Current and Voltag

Energy Automation

Generator and
Generator-Transformer
Protection

469
NRJED311332EN 469
NRJED311332EN
Network Protection & Automation Guide
 Generator and Contents
Generator-Transformer
Protection

1. Introduction 471

2. Generator earthing 473

3. Stator winding faults 474

4. Stator winding protection 475

5. Differential protection 476

of direct-connected generators
6. Differential protection 479
of generator-transformer units
7. Overcurrent protection 480

8. Stator earth fault protection 483

9. Overvoltage protection 492

10. Undervoltage protection 493

11. Low forward power/reverse power protection 494

12. Unbalanced loading 495

13. Protection against inadvertent energisation 498

14. Under/Overfrequency/Overfluxing protection 498

15. Rotor faults 500

16. Loss of excitation protection 504

17. Pole slipping protection 510

18. Overheating 514

19. Mechanical faults 515

20. Complete generator protection schemes 516

21. Embedded generation 519

22. Examples of generator protection settings 523

23. References 536

16

470 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 1. Introduction
Generator-Transformer
Protection

The core of an electric power system is the generation. With the

exception of emerging fuel cell and solar-cell technology for power
systems, the conversion of the fundamental energy into its electrical
equivalent normally requires a ‘prime mover’ to develop mechanical
power as an intermediate stage.
The nature of this machine depends upon the source of energy and
in turn this has some bearing on the design of the generator.
Generators based on steam, gas, water or wind turbines, and
reciprocating combustion engines are all in use. Electrical ratings
extend from a few hundred kVA (or even less) for reciprocating
engine and renewable energy sets, up to steam turbine sets
exceeding 1200MVA.
Small and medium sized sets may be directly connected to a power
distribution system. A larger set may be associated with an
individual transformer, through which it is coupled to the EHV
primary transmission system.
Switchgear may or may not be provided between the generator and
transformer. In some cases, operational and economic advantages
can be attained by providing a generator circuit breaker in addition
to a high voltage circuit breaker, but special demands will be placed
on the generator circuit breaker for interruption of generator fault
current waveforms that do not have an early zero crossing.
A unit transformer may be tapped off the interconnection between
generator and transformer for the supply of power to auxiliary plant,
as shown in Figure 16.1. The unit transformer could be of the order
of 10% of the unit rating for a large fossil-fuelled steam set with
additional flue-gas desulphurisation plant, but it may only be of the
order of 1% of unit rating for a hydro set.

Generator Main transformer

HV busbars
Figure 16.1:
Generator-transformer unit
16
Unit transformer

Auxiliary
supplies switchboard

Industrial or commercial plants with a requirement for steam/hot

water now often include generating plant utilising or producing
steam to improve overall economics, as a Combined Heat and
Power (CHP) scheme. The plant will typically have a connection to
the public Utility distribution system, and such generation is referred
to as ‘embedded’ generation. The generating plant may be capable
of export of surplus power, or simply reduce the import of power
from the Utility. This is shown in Figure 16.2.

NRJED311332EN 471
 Generator and 1. Introduction
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

A modern generating unit is a complex system comprising the

Utility generator stator winding, associated transformer and unit
transformer (if present), the rotor with its field winding and excitation
system, and the prime mover with its associated auxiliaries. Faults
of many kinds can occur within this system for which diverse forms
of electrical and mechanical protection are required. The amount of
PCC
Generator
protection applied will be governed by economic considerations,
Rating: yMW taking into account the value of the machine, and the value of its
output to the plant owner.

Industrial
plant
main
The following problems require consideration from the point of view
busbar of applying protection:
a. stator electrical faults
b. overload
c. overvoltage
Plant feeders - total
demand: xMW d. unbalanced loading
e. overfluxing
PCC: Point of Common Coupling
When plant generator is running: f. inadvertent energisation
If Plant may export to Utility across PCC
If Plant max demand from Utility is reduced e. rotor electrical faults
f. loss of excitation
Figure 16.2:
Embedded generation g. loss of synchronism
h. failure of prime mover
j. lubrication oil failure
l. overspeeding
m. rotor distortion
n. difference in expansion between rotating and stationary parts
o. excessive vibration
p. core lamination faults

16

472 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 2. Generator Earthing
Generator-Transformer
Protection

The neutral point of a generator is usually earthed to facilitate

protection of the stator winding and associated system. Earthing
also prevents damaging transient overvoltages in the event of an
arcing earth fault or ferroresonance.
For HV generators, impedance is usually inserted in the stator
(a) Direct earthing earthing connection to limit the magnitude of earth fault current.
There is a wide variation in the earth fault current chosen, common
values being:

Typical setting 1. rated current

(% of earthing 2. 200A-400A (low impedance earthing)
resistor rating)
3. 10A-20A (high impedance earthing)
10
I> 5
The main methods of impedance-earthing a generator are shown in
(b) Resistance earthing Figure 16.3. Low values of earth fault current may limit the damage
caused from a fault, but they simultaneously make detection of a
fault towards the stator winding star point more difficult. Except for
special applications, such as marine, LV generators are normally
solidly earthed to comply with safety requirements. Where a
step-up transformer is applied, the generator and the lower voltage
winding of the transformer can be treated as an isolated system that
Loading is not influenced by the earthing requirements of the power system.
resistor
An earthing transformer or a series impedance can be used as the
impedance. If an earthing transformer is used, the continuous
(c) Distribution transformer
rating is usually in the range 5-250kVA. The secondary winding is
earthing with overvoltage relay
loaded with a resistor of a value which, when referred through the
transformer turns ratio, will pass the chosen short-time earth-fault
current. This is typically in the range of 5-20A. The resistor
prevents the production of high transient overvoltages in the event
of an arcing earth fault, which it does by discharging the bound
charge in the circuit capacitance. For this reason, the resistive
Loading component of fault current should not be less than the residual
resistor capacitance current. This is the basis of the design, and in practice
values of between 3-5 are used.
It is important that the earthing transformer never becomes
saturated; otherwise a very undesirable condition of ferroresonance
(d) Distribution transformer may occur. The normal rise of the generated voltage above the
earthing with overcurrent relay rated value caused by a sudden loss of load or by field forcing must
16
be considered, as well as flux doubling in the transformer due to the
Figure 16.3: point-on-wave of voltage application. It is sufficient that the
Methods of generator earthing transformer be designed to have a primary winding knee-point
e.m.f. equal to 1.3 times the generator rated line voltage.

NRJED311332EN 473
 Generator and 3. Stator Winding Faults
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Failure of the stator windings or connection insulation can result in

severe damage to the windings and stator core. The extent of the
damage will depend on the magnitude and duration of the fault
current.

3.1 Earth Faults

The most probable mode of insulation failure is phase to earth. Use
of an earthing impedance limits the earth fault current and hence
stator damage.
An earth fault involving the stator core results in burning of the iron
at the point of fault and welds laminations together. Replacement of
the faulty conductor may not be a very serious matter (dependent
on set rating/voltage/construction) but the damage to the core
cannot be ignored, since the welding of laminations may result in
local overheating. The damaged area can sometimes be repaired,
but if severe damage has occurred, a partial core rebuild will be
necessary. A flashover is more likely to occur in the end-winding
region, where electrical stresses are highest. The resultant forces
on the conductors would be very large and they may result in
extensive damage, requiring the partial or total rewinding of the
generator. Apart from burning the core, the greatest danger arising
from failure to quickly deal with a fault is fire. A large portion of the
insulating material is inflammable, and in the case of an air-cooled
machine, the forced ventilation can quickly cause an arc flame to
spread around the winding. Fire will not occur in a hydrogen-cooled
machine, provided the stator system remains sealed. In any case,
the length of an outage may be considerable, resulting in major
financial impact from loss of generation revenue and/or import of
additional energy.

3.2 Phase-Phase Faults

Phase-phase faults clear of earth are less common; they may occur
on the end portion of stator coils or in the slots if the winding
involves two coil sides in the same slot. In the latter case, the fault
will involve earth in a very short time. Phase fault current is not
16 limited by the method of earthing the neutral point.

3.3 Interturn Faults

Interturn faults are rare, but a significant fault-loop current can arise
where such a fault does occur. Conventional generator protection
systems would be blind to an interturn fault, but the extra cost and
complication of providing detection of a purely interturn fault is not
usually justified. In this case, an interturn fault must develop into an
earth fault before it can be cleared. An exception may be where a
machine has an abnormally complicated or multiple winding
arrangement, where the probability of an interturn fault might be
increased.

474 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 4. Stator Winding Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

To respond quickly to a phase fault with damaging heavy current,

sensitive, high-speed differential protection is normally applied to
generators rated in excess of 1MVA. For large generating units,
fast fault clearance will also maintain stability of the main power
system. The zone of differential protection can be extended to
include an associated step-up transformer. For smaller generators,
IDMT/instantaneous overcurrent protection is usually the only
phase fault protection applied. Sections 5 - 8 detail the various
methods that are available for stator winding protection.

16

NRJED311332EN 475
 Generator and 5. Differential Protection of
Generator-Transformer
Protection Direct Connected
Generators

The theory of circulating current differential protection is discussed

Stator
fully in Chapter ”Unit Protection of Feeders” (Section 4).
A
B High-speed phase fault protection is provided, by use of the
C connections shown in Figure 16.4. This depicts the derivation of
differential current through CT secondary circuit connections. This
protection may also offer earth fault protection for some moderate
impedance-earthed applications. Either biased differential or high
impedance differential techniques can be applied. A subtle
difference with modern, biased, numerical generator protection
relays is that they usually derive the differential currents and biasing
currents by algorithmic calculation, after measurement of the
Figure 16.4: individual CT secondary currents. In such relay designs, there is
Stator differential protection
full galvanic separation of the neutral-tail and terminal CT
secondary circuits, as indicated in Figure 16.5(a). This is not the
case for the application of high-impedance differential protection.
This difference can impose some special relay design requirements
to achieve stability for biased differential protection in some
applications.

5.1 Biased Differential Protection

The relay connections for this form of protection are shown in
Figure 16.5(a) and a typical bias characteristic is shown in Figure
16.5(b). The differential current threshold setting can be set as
low as 5% of rated generator current, to provide protection for as
much of the winding as possible. The bias slope break-point
threshold setting would typically be set to a value above
generator rated current, say 120%, to achieve external fault stability
in the event of transient asymmetric CT saturation. Bias slope
setting would typically be set at 150%.

(a): Relay connections for biased differential protection

5.2 High Impedance Differential Protection
This differs from biased differential protection by the manner in
which relay stability is achieved for external faults and by the fact
Operate
that the differential current must be attained through the electrical
connections of CT secondary circuits. If the impedance of each
16 relay in Figure 16.4 is high, the event of one CT becoming saturated
Restrain
by the through fault current (leading to a relatively low CT
impedance), will allow the current from the unsaturated CT to flow
mainly through the saturated CT rather than through the relay. This
(b) Biased differential operating characteristic
provides the required protection stability where a tuned relay
element is employed. In practice, external resistance is added to
the relay circuit to provide the necessary high impedance.
Figure 16.5:
Typical generator biased differential
protection

476 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 5. Differential Protection of
Generator-Transformer
Protection Direct Connected
Generators (cont.)

The principle of high-impedance protection application is illustrated

in Figure 16.6, together with a summary of the calculations required
to determine the value of external stabilising resistance.

Healthy CT Saturated CT
Protected zone

Rst
Figure 16.6:
Principle of high impedance differential
protection

Voltage across relay circuit

where
Stabilising resistor, , limits spill current to
V (relay setting)
Rst = s -RR when = relay burden
Is

In some applications, protection may be required to limit voltages

across the CT secondary circuits when the differential secondary
current for an internal phase fault flows through the high impedance
relay circuit(s), but this is not commonly a requirement for generator
differential applications unless very high impedance relays are
applied.
Where necessary, shunt–connected, non-linear resistors, should
be deployed, as shown in Figure 16.7. To calculate the primary
operating current, the following expression is used:

where: 16
= primary operating current
= CT ratio
= relay setting
= number of CT’s in parallel with relay element

= CT magnetising current at Vs
is typically set to 5% of generator rated secondary current.

NRJED311332EN 477
 Generator and 5. Differential Protection of
Generator-Transformer
Protection Direct Connected
Generators (cont.)

It can be seen from the above that the calculations for the
application of high impedance differential protection are more
complex than for biased differential protection. However, the
protection scheme is actually quite simple and it offers a high level
of stability for through faults and external switching events.
With the advent of multi-function numerical relays and with a desire
to dispense with external components, high impedance differential
protection is not as popular as biased differential protection in
modern relaying practice.

Figure 16.7:
Relay connections for high impedance NLR NLR NLR
differential protection

= Stabilising resistor
= Non-linear resistance
(Metrosil)

5.3 CT Requirements
The CT requirements for differential protection will vary according to
the relay used. Modern numerical relays may not require CT’s
specifically designed for differential protection to IEC 60044-1 class PX
(or BS 3938 class X). However, requirements in respect of CT
knee-point voltage will still have to be checked for the specific
relays used. High impedance differential protection may be more
onerous in this respect than biased differential protection.
16
Many factors affect this, including the other protection functions fed
by the CT’s and the knee-point requirements of the particular relay
concerned. Relay manufacturers are able to provide detailed
guidance on this matter.

478 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 6. Differential Protection of
Generator-Transformer
Protection Generator-Transformers

A common connection arrangement for large generators is to

operate the generator and associated step-up transformer as a unit
without any intervening circuit breaker. The unit transformer
supplying the generator auxiliaries is tapped off the connection
between generator and step-up transformer. Differential protection
can be arranged as follows.

