Institute of Technology of Cambodia Department Electrical and Energy

Potential Transformer

Professor SEAN Piseth

Group (04) I4, EE ‘A’

Student ID
HENG Dara e20160160
KHAN Sophanha e20160237
MUTH Phareth e20160414
LOEM Chamroeun e20160340

Year

2019-2020
 Contents

OBJECTIVE .................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

POTENTIAL TRANSFORMER (PT) .............................................................. 1
I. History of Transformer .............................................................................. 1
II. About Potential Transformer ..................................................................... 3
a. What potential transformer exactly is? ................................................... 3
b. Why Potential Transformers should be used? ........................................ 3
c. Advantages of Potential Transformer ..................................................... 4
d. How does the potential transformer or voltage transformer work? ....... 4
III. Types of Potential Transformer .............................................................. 8
a. The outdoor potential transformer .......................................................... 8
b. The indoor Potential Transformer ........................................................ 10
IV. Applications of Potential Transformer ................................................. 10
a. Metering Purpose .................................................................................. 10
b. The Protection of the Feeders ............................................................... 12
V. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 13
VI. References ............................................................................................. 13

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 POTENTIAL TRANSFORMER (PT)

Objective

➢ Recognizing Potential Transformer.

➢ Understand about how potential transformer work.
➢ Understand about potential transformer use in real life.

I. History of Transformer

A transformer was one of the critical components needed to make an electrical power system
based on alternating current. Transformers raise and lower the electrical voltage (or potential) or
the current, depending on the design.

The property of induction was discovered in the 1880's. After that, the first transformer was
designed and did the experiments by Ottó Bláthy, Miksa Déri, Károly Zipernowsky of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire First.

Ottó Bláthy Miksa Déri Károly Zipernowsky

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 In 1882, electrical inventors, Lucien Gaulard and John Gibbs, introduced a practical
designed in Europe.

Lucien Gaulard John Dixon Gibbs

But in 1889, George Westinghouse licensed their design and William Stanley, an electrical
engineer in Westinghouse & manufacturing company, added refinements that improved the
device.

George Westinghouse William Stanley

Figure1: The voltage transformer which is made by Westinghouse & manufacturing company in 1889. 2
 II. About Potential Transformer

a. What potential transformer exactly is?

The Potential Transformer can be thought of as an electrical component rather than an

electronic component.

Potential Transformer (PT) is actually an instrument transformer that used in power

systems to step down primary current voltages and secondary voltages from a higher
level to lower secondary potential output voltage level.

Figure 2: Medium potential transformer Figure 3: Potential transformer

b. Why Potential Transformers should be used?

Potential transformer or voltage transformer is used in electrical power system for stepping
down the system voltage to a safe value which can be fed to low ratings meters and relays.
Commercially available relays and meters used for protection and metering, are designed for low
voltage. This transformer can be easily measured by the ordinary low voltage instrument like a
voltmeter, wattmeter and watt-hour meters, etc.

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 This special type of transformer allows a meter to take readings from electrical service
connections with a higher voltage (potential) rating than the meter is normally capable of
handling without at potential transformer.

c. Advantages of Potential Transformer

The advantages of the potential transformer are:

• Converter the high to low voltage level by using of the secondary winding connected to the
small voltmeter, wattmeter or energy meter.
• Safety during working.
• Easy to measure high voltage.
• Protection feeder.

d. How does the potential transformer or voltage transformer work?

Figure 3: Diagram of PT

The potential transformer is connected in parallel with the circuit. The primary windings of
the potential are directly connected to the power circuit whose voltage is to be measured. The
secondary terminals of the potential transformer are connected to the measuring instrument like
the voltmeter, wattmeter, etc. The secondary windings are magnetically coupled through the

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magnetic circuit of the primary windings. The primary terminal of the transformer is rated for
400V to several thousand volts, and the secondary terminal is always rated for 400V.

