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Generator Protection – Types of Faults &

Protection Devices
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Types of Generator Faults and Protection Devices
Table of Contents
 Common Generator Faults
o Types of Internal Faults in a Generator
o Types of External Faults in a Generator
 Generator Protection Devices
o About the Author: Manuel Bolotinha

Common Generator Faults

Generator faults are usually classified into internal and external faults; internal
faults are due to problems within the generator components and external
faults are due to abnormal operating conditions and faults on external
networks.
Faults on prime mover (Prime mover is the component that is used to drive the
generator and may be combustion engines (the case of diesel generator sets), gas
turbines, steam turbines, wind turbines and hydraulic turbines) and associated
systems will not be discussed, since they are usually defined at mechanical design
stage of the equipment.
However, they must be integrated within generator protections for tripping
purposes.

Types of Internal Faults in a Generator

Internal faults may be either electrical or mechanical
1. Stator Faults
 Windings overheating
 Windings phase-to-phase fault
 Windings phase-to-earth fault
 Inter-turn fault
2. Rotor Faults
 Earth fault
 Winding short-circuit (wound rotor)
 Overheating
3. Loss of Field / Excitation (The field in an AC generator consists of coils of
conductors within the generator that receive a voltage from a source
(called excitation) and produce a magnetic flux).
4. Generator Out-of-Step
5. Motor Operation
6. Bearings Overheating and lack of Pressure of Lubrication Oil
7. Vibration
Stator windings overheating may be caused by permanent
overloads and phase-to-phase and earth faults are due to insulation
breakdown.
Rotor winding short-circuit leads to an increase of excitation current and a
decrease of excitation voltage.
Rotor overheating is a consequence of unbalanced currents at the stator, due to:
 Single-pole trip
 Stator winding fault
 Negative phase sequence
Negative phase sequence and unbalanced currents in the stator currents and
produces an armature flux rotating in the opposite direction to the rotor,
inducing eddy currents in the rotor mass.
These eddy currents, which are at twice the system frequency (50Hz or 60 Hz), will
produce local overheating at the periphery of the rotor that may cause weakness
in the rotor retaining wedges and rings.
When a generator loses excitation (or field), reactive power flows from the power
system into the generator. The generator then loses synchronism and runs as
an induction generator, above synchronous speed.
Above synchronous speed the rotor will start to oscillate in an attempt to lock
into synchronism, resulting in overheating and other damage. As long as
 the system is stable, reactive power (MVAr) will flow into the generator and the
machine will continue to put out active power (MW).
Generators motor operation may occur when the steam or water supply to the
turbine fails and generators draws power from the electrical system.
In steam turbines the steam acts as a coolant, maintaining the blades at a constant
temperature. Failure of the steam supply can cause overheating of the blades.
On some machines the temperature rise is very low, and motoring can be tolerated
for a considerable time.
Hydraulic turbine will have cavitation (formation and then immediate implosion of
cavities in liquid – small liquid-free zones (“bubbles “) – that are the consequence
of forces acting upon the liquid).
It usually occurs when a liquid is subjected to rapid changes of pressure that
cause the formation of cavities where the pressure is relatively low.
Cavitation is a significant cause of wear. When entering high pressure
