5/16/2022

Generator Protection

By
Prof. Dr. Mousa A. Abd-Allah

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Generator Faults

Electrical Mechanical

 Stator insulation failure  Overload  Failure of prime mover  Low condenser vacuum
 Overvoltage  Unbalanced load  Lubrication oil failure  Loss of boiler firing
 Rotor faults  Loss of excitation  Over speeding  Rotor distortion
 Loss of synchronism  Excessive vibration

Generator faults

Abnormal
Stator faults Rotor faults running
conditions

Phase to earth Phase to Interturn

faults phase faults faults

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 Causes overheating
Overloading  Use overcurrent protection

 Due to sudden loss of load

Abnormal Running Conditions

Overspeeding  Supervise the turbine governor

 Due to unsymmetrical faults & Failure of CB

Unbalanced Loading  Use negative sequence protection

 Due to overspeeding & failure of voltage regulators & lightning and

Overvoltage switching
 Use overvoltage protection

 Causes motoring operation of genenrator & severe mechanical

Failure of Prime mover conditions & Serious overheating of steam turbine blades
 Directional power relay is used

 Due to open and short circuits

Loss of excitation  Causes loss of synchronism & Working as induction generator & overheating
 Reverse power protection

Cooling system failure  Causes overheating

 Use thermocouples or resistance temp. detector

Protection of Alternator Stator Windings

Using Merz-Price

Y-connected Alternator
-connected Alternator

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(1)
Main CB of
generator
(6)
Operation (2)
of alarm
Field CB
and/or
indicator
Differential
relay trip
(5) (3)
Turn on CO2 Neutral CB
gas if if it is
provided present
(4)
Shut down
the
primeover

Restricted Earth Fault Protection (REF)

 At earth fault on phase B, CT current Is flows

through operating coil and REF relay coil.

 REF relay and OC relay settings are independent

of each other

 With Vbx sufficient to drive enough If , relay can

operates to trip CB.

 If fault point x is nearer to neutral point, then Vbx is not sufficient to drive enough If, and relay
cannot operate. Thus part of stator windings remains unprotected.

 Thus with resistive grounded, stator windings get partly protected against earth fault

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Effect of Earth Resistance on % of Winding Unprotected

 %winding protected depends on resistance value & relay setting.

Let V = full phase voltage

I = full load current
R = earth resistance
𝑉
Resistance value 𝑅 = 𝐼
%age of winding unprotected is;
𝐼𝑜 𝑅
% 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 = 𝑥100
𝑉

Where; Io = minimum operating current in CT primary

 So, earth resistance value, relay setting and current rating of earth resistance must be
carefully selected.

Ex: A generator is protected by restricted earth fault protection. The generator ratings are
13.2kV, 10MVA. The percentage of winding protected against phase to ground fault is
85%. The relay setting is such that it trips for 20% out of balance. Calculate the resistance
to be add in the neutral to ground connection.

Solution
10𝑥106
The full load current is; 𝐼= = 437.386 𝐴
3𝑥13.2𝑥103
20
The minimum operating current with 20% out of balance is; 𝐼𝑜 = 437.386𝑥 100 = 87.477 𝐴
13.2𝑥103 𝐼𝑜 𝑅
𝑉𝑝ℎ = = 7621.02 𝑉 % 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑢𝑛𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 = 𝑥100
3 𝑉
87.477𝑥𝑅
∴ 15 = ∴ 𝑅 = 13.068 𝛺
7621.02

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Unrestricted Earth Fault Protection

𝑰𝒓𝒔 + 𝑰𝒚𝒔 + 𝑰𝒃𝒔 = 𝟎

Balanced Earth Fault Protection

 For normal conditions & F2 there is no current flow in the relay

 For F1, vector sum of line currents is different than neutral current, thus a current flow
through relay, relay will operate.
 Earth fault is restricted to region between neutral and position where CTs are located.

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100% Earth Fault Protection

 Primary of coupling transformer is excited by coded

signal current with f=12.5Hz, which continuously to
stator.
 At normal condition, injected current flows through
stray capacitance of stator windings.

 At earth fault, stray capacitance is bypassed, which increases the monitoring current,, which
can be operate protective tool.

 This scheme compensate the 15-20% of stator winding to give 100% protection

Stator Protection Against Interturn Faults

 Multiturn such as in hydroelectric generators due to heavy current.

 Current produced due to interturn fault is a local current and does
not affect currents entering or leaving at the two ends, where CT
located. So, differential protection can not give protection against
interturn faults.
 Cross differential is used by cross connected CTs.

 At normal conditions, the CTs currents are equal., so no current flows in the relay, and it will
not operate.
 At SC, unequal currents will flow and the difference in the currents will flow in relay, and it
will operates.

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Rotor Earth faults

 Field winding is generally not grounded and hence single line to ground fault does not
give any fault current.

 A second fault to earth will short circuit the part of field winding and may there by
produce an unsymmetrical field system.

 Such an unsymmetrical system gives rise to unbalanced forces on the rotor and results in
excess pressure on the bearings and the shaft distortion due to vibrations.

 Rotor earth fault protection and rotor temp. indications are essential and are provided to
large rating generators.

Rotor Earth Fault Protection

 Method 1: Potentiometer method

 Field winding is connected with a resistance having center tap and

tap point is connected to the earth through a sensitive relay R.

 An earth fault in field winding produces a voltage across the relay.

 Maximum voltage occurs for faults at the windings end. However,

there are chances that faults at center of winding may get
undetected. Hence, one lower tap is provided in the resistance.

 Though normally, the center tap is connected, a pushbutton or a

bypass switch is used to check for faults at the center of winding.

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Method 2: Injection Methods

(a) AC Injection Method

 An auxiliary supply, injected a current to the field circuit through a

coupling capacitance.

 The capacitor prevents the chances of higher DC current passing

through the transformer.

 An earth fault at any part of the winding gives rise to the field
current, which is detected by the sensitive relay.

 Care should be taken to ensure that the

 bearings are insulated, since there is a constant current flowing to

the earth through the capacitance.

(b) DC Injection Methods

 This method avoids the capacitance currents by rectifying the

injection voltage adopted in the AC injection method.

 Auxiliary voltage is used to bias the field voltage to be negative

with respect to the earth.

 An earth fault causes the fault current to flow through the DC

power unit causing the sensitive relay to operate under fault
conditions.

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Loss of Excitation Protection

 Loss of excitation may lead to loss of synchronism and slightly increase in speed.

 Machine starts behaving as induction generator, draws reactive power from the
system. So, protection is necessary.

 Protection is provided by distance relay

 At loss of excitation, equivalent generator impedance

varies as shown

 When locus enters relay ch/s, relay will operate to trip

field CB

Negative Sequence Relay

 Causes by unbalanced loads or phase to phase faults,

and it can cause overheating

 Generally Negative Sequence Relay is used to protect

generators and motors against unbalanced currents.

 It has a filter circuit which is operative only for

negative sequence.

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Unbalanced Loading Protection

 A -ive sequence current flow at unbalanced loading, which can cause severe heating of the
rotor and severe vibrations and stator heating.
 -ive phase sequence filter along with OC relay provides the necessary protection.
𝐼𝑛
 The relative asymmetry is; %𝑆 = 𝑥100 I = rated current
𝐼
In = negative sequence current

 -ive phase sequence filter along with OC relay

provides necessary protection
 With unbalanced load, -ive sequence filter circuit
produces an output proportional to –ive sequence
components, operating the relay.

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