See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/3050868

A lecture on autotransformers for power engineering students

Article  in  IEEE Transactions on Education · September 2003

DOI: 10.1109/TE.2003.814592 · Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS READS
0 1,829

2 authors:

Carlos Castro Carlos Alberto Murari

University of Campinas University of Campinas
116 PUBLICATIONS   879 CITATIONS    22 PUBLICATIONS   370 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Electric Vehicle Routing View project

Development of Continuation Power Flow Methods for Static Voltage Stability Analysis View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Carlos Alberto Murari on 15 September 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 46, NO. 3, AUGUST 2003 373

A Lecture on Autotransformers for Power

Engineering Students
Carlos A. Castro, Senior Member, IEEE, and Carlos A. F. Murari, Member, IEEE

Abstract—A lecture on autotransformers intended specifically

for power engineering students is proposed in this paper. An orig-
inal approach to introducing the equipment is shown, and impor-
tant information that does not appear in most textbooks is provided
and discussed. In particular, a strong connection between the theo-
retical aspects and the engineer’s every day practice is emphasized.
Simple laboratory experiments are also proposed to validate the
theoretical information.
Index Terms—Autotransformer, education, laboratory, power
engineering, voltage regulator.
Fig. 1. Ideal transformer.

I. INTRODUCTION

M ANY classic textbooks contain a section on autotrans-

formers [1]–[6]. Autotransformers are important equip-
ment, because they are used as voltage regulators [5], as variable
ac voltage sources [5] (where a fixed input voltage can be
transformed into a variable output voltage), and as a connection
between two transmission systems with different nominal volt-
ages (e.g., 345/500 kV [2]), among other applications. However,
the approach to the subject is rather simple in most texts. This
paper proposes a new approach to introducing the equipment,
providing the student with more practical information.
The basic principle of the autotransformer is presented. Then,
a discussion based on its practical utilization is presented with Fig. 2. Ideal autotransformer.
comments on its performance. Finally, some laboratory exper-
iments are proposed to verify and complement the theoretical The transformer windings can also be connected to each other
material. to form an autotransformer, as shown in Fig. 2. The connection
between the primary (voltage source side) and the secondary
II. THE PROPOSED LECTURE (load side) windings is additive; that is, the winding voltages
A. Introduction—Basic Principles of Autotransformers add up. The windings can be connected in a subtractive way; that
is, the voltages oppose each other. The voltages and currents in
A load is fed by a voltage source through an ideal transformer,
both windings are the same as in the transformer of Fig. 1. The
as shown in Fig. 1.
apparent power at the primary winding is given by
The following relationships hold:

