The bandwidth of instrument current transformer for fault detection in distribution networks

The distribution network detection devices are generally using two kinds of instrument current transformer (ICT), of which one is used to transform the travelling wave and transient signals, while the other is used to transform the power frequency signals. Such scheme is neither necessary nor economical. This paper analyses the influences of sampling resistance, stray capacitance and magnetizing inductance on the frequency characteristic of ICT. Considering that fault zero sequence transient current has big transient component and small power frequency component, an ICT with wide band frequency accuracy has been chosen. Practical experiments have been done. The technical parameters given by the instrument factory are only within 20-20kHz. The characteristics in higher frequency are seldom reported due to the lack of test means. The experiments in this paper is based on the transient tester instrument and current amplifiers developed by our laboratory, which can output wide frequency band current within 20Hz-100kHz up to 50A. Experiment shows that, the predicted results were in good agreement with the measured ones.