Seminar’10opticall technology in current

 Seminar’10optica current measurement 
measurement  

CONTENTS 
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..1  

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………3  

SATURATION IN CONVENTIONAL CURRENT TRASFORMERS…………...4

TRASFORMERS…………...4 

SATURATED AND NON-SATURATED

NON-SATURATED CT SECONDARY O/P………………...5 

MEASURING CURRENT USING OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY………………….6  

PRIMARY CURRENT COMPARISON……………………………………………..8 

CURRENT SENSOR TECHNOLOGY………………………………………………10 

WORKING OF CURRENT SENSOR………………………………………………..11 

THE FARADY EFFECT………………………………………………………………12 

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES………………………………………….14

DISADVANTAGES………………………………………….14 

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….15  

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….16  

ABSTRACT 
Optical current sensors are achieving increased acceptance and use in high voltage
substations due to their superior accuracy, bandwidth, dynamic range and inherent
isolation. Once deemed
deemed specialized
specialized devices
devices intended for novel
novel applications, optical
sensors have risen
risen to a performance
performance level exceeding conventional
conventional magnetic de
devices.
vices. A
specific area where optical current sensors outperform conventional iron core
transformers is the measurement of very high currents that occur during a fault on the
power system. Conventional
Convention al instrument transformers utilize an iron core and windings
ratio to step down the current measured in the primary to a more manageable current
level for secondary devices
devices such as meters and relays. This signal may be distorted due
to saturation of the magnetic core. In a pure optical current sensor1, no such
mechanism for saturation
saturation exists.
exists. However, optical sensors
sensors must be used and applied
applied
properly to provide distortion free signal replication well into the hundreds of kilo amp
region. This paper discusses the characteristics
characteristi cs of optical current sensors, specifically
specifical ly
for relaying applications where measurement of fault-level currents is required. 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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INTRODUCTION 
When faults on a power system occur, they must be isolated quickly to maintain the safe

operation of the system, minimize damage to equipment, and maintain stability of the
system. Therefore
Therefore,, the accurate
accurate measurement of fault current is a critical input to
protection relays which monitor the current and/or voltage signals to determine
whether the monitored portion is faulted and should be isolated, or whether conditions
are normal and should remain
remain closed to maintain
maintain the flow of power. If protection
protection relays
receive the “true” representation of current flowing on a transmission line, or into
transformers, capacitor banks, or reactor banks, they will make decisions based on the
current that is actually flowing, not based on a distorted representation of the current
which the relay may need to compensate for. An undistorted view could
could improve the

ability of the relay

relay to trip
trip when it should and
and to prevent
prevent false trips.
trips. Additionally,
analyzing the power system as a whole, optical current sensors make design and
analysis easy since no CT saturation will ever be encountere
encountered.
d. Optical sensors behave
behave
in a simple and predictable manner known for every situation. 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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SATURATION IN CONVENTIONAL CURRENT 

TRANSFORMERS 

During fault conditions a well-known phenomenon occurs: the iron core in a

transformer “saturates” due to a large magnetic field caused by high fault currents.
This saturation of the iron core prevents the transformer from accurately representing
the primary current in the current transformer secondary, and therefore distorts
current measurement.
measurement. It is not the intent of this paper to explain satu
saturation
ration or analyze
when and why it occurs. Readers not familiar with saturation should reference the
many papers, books, and standards that deal directly with this subject in detail to fully
understand the phenomena. Additionally,
Additio nally, many good reference sources discuss the
problems of CT saturation with respect to relaying, avoidance of saturation and
methods to deal with saturation.
saturation. The underlying problem surrounding
surrounding the phenomena
phenomena
is that essentially all CTs will saturate unless they are built with an excessive amount of
steel to prevent
prevent it. This method of mitigation
mitigation is impractical and must be dealt wit
withh by
knowing how, when, and why a CT will saturate, then taking appropriate measures to
prevent any false relay operations. The mechanism for CT saturation is not a simple
relationship. Saturation depends
depends on the physical design of the current
current transformer,
transformer, the
amount of steel in the “core” of the th e transformer, the connected burden, the winding
resistance, the remanence flux in the iron core, the fault level, and the system X/R ratio
(which can cause a larger DC offset to occur). Taken together, these dependencies make
the analysis of CT saturation complex. Figure 1 below shows an example of a CT with a
saturated
saturate d output against a plot of actual current.
current. Scale is not given on the y-axis since it
could apply to a variety of CTs with various currents. The plots are shown only to
illustrate a saturated CT waveform.