and
Since , the input power of the autotransformer is
greater than that of the transformer. The same windings are
and are the magnitudes of voltage phasors and , used for both the transformer and the autotransformer. The
respectively; and are the magnitudes of current phasors apparent power at the secondary winding is
and , respectively; and are the number of turns of
the windings; is the transformer ratio; and is the trans-
former’s nominal apparent power. which is equal to in an ideal autotransformer. is trans-
ferred from the primary to the secondary winding through the
Manuscript received June 25, 2002; revised October 22, 2002. mutual magnetic flux, and is directly transferred from
The authors are with the Power Systems Department, School of Electrical and the voltage source to the load via the electrical connection be-
Computer Engineering, UNICAMP, 13081-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
(e-mail: ccastro@ieee.org; murari@dsee.fee.unicamp.br). tween the windings. The first is usually referenced as trans-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2003.814592 formed power, while the latter is referenced as conducted power.
0018-9359/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
374
Fig. 3. Load fed by voltage source through (a) a transformer or (b) an
autotransformer.
The voltages and currents at the windings of the autotrans-
former are the same as those of the transformer, as are the core
and copper losses. Since more power can be delivered to the
load through the same equipment, the efficiency of the auto-
transformer is greater than that of the transformer.
For a voltage at the primary winding of an autotrans-
former, the resulting voltage at the secondary winding will be
. The loads of Figs. 1 and 2 are identical. To supply
the nominal voltage to the loads connected to the secondary,
a lower voltage must be applied to the primary winding of
the autotransformer. In this case, the magnetic flux in the core
and, consequently, the core losses will be less than that of the
transformer.
B. Observations on Practical Applications of Autotransformers
The analysis made in Section II-A, though theoretically
sound, may be misleading as far as practical applications of
autotransformers are concerned. The idea that a conventional
transformer can be connected as an autotranformer and an
efficiency gain is obtained is not always applicable in practice.
Some situations that power engineers face in their everyday
practice will be discussed in this section.
Problem: A 110-V load must be fed by a fixed 220-V
source. This situation is typical in industrial environments.
Situation 1: A 220/110-V transformer is available.
Discussion: In this case, the load can be connected to the
voltage source through the transformer or through the autotrans-
former, as shown in Fig. 3.
The first issue to be addressed is whether the load must
be electrically isolated from the voltage source. If isolation
is the case, only Fig. 3(a) applies. Otherwise, the connection
according to Fig. 3(b) can also be used. However, in this par-
ticular case, there is no efficiency gain if the autotransformer
is chosen, since a subtractive connection must be used. The
apparent power at the primary winding is
which is equal to the apparent power of the transformer. Not
only the efficiency but also the voltage regulation are the same
as that of the transformer. The connection of the windings as
an autotransformer in this particular case does not result in any
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 46, NO. 3, AUGUST 2003
Fig. 4. Load fed by voltage source through an autotransformer.
advantages as far as the system efficiency is concerned. Finally,
for other ratios between load and source voltages, the connec-
tion as an autotransformer may not be possible at all.
Situation 2: The most appropriate transformer or autotrans-
former must be specified and purchased.
Discussion: Again, the first issue to be addressed is
whether the load must be electrically isolated from the voltage
source. If isolation is the case, only Fig. 3(a) applies. Otherwise,
an autotransformer can be used, resulting in efficiency gain.
The autotransformer shown in Fig. 4(a) corresponds to taking
only the primary winding (220 V) of the transformer of Fig. 3(a).
The secondary winding (110 V) is not necessary and is an ad-
vantage, since this autotransformer requires less material than
the one of Fig. 3. The voltage applied to the load comes from
a tap positioned at the middle of the primary winding. Obvi-
ously, the autotransformer’s nominal apparent power is equal to
.
The autotransformer of Fig. 4(a) can be seen as shown in
Fig. 4(b), that is, two identical windings connected in an additive
way. The apparent power in the windings are
and
Since and , one obtains
The apparent power in the windings will determine their
design characteristics. Savings in material (conductors and
core) will result in less expensive equipment. Besides, an
autotransformer used as shown in situation 2 is smaller, lighter,
and cheaper than a transformer of the same rating [1].
C. Evaluation of the Proposed Approach
In conclusion of the previous discussion, a better way to
justify the utilization of an autotransformer, as opposed to a
transformer, is that, for a certain load and a certain voltage
source, the autotransformer is smaller, lighter, more efficient,
and less expensive than a transformer of the same rating. This
justification is the main contribution of this paper, since most
textbooks show numerical examples in which a transformer is
turned into an autotransformer and either the voltage source or
the load have its nominal voltages changed, an unreal situation
from a practical standpoint. The student needs a clear view of
the advantages of using the autotransformer for a given practical
CASTRO AND MURARI: A LECTURE ON AUTOTRANSFORMERS FOR POWER ENGINEERING STUDENTS 375

condition. The approach proposed in this paper is somewhat

similar to the one in [7]. However, this paper differs from
[7] in that it provides a more detailed student-driven analysis
of the problem, including laboratory experiments oriented to
validate the discussions. In addition, an important application
of autotransformers in the power system area is described.

III. LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS

In this section, a number of laboratory experiments are pro-
posed in order to validate most of the discussions carried out in Fig. 5. Transformer used in the experiments.
this paper. These experiments include the calculation of equiv-
alent circuits and performance assessment of transformers and
autotransformers.

A. Equipment
The equipment used in the experiments was
• a variable voltage source (variac) to provide a fixed 220-V
output voltage;
• a variable 110-V resistive load;
• a 1-kVA transformer with four 110-V coils in each side,
as shown in Fig. 5, which can be conveniently connected
depending on the primary and secondary voltages;
• voltmeters, ammeters, and wattmeters.

B. Connections
Four different transformer connections were used to feed the
110-V load from the 220-V voltage source. Fig. 6 shows these
connections, called models hereafter.
Model 1 corresponds to the conventional transformer. Model Fig. 6. (a) Transformer. (b) Subtractive autotransformer. (c) Additive
2 is the subtractive autotransformer. Models 3 and 4 correspond autotransformer using one leg of the core. (d) Additive autotransformer using
to additive transformers. In model 3, only one leg of the trans- two legs of the core.
former’s core, along with its respective coils, are used. In model
4, both legs and all coils are used.

