GENERATOR PROTECTION

❖ Introduction

The generators used in the power system are the alternators which produce
very high a.c. voltages. The protection of generators is very much complex
due to the following reasons:

The generators are very large machines producing very high voltages and
are connected to bus bars. Various other equipments are always associated
with the generators. Such equipment’s are prime movers, excitation
systems, voltage regulators, cooling systems etc.

Thus protection of generators must consider the presence of these higher

equipment’s also. The generators are very costly, expensive and important
factor in a power system. The protection scheme must be such that it
should not shut off the generators as far as possible. The shut of generators
will result in a power shortage.

All these factors make the design of protection scheme for the generator
very much complex.

❖ Generator Faults

The various faults which can occur associated with a generator can be
classified as follows :
1. Stator faults: The faults associated with the stator of the generator
2. Rotor faults: The faults associated with the rotor of the generator.
3. Abnormal running conditions: This includes number of abnormal
conditions which may occur in practice, from which the generator must be
protected.

1. Stator Faults

The stator faults mean faults associated with the three phase armature
 windings of the generator. These faults are mainly due to the insulation
failure of the armature windings.

The main types of stator faults are:

i. Phase to earth faults

ii. Phase to phase faults
iii. Inter-turn (involving turns of same phase winding).

The most important and common fault is phase to earth fault. The other
two are not very common while inter-turn fault is very difficult to detect.

i. Phase to Earth Faults: The faults mainly occur in the armature slots. The
faults are dangerous and can severe damage to the expensive machine.
The fault currents less than 20 A cause negligible burning of core if
machine is tripped quickly. But if the fault currents are high, severe
burning of stator core can take place. This may lead to the requirement of
replacing the laminations which is very costly and time consuming. So to
avoid the damage due to phase to earth faults, a separate, and sensitive
earth fault protection is necessary for the generators along with the
earthing resistance.

ii. Phase to Phase Faults: The phase to phase faults means short circuit
between two phase windings. Such faults are uncommon because the
insulation used between the coils of different phases in a slot is large. But
once phase to earth fault occurs, due to the overheating phase to phase
fault also may occur. This hull is likely to occur at the end connections of
the armature windings which are overheating parts outside the slots. Such
a fault causes severe arcing with very high temperatures. This may lead to
melting of copper and fire if the insulation is not fire resistant.

iii. Stator Inter-Turn Faults: The coils used in the alternators are generally
multi turn coils. So short circuit between the turns of one coil may occur
which is called an inter-turn fault. This fault occurs due to current surges
across the turns. But if the coils used are single turn then this fault cannot
occur. Hence for the large machines of the order of 50 kVA and more, it
is a normal practice to use single turn coils. But in some countries, multi
turn coils are very commonly used where protection against inter-turn
faults is must.
Rotor Faults: Generally an alternator has a field winding as most of the
alternators arc is of rotating field type. The field winding is made up of number
of turns. So the conductor to earth faults and short circuit between the turns of
the field winding, are the commonly occurring faults with respect to a rotor.
These severe mechanical and thermal stresses, acting on the field winding
insulation. The field winding is generally not grounded and hence single line to
ground fault does not give any fault current. A second fault to earth will bring
circuit the part of the field winding and may there by produce an unsymmetrical
field system. Such an unsymmetrical system gives rise to the unbalanced forces
on the rotor and results in pressure on the bearings and the shaft distortion, if
stub a fault is not cleared yet.

There are some methods for rotor earth fault protection. They are:
⮚ Rotor Earth Fault Protection By Using High Resistance

In this method, a high resistance is connected across the field winding

of the rotor. The midpoint of the resistor is grounded through a
sensitive relay. When the fault occurs, the relay detects the fault and
sends the tripping command to the breaker.

The major disadvantage of such type of system it that it can detect the
fault for most of the rotor circuit except the rotor centre point. This
difficulty can be overcome by shifting the tap on the resistor from
centre to somewhere else. Thus, the relay can detect the midpoint
fault of the rotor.

⮚ A.C. and D.C. Injection methods for rotor earth fault protection
In this method, alternating current is injected into the field winding
circuit and ground along with a sensitive overvoltage relay and a
current limiting capacitor. A single earth fault in the rotor will
complete the circuit comprises the alternating current source,
sensitive relay and earth fault. Thus, the earth fault is sensed by the
relay.

The major disadvantage of such type of system is the leakage current

that flows through the capacitor. This current unbalanced the
magnetic field and increases the stress on the magnetic bearing.
Another disadvantage of alternating current is that the relay cannot
pick up the current that normally flow through the capacitance to the
ground. Thus, the care must be taken to avoid resonance between the
capacitance and the relay inductance.

