Travel Crop Design

Summer 2024

ENERGY CONVERSION-II
EEE 223
SEC. 01
Mohaimenul Islam
Senior Lecturer, Department of EEE
Brac University
Digital
TextNomad Guide:Machinery Fundamentals
Book: Electric
The better wayStephen
to enjoy your world as a
J. Chapman
nomad 5th Edition
Chapter 4
Synchronous Generator
You can find me-

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7/5/2024 EEE 223 2

 Construction of synchronous machines

In a synchronous generator, a DC current is

applied to the rotor winding producing a rotor
magnetic field. The rotor is then turned by
external means producing a rotating magnetic
field, which induces a 3-phase voltage within
the stator winding.

• Field windings are the windings

producing the main magnetic field
(rotor windings

• armature windings are the windings

where the main voltage is induced
(stator windings)

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 Construction of synchronous machines

The rotor of a synchronous machine is a large electromagnet. The

magnetic poles can be either salient (sticking out of rotor surface) or non-
salient construction.

Non-salient-pole rotor: # of poles: 2 or 4. Salient-pole rotor: # of

poles: large number

Rotors are made laminated to reduce eddy current losses.

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 Construction of synchronous machines

Two common approaches are used to supply a DC current to the field

circuits on the rotating rotor:

1. Supply the DC power from an

external DC source to the rotor by
means of slip rings and brushes;

2. Supply the DC power from a

special DC power source mounted
directly on the shaft of the
machine.

Slip rings are metal rings completely encircling the shaft of a machine but
insulated from it. Graphite-like carbon brushes connected to DC terminals
ride on each slip ring supplying DC voltage to field windings.
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 Construction of synchronous machines

• On large generators and motors, brushless exciters are used.

• A brushless exciter is a small AC generator whose field
circuits are mounted on the stator and armature circuits are
mounted on the rotor shaft.
• The exciter generator’s 3-phase output is rectified to DC by
a 3-phase rectifier (mounted on the shaft) and fed into the
main DC field circuit.
• It is possible to adjust the field current on the main machine
by controlling the small DC field current of the exciter
generator (located on the stator).

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 Construction of synchronous machines

To make the excitation of

a generator completely
independent of any
external power source, a
small pilot exciter is often
added to the circuit.

The pilot exciter is an AC

generator with a
permanent magnet
mounted on the rotor
shaft and a 3-phase
winding on the stator
producing the power for
the field circuit of the
exciter.
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 Construction of synchronous machines

A rotor of large
synchronous
machine with a
brushless exciter
mounted on the
same shaft.

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 Construction of synchronous machines

Exciter

Rotor pole.

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 Rotation speed of synchronous generator
By the definition, synchronous generators produce electricity
whose frequency is synchronized with the mechanical rotational
speed.
p
fe  nm
120
Where fe is the electrical frequency, Hz;
nm is the rotor speed of the machine,rpm;
p is the number of poles.

• Steam turbines are most efficient when rotating at high speed;

therefore, to generate 60 Hz, they are usually rotating at 3600
rpm (2-pole).
• Water turbines are most efficient when rotating at low speeds
(200-300 rpm); therefore, they usually turn generators with many
poles.
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 The induced voltage in a 3-phase set of coils

In three coils, each of NC turns, placed around the rotor magnetic field,
the induced in each coil will have the same magnitude and phases
differing by 1200:

eaa ' (t)  NCm cosmt

ebb' (t)  N Cm cos mt 120 
ecc ' (t)  N Cm cos mt  240 

Peak voltage:

Emax  NCm Emax  2 NC f

2
RMS voltage: EA  N C f  2 N C f
2
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 Internal generated voltage of a synchronous
generator

The magnitude of internal generated voltage induced in a given stator is

EA  2 NC f  K
where K is a constant representing the construction of the machine,  is flux in it
and  is its rotation speed.

Since flux in the

machine depends
on the field current
through it, the
internal generated
voltage is a
function of the
rotor field current.
Magnetization curve (open-circuit characteristic) of a
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synchronous 223 12
 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

The internally generated voltage in a single phase of a

synchronous machine EA is not usually the voltage appearing
at its terminals. It equals to the output voltage V only when
there is no armature current in the machine. The reasons
that the armature voltage EA is not equal to the output
voltage V are:
1. Distortion of the air-gap magnetic field caused by the
current flowing in the stator (armature reaction);
2. Self-inductance of the armature coils;
3. Resistance of the armature coils;

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 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

Armature reaction:

