UPGRADING OF GENERATORS TO IMPROVE RELIABILITY

Clyde V. Maughan P.E.

Maughan Engineering Consultants

ABSTRACT
In the good old days power plant equipment tended
to be retired after several years of operation, as more
efficient machinery was designed and manufactured.
But during the last 25 years or so, because of the
increasing cost pressures, and impact of government
regulators on plant siting locations, it begins to
appear that power plants will never be retired.

IMPACT OF DETERIORATION
MECHANISMS
There are several normal-operation deterioration
mechanisms that may lead to damage that would
warrant consideration of upgrading of components of
a generator. Some of these mechanisms are briefly
considered below.
Stator Windings

As a result, many generators that are 30+ years old

are still regarded as prime power producers. These
generators will usually have components that are
badly worn and are becoming increasingly unreliable.
The impact of these worn parts on power plant
performance is costly in terms of forced outages and
unexpected extensions in maintenance outages. These
costs are particularly high when the unit is required in
order to meet power delivery commitments to the
power grid. In these cases, which are becoming all
too common, costs of repairs may be in the
$100,000s, but loss-of-generation costs may be in the
$1,000,000s.
This paper will address common deterioration
mechanisms and adverse generator maintenance
conditions. The paper will then suggest practical
ways to reduce exposure to costly generator outages.
There may also be efficiency improvements
associated with these changes, although the actual
change in efficiency cannot be a large number on the
generator itself because generators typically operate
in the 97 to 99% efficiency range. But even so, on
some units and in some situations the cumulative
benefits from only a 0.3% improvement in efficiency
can approach $1,000,000 a year, a not insignificant
number.

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Bar Slot Vibration. If the stator bars are vibrating in

the slots, groundwall insulation will wear, Photo 1,
and impact damage will occur from electromagnetic
forces associated with flow of stator bar current. Also
there is the possibility of vibration sparking
developing from the energy of the slot voltage acting
on the low-resistance slot grounding paints. Either of
these mechanisms can result in service failure in a
very few years of operation.

Photo 1. Grease Accumulation Due to End-of-Slot

Bar Vibration.

Endwinding Vibration. This is one of the more

common deterioration mechanisms, due to support
systems incapable of handling the high
electromagnetic forces acting on the bars in the
endwindings. Photo 2. On the larger generators with

string-tie endwinding support systems, this is a major

problem. Generators with high-force support systems
should not experience significant endwinding
vibration activity. Photo 3. On all generators, the
endwindings are vulnerable to deterioration due to
loose parts and foreign objects.

Partial Discharge (PD). Indications of PD may be

widespread on windings, particularly air-cooled
stators. Photos 5 & 6.

Photo 5. White Discoloration Due to Endwinding PD.

Photo 2. General Widespread Endwinding Vibration.

Photo 6. Slot PD on Stator Bar near End of Slot.

Photo 3. High-Duty Endwinding Support System.

(GE)

Severe PD in the slots may also attack and destroy

wedging systems, Photo 7, including side fillers and
the wedges themselves.

Bar Structure Deterioration. General deterioration

may occur due to vibration and because of the
complex bare bar structures. Result can be shorted
strands or turns, deteriorated insulation, and damaged
voltage-grading systems. Photo 4.

Photo 7. Destroyed Wedges Due to PD in Slots.

PD may cause failure of the phase-bar insulation on

generators where endwinding spacing is inadequate
and non-mica insulation is used on the phase-bar
connections to the phase circuit rings. Photo 8.
Photo 4. Deteriorated Strand Insulation.
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Oil Contamination. Hydrogen cooled generators are

often contaminated by oil; less often, air-cooled
generators may also be contaminated. Photo 10.

Photo 8. PD Attack on High Voltage Connections.

However, the mica in the stator bar groundwall

insulation itself is highly resistant to PD, and any
attack of the groundwall tends to be very slow, if at
all.

Photo 10. Oil Contamination in Bottom of Stator

Frame.