The problem of the AC injection system can be overcome by using

the DC injection method. This method is simple and has no problem
of leakage currents. The one terminal of the sensitive relay is
connected to the exciter, and the other terminal is connected to the
negative terminal of the DC source. The positive terminal of the DC
source is grounded. When the earth fault occurs, the fault current will
complete the circuit path, and the fault is sensed by the relay.
 So it is very much necessary to know the existence of the occurrence
of the earth fault so that corrective measures can be taken before
second pull occurs. The unbalanced loading on the generator is
responsible to produce the negative sequence currents. The currents
produce a rotating magnetic field which rotates in opposite direction
to that of rotor magnetic field to this field; there is induced e. m f. in
the rotor winding. This causes overheating of the rotor .Rotor earth
fault protection and rotor temperature indicators are the essential and
arc provided to large rating generators.

2. Abnormal Running Conditions: In practice there are number of

situations in which generator is subjected to some abnormal running
conditions. The protection must be provided against the
abnormal conditions. These abnormal conditions include:

i. Overloading
ii. Over speeding
iii. Unbalanced loading
iv. Over voltage
v. Failure of prime mover
vi. Arc of excitation (Field failure)
vii. Cooling system failure

i. Overloading: Due to the continuous overloading, the overheating of the

stator results. This may increase the winding temperature. If this
temperature rise exceeds certain limit, the insulation of the winding may
get damaged. Thus protection is generally very high value hence
continuous overloads of less value than the setting cannot be sensed by
over current protection.

ii. Over speeding: In case of hydraulic generators, a sudden loss of load

results in over speeding of the generator. This is because the water flow
to the turbine cannot be stopped or reduced instantly. Generally a
governor is provided to prevent the over speeding. But if there is any fault
in the turbine governor then the dangerous over speeding may take place.
 Hence it is necessary to supervise the working of turbine governor and
take some corrective measures if there is some fault in the governor.

iii. Unbalanced Loading: The unbalanced loading of the generator results in

the circulation of negative sequence currents. These currents produce the
rotating magnetic field. This rotating magnetic field rotates at the
synchronous speed with respect to rotor. The direction of rotation of
this magnetic field is opposite to that of rotor. Hence effectively the
relative speed between the two is double the synchronous speed. Thus the
e.m.f. gets induced, having double the normal frequency; in the rotor
winding .The circulating currents due to the induced e.m.f. will result in
overheating of the rotor winding. Continuous unbalanced load more than
10% of the rated load causes tremendous heating which is dominant in
case of cylindrical rotor of turbo alternators. The reasons for the
unbalanced load conditions are the occurrence of unsymmetrical faults
near the generating station.

iv. Over voltage: The over voltages are basically due to the over speeding of
generators. Another reason for this is the faulty operation of voltage
regulators. Not only the internal over voltages are dangerous but
atmospheric surge voltages can also reach to the generators. Such
atmospheric surge voltages are generated by direct lighting strokes to the
aerial lines of high voltage system. Inductively and capacitive, these
surges can get transferred to the generator. To protect the generators from
surge voltages, the surge arresters and surge capacitors are often used. At
the time of re striking across the contacts of circuit breakers, the transient
over voltages get generated such surges are called switching surges and
can be limited by the uses of modern circuit breakers RC surge
suppressors also help in reducing switching surges. Another situation,
when the transient over voltages are generated, is when the arcs are
pounded. During arcing grounds, the transient voltages having amplitudes
five times more than the normal line to neutral peak amplitude are
generated. Such transient voltages are dangerous and can be reduced by
using resistance earthing.
v. Failure of Prime Mover: The failure of prime mover results in motoring
operation of synchronous generator. The generator draws active power
from the network and continues to run at synchronous speed as a
synchronous motor. This may lead to dangerous mechanical
conditions if allowed to persist for more than thirty seconds. The serious
overheating of the steam turbine blades may result to prevent this reverse
power protection achieved by directional power relays is used.

vi. Loss of Excitation: The loss of excitation or reduced excitation is

possible due to the field failure i.e. opening of field winding or due to
short circuit in field or due to some fault in exciter system. Such loss of
excitation results in loss of synchronism within a second and causes the
increase in speed of the generator. Since power input to the machine
remains same, the generator starts working as an induction generator,
drawing the reactive power from the bus. The machine starts drawing an
exciting current from the system, which is equal to the full load rated
value. This leads to the overheating of the stator winding and the rotor
body due to induced current. The loss of excitation may also lead to the
pole slipping condition which results in the voltage reduction for the
output above the rated load. Loss of excitation should not persist for long
and corrective measures disconnection of alternator should be taken
immediately. For this a tripping scheme can be used which can trip the
generator circuit breaker immediately when there is a field failure.

