23-Sep-19

REASONS FOR PARALLEL OPERATION OF DC GENERATORS

• Reliability: The generators that are sources of power are primary safety items, and hence paralleled for

PARALLEL OPERATION reliability.

OF DC GENERATORS • Efficiency: The load is not uniform. It is maximum during the ON-peak hours and minimum during Off-peak

hours. The generators must operate most efficiently during full-load condition. It is preferred to use a single

generator during light load.

Dr. S. THANGALAKSHMI • Continuity of service: Un-interrupted power supply is most important thing to satisfy the customers. If one

generator is used, it becomes impossible to deliver un-interrupted power supply during its maintenance hours

or breakdown.

ADVANTAGES OF PARALLEL OPERATION OF DC

GENERATORS
1. Cost Effectiveness:- Electric power cost reduces when generator produce electricity according to
Parallel operation of DC generators is required to meet the extra load
their capacity and easily manage demand and supply requirement. If there is less requirement of
power, one or more units can be taken on hold or start-up visa versa.
demand. It is always difficult to meet the extra load demand by a single
2. Smooth Supply of Power:- In case of breakdown of generator, the supply of power will not get
disrupted. If something goes wrong in one generator, the continuity of power can be continued by
generator, or it is not possible to give supply when one generator is out
other healthy units.

of order. 3. Easy to Maintain:- The routine maintenance of generator is required time to time. But for that
supply of power cannot be obstructed. In parallel generators the routine check-up could be done one
by one.
4. Easy to Increase Plant Capacity:- The demand of electricity is increasing day by day. To meet the
requirement of power generation, additional new unit can run paralleled with the running units.

1
 23-Sep-19

REQUIREMENT FOR PARALLEL OPERATION OF DC CONNECTION OF PARALLEL DC GENERATORS

GENERATOR

Paralleling DC generator is required mainly for the following two types of

situations.

• Paralleling of shunt generators for the same or varying sizes.

• Paralleling of compound generators of the same and varying sizes.

CONDITIONS FOR PARALLEL OPERATION OF DC

1. The generators in a power plant, connected by heavy thick copper bars, called bus-bars
GENERATOR which act as positive and negative terminals. To connect the generators in parallel,
Positive terminal of the generators are connected to the positive terminal of the bus-
1. The terminal voltage must be the same.
bars and negative terminals of generators are connected to negative terminal of the
bus-bars, as shown in the figure.
2. The polarities of the generator must be identical.
2. To connect the 2 generators with the 1 existing working generators, first we have to
3. The prime movers driving the armature of the generators must have similar and stable bring the speed of the prime mover of the 2nd generator to the rated speed. At this
point switch S4 is closed.
rotational characteristics.

4. The change of voltage with the change of load must be the same character.

2
 23-Sep-19

3. The circuit breaker V2 (voltmeter) connected across the open switch S2 is closed to
CONNECTION OF PARALLEL DC GENERATORS
complete the circuit. The excitation of the generator 2 is increased with the help of
field rheostat till it generates voltage equal to the voltage of bus-bars.
4. The main switch S2 is then closed and the generator 2 is ready to be paralleled with
existing generator. But at this point of time generator 2 is not taking any load as its
induced e.m.f. is equal to bus-bar voltage. The present condition is called floating, that
means ready for supply but not supplying current to the load.
5. In order to deliver current from generator 2, it is necessary that its induced e.m.f. E
should be greater than the bus-bars voltage V. By strengthening the field current, the
induced e.m.f. of generator 2 could be improved and the current supply will get
started. To maintain bus-bar voltage, the field of generator 1 is weakened so that value
remains constant.

Field current I given by

Where, Ra is resistance of armature winding.

3
 23-Sep-19

LOAD SHARING OF PARALLEL CONNECTED DC

Thus the current output of the generators depends upon the values of E1 and E2.These
GENERATORS values may be changed by field rheostats. The common terminal voltage (or bus-bars
The load gets shifted to another generator by adjusting induced e.m.f., but in modern power plant, voltage) will depend upon
everything has been done by “sychroscope” which gives instruction to governor of the prime mover. Let
us suppose that two generator having different load voltage. Then the load sharing between these
(i) the e.m.f.s of individual generators and
generators will be

(ii) the total load current supplied.

It is generally desired to keep the bus bars voltage constant. This can be achieved by
The value of current output depends upon the values of E1 and E2 which could be managed by field
adjusting the field excitations of the generators operating in parallel.
rheostats to keep the bus-bars voltage constant.

PRECAUTIONS DURING PARALLEL CONNECTION

The load sharing between shunt generators in parallel can be easily regulated because of their
1. The specification of each generator is different from one another. When they are
drooping characteristics. The load may be shifted from one generator to another merely by synchronized together, their speed are locked into the overall speed of the system.
adjusting the field excitation. Let us discuss the load sharing of two generators which have 2. The entire load of the system should be distributed in all the generators.
unequal no-load voltages. 3. There should be a controller for keeping check on parameters of the engine. This
can be done with modern digital controllers which are available in market.
Let E1, E2 = no-load voltages of the two generators 4. Voltage regulation in the whole system plays an important role. In case of voltage
R1, R2 = their armature resistances drop in one unit compare with other units, end up bearing the whole voltage load of
V = common terminal voltage (Bus-bars voltage) the system of parallel generators.
5. While connecting terminals to the bus-bars, extra precaution should be made. If
generator is connected with wrong polarity of the bar, it may result to a short
then I1 = (E1 - V)/R1 and I2= (E2-V)/R2
circuit.

