For measurement of large currents and high voltages in AC circuits, specially constructed

accurate ratio transformers are used in conjunction with low range AC instruments. These
specially constructed transformers are known as instrument transformers and are of two types:

 Potential Transformers (PTs)

 Current Transformers (CTs)

These instrument transformers are also used in power system in conjunction with protective
relays. For safety purposes, the secondaries of these transformers are grounded.

current Transformer Construction & Working

urrent transformers are used in AC power circuits to feed the current coils of indicting and
metering instruments (ammeters, watt-meters, energy-meters) and protective relays. These
transformers make the ordinary low current instruments suitable for measurement of high current
and isolate them from high voltage.

The current transformer basically consists of an iron core on which a primary and one or two
secondary windings are wound. The primary winding has one or two turns of thick wire and is
connected in series with the load. It carries the actual power system current. Primary current
ratings vary from 10 A to 3000 A or more.

The secondary winding has a large number of turns of fine wire. It is connected across current
coils of indicting and metering instruments and protective relays. The secondary current ratings
are of the order of 5 A, 1 A, and 0.1 A. The latter is used for static relays. If for any reason the
instrument connected to the secondary of CT is to be removed then the secondary of CT
must be short-circuited by a fairly thick wire.

The ratio of primary current to the secondary current is known as transformation ratio of the
CT. The transformation ratio of a CT is usually high.

The product of voltage and current on the secondary side when it is supplying its maximum rated
value of current is known as the rated burden and is measured in volt-amperes (VA). The volt-
ampere rating of CTs is low (5 – 150 VA) as compared to that of power transformers.

Also current in the secondary of CTs is governed by the current in the primary winding i.e.
power circuit current. But in the case of power transformers, it is governed by load impedance.
Potential Transformers Construction & Working

Potential transformers are used in AC power circuits to feed the potential coils of indicting and
metering instruments (voltmeters, watt-meters, energy-meters) and protective relays. These
transformers make the ordinary low voltage instruments suitable for measurement of high
voltage and isolate them from high voltage.

The PTs are highly accurate ratio step down transformers. Its primary winding has a large
number of turns and is always connected across the supply system. Its secondary winding has
few number of turns and is connected to the potential coil of indicting and metering instruments
and protective relays. The primaries of PT are rated from 400 V to several thousand volts and
secondaries always for 110 V.

The ratio of the rated primary voltage to the rated secondary voltage is known as turn
or transformation ratio of PT.

The burden is the total external volt-ampere load on the secondary at rated secondary voltage.

The rated burden of a PT is the VA burden which must not exceed if the transformer is to operate
with its rated accuracy.

The maximum burden is the greatest VA load at which the PT will operate continuously without
overheating its winding beyond the permissible limits.

Let the voltage to be measured of a power system is 11 kV. It is impossible to measure such a
high voltage directly by a voltmeter. Therefore, a PT having secondary to primary turn ratio
1:100 is used in conjunction with a voltmeter which steps down the voltage from 11 kV to 110 V
as shown in the figure.
For measurement of power in a high voltage power system, both CT and PT are used. The CT is
used to step down the system current and the PT is used to step down the system voltage up to
the required value. The potential coil (PC) of the wattmeter is connected across the secondary of
PT and the current coil (CC) of the wattmeter is connected across the secondary of CT as shown
in the figure.
Current Transformers (CT):

1. The Primary winding of a C.T have smaller number of turns than secondary.
2. The secondary of a C.T can not be open circuited on any circumstance when it is under
service.
3. A CT may be considered as a series transformer.
4. The primary current in a C.T is independent of the secondary circuit conditions
(burden/load).
5. The primary winding of the CT is connected in series with the line carrying the current
to be measured. Hence it carries of the full line current.
6. With the help of CT, a 5A ammeter can be used measure a high current like 200A.
Potential/Voltage Transformers (PT/VT):

1. The Primary winding of a P.T have larger number of turns than secondary.
2. The secondary of a P.T can be open circuited without any damage being caused either
to the operator or the transformer.
3. P.T may be considered as a parallel transformer.
4. The primary current of a P.T depends upon the secondary circuit conditions
(burden/load).
5. The primary winding P.T is connected across the line of voltage to be measured. Hence
the full line voltage is impressed across its terminal.
6. With the help of P.T, a 120V voltmeter can be used to measure very high voltages like
11KV.
Symbolic difference:

Wiring Connection difference: