be 220 Degrees C.

Ventilated Dry type transformers have a UL recognized insulation system that is rated 220 HARMONICS; HOW THEY AFFECT THE DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN OF "K" FACTOR Increased harmonics will increase the eddy current loss of the windings and this will TRANSFORMERS appreciably decrease the life expectancy of by JEROME M. FRANK P.E. IEEE FELLOW the transformer. As pointed out in one of the OLSUN ELECTRICS CORPORATION papers in the Bibliography, the Arhenius The design and development of solid state Rule of Thumb reduces the life in half for switching devices has made a very important every 8 to 10 Degrees C that the temperature contribution to our ability to handle and is increased. That is one of the main reasons that process data as well as our ability to more efficiently control electrical equipment. New lower temperature rises of 115C and 80C were items must now be taken into consideration suggested in the Energy Consideration paper Overloading as well as in the design, development and application in the Bibliography. Harmonics are factors that must be taken of electrical equipment. consideration in a transformer When 60 hertz current flows through i n t o a conductor, it is relatively uniformly a p p l i c a t i o n . Changes in design have greatly distributed thruout the cross section of the conductor and its heating effect on the increased the harmonic content of present day loads. In fact, there are very few loads conductor can be readily calculated. A s the frequency increases, "skin today that do not produce harmonics. The computer manufacturers effect" causes the current to flow towards the outer edges of the conductor and the current formerly built what was known as a "Linear distribution in the conductor is no longer Power Supply." This device had a heavy 60 uniform. T o reduce this heating effect, Hertz input transformer, and was large and smaller insulated conductors in parallel were expensive t o manufacture. T h e various used rather than one larger conductor to computer manufacturers provide as much surface skin as possible device to eliminate the 60 resulting in a lower resistance to the higher Transformer, made it lighter and a high frequency frequency currents as the higher frequency less expensive and added currents tended t o flow towards the skin output transformer. This, they called a rather than to the center of the conductor. Mode Switching Power Supply. The ~ i a l y and t disadvantage was that This principle was known and used in the very important design of 400 hertz conductors in airport harmonics produced by the rapid mo lighting design. These 400 hertz cables s w i t c h i n g power supply were ver consisted of multiple insulated conductors appreciably increased , pr rather than one larger conductor. harmonic, which has c a m A transformer has a core loss which is transformer and neutral problems. ~ ~ ~ on 24 hours of the day as long as the a r e now under way by computer transformer is energized. It has a conductor manufacturers to reduce this harmonic loss at 60 hertz that varies with t h e content in t h e future generations of transformer loading. In addition, it has eddy computers but a large number of computers losses in the conductor as well as stray losses have been built in the meantime with these that are caused by the flux linking the frame higher harmonic currents. parts. These losses and the cooling ducts in The new generation of Solid State the windings determine the temperature Ballasts for lighting applications have been rise of the transformer windings. If the described as being greatly improved with transformer is designed for a temperature appreciable increase in efficiency. rise of 150 Degrees Centigrade by resistance , slight drawback, an increase in harmonic with a 40 Degree C ambient and a 30 Degree C content. The almost negligible arm^^^^ differential between the average rise by content of incandescent lighting has been resistance of the winding and its hot spot, largely supplanted by the improvement in the ultimate temperature of the winding will the better and more economical lighting of