6.1 Generator/Step-up Transformer Differential

Protection
The generator stator and step-up transformer can be protected by a
Main
Generator transformer single zone of overall differential protection (Figure 16.8). This will
be in addition to differential protection applied to the generator only.
The current transformers should be located in the generator neutral
Protected zone connections and in the transformer HV connections. Alternatively,
HV
busbars CT’s within the HV switchyard may be employed if the distance is
not technically prohibitive. Even where there is a generator circuit
breaker, overall differential protection can still be provided if
desired.
The current transformers should be rated according to Chapter
”Differential Protection” (Section 8.2). Since a power transformer is
Figure 16.8: included within the zone of protection, biased transformer
Overall generator-transforme differential differential protection, with magnetising inrush restraint should be
protection applied, as discussed in Chapter ”Differential Protection” (Section
8.5). Transient overfluxing of the generator transformer may arise
due to overvoltage following generator load rejection. In some
applications, this may threaten the stability of the differential
protection. In such cases, consideration should be given to
applying protection with transient overfluxing restraint/blocking (e.g.
based on a 5th harmonic differential current threshold). Protection
against sustained overfluxing is covered in Section 14.

6.2 Unit Transformer Differential Protection

The current taken by the unit transformer must be allowed for by
arranging the generator differential protection as a three-ended
scheme. Unit transformer current transformers are usually applied
to balance the generator differential protection and prevent the unit 16
transformer through current being seen as differential current. An
exception might be where the unit transformer rating is extremely
low in relation to the generator rating, e.g. for some hydro
applications. The location of the third set of current transformers is
normally on the primary side of the unit transformer. If located on
secondary side of the unit transformer, they would have to be of an
exceptionally high ratio, or exceptionally high ratio interposing CT’s
would have to be used. Thus, the use of secondary side CT’s is not
to be recommended. One advantage is that unit transformer faults
would be within the zone of protection of the generator. However,
the sensitivity of the generator protection to unit transformer phase
faults would be considered inadequate, due to the relatively low
rating of the transformer in relation to that of the generator. Thus,
the unit transformer should have its own differential protection
scheme. Protection for the unit transformer is covered in Chapter
”Transformer and Transformer-Feeder Protection””, including
methods for stabilising the protection against magnetising inrush
conditions.
NRJED311332EN 479
 Generator and 7. Overcurrent Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Overcurrent protection of generators may take two forms. Plain

overcurrent protection may be used as the principle form of
protection for small generators, and back-up protection for larger
ones where differential protection is used as the primary method of
generator stator winding protection. Voltage dependent overcurrent
protection may be applied where differential protection is not
justified on larger generators, or where problems are met in
applying plain overcurrent protection.

7.1 Plain Overcurrent Protection

It is usual to apply time-delayed plain overcurrent protection to
generators. For generators rated less than 1MVA, this will form the
principal stator winding protection for phase faults. For larger
generators, overcurrent protection can be applied as remote
back-up protection, to disconnect the unit from any uncleared
external fault. Where there is only one set of differential main
protection, for a smaller generator, the overcurrent protection will
also provide local back-up protection for the protected plant, in the
event that the main protection fails to operate. The general
principles of setting overcurrent relays are given in Chapter
”Overcurrent Protection for Phase and Earth Faults”.
In the case of a single generator feeding an isolated system, current
transformers at the neutral end of the machine should energise the
overcurrent protection, to allow a response to winding fault
conditions. Relay characteristics should be selected to take into
account the fault current decrement behaviour of the generator,
with allowance for the performance of the excitation system and its
field-forcing capability. Without the provision of fault current
compounding from generator CT’s, an excitation system that is
powered from an excitation transformer at the generator terminals
will exhibit a pronounced fault current decrement for a terminal
fault. With failure to consider this effect, the potential exists for the
initial high fault current to decay to a value below the overcurrent
protection pick-up setting before a relay element can operate,
unless a low current setting and/or time setting is applied. The
protection would then fail to trip the generator. The settings chosen
must be the best compromise between assured operation in the
16 foregoing circumstances and discrimination with the system
protection and passage of normal load current, but this can be
impossible with plain overcurrent protection.

480 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 7. Overcurrent Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

In the more usual case of a generator that operates in parallel with

others and which forms part of an extensive interconnected system,
back-up phase fault protection for a generator and its transformer
will be provided by HV overcurrent protection. This will respond to
the higher-level backfeed from the power system to a unit fault.
Other generators in parallel would supply this current and, being
stabilised by the system impedance, it will not suffer a major
decrement. This protection is usually a requirement of the power
system operator. Settings must be chosen to prevent operation for
external faults fed by the generator. It is common for the HV
overcurrent protection relay to provide both time-delayed and
instantaneous high-set elements.
The time-delayed elements should be set to ensure that the
protected items of plant cannot pass levels of through fault current
in excess of their short-time withstand limits.
The instantaneous elements should be set above the maximum
possible fault current that the generator can supply, but less than
the system-supplied fault current in the event of a generator
winding fault. This back-up protection will minimise plant damage
in the event of main protection failure for a generating plant fault
and instantaneous tripping for an HV-side fault will aid the recovery
of the power system and parallel generation.

7.2 Voltage-Dependent Overcurrent Protection

The plain overcurrent protection setting difficulty referred to in the
previous section arises because allowance has to be made both for
the decrement of the generator fault current with time and for the
passage of full load current. To overcome the difficulty of
discrimination, the generator terminal voltage can be measured and
used to dynamically modify the basic relay current/time overcurrent
characteristic for faults close to the generating plant. There are two
basic alternatives for the application of voltage-dependent
overcurrent protection, which are discussed in the following
sections. The choice depends upon the power system
characteristics and level of protection to be provided. Voltage-
dependent overcurrent relays are often found applied to generators
used on industrial systems as an alternative to full differential
protection.
16

NRJED311332EN 481
 Generator and 7. Overcurrent Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

7.2.1 Voltage controlled overcurrent protection

Voltage controlled overcurrent protection has two time/current
Current pick-up level
characteristics which are selected according to the status of a
generator terminal voltage measuring element. The voltage
threshold setting for the switching element is chosen according to
the following criteria.
1. during overloads, when the system voltage is sustained near
normal, the overcurrent protection should have a current setting
above full load current and an operating time characteristic that
will prevent the generating plant from passing current to a
remote external fault for a period in excess of the plant short-
time withstand limits
Voltage level 2. under close-up fault conditions, the busbar voltage must fall
below the voltage threshold so that the second protection
Figure 16.9: characteristic will be selected. This characteristic should be set
Voltage controlled relay characteristics to allow relay operation with fault current decrement for a
close-up fault at the generator terminals or at the HV busbars.
The protection should also time-grade with external circuit
protection. There may be additional infeeds to an external
circuit fault that will assist with grading
Typical characteristics are shown in Figure 16.9.

7.2.2 Voltage restrained overcurrent protection

The alternative technique is to continuously vary the relay element
Current pick-up level
pickup setting with generator voltage variation between upper and
lower limits. The voltage is said to restrain the operation of the
current element.
The effect is to provide a dynamic I.D.M.T. protection characteristic,
according to the voltage at the machine terminals. Alternatively, the
relay element may be regarded as an impedance type with a long
dependent time delay. In consequence, for a given fault condition,
the relay continues to operate more or less independently of current
decrement in the machine. A typical characteristic is shown in
Figure 16.10.
16
Voltage level

Figure 16.10:
Voltage restrained relay characteristics

482 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Earth fault protection must be applied where impedance earthing is

employed that limits the earth fault current to less than the pick-up
threshold of the overcurrent and/or differential protection for a fault
located down to the bottom 5% of the stator winding from the
star-point. The type of protection required will depend on the
method of earthing and connection of the generator to the power
system.

8.1 Direct-Connected Generators

A single direct-connected generator operating on an isolated
system will normally be directly earthed. However, if several
direct-connected generators are operated in parallel, only one
generator is normally earthed at a time. For the unearthed
generators, a simple measurement of the neutral current is not
possible, and other methods of protection must be used. The
following sections describe the methods available.

8.1.1 Neutral overcurrent protection

With this form of protection, a current transformer in the neutral-
earth connection energises an overcurrent relay element. This
provides unrestricted earth-fault protection and so it must be
graded with feeder protection. The relay element will therefore
have a time-delayed operating characteristic. Grading must be
carried out in accordance with the principles detailed in Chapter
”Overcurrent Protection for Phase and Earth Faults”. The setting
should not be more than 33% of the maximum earth fault current of
the generator, and a lower setting would be preferable, depending
on grading considerations.

8.1.2 Sensitive earth fault protection

This method is used in the following situations:
a. direct-connected generators operating in parallel
b. generators with high-impedance neutral earthing, the earth fault
current being limited to a few tens of amps 16
c. installations where the resistance of the ground fault path is very
high, due to the nature of the ground
In these cases, conventional earth fault protection as described in
Section 8.1.1 is of little use.
The principles of sensitive earth fault protection are described in
Chapter ”Overcurrent Protection for Phase and Earth Fault”
(Sections 17.1, 18 and 19). The earth fault (residual) current can be
obtained from residual connection of line CT’s, a line-connected
CBCT, or a CT in the generator neutral. The latter is not possible if
directional protection is used. The polarising voltage is usually the
neutral voltage displacement input to the relay, or the residual of the
three phase voltages, so a suitable VT must be used. For Petersen
Coil earthing, a wattmetric technique (Chapter ”Overcurrent
Protection for Phase and Earth Faults” - Section 19) can also be
used.

NRJED311332EN 483
 Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

For direct connected generators operating in parallel, directional

sensitive earth fault protection may be necessary. This is to ensure
that a faulted generator will be tripped before there is any possibility
of the neutral overcurrent protection tripping a parallel healthy
generator. When being driven by residually-connected phase CT’s,
the protection must be stabilised against incorrect tripping with
transient spill current in the event of asymmetric CT saturation
when phase fault or magnetising inrush current is being passed.
Stabilising techniques include the addition of relay circuit
impedance and/or the application of a time delay. Where the
required setting of the protection is very low in comparison to the
rated current of the phase CT’s, it would be necessary to employ a
single CBCT for the earth fault protection to ensure transient
stability.
Since any generator in the paralleled group may be earthed, all
generators will require to be fitted with both neutral overcurrent
protection and sensitive directional earth fault protection.
The setting of the sensitive directional earth fault protection is
chosen to co-ordinate with generator differential protection and/or
neutral voltage displacement protection to ensure that 95% of the
stator winding is protected. Figure 16.11 illustrates the complete
scheme, including optional blocking signals where difficulties in
co-ordinating the generator and downstream feeder earth-fault
protection occur.

Feeder
* Optional interlocked
earth-fault protection
> >> if grading problems exist

> > >

Figure 16.11: Block* Block*
> >
Comprehensive earth-fault protection
16 scheme for direct-connected generators
operating in parallel
Open

Minimum earth fault level = =

For cases (b) and (c) above, it is not necessary to use a directional
facility. Care must be taken to use the correct RCA setting – for
instance if the earthing impedance is mainly resistive, this should
be 0°. On insulated or very high impedance earthed systems, an
RCA of -90° would be used, as the earth fault current is
predominately capacitive.

484 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

Directional sensitive earth-fault protection can also be used for

detecting winding earth faults. In this case, the relay element is
applied to the terminals of the generator and is set to respond to
faults only within the machine windings. Hence earth faults on the
external system do not result in relay operation. However, current
flowing from the system into a winding earth fault causes relay
operation. It will not operate on the earthed machine, so that other
types of earth fault protection must also be applied. All generators
must be so fitted, since any can be operated as the earthed
machine.

8.1.3 Neutral voltage displacement protection

In a balanced network, the addition of the three phase-earth
voltages produces a nominally zero residual voltage, since there
would be little zero sequence voltage present. Any earth fault will
set up a zero sequence system voltage, which will give rise to a
non-zero residual voltage. This can be measured by a suitable
relay element. The voltage signal must be derived from a VT that is
suitable – i.e. it must be capable of transforming zero-sequence
voltage, so 3-limb types and those without a primary earth
connection are not suitable. This unbalance voltage provides a
means of detecting earth faults. The relay element must be
insensitive to third harmonic voltages that may be present in the
system voltage waveforms, as these will sum residually.
As the protection is still unrestricted, the voltage setting of the relay
must be greater than the effective setting of any downstream
earth-fault protection. It must also be time-delayed to co-ordinate
with such protection. Sometimes, a second high-set element with
short time delay is used to provide fast-acting protection against
major winding earth-faults. Figure 16.12 illustrates the possible
connections that may be used.

16

Figure 16.12: 3 1
Neutral voltage displacement protection

1 Derived from phase neutral voltages

2 Measured from earth impedance
3 Measured from broken delta VT

NRJED311332EN 485
 Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

8.2 Indirectly-Connected Generators

As noted in Section.2, a directly-earthed generator-transformer unit
cannot interchange zero-sequence current with the remainder of
the network, and hence an earth fault protection grading problem
does not exist. The following sections detail the protection methods
for the various forms of impedance earthing of generators.

8.2.1 High resistance earthing – neutral overcurrent protection

A current transformer mounted on the neutral-earth conductor can
drive an instantaneous and/or time delayed overcurrent relay
element, as shown in Figure 16.13. It is impossible to provide
protection for the whole of the winding, and Figure 16.13 also
details how the percentage of winding covered can be calculated.
For a relay element with an instantaneous setting, protection is
typically limited to 90% of the winding. This is to ensure that the
protection will not maloperate with zero sequence current during
operation of a primary fuse for a VT earth fault or with any transient
surge currents that could flow through the interwinding capacitance
of the step-up transformer for an HV system earth fault.

