CHAPTER 5 SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS 5.

0 introduction Current measurements are most often conducted with the ease of iron core CTs which are relatively cheap and reliable devices. Their major disadvantage is that ferromagnetic core saturates and this affects the secondary current of CT. The CT saturation occurs when the magnetic flux exceeds the linear region on the CT magnetizing characteristic. This effect strongly depends on a fault current and the CT secondary burden. The bigger the difference between the primary and secondary the less information is given to a protective relay and this can lead to relay malfunction.

5.1 Impact of Secondary Burden Relay impedance (especially if it is modern one) is relatively small. The most important part of the burden of a relay is the impedance of pilots and it is almost only resistance.

5.2 results of the simulation for the different values of secondary burden As derived in the previous chapter, CT core flux is given by:

......(5.1)

Where , is time constant N1R/N2 = secondary burden of CT

For simplicity assuming initial flux to be zero i.e

(0)=0.

..................(5.2)

Also asderived in previous chapter

ac(t)=

sin(

)...............................(5.3)

Hence, Total flux is given by:

ac(t)+ dc(t)=

sin(

) + RB I0 /N2

As the burden (resistance) is increased the waveform distortions are more visible as shown in the simulation results. This proves that even relative small burden can influence CT accuracy if the fault current is not correctly anticipated.

5.2.1 Normal operation

In this test, the breaker is closed at a peak of source voltage (t=0.025 sec.). The CT secondary burden i.e RB=1 . This switching produces no current asymmetry. Observe the Ct primary current and secondary voltage. As expected the CT current and voltage are sinusoidal and the measurement error due to CT resistance and leakage is not significant. The flux contains a DC component.

5.2.2 CT saturation due to current asymmetry a.) case 1 The breaker to close at zero voltage crossing (t=1/50s). This switching instant will now produce full current asymmetry in the load. After simulating it is observed that for the first 4 cycles, the flux stays lower than the saturation knee point. The CT voltage output V2 then follows the primary current. However after 4 cycles, the flux asymmetry produced by the primary current causes CT saturation, thus producing large distortion of CT secondary voltage.

b.)case 2 now increasing Ct secondary burden i.e. RB from 1 to 1.5 and observe that the CT now saturates earlier than the previous case.

c.) Case 3 now increasing CT secondary burden from RB 1.5 to 3.0 and observe that the CT now saturates much earlier than the previous case.

5.3 Impact on the performance of relay due to CT saturation

The matlab model used to show the impact of CT saturation on the performance of the protection system is shown below.

From the above figure it is concluded that the relay output signal gets delayed due to saturation of CT. This causes power system protection failure.

5.4 Discussion From the above simulations and results it becomes very much clear that the impact of secondary burden on electromechanical CT causes its saturation.As the secondary burden increases the time taken to saturate CT decreases. Current transformer saturation may lead to unwanted relay output signals. The mal-operation of protection IEDs may lead to the failure of power system protection. The results have also been compared for proper analysis of the CT secondary output signals.