• When the rotor of a

synchronous generator is
spinning, a voltage EA is
induced in its stator.
• When a load is connected, Lagging
a current starts flowing load
creating a magnetic field in
machine’s stator.
• This stator magnetic field BS
adds to the rotor (main)
magnetic field BR affecting
the total magnetic field and,
therefore, the phase
voltage.
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 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

The load current IA will create a stator magnetic field BS, which will
produce the armature reaction voltage Estat. Therefore, the phase voltage
will be

V  E A  Estat
The net magnetic flux will be

Bnet  BR  BS
Rotor field Stator field

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 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

Since the armature reaction voltage lags the

current by 90 degrees, it can be modeled by

Estat   jXIA
The phase voltage is then

V  E A  jXI A
However, in addition to armature reactance effect, the stator coil
has a self-inductance LA (XA is the corresponding reactance) and
the stator has resistance RA. The phase voltage is thus

V  E A  jXI A  jX A I A  RI A

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 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

Often, armature reactance and self-

inductance are combined into the
synchronous reactance of the machin e:

XS  X  X A
Therefore, the phase voltage is

V  E A  jX S I A  RI A

The equivalent circuit of a 3-phase

synchronous generator is shown.

The adjustable resistor Radj controls

the field current and, therefore, the
rotor magnetic field.
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 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

A synchronous generator can be Y- or -connected:

The terminal voltage will be

VT  3V  for Y VT  V  for 
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 Equivalent circuit of a synchronous generator

Since – for balanced loads – the three phases of a synchronous

generator are identical except for phase angles, per-phase
equivalent circuits are often used.
 Phasor diagram of a synchronous generator
(similar to that of a transformer)
Since the voltages in a synchronous generator are AC voltages, they are
usually expressed as phasors. A vector plot of voltages and currents within
one phase is called a phasor diagram.

A phasor diagram of a synchronous

generator with a unity power factor
(resistive load)

Lagging power factor (inductive load): a

larger than for leading PF internal
generated voltage EA is needed to form
the same phase voltage.

Leading power factor (capacitive load).

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 The Synchronous generator operating alone

The behavior of a synchronous generator varies greatly under

load depending on the power factor of the load and on
whether the generator is working alone or in parallel with other
synchronous generators.

Although most of the synchronous generators in the world

operate as parts of large power systems, we start our
discussion assuming that the synchronous generator works
alone.

Unless otherwise stated, the speed of the generator is

assumed constant.
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 The Synchronous generator operating alone

A increase in the load is an

increase in the real and/or
reactive power drawn from the
generator.

Since the field resistor is unaffected, the field current is constant and, therefore, the
flux  is constant too. Since the speed is assumed as constant, the magnitude of
the internal generated voltage is constant also.
Assuming the same power factor of the load, change in load will change the
magnitude of the armature current IA. However, the angle will be the same (for a
constant PF). Thus, the armature reaction voltage jXSIA will be larger for the
increased load. Since the magnitude of the internal generated voltage is constant

EA  V  jX S I A
Armature reaction voltage vector will “move parallel” to its initial position.
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 The Synchronous generator operating alone

Increase load effect on generators with

Leading PF

Lagging PF

Unity PF
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 The Synchronous generator operating alone

Generally, when a load on a synchronous generator is added, the following

changes can be observed:

1. For lagging (inductive) loads, the phase (and terminal) voltage

decreases significantly.
2. For unity power factor (purely resistive) loads, the phase (and
terminal) voltage decreases slightly.
3. For leading (capacitive) loads, the phase (and terminal) voltage rises.

Effects of adding loads can be described by the voltage regulation:

Vnl V fl
VR  100%
Vfl
Where Vnl is the no-load voltage of the generator and Vfl is its full-load voltage.

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 The Synchronous generator operating alone

• A synchronous generator operating at a lagging power factor has a fairly large

positive voltage regulation.
• A synchronous generator operating at a unity power factor has a small positive
voltage regulation.
• A synchronous generator operating at a leading power factor often has a
negative voltage regulation.
Normally, a constant terminal voltage supplied by a generator is desired. Since the
armature reactance cannot be controlled, an obvious approach to adjust the
terminal voltage is by controlling the internal generated voltage EA = K. This
may be done by changing flux in the machine while varying the value of the field
resistance RF, which is summarized:

1. Decreasing the field resistance increases the field current in the generator.
2. An increase in the field current increases the flux in the machine.
3. An increased flux leads to the increase in the internal generated voltage.
4. An increase in the internal generated voltage increases the terminal voltage of
the generator.

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 Power and torque in synchronous generators

A synchronous generator needs to be connected to a prime mover whose speed is

reasonably constant (to ensure constant frequency of the generated voltage) for
various loads.
The applied mechanical power
Pin  appm
is partially converted to electricity
Pconv  indm  3E A I A cos
Where  is the angle between
EA and IA.