Figure 16.13:
Earth fault protection of high-resistance
16 earthed generator stator winding using a
current element

Generator stator winding using a current element

486 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

A time-delayed relay is more secure in this respect, and it may have

a setting to cover 95% of the stator winding. Since the generating
units under consideration are usually large, instantaneous and time
delayed relay elements are often applied, with settings of 10% and
5% of maximum earth fault current respectively; this is the optimum
compromise in performance. The portion of the winding left
unprotected for an earth fault is at the neutral end. Since the
voltage to earth at this end of the winding is low, the probability of an
earth fault occurring is also low. Hence additional protection is
often not applied.

8.2.2 Distribution transformer earthing using a current

element
In this arrangement, shown in Figure 16.14(a), the generator is
earthed via the primary winding of a distribution transformer. The
secondary winding is fitted with a loading resistor to limit the earth
fault current.

Loading
resistor

Figure 16.14:
Generator winding earth-fault
protection - distribution transformer (a) Protection using a current element
16
earthing

Loading >
resistor

(b) Protection using a voltage element

NRJED311332EN 487
 Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

An overcurrent relay element energised from a current transformer

connected in the resistor circuit is used to measure secondary earth
fault current. The relay should have an effective setting equivalent
to 5% of the maximum earth fault current at rated generator voltage,
in order to protect 95% of the stator winding. The relay element
response to third harmonic current should be limited to prevent
incorrect operation when a sensitive setting is applied.
As discussed in Section 8.2.1 for neutral overcurrent protection, the
protection should be time delayed when a sensitive setting is
applied, in order to prevent maloperation under transient conditions.
It also must grade with generator VT primary protection (for a VT
primary earth fault). An operation time in the range 0.5s-3s is usual.
Less sensitive instantaneous protection can also be applied to
provide fast tripping for a heavier earth fault condition.

8.2.3 Distribution transformer earthing using a voltage

element
Earth fault protection can also be provided using a voltage-
measuring element in the secondary circuit instead. The setting
considerations would be similar to those for the current operated
protection, but transposed to voltage. The circuit diagram is shown
in Figure 16.14(b).
Application of both voltage and current operated elements to a
generator with distribution transformer earthing provides some
advantages. The current operated function will continue to operate
in the event of a short-circuited loading resistor and the voltage
protection still functions in the event of an open-circuited resistor.
However, neither scheme will operate in the event of a flashover on
the primary terminals of the transformer or of the neutral cable
between the generator and the transformer during an earth fault. A
CT could be added in the neutral connection close to the generator,
to energise a high-set overcurrent element to detect such a fault,
but the fault current would probably be high enough to operate the
phase differential protection.

16 8.2.4 Neutral voltage displacement protection

This can be applied in the same manner as for direct-connected
generators (Section 8.1.3). The only difference is that the are no
grading problems as the protection is inherently restricted.
A sensitive setting can therefore be used, enabling cover of up to
95% of the stator winding to be achieved.

488 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

8.3 Restricted Earth Fault Protection

This technique can be used on small generators not fitted with
differential protection to provide fast acting earth fault protection
within a defined zone that encompasses the generator. It is
cheaper than full differential protection but only provides protection
against earth faults. The principle is that used for transformer REF
protection, as detailed in Chapter ”Transformer and Transformer-
Feeder Protection” (Section 7). However, in contrast to transformer
REF protection, both biased low-impedance and high-impedance
techniques can be used.

8.3.1 Low-impedance biased REF protection

This is shown in Figure 16.15. The main advantage is that the
neutral CT can also be used in a modern relay to provide
conventional earth-fault protection and no external resistors are
used. Relay bias is required, as described in Chapter ”Unit
Protection of Feeders” (Section 4.2), but the formula for calculating
the bias is slightly different and also shown in Figure 16.15.

Phase CT ratio 1000/1

Phase A
Phase B
Phase C

Neutral CT ratio
200/1

Figure 16.15:
Low impedance biased REF protection of a
generator

(highest of )+( x scaling factor)

2 16
neutral CT ratio 200
where scaling factor = = = 0.2
phase CT ratio 1000

+ (scaling factor x )

The initial bias slope is commonly set to 0% to provide maximum

sensitivity, and applied up to the rated current of the generator. It
may be increased to counter the effects of CT mismatch. The bias
slope above generator rated current is typically set to 150% of rated
value. The initial current setting is typically 5% of the minimum
earth fault current for a fault at the machine terminals.

NRJED311332EN 489
 Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

8.3.2 High Impedance REF protection

The principle of high impedance differential protection is given in
Chapter ”Unit Protection of Feeders” and also described further in
Section 5.2. The same technique can be used for earth-fault
protection of a generator, using three residually connected phase
CT’s balanced against a similar single CT in the neutral connection.
Settings of the order of 5% of maximum earth fault current at the
generator terminals are typical. The usual requirements in respect
of stabilising resistor and non-linear resistor to guard against
excessive voltage across the relay must be taken, where
necessary.

8.4 Earth Fault Protection for the Entire Stator

Winding
All of the methods for earth fault protection detailed so far leave part
of the winding unprotected. In most cases, this is of no
consequence as the probability of a fault occurring in the 5% of the
winding nearest the neutral connection is very low, due to the
reduced phase to earth voltage. However, a fault can occur
anywhere along the stator windings in the event of insulation failure
due to localised heating from a core fault. In cases where
protection for the entire winding is required, perhaps for alarm only,
there are various methods available.

8.4.1 Measurement of third harmonic voltage

One method is to measure the internally generated third harmonic
voltage that appears across the earthing impedance due to the flow
of third harmonic currents through the shunt capacitance of the
stator windings etc. When a fault occurs in the part of the stator
winding nearest the neutral end, the third harmonic voltage drops to
near zero, and hence a relay element that responds to third
harmonic voltage can be used to detect the condition. As the fault
location moves progressively away from the neutral end, the drop in
16 third harmonic voltage from healthy conditions becomes less, so
that at around 20-30% of the winding distance, it no longer
becomes possible to discriminate between a healthy and a faulty
winding.
Hence, a conventional earth-fault scheme should be used in
conjunction with a third harmonic scheme, to provide overlapping
cover of the entire stator winding. The measurement of third
harmonic voltage can be taken either from a star-point VT or the
generator line VT. In the latter case, the VT must be capable of
carrying residual flux, and this prevents the use of 3-limb types. If
the third harmonic voltage is measured at the generator star point,
an undervoltage characteristic is used. An overvoltage
characteristic is used if the measurement is taken from the
generator line VT.

490 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 8. Stator Earth Fault Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

For effective application of this form of protection, there should be

at least 1% third harmonic voltage across the generator neutral
earthing impedance under all operating conditions.
A problem encountered is that the level of third harmonic voltage
generated is related to the output of the generator. The voltage is
low when generator output is low. In order to avoid maloperation
when operating at low power output, the relay element can be
inhibited using an overcurrent or power element (kW, kvar or kVA)
and internal programmable logic.

8.4.2 Use of low-frequency voltage injection

Another method for protecting the entire stator winding of a
generator is to deploy signal injection equipment to inject a low
frequency voltage between the stator star point and earth. An earth
fault at any winding location will result in the flow of a measurable
injection current to cause protection operation. This form of
protection can provide earth fault protection when the generator is
at standstill, prior to run-up. It is also an appropriate method to
apply to variable speed synchronous machines. Such machines
may be employed for variable speed motoring in pumped-storage
generation schemes or for starting a large gas turbine prime mover.

16

NRJED311332EN 491
 Generator and 9. Overvoltage Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Overvoltages on a generator may occur due to transient surges on

the network, or prolonged power frequency overvoltages may arise
from a variety of conditions. Surge arrestors may be required to
protect against transient overvoltages, but relay protection may be
used to protect against power frequency overvoltages.
A sustained overvoltage condition should not occur for a machine
with a healthy voltage regulator, but it may be caused by the
following contingencies:
a. defective operation of the automatic voltage regulator when the
machine is in isolated operation
b. operation under manual control with the voltage regulator out of
service. A sudden variation of the load, in particular the reactive
power component, will give rise to a substantial change in
voltage because of the large voltage regulation inherent in a
typical alternator
c. sudden loss of load (due to tripping of outgoing feeders, leaving
the set isolated or feeding a very small load) may cause a
sudden rise in terminal voltage due to the trapped field flux and/
or overspeed
Sudden loss of load should only cause a transient overvoltage while
the voltage regulator and governor act to correct the situation. A
maladjusted voltage regulator may trip to manual, maintaining
excitation at the value prior to load loss while the generator supplies
little or no load. The terminal voltage will increase substantially, and
in severe cases it would be limited only by the saturation
characteristic of the generator. A rise in speed simply compounds
the problem. If load that is sensitive to overvoltages remains
connected, the consequences in terms of equipment damage and
lost revenue can be severe. Prolonged overvoltages may also
occur on isolated networks, or ones with weak interconnections,
due to the fault conditions listed earlier.
For these reasons, it is prudent to provide power frequency
overvoltage protection, in the form of a time-delayed element, either
IDMT or definite time. The time delay should be long enough to
prevent operation during normal regulator action, and therefore
should take account of the type of AVR fitted and its transient
16 response. Sometimes a high-set element is provided as well, with a
very short definite-time delay or instantaneous setting to provide a
rapid trip in extreme circumstances. The usefulness of this is
questionable for generators fitted with an excitation system other
than a static type, because the excitation will decay in accordance
with the open-circuit time constant of the field winding. This decay
can last several seconds. The relay element is arranged to trip both
the main circuit breaker (if not already open) and the excitation;
tripping the main circuit breaker alone is not sufficient.

492 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 10. Undervoltage Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Undervoltage protection is rarely fitted to generators. It is

sometimes used as an interlock element for another protection
function or scheme, such as field failure protection or inadvertent
energisation protection, where the abnormality to be detected leads
directly or indirectly to an undervoltage condition.
A transmission system undervoltage condition may arise when
there is insufficient reactive power generation to maintain the
system voltage profile and the condition must be addressed to
avoid the possible phenomenon of system voltage collapse.
However, it should be addressed by the deployment of ’system
protection’ schemes. The generation should not be tripped. The
greatest case for undervoltage protection being required would be
for a generator supplying an isolated power system or to meet
Utility demands for connection of embedded generation (see
Section 21).
In the case of generators feeding an isolated system, undervoltage
may occur for several reasons, typically overloading or failure of the
AVR. In some cases, the performance of generator auxiliary plant
fed via a unit transformer from the generator terminals could be
adversely affected by prolonged undervoltage.
Where undervoltage protection is required, it should comprise an
undervoltage element and an associated time delay. Settings must
be chosen to avoid maloperation during the inevitable voltage dips
during power system fault clearance or associated with motor
starting. Transient reductions in voltage down to 80% or less may
be encountered during motor starting.

16

NRJED311332EN 493
 Generator and 11. Low Forward Power /
Generator-Transformer
Protection Reverse Power Protection

Motoring Low forward power or reverse power protection may be required for
Prime Possible Protection
Power (% some generators to protect the prime mover. Parts of the prime
Mover Damage Setting
of rated) mover may not be designed to experience reverse torque or they
Fire/ may become damaged through continued rotation after the prime
explosion mover has suffered some form of failure.
due to
unburnt
Diesel fuel
5 - 25
Engine
Mechanical 11.1 Low Forward Power Protection
damage to
gearbox/ Low forward power protection is often used as an interlocking
shafts function to enable opening of the main circuit breaker for non-
10-15 urgent trips – e.g. for a stator earth fault on a high-impedance
(split shaft) earthed generator, or when a normal shutdown of a set is taking
Gas gearbox place. This is to minimise the risk of plant overspeeding when the
Turbine > 50% damage
(single 50% of electrical load is removed from a high-speed cylindrical rotor
shaft) motoring generator. The rotor of this type of generator is highly stressed
power
0.2-2 mechanically and cannot tolerate much overspeed. While the
(blades out governor should control overspeed conditions, it is not good
of water) blade and
Hydro runner practice to open the main circuit breaker simultaneously with
>2 cavitation tripping of the prime mover for non-urgent trips. For a steam
(blades in turbine, for example, there is a risk of overspeeding due to energy
water)
storage in the trapped steam, after steam valve tripping, or in the
turbine event that the steam valve(s) do not fully close for some reason.
blade
damage For urgent trip conditions, such as stator differential protection
Steam
Turbine
0.5 - 6 operation, the risk involved in simultaneous prime mover and
gearbox
damage on generator breaker tripping must be accepted.
geared sets

Table 16.1:
Generator reverse power problems
11.2 Reverse Power Protection
Reverse power protection is applied to prevent damage to
mechanical plant items in the event of failure of the prime mover.
Table 16.1 gives details of the potential problems for various prime
mover types and the typical settings for reverse power protection.
For applications where a protection sensitivity of better than 3% is
required, a metering class CT should be employed to avoid
incorrect protection behaviour due to CT phase angle errors when
the generator supplies a significant level of reactive power at close
to zero power factor.

16 The reverse power protection should be provided with a definite

time delay on operation to prevent spurious operation with transient
power swings that may arise following synchronisation or in the
event of a power transmission system disturbance.

