A-312

2012 IEEE International Conference on Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis

23-27 September 2012, Bali, Indonesia

Effects of Current and Voltage Harmonics on

Distribution Transformer Losses
M. Shareghi, B.T. Phung, M.S. Naderi, and T.R. Blackburn and E. Ambikairajah
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia

Abstract The drive to improve energy efficiency and reduce

electrical loading has resulted in energy efficient lighting such
as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) replacing conventional
incandescent lamps. However, the presence of such non-linear
loads has brought about the injection of voltage and current
harmonics into electrical networks. As transformers are the
interface between the supply and the non-linear loads, the
investigation of their effects on transformer losses is of great
importance. These harmonics can cause excessive loss and
abnormal temperature rise in the transformers, thus reducing
their operational life span. This paper investigates the impact
of current and voltage harmonics of the loads on a single-phase
25kVA distribution transformer. Harmonic spectra of a range
of non-linear loads including CFL, LED tube, PC and
fluorescent lamp are obtained. A single-phase inverter is used
for harmonic generation to simulate power supply harmonics
injected into the transformer. Open circuit and short circuit
tests are conducted on the transformer under the effect of
harmonics, and the impacts on core loss are analyzed.

II.

ESTIMATION OF HAMONIC CONTENT OF THE LOAD

AND TRANSFORMER DERATING

The total harmonic distortion (THD) is expressed as the

percentage of fundamental component [1, 2]. For voltage:
f

THD

where h is the harmonic order, Vh, rms is the rms of voltage

harmonic, and V1 is the rms of fundamental voltage. The Kfactor quantifies effects of harmonic currents on transformer
loading and is a method to estimate transformer de-rating:
h max

h 1
h max

2
h

.h 2

(2)
2
h

h 1

INTRODUCTION

where I h denotes the rms of h-th harmonic current.

The use of non-linear loads such as CFLs is on the

increase due to their low power consumption. However,
voltage and current harmonics generated by such loads can
result in higher losses, exacerbated power factor and
excessive temperature rise which will eventually diminish
the useful life of transformers. Therefore, the loading
capacity of transformers has to be de-rated while supplying
non-linear loads. In order to investigate the impacts of
harmonics on transformer losses, the transformer must be
tested under harmonics. ANSI/IEEE Standards C57.110 and
519.1992 provide methods of evaluating these effects. In
these recommended practices, guidelines are given on how to
properly load power transformers supplying non-linear loads
in a way that overheating can be avoided.

III.

TRANSFORMER LOSSES IN PRESENCE OF HARMONICS

Losses in transformers include the load (copper) loss

which scales with the square of the load current, and the noload (core or iron) loss that is independent of the load, i.e.
PT

PL  PNL 

A. No Load Loss
This loss is independent of the load and caused by the
induced voltage in the core. It comprises 2 components:
hysteresis and eddy current losses [3-6].
PNL

This paper reviews the effects that non-linear loads such

as CFLs, fluorescent lamps, and IT equipment (e.g. PCs) can
have on losses of a 25kVA single-phase distribution
transformer. Also, a power supply is used to generate voltage
harmonics. Then, the transformer was subjected to short and
open circuit test with the generated harmonics. The effects
on transformer no-load losses are then discussed.

978-1-4673-1018-5/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

u 100% (1)

V1

Keywords: compact fluorescent lamp; transformer losses;

total harmonic distortion; non-linear loads; transformer derating

I.

2
h , rms

h 2

HE

k h . f .Bmn  ke . f 2 .Bm2 (4)

where ke and kh are constants of the core material, Bm is

the maximum flux density, and n >1.5, 2.5@ is material

dependent. The effect of harmonic loads on no-load loss is
often insignificant since the voltage harmonics are
dominated by the fundamental component and hence VTHD
usually does not exceed 5%.

633

IV. DERATING OF TRANSFORMER UNDER HARMONICS

Under linear loads, the total rated load losses in per unit can
be defined as:

B. Load loss
Total load losses encompass Ohmic (DC) losses and total
stray losses.
PDC  PTSL

PL

(5)

PLL  R ( pu )

PTSL includes winding eddy current losses and losses in other

structural components excluding the winding, caused by AC
magnetic field of the transformer.

where, 1 is Ohmic loss, PEC  R( pu) is the rated wining eddy

current loss and POSL  R ( pu ) is the rated other stray loss in per
unit. Under non-linear loads, the total per unit load loss can
be expressed as:

PEC  POSL (6)

PTSL
1) Ohmic Loss

PLL ( pu )

This loss will scale with square of the rms value of the
load current increased by the current harmonic components.
2
RDC u I rms

PDC

RDC is the DC resistance of the transformer winding.

