Impact of Transient Response of Instrument Transformers on Phasor Measurements

Tianshu Bi, S. M. IEEE, Hao Liu, Xing Zhou, Qixun Yang

leakage. However, the instrument transformer is the necessary equipment which connects the primary power system and PMU. Therefore, the measurement accuracy of PMU is directly affected by the transfer accuracy and the transient response of instrument transformer. In the case of dynamics, a few problems will come to instrument transformer due to the characteristics of its internal structure, such as saturation in CT, ferromagnetic resonance in CVT and so on, which will affect the transfer accuracy to certain extent and further will affect the phasor measurements [7]. In this paper, the dynamic signal models are abstracted from the phenomena of practical power systems, such as the trip of the breaker, the fault disturbances, etc. And according to the internal structure of the instrument transformer, the impact of the instrument transformer on the phase measurements is analyzed when the dynamic phenomena mentioned above occur. The suggestions for the evaluation criteria of PMU dynamic behavior are provided. Moreover, the principles of choosing instrument transformers in the wide-area measurement systems are suggested as well. II. DYNAMIC SIGNAL MODELS OF POWER SYSTEMS Transient process of power system can be divided into two categories: the electromagnetic transient and the electromechanical transient [8]. To different extent, both of the transient processes will interfere the voltage and the current signals in fundamental frequency. A. Electromagnetic Transient The electromagnetic transient is a process in which the voltage, the current and other electrical operating parameters change rapidly when the short circuit happens. It mainly involves the following categories: 1) Step change: After the short circuit caused by the lightning or the insulator flashover, the relay need to remove the line rapidly and later the automatic recloser works. In this process, the voltage is concave. Besides, in ungrounded systems, when instantaneous ground short circuit of single-phase occurs, the voltage of normal phase will be rise; or the opening and closing of the switch will lead to amplitude mutation in the voltage and the current. If the step occurs at the time instance , x(t)= [Xm(t)+ X t (t )]sin(2ft + ) 1 where Xm is the amplitude before mutation, Xt is the amplitude of the mutation, (t) is the step function. 2) Short circuits: There will be interference signals with

Abstract--The instrument transformer is the necessary equipment which connects the primary power system and PMU. Therefore, the measurement accuracy of PMU is directly affected by the transfer accuracy and the transient response of instrument transformer. In this paper, the dynamic signal models are abstracted from the phenomena of practical power systems. Under such kinds of dynamic signal models, the impact of instrument transformer on PMU is analyzed in detail, especially for the saturation problem of the current transformer and the ferromagnetic resonance and transient response of capacitor voltage transformer. Based on the analysis, the suggestions for the evaluation criteria of PMU dynamic behavior can be provided. Moreover, the principles of choosing instrument transformers in the wide-area measurement systems are suggested as well. Index Terms--PMU; current transformer; saturation; capacitor voltage transformer; ferro-resonance; transient response; power system

I. INTRODUCTION

owadays, for interconnected power grids, its capacity becomes larger and its structure and operating mode becomes more complex, which put forward imperative requirement for the dynamic monitoring and global awareness of the grids. With the development of global positioning system and communication technology, the phasor measurement unit (PMU) and wide area measurement system (Wide-Area Measurement System, WAMS) has become an important tool for power system dynamic monitoring and control [1,2]. PMU, as the core of WAMS [3], is responsible for measuring the voltage and current phasors of pivotal points to obtain the snapshot of power grid. Thus, whether PMU can track the primary signal accurately under the dynamic condition becomes crucial. Reference [4] proposes that the steady-state performance of PMU can be evaluated comprehensively by calculating the TVE (total vector error), which provides a reliable basis for testing and evaluation of PMU. In [5], the dynamic behavior of PMU is evaluated both in the laboratory and the field, which focuses on the analysis of the impact of the filters in PMU on measurements. Reference [6] presents an improved discrete fourier algorithm which can reduce calculation errors caused by the spectral
This work was supported by NSFC (50920105705; 50837002; 50607005), 111 project (B08013) and 973 (2009CB219704). T. S. Bi, H. Liu, X. Zhou and Q. X. Yang are all with Key Laboratory of Power System Protection and Dynamic Security Monitoring & Control under Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, P. R. China (e-mails: tsbi@ncepu.edu.cn ).