494 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 12. Unbalanced Loading
Generator-Transformer
Protection

A three-phase balanced load produces a reaction field that, to a first

approximation, is constant and rotates synchronously with the rotor
field system. Any unbalanced condition can be resolved into
positive, negative and zero sequence components. The positive
sequence component is similar to the normal balanced load. The
zero sequence component produces no main armature reaction.

12.1 Effect of Negative Sequence Current

The negative sequence component is similar to the positive
sequence system, except that the resulting reaction field rotates in
the opposite direction to the d.c. field system. Hence, a flux is
produced which cuts the rotor at twice the rotational velocity,
thereby inducing double frequency currents in the field system and
in the rotor body. The resulting eddy-currents are very large and
cause severe heating of the rotor.
So severe is this effect that a single-phase load equal to the normal
three-phase rated current can quickly heat the rotor slot wedges to
the softening point. They may then be extruded under centrifugal
force until they stand above the rotor surface, when it is possible
that they may strike the stator core.
A generator is assigned a continuous negative sequence rating.
For turbo-generators this rating is low; standard values of 10% and
15% of the generator continuous rating have been adopted. The
lower rating applies when the more intensive cooling techniques
are applied, for example hydrogen-cooling with gas ducts in the
rotor to facilitate direct cooling of the winding.
Short time heating is of interest during system fault conditions and it
is usual in determining the generator negative sequence withstand
capability to assume that the heat dissipation during such periods is
negligible. Using this approximation it is possible to express the
heating by the law:
I 22t = K
where:
= negative sequence component (per unit of MCR)
= time (seconds) 16
= constant proportional to the thermal capacity of the generator
rotor
For heating over a period of more than a few seconds, it is
necessary to allow for the heat dissipated. From a combination of
the continuous and short time ratings, the overall heating
characteristic can be deduced to be:
I2 1
M = =
1−e ( )
I2R − I 22 R t K

where:
= negative phase sequence continuous rating in per unit of MCR
The heating characteristics of various designs of generator are
shown in Figure 16.16.

NRJED311332EN 495
 Generator and 12. Unbalanced Loading
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

10000

1000

100
Indirectly cooled (air)
Indirectly cooled (H2)
350MW direct cooled
Time (sec)
10 660MW direct cooled
Figure 16.16:
Typical negative phase sequence current 1000MW direct cooled
withstand of cylindrical rotor generators

1 Using I 22 t model
Using true thermal
model

0.1

0.01
0.01 0.1 1 10
Negative sequence current (p.u.)

12.2 Negative Phase Sequence Protection

This protection is applied to prevent overheating due to negative
sequence currents. Small salient-pole generators have a
proportionately larger negative sequence capacity and may not
require protection. Modern numerical relays derive the negative
sequence current level by calculation, with no need for special
16 circuits to extract the negative sequence component. A true
thermal replica approach is often followed, to allow for:
a. standing levels of negative sequence current below the
continuous withstand capability. This has the effect of
shortening the time to reach the critical temperature after an
increase in negative sequence current above the continuous
withstand capability
b. cooling effects when negative sequence current levels are
below the continuous withstand capability
The advantage of this approach is that cooling effects are modelled
more accurately, but the disadvantage is that the tripping
characteristic may not follow the withstand characteristic specified
by the manufacturer accurately.

496 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 12. Unbalanced Loading
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

The typical relay element characteristic takes the form of

 I 2

K 2 set 
t = − 2 log e 1 −   
I 2 set   I 2  
...Equation 16.1

where:
= time to trip
2

= ×

set cmr ×

= negative sequence withstand coefficient (Figure 16.16)

= generator maximum continuous withstand
= generator rated primary current
= CT primary current
= relay rated current

Figure 16.16 also shows the thermal replica time characteristic

described by Equation 16.1, from which it will be seen that a
significant gain in capability is achieved at low levels of negative
sequence current. Such a protection element will also respond to
phase-earth and phase-phase faults where sufficient negative
sequence current arises. Grading with downstream power system
protection relays is therefore required. A definite minimum time
setting must be applied to the negative sequence relay element to
ensure correct grading. A maximum trip time setting may also be
used to ensure correct tripping when the negative sequence current
level is only slightly in excess of the continuous withstand capability
and hence the trip time from the thermal model may depart
significantly from the rotor withstand limits.
16

NRJED311332EN 497
 Generator and 13. Protection Against
Generator-Transformer
Protection Inadvertent Energisation

Accidental energisation of a generator when it is not running may

cause severe damage to it. With the generator at standstill, closing
the circuit breaker results in the generator acting as an induction
motor; the field winding (if closed) and the rotor solid iron/damper
circuits acting as rotor circuits. Very high currents are induced in
these rotor components, and also occur in the stator, with resultant
rapid overheating and damage. Protection against this condition is
therefore desirable.
A combination of stator undervoltage and overcurrent can be used
to detect this condition. An instantaneous overcurrent element is
used, and gated with a three-phase undervoltage element (fed from
a VT on the generator side of the circuit breaker) to provide the
protection. The overcurrent element can have a low setting, as
operation is blocked when the generator is operating normally. The
voltage setting should be low enough to ensure that operation
cannot occur for transient faults. A setting of about 50% of rated
voltage is typical. VT failure can cause maloperation of the
protection, so the element should be inhibited under these
conditions.

14. Under/Overfrequency /
Overfluxing Protection

These conditions are grouped together because these problems

often occur due to a departure from synchronous speed.

16
14.1 Overfluxing
Overfluxing occurs when the ratio of voltage to frequency is too
high. The iron saturates owing to the high flux density and results in
stray flux occurring in components not designed to carry it.
Overheating can then occur, resulting in damage. The problem
affects both direct-and indirectly-connected generators. Either
excessive voltage, or low frequency, or a combination of both can
result in overfluxing, a voltage to frequency ratio in excess of
1.05p.u. normally being indicative of this condition. Excessive flux
can arise transiently, which is not a problem for the generator. For
example, a generator can be subjected to a transiently high power
frequency voltage, at nominal frequency, immediately after full load
rejection.

498 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 14. Under/Overfrequency /
Generator-Transformer
Protection Overfluxing Protection
(cont.)

Since the condition would not be sustained, it only presents a

problem for the stability of the transformer differential protection
schemes applied at the power station (see Chapter ”Transformer
and Transformer-Feeder Protection”, for transformer protection).
Sustained overfluxing can arise during run up, if excitation is
applied too early with the AVR in service, or if the generator is run
down, with the excitation still applied. Other overfluxing instances
have occurred from loss of the AVR voltage feedback signal, due to
a reference VT problem. Such sustained conditions must be
detected by a dedicated overfluxing protection function that will
raise an alarm and possibly force an immediate reduction in
excitation.
Most AVRs’ have an overfluxing protection facility included. This
may only be operative when the generator is on open circuit, and
hence fail to detect overfluxing conditions due to abnormally low
system frequency. However, this facility is not engineered to
protection relay standards, and should not be solely relied upon to
provide overfluxing protection. A separate relay element is
therefore desirable and provided in most modern relays.
It is usual to provide a definite time-delayed alarm setting and an
instantaneous or inverse time-delayed trip setting, to match the
withstand characteristics of the protected generator and
transformer. It is very important that the VT reference for
overfluxing protection is not the same as that used for the AVR.

14.2 Under/Overfrequency
The governor fitted to the prime mover normally provides protection
against overfrequency. Underfrequency may occur as a result of
overload of generators operating on an isolated system, or a
serious fault on the power system that results in a deficit of
generation compared to load. This may occur if a grid system
suffers a major fault on transmission lines linking two parts of the
system, and the system then splits into two. It is likely that one part
will have an excess of generation over load, and the other will have
a corresponding deficit. Frequency will fall fairly rapidly in the latter
part, and the normal response is load shedding, either by load
shedding relays or operator action. However, prime movers may
have to be protected against excessively low frequency by tripping
16
of the generators concerned.
With some prime movers, operation in narrow frequency bands that
lie close to normal running speed (either above or below) may only
be permitted for short periods, together with a cumulative lifetime
duration of operation in such frequency bands. This typically occurs
due to the presence of rotor torsional frequencies in such frequency
bands. In such cases, monitoring of the period of time spent in
these frequency bands is required. A special relay is fitted in such
cases, arranged to provide alarm and trip facilities if either an
individual or cumulative period exceeds a set time.

NRJED311332EN 499
 Generator and 15. Rotor Faults
Generator-Transformer
Protection

The field circuit of a generator, comprising the field winding of the

Field Winding Short Circuit generator and the armature of the exciter, together with any
associated field circuit breaker if it exists, is an isolated d.c. circuit
which is not normally earthed. If an earth fault occurs, there will be
no steady-state fault current and the need for action will not be
evident.
Danger arises if a second earth fault occurs at a separate point in
the field system, to cause the high field current to be diverted, in
part at least, from the intervening turns. Serious damage to the
conductors and possibly the rotor can occur very rapidly under
these conditions.
More damage may be caused mechanically. If a large portion of the
winding is short-circuited, the flux may adopt a pattern such as that
shown in Figure 16.17. The attracting force at the surface of the
rotor is given by:
B2A
F=
8π
Figure 16.17: where:
Flux distribution on rotor with partial
winding short circuit = area
= flux density

It will be seen from Figure 16.17 that the flux is concentrated on one
pole but widely dispersed over the other and intervening surfaces.
The attracting force is in consequence large on one pole but very
weak on the opposite one, while flux on the quadrature axis will
produce a balancing force on this axis. The result is an unbalanced
force that in a large machine may be of the order of 50-100 tons.
A violent vibration is set up that may damage bearing surfaces or
even displace the rotor by an amount sufficient to cause it to foul the
stator.

15.1 Rotor Earth-Fault Protection

Two methods are available to detect this type of fault. The first
16 method is suitable for generators that incorporate brushes in the
main generator field winding. The second method requires at least
a slip-ring connection to the field circuit:
a. potentiometer method
b. a.c. injection method

500 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 15. Rotor Faults
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

15.1.1 Potentiometer method

This is a scheme that was fitted to older generators, and it is
illustrated in Figure 16.18. An earth fault on the field winding would
produce a voltage across the relay, the maximum voltage occurring
for faults at the ends of the winding.
A ‘blind spot’ would exist at the centre of the field winding. To avoid
a fault at this location remaining undetected, the tapping point on
the potentiometer could be varied by a pushbutton or switch. The
relay setting is typically about 5% of the exciter voltage.

Figure 16.18:
Field
Earth fault protection of field circuit by > Exciter
winding
potentiometer method

15.1.2 Injection methods

Two methods are in common use. The first is based on low
Generator
frequency signal injection, with series filtering, as shown in Figure
field
winding
Exciter 16.19(a). It comprises an injection source that is connected
between earth and one side of the field circuit, through capacitive
coupling and the measurement circuit. The field circuit is subjected
L.F. injection
to an alternating potential at substantially the same level
supply
~
throughout. An earth fault anywhere in the field system will give rise
>
~
to a current that is detected as an equivalent voltage across the
adjustable resistor by the relay. The capacitive coupling blocks the
normal d.c. field voltage, preventing the discharge of a large direct
(a) Low frequency a.c. voltage injection - current measurement
current through the protection scheme. The combination of series
capacitor and reactor forms a low-pass tuned circuit, the intention
Generator
being to filter higher frequency rotor currents that may occur for a
field
winding
Exciter variety of reasons.
Other schemes are based on power frequency signal injection. An
impedance relay element is used, a field winding earth fault
16
Injection
supply
reducing the impedance seen by the relay. These suffer the draw
< back of being susceptible to static excitation system harmonic
currents when there is significant field winding and excitation
system shunt capacitance.
(b) Power frequency a.c. voltage injection -
impedance measurement
Greater immunity for such systems is offered by capacitively
coupling the protection scheme to both ends of the field winding,
Figure 16.19: where brush or slip ring access is possible (Figure 16.19(b)).
Earth fault protection of field circuit by
a.c. injection The low–frequency injection scheme is also advantageous in that
the current flow through the field winding shunt capacitance will be
lower than for a power frequency scheme. Such current would flow
through the machine bearings to cause erosion of the bearing
surface. For power frequency schemes, a solution is to insulate the
bearings and provide an earthing brush for the shaft.

NRJED311332EN 501
 Generator and 15. Rotor Faults
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

15.2 Rotor Earth Fault Protection for Brushless

Generators
A brushless generator has an excitation system consisting of:
1. a main exciter with rotating armature and stationary field
windings
2. a rotating rectifier assembly, carried on the main shaft line out
3. a controlled rectifier producing the d.c. field voltage for the main
exciter field from an a.c. source (often a small ‘pilot’ exciter)
Hence, no brushes are required in the generator field circuit. All
control is carried out in the field circuit of the main exciter. Detection
of a rotor circuit earth fault is still necessary, but this must be based
on a dedicated rotor-mounted system that has a telemetry link to
provide an alarm/data.

