Thyristor based solid state tap changer for

distribution transformers
Egoitz Martinez, Iosu Fernandez and Jose Maria Canales.
University of Mondragon
Electronics and Computing Department
Loramendi 4, 20500, Arrasate-Mondragon (Spain)
egoitz.martinez@alumni.mondragon.edu, jfernandez@mondragon.edu, jmcanales@mondragon.edu

Abstract—The present document discusses some different transformer. Thereby, following a scheme similar to fig. 1,
topologies of on-load tap. A solid state tap changer scheme the tap change is made on-line, acting over the selected tap
is proposed and once the components completing the scheme and introducing a pair of resistors to limit the overlap current
are described, the method followed to calculate their values is
discussed. Finally, the way to optimize the complete scheme is between taps while changing from one tap to another, [2] [3].
proposed, which in many cases suppose big saving in economic The main advantages of this type of tap changers are their
and volume terms. robustness and their complete integration in a commercial
Index Terms—Thyristor, distribution transformer, tap changer. transformer. As disadvantages, they can be highlighted their
high economic cost and the high volume increase that suppose
for a conventional transformer. In addition, the arcs that appear
I. I NTRODUCTION during the tap commutation because of the high overlap cur-
rents flowing through the contacts, could even be destructive
W ITH the evolution of the distributed generation re-
sources, and the exponential increase of the electric
energy demand, the ratio between the electricity generation and
to those contacts or at least imply periodical maintenance to
ensure a correct operation of the system.
demand has become time-variant and unpredictable.
That issue could entail some electric energy transmission
problems and some perturbations could occur because of the
dependence on the meteorological conditions of many of those
renewable electric sources. With the objective to regulate the
voltage on the distribution sources to the conditions of the grid,
the first transformers with tap changers were created. The main
problem is that current tap changers are manually operated and
always have to work off-line, [1].
That is why some important manufacturers have started
developing different kind of solutions such us vacuum, oil
or SF6 mechanical tap changer, [2] [3], thyristor-assisted tap
changers and full solid state tap changers.
Through this article the design of a thyristor based tap
changer is discussed. Below there is a summary of the existing Fig. 1: Mechanic oil chamber on-line tap changer
online tap changers methods; the issue of doing the tap chang-
ing on-line is that the current created during the overlapping
can exceed the rated current of the transformer; in this way,
the solutions mentioned below attempt to face this issue from B. Thyristor assisted tap changers
different approaches.
The operating principle of those tap changers is similar to the
previous one I-A, but in this case some thyristors are included
A. Vacuum, Oil or SF6 echanical tap changers to take the overcurrent produced during the overlap between
Some manufacturers have considered developing mechanical taps, reducing the arc on the main contacts and therefore, the
tap changers assisted by an electric motor acting inside the maintenance of the full device.

‹,(((
Fig. 2: Proposed single-phase solution with 5 branches each one composed of a current limiting inductor, a pair of thyristors in
anti-parallel and a RC snubber.
Those devices have the same advantages, but the problem
of submitting the contacts to electric arcs is avoided. However,
this feature complicates the design, introducing more electronic
devices that increase the total cost and reduce the robustness
of the device, apart from a slight increase of the total volume
and price.
C. Solid state tap changers
Another interesting solution is a full solid state tap changer.
Those devices allow on-line tap changing besides adding the
possibility of regulating other undesirable effects that fre-
quently appear on the electric grid, such as voltage sags, flicker,
etc.
Regarding the different type of semiconductors normally
employed, different options can be found, including IGBT,
thyristor or GTO. The suitability of the semiconductor type
depends on the requirements of the application. For example,
the high switching speed of the IGBTs may allow to solve
typical grid problems mentioned before.
Finally, an important consideration is in which side of
the transformer place the electronic devices. Each option has
to be considered according to the application specifications,
bearing in mind that in the primary side the semiconductors
should withstand higher voltage values and lower current flow,
resulting in lower power requirements. On the contrary, in the
secondary side the electric specifications are just the opposite.
Moreover, introducing the electronics in the secondary side
may introduce some insulation limitations that have to be
considered.
II. R EQUIRED SPECIFICATIONS OF THE CONCRETE
SOLUTION
The solution developed has been thought considering impor-
tant specifications and considerations, so that the solution needs
to be:
• inexpensive to have good reception in the market.
• extremely robust to ensure the correct working of the
transformer under any circumstances.
• simple; it only has to regulate the voltage on the grid, no
other grid effects.
• small to be included inside a commercial transformer
without entailing big changes on it.
• coherent to the norms of the transformers valid nowadays.
III. P ROPOSED SOLUTION
According to the previous section II, some different solutions
have been considered. In order to ensure proper working on
real MV applications it has been selected a common MV/LV For this reason, it has been decided to calculate the current
transformer of 36kV with ±2.5% and ±5% taps for regulation limiting inductor in order to achieve a desirable overlap current
and Vsec = 400V on the secondary side, with a total power magnitude when firing the thyristors at 0◦ , which is the worst
of 400kV A and dyn configuration, widely used on distribution case in terms of current amplitude, even if the overlap period
applications. is duplicated. This ensures the operability with any load type
Since the solution needs to be economic and action speed is and firing at any instant, which entails no need of any sensor.
not a requirement, phase control thyristors are used. A line
voltage regulation seldom happens and there is no need of
acting in less than a grid period time.
All of this aside, a inductance has been introduced in each
branch (connected to each tap) to limit the overlap current
flowing through the devices during a tap overlap (which is
inevitable if the commutation is wanted to be made on-line).
Although it has been seen that introducing some extra elements
(such as compensatory transformers or auxiliary switches)
better performances can be obtained (in terms of protection or
overlap time reduction),[4] [5] [6], an increase of complexity
generally implies an increase of the price of the solution an
often also a reduction of the robustness of the device.
To complete the assembly, a snubber circuit (formed by a
resistor and a capacitor) has been designed according to [7],
which is attached to each pair of thyristors in anti-parallel
connected to each branch. The aim of the snubber is to ensure
an appropriate recovery of the parasite charges of the thyristors,
Fig. 3: Overlap current through the thyristors during a step-up
which in some particular cases can even have destructive effects
commutation firing at: a) 0◦ and b) 100◦
for the devices.
Finally, some avalanche or breakover diodes have been
included in one of the branches to prevent overvoltages in cases IV. O PTIMIZATION OF THE INITIAL PROPOSITION
of failure of the control system, with none of the branches
A. Calculation of the current limiting inductor
conducting. When the overvoltage reaches a concrete value,
the avalanche diodes (connected as shown in fig.2) allow the The value of Llim (fig.2) is calculated so that the overlap
current to flow through them, introducing a gate signal in the current has the same amplitude as the short circuit current that
thyristor, that makes it turn on. the transformers have to withstand, [8]. In that way, for our
The complete scheme can be seen on fig.2. application, the overlap current has to be, at maximum equal
to:

