be 220 Degrees C.

Ventilated Dry type

transformers have a UL recognized
HARMONICS; HOW THEY AFFECT THE insulation system that is rated 220
DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN OF "K" FACTOR Increased harmonics will increase the eddy
TRANSFORMERS current loss of the windings and this will
by JEROME M. FRANK P.E. IEEE FELLOW appreciably decrease the life expectancy of
OLSUN ELECTRICS CORPORATION the transformer. As pointed out in one of the
papers in the Bibliography, the Arhenius
The design and development of solid state Rule of Thumb reduces the life in half for
switching devices has made a very important every 8 to 10 Degrees C that the temperature
contribution to our ability to handle and is increased.
process data as well as our ability to more That is one of the main reasons that
efficiently control electrical equipment. New lower temperature rises of 115C and 80C were
items must now be taken into consideration suggested in the Energy Consideration paper
in the design, development and application in the Bibliography. Overloading as well as
of electrical equipment. Harmonics are factors that must be taken
When 60 hertz current flows through i n t o consideration in a transformer
a conductor, it is relatively uniformly a p p l i c a t i o n .
distributed thruout the cross section of the Changes in design have greatly
conductor and its heating effect on the increased the harmonic content of present
conductor can be readily calculated. day loads. In fact, there are very few loads
A s the frequency increases, "skin today that do not produce harmonics.
effect" causes the current to flow towards the The computer manufacturers
outer edges of the conductor and the current formerly built what was known as a "Linear
distribution in the conductor is no longer Power Supply." This device had a heavy 60
uniform. T o reduce this heating effect, Hertz input transformer, and was large and
smaller insulated conductors in parallel were expensive t o manufacture. T h e various
used rather than one larger conductor to computer manufacturers
provide as much surface skin as possible device to eliminate the 60
resulting in a lower resistance to the higher Transformer, made it lighter and
frequency currents as the higher frequency less expensive and added a high frequency
currents tended t o flow towards the skin output transformer. This, they called a
rather than to the center of the conductor. Mode Switching Power Supply. The ~ i a l y and
This principle was known and used in the very important disadvantage was that t
design of 400 hertz conductors in airport harmonics produced by the rapid mo
lighting design. These 400 hertz cables s w i t c h i n g power supply were ver
consisted of multiple insulated conductors appreciably increased , pr
rather than one larger conductor. harmonic, which has c a m
A transformer has a core loss which is transformer and neutral problems. ~ ~ ~ ~ r t
on 24 hours of the day as long as the a r e now under way by computer
transformer is energized. It has a conductor manufacturers to reduce this harmonic
loss at 60 hertz that varies with t h e content in t h e future generations of
transformer loading. In addition, it has eddy computers but a large number of computers
losses in the conductor as well as stray losses have been built in the meantime with these
that are caused by the flux linking the frame higher harmonic currents.
parts. These losses and the cooling ducts in The new generation of Solid State
the windings determine the temperature Ballasts for lighting applications have been
rise of the transformer windings. If the described as being greatly improved with
transformer is designed for a temperature appreciable increase in efficiency.
rise of 150 Degrees Centigrade by resistance , slight drawback, an increase in harmonic
with a 40 Degree C ambient and a 30 Degree C content. The almost negligible arm^^^^
differential between the average rise by content of incandescent lighting has been
resistance of the winding and its hot spot, largely supplanted by the improvement in
the ultimate temperature of the winding will the better and more economical lighting of