The power-flow diagram of a

synchronous generator.

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 Power and torque in synchronous generators

The real output power of the synchronous generator is

Pout  3VTI L cos  3VI A cos

The reactive output power of the synchronous generator is

Qout  3VTI L sin  3VI A sin

Recall that the power factor angle  is the angle between V and IA and not the
angle between EA and IA.
In real synchronous machines of any size, the
armature resistance RA << XS and, therefore,
the armature resistance can be ignored. Thus,
a simplified phasor diagram indicates that
E A sin 
I A cos 
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XS EEE 223 27
 Power and torque in synchronous generators

Then the real output power of the synchronous generator can be approximated as

3VEA sin 
Pout 
XS
We observe that electrical losses are assumed to be zero since the resistance is
neglected. Therefore:
Pconv  Pout
Here  is the power angle of the machine – the angle between V and EA. This is
Different from the power factor angle/
The maximum power can be supplied by the generator when  = 900:

3V EA
Pmax 
XS
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 Generator P-f Curve

• All generators are driven by a prime mover, such

as a steam, gas, water, wind turbines, diesel
engines, etc.
• Regardless the power source, most of prime movers
tend to slow down with increasing the load.
• The speed drop (SD) of a prime mover is defined as:

• Most prime movers have a speed drop from 2% to

4%.
Most governors have a mechanism to adjust the
turbine’s no-load speed (set-point adjustment).
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 Generator P-f Curve

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 Generator Q-V Curve
• A similar relationship can be derived for the reactive power
Q and terminal voltage VT.
– When supplying a lagging load to a synchronous
generator, its terminal voltage decreases.
– When adding a leading load to a synchronous generator, its
terminal
voltage increases.

• Both the frequency-power and terminal voltage vs.

reactive power characteristics are important for parallel
operations of generators.
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 Example
A generator with no-load frequency of 61.0 Hz and a slope of 1
MW/Hz is connected to Load 1 consuming 1 MW of real power at
0.8 PF lagging.
Load 2 (that to be connected to the generator) consumes a real
power of
0.8 MW at 0.707 PF lagging.

1. Find the operating frequency of the system before the

switch is closed. (ans. 60 Hz)
2. Find the operating frequency of the system after the switch is
closed.
(ans. 59.2 Hz)
3. What action could an operator take to restore the system
frequency to 60 Hz after both loads are connected to the
7/5/2024 EEE 223
generator? (ans. increase the governor no-load set point by 32
 Generator Operating Alone

• When a generator is operating alone

supplying the load:
– The real and reactive powers are the
amounts demanded by the load.
– The governor of the generator controls
the operating frequency of the system.
– The field current controls the terminal
voltage of the power system.

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 Generators connected in parallel
• Most of synchronous generators are operating in
parallel with other synchronous generators to supply
power to the same power system.
• Obvious advantages of this arrangement are:
– Several generators can supply a bigger load;
– A failure of a single generator does not result in a
total power loss to the load, thus increasing
reliability of the power system;
– Individual generators may be removed from the
power system for maintenance without shutting
down the load;
– A single generator not operating at near full load
might be quite inefficient. While having several
generators in parallel,
7/5/2024
it is possible to turn off 34
EEE 223
some, and operate the rest at near full-load
 Conditions required for paralleling generators

• Closing the switch arbitrarily can cause severe damage.

If voltages are not the same (magnitude, frequency,
phase, sequence) in both lines, a very large current will
flow when the switch is closed.
• To avoid this, the following conditions must be met:
– The rms line voltages of the two generators must be equal.
– The two generators must have the same phase sequence.
– The phase angles of two “a” phases must be equal.
– The frequency of the oncoming generator must be slightly
higher than the frequency of the running system.
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 Steps for paralleling generators (3-light bulb method)

1. Adjust the field current of the oncoming generator to make its

terminal
voltage equal to the line voltage of the system (use a voltmeter).
2. Compare the phase sequences of the oncoming generator and
the running system by examining the three light bulbs. If all three
bulbs get bright and dark together, both generators have the
same phase sequences. If not, two of the conductors must be
altered.
3. The frequency of the oncoming generator is adjusted to be
slightly higher than the system’s frequency.
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4. When all three lights go out, the voltage across them is zero
 Synchronizing a generator with the utility grid

• When a synchronous generator is added to a power

system, that system is so large that one additional
generator does not cause observable changes to the
system.
• An infinite bus is a power system that is so large that its
voltage and frequency do not vary regardless of how
much real and reactive power is drawn from or supplied to
it (i.e., the power- frequency and reactive power-voltage
characteristics are horizontal:

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 Synchronizing a generator with the utility grid

• Consider adding a generator to

an infinite bus supplying a
load.
• The frequency and terminal
voltage of all machines must
be the same.
• Therefore, their power-
frequency and reactive power-
voltage characteristics can be
7/5/2024 EEE 223 38
plotted with a common vertical
 Synchronizing a generator with the utility grid

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 Parallel operation with the utility grid
• If an attempt is made to
increase the speed of the
generator after it is
connected to the infinite
bus, the system frequency
cannot change and the
power supplied by the
generator increases.