978-1-4244-6551-4/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

high-frequency which is about over 10 4 Hz , especially when there is arc. If the short circuit occurs near the generator terminal, there will be non-periodic component in the stator circuit and transmission lines. Considering that the high-frequency components can be removed by low-pass filter, there are periodic components and non-periodic components in the post-short circuit current,
x(t ) = x1 (t ) + x0 (t ) = X 1 sin(2ft + 1 ) + X 0 e t

Where, x1(t) is periodic component, x0(t) is non-periodic component, X1 is the amplitude of periodic component, 1 is original phase angle, Xo is the amplitude of non-periodic component, is decaying time constant of non-periodic component. 3)In addition, some electromagnetic transients, such as resonance of power grid, ferromagnetic resonance, lightning, switching surges and traveling wave, generate noises with the frequency of 103 Hz or even more than 105 Hz. Except for very few of them, most of the high-frequency components will be filtered out by low-pass filter in PMU. Therefore, only the impact of step change and non-periodic components caused by fault on the phasor measurements are concerned in the paper. Electromechanical Transient The electromechanical transient is a process in which the displacement of motor angular, angular velocity and other mechanical parameters change slowly. In steady-state, each generator rotor in the power system rotates at synchronous speed. When short circuit and other disturbances occur, the rotor will no longer rotate at synchronous speed, and the power angle will deviate from a constant value, because the input power of prime mover and the electromagnetic power are no longer balanced. The frequencies of the signals generated by generators are different and deviate from nominal frequency to different extent. Thus, the voltage of each node is superimposed by several voltage signals with different amplitude and different frequency which are near the nominal one. The amplitude, phase angle, frequency of the superimposed voltage signal will be oscillated in certain frequency. Assume that there is a signal superimposed by two signals, as shown in (3). x(t ) = X 1 sin( 0 t ) + X 2 sin( 0 + )t 3 where 0 is the rated angular velocity, is the deviation from the rated angular velocity. Since is quite small, we can get: x(t ) = X 3 sin(t + ) 4 where
X3 =
2 2 X1 + X2 + 2 X 1 X 2 cos( t ) , tan( ) =

modulation frequency, f is the power system frequency, is the original phase angle of the voltage, t is the original phase angle for the part of the modulation. When faults occur in power systems, the generator may have electromagnetic torques with a variety of frequencies. If the frequencies fall into or closes to the natural frequencies of the shaft of the generator, the resonance occurs. The lowest resonance frequency can be 1.51 ~ 1.67Hz, and the highest one can be up to 47.5 ~ 55Hz. If resonance occurs, the speed of generator rotor is superimposed by the speed which is oscillated at the natural oscillation frequencies on the basis of the synchronous speed. The frequency of the voltage of the generator terminal corresponds to the oscillation at the same frequency. The oscillation frequency ranges from 1.51 Hz to 55Hz. Suppose the angular velocity of frequency modulation as (6), so the angular velocity changes between 0+A and 0-A as the cosine function. = 0 + A cos(1t + 1 ) 6 Phasor angle is calculated by the integration as follows.
= dt = 0 t +
A

cos(1t + 1 )

B.

So the model of frequency modulation can be expressed as below.

u (t ) = 2U cos( + 0 ) A sin(1t + 1 ) + 0 = 2U cos 0 t + 1 f = 2U cos 2f 0 t + d sin(2f1 + 1 ) + 0 f 1

where f0 is the rated frequency, fd is the depth of frequency modulation, f1 is the modulation frequency. The choice of modulation frequency is considered on the respects of the intra- and inter-area low frequency oscillations, sub-synchronous oscillations and the multiples of Nyquist frequency concerned by PMU. III. DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF CAPACITOR VOLTAGE TRANSFORMER Currently, the electromagnetic voltage transformer and the capacitor voltage transformer are widely used. The electromagnetic voltage transformer is based on principle of voltage transform by electromagnetic induction; while the capacitor voltage transformer (CVT) adopts the principle of voltage dividing by capacitors, whose equivalent circuit is shown as Figure 1.