0-7803-5148-6-5196 $4.00 0 9996 IEEE 204

arc also des
They give a procedure for derating a
~ ~ exposed ~ to non-linear ~ ~
loads.
However. when you derate for use with a
you are violating the old
os& listing and in doing so,
y s a also violate the National Electric Code,
which ~ e q - e a i ~Ui s listed devices to be used
withdin their l:sting.
Mlben transformers are derated, the
namep'aale 1s usualEy not changed and the
ncxi pcrson coming along does not know that
the t r a n s f o r m e r was derated due to
e is likely to consider that the
is lightly loaded and will
increase the load up towards the KVA on the
n ameplare. 'The derated transformer still has
c o r e loss of t h e original
VA rating and it is a core loss,
necessary, for the reduced
e core loss is on continuously, it
ecessary expense. .
Another important fact is that a
properly designed K rated transformer is
wed at a lower flux density than a non K
transfDrmer, due to the fact that the
~ ~ in the ~ secondary
r winding ~
~ interleaving
causes a 3rd harmonic current to circulate in
Ita winding, increasing the
the core. Unless additional
d to the core, the core loss
e to the third harmonic flux
he delta primary winding. .
As a consequence, there is the possibility
er line voltage which occurs at
drive the core into saturation, a
esirable effect. T h e additional
col-e material in a K rated transformer will
make the transformer quieter. A good grade
6, is also desirable.
transformer has an
that is grounded between
secondary windings that
barrier between 480 and
ion, the shield gives some
c~mrnon and transverse mode noise
attenuation, although there are no
IEEE standards to my knowledge, for
ring the degree of high frequency
~",ojse attenuation.
second problem with C57-110, and
e for revision, is the example on
which should include a third
2s i t is one of the naost frequently
encountered and most troublesome. of the
h a r m o~n i c s . ~ r ~ e
A transformer has a c o r e loss
(consisting of an eddy current and hysterisis
loss in the iron) , an 1 squared R loss in the
windings and an eddy current and stray loss
in the winding conductors. A DC current
flows uniformly through the entire cross
section of a conductor. As the f r e ~ u ~ n c y
increases, due to skin effect, the eddy
current component increases and it is very
difficult to separate the eddy from the stray
in the conductor. The M factor of the load,
determined from the C57.110 calculation,
multiplies the eddy current loss of the
windings. When it is used to multiply the
combined eddy and stray loss, since they are
difficult to separate, you have increase
factor of safety of the application.
Eddy current losses in transformers
can be reduced by using multiple insulated
conductors rather than a single larger
conductor. Strip windings often are used.
The purpose is to get as much skin as
possible. Qther techniques include
~ nwindings ~ and
~ transposing
conductors.
The windings of all transformers have
resistances, inductances and capacitances.
While the voltage received from the utility
has less than 1% voltage distortion, the
output voltage of the transformer becomes
increasingly distorted especially as non-
linear currents flow through the windings
to the load. The greater the impedance, the
greater t h e voltage distortion. Voltage
distortion, measured with a non-linear load
bank, was found to be appreciably dependent
on the t r a n s f o r m e r design and the
transformer impedance.
T h e transformer impedances, thru
which all currents f l o w , will cause
secondary voltage distortion. This is
especially true, if the currents are non-
sinusoidal.
A s mentioned earlier, a distorted
voltage to an induction motor will cause non-
linear currents to flow in the motor
windings , adding to the motor's heating .
otors fed by a balanced sinusoidal voltage
drawn a reasonably sinusoidal current.
It is desirable to keep the impedance
of the transformer, in my opinion, as low as
possible, but still large enough that the
primary protection will take the unit off the
line in the event of a fault. Coordination
must be maintained with the protection
devices. The lower the impedance, the
higher the short circuit current and vice
versa. It is good practice to specify the
minimum impedance the application can
stand.
Since on a new design, the load profile
may not be known, it is my recommendation
that K-13, UL1561 listed transformers be
used on Low Voltage transformer
applications and K-4 on UL 1562 listed
Medium Voltage Units. If on Low Voltage
Transformers, the cost of down time is very
high or dependability very important, than
K-30 would be my recommendation for low
voltage and K-13 f o r medium voltage
transformers.
Medium Voltage Transformers have a
greater load diversity and that is the reason
for the K-4 recommendation.
In addition to Harmonics there are
several other factors to be taken into
consideration on Medium Voltage
Transformers.
It used to be that only lightning was
the primary cause of transformer failures.
Today, there are devices that replace the load
break switches previously used, and these
devices are known as vacuum switches and
even more troublesome a r e vacuum
contactors, which operate more frequently.
When a load break switch was opened
the L Di/Dt in the transformer winding was
partially dissipated in the resulting arc in
the switch.
The vacuum breaker and/or contactor
opens the circuit in a few microseconds and
the L Di/Dt does not have the opportunity to
dissipate , As a result there is a transient rise
in voltage in the transformer primary
winding that can cause a dielectric failure
unless the winding is properly designed to
withstand it.
UL1562 requires a Transient Voltage
Analysis Test to determine the maximum
voltage rise when a transient hits the
primary winding.
Dry Type Transformers have a BIL of
60 KV at 15000 volts per IEEE and ANSI
Standards. Liquid transformers have a 95 KV
Basic Impulse Rating. Since Oil and Dry type
Transformers are connected to the same
207
utility system , there is no reason why Dry
Type Transformers should not be specified to
have a 95 KV Basic Insulation Level, the same
as the Oil Filled units. They should also have,
in addition, solid state arrestors mounted at
the terminals of the transformer. If the
arrestors are more than 5 feet from the
terminals, the arrestor does very little good
as far as helping to protect the transformer's
windings from the transients caused by
lightning, your vacuum devices or your
neighbors vacuum devices. As pointed out in
one of the papers in the Bibliography,
transformer designers must also take into
consideration the rise in the primary
winding voltage for a few micro-seconds due
to the distributed reactance and capacitance
of the winding. The iimpressed voltage upon
energization can double in magnitude for a
few micro-seconds although it is usually in
the order of 30 to 35 % increase in the
primary applied voltage. On 5 KV units
specify 60 BIL the sarne as for liquid filled
units.
In summary, dry type and liquid filled
transformers can be designed to give many
years of satisfactory operation even when
exposed to the ever increasing non-linear
load environment. They can have all of the
desirable features, like copper or aluminum
windings, lower than normal full load
temperature rises and indoor or outdoor
enclosures. As more installations are
completed and harmonic measurements
taken, we will be in a better position to
specify appropriate K factor transformers
for non-linear load applications.
References
Unde rs tan d i n g Trans f IDrm e r In su 1at i on
'I
by
Jerome M. Frank, Electrical Construction and
Maintenance, April, 1970.
"Specifying Transformer Insulation" by
Jerome M. Frank, Midwest Electrical News,
July, 1970.
"Understanding Electrical Insulation Life"
by Jerome M. Frank, M a c h i n e Design
October, 1970.
 Methods to Determine K Factor" by Jerome M.
"Increasing Insulation Life 'I Frank
by Jerome M. Frank, IEEE PSE 04-346 October 1994
Electrical Consultant, March, 1971.
Underwriters Laboratory UL 1561
"Watch Out for Energy Losses in
Transformers" by Jerome M. Frank Underwriters Laboratory
Electrical Construction and Maintenance UL 1562 "Transformers, Distribution, Dry
August 1975 Type- Over 600 Volts December 1988

