A New Adaptive Differential Protection Scheme for Tap Changing Power Transformer

This paper presents a new adaptive differential protection scheme which efficiently adapts the change in tap position of a power transformer. The proposed scheme is based on analytical derivation of pick-up and slope of the differential relay characteristic. By acquiring information such as rating & connection of CTs and present tap position as input, the proposed scheme enhances sensitivity of differential relay during internal faults. This is accomplished either by decreasing pick-up and/or adjusting slope of the differential characteristic of the relay in case of change in tap position. Numerous test cases consisting of various types of internal and external faults have been simulated for an existing power transformer of Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited (GETCO), Gujarat, India using PSCAD/EMTDC software package. The proposed scheme increases percentage of winding to be protected during internal faults for power transformers having different ratings and connections compared to the conventional differential protection scheme. Furthermore, it has been observed that the detection sensitivity during special types of turn-to-turn and inter-winding faults with varying fault resistances is also enhanced compared to the conventional scheme. Moreover, it equally maintains stability during CT saturation condition. At the end, comparative evaluation of the proposed scheme with the existing schemes clearly indicates superiority of the proposed adaptive scheme.