• Note an increase in
power (with Vt and EA
staying constant),
results in an
increase in the power angle
δ.
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 Parallel operation with the utility grid
• Adjusting the field current of the machine, it is
possible to make it to make the generator supply or
consume reactive power Q.

• Summarizing, when the generator is operating in

parallel to an infinite bus:
– The frequency and terminal voltage of the
generator are controlled by the system to which
it is connected.
– The governor set points of the generator control
the real power supplied by the generator to the
system.
– The generator’s field current controls the
reactive power supplied by the generator to
7/5/2024 EEE 223 41
the system.
 Parallel operation of generators of similar size
• Unlike the case of an infinite
bus, the slope of the frequency-
power curve of G1 is of
the same order of magnitude
as that of G2.
• The power-frequency diagram
right after G2 is connected to
the system is shown to the
right.
• As indicated previously, in order
for G2 to come in as a
generator, its frequency should
be slightly higher than that of
G1.
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 Parallel operation of generators of similar size

• Note that the sum of the real and

reactive powers supplied by the two
generators must equal the real and
reactive powers demanded by the
load:

• If the speed of G2 is
increased, its power-
frequency diagram shifts
upwards. This will in turn
– increase the real power supplied by
G2
– reduce the real power supplied by
G1
– increase the system frequency.
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 Parallel operation of generators of similar size

• Similarly, an increase in the

field current of G1 will result
in
– An increase of the reactive
power supplied G1,
– A reduction of the reactive
power supplied G2.
– An Increase of the system
terminal voltage.
– To bring the voltage down, the
field current of G1 must be
reduced.

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 Synchronous Generator Rating
• The purpose of ratings is to protect the machine from
damage. Typical ratings of synchronous machines are
voltage, speed, apparent power (kVA), power factor,
field current and service factor.
– The rated frequency of a synchronous machine depends
on the power system to which it is connected. Once the
operation frequency is determined, only one rotational
speed in possible for the given number of poles.
– For a given design, the rated voltage is limited by the flux
that is capped by the field current. The rated voltage is
also limited by the windings insulation breakdown limit.
– The maximum acceptable armature current sets the
apparent power rating for a generator. The power factor
of the armature current is irrelevant for heating the
armature windings.
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 BRAC University
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
EEE 223: Energy Conversion II
Summer 2024
Synchronous Generator- Sample Questions
1. What are the common approaches to supply DC power? Draw the figure of the brushless excitation circuit and briefly explain the
working principle of the circuit.
2. In order to make the excitation of a generator completely independent without any external sources what measure needs to be
taken? Explain briefly with necessary figure.
3. Why is the output voltage from a phase not equal to internal voltage and what is the relationship between two voltages?
4. Draw the per phase equivalent circuit of a three phase synchronous generator and the phasor diagram in terms of the power
factors.
5. When the armature resistance is ignored? Show how the phasor diagram will look like if you simplify it.
6. Draw the power flow diagram of the synchronous generator.
7. What are the quantities to describe the behavior of a real synchronous generator? provide a brief explanation along with necessary
diagrams.
8. How can we determine the synchronous reactance? Plot the sketch that the synchronous generator as a function of the field
current.
9. Briefly explain the effect of load changes on a synchronous generator operating alone.
10. Why are synchronous generators operated in parallel?
11. What are the conditions required for paralleling the synchronous generator? Briefly explain the general procedure for parallel
operation of synchronous generator.
12. Provide detailed explanation of frequency power and voltage reactive power characteristics of a synchronous generator with the
necessary diagrams.
13. Briefly explain the operation of a synchronous generator operating in parallel with a large power system.
14. Plot the effect of increasing the governor’s set point on the house diagram and the phasor diagram with a brief explanation.
15. Write down the effects of increasing field current on the operation of a synchronous generator in parallel with other generators at
the same size with all necessary diagrams.
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 Problems (Chap 4)

• 4.1,4.2,4.3, 4.5, 4.6

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