access icon free Improvement of operation of power transformer protection system during sympathetic inrush current phenomena using fault current limiter

Power transformer protection has a high sensitivity due to its important role in power systems. Various factors such as inrush and sympathetic inrush currents may result in the inappropriate performance of protective relays and cause problems such as power outage or blocking of sensitive loads. Until now, several studies have been performed on the detection and reduction of inrush current, however, the effect of sympathetic inrush current on transformer protection has not been addressed. In this study, the operation of the protection system during the sympathetic inrush current is comprehensively analysed. Furthermore, the use of a fault current limiter is proposed to reduce the undesirable effects of the phenomena. The effects of the limiter on the saturation of power and current transformers are investigated. A real transmission station is simulated using DIgSILENT Power Factory Software to perform these studies by considering the resistive and impedance fault current limiter.‏ Results show that protective relays do not have an improper operation during the phenomena with limiters. Moreover, with the resistive fault current limiter, sympathetic inrush and inrush currents are decreased by 5 and 15% more than the impedance fault current limiter, respectively. Saturation of power and current transformers is significantly reduced with limiters, especially with a resistive fault current limiter.

Inspec keywords: power engineering computing; relay protection; power transformer protection; current transformers; fault current limiters

Other keywords: power transformer protection system; resistive fault current limiter; DIgSILENT Power Factory Software; inrush current reduction; transmission station; sympathetic inrush current; protective relays; power outage; inrush current detection; current transformers; power systems

Subjects: Transformers and reactors; Protection apparatus; Power engineering computing