areas, cavitation bubbles that implode on a metal surface cause cyclic stress
through repeated implosion, resulting in surface fatigue of the metal.
 Related Post: All About Electrical Protection Systems, Devices And Units
Types of External Faults in a Generator
External Power System Faults and Abnormal Operating Conditions are:
 External short-circuit faults
 Non-synchronized connection of generator
 Out-of-step (pole slipping or loss of synch)
 Overloads
 Over speed
 Phase unbalance and negative phase sequence
 Under and over frequency
 Under and over voltages
An uncleaned or slow clearing fault on the network system can
cause generators to start slipping poles, or go “out-of-step” with the rest of the
system.
Such a condition is undesirable because harmful mechanical stresses are
exerted on the shaft, and the severe power swings have a disturbing effect on
the power system voltages.
Loose of synchronism may be caused by an external short-circuit, switching off
of an important inductive load or by a fault at the excitation system.
 Over speed is the consequence of a suddenly switching off of the total load or
an important reduction of load.
Generator Protection Devices
Generators are the most expensive pieces of equipment on power systems. The
following devices are used for AC and DC generators protection against the faults
occurs in it.
 Stator Earth Fault Protection (Stator windings phase-to-phase & stator ground or
earth faults protection by Differential Relay)
 Rotor Earth Fault Protection
 Unbalanced Stator Loading Protection (Loss of field protection and change in
reactive power flow)
 Protection against Stator Overheating (Stator windings and bearings overheating
protection & Negative phase sequence protection)
 Protection against Loss of Boiler Firing
 Protection against Prime Mover & Turbine Failure (Stator phase unbalance
protection)
 Over speed & over excitation Protection (core saturation due to over excitation)
 Insulation Failure
 Protection against Lubrication Oil Failure
 Low Vacuum Protection
 Protection against Vibration & Under and over frequency protection
 Back up Protection of Generator
 Protection against Rotor Distortion & Phase supplementary start protection
 Protection against external short-circuit faults
 Protection against the difference expansion between stationary and rotating parts of
generator
 Reverse Power Protection and Negative Power Flow Protection
Reliable protective relaying schemes are therefore required to detect and clear
generator faults quickly to minimize damage and reduce repair time to a minimum.
Protection against stator windings phase-to-phase faults is performed through
a differential relay, which principle was previously discussed at other sections.
This protection device is not able to detect winding inter-turn faults.
When such a type of fault occurs phase voltage decreases and a zero-sequence
voltage appears; this voltage is detected by a voltage relay (ANSI/IEEE/IEC code
60) connected to VT.
Stator ground or earth faults protection depends of stator grounding.
For resistance grounding system an overcurrent relay connected to a “ring type”
CT within the neutral connection or a voltage relay at resistance terminals may
be used.
Under normal healthy conditions no current flows through
the resistance and the voltage at the terminals is equal to zero.
For grounding through a transformer a voltage relay checking the voltage at the
resistance connected to the secondary of the transformer is used.
Under normal healthy conditions the grounding transformer develops no
secondary voltage, and no voltage is applied to the relay. When a stator ground
fault occurs, a voltage is developed across the grounding transformer secondary
terminals, and the voltage relay operates.
Figure 1 shows typical connection for stator differential and earth-fault protection.

