Thursday, March 22, 2012

Why is current transformer secondary short circuited?

Unless a burden (i.e. meters, relays, etc.) is connected to the CT, current Picture1

transformers should always be shorted across the secondary terminals. The reason is very high voltages will be induced at the terminals. Think of the CT as a transformer, with a 1 turn primary and many turns on the secondary. When current is flowing through the primary, the resulting voltage induced in the secondary can be quite high, on the order of kilovolts. When a CT fails under open circuit conditions, the cause of failure is insulation breakdown, either at the shorting terminal strip, or at the feedthrough (in the case of oil filled apparatus), because the distances between terminals are not sufficient for the voltages present.

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