do not rely on line current
transformers for operation. Modern protec-
tion systems are based on electronic devices
and circuits.
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