Measurements Of High Voltages & High
Currents
Prepared by: Engrt Hassan Raza
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Measurement Of High AC Voltage
Electrostatic voltmeter
Series impedance voltmeter
Potential dividers : Resistance or Capacitance type
Potential transformers : Electromagnetic or CVT
Sphere gaps
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Electrostatic Voltmeter
One of the direct methods of measuring high voltages is by means of electro-static
voltmeters.
For voltages above 10 kV, generally the attracted disc type of electrostatic
voltmeter is used.
When two parallel conducting plates (cross section area ‘A’ and spacing ‘s’) are
charged q and have a potential difference V, then the energy stored in the is given
by
1 1
W CV 2 dW V 2 dC F ds
2 2
1 dC
Force, F V 2 Newton
2 ds
Aε dC Aε
For uniform field capacitance, C 2
s ds s
1 V 2
F Aε 2 Newton
2 s
It is thus seen that the force of attraction is proportional to the square of the potential difference
applied, so that the meter reads the square value (or can be marked to read the rms value).
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Electrostatic Voltmeter
Electrostatic voltmeters of the attracted disc type may be connected across the high
voltage circuit directly to measure up to about 200 kV, without the use of any
potential divider or other reduction method. [The force in these electrostatic
instruments can be used to measure both a.c. and d.c. voltages].
The right hand electrode forms the high voltage plate.
The center portion of the left hand disc is cut away and encloses a small disc which
is movable and is geared to the pointer of the instrument.
The range of the instrument can be altered by setting the right hand disc at pre-
marked distances.
The force of attraction F(t) created by the applied voltage causes the movable part-
to which a mirror is attached-to assume a position at which a balance of forces takes
place.
An incident light beam will therefore be reflected toward a scale calibrated to read
the applied voltage magnitude.
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Electrostatic Voltmeter
Advantages:
i. Low loading effect
ii. Active power losses are negligibly small
iii. Voltage source loading is limited to the reactive power needed to
charge the system capacitance.(i.e., For 1V Voltmeter-
Capacitance is few Pico farad)
iv. Voltages upto 600kV can be measured.
Disadvantage:
i. For constant distance ‘s’, F α V2, the sensitivity is small. This can
be overcome by varying the gap distance d in appropriate steps.
Absolute Electrostatic Voltmeter
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Series Impedance Voltmeter
For power frequency a.c. measurements the series impedance may be a pure
resistance or a reactance.
But use of resistances yields the followings,
Power losses
Temperature problem
Residual inductance of the resistance gives rise to an impedance different from its ohmic
resistance.
High resistance units for high voltages have stray capacitances and hence a unit
resistance will have an equivalent circuit as shown in Fig.
At any frequency ω of the a.c. voltage, R+jXL is connected in parallel with –jXC.
R jωL 1
Z
jωC
R jωL
1 1 ω 2
LC jωCR
R jωL
jωC
Since, ω 2 LC jωCR,
Z
R jωL
1 jωCR
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Series Impedance Voltmeter
Z
R jωL 1 jωCR
1 jωCR 1 jωCR
R jωL jωCR 2 ω 2 LCR
Z
1 ω 2C 2 R 2
ωL
Z R jωL jωCR 2 R 1 j ωCR
R
ωL
where, Phase angle, φ tan 1 ωCR
R
Extended Series Resistance neglecting inductance is shown in figures.
Resistor unit then has to be taken as a transmission line equivalent, for calculating
the effective resistance.
Ground or stray capacitance of each element influences the current flowing in the
unit, and the indication of the meter results in an error.
Stray ground capacitance effects can be removed by shielding the resistor ‘R’ by a
second surrounding spiral RS which shunts the actual resistor but does not
contribute to the current through the instrument.
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Series Impedance Voltmeter
By tuning the resistors Ra the shielding resistor end potentials may be adjusted with
respect to the actual measuring resistor so that the resulting compensation currents
between the shield and the measuring resistors provide a minimum phase angle.
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Series Capacitance Voltmeter
To avoid the drawbacks pointed out Series impedance voltmeter, a series
capacitor is used instead of a resistor for a.c. high voltage measurements.
Current through the instrument, Ic=V/Xc=jωCV
The rms value of the voltage V with harmonics is given by,
Vrms V12 V22 Vn2
where V1,V2 ,... ,Vn represent the rms value of the fundamental, second... and nth
harmonics.
The currents due to these harmonics are
I1=ωCV1 , I2=2ωCV2 , ……In=nωCVn
I rms ωC V12 2V2 nVn
2 2
With a 10% fifth harmonic only, the current is 11.2% higher, and hence the error
is 11.2% in the voltage measurement
Not recommended when a.c. voltages are not pure sinusoidal waves but contain
considerable harmonics.
Used for measuring rms values up to 1000 kV.
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Series Capacitance Voltmeter
A rectifier ammeter was used as an indicating instrument and was directly calibrated
in high voltage rms value.
The meter was usually a (0-100)μA moving coil meter and the over all error was
about 2%.
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Resistive Potential Divider
In this method, a high resistance potential
divider is connected across the high-voltage
winding, and a definite fraction of the total
voltage is measured by means of a low
voltage voltmeter.
Under alternating conditions there would be
distributed capacitances.
One method of eliminating this would be to
have a distributed screen of many sections
and using an auxiliary potential divider to
give fixed potential to the screens.