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SATURATED AND NON-SATURATED CT

SECONDARY OUTPUT 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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MEASURING CURRENTS USING OPTICAL 

TECHNOLOGY 
The problem of CT saturation in iron core instrument transformers can be avoided
altogether by using an optical current sensor. Optical current sensors contain no
magnetic components and do not have any saturation effects associated with them.
Optical current sensors also have no iron core to saturate. Depending
Dependin g on the design of
the sensor, these types of sensors have the ability to give a near perfect representation of
the primary current. An optical sensor uses light to measure the magnetic field
surrounding a current carrying conductor and, based on this measurement, electronics
associated with the optics
optics calculate the
the current flowing in the conductor.
conductor. If done
optimally, an optical measurement of current has the ability to measure fault currents
exceeding 400
400 kA peak. Additionally, using advanced techniques, both AC and DC
currents can be measured to this level. An optical current sensor using light to measure
the magnetic field surrounding a conductor has a transfer function with a sine wave
characteristic.
characteristi c. With normal load current flowing on the conductor, the measurement of
the magnetic field by light is maintained essentially within the linear portion of the sine
wave. Once the current
current increases substantially
substantially (for example,
example, when a fault occurs) the
the
transfer function of the light no longer traverses the linear portion of the sine wave, but
enters a non-linear portion.
portion. In this non-linear portion of the sine wave, the ele electronics
ctronics
compensate for thethe non-linearity.
non-linearity. Since this non-linear
non-linear “sine wave” characteristic is
well defined, electronics can easily adjust, in order to maintain overall linearity of the
current measurement throughout the dynamic range. Although this compensation
technique permits excellent accuracy, it has an inherent limit. As the current reaches
the “end” of the sine wave (or at an angle of plus and minus π radians) and continues to
increase, the electronics may interpret the current to be higher than its previously
measured current, or may interpret the current to be at the opposite end of the sine
wave transfer function. The sensor will show a severe jump in the measurement of the
current to
to a current of negative polarity
polarity with respect
respect to its
its previous value. This
phenomena is illustrated in Figures 2, 3 and 4 which show sensor outputs for 1 fiber
turn, 3 fiber turns, and 5 fiber turns. As more fiber turns are added to the sensor
design, the signal-to-noise ratio of the output increases, though not detectable in the
Figures. A better signal
signal to noise ratio
ratio has certain
certain distinct advantages,
advantages, especially
especially in
metering applications [1]. However,
However, as the fiber turns are increased and the fault level
l evel is
maintained at a constant level, operating range on the optical transfer function
approaches the
the limit of plus and minus π radians. If exceeded, the the sensor can record a
current “jump”, or move to the next optical “fringe” and thus appear as a different
current value. To avoid this situation, which cannot be tolerated by relays, either special
processing algorithms can be introduced to keep track of which fringe the sensor is on
or the sensor can be designed to reduce possibility
possibil ity of such an occurrence. Fortunately,
for typical fault current levels, reducing the probability of the sensor exceeding the
“fringe” is simple, since the point at which the optical sensor reaches this point is
precisely known based on the number of fiber turns used in an optical current sensor.
This would eliminate the distortions seen n Figures 2 and 3, provide an accurate current
waveform representation
representation free from saturation effects, and provide a high signal-to-noise
ratio so the signal is also optimized for metering and power quality analysis applications. To
a user of fiber based optical current sensors, the situation will never be observed unless a sensor
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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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measurement  

is driven to a value beyond its specifications. 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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measurement  

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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CURRENT SENSOR TECHNOLOGY 

A fi ber
ber optic cur r ent sensor
nsor (as shown in fi gur e) consist
consist of a l ight sour ce
ce,, photo dete
detector
ctor
and electroni
electroni c cir cuits etc.
etc. 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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WORKING OF CURRENT SENSOR  

A light source sends light through a waveguide to a linear polarizer, then to a

polarization splitter (creating two linearly polarized light waves), and finally to an
optical phase modulator. This light is then sent from the control room to the sensor
head by an optical fiber. The light passes through a quarter waveplate creating right
and left hand circularly polarized light from the two linearly polarized light waves. The
two light waves traverse the fiber sensing loop around the conductor, reflect off a
mirror at the end of the fiber loop, and return along the same path. While encircling the
conductor, the magnetic field induced by the current flowing in the conductor creates a
differential optical phase shift between the two light waves due to the Faraday effect.
The two optical waves travel back through the optical circuit and are finally routed to
the optical detector where the electronics de-modulate the light waves to determine the
phase shift. The phase shift between the two light waves is proportional to current and
an analog or digital signal representing the current is provided by the electronics to the
end user. 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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THE FARADAY EFFECT 

