Combined wavelet transform and regression

technique for secondary current compensation of

current transformers
F. Li, Y. Li and R.K. Aggarwal

Abstract: A technique is proposed to effectively and efficiently compenyate for secondary current
of current transformers. particularly in the presence of remanent flux. The technique first utilises
the wavelet transforni to accurately distinguish the distorted section from the healthy section of a
secondary current wavefonn. Secondly the technique uses the I-egression method to recover the
distorted section making use of features extracted from the healthy section. essentially to restore the
secondary current to a scaled down replica of the primary system current. The proposed technique
is demonstrated on a samplu power system, achieving an average compensation error of I.5%
under varying degrees of saturation caused by different levels of reinanent flux.

1 Introduction which arises by virtue of the fact that when a circuit breaker
interrupts a fault. remanent flux gets trapped in the CT
Protective relays play an increasingly important role in cver- core. which could last almost indefinitely under load
stressed electric power systems. For relays providing conditions. If the impedance of the CT load has a phase
inaxinium protections in undesirable conditions such angle of 60" lag, the remanent flux would reach about 50%
as faults, an accurate knowledge of current signals is of the peak flux value. When a second fault of the same
essential. A practical way of obtaining this knowledge is polarity occurs, the transient flux rises l'rom the already
to use current transformers (CTs) to step down high trapped remanent flux. As a result, the effective excursion of
currcnts in the primary windings to lower levels in flux before saturation ensues will be much less. Hence,
secondary windings both in wavefonn shapes and inagni- saturation will take place earlier and will be much more
tude [I]. CTs are ~ioiinally used to feed information severe. Tests carried out by a CalladIan company have
into measuring instruments and protective equipment revealed that there are many conditions under which
and tils0 to isolate the equipment from the primary circuits remanent flux is left in a CT core. The tests with CTs on
to ensure the safety of equipment and personnel. Ideally. a 230 kV system have shown that 27% cases had between
the secondary current of a CT should he of the 60 and 80% of peak flux density remaining in the core when
same Waveshape as its corresponding primary current the primary circuit breaker was open [4]. Fig. 1 illustrates
with ii scaled-down magnitude for correct relay operations. the significant effect of remanence on the secondary
CTs widely used in power system consist of thi-ee currents.
main parts, namcly. a core of ferrous material, a priinary
winding and a secondary winding. The core is magnetised
by current in the primary winding. From a modelling
point of view, this magnetising efkcct is represented
by a magnetising branch in the equivalent circuit of the
CT. The current flowing through the branch is the exciting
current of the CT: this is one of the major causes of the
measurement error, thereby influennng the performance of I
a CT [ 2 4
A principal cause oFCT error is due to saturation of the
iron core, i.e. inability of the latter to support a large flux
swing emanating from a large DC offset under transient
conditions. Thc saturation effect in a CT will lead to the
secondary current to be distorted under transient condi-
tions. Very often the unwanted distortior can be accen-
tuated with thc presence of renianent flux in the CT core
-5 t
IEE. Z W
I/% P r o m d i n g . ~online no. 20020296
Dol. l @ . l i l 4 9 / i p - p ~ d : 2 i ~ i ~ 2 ~ ~ 9 ~
Publicxion d a c : 27rh May 2002. Paper 6ni recavud 13th February 2Dol aiid in
revised Corm ?Xi11 N o r e m k 2001
The authors itre with the Department of Elstrunic Eleclfical Engineering,
Uniievsiry oiBsth. Bath RAZ 7AY. VK
 The general experience with conventional static or
electromagnetic relays does not indicate that remanence is
a serious problem [2], but it can cause serious problems with'
digital relays. Distorted secondary currents can threaten
dependability and security of relays, especially current
differential relays; this influence can have a detrimental
effect on system operation. Much effort has been put into
the development of effective and efficient compensation
methods for CT saturation. Papers [S, 61 present methods of
using auxiliary electric equipment for compensation. The
equipment has shown satisfactoly compensation results
under normal Steady-state condition, hut its performance
