Compensation of Current Transformer Saturation
Based on Improved ESPRIT Algorithm
Jun Guan, Zhiguo Hao, Wenzhe Chen
School of Electric Engineering
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Xi’an, China
Email: guanjun@stu.xjtu.edu.cn
Abstract—Current transformer is prone to get into transient
saturated during the fault in the power system. Operation per-
formance of relay protection will be influenced severely due to
serious distortion in the secondary side. An improved ESPRIT
algorithm that can be applied in relay protection for anti-
saturation is presented in this paper. The improved ESPRIT can
accurately obtain the frequency, magnitude and phase angle of
the fault current with unsaturated data segment of CTs’ distort-
ed secondary current in a relatively short time window. In order
to reduce the calculation amount, singular value decomposition
(SVD) is employed to determine the valid order of the signal.
Moreover, the improved ESPRIT algorithm could reduce the
computational load with little influence on calculative result
through the dimension reduction of singular value decomposi-
tion. In order to obtain the magnitude and phase angle more ac-
curate, AR model and least square method are employed to im-
prove the robustness of algorithm. Finally, the accuracy of the
improved ESPRIT is verified by CT’s transient experiment data.
The improved SEPRIT algorithm could be applied in the differ-
ence protection to avoid the malfunction by CTs’ transient satu-
ration and ensure the validity of protection.
Keywords—current transformer; transient saturtion; improved
ESPRIT algorithm; AR model; short time window
I. INTRODUCTION
The current transformer (CT) is fundamental equipment in
the relay protection and monitoring system of power system.
It’s significant to transform the primary current in to a smaller
scale current accurately in the secondary side. Due to the non-
linear excitation characteristics of iron core, current transform-
er is susceptible to get into transient saturated during the fault
in the power system. The main reasons of CT’s saturation in-
clude the following aspects. The DC component in the fault
current can cause single-direction excitation in the core of CTs.
What’s more, the remanence in the core delays slowly which
can cause CT susceptible to get into transient saturation. How-
ever, the ratio brake is employed to reduce the influence of the
CT saturation. It’s difficult to balance the performance of anti-
saturation and sensitivity of differential protection. However,
the severe CT saturation during external fault may cause action
current get into quick-break protection, then, the protection
malfuction will happen. Moreover, when the CT saturation is
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Founda-
tion of China (51277142).
978-1-5090-2320-2/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Zhiyuan Liu, Xiaojun Yu
Ningxia Electric Power Overhauling Company
Ningxia Electric Power Company
Yinchuan, China
detected in the external fault, the traditional differential protec-
tion will be locked for several cycles. During the several cycles,
if in-zone fault happens, the protection may refuse operation in
time which may reduce the reliability of protection.
Much work has done on the CT saturation detection and
compensation. Some research focus on the detection of CT
saturation, such as the harmonics calculation of secondary cur-
rent [1], the time difference method [2], parameter identifica-
tion method [3]. These methods are employed to judge the CT
saturation. In order to obtain and utilize the unsaturated data,
some work has done such as the wavelet transform [4], HHT
[5], the third difference [6] and the magnetic restrain principle
[7].
Methods to obtain main information of primary current
with distorted secondary current in saturation case include the
compensation method [8], the linear neural network [9], the
least squares method [10], the Prony’s algorithm [11] as well as
matrix pencil algorithm [12]. The above methods may be not
performed well in relay protection for they may use long time
window or large amount of calculation.
The ESPRIT algorithm uses a sum of decaying complex
exponentials to fit distorted signals. The ESPRIT algorithm [13,
14] is presented to track the time-varying DOAs, identify the
parameter of synchronous generators and estimate harmonics in
the electrical power system. The improved ESPRIT algorithm
can be employed to extract fundamental frequency component
accurately with shorter time window. It’s very effective to pro-
pose an anti-saturation algorithm to obtain fault current.
The layout of the paper is as follows. Section II briefly in-
troduces the principle of the basic ESPRIT algorithm. In sec-
tion III, the improved ESPRIT algorithm is introduced in three
aspects. The accuracy of the improved ESPRIT is verified by
CT’s transient experimental data in section IV. Finally, the
conclusions and the significance of the algorithm for the differ-
ential protection are discussed.
II. THE BASIC ESPRIT ALGORITHM
The ESPRIT (estimation of signal parameters via rotational
invariance techniques) algorithm models can be expressed as
the sum of sinusoidal components and noise.
 p some severe saturation, it is only about 2.5ms. What’s more,
 x(n) = ¦ ai e jθi e( −δi + j 2π fi ) nTs + w(n)  (1) the basic ESPRIT may not obtain accurate amplitude and phase
i =1
angle due to the ignorance of noise. In order to apply the
It is assumed that gi = ai e jθi , zi = e( −δi + j 2π fi )Ts , it can be ESPRIT algorithm in CTs’ saturation, we have improved the
written in a unified exponential function form as follows algorithm to obtain accurate parameters in short time window.
p Moreover, the calculation amount has been reduced by obtain-
 x( n) = ¦ g i zin + w( n)  (2) ing effective order of signal and decreasing dimension of sin-
i =1 gular value decomposition.
where p is the order of the ESPRIT algorithm, w(n) is the
white noise. The N point measure value can be expressed as A. Improve the Robustness of Algorithm
[ x (n), x(n + 1)," , x(n + N − 1)]T 1) Determine valid order of signal
According to the data sequence, the Hankel sample matrix
ª 1 " 1 º ª g1 z1n º ª w(n) º can be written in matrix form as
« z » « n » «
" z p » « g 2 z2 » w(n + 1) »» ª x ( n) x(n + 1) " x(n + M − 1) º
=« +«
1
« # # # »« # » « # » « x(n + 1) x (n + 2) " x(n + M ) »»
« N −1
z " z N −1 » « n
» « »  X=«  (10)
¬« 1 p ¼» «¬ g p z p »¼ ¬ w(n + N − 1˅¼ « # # # »
« »
¬ x(n + L − 1) x (n + L) " x (n + N − 1) ¼
n
ª 1 " 1 º ª z1 0 0 0 º ª g1 º
 « z (3)
" z p »» «« 0 z2 " 0 »» «g » where L + M − 1 = N , L > p , M > p , for unsaturated seg-
=« « 2»
1
« # ment of CTs’ current signal with power frequency and decay
# # »«0 # % 0 » « # »
« N −1 N −1 » « » « » DC component, the valid order is far lower than L or M .
«¬ z1 " z p »¼ «¬ 0 0 0 z p »¼ «¬ g p »¼
where H is conjugate transpose, the column vectors of matrix
+[ w(n), w(n + 1)," , w(n + N − 1)]T Vs correspond to the p singular value which has the great
= Z N Φ n g + w ( n) magnitudes. Vs is signal subspace matrix, and the Vn is noise
= S ( n) + w ( n) subspace matrix.

