Identifying inrush current using sinusoidal proximity factor

This paper presents a novel scheme based sinusoidal proximity factor (SPF) for distinguishing between inrush currents and internal fault currents in transformers, which is derived from the sinusoidal characteristics of the waveforms. First, the SPF is defined and its calculation method and the criterion to identify the internal faults and inrush currents are developed. In a total of 162 experimental cases, the SPF of the inrush current is very small, but the SPF of the internal fault current is characterized by drastic variation. The experimental results verify the dependability, security, and fast operation of the proposed scheme. Besides, its easy implementation in real time is another advantage of the proposed method because of its simplicity.