C. Equivalent Circuits
The equivalent circuit of both the transformer and the auto-
transformer is shown in Fig. 7 [4]. Shunt parameters and
represent, respectively, the core losses and magnetization
and are determined by the open-circuit test. Series parameters
and represent, respectively, the copper losses and flux
leakage and are determined by the short-circuit test. Both open-
circuit and short-circuit tests were performed for all models
shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 8 shows the shunt parameters obtained for the four
models. The parameters are basically the same for all models.
Smaller shunt parameters and, therefore, smaller excitation
currents can be obtained in case an autotransformer is designed
specifically for this application, since a smaller core can be
used.
Fig. 9 shows the series parameters obtained for the four
models. In this case, large variations can be observed both
in resistance and reactance. The additive autotransformers
(models 3 and 4) have smaller parameters. In particular, the
leakage reactance of model 3 is very small, since the windings
are on the same leg of the core and low flux leakage occurs.
Additional protection measures must be taken in the case of
Fig. 7. Equivalent circuit of a transformer.
autotransformers, since their low series parameters result in
higher currents during short-circuit situations.
D. Performance Evaluation
A performance evaluation for the models analyzed their ef-
ficiencies and voltage regulation, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11,
respectively.
The figures show that the additive autotransformers are more
efficient and provide better voltage regulation than the trans-
former and the subtractive autotransformer, as expected.
E. Validation of the Equivalent Circuits
The equivalent circuit parameters were validated by using
them to compute the load voltage as a function of the load cur-
rent. Fig. 12 shows the comparison between computed and mea-
376
Fig. 8. Shunt parameters for the four models.
Fig. 9. Series parameters for the four models.
sured curves for models 1 and 3. The computed values closely
follow the measured values for both models.
IV. VOLTAGE REGULATORS—AN IMPORTANT APPLICATION OF
AUTOTRANSFORMERS VOLTAGE REGULATORS
One of the most important applications of autotransformers
is as voltage regulators. This equipment is used to control the
voltage magnitude at predetermined points of an electrical
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 46, NO. 3, AUGUST 2003
system as special load buses or substation buses. A voltage
regulator is an autotransformer with a transformer ratio close to
one. Several tap positions in the winding allow the transformer
ratio to vary around one, for instance, 10% in steps of 1%.
The main characteristic of the voltage regulator is that its
copper losses increase as the transformer ratio moves away
from unity. Consider the voltage regulator shown in Fig. 13.
This voltage regulator has three tap positions (0, 1, and 1).
Position 0 corresponds to the nominal position, for which the
transformer ratio is equal to one. The regulator shown in Fig. 13
CASTRO AND MURARI: A LECTURE ON AUTOTRANSFORMERS FOR POWER ENGINEERING STUDENTS 377

Fig. 10. Efficiency versus load current curves.

Fig. 11. Load voltage versus load current curves.

is set as a step-down voltage regulator, since the tap position is term of the right-hand side of (1) corresponds to the losses at
such that . The transformer ratio is the upper part of the winding. Similarly, the second term corre-
sponds to the losses at the lower part. Considering that
and , after some manipulation, one obtains

Considering that the winding has a resistance equal to , the (2)

copper losses are given by
According to (2), there are no copper losses when the tap is
(1) at the nominal position . In this case, the excitation
current flows through the winding, and copper losses do exist.
and are, respectively, the magnitudes of the currents However, for most practical high-voltage/high-power voltage
through the upper and lower parts of the winding. The first regulators, the excitation current is usually neglected, since it
378
Fig. 12. Validation of the equivalent circuits.
Fig. 13. Voltage regulator.
is much smaller than the load current. As long as the tap po-
sition is drifted away from the nominal position, the copper
losses increase. The same conclusion holds for step-up voltage
regulators.
V. CONCLUSION
A new approach to teaching the principles of autotrans-
formers and their main applications in power engineering was
presented in this paper. The approach will provide the students
with more comprehensive information about the equipment. In
addition, a strong connection between the theoretical aspects
and the engineer’s every day practice is emphasized. A number
View publication stats
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 46, NO. 3, AUGUST 2003
of laboratory experiments were proposed as a complement to
the theoretical information.
REFERENCES
[1] A. R. Bergen and V. Vittal, Power Systems Analysis, 2nd
ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000.
[2] J. J. Grainger and W. D. Stevenson, Power System Analysis. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1994.
[3] J. D. Glover and M. Sarma, Power System Analysis and De-
sign. Boston, MA: PWS-Kent, 1989.
[4] A. E. Fitzgerald, C. Kingsley, and S. D. Umans, Electric Machinery, 5th
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990.
[5] D. Zorbas, Electric Machines. St. Paul, MN: West, 1989.
[6] P. C. Sen, Principles of Electric Machines and Power Electronics, 2nd
ed. New York: Wiley, 1997.
[7] Westinghouse Electric Co., Electrical Transmission and Distribution
Reference Book, 4th ed. East Pittsburgh, PA: Westinghouse Electric
Co., 1964.
Carlos A. Castro (S’90–M’94–SM’00) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
from UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1982 and 1985, respectively, and the
Ph.D. degree from Arizona State University, Tempe, in 1993.
He has been with UNICAMP since 1983, where he is currently an Associate
Professor.
Carlos A. F. Murari (M’90) received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from
UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1975, 1980, and 1986, respectively.
He has been with UNICAMP since 1976, where he is currently an Associate
Professor.