has as yet to be validated for fault conditions. In papers
[7, 8]_an artificial neural network technique is discussed.
However, it can only partially recover distorted currents,
and does not take account of remanent flux trapped in a CT
core. Another algorithm based on solving differential
equations at discrete time steps has been reported in 191.
Here again, the effect of remanent flux is not considered.
In this paper, a technique is proposed to compensate for
distorted CT secondary currents caused by CT saturation
under transient faults, particularly in the presence of varying
degrees of remanent flux in the CT core. The proposed
technique first uses wavelet analysis to detect the onset of
distortion due to CT saturation, and a regression method is
then utilised to recover the distorted section using the
samples from the healthy section of the waveform. The test
results attained from the sample power system under a
variety of different system and fault conditions clearly
demonstrate satisfactory compensation achieved by the
proposed technique.
2 Power system configuration
The sample power system considered comprises of two
sources and a single line shown in Fig. 2 to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed compensation technique for
CT saturation. GI and G2 are equivalent sources, with Z,,
and Zsz as their equivalent impedances, respectively. The
details of the power system configuration follow.
CT
Fig. 2 Confrgurafionof the sample power s y e m
2.7 Sources
phase-ground voltage: 300 kV RMS
frequency: 60 Hz
GI positive sequence impedance: 7 +j60Q
GI zero sequence impedance: I4+jl20Q
G2 positive sequence impedance: 0.45 +j4.5 R
G2 zero sequence impedance: 0.45 +j4.5Q
2.2 Transmission Line
length 161 km
R1=0.0306Q/km. x1=0.365Q/km, C1 = 12.03nF/km
RO=0.304Q/km, XI= 1.358R/!un, CO=7.52nF/km
498
The fault current reaches its limit when a three-phase
fault occurs on the transmission line close to the CT end:
which is approximately 5kA RMS (Le. 300kV/60Q).
Although an extensive series of studies were performed to
evaluate the performance of the compensation techniques,
the results presented here restrict to single phase-ground
and three phase faults lOkm away from the CT location.
The EMTP (electromagnetic transients program) package
was used to simulate the faults with a sampling rate of 200
samples per cycle.
2.3 CT characteristics
Two models are available within the EMTP that can
represent CTs [IO]. One is the saturable transformer
component. The magnetising branch is represented intem-
ally as a nonlinear inductor, whereas 1.A characteristics can
he derived using supporting program SATURATION. The
other one is the pseudononlinear reactor component (type
96). To use this model, CT hysteresis characteristics should
he evaluated in advance. A support routine. HYSTER-
ESIS, exists within the EMTP for calculating the character-
istics. Although both models give satisfactory results for
most simulation cases [I I],the latter was employed for its
ease of inittalising remanent flux in CT core using type-96
inductor. The 4005 (a turns ratio of 80) tap was selected
from a 6005 ClO0 CT. Its hysteresis characteristic is shown
in Fig. 3.
0.4 t
saiuialion Doinl
(9.52, 0.48)
-0.2
-0.4
I
0 5 10 15
currem. A
Fig. 3 Mngneti.sution cww of selected CT fap
2.4 CTburden
Under maximum fault current, the secondary current
(neglecting the magnetising current) becomes 62.5 A
(i.e.S000/80). When selecting the 400:s tap, the ClO0 CT
can supply 100*(400/600)= 66.67 V. Therefore the max-
imum load on the CT secondary is 1.10 (= 66.7 V/62.5A).
Because of the existence of lead reactance and secondary
reactance, the reactive component of the CT load is h e d as
0.50. Hence the CT burden used is (O.S+JU.5) Q.
3 Principles of proposed compensation technique
The compensation technique presented comprises two
stages; the first involves accurately distinguishing between
the healthy part and the distortion caused by CT saturation
in the current waveform, and the second entails the
employment of a regression method to mitigate the effect
of distortion in the current waveform through compensa-
tion. In this respect, it is important to note that any
distortion in the current signals other than that caused by
CT saturation is left intact by the proposed compensation
technique, and is simply reproduced as a scaled-down
version of the input waveforms into the CT primary.
IEE Proc-Gene?, Tramri Dirtrib., Vol. 149, No. 4. July 2002
3.1 Introduction to wavelet analysis
The Fourier transform (FT) is a well-known and powerful
tool for signal spectral decomposition. However, it has a