X 2 sin( t ) . X 1 + X 2 cos(t )

If the change in phase angle is neglected, it can be treated approximately as X3X1+X2cos(t), tan()0. Then (5) can be obtained, which is the typical model of the amplitude oscillation, also known as power oscillation. x(t ) = ( X + X d cos(2f1t + t )) cos(2ft + ) 5 where Xd is the depth of amplitude modulation, f1 is the

Fig. 1 Equivalent circuit of CVT

There will not have ferromagnetic resonance between CVT

and the grid, because CVT connects the grid with capacitors. Whats more, as a result its outstanding insulation and low cost, in 110kV and above ultra-high voltage system, CVT is being gradually promoted. In this section, the CVT model is established to observe its impact on phasor measurements. The parameters of CVT model are chosen according to a CVT used in practical 230kV system, whose accurate grade is 3P and the phase shift is no more than 2 for steady-state conditions. The results are analyzed by spectrum analysis method to calculate the amplitude attenuation and phase shift. A. The Impact of CVT on Phasor Measurements Due to Non-periodic Component When the fault occurs, there will be the non-periodic component in the secondary side. When the primary side inputs non-periodic component, the output of secondary side of CVT contains periodic components, forced and free non-periodic components [9,10]. Figure 2 gives the spectrum of the CVT transformation result, when the primary voltage contains a non-periodic component. We can see that the amplitude of the secondary signal attenuates by 0.94% and this error is relatively small. Therefore, CVT does not tend to be affected by non-periodic component much and the error is quite small.

with the 2ms track-delay of CVT, PMU cannot get the meaningful phasors until after t +2 ms. For the CVT with poor performance, it might need a cycle or even longer time to fall below 10% of the voltage after the fault in the most severe cases [11]. For such kind of case, the PMU takes longer time to get the correct phasors, which should be paid particular attention. 2) The ferromagnetic resonance. When the line restores from a fault condition, the sudden change of the primary voltage may cause the saturation of the core and the ferromagnetic resonance between the core and the capacitor. Although this resonance will not spread to the power grid, the resonance over-voltage will have an impact on transformation precision. Suppose the short circuit disappears after one cycle. The corresponding result is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 The voltage waveform for the short-circuit disappears after one cycle

It is shown clearly in Fig. 4 that the secondary voltage is higher than the primary voltage. The over-voltage caused by ferromagnetic resonance that occurs in CVT will affect the transformation accuracy. The quantitative analysis is shown below.

Fig. 2 Enlargement pictures of amplitude-frequency and phase-frequency characteristics of CVT under non-periodic input

B. The Impact of CVT on Phasor Measurements Due to the Amplitude Step Change of Voltage In this subsection, the transient response and the ferromagnetic resonance of CVT are concerned. 1) Transient Response. When the grounding fault occurs, the voltage of the primary side drops to zero suddenly.

Fig. 5 The enlargement picture of amplitude-frequency characteristic of the CVT with ferromagnetic resonance

As can be seen in Fig.5, when the ferromagnetic resonance of CVT occurs, the amplitude of secondary signal (50Hz) will increase to 89.7V from 88.5V and the amplitude difference is 1.45%. Therefore, the appearance of the ferromagnetic resonance can affect the transformation precision of CVT due to the internal structure of CVT. Although the error can be decreased due to internal damping devices, this error caused by over-voltage still should be considered. C. The Impact of CVT on Phasor Measurements due to the Amplitude Oscillation When the oscillation occurs in power systems, the core of CVT is not easy to saturate, and the impact on CVT transformation is small. So in this case, the impact on the phasor measurements is also small, which is proved by the simulation. Fig. 6 shows the degree of the attenuation for the signal at 50Hz, when the oscillation occurs in power system. It can be seen, the amplitude difference is 0.523%, and the phase difference is 1.28.

