When a CT saturates its current output is zero - hence it will produce some current for the first part

of the first half cycle then suddenly drop to zero for the rest of the first half cycle, As it recovers from saturation it will again produce some corrent in the second half cycle but then again suddenly drop to zero. So what you get is a series of very short positive and negative current spi es in ! and - half cycles - definitely not a "#$z sinusoid - hence the protection %ust won&t, if at all, wor properly. Therefore protection CTs must be sized to not saturate for the ma' fault current - as Antonio describes - this is the ma' fault current - not %ust (# ' the rated current of the CT

The CT )nee point voltage is directly related to the accuracy range of the CT and the level of current it can receive before saturation. A CT&s accuracy is fairly linear and predictable *useable+ until it reaches the nee point voltage. So our protection CT&s must have a high enough nee point voltage to remain accurate in the e'pected fault levels of that circuit to enable the correct operation of protection. At the same time for a metering CT we want this to be accurate in normal operating conditions and preferably saturate during a fault to prevent any confusing bills, so these would have a much lower nee point voltage but they are very accurate in the range their designed for.

,n basic the nee point defines the range of primary current the CT will remain accurate for. The relay can only wor with what the CT can provide, so its essential to chose the correct class. ,f you have chosen the wrong CT class then obviously there could be problems

As per ,-C standards the nee point is defined as . when the minimum sinusoidal e.m.f. *r.m.s.+ at rated power fre/uency is applied to the secondary terminals of the transformer, all other terminals being open-circuited, which when increased by 0#1 causes the r.m.s. e'citing current to increase by no more than "#1. With this definition the 1error achieved at their accuracy limit factors are above the nee point voltages. 2or "3 and 0#3 transformers, the 1 errors are, 01 and 41 respectively. 5ather than designing a protection core instead of "3 or 0#3 re/uirement, lower error values can be achieved with nee point specifications re/uested by the customer. Kneepoint is only specified by class PX CTs Kneepoint and Excitation current is then specified to define the magnetising curve so that we can make sure that CTs in differential applications including !estricted Earth "ault differential all perform the same way i#e# having two CTs with the same Excitation current but on ewith a higher $KP means their slope will be different% or the same $KP but half the excitation current of the other% means that the slopes will cause a different amount of excitation current for a given voltage re&uirement% 'o if the CTs have different $kp()e ratio% they will create a

false differential current# The next thing then is that $KP and hence class PX has no concern about current accuracy# )t only worries about the same magnetisation performance# *ou can see this that class PX specifies +inding !atio% where as class P specifies current ratio and an accuracy at rated burden and current# The difference is the +inding !atio is the exact number of turns Current ratio means that there may be a different number of turns needed to compensate for the excitation current in order to achieve a specific accuracy Kneepoint does not define the range of primary current accuracy since the Excitation current is dependant on secondary system burden# i#e# even at say half rated current% if the secondary burden% including the CT winding resistance% means that applying ,hm-s .aw )x/!ct 0 !burden1 is greater than the CT $kp% then the CT will saturate% even at less than rated current#

+e must remember that saturation means the CT stops producing current output# so for the first% say% 2 to 3 milliseconds the output follows the expected sinusoid path% then drops straight to 4ero and remaisn there for the rest of that half cycle till it comes back out of saturation# )n the next half cycle something similar happens# )t is actually &uite complex but imagine the first half cycle like this when the fault starts 56777 and then the next half cycle the same but sloping down in the negative direction 86 'ome electromechanical relays such as high impedance circulating current 9er4 Price connection differential relays are specifically designed to operate when the CT does saturate like this because the fault

condition is associated with the high impedance path through the relay and will :E;$).* saturate by design# /Please make sure you have evidence from the manufacturer of electronic :i< relays being able to perform in the same way for heavily saturated waveform ### ) haven-t seen any proof myself yet1 CT saturation detectors will identify this weird saw tooth shape and stabilise the protection to usually =,T operate because it doesn-t have the full sinusoid waveform E'PEC);..* in numeric relays where they &uite often tend to >ust work off the ?@ :4 component of the waveform# 'o please make sure that the CTs are specifically designed not to saturate( in the case of non differential applications% P class CT' need to have a capability of supplying the maximum fault current into the burden at a certain accuracy i#e# for P class A@@@5? A@$; ?P2@ will provide ?B accuracy for 2@x A@@@; primary with a A@$; rated burden connected# =ote this does not specify the kneepoint point voltage although you can infer the kneepoint voltage is not less than a derived value# for PX class with diff applications% we need the CT to be able to drive maximum through fault current around the CTs path even with one CT saturated based on the formuila $kpC 2 x )fmax x /!ct 0 !l1 so a ?; 2@@5A @#?PXD@@ !@#A means it has EX;CT.* 2@@ turns on the secondary /hence inferring a nominal but not specific accuracy A@@@5? current ratio1 has a kneepoint defined at D@@$ and @#?; excitation current with a CT secondary winding resistance of @#Aohms

There are three regions were a transformer works# They are(

A# .inear region 2#Knee point region and 3#'aturation region# Knee point voltage is a point on the magneti4ing curve of a transformer# ; A@B increase in flux density/voltage1 will bring in an increase of ?@B in the 9agneti4ation /Current1# ;fter the knee point voltage the transformer enters saturation region for which there is infinite 9agneti4ation /Current1% but voltage remains at the same level# This condition is seen as open circuited on the secondary# This will surely spoil the insulation level of transformer and ultimately the transformer will burn