This loss scales with the square of frequency:

2

h 1
h max

FHL

I h2

h max

(8)

h2

h 1

h 1

Ih

I
1

h max

h 1



STR

u POSL- R( pu)

 (14)

p LL  R ( pu )
1  ( FHL u PEC  R ( pu ) )  ( FHL  STR u POSL R ( pu ) )

(15)

TRANSFORMER SPECIFICATIONS

Power (kVA)
Freq. (Hz)
V1 (V)
V2 (V)
I1 (A)
I2 (A)
R DC 1 ()
R DC 2 ()



25
50
11000
250
2.27
100
34.23
0.01335

A. Open Circuit Test

An AC voltage source was used to inject a range of
voltages at different sinusoidal frequencies. The test was
conducted at the rated voltage and the frequency varied from
50Hz to 450Hz. The results are plotted in Fig. 1.

II h h0.8 (10)
R

I 2pu u 1  FHL u PEC- R( pu)  FHL

TABLE I.

Other stray losses which also scale with square of the

current can be expressed in the following equation:
POSL - R

h 1

V. TEST RESULTS AND EVALUATION

A 25kVA distribution transformer was used in this
experiment. Its specifications are shown in Table 1.

3) Other Stray Loss

POSL

h 1

Ih
h 1 1
h max

h 1

I max( pu )

where PEC  R is the rated eddy current loss at 50Hz, and I R

the total rms current. The K-factor can properly indicate the
increased heating as a result of the harmonic content. The
harmonic loss factor of winding eddy current loss can be
defined as follows:

I h2 .h 2

h max

Using (14), the maximum current which can be driven from

the transformer supplying non-linear loads can be figured
out, according to which the transformer can be de-rated.

2) Eddy Current Loss

h max

h max

I h2( pu )  PEC  R ( pu ) I h2( pu ) .h 2  POSL  R ( pu ) I h2( pu ) .h0.8

PLL( pu )

h 1

PEC

h max

Equation (13) can be modified to become:

h max

RDC u I h2, rms (7)

I
PEC  R h .h 2
IR

1  PEC  R ( pu )  POSL  R ( pu ) (12)

100

h max

FHL

I h2.h0.8 IIh h0.8

STR

h 1
h max

I h2

h max

h 1

h 1 1
h max

IIh

h 1

Core loss (W)

where POSL-R is the rated other stray loss at 50Hz. The

harmonic loss factor for other stray losses can be defined as:

(11)

80
60
40
20
0
0

100

200

300

400

Frequency (Hz)
Figure 1. Core loss variation with frequency

634

500

Similar ratios between voltages and frequencies are used so

that the hysteresis and eddy current losses can be separated
[6-8]. It can be noted that Bm does not change for V 1, f 1
and V 2, f 2  provided V 1 V 2
ratio is 2 then:
P1

f 1 f 2 . For example, if the

k h fBmn  ke f 2 Bm2

At V 2, f 2  : P2

Ph  Pe

A SPWM inverter is also used to inject voltage harmonics up

to 19th order at different percentages ranging from 0% to
15%. The effect on the no-load loss is shown in Fig. 5. It can
be seen that increase in voltage harmonic distortion results in
excessive losses.

(16)
2

f
f
kh Bmn  ke Bm2
2

2

Ph Pe

2 4
(17)

Core loss (W)

At V 1, f 1 :

from Fig. 4 that at a certain fixed frequency, the core loss

increases with the voltage as the flux density is directly
proportional to the excitation voltage.

where Ph and Pe are hysteresis and eddy current losses at f 1

which can be calculated by solving the simultaneous
equations (16) and (17). At 250V, the variation of hysteresis
loss with respect to frequency is shown in Fig. 2. It can be
seen that the hysteresis loss has a decreasing trend as Bmn is
inversely proportional to the frequency. If the skin effect in
the core is neglected for frequencies below 1kHz:
Ph D

1
f

100

150

200

250

Figure 4. Variation of core loss with voltage and frequency

70
No-load loss (W)

From the best fit found for Fig. 2, n was obtained to be 1.9.
Fig. 3 demonstrates that the eddy current losses rise with
frequency.
50
40
P h (W)

50

Voltage (V)

(18)

n 1

450Hz
350Hz
250Hz
150Hz

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

65
60
55
50
45
40

30

0%

5%

20

10%

15%

20%

Percentage of injected harmonics %

10

Figure 5. Variation of no-load loss with harmonics

0
0

100

200

300

400

B. Short Circuit Test

The transformer has undergone the short circuit test with
applied voltage at different frequencies. Fig. 6 (log/linear)
demonstrates the relation between the applied frequency and
the transformer total winding resistance and leakage
reactance.

