Field Flashing a Synchronous Generator

William Parker, Bruno Loza, Khalid Alotaibi, Brian K. Johnson

Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho, United States of America
Email: bjohnson@uidaho.edu

Abstract— When power goes completely out, it is necessary to

excite the fields of power system generators with battery power
to re-start the generators before switching back to using
generator output power for field excitation; this is known as a
black start. We designed a black start field exciter system for the
20-kVA synchronous generator and ABB UNITROL 1020 exciter
in the Analog Model Power System at the University of Idaho to
be used for starting excitation on the generator and research on
black start conditions. The completed system was modeled in
Real Time Digital Simulation for incorporation into power
system transient simulations.

Keywords—Field Flashing; Black Start; Real Time Digital

Simulation; Synchronous Machine Excitation
Fig. 1. Analog model power system generator setup. (The prime mover
I. INTRODUCTION
for the generator is a 20hp induction motor controlled by a variable
The Analog Model Power System (AMPS) in the frequency drive.)
University of Idaho BEL power systems lab is powered by a
20-kVA, 220-V, 1200-RPM synchronous machine. This current. For large synchronous generators, this is done with a
generator is driven by an induction machine controlled by an power electronic rectifier or motor generator set with an
adjustable speed drive (ASD). The exciter previously induction motor driving a DC generator. Lab scale
commissioned on the AMPS generator was powered by the generators, like the AMPS generator, are often excited using
three phase power supply for the ASD. Some utility scale DC lab power supplies or purpose built power electronic
generators are designed to operate when the external power converters like the UNITROL 1020, supplied by the building
supply is not available. In those cases, the field is temporarily mains.
energized (field flashed) using stored energy, typically These generator excitation strategies work well when there
batteries, to provide energy that the normal excitation system is power available from other generators to power the
can convert into more field current and ramp the generator up excitation system on startup, but a black start system is needed
to full operating voltage. This process is known as a black if the power system reaches a blackout condition where no
start. power is available from the external power grid. The black
The objective of this project is to design, implement, and start system provides initial field current to the generator from
test a field flashing scheme for the excitation controller. An a stored energy source like batteries. This field current
additional deliverable is the development and validation of a produces some voltage on the machine terminals that the
real time digital simulator model of the generator and normal excitation system can convert into additional field
emulated prime mover and governor. current. This process is known as field flashing as defined in
IEEE standard 421.1 [2]. The positive feedback from added
field current producing higher terminal voltage allows the
II. BACKGROUND primary field exciter system to ramp the generator up to full
Synchronous generators operate by turning a set of DC output voltage after the initial boost from the black start
electromagnets (the rotor windings) inside a ring of system.
conductive coils wired to the machine terminals (the stator Black start systems are typically installed on generation
windings). The rotating magnetic flux from the rotor sources with low energy overhead, such as hydroelectric,
windings induces a sinusoidal voltage on the stator windings diesel, or gas turbine facilities. Not all suitable generation
with a frequency proportional to the angular speed of the rotor sources are equipped with black start systems since, as shown
[1]. by Sun, et al., system restoration time cannot always be
In normal operation, the DC current for the field windings reduced by additional black start capacity [3].
is provided by converting a portion of the sinusoidal output
voltage and current of the generator into DC voltage and

978-1-5090-3270-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 III. SYSTEM DESIGN
The process to black start the AMPS generator using the
The black start system designed in this project was based black start system is outlined as shown:
on using the ABB UNITROL 1020 excitation AVR purchased 1. Start prime mover and wait for rotor to reach
by team Three Phase for their 2014-2015 senior design synchronous speed
project. Their basic commissioning of the UNITROL 1020 2. Turn selector switch to “System On” position -
required the use of the ABB CMT 1000 software interface to Connects the battery to AUX power supply on AVR
start and control excitation current from the UNITROL 1020,
control system
and powered the UNITROL 1020 exciter from the 220V
utility power available in the lab. Our system improved on 3. Press “Flash Field” button - Turns on relay
that design by enabling the system operator to start excitation connecting batteries to field windings of the
with the push of a single switch, and powering the UNITROL generator
1020 exciter with the generator output power, as is common 4. Wait for UNITROL 1020 AVR to ramp up field
for large synchronous machines in the power system. current using machine output power – UNITROL
1020 excitation on DIO bit is tied to logic 1, so
excitation starts automatically.
5. Release flash “Flash Field” button - Disconnects
Batteries from generator field windings
6. UNITROL 1020 controls excitation in steady state
operation

