EXCITATION CURRENT IN TRANSFORMER

All magnetic materials require some energy before they will operate. You can think of it as the price of admission. In an electrical transformer, the excite current is actually a composite of the energy which is lost due to eddy currents in the magnetic material as well as hysteresis losses of the material. Excite current is both frequency and voltage dependent. Instead of saying, before my husband will do anything I have to bake him a cake , you could say before my transformer runs at !!"#input, I have to supply x milli Amps of excite current $ust to get the core going. A special class of transformers known as %&'s or %urrent &ransformer's works in much the same way, except their voltage is reflected off the load instead of coming directly in through the primary. &his energy is dissipated as heat. In power transformers, the concern is energy lost with no load connected on the output. In current transformers, the concern is the varying loss of accuracy due to the highly non(linear nature of excite current, especially at low excite levels.

(electricity) The current that flows through the primary winding of a power transformer when no loads are connected to the secondary winding; this current establishes the magnetic field in the core and furnishes energy for the no-load power losses in the core. Also known as exciting current.

The magnetising current is that current which flows in the primary winding when the primary voltage is applied with the secondary unloaded. t!s the necessary current that satisfies the excitation condition as determined by the fundamental transformer e"uation - as stated in response to your other post. This current is related (with a reasonably good approximation) to the transformer e"uivalent primary inductance value and the applied primary voltage and given source fre"uency. #agnetising current flows into the primary irrespective of transformer load condition. The primary and secondary load components of magnetic flux are notionally in balance (by virtue of primary to secondary load ampere-turns balance) but the primary current always

has a magnetising component which adds to the primary load current component. $ince there is usually a phase displacement between the load and magnetising components% the effective primary current is determined by the complex number addition of the two primary components - not a simple algebraic addition. The real transformer is a rather more complex device than suggested by the simplistic representation have given above. A complete model of the transformer re"uires a detailed understanding of the various losses and their origins as well as the excitation &magnetisation' re"uirements.

When a transformer is operated with no load on its secondary, the current that will flow in the primary will be governed by the magnetizing impedance of the transformer. Typically, that is a very small amount of current compared with the rated full load current of the transformer. This is a normal operating condition, and transformers must be able to operate in that mode indefinitely That small magnetizing current can lead to energy losses, so no-load operating presents a choice to operators. De-energizing a transformer operating at no-load will save energy - that's a good thing. But in the absence of that minute magnetizing current, a transformer will eventually cool down to ambient temperature. That can be a bad thing; if the transformer is made with simple paper insulation, cooling to ambient can cause humidity from the air to be drawn into the insulation, reducing its dielectric strength and leading to a potential failure when the transformer is re-energized. If the transformer is liquid filled, reducing its temperature to ambient will also cause a reduction in the internal pressure within the tank of the transformer. If that pressure falls below atmospheric pressure, then moist air can be drawn into the tank to contaminate the liquid dielectric (typically, some kind of oil). Operators have to understand these phenomena to be able to make the right decision about transformers that are operating at no-load.