Abnormal operation behavior analysis and countermeasures on the differential protection of converter transformer

Intriguing mal-operations and fail-to-trip of the differential protection of the converter transformer in the HVDC system are reported. In this paper, the mechanism of these abnormal operation behaviors is analyzed. By virtue of deliberately designed models of the converter transformer and the HVDC transmission system, a variety of simulation tests are carried out and above mentioned strange operation behaviors can be recurred. Then, the conditions of the operating states and faults resulting in this sort of abnormal operations can be determined. The reasons rest with the deep saturation of core due to energization and the high second harmonic within the differential currents due to faults. To solve above problems, the characteristics of voltage and differential current of the converter transformer are studied. It is disclosed that the time difference between the sudden change of the phase voltage and the emergence of differential current exists due to switching-on of the converter transformer. However, this time difference does not exist for any cases due to internal faults. Based on this finding, a novel criterion is therefore proposed. And it is verified with extensive RTDS based simulation test results.