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HO M E > C O NTENT > B EW A RE O F LI NE- C U RRENT U NB A LA NC E O N V FDS

Beware Of Line-Current Unbalance On VFDs

Find more articles on: Variable Frequency Drives
John A. DeDad | Electrical Construction and Maintenance
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Jan 1, 1999
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COMMENTS 4

Severe line-current unbalance can cause VFD nuisance tripping and 3rd harmonic currents, which are
unusual for phase-to-phase nonlinear loads.Are you having problems with a "temperamental" variable
frequency drive (VFD)? Is it nuisance-tripping, showing all the signs of circuit overload, even though
measurements show otherwise? The culprit may be unbalanced phase currents.What happens is the
overload

Severe line-current unbalance can cause VFD nuisance

tripping and 3rd harmonic currents, which are unusual for
phase-to-phase nonlinear loads.
Are you having problems with a "temperamental" variable
frequency drive (VFD)? Is it nuisance-tripping, showing all
the signs of circuit overload, even though measurements
show otherwise? The culprit may be unbalanced phase
currents.
What happens is the overload protection trips when the VFD line currents become very
unbalanced because there's excessive current in one or two phases. This happens even
though the average current of the three phases is well below the VFD's current rating.
According to a paper from the Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI's) Power
Electronics Application Center (PEAC) (Application No. 1 dated September 1995), linevoltage unbalances usually cause these line-current unbalances. In fact, current
unbalance can be 20 times as high as the voltage unbalance. Unevenly distributed singlephase loads can cause the latter across a 3-phase power system. In other words, instead
of balancing phase-to-neutral loads evenly across all three phases, more are distributed
onto one or two phases. The same goes for phase-to-phase single-phase loads. Instead of
balancing the loads on an A-B, B-C, A-C basis, they are distributed unevenly on two pair
of phases. Voltage unbalance can also result when using some types of transformer
connections such as the "open-delta" connection, where two transformers are used to
make a three-phase system.
There are a couple of symptoms to look for The first symptom in most cases is nuisance
tripping of upstream breakers due to unbalance current. Many new digital motor control
protection relays use a current unbalance trip, and in some cases, the trip limit can be set
as low as 5%. The line-current unbalance also increases current harmonic distortion,
which can overload building wiring and transformers. Y ou may see excessive 3rd
harmonics (normally associated with phase-to-neutral nonlinear loads) as one of the
resulting consequences of line-current imbalance on a VFD (a phase-to-phase nonlinear

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load). Another may be low power factor.

Of course, the "robustness" of the unbalanced power system serving the drive affects the
amount of unbalance. According to PEAC, if the system is very strong and has a large
transformer and high available fault current, the unbalance will be greater than with a
weaker system.

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Table 1 on page 16 lists line-to-line voltages (first three columns), calculated voltage
unbalance (fourth column), line currents (next three columns), and calculated current
unba- lance (last column) for a typical 5-hp VFD for voltage unbalance conditions.

involved in calculating TCO

and the elements that
affect it....
More

Table 2 on page 16 shows the current waveforms for the same unbalanced conditions
noted in Table 1. As you can see, the current of one or two phases changes, as the current
unbalance increases, from a double-pulse waveform, which is characteristic of a VFD, to
a single-pulse waveform.

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The 3rd harmonic component also increases as the current unbalance increases, which is
unusual for phase-to-phase non-linear load.

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So, how do you go about reducing this problem? First, you measure the VFD's line
current during normal operation, just to verify if, in fact, there's an overcurrent in any
phase. If the measured value on any phase is not greater than the VFD rated line current
and the reason for tripping is due to an upstream current unbalance relay, then increase
the trip setting of the relay to a maximum of 30%. One of the benefits of VFDs is that the
line side voltage unbalance or the current unbalance does not reflect on the motor side;
therefore, you can relax the unbalance trip setting without any concern for damage to the
motor connected to the VFD.
Second, if there is a significantly higher phase current (higher than expected for the VFD
load), then calculate the amount of voltage unbalance at the VFD power panel.
(According to PEAC, greater than 2A per hp load or greater than 15% unbalance is
beyond normal expectations for VFD.)

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Third, if the voltage is unbalanced by more than 2%, then try rebalancing the line
voltages by redistributing as evenly as possible all single-phase loads across all three
phases, or relocating unbalanced loads to different power panels, or correcting all
overloads within the building.

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Let's try a sample problem Let's say you measure VsubAB at 448V, VsubBC at 465V, and
VsubAC at 450V. Next, you do some simple arithmetic calculations and insert the results
into the following equation: %Unbalance = ((maximum deviation from average) divided
by (average of all 3 phase-to-phase voltages)) times 100.

More

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Obviously, the average voltage is the sum of all three voltages divided by 3, which, in this
case, is 454V. The maximum deviation is 465V minus 454V, or 11V. Plugging these
values into the above equation yields 2.4%. Based on this, you need to do some singlephase load relocation work.
What happens if load relocation doesn't work? Y ou may have to install an AC line reactor
at the problem VFD. It will reduce line currents and harmonic distortion as well. Y ou
should size the reactor to carry the VFD's full load current, and it should have an
impedance rating anywhere from 2% to 6%. (These ratings describe the expected rms
voltage drop across the reactor at rated current.)

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Choosing the best rating between 2% and 6% can be a problem. If you choose a higher
rating, the higher voltage drop will give you the greatest amount of current balance but
you'll sacrifice the responsiveness of your VFD. PEAC suggests starting with a 3%
impedance.
There are other benefits to ridding your system of line-current unbalance. According to
PEAC, balancing 3-phase voltages can reduce system losses and prevent costly
shutdowns. Besides reducing current unbalance and harmonic distortion, adding reactors
also can increase power factor when unbalanced 3-phase voltages persist. And, they help
protect VFDs from motor-starting and capacitor-switching transients.
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on Ma r 1 9 , 2 0 1 3

Christ ian (not verif ied)

I'v e read that unbalanced current has a great effect on V FD's.

Can y ou help me with these problem. We hav e a three capactor banks rated 328 kv ac
per capacitor. These were used to supply out production plant. When we tried to close
cap 1 together with cap 3 one of the cut out fuse ex ploded, which results to an
unbalance current. The problem is that most of the V FD driv en motors on our
production tripped. Can these be attributed to the unbalance current of our capacitor
bank?

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Is there any fault in the driv e itself? When is current showing unbalance in same input
bus, same driv e, same motor, same frequency same application? One out of sev en is
showing the current - 1 2A, 1 2.5A, 5.5A
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on A pr 1 8 , 2 0 1 3

St ephen Woodwort h (not verif ied)

Our problem only occurs when we close the breaker to the circuit with the driv e.
Readings for the other 3-phase circuits without driv es do not ex hibit the same current
imbalance. I suspect something was installed improperly , but hav e not personally
witnessed the problem. Unfortunately , the site is half way around the world.

United States

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on Oct 2 , 2 0 1 3

Anony mous (not verif ied)

Can y ou please tell me the location of the current sensor in the v fd and also the working
of the this current sensor?
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Re late d Article s
The Basics of Variable-Frequency Drives
Behind the Scenes with VFDs
Send Me Another Drive Please
Troubleshooting VFDs
Troubleshooting VFD Problems

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