IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 35, NO.

1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999 169

A New Approach to Modeling Three-Phase

Transformer Connections
William H. Kersting, Fellow, IEEE, W. Howard Phillips, Member, IEEE, and Wayne Carr

Abstract The modeling of three-phase transformer connec-

tions for power-flow and short-circuit studies can take on many
forms, depending upon the assumptions made. Too many times,
simplifying assumptions lead to answers that are totally wrong.
Exact models of the various connections must be used if cor-
rect results are to be achieved. The exact models must satisfy
Kirchhoffs voltage and current laws, and the ideal relationship
between the voltages and currents on the two sides of the
transformer windings and the models must represent any phase
shift that is a result of the particular connection. New models
for all common three-phase transformer connections have been
developed that satisfy all of the requirements stated above. This
paper will limit the discussion to the ungrounded wyedelta Fig. 1. Ungrounded wyedelta connection.
connection and the model developed for use in power-flow and
short-circuit studies.
Index Terms Distribution, power flow, radial, short circuit, The basic ideal transformer voltage and current equations
transformer models. as a function of the turns ratio are

I. INTRODUCTION
(1)
T HE purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the exact
models for three-phase transformer connections can be
developed for use in power-flow and short-circuit studies. Too
many times, approximations are made in the modeling that
result in erroneous results. The exact model of a three-phase
connection must satisfy Kirchhoffs voltage and current laws
and the ideal relationship between the voltages and currents on
the two sides of the transformer windings. When this approach (2)
is followed, the correct phase shift, if any, will come out
naturally.
Because of space limitations, this paper will be limited to the
development of the models for only the ungrounded wyedelta where
connection. A small sample system is used to demonstrate the
application of the models for both power-flow and short-circuit (3)
studies.
Solving (1) for the ideal delta transformer voltages,
II. POWER-FLOW MODEL DEVELOPMENT
(4)
The connection diagram for the standard 30 phase shift
ungrounded wyedelta transformer connection is shown in The line-to-line voltages on the delta as a function of the
Fig. 1. ideal transformer voltages and the delta currents are given by

Paper ICPSD 98B3, presented at the 1998 IEEE Rural Electric Power
Conference, St. Louis, MO, April 2628, and approved for publication in the (5)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Rural Electric Power
Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. Manuscript released
for publication August 17, 1998.
W. H. Kersting is with the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer (6)
Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003 USA.
W. H. Phillips is with WH Power Consultants, Las Cruces, NM 88003
USA. Substituting (2) and (4) into (6),
W. Carr is with Milsoft Integrated Solutions, Inc., Abilene, TX 79608 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(99)00726-4. (7)
00939994/99$10.00 1999 IEEE
170 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 35, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999

where where

(19)
(8)

The final equation needed is to determine the line-to-neutral

The line currents on the delta side of the transformer bank as (LN) wye-side voltages as a function of the delta-side line-to-
a function of the wye transformer currents are given by line voltages and line currents. Solving (7) for ,
(9)

where (20)

(10) Substituting (18) into (7),

Substituting (2) into (9), (21)

(11)
Substituting (18) into (20),
where

(12) (22)
(23)

Because the matrix is singular, it is not possible to use where

(12) to develop an equation relating the wye-side line currents
to the delta-side line currents. In order to develop the necessary
equation, two KCL equations at the nodes of the delta can be (24)
written, and then the third equation is written understanding
that the sum of the delta currents must sum to zero because the
wye connection is not grounded. The resulting three equations
III. APPLICATION TO POWER-FLOW STUDIES
in matrix form are given by
For radial distribution feeders, an iterative technique that
works well is the ladder technique [1], [2]. The ladder
(13) technique requires that an initial estimate be made of the
voltages at the bottom of the ladder (most remote node). For
The delta currents can be determined by solving (13) each segment of the feeder, Kirchhoffs voltage law is used
to compute the node voltages moving up the ladder toward
the source node (top of the ladder). When the voltages at the
source node have been computed, they are compared to the
specified source node voltages. If the voltages are not within a
predefined tolerance, correction factors, defined as the ratio of
the specified to the computed voltages by phase, are computed.
(14) The segment currents are divided by the conjugate of the
ratio, and Kirchhoffs voltage law is then used to compute
the node voltages going from the source down the ladder to
(15)
the end node. These forward and backward computations
Equation (14) can be modified to include the phase- current are continued until the specified and computed source voltages
by are within a predefined tolerance.
When a feeder has an in-line transformer and, in this
case, a transformer bank connected ungrounded wyedelta,
(16) instead of using Kirchhoffs voltage law in the forward
sweep to compute the node voltages at the next rung up
the ladder, (22) is used. In a similar manner, (18) is used
(17) to compute the segment current at the ungrounded wye node
Solving (2) for and substituting into (17), of the transformer bank. On the backward sweep, (7) and
(22) are used to compute the downstream node voltages and
(18) segment currents.
KERSTING et al.: MODELING THREE-PHASE TRANSFORMER CONNECTIONS 171

(31)

Substituting (27) into (28),

Fig. 2. Test system.

