Alternative Methods for Current and Voltage Measurement

Using Optical Sensors

Deshmukh Sarang Avinash

Department of Electrical Engineering College of Engineering Pune, India sarangadeshmukh@gmail.com
AbstractThis report intends to explore the conventional measurement techniques using current and potential transformers citing the common points and shortcomings of the same. Thereby new non-conventional methods e.g. optical methods for voltage and current measurements are studied to make the usage of current and potential transformers more economical than the former methods. Certain conclusions on these optical methods are drawn and the scope in the future is summarized. Keywords-Current Transformer; Potential Transformer; Electro-optic Effect; Magneto-optic Effect; Optical Methods for measurment.

transformers are also known as instrument transformers. When current in a circuit is too high to directly apply to measuring instruments, a current transformer produces a reduced current accurately proportional to the current in the circuit, which can be conveniently connected to measuring and recording instruments. A current transformer also isolates the measuring instruments from what may be very high voltage in the primary circuit. Current transformers have a small output and high accuracy. The primary winding may consist of one or few turns and must be insulated to sustain the line voltage; in some instances, the insulated line conductor itself may serve as the primary, passing through the core around which the secondary windings are wound. Current transformers are connected in series with the line, as shown in the figure.

I.

INTRODUCTION

With the increasing demand for electric power, the economics of power transmission requires the use of high transmission line voltages. This leads to escalation of cost for conventional current and potential transformers. Thus research is going on to provide alternative, for the use of current transformers and potential transformers for the measurement of current and voltage. This paper suggests an optical method which can prove economical in the near future. The method employs two types of devices; free path and enclosed path devices. The basic principle of the optical method is based upon magneto-optic effect, electro optic effect. This paper concludes with the suggestion for future development. Instead of using free path, the enclosed path method is suggested. A more highly developed version of the devices should provide a convenient, portable, large bandwidth, research tool for diagnostic use. Eventual development could lead to an acceptable instrument for long-term operational use on the power system. Such an instrument would offer the advantages of considerably improved performance over conventional devices, at much lower cost. II. CURRENTLY USED MEASURMENT METHODS

Figure 1: Current transformer connection.

A. Current transformers In electrical engineering, a current transformer (CT) is used for measurement of electric currents. Current

Because of the high turn ratio usually met with in a current transformer, it is possible to obtain an unsafe high voltage across the secondary terminals of the current transformer. The accuracy of a CT is directly related to a number of factors including: Burden: The load, or burden, in a CT metering circuit is the (largely resistive) impedance presented to its secondary winding. Burden class/saturation class: This is the voltage at which a CT becomes saturated. When a CT becomes saturated it can no longer transform current. Rating factor: Rating factor is a factor by which the nominal full load current of a CT can be multiplied to determine its absolute maximum measurable primary current. Conversely, the minimum primary current a CT can accurately measure is "light load," or 10% of

the nominal current (there are, however, special CTs designed to measure accurately currents as small as 2% of the nominal current). The rating factor of a CT is largely dependent upon ambient temperature. Load Temperature

III.

IMPORTANT OPTICAL PHENOMENA

B. Potential transformers Potential transformers are also a type of instrument transformers. Potential Transformer is designed for monitoring single-phase and three-phase power line voltages in power metering applications. A Potential Transformer is a special type of transformer that allows meters to take readings from electrical service connections with higher voltage (potential) than the meter is normally capable of handling without at potential transformer. Potential transformers are connected in parallel or across the line as shown in figure.

A. Electro-optic effect An electro-optic effect is a change in the optical properties of a material in response to an electric field that varies slowly compared with the frequency of light. The term encompasses a number of distinct phenomena, which include change of absorption and change of refractive index. The electro-optic effect is the modification of the refractive index of a medium, caused by an electric field. Mostly crystals exhibit the linear electro-optic effect, also called the Pockels effect, where the refractive index change is proportional to the electric field strength. Materials exhibiting the Pockels effect are called electro-optic materials. Also Kerr electro-optic effect says that the refractive index change is proportional to the square of the electric field strength. But it is typically much weaker than for the linear effect. The Pockels effect also introduces a phase shift between two linearly polarised light beams polarised in orthogonal directions. The phase shift is proportional to the electric field within the crystal. This results in an overall change in the polarisation state of the light passing through the crystal.

Figure 2: Potential transformer connection

A potential transformer is essentially a step down transformer as it brings the system voltage to be measured down to an equivalent lower value which can then be measured. Similar to current transformer, the accuracy of a potential transformer also depends on various physical factors. C. Common points and disadvantages Both potential and current transformers may be of the drytype or oil-filled. They may be equipped with solid porcelain or oil-filled high-voltage bushings, through which the high voltage leads, are brought out of their case. Their construction must also be sufficiently rugged to carry short duration fault current safely. One of the major problems in measuring the electric current in high voltage, high power transmission lines, is that of measurement circuit isolation. The disadvantages of conventional CTs and PTs are: High maintenance High cost (also dependent on rating) Large size Saturation of core Another disadvantage of instrument transformers is that they can be used only for ac circuits and not dc circuits.