ª S1 º ªthe first rowº For the improved ESPRIT algorithm, form a L × M sample
Let S = « =« » , we can obtain matrix according to (10), then analyze the sample matrix by
¬ the last row»¼ ¬ S2 ¼ SVD [15] and take the logarithm of singular values for they are
 S1 = Z N −1Φ g = Z1 g 
n
(4) great different in magnitudes.
 S2 = Z N −1Φ n +1 g = Z 2 g  (5) ªΣ 0 º ªVsH º
 X = U ΣV H = [U s , U n ] « s » « H »  (11)
Finally, rotational matrix can be expressed as ¬ 0 Σ n ¼ ¬Vn ¼
 Φ =Z1−1 Ζ 2  (6) 2) Total least square method
The characteristic roots zi (i = 1," , p ) can be obtained from According to (3)-(6), the signal subspace matrix Vs can be
rotational matrix. Equation (2) can be rewritten in matrix form written in similar matrix form as
 Zg = xˆ  (7) ª V1 º ªthe first row º
 Vs = « »=« » (12)
The least square solution of (7) is ¬the last row ¼ ¬ V2 ¼
 g = ( Z H Z ) −1 Z H xˆ  (8) Take measure noise and disturbance error E into account,
Finally, parameters of each component in the original sig- we can obtain
nal can be obtained as follows  V2 + E 2 = (V1 + E1 )Φ  (13)
­ai = gi In order to ensure the minimum E1 , E 2 F , form the matrix
° [V1 ,V2 ] and perform singular value decomposition.
°θ i = arctan[Im( gi ) Re( gi )]
 ®  (9)  [V ,V ]=U ΣV  (14)
°δ i = ln zi Ts 1 2