(32)
IV. SHORT-CIRCUIT MODEL DEVELOPMENT
Short-circuit studies of a radial distribution feeder can be The line-to-line voltages on the load side of the transformer
performed in the phase frame by applying the method bank are determined by applying (7) and (18), which results in
described in [3]. This method requires that a Thevenin equiv-
alent circuit be developed that will include the transmission
system equivalent system as determined at the high side of the (33)
substation transformer, the substation transformer impedance,
and the impedances of all line segments from the substation Substituting (32) into (33) and simplifying,
down to the point of fault. When a feeder includes in- (34)
line transformers, the impedances of these transformers must
also be part of the Thevenin equivalent circuit. This is best where
understood by referring to Fig. 2.
In Fig. 2, the impedance matrix represents the (35)
Thevenin equivalent 3 3 impedance matrix from the wye side
of the in-line transformer back to the equivalent system source. (36)
The matrix represents the 3 3 equivalent impedance
matrix from the load side of the transformer bank down to the The equivalent LN voltages on the load side can be deter-
point of fault. mined by
The short-circuit analysis for faults on the delta side (load
side) of the transformer bank will need the Thevenin equiv- (37)
alent circuit as seen at the delta terminals of the transformer where
bank. Referring to Fig. 2, Kirchhoffs voltage law equation can
be written from the infinite bus to the wye-connected primary (38)
as
(25) (39)

However,
Substituting (34) into (37),
(26)
(40)
Substituting (26) into (25),
where
(27)
(41)
The line-to-ground (LG) voltages, as given by (27), will not be
the same as the LN voltages that are across the ungrounded
primary terminals of the transformers. To determine the LN (42)
voltages, the zero-sequence component of the LG voltages
must be removed. This is a two-step process where first the Equations (41) and (42) define the required Thevenin equiv-
LG voltages are transformed to sequence components and then alent circuit at the load-side terminals of the transformer bank.
the LN voltages are determined by setting the zero-sequence In (41), if the source voltages are balanced, then
component to zero and transforming to phase components the Thevenin voltages will be balanced and shifted
using the positive- and negative-sequence components. When by 30 from the source voltages.
this is done, the following equation results:
V. EXAMPLE SYSTEM
(28)
The system that will be used to demonstrate the transformer
where models is shown in Fig. 2.
The distribution feeder segments on the source side
(29)
and load side of the transformer bank use the pole
spacing as shown in Fig. 3.
(30) The length of the source side segment is 2000 ft and the
length of the load side segment is 2500 ft.
172 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 35, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999

The transformer matrix as defined by (1) is

The transformer impedance matrix in per unit is

The current transformation matrix from (19) is

Fig. 3. Pole spacings.

The equivalent transformer impedance matrix from
(24) is
The conductors used are as follows:
phase conductors, ACSR;
neutral conductor, ACSR.

The voltage levels are as follows: The matrices have now been defined for the forward
sweep using the ladder iterative technique. The matrices for
source, V line to line the backward sweep are defined as follows.
load, V line to line Equation (8) with the example system values

The loads used are as follows:

unbalanced, kVA, kVA, kVA at
and lagging power factor.

The ungrounded wyedelta transformer bank consists of Equation (12) with the example system values
three single-phase transformers, each rated
kVA, V, %

The power-flow analysis and short-circuit calculations will

be performed using per-unit values based upon 10 MVA and
12 470/72004160/2400 V.
The 3 3 phase impedance matrices for the source and
load-side feeder segments are determined by applying Car-
sons equations and the Kron reduction [4]. The per-unit
impedance matrices are
VI. EXAMPLE SYSTEM POWER-FLOW STUDIES
The iterative process for the power-flow study starts with
an assumption of the per-unit line-to-line voltages at the loads.
For this example, the assumed line-to-line voltages at Bus 4 are
per unit.