15.3 Rotor Shorted Turn Protection

As detailed in Section 15 a shorted section of field winding will
result in an unsymmetrical rotor flux pattern and in potentially
damaging rotor vibration. Detection of such an electrical fault is
possible using a probe consisting of a coil placed in the airgap. The
flux pattern of the positive and negative poles is measured and any
significant difference in flux pattern between the poles is indicative
of a shorted turn or turns. Automated waveform comparison
techniques can be used to provide a protection scheme, or the
waveform can be inspected visually at regular intervals. An
immediate shutdown is not normally required unless the effects of
the fault are severe. The fault can be kept under observation until a
suitable shutdown for repair can be arranged. Repair will take
some time, since it means unthreading the rotor and dismantling
the winding.
Since short-circuited turns on the rotor may cause damaging
vibration and the detection of field faults for all degrees of
abnormality is difficult, the provision of a vibration a detection
scheme is desirable – this forms part of the mechanical protection
of the generator.
16

502 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 15. Rotor Faults
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

15.4 Protection against Diode Failure

A short-circuited diode will produce an a.c. ripple in the exciter field
circuit. This can be detected by a relay monitoring the current in the
exciter field circuit, however such systems have proved to be
unreliable. The relay would need to be time delayed to prevent an
alarm being issued with normal field forcing during a power system
fault. A delay of 5-10 seconds may be necessary.
Fuses to disconnect the faulty diode after failure may be fitted. The
fuses are of the indicating type, and an inspection window can be
fitted over the diode wheel to enable diode health to be monitored
manually.
A diode that fails open-circuit occurs less often. If there is more
than one diode in parallel for each arm of the diode bridge, the only
impact is to restrict the maximum continuous excitation possible. If
only a single diode per bridge arm is fitted, some ripple will be
present on the main field supply but the inductance of the circuit will
smooth this to a degree and again the main effect is to restrict the
maximum continuous excitation. The set can be kept running until
a convenient shutdown can be arranged.

15.5 Field Suppression

The need to rapidly suppress the field of a machine in which a fault
has developed should be obvious, because as long as the
excitation is maintained, the machine will feed its own fault even
though isolated from the power system. Any delay in the decay of
rotor flux will extend the fault damage. Braking the rotor is no
solution, because of its large kinetic energy.
The field winding current cannot be interrupted instantaneously as it
flows in a highly inductive circuit. Consequently, the flux energy
must be dissipated to prevent an excessive inductive voltage rise in
the field circuit. For machines of moderate size, it is satisfactory to
open the field circuit with an air-break circuit breaker without arc
blow-out coils. Such a breaker permits only a moderate arc voltage,
which is nevertheless high enough to suppress the field current
fairly rapidly. The inductive energy is dissipated partly in the arc
and partly in eddy-currents in the rotor core and damper windings. 16
With generators above about 5MVA rating, it is better to provide a
more definite means of absorbing the energy without incurring
damage. Connecting a ‘field discharge resistor’ in parallel with the
rotor winding before opening the field circuit breaker will achieve
this objective. The resistor, which may have a resistance value of
approximately five times the rotor winding resistance, is connected
by an auxiliary contact on the field circuit breaker. The breaker duty
is thereby reduced to that of opening a circuit with a low ratio.
After the breaker has opened, the field current flows through the
discharge resistance and dies down harmlessly. The use of a fairly
high value of discharge resistance reduces the field time constant
to an acceptably low value, though it may still be more than one
second. Alternatively, generators fitted with static excitation
systems may temporarily invert the applied field voltage to reduce
excitation current rapidly to zero before the excitation system is
tripped.

NRJED311332EN 503
 Generator and 16. Loss of Excitation Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Loss of excitation may occur for a variety of reasons. If the

generator was initially operating at only 20%-30% of rated power, it
may settle to run super-synchronously as an induction generator, at
a low level of slip. In doing so, it will draw reactive current from the
power system for rotor excitation. This form of response is
particularly true of salient pole generators. In these circumstances,
the generator may be able to run for several minutes without
requiring to be tripped. There may be sufficient time for remedial
action to restore the excitation, but the reactive power demand of
the machine during the failure may severely depress the power
system voltage to an unacceptable level. For operation at high
initial power output, the rotor speed may rise to approximately
105% of rated speed, where there would be low power output and
where a high reactive current of up to 2.0p.u. may be drawn from
the supply. Rapid automatic disconnection is then required to
protect the stator windings from excessive current and to protect
the rotor from damage caused by induced slip frequency currents.

16.1 Protection against Loss of Excitation

The protection used varies according to the size of generator being
protected.

16.1.1 Small generators

On the smaller machines, protection against asynchronous running
has tended to be optional, but it may now be available by default,
where the functionality is available within a modern numerical
generator protection package. If fitted, it is arranged either to
provide an alarm or to trip the generator. If the generator field
current can be measured, a relay element can be arranged to
operate when this drops below a preset value. However, depending
on the generator design and size relative to the system, it may well
be that the machine would be required to operate synchronously
with little or no excitation under certain system conditions.
The field undercurrent relay must have a setting below the minimum
16 exciting current, which may be 8% of that corresponding to the
MCR of the machine. Time delay relays are used to stabilise the
protection against maloperation in response to transient conditions
and to ensure that field current fluctuations due to pole slipping do
not cause the protection to reset.
If the generator field current is not measurable, then the technique
detailed in the following section is utilised.

504 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 16. Loss of Excitation Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

16.1.2 Large generators (>5MVA)

For generators above about 5MVA rating, protection against loss of
excitation and pole slipping conditions is normally applied.
Consider a generator connected to network, as shown in Figure
16.20. On loss of excitation, the terminal voltage will begin to
decrease and the stator current will increase, resulting in a
decrease of impedance viewed from the generator terminals and
also a change in power factor.

XG XT ZS
EG ES

+jX
D

ZS XG+XT+ZS

EG
Figure 16.20: =1 XT
ES
Basic interconnected system
q
ZR
-R +R
A

XG

-jX

A relay to detect loss of synchronism can be located at point A. It

can be shown that the impedance presented to the relay under loss
of synchronism conditions (phase swinging or pole slipping) is
16
given by:

=
( ) ( − − ) −
( − ) +

...Equation 16.2
where:
generated
n = EG = voltage
ES system
= angle by which leads

NRJED311332EN 505
 Generator and 16. Loss of Excitation Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

If the generator and system voltages are equal, the above

expression becomes:

ZR =
( X G + X T + Z S )(1 − j cotθ 2 ) − X
G
2
The general case can be represented by a system of circles with
centres on the line ; see Figure 16.21. Also shown is a typical
machine terminal impedance locus during loss of excitation
conditions.
The special cases of and result in a straight-line locus
that is the right-angled bisector of , and in a circular locus that is
shrunk to point , respectively.
When excitation is removed from a generator operating
synchronously the flux dies away slowly, during which period the
ratio of is decreasing, and the rotor angle of the machine is
increasing. The operating condition plotted on an impedance
diagram therefore travels along a locus that crosses the power
swing circles. At the same time, it progresses in the direction of
increasing rotor angle. After passing the anti-phase position, the
locus bends round as the internal e.m.f. collapses, condensing on
an impedance value equal to the machine reactance. The locus is
illustrated in Figure 16.21.

1.8

2.0
Load point
2.5

5.0 Loss of field

locus
D

Figure 16.21:
Swing curves and loss of synchronism
locus
16
C

0.5

0.6
0.7

506 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 16. Loss of Excitation Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

The relay location is displaced from point by the generator

reactance . One problem in determining the position of these loci
relative to the relay location is that the value of machine impedance
varies with the rate of slip. At zero slip is equal to , the
synchronous reactance, and at 100% slip is equal to , the
sub-transient reactance. The impedance in a typical case has been
shown to be equal to , the transient reactance, at 50% slip, and
to with a slip of 0.33%. The slip likely to be experienced with
asynchronous running is low, perhaps 1%, so that for the purpose
of assessing the power swing locus it is sufficient to take the value
= .
This consideration has assumed a single value for . However,
the reactance on the quadrature axis differs from the direct-axis
value, the ratio of being known as the saliency factor. This
factor varies with the slip speed. The effect of this factor during
asynchronous operation is to cause to vary at slip speed. In
consequence, the loss of excitation impedance locus does not
settle at a single point, but it continues to describe a small orbit
about a mean point.
A protection scheme for loss of excitation must operate decisively
for this condition, but its characteristic must not inhibit stable
operation of the generator. One limit of operation corresponds to
the maximum practicable rotor angle, taken to be at 120°. The
locus of operation can be represented as a circle on the impedance
plane, as shown in Figure 16.22, stable operation conditions lying
outside the circle.

Locus of constant MVA

XT
0.75

Figure 16.22: 16
Locus of limiting operating conditions of Limiting
synchronous machine generation
point

Relay
characteristic
Locus of constant load angle
Diameter =
Trip within circle

NRJED311332EN 507
 Generator and 16. Loss of Excitation Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

On the same diagram the full load impedance locus for one per unit
power can be drawn. Part of this circle represents a condition that
is not feasible, but the point of intersection with the maximum rotor
angle curve can be taken as a limiting operating condition for
setting impedance-based loss of excitation protection.

16.2 Impedance-Based Protection Characteristics

Figure 16.21 alludes to the possibility that a protection scheme for
loss of excitation could be based on impedance measurement. The
impedance characteristic must be appropriately set or shaped to
ensure decisive operation for loss of excitation whilst permitting
stable generator operation within allowable limits. One or two offset
mho under impedance elements (see Chapter ”Distance
Protection” for the principles of operation) are ideally suited for
providing loss of excitation protection as long as a generator
operating at low power output (20-30% ) does not settle down to
operate as an induction generator. The characteristics of a typical
two-stage loss of excitation protection scheme are illustrated in
Figure 16.23. The first stage, consisting of settings and can
be applied to provide detection of loss of excitation even where a
generator initially operating at low power output (20-30% ) might
settle down to operate as an induction generator.

X
Normal machine operating impedance

Alarm
angle

Figure 16.23:
Loss of excitation protection characteristics

16

Pick-up and drop-off time delays and are associated with

this impedance element. Timer is used to prevent operation
during stable power swings that may cause the impedance locus of
the generator to transiently enter the locus of operation set by .
However, the value must short enough to prevent damage as a
result of loss of excitation occurring. If pole-slipping protection is
not required (see Section 17.2), timer can be set to give
instantaneous reset. The second field failure element, comprising
settings , , and associated timers and can be used
to give instantaneous tripping following loss of excitation under full
load conditions.

508 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 16. Loss of Excitation Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

16.3 Protection Settings

The typical setting values for the two elements vary according to the
excitation system and operating regime of the generator concerned,
since these affect the generator impedance seen by the relay under
normal and abnormal conditions. For a generator that is never
operated at leading power factor, or at load angles in excess of 90°
the typical settings are:
impedance element diameter
impedance element offset
time delay on pick-up,
time delay on drop-off,
If a fast excitation system is employed, allowing load angles of up to
120° to be used, the impedance diameter must be reduced to take
account of the reduced generator impedance seen under such
conditions. The offset also needs revising. In these circumstances,
typical settings would be:
impedance element diameter
impedance element offset
time delay on pick-up,
time delay on drop-off,

The typical impedance settings for the second element, if used, are:
impedance element diameter

kV 2
MVA

The time delay settings and are set to zero to give

instantaneous operation and reset.

16

NRJED311332EN 509
 Generator and 17. Pole Slipping Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection

A generator may pole-slip, or fall out of synchronism with the power

system for a number of reasons. The principal causes are
prolonged clearance of a heavy fault on the power system, when
the generator is operating at a high load angle close to the stability
limit, or partial or complete loss of excitation. Weak transmission
links between the generator and the bulk of the power system
aggravate the situation. It can also occur with embedded
generators running in parallel with a strong Utility network if the time
for a fault clearance on the Utility network slow, perhaps because
only IDMT relays are provided. Pole slipping is characterised by
large and rapid oscillations in active and reactive power. Rapid
disconnection of the generator from the network is required to
ensure that damage to the generator is avoided and that loads
supplied by the network are not affected for very long.
Protection can be provided using several methods. The choice of
method will depend on the probability of pole slipping occurring and
on the consequences should it occur.

17.1 Protection using Reverse Power Element

During pole-slipping, there will be periods where the direction of
active power flow will be in the reverse direction, so a reverse
power relay element can be used to detect this, if not used for other
purposes. However, since the reverse power conditions are
cyclical, the element will reset during the forward power part of the
cycle unless either a very short pick-up time delay and/or a suitable
drop-off time delay is used to eliminate resetting.
The main advantage of this method is that a reverse power element
is often already present, so no additional relay elements are
required. The main disadvantages are the time taken for tripping
and the inability to control the system angle at which the generator
breaker trip command would be issued, if it is a requirement to limit
the breaker current interruption duty. There is also the difficulty of
determining suitable settings. Determination of settings in the field,
from a deliberate pole-slipping test is not possible and analytical
studies may not discover all conditions under which pole-slipping
will occur.
16

510 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 17. Pole Slipping Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

17.2 Protection using an Under Impedance Element

With reference to Figure 16.21, a loss of excitation under
impedance characteristic may also be capable of detecting loss of
synchronism, in applications where the electrical centre of the
power system and the generator lies ‘behind’ the relaying point.
This would typically be the case for a relatively small generator that
is connected to a power transmission system ( ).
With reference to Figure 16.23; if pole-slipping protection response
is required, the drop-off timer tdo1 of the larger diameter impedance
measuring element should be set to prevent its reset of in each slip
cycle, until the trip time delay has expired.
As with reverse power protection, this would be an elementary form
of pole-slipping protection. It may not be suitable for large
machines where rapid tripping is required during the first slip cycle
and where some control is required for the system angle at which
the generator circuit breaker trip command is given. Where
protection against pole-slipping must be guaranteed, a more
sophisticated method of protection should be used. A typical reset
timer delay for pole-slipping protection might be 0.6s. For generator
transformer units, the additional impedance in front of the relaying
point may take the system impedance outside the under impedance
relay characteristic required for loss of excitation protection.
Therefore, the acceptability of this pole-slipping protection scheme
will be dependent on the application.