Fig. 3 The tracking results of CVT when the primary voltage drops to zero

It can be seen that the value of the secondary voltage falls to less than 2V within about 1-2ms after the primary voltage becomes 0v at 0.2s. Before the short circuit, the maximum voltage is 91V, i.e. the secondary voltage can be reduced to 2.2% in a very short period of time. Therefore its impact on phasor measurements is very small. Suppose that the phasor calculation needs a time window which lasts t ms, combined

shift after being transferred by the current transformer during power system dynamics. A. The Impact of CT on Phasor Measurements Due to Non-periodic Component When high current, especially non-periodic component, passes through the primary side of CT and makes it saturate, the current of the secondary side of CT will be greatly reduced and its waveform will be seriously distorted [13]. In this paper, the amplitude attenuation and phase shift between the input and output signal are compared by the means of spectrum analysis and DFT algorithm. The impact of CT on phasor measurements due to non-periodic component is observed. Fig. 8 shows the waveforms of the instantaneous values of primary and secondary currents, magnetic flux, and excitation current.

Fig. 6 The enlargement pictures of amplitude-frequency and phase-frequency characteristics of CVT when the power oscillation occurs

D. The impact of CVT on phasor measurements due to low frequency and sub-synchronous oscillation In this subsection, the impact of CVT on phasor measurements is studied when the power system oscillates at inter- and intra area low frequencies and sub-synchronous frequencies. The depth of frequency modulation is 0.2Hz, and the modulation frequency is 1.2Hz. The depth of sub-synchronous modulation is 0.2Hz, and modulation frequency is 22.9Hz. The results show that the amplitude difference is 0.506%, and the phase difference is 1.28 at low frequency oscillation; and while the sub-synchronous oscillations occur, the simulation results are similar to those of low frequency oscillations. Therefore, for power system oscillations, the impact on phasor measurements is negligible since CVT is hard to be saturated. When the amplitude mutation occurs, the transient response delay and the ferromagnetic resonance of CVT will produce errors and have a certain impact on phase measurements. Thus, for the lines always operated in steady-state, it is suggested to install the measuring CVT with a high level of accuracy for phasor measurements; as for the lines with more dynamics, protective CVT or transient protective CVT are suggested. Besides, the CVT with good transient response ability should be chosen in the lines which need to switch frequently. Namely, after metallic short circuit occurs, the secondary voltage has to go down below 10%, or even below 5% of the peak voltage before the fault within one cycle, to mitigate the impact on phase measurements. IV. DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF CURRENT TRANSFORMERS The equivalent circuit of current transformer is given in Fig. 7.

Fig. 8 The waveforms of the instantaneous values of primary and secondary currents, magnetic flux and excitation current

Fig. 7 The equivalent circuit of current transformer

In this paper, electromagnetic current transformer is used, and the parameters are selected according to [12], which is 10P15-level CT used for protection. Its rated primary current is 600A, and the rated secondary current is 5A. Spectrum analysis method is used to calculate the attenuation and phase

It can be seen, due to the impact of exciting current, the secondary current begins to distort seriously from the time of 0.25 ( is the decaying time constant of the non-periodic components, = 0.32s), which makes the ability of CT to track the primary current worse and causes phasor measurements error increase greatly. Furthermore, the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the input and output signals, the attenuation of amplitudes of the signal with the frequency of 50Hz are compared. The comparison results are analyzed in different time periods. From the fault time to 0.25 (Fig. 9(a)), the excitation current is saturating. But the iron core has not been saturated. The error is relatively small; and the maximum amplitude difference is -0.012%. From 0.25 to 0.5 (Fig. 9(b)), the iron core has been saturated, and the excitation current has been relatively large. The error of phasor measurements is large due to the distortion of secondary wave. The maximum amplitude difference reaches -4.82%. From 0.5 to 2 (Fig. 9(c)), the core continues to saturate and the error continue to expand. The amplitude difference is about -5.3%. The impact on phasor measurements during this period is the largest. From 2 to 3 (Fig. 9(d)), the saturation level of core is decreasing gradually and the error also shows decreasing trend. The amplitude difference is -2.79%. After 3s (Fig. 9(e)), the core exits from the saturation zone, the amplitude is controlled less than -1.9%.

secondary currents when the magnitude of current suffers step change.

