EE 423 Switchgear and Protection Engineering

Lecture 8

Generator Protection

1
 Contents
• Introduction
• Generator Faults
– Failure of Prime mover
– Loss of field
– Over-current
– Over-speed
– Over-voltage
– Unbalanced loading
• Differential Protection of Alternators
• Balanced earth-fault Protection
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 Introduction
• The generating units especially the larger ones
(in the range of 200+ MW) are relatively few
and high in cost than other most equipment
• It is therefore necessary to provide protection
to cover the wide range of faults which may
occur in the modern generating plants

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 Introduction

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 Protection zones …

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 Protection zones …

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Possible major faults and abnormal
conditions to the generator
• These may include;
– Failure of prime mover
– Loss of field excitation (Failure of field excitation)
– Over current (Overload)
– Over speed
– Loss of synchronism
– Under frequency
– Overvoltage
– Unbalanced loading
– Overheating
– Stator winding faults
– Failure of the insulation of the stator winding
– Failure of the insulation of the rotor winding
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Tripping Classification of the Generator
❑ Base of tripping is the need for isolation
• Class A – faults in generator that need immediate
isolation.
Generator Circuit Breaker and Filed Circuit
Breaker are opened + turbine tripping
• Class B – faults in generator that do not need
immediate isolation.
Turbine tripping first → Reverse Power relays
• Class C - faults/ abnormal condition in the Grid which
call for disconnection of the Generator from the Grid
Generator Transformer HV side Breaker →
Generator Islanding
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 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
• This motoring condition is known as Inverted
running
• Failure of steam supply in steam generator may
cause inverted running
• If the steam is gradually restored, the alternator
will pick up the load without disturbing the
system
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 Failure of Prime mover
• If the steam failure is prolonged, the machine can
safely be isolated by the control room attendant
• ANSI 32 – Directional Power Relay or Reverse Power
Relay (anti-motoring protection) can be used
• So automatic protection is not required
• In case of hydro-generator sets, inverted running is
protected by mechanical devices on the water-wheel
• If water flow drops to an insufficient rate to maintain
the electrical output, the alternator is disconnected
from the system
• Therefore in this case also electrical protection is not
necessary
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 Failure of Prime mover
• For diesel engine driven alternators, when
running inverted, draw a considerable amount
of power from the supply
• To prevent this, the reverse power relays are
employed

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 Loss of field excitation
• The loss of field excitation in alternator is very
rare
• Even if it occurs, no immediate damage will be
caused for a short period
• It is sufficient to rely on the control room
attendant to disconnect the faulty alternator
manually from the system bus-bars
• So there is no automatic protection against
this contingency
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 Over-current
• It occurs mainly due to overload on the supply
system
• Over-current protection is considered
unnecessary because of the following reasons;
– The modern design of alternators are with
high values of internal impedances so that
they will stand a complete short-circuit.

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 Over-current …
– Using overload protection, it might
disconnect the alternator from the plant
bus-bar on account of some temporary
troubles outside the plant, therefore
interfere with continuity of power
unnecessarily
– On the occurrence of an overload, the
alternators can be disconnected manually

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 Over-speed
• The cause of over-speed is the sudden loss of
all or the major part of load on the alternator
• Modern alternators are provided with
mechanical centrifugal devices on their driving
shafts to trip the main valve of the prime-
mover when a dangerous over-speed occurs

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 Over-voltage
• The field excitation system of modern
alternators is so designed that over-voltage
conditions at normal running speeds cannot
occur
• Over-voltage in alternators occurs when speed
of prime mover increases due to sudden loss
of load

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 Over-voltage …
• For steam turbine driven alternators, the
control governors are very sensitive to speed
variations
• They prevent occurrence of over-voltages on
the generating units
• So no need of over-voltage protection on
turbo-alternator sets

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 Over-voltage …
• In case of hydro-generator, the control governors
are much less sensitive
• An appreciable time may elapse before rise in
speed due to loss of load is checked
• The over-voltage during this time may reach a
value which would over-stress the stator
windings and insulation breakdown may occur
• Over-voltage relays in this case are necessary
– Disconnect the generator from the system
– Disconnect the alternator field circuit