The UNITROL 1020 allows the inputs to its power

electronic converter to be powered separately from the power
supply for the control logic for the converter. The black start
system battery bank voltage of 24-VDC was chosen to
adequately supply the control electronics of the UNITROL
1020, which have a minimum operating voltage of 18-VDC,
while maintaining a standard battery bank voltage so that
standard automotive grade components could be used for the
system. The UNITROL 1020 also uses 24-V logic on its
digital I/O ports, which allows future changes in the
configuration of the AVR to use the battery bank voltage
directly as a logic 1.
Because the current drawn from the battery bank during a
black start is relatively low, the system used a small battery
Fig. 2. The UNITROL 1020 allows the inputs to its power electronic bank composed of two 12-V 7.2-Ah sealed lead acid batteries.
converter to be powered separately from the power supply for Sealed lead acid batteries are advantageous for a laboratory
the control logic for the converter. The black start System
designed to black start the AMPS generator
setting since they do not emit hydrogen gas during charging.
A Dellran Battery Tender 2.5-A 24-V battery charger is
used to maintain charge on the battery bank when the system
Two systems protect the generator field windings from
is not in use. The Dellran charger is designed to provide a
overcurrent from the batteries. The 2-Ohm power resistor
trickle charge to marine deep cycle batteries to maintain
placed in series with the field windings reduces the amplitude
battery health. The rugged panel mount body of the charger is
of inductive inrush currents when the batteries are first
ideal for the high vibration environment on the motor-
connected to the field windings. The fast-blow DC rated fuse
generator set.
placed on the positive wire at the interconnect point between
the battery bank and the black start system panel protects the
generator and users from sustained overcurrent due to a fault
in the black start system or generator field windings.
 Fig. 3. ABB AVR RTDS model

Fig. 5. Black start system hardware

IV. SIMULATION
Real Time Digital Simulation (RTDS) software was used
for the simulation of the machine and black-start system. This
software is a hardware-in-loop type simulation system
commonly used in power industry for the testing of system
operation without having to run the full scale system hardware Fig. 4. ABB AVR RTDS component
in a lab. This also allows users to perform tests, such as fault
tests, on the system without damaging the equipment. The Verifying the model involved varying the load on the
steps involved in creating a black-start model system included machine using a dynamic RL load component in RTDS. For
verifying the created ABB AVR RTDS model, verifying the
loads that were less than rated load, the model responded as
synchronous generator model, creating a black-start control
expected by providing a larger field current. This load change
system, and comparing the entire RTDS system data with the
measured data. would result in a small fluctuation in the terminal voltage, but
the provided regulating field current would bring the voltage
A. AVR RTDS Verification back to the generator’s rated value. This behavior is
The responsibilities for the previous capstone design team demonstrated in the RTDS plot, Figure 6.
that worked with this synchronous generator involved
selecting, installing, and the modeling in RTDS of an AVR. B. Synchronous Generator Model Implementation
Thus, before proceeding with the creation of an accurate RTDS A standard RTDS synchronous generator model was used
representation of a black-start system, the AVR RTDS model in the black-start system. To accurately model this synchronous
needed to be verified. Figure 4 shows the entire AVR model in generator, the machine model parameters needed to be
RTDS. As the equivalent component shows, Figure 5, the determined. Previous tests had been done by graduate students
AVR receives the field current (IF) and the machine terminal Mike West and Andy Miles, which involved using IEEE
voltage (Vpu) as input from the synchronous generator. In Standard 115 tests to determine the parameters of the
return, it outputs the field excitation voltage (Ef_avr) the
synchronous generator. This process involved determining the
generator requires to reach and maintain its rated terminal
open-circuit characteristic (Figure 7) and performing reactive
voltage.
loading [4]. After these steps, the direct-axis reactance (Xd)
and quadrature-axis reactance (Xq) were calculated.
 TABLE I. MACHINE PARAMETERS AND BASE VALUES

Xq Direct-axis reactance 0.862 pu

Xd Quadrature-axis reactance 0.831 pu
Sbase Base power 18.65 MVA
Vbase Base voltage 220 V
Rf Field resistance 14 Ω
Ifbase Base field current 3.39 A
Vfbase Base field voltage 48.14 V
C. Black-start Control System Creation
Now that all the necessary steps were completed, the
black-start control system could be modeled. The purpose of
this model was to mimic the steps the machine would follow
when starting the machine after a black-out. Therefore, a
standard RTDS dial with a selector switch was used to provide
Fig. 7. Terminal voltage for load change of 2-kW to 14-kW a direct path from either the battery bank or the AVR. Figure
8, below, shows the final black-start system implemented with
the generator and variable load for testing. (Note that the
equivalent battery source value is represented in p.u. instead
of in volts.)

Fig. 6. Open-Circuit saturation curve for the synchronous generator

Determining the base values for the machine was

necessary in the comparison of the RTDS values and the
measured data because the standard units for the RTDS
Fig. 8. Complete black-start testing model
generator field input are in per-unit (p.u.). Many of the
base values, such as the base voltage and the base power,
were determined using the nameplate data of the machine. D. RTDS Versus Measured Data
For the field winding base current, the value was found by
After creating the RTDS system, the system was simulated
determining the field current on the air gap line to bring
to verify that the black-start was operating comparably to the
the machine to rated voltage. The entire list of machine
designed black-start system in the lab. The critical values to
parameters and base values used are presented in Table I
compare were the values normally affecting the AVR which
below. [5]
include the field current, terminal voltage, and the field
voltage. There were three steps involved in the black-start
process modeled in RTDS: battery excitation, AVR excitation,
and steady-state.
 Field Current Field Voltage Terminal Voltage