17.3 Dedicated Pole-Slipping Protection

Large generator-transformer units directly connected to grid
systems often require a dedicated pole-slipping protection scheme
to ensure rapid tripping and with system angle control. Historically,
dedicated protection schemes have usually been based on an
ohm-type impedance measurement characteristic.

17.3.1 Pole slipping protection by impedance measurement

Although a mho type element for detecting the change in
impedance during pole-slipping can be used in some applications, 16
but with performance limits, a straight line ohm characteristic is
more suitable. The protection principle is that of detecting the
passage of the generator impedance through a zone defined by two
such impedance characteristics, as shown in Figure 16.24.
The characteristic is divided into three zones, , , and . Normal
operation of the generator lies in zone . When a pole-slip occurs,
the impedance traverses zones and , and tripping occurs when
the impedance characteristic enters zone .
Tripping only occurs if all zones are traversed sequentially. Power
system faults should result in the zones not being fully traversed so
that tripping will not be initiated. The security of this type of
protection scheme is normally enhanced by the addition of a plain
under impedance control element (circle about the origin of the
impedance diagram) that is set to prevent tripping for impedance
trajectories for remote power system faults.

NRJED311332EN 511
 Generator and 17. Pole Slipping Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

Setting of the ohm elements is such that they lie parallel to the total
system impedance vector, and enclose it, as shown in Figure 16.24.

Relaying point

Slip locus

Figure 16.24:
Pole slipping detection by ohm relays

Ohm relay 2

Ohm relay 1

17.3.2 Use of lenticular characteristic

Blinder
A more sophisticated approach is to measure the impedance of the
generator and use a lenticular impedance characteristic to
determine if a pole-slipping condition exists. The lenticular
characteristic is shown in Figure 16.25. The characteristic is
divided into two halves by a straight line, called the blinder.
The inclination, , of the lens and blinder is determined by the angle
of the total system impedance. The impedance of the system and
16 generator-transformer determines the forward reach of the lens, ,
and the transient reactance of the generator determines the reverse
reach .
The width of the lens is set by the angle and the line ,
perpendicular to the axis of the lens, is used to determine if the
centre of the impedance swing during a transient is located in the
Lens generator or power system.

Figure 16.25:
Pole-slipping protection using lenticular
characteristic and blinder

512 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 17. Pole Slipping Protection
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

Operation in the case of a generator is as follows. The

characteristic is divided into 4 zones and 2 regions, as shown in
Figure 16.26.

X
Left-lens Right-lens

Power Swing In System

S M
a Ang
Figure 16.26:
Definition of zones for lenticular Pole Slipping
Characteristic
characteristic

Stable Power Swing

Blinder

Normal operation is with the measured impedance in zone . If a

pole slip develops, the impedance locus will traverse though zones
, , and . When entering zone , a trip signal is issued,
provided the impedance lies below reactance line and hence the
locus of swing lies within or close to the generator – i.e. the
generator is pole slipping with respect to the rest of the system.
If the impedance locus lies above line , the swing lies far out in
the power system – i.e. one part of the power system, including the
protected generator, is swinging against the rest of the network.
Tripping may still occur, but only if swinging is prolonged – meaning
that the power system is in danger of complete break-up. Further
confidence checks are introduced by requiring that the impedance
locus spends a minimum time within each zone for the pole-slipping 16
condition to be valid. The trip signal may also be delayed for a
number of slip cycles even if a generator pole-slip occurs – this is to
both provide confirmation of a pole-slipping condition and allow
time for other relays to operate if the cause of the pole slip lies
somewhere in the power system. Should the impedance locus
traverse the zones in any other sequence, tripping is blocked.

NRJED311332EN 513
 Generator and 18. Stator Overheating
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Overheating of the stator may result from:

i. overload
ii. failure of the cooling system
iii. overfluxing
iv. core faults
Accidental overloading might occur through the combination of full
active load current component, governed by the prime mover
output and an abnormally high reactive current component,
governed by the level of rotor excitation and/or step-up transformer
tap. With a modern protection relay, it is relatively simple to provide
a current-operated thermal replica protection element to estimate
the thermal state of the stator windings and to issue an alarm or trip
to prevent damage.
Although current-operated thermal replica protection cannot take
into account the effects of ambient temperature or uneven heat
distribution, it is often applied as a back-up to direct stator
temperature measuring devices to prevent overheating due to high
stator current. With some relays, the thermal replica temperature
estimate can be made more accurate through the integration of
direct measuring resistance temperature devices.
Irrespective of whether current-operated thermal replica protection
is applied or not, it is a requirement to monitor the stator
temperature of a large generator in order to detect overheating from
whatever cause.
Temperature sensitive elements, usually of the resistance type, are
embedded in the stator winding at hot-spot locations envisaged by
the manufacturer, the number used being sufficient to cover all
variations. The elements are connected to a temperature sensing
relay element arranged to provide alarm and trip outputs. The
settings will depend on the type of stator winding insulation and on
its permitted temperature rise.

16

514 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 19. Mechanical Faults
Generator-Transformer
Protection

Various faults may occur on the mechanical side of a generating

set. The following sections detail the more important ones from an
electrical point of view.

19.1 Failure of the Prime Mover

When a generator operating in parallel with others loses its power
input, it remains in synchronism with the system and continues to
run as a synchronous motor, drawing sufficient power to drive the
prime mover. This condition may not appear to be dangerous and
in some circumstances will not be so. However, there is a danger of
further damage being caused. Table 16.1 lists some typical
problems that may occur.
Protection is provided by a low forward power/reverse power relay,
as detailed in Section 11

19.2 Overspeed
The speed of a turbo-generator set rises when the steam input is in
excess of that required to drive the load at nominal frequency. The
speed governor can normally control the speed, and, in any case, a
set running in parallel with others in an interconnected system
cannot accelerate much independently even if synchronism is lost.
However, if load is suddenly lost when the HV circuit breaker is
tripped, the set will begin to accelerate rapidly. The speed governor
is designed to prevent a dangerous speed rise even with a 100%
load rejection, but nevertheless an additional centrifugal overspeed
trip device is provided to initiate an emergency mechanical
shutdown if the overspeed exceeds 10%.
To minimise overspeed on load rejection and hence the mechanical
stresses on the rotor, the following sequence is used whenever
electrical tripping is not urgently required:
i. trip prime mover or gradually reduce power input to zero
ii. allow generated power to decay towards zero
iii. trip generator circuit breaker only when generated power is
close to zero or when the power flow starts to reverse, to drive 16
the idle turbine

19.3 Loss of Vacuum

A failure of the condenser vacuum in a steam turbine driven
generator results in heating of the tubes. This then produces strain
in the tubes, and a rise in temperature of the low-pressure end of
the turbine. Vacuum pressure devices initiate progressive
unloading of the set and, if eventually necessary, tripping of the
turbine valves followed by the high voltage circuit breaker. The set
must not be allowed to motor in the event of loss of vacuum, as this
would cause rapid overheating of the low-pressure turbine blades.

NRJED311332EN 515
 Generator and 20. Complete Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Schemes

From the preceding sections, it is obvious that the protection

scheme for a generator has to take account of many possible faults
and plant design variations. Determination of the types of
protection used for a particular generator will depend on the nature
of the plant and upon economic considerations, which in turn is
affected by set size. Fortunately, modern, multi-function, numerical
relays are sufficiently versatile to include all of the commonly
required protection functions in a single package, thus simplifying
the decisions to be made. The following sections provide
illustrations of typical protection schemes for generators connected
to a grid network, but not all possibilities are illustrated, due to the
wide variation in generator sizes and types.

20.1 Direct-Connected Generator

A typical protection scheme for a direct-connected generator is
shown in Figure 16.27. It comprises the following protection
functions:
1. tator differential protection
2. overcurrent protection – conventional or voltage dependent
3. stator earth fault protection
4. overvoltage protection
5. undervoltage protection
6. overload/low forward power/ reverse power protection
(according to prime mover type)
7. unbalanced loading
8. overheating
9. pole slipping
10. loss of excitation
11. underfrequency
12. inadvertent energisation
13. overfluxing
16 14. mechanical faults
Figure 16.27 illustrates which trips require anelectrical trip and
which can be time delayed until electrical power has been reduced
to a low value. The faults that require tripping of the prime mover as
well as the generator circuit breaker are also shown.

516 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 20. Complete Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Schemes
(cont.)

Electrical trip of governor

Governor
trip

Emergency push button

Stator differential (biased/high

impedance)
Stator E/F (or neutral voltage
displacement)
Back-up overcurrent (or voltage
dependent O/C)
Lubricating oil failure
Mechanical faults (urgent)
Reverse/low forward power
Underfrequency
Pole slipping
Overfluxing
Inadvertent energisation

Loss of excitation
Stator winding temperature Excitation
Unbalanced loading circuit
breaker
Under/overvoltage Low power
interlock
Generator
Mechanical faults (non-urgent) circuit
breaker
N.B. Alarms and time delays omitted for simplicity

Figure 16.27:
Typical protection arrangement for a
direct-connected generator

20.2 Generator-Transformer Units

16
These units are generally of higher output than direct-connected
generators, and hence more comprehensive protection is
warranted. In addition, the generator transformer also requires
protection, for which the protection detailed in Chapter ”Transformer
and Transformer-Feeder Protection” is appropriate
Overall biased generator/generator transformer differential
protection is commonly applied in addition, or instead of, differential
protection for the transformer alone. A single protection relay may
incorporate all of the required functions, or the protection of the
transformer (including overall generator/generator transformer
differential protection) may utilise a separate relay.
Figure 16.28 shows a typical overall scheme.

NRJED311332EN 517
 Generator and 20. Complete Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Schemes
(cont.)

Electrical trip of governor Governor

trip

Emergency push button

Stator differential (biased/high

impedance)
Stator E/F (or neutral voltage
displacement)
Back-up overcurrent (or voltage
dependent O/C)
Lubricating oil failure
Mechanical faults (urgent)
Reverse/low forward power
Underfrequency
Pole slipping
Overfluxing

Inadvertent energisation

Overall differential (transformer

differential)
Excitation
Buchholz circuit
HV overcurrent breaker

HV restricted E/F
Generator
Transformer winding temperature circuit
breaker
Loss of excitation Low power
Stator winding temperature interlock

Unbalanced loading
Under/overvoltage

Mechanical faults (non-urgent)

N.B. Alarms and time delays omitted for simplicity
16

Figure 16.28:
Typical tripping arrangements for
generator-transformer unit

518 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 21. Embedded Generation
Generator-Transformer
Protection

In recent years, through de-regulation of the electricity supply

industry and the ensuing commercial competition, many electricity
users connected to MV power distribution systems have installed
generating sets to operate in parallel with the public supply. The
intention is either to utilise surplus energy from other sources, or to
use waste heat or steam from the prime mover for other purposes.
Parallel connection of generators to distribution systems did occur
before de-regulation, but only where there was a net power import
from the Utility. Power export to Utility distribution systems was a
relatively new aspect. Since generation of this type can now be
located within a Utility distribution system, as opposed to being
centrally dispatched generation connected to a transmission
system, the term ‘Embedded Generation’ is often applied. Figure
16.2 illustrates such an arrangement. Depending on size, the
embedded generator(s) may be synchronous or asynchronous
types, and they may be connected at any voltage appropriate to the
size of plant being considered.
The impact of connecting generation to a Utility distribution system
that was originally engineered only for downward power distribution
must be considered, particularly in the area of protection
requirements. In this respect, it is not important whether the
embedded generator is normally capable of export to the Utility
distribution system or not, since there may exist fault conditions
when this occurs irrespective of the design intent.
If plant operation when disconnected from the Utility supply is
required, underfrequency protection (Section 4.2) will become an
important feature of the in-plant power system. During isolated
operation, it may be relatively easy to overload the available
generation, such that some form of load management system may
be required. Similarly, when running in parallel with the Utility,
consideration needs to be given to the mode of generator operation
if reactive power import is to be controlled. The impact on the
control scheme of a sudden break in the Utility connection to the
plant main busbar also requires analysis. Where the in-plant
generation is run using constant power factor or constant reactive
power control, automatic reversion to voltage control when the
Utility connection is lost is essential to prevent plant loads being
subjected to a voltage outside acceptable limits.
Limits may be placed by the Utility on the amount of power/reactive 16
power import/export. These may demand the use of an in-plant
Power Management System to control the embedded generation
and plant loads accordingly. Some Utilities may insist on automatic
tripping of the interconnecting circuit breakers if there is a significant
departure outside permissible levels of frequency and voltage, or
for other reasons.
From a Utility standpoint, the connection of embedded generation
may cause problems with voltage control and increased fault levels.
The settings for protection relays in the vicinity of the plant may
require adjustment with the emergence of embedded generation. It
must also be ensured that the safety, security and quality of supply
of the Utility distribution system is not compromised. The
embedded generation must not be permitted to supply any Utility
customers in isolation, since the Utility supply is normally the means
of regulating the system voltage and frequency within the permitted
limits.

