Protection of

Alternators
 Protection of alternators

The protection of alternators is very much complex due to the following reasons:

1. The alternators used in the power system produce very high a.c. voltages and
are connected to busbars.

2. Various other equipments are always associated with the alternators. Such
equipments are prime movers, excitation systems, voltage regulators, cooling
systems etc. Thus protection of alternators must consider the presence of
these other equipments also.

3. The alternators are very expensive and very important factor in a power
system. The protection scheme must be such that it should not shut off the
alternators as far as possible. The shut off alternators result in a power
shortage.

All these factors make the design of protection scheme for the alternators very
much complex.
 Protection of alternators

Abnormal running conditions

(i) Failure of prime-mover

(ii) Loss of Excitation (Failure of field)
(iii) Overloading
(iv) Overspeed
(v) Overvoltage
(vi) Unbalanced loading
 Protection of alternators
Failure of prime-mover
When input to the prime-mover fails, the alternator runs as a synchronous motor
and draws some current from the supply system. This motoring conditions is
known as “inverted running”.

(a) In case of turbo-alternator sets, failure of

steam supply may cause inverted running. If
the steam supply is gradually restored, the
alternator will pick up load without disturbing
the system.

If the steam failure is likely to be prolonged,

 In attended stations, the machine can be safely isolated by the control room
attendant. Automatic protection is not required.

 In unattended stations, this may lead to dangerous mechanical conditions. The

serious overheating of the steam turbine blades may result. To prevent this
the reverse power protection achieved by directional power relays is used.
 Protection of alternators
Failure of prime-mover

(b) In case of hydro-generator sets, protection against inverted running is

achieved by providing mechanical devices on the water-wheel. When the
water flow drops to an insufficient rate to maintain the electrical output, the
alternator is disconnected from the system.

(c) In case of Diesel engine driven alternators, when running inverted, draw a
considerable amount of power from the supply system and it is a usual practice
to provide protection against motoring in order to avoid damage due to
possible mechanical seizure. This is achieved by applying reverse power relays
to the alternators which isolate the latter during their motoring action. It is
essential that the reverse power relays have time-delay in operation in order to
prevent inadvertent tripping during system disturbances caused by faulty
synchronizing and phase swinging.
 Protection of alternators
Loss of Excitation (Failure of field)

 The chances of loss of excitation of

alternators are very rare. It is possible due to

- opening of field winding or

- short circuit in field or
- some fault in exciter system.

 When loss of excitation occurs, power input to the machine remains same
and the generator starts drawing reactive power from the bus. This leads to
the overheating of the stator winding and the rotor body due to induced
currents.
 Protection of alternators
Loss of Excitation (Failure of field)

 No immediate damage will be caused by permitting the alternator to run

without a field for a short-period.

In attended stations, it is sufficient to rely on the control room attendant to

disconnect the faulty alternator manually from the system bus-bars. Therefore, it
is a universal practice not to provide automatic protection against this
contingency.

In unattended stations, Loss of excitation should not persist for long and
corrective measures like disconnection of alternator should be taken. For this, a
tripping scheme can be used which can trip the alternator circuit breaker
immediately when there is a field failure.

7
 Protection of alternators

Overloading

It occurs mainly due to overload on the supply system.

Due to continuous overloading, the overheating of the stator results.

This may increase the winding temperature. If this temperature rise
exceeds certain limit, the insulation of the winding may get damaged. The
degree of overloading decides the effects and temperature rise.

In attended stations, on the occurrence of an overload, the alternators

can be disconnected manually.

In unattended stations, overload relays as well as “slow blow” fuses are

commonly used to provide overload protection.
 Protection of alternators
Overspeed

It occurs due to sudden loss of all or the major part of load on the
alternator.

Modern alternators are usually provided with mechanical centrifugal devices

mounted on their driving shafts to trip the main valve of the prime-mover
when a dangerous overspeed occurs.

In case of hydro-generators, the water flow to the turbine cannot be

stopped or reduced instantly. Generally a turbo governor is provided to
prevent the overspeed. But if there is any fault in the turbine governor then
the dangerous overspeed may take place. Hence it is necessary to supervise
the working of turbine governor and take some corrective measures if there
is some fault in the governor.
 Protection of alternators
Over-voltage

The field excitation system of modern alternators is so designed that over-

voltage conditions at normal running speeds cannot occur. However, over-
voltage in an alternator occurs when speed of the prime-mover increases due to
sudden loss of the alternator load.

 In steam-turbine driven alternators  control governors are very sensitive to

speed variations and occurrence of overvoltage is prevented. So, over-
voltage protection is not provided.
 Protection of alternators
Over-voltage

In case of hydro-generator, the control governors are much less sensitive…..rise

in speed can cause over-voltage…..would over-stress stator winding and
insulation breakdown may occur. So, overvoltage protection is provided.