A transformer function is based on the principle that electrical energy is transferred

efficiently by magnetic induction from one circuit to another. Basically, a transformer consists
of two or more windings placed on the same magnetic part. The winding being fed electrical
energy is called primary winding while the winding where the load is connected is called
secondary winding. A typical two windings transformer action is shown in figure above.

When the primary winding of a transformer is energized from an alternating current (AC)
source, an alternating magnetic field is established in the transformer core. Alternating magnetic
lines of force, called “flux” circulate through the core. With a second (secondary) winding around
the same core, a voltage is reduced by the alternating flux lines. A load, connected to the terminals
of the secondary winding, results in current flow.

The primary winding consists of a large number of turns which is connected across the
high voltage side or the line in which measurement have to be taken or to be protected. The
secondary winding has lesser number of turns which is connected to the voltmeters, or potential
coils of wattmeter and energy meters, relays and other control devices. These can be single phase
or three phase potential transformers. Irrespective of the primary voltage rating, these are
designed to have the secondary output voltage of 110V.

Since the voltmeters and potential coils of other meters have high impedance, a small
current flow through the secondary of PT. Therefore, PT behaves as an ordinary two winding
transformer operating on no load. Due to this low load (or burden) on the PT, the VA ratings of
PTs are low and in the range of 50 to 200 VA. On the secondary side, one end is connected to
the ground for safety reasons as shown in figure above.

Similar to the normal transformer, the transformation ratio is specified as

V1 N1
= =a
V2 N 2

From the equation above, if the voltmeter reading and transformation ratio are known, the
high voltage side voltage can be determined.

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 i. Errors in Voltage Transformer

For an ideal voltage transformer, the voltage produced in the secondary winding is an
exact proportion to the primary voltage and are exactly in phase opposition. However, in actual
PTs this is not so because of the presence of voltage drops in primary and secondary resistance
and also due the power factor of the burden on secondary. This causes to occurrence of ratio and
phase angle errors in voltage transformers. Let us know in detail.

Figure 04: Errors in Voltage Transformer.

Consider the phasor diagram of potential transformer shown above, where

• Io = No load current

• Im = magnetizing component of no load current

• Iu = Wattful component of no load current

• Es and Ep = Induced voltages in secondary and primary windings respectively

• Np and Ns = Number of turns in primary and secondary windings respectively

• Ip and Is = Primary current and secondary current

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 • Rp and Rs = Resistances of primary and secondary windings respectively

• Xp and Xs = Reactance of primary and secondary windings respectively

• β = Phase angle error

The primary induced voltage or EMF Ep is derived by subtracting the primary resistive
(IpRp) and reactive drop (IpXp) from the primary voltage Vp. And also, secondary terminal
voltage Vs is derived by subtracting secondary winding resistance drop (IsRs) and reactance drop
(IsXs) vectorially from secondary induced EMF Es. Due to these drops nominal ratio of the
potential transformer is not equal to the actual ratio of the PT, hence introduces a ratio error.

ii. Ratio Errors

The ratio error of the potential transformer is defined as the variation in actual ratio of
transformation from nominal ratio.

Percentage Ratio Error = (Kn – R) / R × 100

Where

• Kn is the nominal or rated transformation ratio and is

• Kn = Rated primary voltage / Rated secondary voltage

iii. Phase Angle Errors

In ideal PT, there should not exist any phase angle between the primary voltage and
reversed secondary voltage. But in practice, there exist a phase difference between Vp and Vs
reversed (as we can observe in above figure), thereby, introduces phase angle error. It is defined
as the phase difference between the primary voltage and reversed secondary voltage.

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 In order to reduce these errors such that the accuracy is improved by designing the
transformers in such a way that they windings have appropriate magnitudes of internal resistance
and reactance. In addition to this, the core should require minimum magnetizing and core loss
components of exciting current.