°f 
The matrix V can be divided into 4 p × p matrix, which
¯ i = angle(zi ) 2π Ts
can be expressed as
ªV V12 º
 V = « 11 
III. THE IMPROVED ESPRIT ALGORITHM   » (15)
¬V21 V22 ¼
The basic ESPRIT algorithm requires longer time window. According to the property of similar matrix, the characteris-
The high order noise in the signal and singular value decompo-
tic roots can be obtained from rotational matrix Φtls , which can
sition lead to large amount of calculation. However, during the
CTs’ transient saturation, unsaturated and saturated segment be calculated by
alternatively appear in one cycle. The length of unsaturated  Φtls = −V12V22−1  (16)
segment is determined by the degree of CTs’ saturation. In
B. Modification of Initial Sample Data D. Calculation process
In order to obtain more accurate amplitude and phase angle, Fig.1 shows the calculation process of improved ESPRIT
the estimated signal is transformed into an AR (Autoregressive) algorithm to obtain the power frequency parameters from fault
model. current.
p
 xˆ(n) = −¦ am x(n − m) + ε (n)  (17) obtain rotation matrix ψ by matrix Vs
m =1
p
where ε (n) = ¦ am e(n − m) , the principle to obtain the param- calculate the frequency and decay
m =0 factor of each signal componnets

eters is to guarantee the optimal approximation, namely to ob-

obtain the coefficient of AR model
N −1
tain the minimum value of the function E = ¦ ε (n)
2
. AR equation 1 + a1 z −1 + " + a p z − p = 0

set Hankel data matrix A L× M
n= p
modify data matrix according AR
model coefficient and characteristic roots form the characteris- p

tic equation 
SVD of sampling matrix A L× M model xˆ (n) = −¦ am xˆ ( n − m)
m =1

 1 + a1 z −1 + " + a p z − p = 0  (18)
obtain valid order and subspace matrix Vs calculate the amplitude and phase
The AR model coefficient ai (i = 1," , p) can be obtained. of each frequency components
Initial sample data can be modified as follows
end
­ x ( n) 1≤ n ≤ p
° p
 X ( n ) = ®  (19)
° − ¦ am x ( n − m ) p + 1 ≤ n ≤ N Fig. 1. Calculation process of improved ESPRIT algorithm
¯ m =1
C. Reduce Calculation Amount IV. EXPERIMENT AND RESULTS
For the improved ESPRIT algorithm, estimate the valid or- The CT transient saturation experiment tested on a 5P30
der of the main components by SVD. In addition, division of type current transformer. The transformation ratio was 1000:1.
sampling rate can also be employed to reduce calculation CTs’ secondary current was connected with a wave recorder,
amount. Moreover, the improved ESPRIT algorithm could and the sampling rate was 25kHz, namely 500 points per cycle.
reduce the computational load with little influence on calcula- Automatic reclose was applied in the primary system, and the
tive result through the dimension reduction of singular value reclosing interval was 600ms. The fault was set permanent. The
decomposition [16]. fault current was the superposition of power frequency and DC
It is assumed that V1 = gS , V2 = gΦ S , then define V12 as decay component. The parameters are listed in Table IAs
shown in Fig.2, the unsaturated data length of the first fault is
follows about 5ms. Due to the influence of remanence, the unsaturated
ªV H º ª SH º data length of the second fault is only about 2.5ms.
 V12 = « 1H » [V1 V2 ] = « H H » g H g [ S Φ S ]  (20)
¬V2 ¼ ¬S Φ ¼
The matrix V12 can be expressed as
ªV HV V1HV2 º
Current A

 V12 = « 1H 1 H » (21)
¬V2 V1 V2 V2 ¼
Then, perform partition decomposition for matrix V12 in (20) primary current
secondary current

ªv v12 º ª ΛΛH 0 º ª v11H H

v21 º
V12 = « 11 « »« H »
v22 »¼ ¬ 0
Time ms
¬ v21 0 ¼ ¬ v12H v22 ¼ (a) The first fault
  (22)
ª v ΛΛH v H v11ΛΛH v21
H
º
= « 11 H 11H H H »
¬ v21ΛΛ v12 v22 ΛΛ v22 ¼
where Λ =diag( λ1 , λ2 ," , λ p ) , the characteristic roots
Current A

λi (i = 1," , p) can be obtained from V12 , theoretical derivation

of above equations, we can obtain primary current
secondary current

 S −1Φ S = −v12 v22

−1
= v11− H v21
−H
= (V1HV1 ) −1V1HV2  (23)
Time ms
The dimension of SVD can be reduced by calculating the (b) The second fault
characteristic roots of matrix (V1HV1 ) −1V1HV2 . Fig. 2. Waveform of the fault current
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ferential protection to avoid the malfunction by CTs’ transient
saturation and ensure the validity of protection.