A novel magnetizing inrush current suppressor of energized transformers

The magnetizing inrush possibly occurs when the transformer is energized in the case of no load or a light load. The reason rests with the saturation state or even deep saturation state of the transformer core due to many factors such as inception angles, residual flux, and so on. Both the transformer itself and the power quality in the power system will be adversely impacted by the magnetizing inrush. By utilizing the tertiary winding of a three-windings transformer, a new technique called ‘magnetizing inrush suppressor’ (MIS) is proposed to eliminate the inrush. When the transformer is switched on, it allows the voltage on the tertiary winding to climb gradually and ensures that the voltages on both sides have the same phase but different magnitudes. In this case, the inrush current can be eliminated successfully. Finally, simulation tests based on PSCAD are performed and analyzed in detail, and the validity of the proposed approach is confirmed. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.