The per-unit constant complex power loads are

The per-unit currents in the delta-connected loads are

In applying the per-unit method to this example, the LN base

voltage is used as the base voltage for both LN and line-to-
line voltages. Because of this, the transformer winding ratio The per-unit line currents are
in per-unit is
KERSTING et al.: MODELING THREE-PHASE TRANSFORMER CONNECTIONS
where
In order to calculate the voltages at the transformer ter-
minals, it is necessary to compute equivalent LN voltages
based upon the line-to-line load voltages
where
The equivalent LN voltages at the transformer are
The line-to-line voltages at Bus 3 are
where
Now, apply (23) to compute the LN voltages on the high
side of the transformer bank
Equation (18) transforms the currents
The source computed LN voltages are
The source LN voltages are specified as
173
The computed voltages are not within 0.0006 specified
voltages, so the ratio of source voltage to computed voltage
for each phase is determined
The source-side line currents are divided by the ratio
conjugate to give
The backward sweep uses the specified source voltages
and the high-side line currents as shown above to recompute
the bus voltages working from the source bus to the trans-
former, through the transformer and then down to the load
bus. Equations (7) and (11) are used to transform the voltages
and currents across the transformer bank.
After the first backward sweep, the equivalent LN voltages
at the load bus are
The line-to-line voltages are computed as
The above values of line-to-line load voltages are now used
to start the forward sweep. This process of the forward
and backward sweeps is continued until the specified and
calculated source voltages are within a specified tolerance. For
this example, a tolerance of 0.0006 was used and, after five
iterations, the final line-to-line voltages at the load are
per unit
V.
This example is a severe test for the iterative technique,
since the loads are badly unbalanced and they are located
a great distance from the source. However, the system did
converge and shows the load voltages to be very unbalanced as
a result of both the unbalanced loads and the unequal mutual
coupling between phases.
VII. EXAMPLE SYSTEM SHORT-CIRCUIT STUDIES
To perform short-circuit studies for faults either on the low-
voltage terminals of the transformers or at the load, (41) and
(42) are used to determine the Thevenin equivalent circuit as
it appears on the load-side terminals of the transformer bank.
174 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 35, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1999

The line currents on the load side of the transformer for the
line-to-line fault at Bus 4 are

A.

Equation (18) is used to determine the currents on the source

side of the transformer bank

Fig. 4. bc fault at the load bus. A.

Equation (41) with the example system values is

Equation (42) with the example system values is
VIII. SUMMARY
A method of accurately modeling three-phase transformer
connections for power-flow and short-circuit studies has been
demonstrated using the ungrounded wyedelta connection.
Similar models have been developed for all standard three-
phase connections, including the various two-transformer open
connections.

REFERENCES
[1] W. H. Kersting and D. Mendive, An application of ladder network
theory to the solution of three-phase radial power-flow problems,
presented at the 1976 IEEE-PES Winter Power Meeting, Paper A 70-
For faults at the load bus, the 3 3 impedance matrix of the 044-8.
[2] W. H. Kersting and W. H. Phillips, A radial three-phase power flow
load-side line segment must be added to the Thevenin program for the personal computer, in Proc. 1987 Frontiers of Power
impedance to give the total impedance between the source Conf., Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, Oct. 2626, 1987,
and the fault bus pp. II-1II-8.
[3] W. H. Kersting and W. H. Phillips, Distribution system short-circuit
analysis, presented at the 25th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engi-
neering Conf., Reno, NV, Aug. 1217, 1990.
[4] W. H. Kersting, Distribution feeder analysis, IEEE Tutorial on Power
Distribution Planning, IEEE Pub. #92 EHO 361-1-PWR, Jan. 1993.

William H. Kersting (SM69, F89) was born in

The circuit diagram for a line-to-line
bus is shown in Fig. 4.
For the fault, note that
With these initial conditions, the matrix equation defining
Fig. 4 is given by
Santa Fe, NM. He received the B.S.E.E. degree
from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces,
and the M.S.E.E. degree from Illinois Institute of
fault at the load Technology, Chicago.
He joined the faculty of New Mexico State Uni-
versity in 1962 and is currently Professor of Elec-
trical Engineering and Director of the Electric Util-
ity Management Program. He is also a partner in
WH Power Consultants, Las Cruces, NM. Prior to
joining New Mexico State University, he was a
Distribution Engineer with El Paso Electric Company.
Prof. Kersting has been an active member of the Power Engineering
Education and the Power Engineering Committees of the IEEE Power
Engineering Society.

W. Howard Phillips (S70M71) is a native of Las

Cruces, NM. He received the B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E.
degrees from New Mexico State University, Las
Writing Kirchhoffs voltage law around the closed loop and Cruces, in 1972 and 1979, respectively.
solving for the fault current results in He has worked in the planning and operations ar-
eas for electric utilities in the U.S. and overseas. He
was a Researcher at New Mexico State University
from 1987 to 1988. He is currently a partner in WH
Power Consultants, Las Cruces, NM.
per unit.
KERSTING et al.: MODELING THREE-PHASE TRANSFORMER CONNECTIONS 175

Wayne Carr received the B.S.E.E. from the Uni-

versity of Texas at Austin in 1970.
From 1970 to 1976, he held a variety of positions
in the Engineering Department of Houston Lighting
and Power Company. From 1976 until 1980, he was
the Staff Engineer for Erath County Electric Coop-
erative, Stephenville, TX. He was then a Consulting
Engineer for electric utilities, focusing on planning
and operations of distribution systems. Since 1989,
he has been the President and Chief Development
Engineer of Milsoft Integrated Solutions, Inc., Abi-
lene, TX. As Chief Development Engineer, he has been instrumental in the
developmental and implementation of computer algorithims for the simulation
and evaluation of electrical distribution analysis systems. Milsoft Integrated
Solutions, Inc. is a leading vendor of distribution analysis software, with over
550 utilities and engineering firms currently using their software products.
Mr. Carr is a Registered Professional Engineer in the States of Texas,
Oklahoma, and New Mexico.