(a) 0s-0.25

(b) 0.25-0.5 Fig. 11 The enlargement picture of amplitude-frequency characteristic for current step change

It can be seen that the amplitude of current signal (50Hz) is attenuated by 0.9%. Therefore, when the amplitude of the signal mutates and the core is not saturated, the attenuation of the amplitude of the fundamental component in current is quite small after the transformation of CT.
(c) 0.5-2 (d) 2-3

C. The Impact of CT on Phase Measurements Due to the Amplitude Oscillation When the amplitude oscillation occurs in the system, the result of CT transformation is still good since the core is still in the linear range. The amplitude of the signal at 50Hz attenuates by 0.85% and the phase shift is 0.11 (See Fig. 12).

(e) after 3 Fig. 9 The enlargement picture of amplitude-frequency characteristic at different time stages

Using DFT which is most widely used in PMU, the calculated phasor amplitude is given in the fig. 10. Similar to the amplitude-frequency analysis, the error of phasor measurements is largest in period from 0.25 to 2, and turns smaller after 3.

Fig. 12 The enlargement pictures of amplitude-frequency and phase-frequency characteristics of CT

Fig. 10 The amplitude of the phasor calculated by DFT algorithm

It should be noted that there must be step change when short circuit fault occurs. Within the first time window of phasor calculation, phasor calculated by PMU has no sense. However, the waveform distortion caused by CT saturation will further extend the time delay that PMU can get correct results. In fig. 10, it takes about 1s till the relative correct phasors can be calculated. Consequently, choosing the proper kind of CT is vital for PMU to perform well in the dynamics of power system. B. The Impact of CT on Phase Measurements Due to the Amplitude Step Change There must be current step change when fault occurs or the breaker trips. Fig. 11 gives the spectrum of the primary and

D. The Impact of CT on Phase Measurements Due to Low Frequency Sub-synchronous Frequency Oscillation When low frequency oscillation occurs in the system, the result of transformation is also good since the transformer core is still in linear range. In the example of this paper, the amplitude of the signal at 50Hz attenuates by 0.86% and the phase shift is 0.118. When sub-synchronous oscillation occurs in the system, we can get similar results. The amplitude of the signal at 50Hz attenuates by 0.86% and the phase shift is 0.12. By comparing the results during power system dynamics, it can be found that if there is no non-periodic component in the primary current of CT after faults, the secondary side of CT will not saturate, which have little impact on the phasor measurements. However, if the primary current of CT contains non-periodic component after faults, the saturation is prone to happen. At this time, phasor measurements will be affected seriously. Consequently, in order to reduce the effect of saturation on phase measurements, it is proposed to use protective CT in the lines in which the dynamic and transient phenomenon appear frequently.

V.

CONCLUSIONS

[4] IEEE Std C37.118-2005.IEEE standard for synchrophasors for power

systems.2005

In this paper, the impact of instrument transformer on phase measurements in the wide-area measurement system is analyzed in detail. First of all, the dynamic signal models are abstracted from the phenomena of practical power system. Under such kinds of dynamic signal models, the behavior of CVT and CT is studied. It can be seen that the saturation of the current transformer and the ferromagnetic resonance and transient response of capacitor voltage transformer should be paid attention. Based on the analysis, the principles of choosing instrument transformers in the wide-area measurement system are suggested as well.
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[5] Zhenyu, Huang. John F, Hauer. Kenneth E. Martin. Evaluation of PMU

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