THE GREAT EASTERN INSTITUTE OF MARITIME STUDIES

ELECTRO TECHNICAL OFFICER-22

DECISION MAKING

GENERATOR FAILS TO PRODUCING VOLTAGE

VISHAL JAISHWAL (202012ETO27)

YATISH (202012ETO28)
 PROBLEM

The ship COSCO AISA departed from port NINGBO- Zhou Shan from south east
end of Hangzhou bay, China was on its way to PIRAEUS port in Europe & was
crossing Suez Canal with the speed of 20.8 knots, when one of Main Auxiliary
Engine(Diesel Generator set) failed to generate the rated output voltage. As a
result load from fault DG set was transferred to standby Diesel generator to avoid
blackout condition on ship and fault Dg set is taken out of operation for inspection.
 IDENTIFYING THE DECISION CRITERIA

Fault has occurred in one of the Auxiliary engine due to which blackout condition can
occur .To avoid any further problem load needed to be transferred from fault DG set
and given to other standby Dg set if there is any major problem with running DG set.
The condition to be satisfied before removing the faulty DG set out of operation :-
◦ A visual inspection is to be done on fuel supply line to check if fuel valve is closed or
open for fuel to pass to engine.
◦ Also visual inspection is needed on fuel tank to measure the fuel level .
◦ Alternator speed has to be checked for haunting.
◦ Then fuel filters are also needed to be checked for any blockage.
◦ But there is also a possibility of governor failure or AVR failure.
◦ A open circuit or short circuit fault in rotating bridge rectifier and field winding
 ALLOCATE WEIGHTS TO THE CRITERIA
Here the first three condition can be inspected on running Dg set so as to avoid
generator removal from operation.
In order to check the other two conditions the Dg set has to be removed from
operation.
Also if there is haunting then AVR has to be checked which requires removal of
faulty Dg set from operation.
 DEVELOP THE ALTERNATIVES
Here the only alternative will be removing the faulty Dg set from operation and
giving its load to standby Dg set.
 EVALUATE THE ALTERNATIVES

If the faulty Dg set is removed from operation first load has to be given to standby
DG set.
Also removing faulty dg set from operation will allow to check and evaluate some
other parameters also like magnetic pickup coil , lube oil level and also the AVR
settings.
This also allows the safe operation of set and also person which are going to
operate the Dg set.
 SELECT THE BEST ALTERNATIVE
Since DG set can be said to be heart of ship as its operation powers many electrical
equipment on ship ,whose operation failure can render the ship movement .
So to avoid any damage to generator it is better to take the fault generator out of
operation and check each condition responsible for the araised fault condition.
This also allows the safe operation of set and also person which are going to
operate the Dg set.
As the alternative way of stopping the faulty generator and transferring load to
standby generator seems safe and operative method for ship .
So the faulty generator is stopped and taken out of inspection and load is
transferred to standby generator.
THANK YOU