B. Magneto-optic effect When light is transmitted through a layer of magneto-optic material, the result is called the Faraday Effect: the plane of polarization can be rotated, forming a Faraday rotator. The results of reflection from a magneto-optic material are known as the magneto-optic Kerr effect.

Figure 3:The principal arrangement of the measurement device

Faraday magneto-optic effect consists in rotation of light polarization plane during pass through some non-absorbing materials in a magnetic field. The rotation angel F depends on magnetic field intensity H, length of path l passed by light and Verdet constant of material V. The rotation angle is for constant magnetic field through whole length of path then:

performance cant be used for long time or high reliability applications. Their main usage is then supposed only in area of monitoring and diagnostic of failure. Closed optical path devices are equipped with a protected path used for leading of the beam. The path can be made of closed air space, glass rod or optical fiber. The protected optical path can be used only for a transmitting medium to the transducer or even as transducer itself. Except optical sensors using laser beam for a measuring, others can be used as classic sensors in which output signal can be transformed right in the measuring place to the digital optical signal. A. Current measurement using Faraday Effect. The Faraday Magneto-optic effect offers a means to measure high currents on conductors at extremely high voltages above ground (50kV and higher), with reasonable accuracy and excellent isolation. Magneto-optic current sensors (MOCSs), which make use of the Faraday Magnetooptic effect, use either solid glass pathways or fiber optic wave guides. When linearly polarized light is passed through a transparent, diamagnetic material through which a magnetic field is also passed in the same direction, there will be, in general a rotation of the polarization vector of the emergent ray. It may be shown that the polarization rotation angle is given by: The rotation, is proportional to the line integral of the magnetic field intensity vector, H, along the light propagation path, I, which encloses the magnetic field. V is the Verdet constant for the material used. Note that by ampere circuital law, Where I is the current enclosed by one optical path loop. Hence, if N loops of a fiber optic cable are wound on a form so that all turns are aligned and have the same area, we may express the Faraday Magneto-optical polarization as

F = V. H. l

The Faraday Magneto-optic effect makes use of the fact that a current carrying conductor is surrounded by a solenoidal magnetic field whose magnitude is proportional to the current. The magnetic field, in turn, induces changes in optical polarization properties of the glass or fiber optic cable on which it acts. Thus by measuring the amount of optical rotation induced on linear polarized light emerging from the optical path in the field (B), we can indirectly sense the current in the conductor. The Faraday Magneto-optic effect has been used in several designs for the measurement of high currents in power distribution systems. Typically, currents can range can range from amperes to kiloamperes, and the conductors are generally at kilovolts above ground potential, rendering the use of a shunt and millivoltmeter quite impractical. IV. OPTICAL METHODS

World trend of measurement systems invention leads to system digitalization. For distributions of digital signal more often optical fibers are used. Other important aspects of measurement systems choice are their reliability and accuracy, consideration to ecology and of course cost. Relatively high cost of current and voltage measurement transformers for high voltage systems leads to trying to find new kinds of such measurements. One of them is usage of passive optical effects such as electro-optic and magneto-optic effect. The usage of optical devices for these applications brings many advantages: Core cant be saturated Wide band measurement High sensitivity Passive measurement Easy maintenance Low and voltage independent cost Small size and low weight Easy optic communication

Optical devices can be divided into these two categories: Opened optical path devices, where a laser beam is bound right through atmosphere into a passive transducer, connected to high voltage line a back again. Main advantage of this performance is absence of high voltage insulation. On the other way a disadvantage is mostly caused by a distortion of beam during the passing through atmosphere. Thats why this kind of

Figure 4:A fiber optic, electrical current sensor using the Faraday Magneto optical effect

Figure illustrates one version of Faraday current transducer consisting of N turns of single mode optical fiber wound around a current carrying conductor. The optical rotation of the linearly polarized light is given by the above equation. The optical rotation, in theory, will remain unchanged regardless of the position of the current carrying conductor in the fiber optic coil. Also, by using a diamagnetic material such as glass fiber, the system has substantial temperature independence. Another way of gaining temperature independence is by employing a compensation system. This relies upon utilizing two different crystal materials measuring the same magnetic field, which have different temperature responses. A ratio measure of their respective outputs at any given time corresponds to a measure of the temperature at the sensor heads and this can then lead to automatic gain correction of either output signal. A further widely acknowledged problem particular to some forms of optical sensors is that of vibration effects on the sensor itself or the addressing optical fibers. This vibration causes parasitic intensity modulation of the light within the sensing system and leads to measurement noise. A degree of vibrational immunity is provided by counter propagating two discrete wavelengths of light, chosen such that one detects the conductor current flow and the other is used as a vibration reference which actively compensates the measured signal. A case study of a current sensor which uses Terbium Gallium Garnet (TGG) having a Verdet constant of 82 radians/ampere-turn at 800nm as optical crystal gives test results showing that it has a dynamic range of measurement from less than 10amps to over 75,000 amps with accuracy of l% from 600 amps to 23,000 amps. B. Voltage measurement: Transformers using Pockels effect 1) Block of crystals method A crystal is placed between high-voltage transmission line and ground, whereby it is warranted uniform distribution of electric field intensity (Fig. 5). Double refraction is then proportional to the intensity and crystal length. Its not necessary to use monocrystal blocks, which could overhang whole distance between metering points. Such compact crystals of needed sizes would are difficult to produce. It is possible to use smaller ones divorced by sticks from melting flint.
Figure 5: Measurement site arrangement for voltage metering - block of crystals method.