NRJED311332EN 519
 Generator and 21. Embedded Generation
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

It also normally provides the only system earth connection(s), to

ensure the correct performance of system protection in response to
earth faults. If the Utility power infeed fails, it is also important to
disconnect the embedded generation before there is any risk of the
Utility power supply returning on to unsynchronised machines. In
practice this generally requires the following protection functions to
be applied at the ‘Point of Common Coupling’ (PCC) to trip the
coupling circuit breaker:
a. overvoltage
b. undervoltage
c. overfrequency
d. underfrequency
e. loss of Utility supply

In addition, particular circumstances may require additional

protection functions:
f. neutral voltage displacement
g. reverse power
h. directional overcurrent

In practice, it can be difficult to meet the protection settings or

performance demanded by the Utility without a high risk of nuisance
tripping caused by lack of co-ordination with normal power system
faults and disturbances that do not necessitate tripping of the
embedded generation. This is especially true when applying
protection specifically to detect loss of the Utility supply (also called
‘loss of mains’) to cater for operating conditions where there would
be no immediate excursion in voltage or frequency to cause
operation of conventional protection functions.

21.1 Protection Against Loss of Utility Supply

If the normal power infeed to a distribution system, or to the part of it
16 containing embedded generation is lost, the effects may be as
follows:
a. embedded generation may be overloaded, leading to generator
undervoltage/underfrequency
b. embedded generation may be underloaded, leading to
overvoltage/overfrequency
c. little change to the absolute levels of voltage or frequency if
there is little resulting change to the load flow through the PCC
The first two effects are covered by conventional voltage and
frequency protection. However, if condition (c) occurs, conventional
protection may not detect the loss of Utility supply condition or it
may be too slow to do so within the shortest possible auto-reclose
dead-times that may be applied in association with Utility overhead
line protection. Detection of condition (c) must be achieved if the
requirements of the Utility are to be met.

520 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 21. Embedded Generation
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

Many possible methods have been suggested, but the one most
often used is the Rate of Change of Frequency (ROCOF) relay. Its
application is based on the fact that the rate of change of small
changes in absolute frequency, in response to inevitable small load
changes, will be faster with the generation isolated than when the
generation is in parallel with the public, interconnected power
system. However, problems with nuisance tripping in response to
national power system events, where the system is subject to
significant frequency excursions following the loss of a large
generator or a major power interconnector, have occurred.
This is particularly true for geographically islanded power systems,
such as those of the British Isles. An alternative to ROCOF
protection is a technique sometimes referred to as ‘voltage vector
shift’ protection. In this technique the rate of phase change
between the directly measured generator bus voltage is compared
with a memorised a.c. bus voltage reference.
Sources of embedded generation are not normally earthed, which
presents a potential safety hazard. In the event of an Utility system
earth fault, the Utility protection should operate to remove the Utility
power infeed. In theory, this should also result in removal of the
embedded generation, through the action of the stipulated voltage/
frequency protection and dependable ‘loss of mains’ protection.
However, in view of safety considerations (e.g. fallen overhead line
conductors in public areas), an additional form of earth fault
protection may also be demanded to prevent the backfeed of an
earth fault by embedded generation. The only way of detecting an
earth fault under these conditions is to use neutral voltage
displacement protection. The additional requirement is only likely
to arise for embedded generation rated above 150kVA, since the
risk of the small embedded generators not being cleared by other
means is negligible.

21.2 ROCOF Relay Description

A ROCOF relay detects the rate of change of frequency in excess of
a defined setpoint. The signal is obtained from a voltage
transformer connected close to the Point of Common Coupling
(PCC). The principal method used is to measure the time period 16
between successive zero-crossings to determine the average
frequency for each half-cycle and hence the rate of change of
frequency. The result is usually averaged over a number of cycles.

21.3 Voltage Vector Shift Relay Description

A voltage vector shift relay detects the drift in voltage phase angle
beyond a defined setpoint as long as it takes place within a set
period. Again, the voltage signal is obtained from a voltage
transformer connected close to the Point of Common Coupling
(PCC). The principal method used is to measure the time period
between successive zero-crossings to determine the duration of
each half-cycle, and then to compare the durations with the
memorised average duration of earlier half-cycles in order to
determine the phase angle drift.

NRJED311332EN 521
 Generator and 21. Embedded Generation
Generator-Transformer
Protection (cont.)

21.4 Setting Guidelines

Should loss of the Utility supply occur, it is extremely unlikely that
there will be an exact match between the output of the embedded
generator(s) and the connected load. A small frequency change or
voltage phase angle change will therefore occur, to which can be
added any changes due to the small natural variations in loading of
an isolated generator with time. Once the rate of change of
frequency exceeds the setting of the ROCOF relay for a set time, or
once the voltage phase angle drift exceeds the set angle, tripping
occurs to open the connection between the in-plant and Utility
networks.
While it is possible to estimate the rate of change of frequency from
knowledge of the generator set inertia and MVA rating, this is not an
accurate method for setting a ROCOF relay because the rotational
inertia of the complete network being fed by the embedded
generation is required. For example, there may be other embedded
generators to consider. As a result, it is invariably the case that the
relay settings are determined at site during commissioning. This is
to ensure that the Utility requirements are met while reducing the
possibility of a spurious trip under the various operating scenarios
envisaged. However, it is very difficult to determine whether a given
rate of change of frequency will be due to a ‘loss of mains’ incident
or a load/frequency change on the public power network, and
hence spurious trips are impossible to eliminate. Thus the provision
of Loss of Utility Supply protection to meet power distribution Utility
interface protection requirements, may actually conflict with the
interests of the national power system operator. With the growing
contribution of non-dispatched embedded generation to the
aggregate national power demand, the loss of the embedded
generation following a transmission system incident that may
already challenge the security of the system can only aggravate the
problem. There have been claims that voltage vector shift
protection might offer better security, but it will have operation times
that vary with the rate of change of frequency. As a result,
depending on the settings used, operation times might not comply
with Utility requirements under all circumstances. Reference 16.1
provides further details of the operation of ROCOF relays and the
problems that may be encountered.
16 Nevertheless, because such protection is a common requirement of
some Utilities, the ‘loss of mains’ protection may have to be
provided and the possibility of spurious trips will have to be
accepted in those cases. Site measurements over a period of time
of the typical rates of frequency change occurring may assist in
negotiations of the settings with the Utility, and with the fine-tuning
of the protection that may already be commissioned.

522 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings

This section gives examples of the calculations required for

generator protection. The first is for a typical small generator
installed on an industrial system that runs in parallel with the Utility
supply. The second is for a larger generator-transformer unit
connected to a grid system.

22.1 Protection Settings of a Small Industrial

Generator
Salient details of the generator, network and protection required are
given in Table 16.2. The example calculations are based on a
MiCOM P343 relay in respect of setting ranges, etc.

Generator Data
Prime
Rated Rated Rated
kVA kW PF Rated Mover
voltage current speed
type
Steam
6250 5000 0.8 11000 328 50 1500
Turbine

Generator Parameters
Generator
Xd p.u. X’d p.u. CT Ratio VT Ratio
type
Salient Pole 2.349 0.297 500/1 11000/110
Table 16.2:
Data for small generator protection example Network Data
Maximum
Maximum earth Minimum phase
Earthing resistor downstream
fault current fault current
phase fault current
31.7 200A 145A 850A

Existing Protection
Overcurrent Settings Earth Fault Settings

CT Ratio
Charact.. Setting TMS Charact.. Setting TMS

200/1 SI 144A 0.176 SI 48A 0.15

16

22.1.1 Differential protection

Biased differential protection involves the determination of values
for four setting values: , , and in Figure 16.5. can be
set at 5% of the generator rating, in accordance with the
recommendations for the relay, and similarly the values of
(120%) and (150%) of generator rating. It remains for the value
of K1 to be determined. The recommended value is generally 0%,
but this only applies where CT’s that conform to IEC 60044-1 class
PX (or the superseded BS 3938 Class X) are used – i.e. CT’s
specifically designed for use in differential protection schemes. In
this application, the CT’s are conventional class 5P CT’s that meet
the relay requirements in respect of knee-point voltage, etc.

NRJED311332EN 523
 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

Where neutral tail and terminal CT’s can saturate at different times
due to transiently offset magnetising inrush or motor starting current
waveforms with an r.m.s. level close to rated current and where
there is a high time constant for the offset, the use of a 0% bias
slope may give rise to maloperation. Such waveforms can be
encountered when plant of similar rating to the generator is being
energised or started. Differences between CT designs or differing
remanent flux levels can lead to asymmetric saturation and the
production of a differential spill current. Therefore, it is appropriate
to select a non-zero setting for , and a value of 5% is usual in
these circumstances.

22.1.2 Voltage controlled overcurrent protection

This protection is applied as remote backup to the downstream
overcurrent protection in the event of protection or breaker failure
conditions. This ensures that the generator will not continue to
supply the fault under these conditions.
At normal voltage, the current setting must be greater than the
maximum generator load current of 328A. A margin must be
allowed for resetting of the relay at this current (reset ratio = 95%)
and for the measurement tolerances of the relay (5% of Is under
reference conditions), therefore the current setting is calculated as:
328
I vcset > ×1.05
0.95
> 362.5 A
The nearest settable value is 365A, or 0.73 .

The minimum phase-phase voltage for a close-up single-phase to

earth fault is 57%, so the voltage setting must be less than this.
A value of 30% is typically used, giving . The current
setting multiplying factor must be chosen such that is less
than 50% of the generator steady-state current contribution to an
uncleared remote fault. This information is not available (missing
data being common in protection studies). However, the maximum
16 sustained close-up phase fault current (neglecting AVR action) is
145A, so that a setting chosen to be significantly below this value
will suffice. A value of 87.5A (60% of the close-up sustained phase
fault current) is therefore chosen, and hence = 0.6. This is
considered to be appropriate based on knowledge of the system
circuit impedances. The TMS setting is chosen to co-ordinate with
the downstream feeder protection such that:
1. for a close-up feeder three-phase fault, that results in almost
total voltage collapse as seen by the relay
2. for a fault at the next downstream relay location, if the relay
voltage is less than the switching voltage

524 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

It should also be chosen so that the generator cannot be subjected

to fault or overload current in excess of the stator short-time current
limits. A curve should be provided by the manufacturer, but
IEC 60034-1 demands that an AC generator should be able to pass
1.5 times rated current for at least 30 seconds. The operating time
of the downstream protection for a three-phase fault current of 850A
is 0.682s, so the voltage controlled relay element should have a
minimum operating time of 1.09s (0.4s grading margin used as the
relay technology used for the downstream relay is not stated – see
Table 9.2). With a current setting of 87.5A, the operating time of the
voltage controlled relay element at a TMS of 1.0 is:
0.14
0.02
= 3.01s
 850 
  −1
 87.5 

Therefore a TMS of:

1.09
= 0.362
3.01
is required. Use 0.375, nearest available setting.

22.1.3 Stator earth fault protection

The maximum earth fault current, from Table 16.2, is 200A.
Protection for 95% of the winding can be provided if the relay is set
to detect a primary earth fault current of 16.4A, and this equates to
a CT secondary current of 0.033A. The nearest relay setting is
0.04A, providing protection for 90% of the winding.
The protection must grade with the downstream earth fault
protection, the settings of which are also given in Table 16.2. At an
earth fault current of 200A, the downstream protection has an
operation time of 0.73s. The generator earth fault protection must
therefore have an operation time of not less than 1.13s. At a TMS
of 1.0, the generator protection relay operating time will be:
 
 0.14 
 s 16
( )
0.02
 200 −1 
 20 

=2.97s, so the required TMS is 1.13 = 0.38 .

2.97

Use a setting of 0.4, nearest available setting.

NRJED311332EN 525
 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.1.4 Neutral voltage displacement protection

This protection is provided as back-up earth-fault protection for the
generator and downstream system (direct-connected generator).
It must therefore have a setting that grades with the downstream
protection. The protection is driven from the generator star-
connected VT, while the downstream protection is current operated.
It is therefore necessary to translate the current setting of the
downstream setting of the current-operated earth-fault protection
into the equivalent voltage for the NVD protection. The equivalent
voltage is found from the formula:

V eff =
( I pe × Z e ) × 3
VT ratio
48 × 31.7 × 3
=
100
= 45.6 V
where:
= effective voltage setting
= downstream earth-fault current setting
= earthing resistance

Hence a setting of 48V is acceptable. Time grading is required, with

a minimum operating time of the NVD protection of 1.13s at an
earth fault current of 200A. Using the expression for the operation
time of the NVD element:

where:
 V 
M = 
 V snvd 
and
= voltage seen by relay
16
= relay setting voltage
the value of can be calculated as 3.34. The nearest settable
value is 3.5, giving an operation time of 1.18s.

526 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.1.5 Loss of excitation protection

Loss of excitation is detected by a mho impedance relay element,
as detailed in Section 16.2. The standard settings for the P340
series relay are:

The nearest settings provided by the relay are

The time delay should be set to avoid relay element operation

on power swings and a typical setting of 3s is used. This value may
need to be modified in the light of operating experience. To prevent
cyclical pick-up of the relay element without tripping, such as might
occur during pole-slipping conditions, a drop-off time delay is
provided and set to 0.5s.

22.1.6 Negative phase sequence current protection

This protection is required to guard against excessive heating from
negative phase sequence currents, whatever the cause. The
generator is of salient pole design, so from IEC 60034-1, the
continuous withstand is 8% of rating and the value is 20s.
Using Equation 16.1, the required relay settings can found as
= 0.05 and = 8.6s.
The nearest available values are = 0.05 and = 8.6s.
The relay also has a cooling time constant that is normally set
equal to the value of . To co-ordinate with clearance of heavy
asymmetric system faults, that might otherwise cause unnecessary
operation of this protection, a minimum operation time tmin should 16
be applied. It is recommended to set this to a value of 1. Similarly,
a maximum time can be applied to ensure that the thermal rating of
the generator is not exceeded (as this is uncertain, data not
available) and to take account of the fact that the P343
characteristic is not identical with that specified in IEC 60034.
The recommended setting for tmax is 600s.