References

    1. 1)
      • 24. Electric Power Research Institute: ‘Superconducting fault current limiters’, Technology Watch 2009, 1017793, Technical Update, December 2009.
    2. 2)
      • 4. Shen, H., Tao, Z., Shao-Feng, H., et al: ‘Study on a mal-operation case of differential protection due to the interaction between magnetizing inrush and sympathetic inrush’. Proc. IEEE Power Energy Society General Meeting, National Harbor, MD, USA, July 2014, pp. 15.
    3. 3)
      • 9. Sykes, J.A., Morrison, I.F.: ‘A proposed method of harmonic restraint differential protecting of transformers by digital computer’, IEEE Trans. Power Appar. Syst., 1972, PAS-91, pp. 12661272.
    4. 4)
      • 17. Bi, D.Q., Zhang, X.A., Yang, H.H., et al: ‘Correlation analysis of waveforms in nonsaturation zone-based method to identify the magnetizing inrush in transformer’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2007, 22, (3), pp. 13801385.
    5. 5)
      • 8. Wu, W., Ji, T., Li, M., et al: ‘Using mathematical morphology to discriminate between internal fault and inrush current of transformers’, IET Gen. Transm. Distrib., 2016, 10, pp. 7380.
    6. 6)
      • 26. ‘DIgSILENT GmbH’, technical reference documentation/Time Overcurrent, December 2016, Version: 2017, Edition: 1.
    7. 7)
      • 13. Girgis, R.S., teNyenhuis, E.G.: ‘Characteristics of inrush current of present designs of power transformers’. Proc. IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Tampa, FL, USA, June 2007, pp. 16.
    8. 8)
      • 16. Lin, X., Liu, P., Malik, O. P.: ‘Studies for identification of the inrush based on improved correlation algorithm’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2002, 17, (4), pp. 901907.
    9. 9)
      • 27. Feoderavna, L.: ‘Influence of superconductor fault current limiter on transformers lifetime’, Int. J. Mechatron., Electr. Comput. Tech., 2012, 2, pp. 7687.
    10. 10)
      • 6. Brunke, J.H., Fröhlich, K.J.: ‘Elimination of transformer inrush currents by controlled switching— part II: application and performance considerations’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2001, 16, (2), pp. 281285.
    11. 11)
      • 14. Ma, J., Wang, Z., Wu, J.: ‘A novel method for discrimination of internal faults and inrush currents by using waveform singularity factor’. Proc. IEEE Int. Power Electronics Conf. (IPEC), Singapore, October 2010, pp. 10351039.
    12. 12)
      • 18. Samet, H., Ghanbari, T., Ahmadi, M.: ‘An auto-correlation function based technique for discrimination of internal fault and magnetizing inrush current in power transformers’, Electr. Power Compon. Syst., 2015, 43, (4), pp. 399411.
    13. 13)
      • 25. ‘DIgSILENT GmbH’, technical reference documentation/Differential Protection (RelBiasidiff), December 2016, Version: 2017, Edition: 1.
    14. 14)
      • 2. Shimizu, H., Mutsuura, K., Yokomizu, Y., et al: ‘Inrush-current-limiting with high TC superconductor’, IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., 2005, 15, (2), pp. 20712073.
    15. 15)
      • 11. Tian, K., Liu, P.: ‘Improved operation of differential protection of power transformers for internal faults based on negative sequence power’. 1998 Proc. Int. Conf. on Energy Management and Power Delivery (EMPD'98), Singapore, March 1998, pp. 422425.
    16. 16)
      • 10. Guzman, A., Zocholl, S., Benmouyal, G., et al: ‘A current-based solution for transformer differential protection: II. Relay description and evaluation’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2002, 17, pp. 886893.
    17. 17)
      • 23. Fang, P., Houlei, G., Yiqing, L.: ‘Transformer sympathetic inrush characteristics and identification based on substation-area information’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2018, 33, pp. 218228.
    18. 18)
      • 1. Seo, H.-C., Kim, C.-H., Rhee, S.-B., et al: ‘Superconducting fault current limiter application for reduction of the transformer inrush current: a decision scheme of the optimal insertion resistance’, IEEE Trans., Appl. Supercond., 2010, 20, (4), pp. 22552264.
    19. 19)
      • 19. Jing, M., Zengping, W., Qixun, Y., et al: ‘Identifying transformer inrush current based on normalized grille curve’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2011, 26, (2), pp. 588595.
    20. 20)
      • 21. Phadke, A.G., Thorp, J.S.: ‘A new computer-based flux-restrained current-differential relay for power transformer protection’, IEEE Trans. Power Appar. Syst., 1983, PAS-102-, (11), pp. 36243629.
    21. 21)
      • 3. Adly, A.A.: ‘Computation of inrush current forces on transformer windings’, IEEE Trans. Magn., 2001, 37, (4), pp. 28552857.
    22. 22)
      • 22. Sahebi, A., Samet, H.: ‘Discrimination between internal fault and magnetising inrush currents of power transformers in the presence of a superconducting fault current limiter applied to the neutral point’, IET Sci. Meas. Technol., 2016, 10, pp. 537544.
    23. 23)
      • 7. Molcrette, V., Kotny, J.-L., Swan, J.-P., et al: ‘Reduction of inrush current in single-phase transformer using virtual air gap technique’, IEEE Trans. Magn., 1998, 34, (4), pp. 11921194.
    24. 24)
      • 12. Westinghouse Electric Corporation: ‘Applied protection relaying’, vol. 8 (Newark, NJ, 1976), pp. 78.
    25. 25)
      • 5. Brunke, J.H., Fröhlich, K.J.: ‘Elimination of transformer inrush currents by controlled switching – part I: theoretical considerations’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2001, 16, (2), pp. 276280.
    26. 26)
      • 20. He, B., Zhang, X., Bo, Z.Q.: ‘A new method to identify inrush current based on error estimation’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2006, 21, pp. 11631168.
    27. 27)
      • 15. Faiz, J., Lotfi-Fard, S.: ‘A novel wavelet-based algorithm for discrimination of internal faults from magnetizing inrush currents in power transformers’, IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., 2006, 21, (4), pp. 19891996.
http://iet.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1049/iet-gtd.2018.5697
Loading

Related content

content/journals/10.1049/iet-gtd.2018.5697
pub_keyword,iet_inspecKeyword,pub_concept
6
6
Loading