Characterization of an arbitrary medium voltage signal generator

Abstract

Medium voltage transducers are calibrated by applying sinusoidal signals at their primary side and comparing the secondary output with that of a reference transducer. It is clear that this is a particular working condition that is often quite different from the actual one. In fact, voltage distortion in nowadays distribution networks can be not negligible. The measurement of these harmonic components is becoming more and more important, in particular for power quality monitoring. Therefore, the whole process of calibration should be reconsidered in order to take into account the behavior also under these operating conditions. A possible solution is to test the transducers by applying signals having a harmonic content similar to that which can be found in distribution networks. In order to perform such a kind of test an arbitrary medium voltage generator is required. This paper describes a voltage transducer testing setup based on a medium voltage generator proposed by the author in a recent paper. Moreover an evaluation of the generation accuracy is provided when the setup is used to test voltage transducers under realistic working conditions.