GENERATOR

PROTECTION
Common Generator Faults

• Generator faults are usually classified into internal and

external faults;
• internal faults are due to problems within the generator
components
• 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)
Types of Internal Faults in a Generator

• 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.
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
• Overspeed
• Phase unbalance and negative phase sequence
• Under and over frequency
• Under and over voltages
• An uncleared 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.
• Overspeed 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)
• Overspeed & overexcitation Protection (core saturation due to overexcitation)
• 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 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.
• 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 center point of which is
connected to ground through the coil of a sensitive relay.
Nowadays modern technique calls for the use
combining linear and non-linear resistors.
• 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 overexcitation during run
up and shutdown an overexcitation protection 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.