III. Types of Potential Transformer

Majorly these are classified into outdoor and indoor potential transformers.

a. The outdoor potential transformer

These can be single or three phase voltage transformers available for different range of
operating voltage that are used for relaying and metering applications. Up to 33KV, these are of
electromagnetic type single and three phase voltage transformers. Above 33KV single phase
outdoor potential transformers can be two types electromagnetic type and capacitive voltage
transformer (CVT). It divides two types electromagnetic or wound type and capacitive PT.

i. Electromagnetic or wound PT

These are similar to conventional wound type transformer: At the base, ground terminal and
oil drain plug is provided. In this, primary is connected between the two phases or between one
phase and ground. So, one end of the primary is connected to main line at the top and the other
end is brought out at the bottom and is grounded with other ground terminals.

Figure 05: Electromagnetic PT 8

 The secondary terminals including earth terminal are located in the terminal box at the
bottom, further these are connected to the metering and relay circuits. These are used up to or
below 132 KV operating voltages due to insulation aspects.

ii. Capacitive VT

It is a capacitive potential divider connected between the phase of main line and ground.
These can be coupling capacitor or bushing type CVTs. These two types are electrically less or
more similar, but the difference is that the formation of capacitance which further decides their
rated burden (or load).

C2 >> C1

V1 C1 N1
⟹ =
V2 C1 + C2 N 2

Figure 06: Capacitive Transformer

A coupling capacitor type consists of a stack of series connected capacitors which are made
up of oil-impregnated paper and aluminum foil. For desired primary and secondary voltages,
primary and secondary terminals are connected across the capacitors.

For measuring high voltage (above 100kV) the high insulated transformer is required. The
highly insulated transformer is quite expensive as compared to the normal transformer. For
reducing the cost, the capacitive potential transformer is used in the system. The CVT is cheap,
and their performance is not much inferior to the highly insulated transformer.

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 b. The indoor Potential Transformer

These are also available as single or three phase PTs which are of mounding, magnetic
type. The mounting mechanism can be fixed or draw out type. In this type of PTs, all parts of
primary winding are insulated from earth at its rated insulation capacity. These are designed to
operate relays, measuring instruments, and other control devices in indoor service with high
accuracy.

Figure 07: Indoor potential transformer

Based on the function, PT or voltage transformers are classified into metering voltage
transformers and protection voltage transformers.

IV. Applications of Potential Transformer

Potential transformers are applied in many applications such as:

a. Metering Purpose

A Potential transformer is actually an instrument transformer that used in power systems

to step down primary voltages from a higher level to lower secondary potential output voltage
level. Potential transformers are used in AC power circuits to feed the potential coils of indicting
and metering instruments (voltmeters, watt-meters).
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Figure1: Voltmeter

Figure: Wattmeter

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 b. The Protection of the Feeders

Feeders are the power lines through which electricity is transmitted in power systems.
Feeder transmits power from Generating station or substation to the distribution points then
distributing to the load.

Figure 4: Feeder Transmit power

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 The potential transformers are used in the protecting relaying scheme because the
potential coils of the protective device are not directly connected to the system in case of the high
voltage. Therefore, it is necessary to step down the voltage and also to insulate the protective
equipment from the primary circuit as we showed in the figure above. In the other word, they are
used to protect the impedance of the generators and also for synchronizing the generators and
feeders.

V. Conclusion

In conclusion, as we have known the Potential Transformer is stepped down the voltage to
a safe limit value which can be easily measured by the ordinary low voltage instrument like a
voltmeter, wattmeter, and watt-hours meter. It is essential that should be used to fit with devices
are used low voltage. The class of PT used for metering is called as measurement voltage or
potential transformers. Otherwise, PTs used for protection called as protection VT. In some cases
PTs used for both metering and protection.

VI. References

Chapman_Electric_Machinery_Fundamentals_5th_Ed
https://www.electrical4u.com/voltage-transformer-or-potential-transformer-theory/
https://www.electricityforum.com/iep/utility-transformers/potential-transformer
https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/transformer/transformer-basics.html
https://edisontechcenter.org/Transformers.html

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