Stator Bar Water Leaks. On water-cooled

windings, if leaks develop in the bar strand header,
water may penetrate the groundwall insulation and
result in serious deterioration to the groundwall
insulation. Repair of this condition may require a full
stator rewind. Other leaks on these water-cooling
systems generally will be recognized by water
accumulation in the frame leak detection gauge
and/or by high dew point. These leaks can generally
be repaired without causing serious harm.

In general, insulation systems are not significantly

deteriorated by oil, although wedging systems that
rely on friction for controlling vibration may be
deteriorated, i.e., side ripple spring systems. Photo
20. But even in the latter case, with oil
contamination, if the bars were seated in the ends of
the slots when originally installed, bar vibration
should not result. Oil may deteriorate the materials in
oil deflector seal hoses, but the Teflon commonly
used in water-cooled winding hoses is not harmed by
oil.

Loose Wedging Systems. There are several different

wedging systems, and some are rather troublesome. If
bar vibration is occurring, Photo 1, this is always a
serious concern. But if only the wedges are vibrating,
correction may involve simply cementing the wedges
into the core dovetails. Photo 9. Wedging problems
associated with bar vibration can usually be corrected
by properly rewedging the winding with a proper
wedging system. Normally rewedging will
incorporate radial springs, if radial clearance in the
slot permits. Photo 21.

Dirt Contamination. On air-cooled generators with

open ventilation systems, heavy contamination can
occur in a year of operation. Photo 11. Heavy
accumulations of contaminants may block or severely
restrict air flow, and greatly impact component
operating temperatures. But even relatively minor
accumulations of dirt on armature bars or the core
may increase the thermal barrier of heat transfer to
the cooling air, and thus significantly increase
component operating temperatures.

Photo 9. Wedge Vibration without Bar Vibration.

Photo 11. Stator with Heavy Dirt and Water

Contamination.

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Insulation Migration. Many generators are in

operation with the early asphaltic insulation systems.
On large units, the insulation may have migrated into
the slots, leaving tape separations, or girth cracks,
in the groundwall near the ends of the core. Photos 12
& 13. The large GE generators with asphaltic
insulation tended to be self-healing, i.e., the tendency
to migrate reduced greatly with accumulation of
operating time. Asphalt insulation, in spite of its
primitive origin circa 1915, has performed
remarkably well, even on older, larger units.

Core Looseness. Core looseness problems can result

from several causes: inadequate clamping forces at
original manufacture, failure to compensate for the
inherent lamination iron crown at the punching radial
centerline, improper taper on belleville-designed
flanges, creep of lamination insulation. Photo 14. On
those core designs using through bolts, clamping
force may be inadequate due to low originally
tightening forces and/or inherent loosening due to the
high temperature differential expansion of the nonferrous steel bolts. High core temperature from
design or contamination will exacerbate all these
conditions.

Photo 12. Asphalt Stator Winding With Girth

Crack (4 from Core on Bar #8).

Photo 14. Locally Loose Core Iron.

Lamination Insulation Failure. Generally the

lamination insulation will survive for the life of a
generator, unless severely damaged by foreign
material or over-heating. Causes of insulation
breakdown may be insulation and iron fretting due to
loosening of the core clamping forces, effects of
retightening a loose core with marginally-damaged
insulation, excessive operating temperature, burrs on
the original laminations, very thin or non-uniform
insulation application. There appear to have been a
few cases of lamination insulation wear-out.
Photo 13. Close-up of 1 Girth Crack on Bar #8.

Stator Core
Contamination. As with stator windings, minor dirt
buildup will interfere with heat transfer from the core
iron to the ventilation cooling gas. Heavy
contamination, Photo 11, can completely block the
ventilation passages and result in gross overheating
of the core. This over-heating can adversely affect
both the core and indirectly cooled stator windings,
which rely on the core iron as a heat-sink for losses
generated in the stator bars.

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Stator Frame
The predominate failure mechanism is probably high
frame vibration due to inadequate isolation of the
frame from inherent core vibration. Marginal designs
may also result from inadequate radii causing stress
concentration points on structural parts.
Coolers
Predominate failure mechanisms are tube leaks and
contamination. Photo 15.

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Photo 15. Severe Cooler Contamination.