major drawback of not being able to indicate when sudden
changes take place. A solution to this problem is the timc-
dependent Fourier transform, also known as the short-time
Fourier transform (STFT). STFT processes data in a small
section of a signal at a time. which can be looked upon as
an invisible window containing a finite number of sample
points being analysed. This window moves along the signal
as a continuous process until the whole signal is covered.
Once the window size is selected with STFT, it remains
fixed throughout the signal processing. This approach does,
however, affect the accuracy of the information if the
window size is not appropriate. The wavelet transform
(WT) overcomes the fixed-window problem by allowing
variable-sized windows to be utilised, and gives detailed
frequency as well as time-domain information, Le. precisely
when a sudden change occurred [12].
A wavelet is a waveform having limited duration with an
average value of zero. A typical Muses several versions of
a chosen mother wavelet to give different levels of frequency
details. These versions are different in their time durations
(known as scales in wavelet). Applying WT to a signal is
essentially to reveal the extent of similarities between the
selected wavelet and the windowed sections in the signal,
ultimately to expose different features of the signal, such as
abrupt changes, higher harmonics or the trend of the signal.
The following is a simplified procedure of WT implementa-
tion:
(i) Select a wavelet.
(ii) Select the section at the start of the signal (as if the
section is put in a window), and compute a coefficient
corresponding to the section.
(iii) Shift the wavelet to the right of the signal (as if the
window is moving), and repeat step (ii) until the whole
signal is covered. The combined effect of steps (ii) and (iia) is
technically expressed as ‘perform a one-level wavelet
decomposition of a signal’.
(vi) Scale (stretch) the wavelet (as if the window size is
enlarged), and repeat steps (ii) and (iii).
Repeat steps (i) to (iv) for all the desired scales, or, all the
desired levels.
The above procedure is illustrated in Fig. 4. A low scale
means a compressed wavelet and a small window size. so
Signal
wavelet
a
signal
WaYelet
I----
L
I -
I
that the resultant coefficients reveal high-frequency features.
In contrast; a high scale means a stretched wavelet and a
large window size, and therefore the coeixcients reveal low
frequency features. A coefficient obtained from steps (iii) to
(v) represents how closely correlated the wavelet is
compared with the section of the signal under study.
The most commonly used WT method is the discrete
wavelet transform (DWlJ with which the number of
decomposition levels can he easily adjusted to meet various
practical requirements. Fig. 5 is an example of a one-level
decomposition implemented by DWT, in which the source
signal is a truncated sine wave and hence its first derivative
(FD) is discontinuous, The first level approximation and the
first level detail decomposed from the source signal are also
shown in the same Figure.
detail approximation
Fig. 5 Di~corrtitiuily.shown by firs1 Iecel d a d of d x r e l e ~ r u ~ d e r
tram/onii
The source signal is aligned intentionally to the fist detail
in Fig. 5 to demonstrate that the first-level detail precisely
detects the inception and completion points of FD
discontinuity through large magnitudes of resultant coeff-
cients. T h s attribute of the DWT has had important
applications in power systems: typical examples are
monitoring voltage sags and flickers (131 and studying
faulted networks [14]. In the study present, the DWT is used
primarily for detecting FD discontinuity, that is, to dctect
the inception and completion of the distortion of a
waveform. The DB4 mother wavelet has been chosen in
this study as it best serves the purpose of distortion
detection (due to CT saturation) among other mother
wavelets available; this is owing to its ability in detecting low
amplitude. short duration, fast decaying and oscillating type
of signals, typical of those associated with CT saturation.
3.2 Detection of distorted current waveforms
using wavelet transform
A fault current flowing through the primary circuit o r a CT
installed on a transmission line can be considered as the
superimposition of a sine component and an exponential
component, given as
i(t)=Ce-”‘+cqsina,=i,,(t)+i,,(f) (1)
where i = fault current, I = time, ieXp
= exponential compo-
nent, irin= sine component, E = decaying coefficient of
exponential component, 4, =phase angle at time instant I ,
C= initial value of exponential component, and