Figure 1 – Differential and Stator Earth-

fault Protections
Wound rotor winding short-circuit faults are protected by overcurrent relays.
The rotor windings may be damaged by earth faults.
The rotor or field winding on large thermal generators is ungrounded, thus a single
ground fault produces no fault current.
A single ground fault, however, raises the potential of the whole field and exciter
system, and the extra voltages induced by opening the field breaker, or the
main generator breaker, particularly under fault conditions, may increase stress to
the ground in the field, when the stator transients induce an extra voltage in
the field windings. This extra voltage may cause a second fault on the field
winding.
A second fault to ground may cause local heating of the iron which could
distort the rotor, causing dangerous unbalance.
The protection against rotor earth-faults may be provided by a relay that
controls the insulation of the rotor by applying an auxiliary AC voltage to the
rotor or a voltage relay in series association with a high resistance (linear and
non-linear resistors combination is the common method used nowadays)
connected across the rotor circuit, the centre point of which is connected to
ground through the coil of a sensitive relay (ANSI/IEEE/IEC code 64).
Nowadays modern technique calls for the use combining linear and non-linear
resistors.

Figure 2 – Rotor earth-fault protection

Figure 2 shows an example of rotor earth fault protection.
Loss of field protection uses a relay that detects the change in reactive power
flow. A typical loss of excitation protection scheme uses an Offset
Mho (impedance) relay to measure the generator load impedance.
The Offset Mho impedance relay is a single phase relay, and is supplied from the
generator CT and VT. The loss of field relay will operate if the value of the load
impedance falls within the operating characteristic of the relay.
A timing relay is included to initiate tripping of the machine if the leading reactive
power condition persists for 1 s (typical).
To prevent core saturation due to over excitation during run up and
shutdown an overexcitation protection (ANSI/IEEE/IEC code 59) is used.
Overexcitation can be explained by the following equation:
B=V/f
Where B is the magnetic flux density or magnetic induction or core flux (unit:
tesla – T), V is the applied voltage (unit: volt – V) and f the frequency (unit: hetz
– Hz).
For the core flux to remain below the saturation point, the generator
voltage may only be increased as the frequency (or speed) is increased.
If the excitation is increased too rapidly, then this overexcitation condition must
be detected, and the field breaker tripped.
Overexcitation protection schemes use Volts per Hertz relays.
These relays have a linear characteristic, and will operate if the voltage divided
by the frequency exceeds the set value.
Stator windings and bearings overheating protection is usually performed
by RTD and thermistor to monitor the temperature.
Stator phase unbalance protection commonly uses a time-inverse overcurrent
relay, which is set in accordance with the maximum time rotor can withstand this
overheating.
The function of generator negative phase sequence protection is to protect the
machine against the overheating effects, namely at the rotor, which occur as a
result of unbalance of the stator phase currents.

Figure 3 – Negative
phase sequence protection
This protection uses a relay that compares the current at two phases through CT, as
show in Figure 3.
Protections are set in accordance with the maximum time rotor can withstand this
overheating and time is defined by the equation K = I2t (based in Joule law).
Typical curves for this condition is shown depend on the prime mover and
are indicated by the manufacturer.

Figure 4 – Reverse power

protection
Reverse Power protection (ANSI/IEEE/IEC code 32) uses a power directional
relay to monitor the generator load; the relay is supplied from the generator CT and
VT as shown in Figure 4 and will operate when any negative power flow is
detected.
Out-of-Step protection detects a condition caused by power system
disturbances, rather than generator faults. The protection detects the condition
when the generator slips its first pole, and causes the generator breakers to trip.
The turbine is not tripped enabling the machine to be re-synchronized after
the system disturbance is cleared.
This protection can be considered complementary to Loss of Excitation
protection.
The out-of-step condition occurs with the generator at full field and the loss of
synchronism due to underexcitation occurs when the generator has no field.
Out-of-Step protection uses three impedance measuring relays. These relays are
supplied by the generator CT and VT and measure the generator load impedance,
detecting a power swing condition if the three relays operate in the correct
sequence and will initiate tripping of HV circuit breakers.
For external short-circuit faults overcurrent relays are used (50; 50N; 51; 51N).
Under and over frequency protection (ANSI/IEEE/IEC code 81) detects
also system disturbances, rather than generator faults. A major power system
break-up can result in either an excess or insufficient generating power for
the remaining connected load.
In the first case, overfrequency, with possible overvoltage results because of
the reduced load demand. Operation in this mode will not
produce overheating unless rated power and approximately 105% rated
voltage are exceeded.
The generator controls should be promptly adjusted to match the generator
output to the load demand.
With insufficient generation for the connected load, underfrequency is the result
of heavy load demand.
The drop in voltage causes the voltage regulator to increase excitation. The result
is that overheating can occur both in the rotor and the stator. At the same
time, more power is being demanded, with the generator less able to supply it
at the decaying frequency.
Automatic or manual transmission system load shedding should ideally adjust
the load to match the connected generation before a total power system
collapse occurs.
Over and under voltage relays (ANSI/IEEE/IEC codes 59 and 27) are used to
control the voltage.
Phase supplementary start protection is provided to detect a condition where
a fault exists when the generator is being run up to speed. Generators must not,
of course, be started-up into a load or into a fault condition.
To prevent this, a scheme of protection is used that switches into service low-set
overcurrent relays ONLY if the frequency is below 52 Hz on 60 Hz power
systems and 42 Hz on 50 Hz systems.
 Nowadays IED (see Section 2.1) that group all required protection functions are
commonly used for generator protection.