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 Unbalanced loading
• Unbalanced loading means different phase
currents in the alternator
• It arises from faults to earth or faults between
phases on the circuit external to the alternator
• The unbalanced currents may either severely
burn the mechanical fixings of the rotor core
or damage the field winding

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 Unbalanced loading …

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 Unbalanced loading …
• Under normal operating conditions, equal
currents flow through the different phases and
their algebraic sum is zero
• Therefore, sum of the current flowing in the
secondaries is also zero and no current flows the
operating coil of the relay
• However, if unbalance occurs, the currents
induced in the secondaries will be different and
the resultant will flow through the relay and trip
the CB to disconnect the alternator from the
system

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 Differential Protection of Alternators
• This is mainly used to protect stator winding
faults which occur due to insulation failure of the
stator windings
• The main types of stator winding faults are:
– Fault between phase and ground
– Faults between phases
– Inter-turn fault involving turns of the same winding
• Stator winding faults are the most dangerous and
are likely to cause considerable damage to the
expensive machines
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 Differential Protection of Alternators
• For protection of alternators against such faults,
differential method of protection (also known as
Merz-Price system) is most employed due to its
greater sensitivity and reliability
• In this scheme, currents at the two ends of the
protected section are compared
• The currents are equal under normal conditions
• But they are different under fault conditions

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Differential Protection of Alternators

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 Differential Protection of Alternators
• The protection scheme achieved by interconnection
of CTs at either ends of the protected plant/
equipment or zone of protection.
• A comparison of magnitude and phase angle of the
current entering the protected plant/equipment with
that leaving is made.
• When plant/equipment is considered as a protected
zone then;
• If the currents entering and leaving the protected
zone are equal, protection relays should not operate;
• If the currents entering and leaving the protected
zone are unequal protection relays must operate.
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 Differential Protection of Alternators
• There is an independent path for the currents
circulating in each pair of current transformers.
• Under normal operating conditions, the current at
both ends of each winding will be equal and hence
the currents in the secondary windings of two CTs
connected in any phase will also be equal. Therefore,
there is balanced circulating current in the pilot wires
and no current flows through the relay operating
coils.
• When an earth-fault or phase-to-phase fault occurs,
this condition no longer holds good and the
differential current flowing through the relay circuit
operates the relay to trip the circuit breaker.
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 Differential Protection of Alternators
• Suppose an earth fault occurs on phase R the current
in the affected phase winding will flow through the
machine to earth, the circuit being completed through
the neutral earthing resistance. The currents in the
secondary windings of the two CTs in phase R will
become unequal and the difference of the two
currents will flow through the corresponding relay coil,
the relay operates to trip the circuit breaker.
• In case a short-circuit fault occurs between the phases
Y and B, the short-circuit current circulates via the
neutral end connection through the two windings and
through the fault as shown by the dotted arrows. The
CTs will have unequal values of current that will cause
the relay to operate to trip the circuit breaker.
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 Limitations
• It is a general practice to use neutral earthing
resistance
• This limits the destructive effects of earth-fault
current
• It is therefore impossible to protect whole of the
stator windings of the star connected alternator
during earth-fault
• When an earth-fault occurs near the neutral point,
there may be insufficient voltage across the short-
circuited portion to drive the necessary current
round the fault circuit to operate the relay
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 Limitations

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 Limitations
• The magnitude of unprotected zone depends
upon the value of earthing resistance and
relay setting
• It is 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 uniform insulation of the winding
throughout

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 Modified differential protection
• To overcome these limitations the modified
differential protection for alternators is used
CT1 ALTERNATOR CT2

B
EARTHING
RESISTANCE
C

RELAY R RELAY
PHASE-A PHASE-C

R-Is a balance
EARTH
resistor
RELAY
PHASE-B

TO TRIP CIRCUIT
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 Limitations
• Under normal operating conditions, currents at the two ends
of each stator winding will be equal. Therefore, there is a
balanced circulating current in the phase pilot wires and no
current flows through the operating coils of the relays.
• 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 to the neutral of the current transformers and
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 secondary
windings via any two of the coils phase-A, balance resistor and
phase-C without passing through the earth relay. Therefore,
only the phase-fault relays will operate.
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 Balanced earth-fault Protection
• In small alternators, the neutral ends of the three-
phase windings are connected internally
• Hence it is not possible to use Merz-Price circulating
principle → No facility to accommodate the CTs
• Under these circumstances, it is considered sufficient
to provide protection against earth-fault only
• Balanced earth-fault scheme is used
• This scheme provides no protection against phase to
phase faults, unless they develop into earth-fault as
most of them will

