CT SATURATION:

In present day power system, increased concentration of generation has caused

considerable increase in the ratio of the fault current to the normal load currents. Also in EHV
networks increased reactance to resistance ratio causes slow decay of the d. c. component in the
short circuit current. The time constants of the decay of d. c. transients. Can be as high as 300 m
secs. The D. C. component in the magnetizing in rush current of a large power transformer have
still longer time constants. For a fault close to a generator the fault current may not touch the
zero current axis for several cycles. Saturation of a conventional current transformer under such
situation can be avoided only by choosing the cross sectional area of their cores to be several
times larger than that needed for the transformation of symmetrical current of the same peak
value.

CHAPTER-II

A CT used with slow speed protective relays should not saturate during steady state fault
current. It may be allowed to saturate due to d. c. component in the fault current as the protective
relays energised with are slow, these operate only after the d. c. component decay down.
CTs when driven above their knee point voltage can create substantial distortion in the
secondary current as well as reducing the rms value of that current. The fundamental component
(frequency) is thus reduced by a larger factor than implied by the ratio error, causing nonoperation of the relay, or slow operation of the relay.
The CT core may be of iron or air; Iron cored CTs have a substantial power output but
are subject to many errors, both static and transient. Air cored CTs have linear characteristics
with no transient errors and are called linear couplers, but these CTs have a low power output
which is generally inadequate for electro magnetic relays but suitable for static relays.

Flux Density B max

Cold rolled silicon steel

Hot rolled silicon steel

High nickel steel

Exciting AT
FIGURE: 2
Fig 2. Shows the magnetic characteristic of the iron lamination materials commonly used for CT
cores. It will be seen that steel with very low exciting current tends to saturate at lower flux
densities.
Effect of Remnance in iron core:
Remnance the ability of a material to retain magnetization, equal to the magnetic flux
density of the material after the removal of the magnetic field Also called retentivity.
The CT core may saturate prematurely at currents well below the normal saturation level due to
the existence of remnant flux. Unfortunately cold rolled silicon steel, which is favoured
nowadays because of its high saturating level, has high remanence so that the recent occurrence
of a heavy fault may leave a remanent flux high enough to cause saturation when a second fault
occurs (Remanent remaining or left over)