0-7803-5148-6-5196 $4.00 0 9996 IEEE

204

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give a procedure for derating a ~ ~ exposed ~ to non-linear ~ ~ loads. However. when you derate for use with a you are violating the old os& listing and in doing so, y s a also violate the National Electric Code, which ~ e q - e a i ~ Ui s listed devices to be used withdin their l:sting. Mlben transformers are derated, the namep'aale 1s usualEy not changed and the ncxi pcrson coming along does not know that the t r a n s f o r m e r was derated due to e is likely to consider that the is lightly loaded and will increase the load up towards the KVA on the n ameplare. 'The derated transformer still has c o r e loss of t h e original VA rating and it is a core loss, necessary, for the reduced e core loss is on continuously, it ecessary expense. . Another important fact is that a properly designed K rated transformer is wed at a lower flux density than a non K transfDrmer, due to the fact that the ~ ~ in the ~ secondary r ~ winding ~ causes a 3rd harmonic current to circulate in Ita winding, increasing the the core. Unless additional d to the core, the core loss e to the third harmonic flux he delta primary winding. . As a consequence, there is the possibility er line voltage which occurs at drive the core into saturation, a esirable effect. T h e additional col-e material in a K rated transformer will make the transformer quieter. A good grade 6, is also desirable. transformer has an that is grounded between secondary windings that barrier between 480 and ion, the shield gives some
c~mrnon
and transverse mode noise

encountered and most troublesome. of the harmo ~n i c s . ~ r ~ e A transformer has a c o r e loss (consisting of an eddy current and hysterisis loss in the iron) , an 1 squared R loss in the windings and an eddy current and stray loss in the winding conductors. A DC current flows uniformly through the entire cross section of a conductor. As the f r e ~ u ~ n c y increases, due to skin effect, the eddy current component increases and it is very difficult to separate the eddy from the stray in the conductor. The M factor of the load, determined from the C57.110 calculation, multiplies the eddy current loss of the windings. When it is used to multiply the combined eddy and stray loss, since they are difficult to separate, you have increase factor of safety of the application. Eddy current losses in transformers can be reduced by using multiple insulated conductors rather than a single larger conductor. Strip windings often are used. The purpose is to get as much skin as possible. Qther techniques include interleaving windings and transposing ~ n ~ ~ conductors. The windings of all transformers have resistances, inductances and capacitances. While the voltage received from the utility has less than 1% voltage distortion, the output voltage of the transformer becomes increasingly distorted especially as nonlinear currents flow through the windings to the load. The greater the impedance, the greater t h e voltage distortion. Voltage distortion, measured with a non-linear load bank, was found to be appreciably dependent on the t r a n s f o r m e r design and the transformer impedance. T h e transformer impedances, thru which all currents f l o w , will cause secondary voltage distortion. This is especially true, if the currents are nonsinusoidal.

attenuation, although there are no IEEE standards to my knowledge, for ring the degree of high frequency ~",ojse attenuation. second problem with C57-110, and e for revision, is the example on which should include a third 2s i t is one of the naost frequently

A s mentioned earlier, a distorted voltage to an induction motor will cause nonlinear currents to flow in the motor windings , adding to the motor's heating . otors fed by a balanced sinusoidal voltage sinusoidal current. drawn a reasonably It is desirable to keep the impedance of the transformer, in my opinion, as low as possible, but still large enough that the

primary protection will take the unit off the line in the event of a fault. Coordination must be maintained with the protection devices. The lower the impedance, the higher the short circuit current and vice versa. It is good practice to specify the minimum impedance the application can stand. Since on a new design, the load profile may not be known, it is my recommendation that K-13, UL1561 listed transformers be used on Low Voltage transformer applications and K-4 on UL 1562 listed Medium Voltage Units. If on Low Voltage Transformers, the cost of down time is very high or dependability very important, than K-30 would be my recommendation for low voltage and K-13 f o r medium voltage transformers. Medium Voltage Transformers have a greater load diversity and that is the reason for the K-4 recommendation. In addition to Harmonics there are several other factors to be taken into consideration on Medium Voltage Transformers. It used to be that only lightning was the primary cause of transformer failures. Today, there are devices that replace the load break switches previously used, and these devices are known as vacuum switches and even more troublesome a r e vacuum contactors, which operate more frequently. When a load break switch was opened the L Di/Dt in the transformer winding was partially dissipated in the resulting arc in the switch. The vacuum breaker and/or contactor opens the circuit in a few microseconds and the L Di/Dt does not have the opportunity to dissipate , As a result there is a transient rise in voltage in the transformer primary winding that can cause a dielectric failure unless the winding is properly designed to withstand it. UL1562 requires a Transient Voltage Analysis Test to determine the maximum voltage rise when a transient hits the primary winding. Dry Type Transformers have a BIL of 60 KV at 15000 volts per IEEE and ANSI Standards. Liquid transformers have a 95 KV Basic Impulse Rating. Since Oil and Dry type Transformers are connected to the same