The currents flowing in the capacitances
would be opposite in directions at each half
of the screen so that there would be no net
capacitive current.
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Capacitance Potential Dividers
Harmonic Effects can be eliminated by use of
CPD with ESV.
Long Cable needs calibration
Gas filled condensers C1 and C2 are used as
shown in figure.
C1 is a three terminal capacitor, connected to
C2 by shielded cable.
C2 is shielded to avoid stray capacitance
Applied voltage V1 is given by,
C C2 Cm C1 - Standard Compressed Gas H.V. Condenser
V1 V2 1
C1
C2 - Standard Low Voltage Condenser
ESV- Electrostatic Voltmeter
P -Protective Gap
where, C.C - Connecting Cable
Cm - Capacitance of the meter and cable leads
V2 - Reading of Voltmeter
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Capacitance Voltage Transformer
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Capacitance Voltage Transformer
Capacitive Voltage Transformer: Capacitance divider with a suitable matching or
isolating potential transformer tuned for resonance condition is often used in power
systems for voltage measurements.
CPD can be connected only to high impedance VTVM meter or ESV. But, CVT can
be connected to low impedance device like pressure coil of wattmeter or relay coil.
CVT can supply a load of few VA
C1 is few units of HV capacitance, and the total capacitance will be around a few
thousand Pico farads
C2 is a non-inductive capacitance
A matching transformer is connected between the load or meter M and C 2
Transformer ratings: HV side - 10 to 30 kV; LV side - 100 to 500 V
Value of the tuning choke L is chosen to to bring resonance condition. This
condition is satisfied when, where,
1 L - Inductance of the choke
L L T LT - Equivalent inductance of the transformer referred to
C1 C 2 h.v. side
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Capacitance Voltage Transformer
If we neglect Xm’,
V2' I m' Rm' and VC 2 V2' I m Re X e
V1=VC1+VC2
V1 is in phase with V2’.
Voltage ratio,
V1 VC1 VRi V2'
a
V2 V2'
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Peak Reading Voltmeters
For Sine wave,
Peak Value=RMS Value X 2
Maximum dielectric strength may be obtained by non-sine wave. In that case,
Peak Value ≠ RMS Value X 2
Therefore, peak measurement is important.
Types:
Series Capacitance Peak Voltmeter (Chubb-Frotscue Method)
Digital Peak Voltmeter
Peak Voltmeter with potential divider
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Peak Reading Voltmeters
Chubb Frotscue Method:
Chubb and Fortescue suggested a simple and accurate
method of measuring peak value of a.c. voltages.
The basic circuit consists of a standard capacitor, two diodes
and a current integrating ammeter (MC ammeter) as shown in
Fig. 4.11 (a).
The displacement current i c(t), Fig. 4.12 is given by the rate
of change of the charge and hence the voltage V(t) to be
measured flows through the high voltage capacitor C and is
subdivided into positive and negative components by the
back to back connected diodes
The voltage drop across these diodes can be neglected (1 V for Si diodes) as compared with
the voltage to be measured
The measuring instrument (M.C. ammeter) is included in one of the branches. The ammeter
reads the mean value of the current,
An increased current would be obtained if the current reaches zero more than once during
one half cycle
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Peak Reading Voltmeters
(Chubb Frotscue Method Continued…)
This means the wave shapes of the voltage would contain more than one maxima per half cycle.
The standard a.c. voltages for testing should not contain any harmonics and, therefore, there could
be very short and rapid voltages caused by the heavy predischarges, within the test circuit which
could introduce errors in measurements.
To eliminate this problem filtering of a.c. voltage is carried out by introducing a damping resistor
in between the capacitor and the diode circuit, Fig. 4.11 (b).
The measurement of symmetrical a.c. voltages using Chubb and Fortescue method is quite
accurate and it can be used for calibration of other peak voltage measuring devices.
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Peak Reading Voltmeters
Digital Peak Voltmeter:
In contrast to the method discussed just now, the rectified current is not
measured directly, instead a proportional analog voltage signal is derived
which is then converted into a proportional medium frequency for using a
voltage to frequency convertor (Block A in Fig. 4.13).
The frequency ratio fm/f is measured with a gate circuit controlled by the a.c.
power frequency (supply frequency f) and a counter that opens for an
adjustable number of period Δt = p/f. The number of cycles n counted during
this interval is
where ‘p’ is a constant of the instrument.
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Peak Reading Voltmeters
Digital Peak Voltmeter continued….
Voltage to frequency fm fm
A im Rectified Current through R
convertion factor Rim R 2 Vm f C
fm 1
f 2R Vm C
fm
i.e., 2Vm CR A
f
Therefore, n 2Vm CR AP
Vm
im Vm 2 π f C
XC
i.e., im proportional to 2 Vm f C
By proper selection of R and P, Voltage can be measured immediately.
Accuracy is less than 0.35%
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Peak Reading Voltmeters
Peak voltmeter with Potential divider:
Diode D is used for rectification
Voltage across C2 is used to charge C3
Resistance Rd permits the variation of Vm when
V2 is reduced
Electrostatic Voltmeter as indicating instrument
Voltage across Cs Peak value to be measured
Discharge time constant=CsRd1 to 10 sec
This arrangement gives discharge error.
Discharge error depends on frequency of the supply
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Any Question
?
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