About the Author: Manuel Bolotinha

-Licentiate Degree in Electrical Engineering – Energy and Power Systems (1974 –
Instituto Superior Técnico/University of Lisbon)
– Master Degree in Electrical and Computers Engineering (2017 – Faculdade de
Ciências e Tecnologia/Nova University of Lisbon)
– Senior Consultant in Substations and Power Systems; Professional Instructor
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 Control

Auto & Manual Control of 1-Phase Water Pump Motor using Float
Switch
This method is similar to the classical method in that the
measurement involves making a connection between the negative
excitation terminal and rotor ground and measures the current
flowing through that connection. Rather than just a DC injection
voltage, a low frequency pulse is injected into the circuit.

Rotor Ground Fault

Detection: How it Works
Modeling a Ground Fault for a Generator or
Motor with Brushless Exciter

A field ground fault can occur when insulation damage creates an

electrically conductive path from anywhere on the field winding (or
elsewhere on the excitation circuit) to the rotor forging. In this diagram, we
represent those faults as resistors. If two faults occur at different locations
along the winding, excitation current is diverted through the forging, and
severe burning of both insulation and rotor steel can occur rather quickly.

In figure 1, we represent those faults as resistors. As insulation on the field

windings degrades, resistance (RL) drops toward 0, and a fault occurs.
Figure 1 - Field Ground Fault on a Generator or Motor with Brushless
Exciter. Resistors (RL) can become fault locations as resistance drops
 Figure 2 - Classical DC Voltage Injection Method

Figure 3 - Advanced Pulse Injection Method

Two Methods of Ground Fault Detection

Most field ground detectors in service today use the classical DC Voltage
Injection Method (figure 2). Notice the excitation circuit with an exciter that
supplies current to the field winding. When a ground fault occurs, it is
represented by a resistance (RL) from some location on the winding to the
rotor ground. The voltage potential at the fault location relative to the
negative field terminal is K*VX, where K is called the location factor, and
VX is the excitation voltage. K takes a value between 0 and 1 for locations
between the negative terminal and the positive terminal. The ground
detector circuit makes a connection between the rotor ground and the
excitation circuit, usually on the negative terminal as shown here. A small
DC voltage is injected across this connection, and the current flow through
the circuit is measured. If a ground fault, RL, occurs, a current will flow
through the ground detector circuit. When that current exceeds a fixed
current threshold, a ground fault alarm is triggered. The injection voltage
insures that some current will flow when a ground fault occurs, even if the
fault occurs at the negative excitation terminal. Faults occurring closer to
the positive terminal along the field winding will occur at higher fault
resistance. In other words, the severity of fault that will cause an alarm is
dependent on the fault location.

The above plot demonstrates a limitation of classical detection methods.

The three curves on this plot show the sensitivity at the alarm point: for a
fault at the negative terminal in blue, the midpoint of the field in red, and the
positive terminal in green. You see that for a field voltage of around 300
volts, the severity of the fault at the alarm point will vary by more than an
order of magnitude.

Unlike the classical ground fault detection technique, advanced ground

fault detection using the Pulse Injection Method (figure 3) can determine
the severity and location of the fault. This method is similar to the classical
method in that the measurement involves making a connection between
the negative excitation terminal and rotor ground and measures the current
flowing through that connection. Rather than just a DC injection voltage, a
low frequency pulse is injected into the circuit. Instead of just alarming
when a current threshold is exceeded, advanced systems continually
measure the current flow with a high precision. The pulsing action provides
two steady state current levels. This method provides the system enough
data to solve two simultaneous equations to calculate values for the two
unknown variables: the insulation resistance, RL, and the location factor, K.
Operators use this data to determine the true severity and approximate
location of the fault, allowing them to make the best decisions about how
and when to repair or replace the motor or generator.