"Transients and Harmonics" by C.R. Luebke ANSI/IEEE C57-110 1986 Recommended

and Jerry Frank Practice for Establishing Transformer
Square D company November 1985 Capability when Supplying Non-Sinusoidal
Load Currents
"Transients and Harmonics" by Jerome M.
Frank and C.R.Luebke
IEEE CN2272-3 1986

"Transformer Listings" by Jerome M. Frank

Electrical Construction and Maintenance
January 1988

"Maximum Insulation Stresses Under

Transient Voltages in HV B a r r e l - T y p e
Winding of Distribution and Power
T r a n s f o rm e rs "
by Alexander Mazur, Isodoro Kerszenbaum
and Jerome Frank IEEE Transactions IAS
May/June 1988 IEEE Prize Paper

"S pecify ing D ry Ty p e D i st r ib u t i on

Transformers for Solid State Applications" by
I. Kerszenbaum, A. Mazur, M. Mistry
and J. Frank IEEE Prize Paper

"Nonlinear Loads and Transformers ...there is

another solution by Jerome M. Frank
Electrical Construction and Maintenance
May 1990

H a r m o nic
I' Currents an d T r an s f o rm e r
Loading" by Joseph F. McPartland, Warren
Lewis and Jerome Frank
Electrical Design and Installation NOV/DEC
1990

"New Transformer Technology" by Jerome

Frank
Winter issue NETA World 1992-1993

"The How and Why of K-Factor Transformers

by Jerry Frank
Intertec Publishing April 1993