Insulation Failure. Commonly associated with

turn/coil flexing and movement, Photo 17, but may
fail from foreign material, e.g., conductive
contamination, copper dust from copper-turn
fretting while on turning gear. Occasionally shorts
and grounds will result from turn or coil insulation
migrating through the slot. Insulation may also fail
from loss of mechanical properties due to long-time
exposure to normal temperature or short-time
exposure to over-temperature.

Fields and Excitation Systems

Turn/Coil Distortion . Copper has remarkably poor
mechanical properties even at room temperature; at
elevated temperature, above about 130C, these low
properties begin to further deteriorate. But the copper
components of the field operate at high mechanical
duty. Numerous methods are used by manufacturers
to reduce the mechanical duty: low operating
temperatures on the copper, low differential
temperatures between turns, avoiding major changes
in cross-section, precisely designed blocking systems,
Teflon slip planes. But even so, problems with turn
fracture and turn and coil distortion have been
common on fields in the form of: copper elongation
and fore-shortening, cracks and breaks in the copper
turns, damage to turn and ground insulation. The net
result of these problems with the copper is turns
shorts, coil shorts, and winding grounds, and thus
numerous repairs and numerous forced outages.
Photo 16.

Photo 17. Broken Top Creepage Block.

Exciters. Some of the old, pre-1950s DC exciters are

still in service. Photo 18. While these exciters were
reliable, if well maintained, these machines are aged
and replacement parts are difficult or impossible to
obtain. The windings are old, the commutators may
be deeply worn, the insulation heavily deteriorated.
The controls are obsolete and again replacement parts
difficult to find.

Photo 16. Broken Top Turn Due to Cross-Section

Changes.

Forging Cracks. Cyclic load, particularly start-stop

operation, tends toward cracking of the forgings. If
cracks occur, most commonly they will occur on the
slot teeth under the retaining ring shrink fit. But
occasionally cracks have been found elsewhere, e.g.,
the corners of the pole face at the field forging axial
centerline.

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Photo 18. Early DC Rotating Exciter.

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OBSOLESCENT FACTORS THAT MAY

WARRANT GENERATOR UPGRADE

AVAILABLE UPGRADE REPAIRS AND

REPLACEMENTS

All generators that are more than perhaps 20 years

old may have components that warrant consideration
for replacement. Some specific obsolete designs and
components include:
Large generator fields with retaining rings
not mounted, shrunk onto, the field body.
The copper conductors, particularly the top
turns, are vulnerable to breakage and as a
group, these fields have required significant
amounts of repair in the form of partial or
complete rewinds.
All retaining rings manufactured with the
18/5 stainless steel material.
Large generator stators with string-tie
endwinding support systems. These
machines can be kept running only by
repetitive minor and sometimes major ongoing maintenance repairs, with the
accompanying risk of forced outage.
Stator windings with asphaltic insulation
systems on large generators may have been
significantly degraded by tape migration.
Many varied designs of stator wedging
systems have been used over the years.
Some were remarkably ineffective and
troublesome, e.g., the camel back wedge.
On generators subject to wedging problems,
rewedging with a modern system should
eliminate need for repetitive rewedging.
Excitation systems have changed over the
years perhaps more than any other
component of the generator. The old DC
generator systems are truly obsolete. But
other more recent systems may have
numerous obsolete components, including
components for which replacements are
non-available.
Instrumentation systems have evolved over
the years. The early systems often were
mechanical nightmares and were limited in
the information provided to the operators for
controlling the generator. More particularly,
these systems provided very little diagnostic
information in the event of failure. A
modern monitoring system may easily be
justified to replace a still functioning
primitive system.

As the technologies have evolved, numerous

component upgrades and replacements have become
available. Some of the more common, and valuable,
are considered below.

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New Stator Winding

There are several conditions that may warrant and
justify replacement of a stator winding. Three are
discussed below.
Improved Endwinding Support System. The early,
large generators that were built in the 1950s through
1970 using string-tie systems generally have required
numerous repairs and rebuilds. Conversion to a
modern endwinding support system will require
complete stator rewind. However, if the original
winding is still in the generator and the unit is not
planned for early retirement, rewind with a new
support system may be easily justified. This is a
major cost item, and requires a several-week outage,
but if the replacement winding is on-hand, the rewind
can normally be completed within the time allotted to
a major plant outage. Photos 3 & 19.

