side, the other two winding CTs could be paralleled to produce a net secondary current, which
can then be used in a two-winding protection scheme. However, when more than one winding has
a source behind it, paralleling two windings could be dangerous. Consider the case illustrated in
Figure 8.13(b). If the power transformer winding A is open, then an external fault on the side B
would be supplied by the source on the side C. This should produce equal currents in the paralleled
connection, and in the relay. However, because of unequal CT ratios, or unequal error in the two sets
of CTs, there may be a residual current in the paralleled connection, which flows in the differential
coil of the relay. It also flows in half of the restraint coil, but is clearly insufficient to prevent the
relay from operating if the differential current is above the pickup setting of the relay. A much
safer practice is to employ a specially designed three-winding differential relay, which utilizes three
restraint coils, each being supplied by its own CTs. In the case discussed above, this ensures that
even if the differential coil of the relay has an unbalance current flowing in it, the restraint coils of
the relay will carry the full fault currents flowing in windings B and C of the power transformer.
The relay will thus be prevented from tripping for this external fault.