utility system , there is no reason why Dry Type Transformers should not be specified to have a 95 KV Basic Insulation Level, the same as the Oil Filled units. They should also have, in addition, solid state arrestors mounted at the terminals of the transformer. If the arrestors are more than 5 feet from the terminals, the arrestor does very little good as far as helping to protect the transformer's windings from the transients caused by lightning, your vacuum devices or your neighbors vacuum devices. As pointed out in one of the papers in the Bibliography, transformer designers must also take into consideration the rise in the primary winding voltage for a few micro-seconds due to the distributed reactance and capacitance of the winding. The iimpressed voltage upon energization can double in magnitude for a few micro-seconds although it is usually in the order of 30 to 35 % increase in the primary applied voltage. On 5 KV units specify 60 BIL the sarne as for liquid filled units. In summary, dry type and liquid filled transformers can be designed to give many years of satisfactory operation even when exposed to the ever increasing non-linear load environment. They can have all of the desirable features, like copper or aluminum windings, lower than normal full load temperature rises and indoor or outdoor enclosures. As more installations are completed and harmonic measurements taken, we will be in a better position to specify appropriate K factor transformers for non-linear load applications. References Unde rs tan d i n g Trans f IDrm e r In su 1at i on by Jerome M. Frank, Electrical Construction and Maintenance, April, 1970.
'I

"Specifying Transformer Insulation" by Jerome M. Frank, Midwest Electrical News, July, 1970. "Understanding Electrical Insulation Life" by Jerome M. Frank, M a c h i n e Design October, 1970.

207

"Increasing Insulation Life by Jerome M. Frank, Electrical Consultant, March,

'I

Methods to Determine K Factor" by Jerome M. Frank IEEE PSE 04-346 October 1994 1971. Underwriters Laboratory UL 1561 Underwriters Laboratory UL 1562 "Transformers, Distribution, Dry Type- Over 600 Volts December 1988 ANSI/IEEE C57-110 1986 Recommended Practice for Establishing Transformer Capability when Supplying Non-Sinusoidal Load Currents

"Watch Out for Energy Losses in Transformers" by Jerome M. Frank Electrical Construction and Maintenance August 1975 "Transients and Harmonics" by C.R. Luebke and Jerry Frank Square D company November 1985 "Transients and Harmonics" Frank and C.R.Luebke IEEE CN2272-3 1986 by Jerome

M.

"Transformer Listings" by Jerome M. Frank Electrical Construction and Maintenance January 1988 "Maximum Insulation Stresses Under Transient Voltages in HV B a r r e l - T y p e Winding of Distribution and Power T r a n s f o rm e rs " by Alexander Mazur, Isodoro Kerszenbaum and Jerome Frank IEEE Transactions IAS May/June 1988 IEEE Prize Paper D ry D i st r ib u t i on "S pecify ing Ty p e Transformers for Solid State Applications" by I. Kerszenbaum, A. Mazur, M. Mistry and J. Frank IEEE Prize Paper "Nonlinear Loads and Transformers ...there is another solution by Jerome M. Frank Electrical Construction and Maintenance May 1990

T r an s f o rm e r H a r m o nic an d Currents Loading" by Joseph F. McPartland, Warren Lewis and Jerome Frank Electrical Design and Installation NOV/DEC 1990
I'

"New Transformer Technology" by Frank Winter issue NETA World 1992-1993

Jerome

"The How and Why of K-Factor Transformers by Jerry Frank Intertec Publishing April 1993