22.1.7 Overvoltage protection

This is required to guard against various failure modes, e.g. AVR
failure, resulting in excessive stator voltage. A two-stage protection
is available, the first being a low-set time-delayed stage that should
be set to grade with transient overvoltages that can be tolerated
following load rejection. The second is a high-set stage used for
instantaneous tripping in the event of an intolerable overvoltage
condition arising.

NRJED311332EN 527
 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

Generators can normally withstand 105% of rated voltage

Protection Quantity Value
continuously, so the low-set stage should be set higher than this
5% value. A setting of 117.7V in secondary quantities (corresponding
Differential 120% to 107% of rated stator voltage) is typically used, with a definite time
protection 5% delay of 10s to allow for transients due to load switch-off/rejection,
150% overvoltages on recovery from faults or motor starting, etc.
0.04 The second element provides protection in the event of a large
Stator earth fault
0.4 overvoltage, by tripping excitation and the generator circuit breaker
(if closed). This must be set below the maximum stator voltage
Neutral voltage 48V
possible, taking into account saturation. As the open circuit
displacement 3.5
characteristic of the generator is not available, typical values must
-14.5 be used. Saturation will normally limit the maximum overvoltage on
Loss of 227 this type of generator to 130%, so a setting of 120% (132V
excitation 3s secondary) is typically used. Instantaneous operation is required.
Generator manufacturers are normally able to provide
0.5s
recommendations for the relay settings. For embedded generators,
0.73
the requirements of the local Utility may also have to be taken into
Voltage 33 account. For both elements, a variety of voltage measurement
controlled
overcurrent 0.6 modes are available to take account of possible VT connections
0.375 (single or three-phase, etc.), and conditions to be protected against.
In this example, a three-phase VT connection is used, and
0.05
overvoltages on any phase are to be detected, so a selection of
8.6s
‘Any’ is used for this setting.
Negative phase
8.6s
sequence
1.5s
600s
22.1.8 Underfrequency protection
meas mode three-phase
This is required to protect the generator from sustained overload
operate
mode
any conditions during periods of operation isolated from the Utility
supply. The generating set manufacturer will normally provide the
1 setting 107%
details of machine short-time capabilities. The example relay
Overvoltage 1 function DT provides four stages of underfrequency protection. In this case, the
time delay 10s first stage is used for alarm purposes and a second stage would be
2 setting 120% applied to trip the set.
2 function DT The alarm stage might typically be set to 49Hz, with a time delay of
2 time delay 0sec 20s, to avoid an alarm being raised under transient conditions, e.g.
1 setting 49Hz during plant motor starting. The trip stage might be set to 48Hz,
with a time delay of 0.5s, to avoid tripping for transient, but
1 time delay 20s
16 Under frequency
2 setting 48Hz
recoverable, dips in frequency below this value.

2 time delay 0.5s

function reverse power
22.1.9 Reverse power protection
setting 5W
Reverse Power The relay setting is 5% of rated power.
time delay 5s
DO time 0s  0.05 ×5 ×10 6 
setting =  
 CT ratio ×VT ratio 
Table 16.3:
Small generator protection example –  0.05 ×5 ×10 6 
= 
relay settings  500 ×100 
=5 W

This value can be set in the relay. A time delay is required to guard
against power swings while generating at low power levels, so use
a time delay of 5s. No reset time delay is required.

528 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.2 Large Generator Transformer Unit Protection

The data for this unit are given in Table 16.4. It is fitted with two
main protection systems to ensure security of tripping in the event
of a fault. To economise on space, the setting calculations for only
one system, that using a MiCOM P343 relay are given. Settings are
given in primary quantities throughout.

Parameter Value Unit

Generator MVA rating 187.65 MVA
Generator MW rating 160 MW
Generator voltage 18 kV
Synchronous reactance 1.93 pu
Direct-axis transient reactance 0.189 pu
Minimum operating voltage 0.8 pu
Generator negative sequence capability 0.08 pu
Generator negative sequence factor, Kg 10
Generator third harmonic voltage under load 0.02 pu
Generator motoring power 0.02 pu
alarm 1.1 pu
Generator overvoltage time delay 5 s
trip 1.3 pu
Generator undervoltage not required
Table 16.4:
System data for large generator protection Max pole slipping frequency 10 Hz
example Generator transformer rating 360 MVA
Generator transformer leakage reactance 0.244 pu
Generator transformer overflux alarm 1.1 pu
Generator transformer overflux alarm 1.2 pu
Network resistance (referred to 18kV) 0.56 m
Network reactance (referred to 18kV) 0.0199
System impedance angle (estimated) 80 deg
Minimum load resistance 0.8
Generator CT ratio 8000/1
Generator VT ratio 18000/120 16
Number of generators in parallel 2

22.2.1 Biased differential protection

The settings follow the guidelines previously stated. As 100%
stator winding earth-fault protection is provided, high sensitivity is
not required and hence can be set to 10% of generator rated
current. This equates to 602A, and the nearest settable value on
the relay is 640A (= 0.08 of rated CT current). The settings for ,
and follow the guidelines in the relay manual.

NRJED311332EN 529
 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.2.2 Voltage restrained overcurrent protection

The setting current Iset has to be greater than the full-load current
of the generator (6019A). A suitable margin must be allowed for
operation at reduced voltage, so use a multiplying factor of 1.2. The
nearest settable value is 7200A. The factor K is calculated so that
the operating current is less than the current for a remote end three
phase fault. The steady-state current and voltage at the generator
for a remote-end three-phase fault are given by the expression:
VN
I flt =
( nR f ) + ( X d + X t + nX f ) 2
2

where :
where:
I f = min imum generator primary
= minimum generator primary current for a
multi-phase
current multi − phase
for afeeder-end fault
= feeder
no-load− phase-neutral
end fault generator voltage

V N ==no
generator d-axis
− load phase synchronous
− neutra l reactance
= generator transformer reactance
g enerator voltage
= feeder resistance
X d = generator d − axis synchronous
= feeder reactance
react an ce
= number of parallel generators
X t = generator transformer reactan ce
r f = feeder resistan ce
Hence,
IXflt f = feeder reactan ce
n = number of parallel g enerators
and

V N 3(( nR f ) 2 + ( X t + nX f ) 2 )
V flt =
( nR f ) 2 + ( X d + X t + nX f ) 2
=1304 V
= 0.07U N
16
A suitable value of K is therefore
0.361 = 0.3 .
1.2

A suitable value of is 120% of , giving a value of 1565V.

The nearest settable value is 3000V, minimum allowable relay
setting. The value of is required to be above the minimum
voltage seen by the generator for a close-up phase-earth fault.
A value of 80% of rated voltage is used for , 14400V.

530 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.2.3 Inadvertent energisation protection

This protection is a combination of overcurrent with undervoltage,
the voltage signal being obtained from a VT on the generator side of
the system. The current setting used is that of rated generator
current of 6019A, in accordance with IEEE C37.102 as the
generator is for installation in the USA. Use 6000A nearest settable
value. The voltage setting cannot be more than 85% of the
generator rated voltage to ensure operation does not occur under
normal operation. For this application, a value of 50% of rated
voltage is chosen.

22.2.4 Negative phase sequence protection

The generator has a maximum steady-state capability of 8% of
rating, and a value of of 10. Settings of = 0.06 (=480A)
and = 10 are therefore used. Minimum and maximum time
delays of 1s and 1300s are used to co-ordinate with external
protection and ensure tripping at low levels of negative sequence
current are used.

22.2.5 Overfluxing protection

The generator-transformer manufacturer supplied the following
characteristics:

Alarm: V >1.1
f

Trip:
V >1.2 ,,inverse
inverse time characteristic
f
time characteristic
Hence:

the alarm setting is 18000 ×1.05 = 315 V Hz .

60
A time delay of 5s is used to avoid alarms due to transient
conditions.

the trip setting is 18000 ×1.2 = 360 V Hz . 16

60
A TMS value of 10 is selected, to match the withstand curve
supplied by the manufacturer.

NRJED311332EN 531
 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.2.6 100% Stator earth fault protection

This is provided by a combination of neutral voltage displacement
and third harmonic undervoltage protection. For the neutral voltage
displacement protection to cover 90% of the stator winding, the
minimum voltage allowing for generator operation at a minimum of
92% of rated voltage is:
0.92 ×18 kV ×0.1
3
= 956.1V
Use a value of 935.3V, nearest settable value that ensures 90% of
the winding is covered. A 0.5s definite time delay is used to prevent
spurious trips. The third harmonic voltage under normal conditions
is 2% of rated voltage, giving a value of:
18 kV ×0.02
3
= 207.8 V
The setting of the third harmonic undervoltage protection must be
below this value, a factor of 80% being acceptable. Use a value of
166.3V. A time delay of 0.5s is used. Inhibition of the element at
low generator output requires determination during commissioning.

22.2.7 Loss of excitation protection

The client requires a two-stage loss of excitation protection
function. The first is alarm only, while the second provides tripping
under high load conditions. To achieve this, the first impedance
element of the P343 loss of excitation protection can be set in
accordance with the guidelines of Section 16.3 for a generator
operating at rotor angles up to , as follows:

16 Use nearest settable values of 1.669 and 0.253 . A time delay of

5s is used to prevent alarms under transient conditions. For the trip
stage, settings for high load as given in Section 16.3 are used:
kV 2 18 2
X b2 = = =1.727 Ω
MVA 187.65
X a 2 = −0.75 X d′ = −0.1406 Ω

The nearest settable value for is 1.725 . A time delay of 0.5s is

used.

532 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.2.8 Reverse power protection

The manufacturer-supplied value for motoring power is 2% of rated
power. The recommended setting is therefore 1.6MW. An
instrumentation class CT is used in conjunction with the relay for
this protection, to ensure accuracy of measurement. A time delay of
0.5s is used. The settings should be checked at the commissioning
stage.

22.2.9 Over/under-frequency protection

For under-frequency protection, the client has specified the
following characteristics:
Alarm: 59.3Hz, 0.5s time delay
1st stage trip: 58.7Hz, 100s time delay
2nd stage trip: 58.2Hz, 1s time delay

Similarly, the overfrequency is required to be set as follows:

Alarm: 62Hz, 30s time delay
Trip: 63.5Hz, 10s time delay

These characteristics can be set in the relay directly.

22.2.10 Overvoltage protection

The generator manufacturers’ recommendation is:
Alarm: 110% voltage for 5s
Trip: 130% voltage, instantaneous

This translates into the following relay settings:

Alarm: 19800V, 5s time delay
16
Trip: 23400V, 0.1s time delay

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 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

22.2.11 Pole slipping protection

This is provided by the method described in Section 7.3.2.
Detection at a maximum slip frequency of 10Hz is required. The
setting data, according to the relay manual, is as follows.
Forward reach,



Reverse reach,



Reactance line,



where:
= generator transformer leakage impedance
= network impedance

The nearest settable values are 0.243 , 0.656 , and 0.206

respectively.
The lens angle setting, , is found from the equation:
 1.54 − R l min 
α min =180 o − 2 tan −1  
 (Z A + Z B ) 
and, substituting values,

min = 62.5°

16 Use the minimum settable value of 90°. The blinder angle, , is

estimated to be 80°, and requires checking during commissioning.
Timers and are set to 15ms as experience has shown that
these settings are satisfactory to detect pole slipping frequencies
up to 10Hz.
This completes the settings required for the generator, and the relay
settings are given in Table 16.5. Of course, additional protection is
required for the generator transformer, according to the principles
described in Chapter ”Transformer and Transformer-Feeder
Protection”.

534 NRJED311332EN
Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

Protection Quantity Value

8%
100%
Differential protection
0%
150%
66.3V
Stator earth fault
delay 0.5s
935.3V
Neutral voltage displacement
Time Delay 0.5s
-0.245
.666
Loss of excitation
5s
-0.1406
1.725
Voltage controlled overcurrent 0.5s
0s
7200A
3
Negative phase sequence
14400V
3000V
0.06
10
Overvoltage 10
1s
1300s
meas mode three-phase
operate
any
mode
1 setting V19800V

Under frequency 1 function DT

1 time delay 5s
2 setting 23400V
2 function DT
2 time delay 0.1s 16
function reverse power
setting 1.6MW
Reverse Power
time delay 0.5s
DO time 0s

Table 16.5:
Relay settings for large generator protection example

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 Generator and 22. Examples of Generator
Generator-Transformer
Protection Protection Settings
(cont.)

Protection Quantity Value

Dead Mach 6000A
Inadvertent Energisation
Dead Mach 9000V
0.243
0.656
0.206
Pole Slipping Protection 90°
80°
15ms
15ms
1 setting 62Hz
1 time delay 30s
Reverse Power
2 setting 63.5Hz
2 time delay 10s
function reverse power
setting 1.6MW
Overfrequency
time delay 0.5s
DO time 0s
1 setting 59.3Hz
1 time delay 0.5s
2 setting 58.7Hz
Under frequency
2 time delay 100s
3 time delay 58.2Hz
3 time delay 1s

Table 16.5 (cont.):

Relay settings for large generator protection example

16

23. References

16.1
Survey of Rate Of Change of Frequency Relays and Voltage Phase
Shift Relays for Loss of Mains Protection.
ERA Report 95-0712R, 1995.
ERA Technology Ltd.

536 NRJED311332EN