A. Firing strategy
The worst working scenario has been taken to ensure the
robustness of the whole system. Thereby, some simulations
have been made to seek the instant of firing the thyristors that
generates the highest values of current with different type of
loads. Two main conclusions have been taken:
◦
• As the firing instant tends to 180 of the voltage wave,
the overlap results shorter and the overlap current becomes
smaller.
• Depending on the type of load and the cos(φ), if the firing
angle is higher than 90◦ , a second overlap period might
happen.
Those effects can be seen on the fig3.
Including current or voltage sensors does not result inter-
esting from the robustness and economy point of view. It
can also create some commplications in terms of insulation.
√
100
Icc = IPmax = 22.22 · 6.67 · 2 = 209.60A (1)
4.5
To achieve this value in the worst case, it has been demon-
strated by simulation that the value of the inductor introduced
in each branch needs to be:
Llim ≥ 7.5mH (2)
B. Optimization of the current limiting inductor
In the equivalent circuit of a real transformer some parasite
inductors affecting the overlap current might appear fig.5.
Taking this into account, it has been experimentally proved
that the leakage inductance follows a proportional distribution
according to the percentage of the nominal voltage correspond-
ing to the tap (as seen on the fig.6). Furthermore, it can be
 Fig. 4: Optimized complete single phase scheme

deduced that this proportional part of the total leakage inductor

appears as an inductor in series in each branch.
This inductor in series, would suppose a reduction of the
current limiting inductor, and in many cases, the complete
elimination of the need of inserting this mentioned inductor.
This fact results very interesting because of the simplification
of the model and the big economic saving that supposes for a
real implementation.

Fig. 5: Equivalent circuit of a real transformer Fig. 6: Distribution of the short-circuit resistance and the
leakage inductance for the different taps

C. Optimization of the RC snubber
According to [7], in cases of very low di/dt in the turning
off of the thyristor, the need of introducing a snubber circuit
may be eliminated. For this reason, depending on the value of
the leakage inductance of the transformer and the value of the
current limiting inductor (if included), the snubber circuit can
be removed, resulting in big economic and volume savings.
The reason why the snubber can be removed is because the
inductors connected in series entail a considerable slowing of
the dynamics of the whole system, derived from the imposition
of a specific di/dt that make possible a correct recovery of the
parasite charges of the thyristor. In this case, as there is at least
an inductor of 7.5mH connected in series to the thyristors,
the di√
/dt (having a maximum reverse voltage value of VR =
2400 2) equals to:
√
di VR 2400 2
= = = 0.32A/μs (3)
dt L 7.5 · 10−3
Which is small enough to consider the snubber removable.
Fig.4 shows the proposed scheme, composed by the thyristors
and the breakover diodes, can be seen.

V. C ONCLUSION
The feasibility of full solid state tap changers has been
analysed during the present paper.
After commenting the different alternatives when building an
on-load tap changer, a solid state tap changer topology has been
proposed and described. The full operability of this approach
has been validated by modelling and simulating the transformer.
Finally, the way to optimize the topology and to eliminate
some of the components completing the scheme has been
described. This would suppose great economic and volume
savings, besides a maintenance of the robustness of the whole
system, always without loosing reliability and functionality.

R EFERENCES
[1] ABB, “De-energized Tap Changers,” pp. 1–3, 2004.
[2] Reinhausen, “On-Load Tap-Changers for Power Trans-
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[8] Normativa Española, “UNE-EN 60076-5,” 2008.