The Faraday effect is named after Michael Faraday who discovered this phenomenon in

1845. It describes the rotation of polarisation of light propagating in the direction of a

magnetic field. When a beam of light is sent through a material exhibiting the Faraday
effect, the polarisation of the light will be rotated by the angle θ in dependency of the
magnetic field strength
strength parallel to the light.
light. The Faraday effect
effect is proportional
proportional to the
magnetisation of the material. 

The Faraday effect arises from the interaction of the electron orbit and the electron spin
with the magnetic field. The general principle can be understood as right-handed and
left-handed circularly polarized light causing charges in a material to rotate in opposite
senses. Each polarization therefore produces a contribution to theorbital angular
momentum with opposite sign. A magnetic field gives rise to a spin-polarization along
the magnetic field direction and the spin-orbit interaction then leads to an energy
contribution for the two circular polarizations having the same magnitude but with
opposite sign [Blun01]. This leads to right-handed and left-handed polarizations having
different refractive
refractive indices in the material. A linearly polarized wave can be seen as the

sum of two circularly polarized waves with equal amplitude but opposite direction of
rotation. As these two waves propagate with different speeds through the material, they
will acquire a phase difference proportional to the travelled distance. In terms of their
sum, these two beams, when they emerge, have a phase lag between them implying that
the emerging beam has a rotated plane of polarization by an angle which is equal to half
the phase change. This effect is non-reciprocal, meaning a light beam passing a medium

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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twice in opposite direction acquires a net rotation twice that of a single pass. It should
be noticed that according to the material, the Verdet constant is temperature- and
wavelength-dependent.

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

 Seminar’10optica current measurement 
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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

 Seminar’10optica current measurement 
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ADVANTAGES 

- immunity to electromagnetic
electromagn etic interference
interferenc e (EMI)

- high electrical
electrical insulation
- large bandwidth
- potentially high sensitivity
sensitivity
- ease in signal light transmission
transmission
- being compact
compact and
and lightweight
- potentially low-cost
- no danger of explosion
- ease of integration
integration into digital
digital control systems
systems
- no saturation

-hysteresis-free  
- passive measurement 

DISADVANTAGES 
-the electronic circuit present may cause distrotions.  
-the measurement is not much accurate  

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

 Seminar’10optica current measurement 
measurement  

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

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CONCLUSION 
Optical current sensors provide a reliable method of measuring very high fault currents
with significant DC offsets without any type of saturation, as is understood with
conventionall current transformers. Depending on the design of the sensor, several
conventiona
turns of fiber can be wound around the conductor to increase the signal to noise ratio of
the sensor.
sensor. This gain in signal to noise ratio is traded
traded with the ability of the sensor to
measure extremely high fault currents without fringe management algorithms.
However, if desired, advanced processing techniques such as fringe management
techniques can be implemented in sensors, and high signal to noise ratios and high fault
current measurements can be achieved simultaneously . 

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 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

 Seminar’10optica current measurement 
measurement  

REFERENCES 
●  Interfac
Interfacing
ing Optical Current Sensors in a Substation,J.D.P. Hrabliuk, IEEE PES
Summer Power Meeting,Vancouver, B.C., July 17, 2001.  

●  NxtPhase Optical Current System , J. Blake, 2ndEPRI Optical Sensor Systems

Workshop January 26 – 28,2000,
28,2000, Atlanta, Georgia. 

2Dep
SBCE  Department
artment of EE E 
 
 

 Seminar’10opticall technology in current

 Seminar’10optica current measurement 
measurement  

CONTENTS 
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..1  

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………3  

SATURATION IN CONVENTIONAL CURRENT TRASFORMERS…………...4

TRASFORMERS…………...4 

SATURATED AND NON-SATURATED

NON-SATURATED CT SECONDARY O/P………………...5 

MEASURING CURRENT USING OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY………………….6 

PRIMARY CURRENT COMPARISON……………………………………………..8 

CURRENT SENSOR TECHNOLOGY………………………………………………10 

WORKING OF CURRENT SENSOR………………………………………………..11 

THE FARADY EFFECT………………………………………………………………12 

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES………………………………………….14 

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….15  

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………….16  

2Dep
SBCE  Department
artment of EE E