C, = amplitude of sine component.
If the CT is not saturated, it produces a secondary
current of the same shape but with a scaled down value at
each sampling point, and the FD of the current signal
should be continuous. The first-level detail obtained from
4Y9
 DWT decomposition of the secondary current should he
similar to the waveform shown in Fig. 6u.
secondary
current
a b
Fig. 6 Di.storrurl purl of second[iry current retided byJir.si l e d
detail
(I Secondary current not distorted
h Secondary current distorted
If the CT is Saturated, the secondaly current will he
distorted. The first-level detail from its DWT will be
discontinuous, as shown in Fig. 6h. The short bursts that
contain large coefficients of the first level detail, explicitly
mark the start and end of the current distortion, hence
clearly distinguishing the distorted section from the healthy
section of the current waveform.
3.3 Regression technique
Once the distorted scction is separated from the healthy
section of a waveform it is possible to use a regression
technique to compensate the distorted section with features
extracted from the healthy section. Regression is a
technique to determine an approximate function by
performing a k d s l mean square fit to given data [IS]. In
this study the technique is used to find approximate
secondary current waveform functions by fitting the sample
points extracted from the healthy section.
3.3.7 Approximating the exponential compo-
nent: The exponential component e-" in (I)can be
approximated by a Taylor polynomial. given by:
It has been ascertained through extensive studies that
the third-order Taylor polynomial gives a satisfactory
accuracy, and any higher-order terms are of secondary
importance. Multiplying (2) with C yields
= C" + C,f+ C2f2+ c3ri (3)
where C, = C _C, = --St[, C2= Ca2/2,C3= -Ca3/6, C,,
C I - C? and C3 are unknown coefficients that need to
be determined by the regression method. In a digital
relay, data is digitised into discrete values through
sampling. The variable f for time can be substituted by
the number of sampling points n. Thus (3) becomes
i e X p ( n )= C" + Cln + C2n' + C p 3 (4)
3.2.2 Approximating the sine component: The
sine component Cash$, in ( I ) can be rewritten in an
500
alternative form:
&,.(t) = C4 sin(2n.fr + 4) (5)
where /=power frequency and cb = initial phase angle of
sine component.
There are now two more unknown parameters C, and $
to be determined. For simplicity. ( 2 n f t t 4 ) is replaced by a
single variable $ p It is difficult to have one technique to find
all the six parameters. Thus an alternative method is sought
for determining &
Like (4), variable f in is,"([) is substituted hy the number
of sampling points n. Thus the sine component becomes:
isi,,(n) = C4 sin $,, (6)
where 4pl= phase angle of nth sampling point. Convention-
ally, if the phase angle or the initial point is determined as
a reference, the phase angles of the successive points can
be easily obtained. However, in real-time, it is difficult
to determine the initial phase angle of a fault current.
Therefore another sampling point has to be selected to
act as the reference. The reference is chosen as the first
tuming point (irrespective of whether it is peak or trough)
after the distortion has been deduced, which is shown in
Fig. 7. The phase angle of this point is assumed as 742;
however, it could be - 4 2 . If the turning point is a trough
value, the sign of C, and I in (6) is negative; otherwise, it is
positive. nni2 denotes its sampling number in Fig. 7.
prim. current
I.
-,.
!
d2-2n(n-n,,*)/*r d2
phase angle
Fig. 7 P h s e ungle of nth .sumpling poim
Suppose that the secondary current is sampled at a rate
of S, samples per cycle, the sampling interval phase angle is
2n/& The phase angle & at sampling point n can be
derived from (7)
(7)
3.3.3 Compensating distorted section with
regression method: The superimposing of the coinpo-
nents discussed in both Sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 aves a
formula of the form:
i ( n ) = C" + ~ l +nCp' + in' + C, sin 4n (8)
This formula approximately represents a current waveform
containing both healthy and distorted sections. In (X), 4nis
computed via (71, n is the sampling number, and C, C,, C2,
Ci and C, are unknown coefficients.
Ir;E P m c - G ~ w r 7
. i w " Disfrih.. Vul. 149, N o 4, July ?WZ
 Using the sampled points in the healthy section (the
number of points depends on the chosen sampling rate .....
within the digital relay), Co, C,, C, C, and C4can be solved
by the regression method performing the least mean square 3
fitting, thereby compensating for the distorted secondary
current. 2 0