Fig. 9. RTDS Black-start process (Top: Battery excitation mode; Middle: AVR ramps up machine excitation; Bottom: Steady-state operation)

Before the first step takes place, the system mimics what
the motor-generator set would experience when no power is V. SUMMARY
being generated. The rotor may or may not be spinning but The purpose of this project was to create a black start
there is no excitation current or voltage to allow the system for the 20-kVA synchronous generator and ABB
synchronous generator to generate power. The first step in UNITROL 1020 exciter on the analog model power system
RTDS, battery excitation, involves sending a per-unit signal (AMPS) in the University of Idaho BEL power systems lab
equivalent to the battery bank’s 24-V (0.499 p.u.) to the field and model the system in Real Time Digital Simulation
windings on the generator. As seen in Figure 9, above, the (RTDS). The system will be used for regular excitation of the
field current increases and the field voltages immediately steps generator and for research on black start conditions.
up to the battery bank per-unit value. The terminal voltage A black start system needs to provide an initial burst of
ramps up because of the applied field voltage. field current for the synchronous generator using a stored
The second step, AVR excitation, mimics the change from energy source like batteries, so that the normal excitation
battery excitation to excitation from the AVR exciter. The system (UNITROL 1020) can use the generator output power
goal of the AVR is to bring the terminal voltage up to its rated to create more field current and ramp the machine up to full
value, which results in the AVR providing an increase in field operating voltage.
current and field voltage. As shown above, the terminal The black start system we designed connects a small 24-V
voltage ramps up from the terminal voltage last seen when the battery bank directly to the field windings of the synchronous
machine was battery-excited. generator to provide the field flashing current needed to black
The final state of the system is steady-state. In this state, start the machine. A series resistor and DC rated fuse protect
the field current and voltage, which are provided by the AVR, the generator field windings and operators from overcurrent
are a constant value. This is due to the fact that there are no caused by inductive in-rush or faults in the system. A
changes in the load. As expected, the terminal voltage is now commercial 24-V deep cycle battery charger maintains charge
at rated value. on the system battery bank when the system is not in use.
This simple system provides an economical way to black
start a small synchronous generator like the one used in the
BEL power systems lab. We were able to accurately model the [5] E. B. Bakie, "Development of Generator Protection
steady state response of the UNITROL 1020 in RTDS, but Exercises for a Laboratory Scale Synchronous
more work will need to be done to validate the transient model Generator," University of Idaho, Moscow, 2010.
during the ramp up period. The project produced hardware to [6] North American Electric Reliability Corporation,
reliably black start the synchronous generator in the "NERC Emergency Preparedness and Operations 005-2:
University of Idaho Analog Model Power System lab and a System Restoration from Blackstart Resources," North
baseline RTDS model that can be used in future research on American Electric Reliability Corporation, Washington,
the analog model power system. DC, 2013.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation
(NERC) standard EOP-005-2 outlines requirements for utility [7] Z. Xu, P. Yang, Z. Zeng, J. Peng and Z. Zhao,
scale black start systems [6]. These requirements include both "Black Start Strategy for PV-ESS Multi-Microgrids with
the basic ability to restart generation without external support, Three-Phase/Single-Phase Architecture," Energies , vol.
and the ability to synchronize to re-energized sections of the 1, no. 9, p. 372, 2016.
grid. The UNITROL 1020 configured in this project provides
a synchronization management function that will be tested in
future experimentation.
Another opportunity for future research using the RTDS
black start model created in this project is further study into
black starting micro-grids and re-connection of multiple
micro-grid (MMG) systems to the bulk electric system (BES).
Xu et al present and test an algorithm for black starting MMG
systems [7]; however, future work with RTDS and hardware-
in-loop simulation of MMG black start and re-synchronization
could provide insight into interactions of micro-grid controls
and BES control and protection systems.

VI. CONCLUSION
The black start system designed for this project provides an
easy way to start excitation on the synchronous generator on
the analog model power system. The RTDS model and
hardware that models the black start systems used for larger
generators on the power system provides an opportunity for
hardware-in-the-loop studies for research into the effects of
faults, transients, or equipment mis-operations during black
start conditions. These would be of interest to protection
engineers and power system planners since the power system
is particularly vulnerable to instability caused by disturbances
during the restoration phase of a black out that would
necessitate a black start.
VII. REFERENCES

[1] S. J. Chapman, "Synchronous Generators," in

Electric Machinery Fundamentals, New York,
McGraw-Hill, 2012, pp. 191-261.
[2] IEEE Power Engineering Society, "IEEE Standard
421.1 IEEE Standard Definitions for Excitation Systems
for Synchronous Machines," IEEE, New York, 2007.
[3] W. Sun, C.-C. Liu and S. Liu, "Black Start
Capability Assessment in Power System Restoration," in
IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting, San
Diego, CA, 2011.
[4] IEEE Power & Energy Society, "IEEE Guide for
Test Procedures for Synchronous Machines," IEEE,
New York, 2009.