2) Optical fiber method Next technique of linear integration is analogical with already described current measurement with usage of optical fiber, e.g. optical fiber with electro-optical sensitivity in axial direction. With such fiber leading from the ground to highvoltage transmission line and back will come to real linear integration, independent neither on electric field configuration nor on optical fiber arrangement. The voltage measurement devices described here utilise the Pockels electro-optic effect in the Sillenite crystals Bi12Si020 and Bi12Ti020 to modulate light transmitted in optical fibers. The intensity modulated signal is picked up at the remote end of the fiber by a photodiode based detector. The construction of the sensor is shown in Figure 6. A 100/140 micron fiber carries light from an 850nm (near infrared) LED source to the sensor head. The light is collimated to a 2mm beam using a lens. The light then passes through a polariser and quarter-waveplate bonded to the crystal face, ensuring circularly polarised Light enters the crystal. (This corresponds to two beams of light polarised orthogonally entering the crystal. The quarter-waveplate retards the phase of one beam by 90' with respect to its counterpart, this bias increases the sensitivity of the sensor and allows discrimination between positive and negative phase changes introduced by the sensing crystal.) The light then propagates through the crystal and undergoes a polarisation change due to

the electric field of the high voltage conductor. On passing through an analysing polariser bonded to the exit face of the sensing medium any polarisation change is converted to an intensity change. A second lens launches the light back into a return fiber which carries the signal to a photodetector remote from the sensor. The sensitivity of the device is a function of the crystal length, permittivity and electro-optic coefficient. The dielectric design of the sensor housing largely determines the electric field within the crystal for a given external field. The phase shift is proportional to the electric field within the crystal for a given external field.

Figure 7:Open terminal voltage measurement system.

Figure 6: Components of the voltage sensor.

The voltage measurement system described here places two voltage sensors in the electric field of a high voltage conductor. The Voltage Measurement System:

The system can be thought of as two voltage dividers with a fixed impedance in series with a variable impedance. The fixed impedance is that of the sensor enclosure attached to the line, and the variable is the stray impedance to earth. The sensors can give a measurement of the voltages across the two fixed impedances, as mentioned above two different sensing media are being tested here. The two capacitive enclosures use different dielectric materials surrounding the sensor, and consequently the two sensors will give different outputs for the same line voltage. The difference between the two outputs is a function of the stray impedance to earth. If the two enclosures are close enough together to assume that the stray impedance is the same for both, without forcing the voltage drop across both sensors to be the same, then the line voltage can be measured which does not has dependence on the stray impedance to earth. A prototype system has been developed which implements the above scheme in a practical and compact manner combining the system with optical current measurement technology to provide a whole range of power system measurements from one unit. This system has now been installed at Eastern Electricitys Colchester Grid substation in Essex, England.

The sensors as described above measure electric field. Typical optical voltage transformers use sensors such as those described above to measure the field within one of the capacitors of a capacitive voltage divider. This, to within close tolerances, is proportional to the voltage across the capacitor and in turn to the line voltage. The voltage measurement with respect to earth may be inferred from the field surrounding an open terminal conductor where the field distribution is irregular and varying independent of the voltage, due to weather conditions for example. The advantages of such a system would be small size, reduced cost and reduced weight. Here we consider two sensors within enclosures clamped to an open terminal high voltage conductor as shown in Figure 7. The enclosures can be considered as capacitors where one of the terminals is connected to the lines voltage and the other is floating, or connected to earth via stray impedance.

V.

CONCLUSION AND SCOPE IN FUTURE

Voltage and current measurement using optical methods seems to be a very attractive option from technical and economical point of view, especially for high voltage systems up to 400kV and more, because they make it possible to remove the very expensive high voltage insulations. These systems could be used for any substations. Basic advantages of these methods are mainly in their linearity, impossibility of overload or any damage due to of high voltage. Other advantages are in their bandwidth and as noticed above, in the low cost.

On the other side, crystal production is relatively expansive and exacting for accuracy. The worst aspect of these measurement systems is accurate control of polarization angles of the laser beam. Other problems are caused by changes in temperature, reflections in crystal vibrations, etc. Optical output has also disadvantage in low output power, which cannot be used for direct control of switches and hence is a need of another power supply. These shortcomings make this method incompatible at present. However, better ways to control the polarization angle are evolving continuously, also the problem of low output power is being dealt with at various levels. There is distinct possibility that optical methods replace the conventional methods of measurement of current and voltage in near future.

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