Photo 19. Improved Endwinding Support System.

(SW)

Elimination of Water Leaks. Significant portions of

some water-cooled stator winding designs made prior
to the present decade may be subject to bar strandheader water leaks. Some machines are operating
with known wet bars. These windings are subject to
potentially very costly test failure or force-outage.
Replacement may be particularly desirable if the
winding has been subject to other deterioration
mechanisms, including slot or endwinding vibration.
Also, if the winding is more than about 25 years old,
it is unlikely to have modern epoxy groundwall
insulation, and may be deteriorated simply from
long-time service. Under any of these conditions,

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stator rewind with a modern winding may be a

relatively easy cost to justify.
New Stator Wedging System
Perhaps no other generator component has been
through more design variations over the years than
the stator wedging systems. At this time, however,
most suppliers use either a flat wedge (with radial
spring if space is available), Photo 20, or some
version of the piggy-back wedge (again with radial
spring if space is available), Photo 21. Provided that
the new wedging system is correctly installed, and
provided that the bars are down in contact with the
bottom of the slot, the rewedged winding should not
need further wedge repair for many years.

Photo 20. Wedging System With Flat Wedges and

Radial Spring. (SW)

Photo 21. Slot Wedging System with Radial and Side

Ripple Springs. (GE)

connections. Since these areas are relatively

accessible, the repairs may be relatively easy to
accomplish. On any winding experiencing either
local or general vibration, additional ties may be
highly advisable. After adding these ties, natural
resonant vibration modes should be well above
driving frequencies, i.e., above about 140 Hz on 60
Hz generators.
Elimination of Insulation Migration. With the
exception of a very few early thermoset insulation
windings, groundwall insulation migration has been
confined to asphalt insulation on large conventionally
cooled stator windings. Photos 12 & 13. These
machines were mostly built during the period from
the mid-1940s through the early 1960s, with ratings
of perhaps 60 to 200 MW. Those still in service were
mainly made by GE, and this insulation system was
self-healing. If the winding is not in serious, obvious
trouble, rewind may not be desirable or necessary on
these generators. However, if the decision is made to
replace such a winding, replacement is a routine
repair.
Replacement Stator
In the last 20 years, it has become more common to
simply replace an entire stator rather than attempt to
repair a troublesome major comp onent. In addition to
eliminating the problem stator component(s), there
are the peripheral and sometime major advantages of
substantially shortening the outage time and
obtaining a modern stator.
Replacement Field
Fields are more commonly replaced than stators for
at least three important reasons: 1) fields tend to wear
more rapidly, 2), the old field may service as a useful
emergency spare, and 3), change-out of a field may
be accomplished in a rather short outage 10 days.
Rewind of a field may require a relatively long
outage associated with sending the field off-site for
rewind and high-speed balance. A spare field may
often be economically justifiable, particularly if there
are multiple generators in the utility system for which
a single field may serve as spare. Photo 22.

Additional Stator Endwinding Ties and Blocks

On most generators experiencing endwinding
vibration, it is possible to add additional ties and
blocks to the winding and thus reduce or eliminate
vibration problems. This will be particularly true on
windings that may be experiencing near-resonant
vibration. The most common location for adding
these blocks and ties is at the series/phase
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themselves to be capable of providing useful

information. Photos 24, 25 & 26 show typical PD
sensor installations. Photo 27 is a monitoring cabinet
for PD sensor output.

Photo 22. New Replacement Field.

Replacement Excitation System

Because of conditions described earlier, replacement
of the original rotating excitation system with a static
system is not unusual. This is probably the most
common of the major component replacements
performed by utilities. The static systems tend to
require low on-going maintenance, and should have
high reliability.

Photo 24. Line Bus Sensor. (Iris Engineering)

Modern Monitoring System

There are several available and important upgrades
available for monitoring of generators. Five are
briefly discussed below.
Flux Probe. This simple probe located on a wedge in
the airgap can accurately detect shorted turns in
individual coils (slots) of a field. Photo 23. The
readings are easily obtained from this inexpensive
monitoring system, and analysis is convenient and
accurate.