4 Results and discussion

-5
Up to 20 cases comprising of single-phase to ground and
three-phase faults were simulated in this study. The 60
inception angles ranged from 0 to 180", and remanent flux i
from -75 to 80% of the flux at the saturation Doint .i :.
(hereafter symbol $,, denotes the CT core flux ai the 40
;e
saturation point). Detailed information of the simulated i

faults is listed in Table I.Although the study only considers :20

0
single-phase-to-ground and three-phase faults, the technique
is generic enough to apply to other types of faults, such as
0
phase-phase. 20 40 60
time, ms
Table 1: Initial conditions of simulated faults
Fig. 9
Fault type Inception Remanent flux in CT core
angle deg

Phaseground 0 VS %b,
-0.366 -75
45 -0.144 -30
9 5
0 0
Three-phase 90 0.096 20 L

2 0
180 0.29 60
0.38 80
-5
b,: CT core sattiration flux

Figs. 8-12 demonstrate some typical compensation

results using the proposed technique for five three-phase-
loo I after compensated

fault cascs. All cases have the different levels of remanent

flux in the core. The fault currents comprising the maximum
DC offset with such an inception angle will lead to the
severest distortion of the secondary currents under certain

5
9
conditions. However, the Figures clearly show that the
DWT accurately detects the distorted sections of
the original secondary current waveforms, which are clearly
marked with rectangles. The Figures also show the primary,
-5 original secondary and the compensated secondary
currents.
......... beiore comp. Fig. 8 shows the compensating result in the case of a
- aflercomp. remanence of -75% $, in the CT core. The polarity of the
remanence is opposite to that of the DC offset, which
results in a slight distortion beginning at the third cycle of
the fault secondary current, as shown in Fig. 8.
The extent of the distortion becomes gradually more
severe as the remanence increases rrom a negative value to a
positive value. The case shown in Fig. 9 has zero remanence
within the CT core. The distortion of the secondary current
starts at the second cycle after the fault occurs, one cycle
earlier than the case shown in Fig. 8. In Fig. 10, the
remanent flux is 20% $,, the secondary current is also
distorted at the beginning of the second cycle, but the
501

..... Compensated sec.
9 5
$!
: o
-5
100 ......... before compensated
z more than 50%, while after the compensation,
g 50
b
0 range of 2-3.5%. They mostly appear in cases with extreme
20 40
lime. ms
Fig. 11 As Fig. 8 hut for 60%;reiiiaiienf p u . ~
-5
.........
D
20 40
lime. ms
Fig. 12 A s for Fig. 8 bur 80%;renranentpur
waveshape is deformed more severely. With the case shown
in Fig. 1 I , when the remanence increases to 60% $.v, the
distortion sets in at a much early stage, i.e. the first cycle
after the occurrence of the fault.
Fig. 12 illustrates the distortion associated with 80%
remanent flux; this is the maximum flux that is possible
from a practical CT. Under this situation the transit flux has
a very short effective excursion before saturation ensues. It
is apparent from the Figure that the distortion of the
secondary current is the severest, and sets in only a few
milliseconds after the occurrence of a fault.
The cases presented cover a wide range of fault
conditions, including the extreme one which is relatively
uncommon. Despite the wide variety, all distorted sections
of the secondary currents are satisfactorily detected and
compensated for by the proposed technique.
The simulations throughout this study were carried out
on a 800MHz Celeron PC with the MATLAB 5.2
platform. A typical processing time to process a complete
502
cycle of secondary current waveform, including transform-
ing the waveform using db4, detecting the distorted section
from healthy section, and then compensating the waveform
with the regression technique, was 10ms. In a more
practical hardware platform, the processing speed is
dependant on the speed of the embedded microprocessor
and sampling rate, and the entire signal processing speed is
likely to be reduced even further with a high speed
processor and appropriate sampling rate.
The overall distribution of the errors of the simulated
. 20 cases is shown via histograms in Fig. 13. It can he
clearly seen that before the compensation the maximum
error reaches as high as 80%. and the average error is
the maximum error is 3.5%, and the average is within
2%. Among all the sampling points after compensation,
there are only 10% of the points whose error falls in the
60 severe conditions.
2000
I
0 50 0 2 4
before aner
i :,
: .
: i
error I" %
Fig. 13 Seconrirrry current error before ond ufrer mmpensution
60
5 Conclusions
A new technique to accurately compensate for CT
secondary current distortion due to core saturation,
particularly in the presence of remanent flux when the
distortion is most severe has been demonstrated. The
technique first utilises the wavelet transform to accurately
distinguish the distorted section from the healthy section of
a current waveform; secondly, the technique uses regression
to recover the distorted section caused by saturation
essentially to restore it to the requisite scaled down replica
of the primary system current.
The effectiveness of the proposed technique has been
tested on 20 fault cases on a sample system. These faults
represent a wide spectrum of conditions: the inception angle
range from 0 to 180°, and the remanent flux in the CT core
from -75 to 80% of the flux at the saturation point. Despite
the wide variations. the technique is able to recover the
distorted secondary current from an average error of 50%
and a maximum error of 80% before compensation, to 2
and 3.5%, respectively, after the compensation. thereby
I€€ Proc.-Gmcr. Trrmrm. Di.wr6. Vo!. 149, No. 4. July 2G92
 ~

clearly demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness of 7 LUKOWICZ, M., m d ROSOLOWSKL E.: 'Artificial neural
the proposed technique. network based dynamic compensation of current transformer error'.
Proceedings of the 8th intcmational symposium on sharisircuit
currents in pou'er systems, B N S ~ S Belgium,
. October 1998. pp. 19-
Acknowledgment 24
8 PIHLER, 1.. GRCAR, B., and DOLINAR. D:. 'Improved operation
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financial support of this work. 9 KANG, Y.C., PARK, J.K., K A N F . S.H.. JONES. A.T.. and
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