EEEE2201: Electrical and Electronic Measurement

Lecture notes

Chap 3: Instruments transformers

I- Introduction

Instrument transformers are used in connection with measurement of voltage, current, energy and power in
ac circuits. There are principally used to extend (multiply) the range of the measuring instrument and
second, to isolate the measuring instrument from a high-voltage line.

In power systems, levels of currents and voltages handled are very high, and, therefore, direct measurements
with conventional instruments is not possible without compromising operator safety, and size and cost of
instrument. In such a case, instrument transformers can be effectively used to step down the voltage and
current within range of the existing measuring instruments of moderate size. Instrument transformers are
either (a) current transformer or CT, or (b) voltage or potential transformers or PT. The former is
used to extend current ranges of instruments and the latter for increasing the voltage ranges.

II- Advantages of Instrument transformers

Shunt and multipliers used for extension of instrument ranges are suitable for dc circuits and to some
extent, for low power, low accuracy ac circuits. Instrument transformers have certain distinguishing
characteristics as compared to shunts and multipliers, as listed below:

- High voltages can be stepped down by the PT to a moderate level as can be measured by standard
instruments without posing much danger for the operator and also not requiring too much insulation
for the measuring instrument.
- Single range moderate size instruments can be used to cover a wide range of measurement, when
used with a suitable multi-range CT or PT.
- Instrument transformers can help in reducing overall cost, since various instruments, including
metering, relaying, diagnostic, and indicating instruments can all be connected to the same
instrument transformer
- Measuring circuits involving shunts or multipliers, being not electrically isolated from the power
circuit, are not only safe for the operator, but also insulation requirements are exceedingly high in
high-voltage measurement applications.
- High voltages can be stepped down by the PT to a moderate level as can be measured by standard
instruments without posing much danger for the operator and also not requiring too much insulation
for the measuring instrument.

The only disadvantage of IT (Instrument Transformer) is that they can not be used for dc circuits.
 III- Current transformer

The large alternating currents which can not be sensed or passed through normal ammeters and current
coils of wattmeters, energymeters can easily be measured by use of current transformers along with normal
low range instruments

A transformer is a device which consists of two windings called primary and secondary. It transfers energy
from one side to another with suitable change in the level of current or voltage. A current transformer
basically has a primary coil of one or more turns of heavy cross-sectional area. In some, the bar carrying
high current may act as primary. This is connected in series with the line carrying high current.

The secondary of the transformer is made up of

a large number of turns of fine wire having
small cross-sectional area. This is usually rated
for 5 A. This is connected to the coil of normal
range ammeter. Symbolic representation of a
current transformer is as shown in the figure 1

Figure 1 : Current transformer

When a typical name plate rating of a C.T. shows 500/1 A 5 V A 5P20 it indicates that the CT rated
primary and secondary currents are 500 A and 1 A respectively, its rated secondary burden is 5 V A, it is
designed to have 5% accuracy and it can carry up to 20 times higher current than its rated value while
connected in line to detect fault conditions, etc.

3.1 Working principles

These transformers are basically step up transformers ie stepping up a voltage from primary to secondary.
Thus the current reduces from primary to secondary. So from current point of view, these are step down
transformers, stepping down the current value considerably from primary to secondary.
3-2 Current Transformation Ration of CT

Since I M  I 0 cos  and IC  I 0 sin 

CT transformation ratio can thus be approximated as

I P N s I M sin   I C cos  I sin   I C cos 

R    n M
IS N p IS IS

3-3 Phase Angle of CT

The angle by which the secondary current phasor, when reversed, i.e., the reflected secondary current
phasor nI s , differs in phase from the primary current I P is called the phase angle of the CT. This angle is
taken as positive when the reversed secondary current leads the primary current, in other cases when the
reversed secondary current lags the primary current, the CT phase angle is taken as negative.

180  I M cos   I C sin  

Phase angle of CT  
  nI s
 degree


3-4 Errors introduced CT

For an instrument transformers, it is necessary that the transformation ratio must be:
 - exactly equal to turns ratio and phase of the secondary terms (voltage and current)
- Displaced by exactly 180° from that of the primary terms (voltage and current)

If not, this introduces considerable amount of error in current measurement.

a- Ratio error

The ratio error is defined as:

nominal ratio - actual ratio

%Ratio error  100
actual ration

Rated primary winding current

Where Nominal error   Kn  n
Rated secondary winding current

Kn  R
%Ratio error  100
R

In practice, the CT burden is largely resistive with a small value of inductance, thus the secondary phase
angle δ is positive and generally small. Thus we can write sin   0 and cos   1

IC
There R can be approximated as: R  n
IS

Accordingly the percentage ratio error gives:

IC
Kn  n 
IS
%Ratio error  100
I
n C
IS

b- Phase Angle Error

Error in phase angle can be approximated as

180 IM
  degree
 nI s

3-5 Case of ideal transformer

In an ideal CT, the actual transformation ratio is exactly equal to the turns ratio and the phase angle is zero
I N
so, R  p  s and   0
Is N p

Example 1: A 250/5, ideal current transformer is used along with an ammeter. If ammeter reading is 2.7A;
estimate the line current.