Photo 25. Slot Couplers. (Iris Engineering)

Photo 26. Two Radio Frequency Current

Transformers on Neutral Ground Lead. (AEP)
Photo 23. Typical Installation of Flux Probe Bonded
to Stator Wedge.

PD System. Capability for monitoring and analyzing

partial discharge on stator windings has evolved at a
rapid rate in the last 20 years. Monitoring systems
have become very common on new units and as
retrofits on operating units. Several companies supply
these systems. The data output can be somewhat
difficult to interpret, but all suppliers have shown
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Photo 27. Continuous Monitoring System Cabinet.

(Alstom)

Control Room Package. The modern control room

instrumentation for generators provide more rapid
and continuous monitoring of generator operating
parameters and conditions. In addition, these systems
will automatically collect voluminous data in the
event of generator in-service failure. The information
from these systems can be invaluable in determining
root cause of a generator failure.
Generator Condition Monitor and Tagging
Compounds. The generator condition monitor
(originally called core monitor) is capable of
detecting pyrolusite produced by high temperatures
anywhere within a hydrogen-cooled generator or a
closed-ventilation air-cooled generator. Early
versions of the system were prone to producing of
spurious signals; however, the later systems are
reported to be quite reliable in detecting only true
signals, and have in a few cases prevented minor
problems growing into major failures. Photo 28.

Photo 29. Tagging Paint on Endwinding.

Endwinding Vibration Probes. Probes are available

which can be attached at key locations of an
endwinding to detect high local or general vibration.
These devices may be of considerable value in
monitoring the condition of a suspect endwinding.
Photo 30.

Photo 30. Vibration Probe Attached to Bottom Side

of Connection. (SW)

THE UPGRADE DECISION (A Few Words of

Caution)

Photo 28. Generator Condition Monitoring System.

(Environment One)

Tagging paints can be applied to the stator winding

and core iron. Several paints are available and can be
applied at specific locations in the generator. If a
monitor alarm occurs, samples of the pyrolusite can
assist in establishing the location of the source of the
pyrolusite. Photo 29.
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Diagnostics
During this same 25-year period that demands for
much longer plant life expectancy have been
evolving, the capabilities of OEMs have been
considerably decreased. Due to OEM staff reductions
and loss of many of the more experienced engineers,
it has become increasingly difficult for OEMs to
supply experienced factory or field-service engineers
to diagnose new and/or unusual problems.
Unfortunately, root-cause mis -diagnosis has become
rather common, and the results have in some cases
been extremely costly.
It the event of component failure, it is vital that the
equipment owner be persistent in the search for root
cause. It is essential to arrive at the root cause with
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high certainty. Otherwise, the corrective actions

taken can lead to performance of repairs that are
costly, inadequate, and incorrect.
Replacement Part Quality
Regardless of the component or major part to be
purchased, it is possible to replace a merely
troublesome part with a part that has a near-fatal
defect, or a part that fails immediately from infant
mortality. Potential exposure to this unhappy
situation can be reduced by care in selecting of
vendors, followed by monitoring the quality of the
product during the design and manufacturing cycle,
and throughout the installation/assembly process.

SUMMARY
The challenges to power generation maintenance
personnel have vastly increased during the last 25
years. Several factors have combined to contribute to
these challenges:
1. Operation of generators that are increasingly
old.
2. Operation with obsolete and/or badly worn
parts.
3. Maintenance cost pressures resulting in
extended periods between inspection and repair
cycles.
4. Difficulties in obtaining reliable technical
advice.
5. Increased uncertainty of quality of replacement
parts.
6. Pressures to uprate existing equipment.
This paper has directly focused on only a small
portion of these challenges, specifically, some of the
options for upgrading the generator. However, the
principles discussed in this paper are perhaps directly
and indirectly applicable to each of the above six
issues. It is hoped that this information can serve to
assist in controlling generator maintenance costs,
while at the same time, help in reducing exposure to
costly generator forced outages and outage
extensions.

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