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 Balanced earth-fault Protection

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 Operation
• Under normal operating conditions, the
currents flowing in the leads in the
secondaries of the CTs add to zero and no
current flows through the relay
• The current in the neutral wire is also zero
hence no current to the relay through
secondary of the CT connected to the neutral

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 Operation
• If an earth fault develops at F2 external to the
protected zone, the sum of the currents at the
terminals of the alternator is exactly equal to the
current in the neutral connection and hence no
current flows through the relay
• When an earth fault occurs at F1 or within the
protected zone, these currents are no longer
equal and differential current flows through the
operating coil of the relay
• Then relay closes its contacts to disconnect the
alternator from the system

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 Examples

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 Example 1
• A star-connected, 3-phase, 10-MVA, 6.6kV
alternator has a per phase reactance of 10%. It
is protected by Merz-Price circulating-current
principle which is set to operate for fault
current not less than 175A. Calculate the value
of earthing resistance (r) to be provided in
order to ensure that only 10% of the
alternator winding remains unprotected

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 Solution

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 Solution …

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 Solution …

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 Solution …

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 Example 2
A star-connected, 3-phase, 10 MVA, 6·6 kV
alternator is protected by Merz-Price circulating-
current principle using 1000/5 amperes current
transformers. The star point of the alternator is
earthed through a resistance of 7·5 Ω . If the
minimum operating current for the relay is 0·5 A,
calculate the percentage of each phase of the stator
winding which is unprotected against earth-faults
when the machine is operating at normal voltage.
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 Solution
let x % of the winding be unprotected
Earth resistance r = 7.5 Ω
Voltage per phase =6.6kV/√3=3810 V
Minimum fault current which will operate the relay
= 1000 x 0.5A/5 = 100 A
E.m.f induced in x % winding=3810V x (x/100) = 38.1 V
Earth fault current which x % winding will cause
= 38.1x (x/r)= 38.1 x (x/7.5) Amperes
This current must be equal to 100 A.
100 = 38.1 x (x/7.5)
This gives x = 19.69 %
Hence unprotected winding = 19.69 %
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 Alternative Solution
let x per unit be the unprotected portion of the winding

Voltage of unprotected part per phase = 6.6kV/√3 = 3810V

Full-load current, I = 10MVA/6.6kVx√3 = 874.77 A
The reactance per phase = 3810/874.77 = 4.36 Ω
Reactance of x winding = 4.36 x x =4.36x Ω
E.m.f induced in x winding = 3810x V
Impedance offered to fault by x winding
Zf = ((4.36 x )2+7.52)0.5

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 Alternative Solution …
Earth fault current due to x winding = 3810x /Zf
When this fault current becomes 100 A the relay will
operate to trip the circuit breaker.

Therefore 100 = 3810x / ((4.36x)2 + 7.52)0.5

104((4.36x)2 + 7.52) = 14.516 x 106x2
19x2 + 56.25 = 1451.6x2
x = 0.1982,
Hence unprotected portion = 19.82%

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 Example 3
A star-connected, 3-phase, 10 MVA, 6·6 kV
alternator is protected by circulating current
protection, the star point being earthed via a
resistance r. Estimate the value of earthing resistor if
85% of the stator winding is protected against earth
faults. Assume an earth fault setting of 20%. Neglect
the impedance of the alternator winding.

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 Solution
• Since 85% winding is to be protected, 15% would be
unprotected. Let r Ohms be the earthing resistance
required to leave 15% of the winding unprotected.

• Full-load current, I = 10MVA/6.6kVx√3 = 876 A

Minimum fault current which will operate the relay
= 20 % of full load current
= 0.2 x 876 = 175 A
• Voltage induced in 15 % of winding
= (15x6600)/(100x√3)
= 330 √3 Volts

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 Solution …
• Earth fault current which 15 % will cause
= 330 √3/r
• This current must be equal to 175 A
175 = 330 √3/r
r = 330 √3/175
= 3.27 Ω

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 Thank you

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