Solution:
 Ip 250

Is 5

But as ammeter is in secondary, I s  2.7 A

Ip 250
  I p  135 So line curent is 135 A
2.7 5

3-6 Causes of Errors in CT

They are the following:

- Primary winding always needs some magnetizing MMF to produce flux and, therefore, the CT
draws the magnetizing current IM
- CT no-load current must have a component Ic that has to supply the core losses, i.e.,
- Once the CT core becomes saturated, the flux density in the core no longer remains a linear function
of the magnetizing force, this may introduce further errors.
- Primary and secondary flux linkages differ due to unavoidable flux leakages

These errors can be reduced by achieving the followings schemes:

Low flux density, high permeability core material, modification of turns ratio, use of shunts and wound
core construction.

For all inductive burdens, the secondary winding current Is lags behind the secondary induced voltage
Es, so that the phase angle difference δ is positive. Thus R n ratio error is always negative (lagging
power factor)

For highly capacitive burdens, the secondary winding current Is leads the secondary induced voltage Es,
so that the phase angle difference δ is negative. Thus R n ratio error is always positive (leading power
factor)

Exemple 2: A bar type CT with turns ratio 1:199 is rated as 2000:10 A, 50 VA. The magnetizing and core
loss components of primary current are 15 A and 10 A respectively under rated condition. Determine the
ratio and phase angle errors for the rated burden and rated secondary current at 0.8 p.f. lagging and 0.8 p.f.
leading. Neglect impedance of secondary winding.
Leading
p

IV- Potential transformers (P.T.)

 The basic principle of these transformers is
same as current transformers. The high
alternating voltage are reduced in a fixed
proportion for the measurement purpose with
the help of potential transformers. The
construction of these transformers is similar to
the normal transformer. These are extremely
Fig. 2 Potential transformer accurate ratio step down transformers.

The windings are low power rating windings. Primary winding consists of large number of turns while
secondary has less number of turns. The primary is connected across the high voltage line while secondary
is connected to low range voltmeter coil. One end of the secondary is always grounded for safety purpose.
Potential transformers or PT s are used in such cases to operate voltmeters, potential coils of wattmeters,
relays and other devices to be operated with high-voltage lines.

4-1 Working principles

Equivalent circuit of PT is shown below

Where

The other parameters remains the same as in CT. The phasor diagram of PT is
 4-2 Voltage Transformation Ration of PT

In reality, the phase angle difference θ is quite small, so voltage ratio transformation can be approximated
as:

IS
V  RP cos   X P sin     IC rP  I M xP 
R  P  n n
Vs VS

Where RP  n2 rs  rp and X p  n2 xs  x p respectively is the equivalent resistance and reactance of the PT

referred to primary side

Actual voltage transformation ratio can again be written as

VP nI  R cos   X s sin     I C rP  I M xP 
R  n S s
Vs VS

rp xp
Where Rs  rs  2
and X s  xs  are respectively the equivalent resistance and reactance of the PT
n n2
referred to secondary side

Following the two latter equations, the error in ratio, i.e., the difference between actual transformation
ratio and turns ratio can be expressed in either of the following two forms:
 IS
 RP cos   X P sin     IC rP  I M xP 
Rn  n
VS

nI S  Rs cos   X s sin     I C rP  I M xP 
Rn 
VS

4-2 Phase Angle of PT

The phase angle of PT can be approximated as:

IS I x I r
  X s cos   Rs sin    C P M P
VS nVS

4-3 Ratio Error and Phase Angle Error

It can be seen from the above section that, like current transformers, potential transformers also introduce
errors in measurement. This error may be in terms of magnitude or phase, in the measured value of voltage.
The ratio error (difference between nominal ratio and actual transformation ratio) only is important when
measurements of voltage are to be made; the phase angle error is of importance only while measurement
of power.

These errors depend upon the resistance and reactance of the transformer winding as well as on the value
of no-load current of the transformer.

4-4 Case of ideal PT

As a normal transformer, its ratio can be specified as,

V1 N1
R 
V2 N 2

So if voltage ratio of P.T. is known and the voltmeter reading is known then the high voltage to be measured,
can be determined.

Example 3: A 11000: 110, potential transformer is used along with a voltmeter reading 87.5V. Estimate
the value of line voltage

Solution: for a P.T.

V1 11000
 and V2  87.5V , thus V1  8750V
V2 110

4-5 Reducing Errors in PT

Errors in PT can be reduced by achieving a combination of the following schemes:

- Reducing the loss component and magnetizing components

- Winding resistance can be reduced by using thick conductors and taking care to reduce the length
of mean turn of the windings.
- Winding leakage flux and hence leakage reactance can be reduced by keeping the primary
and secondary windings as close as permissible from the point of view of insulation requirements
 - Sufficiently high flux densities in the core will reduce the core cross-section, thereby reducing
the length of winding wound over the core.

4-6 Differences between CT and PT