500

Frequency (Hz)

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

1.E+04
Ohm ()

P e (W)

Figure 2. Hysteresis loss variation with frequency

1.E+03
1.E+02
R

1.E+01

100

200

300

400

1.E+00

500

Frequency (Hz)

150

300

450

600

750

900

1050

Frequency (Hz)
Figure 3. Eddy current loss variation with frequency
Figure 6. Variation of R and X with frequency

The transformer no-load losses for a range of voltage

between 60V to 200V and at different frequencies varying
from 150Hz to 450Hz are plotted in Fig. 4. It can be seen

If all stray loss is assumed to be winding eddy current

loss:

635

I 2 RDC  PEC

PLoad

losses can be computed for each condition. Eventually, the

maximum permissible current for each situation can be
calculated.

f
I 2 RDC  REC  R ( h ) 2 (19)
f
1

where R EC  R is equivalent resistance corresponding to eddy

current loss. Therefore, the winding AC resistance will be:
PLoad

R AC

I2

R DC

TABLE II.

f
 R EC  R ( h ) 2 (20)
f1

The best curve fit found for the winding resistance is

shown in Fig. 7. As can be seen, the eddy-current loss is
proportional to an arbitrarily power D which is close to 1
instead of power 2.

MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE CURRENT FOR DIFFERENT LOADS

Load

CFL

LED

Fluor.

Incan.

Imax
THDI

34.3%
119.24%

95.4%
11.42%

99.6%
5.47%

99.85
1.5%

Table II shows to what extent the loading capacity of the

transformer should be reduced if any of the above load units
are used to drive the rated current.
VI.

300

Ohm ()

200
150
100
50
0
200

400

600

800

1000

Frequency (Hz)
Figure 7. Curve fitting for RAC

Using curve fitting, R DC in (20) can be determined. It

was found that the error is about 1.6%.

Harmonic current (A)

C. Derating of the Transformer Under a Range of Loads

Harmonic spectra of a range of loads including CFL
(20W), Fluorescent (30W), LED tubes (20W), PC (80W)
and Incandescent lamp (40W) are obtained then the
transformer is de-rated accordingly. Fig. 8 compares the
current harmonic spectra of two CFLs and two LED tubes in
parallel.

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

0.2
CFL

0.15

[3]

LED

0.1
0.05

[4]

0
1

CONCLUSION

In this study, a 25kVA single-phase distribution

transformer has been tested using two voltage sources
providing voltage harmonics at different frequencies. The
open circuit test using the sinusoidal source demonstrated
that the core loss increases with both frequency and voltage.
However, for the frequencies below 1kHz, the effect of
increased voltage was seen to be higher. The hysteresis loss
was found to be dominated by eddy current loss when the
frequency increases above 50Hz. Injecting voltage
harmonics with diverse percentages did not have a
significant effect when the voltage THD was below 5%. As
for de-rating of the transformer, it was shown that its loading
capacity must be reduced to almost 35% when supplying
CFLs compared to that of fluorescents and linear loads such
as incandescent lamps. Generally, the increased losses
caused by the presence of harmonic loads will give rise to
the transformer operating temperature and hence diminish its
life expectancy.

250

CFL-PCFluor
46.7%
85.34%

13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49

[5]

Harmonic order
[6]
Figure 8. Harmonic spectra of CFLs and LEDs

In order to de-rate the transformer, the total stray loss of

the transformer has to be calculated. The eddy current and
other stray losses can then be separated. Using (5) and
measurements PTSL can be obtained. PEC-R can be assumed to
be 33% and POSL 67% of the total stray losses for oil-filled
transformers [3]. From the harmonic spectra of the different
loads used, the loss factors for eddy current and other stray

[7]

[8]

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