The over-voltage relays are operated from a voltage supply derived from the
generator terminals. The relays are so arranged that when the generated
voltage rises 20% above the normal value, they operate to

• Reduce the overvoltage

and if necessary

• trip the main circuit breaker to disconnect the faulty alternator from the
system

• disconnect the alternator field circuit

11
 Protection of alternators
Over-voltage

Not only the internal overvoltages are dangerous but atmospheric surge
voltages can also reach to the generators. The atmospheric surge voltages are
generated by direct lightning strokes to the aerial lines of high voltage system.
These surges can get transferred to the generator. To protect the generators
from surge voltages, the surge diverters are often used.

At the time of restriking across the contacts of circuit breakers, the transient
over voltages get generated. Such surges are called switching surges and can be
limited by the uses of modern circuit breakers. R-C surge
suppressors/absorbers also help in reducing switching surges.
 Protection of alternators
Unbalanced Loading

Unbalanced loading  Different phase currents in the alternator.

Causes:

Due to following faults on the circuit external to the alternator:

 Phase to earth fault or

 Faults between phases

Effects: if allowed to persist,

 may either severely burn the mechanical fixings of the rotor core or
 damage the field winding.
 Protection of alternators
Unbalanced Loading

Protection scheme
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults

Good stator winding Winding shorted phase- Winding shorted

to-phase turn-to-turn

These faults occur mainly due to the insulation failure of the stator windings.

The main types of stator winding faults, in order of importance are:

(a) fault between phase and ground

(b) fault between phases
(c) inter-turn fault involving turns of the same phase winding
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults

Stator winding faults are the most dangerous and are likely to cause
considerable damage to the expensive machinery.

Automatic protection is absolutely necessary to clear such faults in the

quickest possible time in order to minimize the extent of damage.

• If the stator winding fault is not cleared quickly, it may lead to

(i) burning of stator coils

(ii) burning and welding-up of stator laminations
 Protection of alternators
Differential method of protection (also knows as Merz-
Stator winding faults Price circulating current scheme) is most commonly
Protection scheme employed due to its greater sensitivity and reliability.

The relay circuit is so

arranged that its
energizing causes
(i) opening of the
breaker connecting the
alternator to the bus-
bars and (ii) opening of
the *field circuit of the
* Although disconnection of faulty alternator prevents other alternator.
alternators on the system feeding into the fault, it is necessary
to suppress the field of faulty alternator to stop the machine
itself feeding into the fault.
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Protection scheme (with balancing resistors)
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults

Limitations

 If earth fault occurs near the neutral point, fault current may be less
due to insufficient voltage across the short-circuited portion. The
current is further less due to earth fault resistance. Hence it is
impossible to protect whole of the stator windings of a star-connected
alternator during earth-faults. The magnitude of unprotected zone
depends upon the value of earthing resistance and relay setting.

It is a usual practice to protect only 85% of the winding because the

chances of an earth fault occurring near the neutral point are very rare
due to the uniform insulation of the winding throughout.

 High earthing resistance causes low earth fault current and low earth
fault relay setting. Too low a relay setting is undesirable for reliable
stability on heavy through phase-faults. This can be overcome in
Modified Differrential Protection for Alternators.
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Modified Differrential Protection for Alternators
In this scheme, setting of earth fault relay is reduced without impairing stability.
The two phase elements (PC and PA) and balancing resistance (BR) are connected in
star and the earth relay (ER) is connected between this star point and the fourth wire
of circulating current pilot-circuit.

20
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Modified Differrential Protection for Alternators
If an earth-fault occurs on any one
phase, the out-of-balance
secondary current in CTs in that
phase will flow through the earth
relay ER and via pilot S1 or S2 to the
neutral of the current transformers.
This will cause the operation of
earth relay only.
If a fault occurs between two
phases, the out-of-balance current
will circulate round the two
transformer secondaries via any two
of the coils PA, BR, PC (the pair
being decided by the two phases
that are faulty) without passing
through the earth relay ER.
Therefore, only the phase-fault
21
relays will operate.
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Balanced Earth-fault Protection
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Stator Inter-turn Protection

Circulating current scheme does not

protect intern-turn fault because
current flow in a local circuit
between turns involved and no
differential current is produced.

It is usually considered unnecessary

to provide protection for inter-turn
faults because they invariably
develop into earth-faults.

Inter-turn protection is provided in

alternators with double-winding
armatures such as hydro-electric
generators where each phase
winding is divided into two halves.
Protection of alternators

24
Protection of alternators

25