4
 23-Sep-19

PARALLEL OPERATION OF DC COMPOUND GENERATORS

Under-compounded generators also operate satisfactorily in parallel but over compounded generators Thus the magnetising action, of the series field opposes that of the shunt field. As the current
will not operate satisfactorily unless their series fields are paralleled. This is achieved by connecting two
negative brushes together as shown in Fig (i). The conductor used to connect these brushes is generally taken by the machine 2 increases, the demagnetizing action of series field becomes greater and
called equaliser bar. Suppose that an attempt is made to operate the two generators in Fig (ii). in the resultant field becomes weaker. The resultant field will finally become zero and at that time
parallel without an equaliser bar. If, for any reason, the current supplied by generator 1 increases
machine 2 will short circuit machine 1, opening the breaker of either or both machines.
slightly, the current in its series field will increase and raise the generated voltage.
When the equaliser bar is used, a stabilising action exists and neither machine tends to take all
the load. To consider this, suppose that current delivered by generator 1 increases. The
increased current will not only pass through the series field of generator 1 but also through the
equaliser bar and series field of generator 2.Therefore, the voltage of both the machines
increases and the generator 2 will take a part of the load.

PARALLEL OPERATION OF DC SERIES

This will cause generator 1 to take more load. Since total load supplied to the GENERATORS
system is constant, the current in generator 2 must decrease and as a result, its
The interesting thing about the parallel operation of the DC series generator is
series field is weakened. Since this effect is cumulative, the generator 1 will take
the entire load and drive generator 2 as a motor. Under such conditions, the that DC series generators are not usually employed for the supply of power.

current in the two machines will be in the direction shown in Fig. (ii). After Instead, DC series motors are arranged in parallel to operate as DC series
machine 2 changes from a generator to a motor, the current in the shunt field will generators during Electric Braking.
remain in the same direction, but the current in the armature and series field will
reverse.

5
 23-Sep-19

PARALLEL ARRANGEMENT OF DC SERIES GENERATOR PARALLEL OPERATION OF SERIES GENERATOR

The parallel arrangement of DC series generators are described below: Let two DC machines (I and II) of resistance R (the armature and field resistance),
induced EMFs E1 and E2 operate in parallel, as shown in the figure.
The two DC series motors are disconnected from the supply mains and are connected in

parallel to the resistors.

During braking the motors continue to run due to the kinetic energy of train and act as self-

excited dc series generators generating emfs.

The kinetic energy is converted into heat and dissipated in the resistors. This is how DC

series generators work while operating in parallel.

PARALLEL OPERATION OF SERIES GENERATOR When the induced EMFs E1 and E2 are equal they will share the equal load.

There is a problem when induced EMFs are different in the two machines. When one of the
For satisfactory parallel operation of dc series generators, it is necessary to connect the
induced emf becomes greater than another induced emf a circulating current will flow.
armatures of the two machines through a heavy copper bar, called the equalizing bar. It is
explained below :

If E1 becomes slightly greater than E2, then a

current i will circulate in the clockwise
direction, as shown by dotted lines in the first
figure. The magnitude of the circulating current i
will be (E1-E2) /R.

6
 23-Sep-19

PARALLEL OPERATION WITH EQUALIZING BAR

Now total current supplied by machine I will be
(I + i) and of machine II (I – i). So the series The possibility of reversal of either machine
field current of the machine I increase, can be prevented by preventing the flow of
also characteristic of a DC series generator is a circulating current produced due to
rising characteristic. Thus the induced emf of inequalities of induced EMFs of the
machine I (E1) will rise and induced emf of machines through the series field winding.
machine II will fall. Thus the difference of the This aim can be achieved by connecting a
two induced EMFs E1 am E2 will increase, heavy copper bar of negligible resistance
which will cause a further increase in circulating across the two machines as shown in the
current. figure.

PARALLEL OPERATION WITH EQUALIZING BAR

Thus the effect is cumulative and if there were no fuse or
automatic switch in the circuit, the current it machine II
will be reversed. This would reverse the direction of
induced emf E2 and resultant emf in the circuit would be Now the circulating current does not affect
[E – (- E2)] i.e. (E1 + E2) and circulating current the field winding, but it gets confined to the
(E1+ E2)/2R.
armature and the equalizing bars. Now if the
Thus the two EMFs will then act in series around a circuit
armature current increases, the terminal
of very low resistance and conditions are virtually those of
voltage drop occurs and the original
a short-circuit on the two machines resulting in damage of
the machines. We have to avoid this short circuit problem condition is restored.
for the parallel operation of DC series generators.