There are mainly two schemes available for protection against loss of
field or excitation of a generator. In 1st scheme, we use an undercurrent
relay connected in shunt with main field winding circuit. This relay will
operate if the excitation current comes below its predetermined value. If
the relay is to operate for complete loss of field along, it must have a
setting lies well below the minimum excitation current value which can
be 8% of the rated full load current. Again when loss of field occurs due
to failure of exciter but not due to problem in the field circuit (field circuit
remains intact) there will be an induced current at slip frequency in the
field circuit. This situation makes the relay to pick up and drop off as per
slip frequency of the induced current in the field. This problem can be
overcome in the following manner.
 In this
case a setting of 5% of normal of full load current is recommended. There
is a normally closed contact attached with the undercurrent relay. This
normally closed contact remains open as the relay coil is energized by
shunted excitation current during normal operation of the excitation
system. As soon as there is any failure of excitation system, the relay coil
becomes de-energized and the normally closed contact closes the supply
across the coil of timing relay T1.

As the relay coil is energized, the normally open contact of this relay T 1 is
closed. This contact closes the supply across another timing relay T 2 with
an adjustable pickup time delay of 2 to 10 seconds. Relay T 1 is time
delayed on drop off to stabilize scheme again slip frequency effect. Relay
T2 closes its contacts after the prescribed time delay to either shut down
the set or initiate an alarm. It is time delayed on pickup to prevent
spurious operation of the scheme during an external fault.

For larger generator or alternator, we use a more sophisticated scheme for

that purpose. For larger machines, it is recommended to trip the machine
after a certain prescribed delay in presence of swing condition resulting
from loss of field. In addition to that there must be subsequent load
 shedding to maintain stability of the system. In this scheme of protection,
an automatic imposition of load shedding to the system is also inherently
required if the field is not restored within the described time delay. The
scheme comprises an offset mho relay, and an instantaneous under
voltage relay. As we have said earlier that it is not always required to
isolate the generator immediately in the event of loss of field, unless there
is a significant disturbance in system stability.

We know that system voltage is the main indication of system stability.

Therefore the offset mho relay is arranged to shut the machine down
instantaneously when operation of generator is accompanied by a system
voltage collapse. The drop in system voltage is detected by an under
voltage relay which is set to approximately 70 % of normal rated system
voltage. The offset mho relay is arranged to initiate load shedding to the
system up to a safe value and then to initiate a master tripping relay after
a predetermined time.

vii. Cooling System Failure: Failure of cooling system also causes severe
overheating which will raise the temperature above safe limit. This may
lead to insulation failure, causing some other faults to occur. The
thermocouples or resistance thermometers are used in large machines to
sensor the temperature. The corrective measures are taken whenever the
temperature exceeds the limit. Apart from the above dominant abnormal
conditions, some conditions may exist which are rare
in practice.

❖ Differential Protection of a Generator

Differential protection for a generator is mainly employed for the
protection of stator windings of generator against earth faults and phase-to-
phase faults. The stator winding faults are very dangerous and it causes
considerable damage to the generator. For the protection of stator winding
of the generator, the differential protection system is used for clearing the
fault in the shortest possible time for minimizing the extent of damage.

Merz-Price Circulating Current System

In this scheme of protection, currents at the ends of the protected sections

compare. When the system is in normal operating condition, the magnitude
of currents is equal on the secondary windings of the current transformers.
On the occurrence of the faults, the short-circuit current flows through the
system and the magnitude of current become differ. This difference of
current under fault conditions is made to flow through the relay operating
coil.

The relay then closes its contacts and makes the circuit breaker to trip and
thus isolated the system for protection. Such a system is called a Merz-
Price circulating current system. It is very effective for earth faults and
faults between phases.

Connection for Differential Protection System

The protection system requires two identical transformers which are

mounted on both sides of the protection zone. The secondary terminals of
the current transformers are connected in stars, and their end terminals are
connected through the pilot wire. The relay coils are connected in delta.
The neutral of the current transformer and the relay are connected to the
common terminal.

The relay is connected across equipotential points of the three pilot wires
so that the burden on each current transformer is same. The equipotential
point of the pilot wire is its centre, so the relay is located at the midpoint of
pilot wires.
For proper working of the differential protection system, it is essential to
locate the relay coils adjacent to the current transformer near the main
circuit. This can be done by inserting the balancing resistance in
series with the pilot wires to make equipotential points located near the
main circuit breaker.

Working on Differential Protection System

Consider the fault occurs on the R phase of the network because of the
insulation breakdown. Because of the fault, the current in the secondary of
the transformer becomes unequal. The differential currents flow through
the relay coil. Thus, the relay becomes operative and gives the command to
the circuit breaker for operation.

If the fault occurs between any two phases, say Y and B then short-circuit
current flows through these phases. The fault unbalanced the current flows
through CTs. The differential current flows through the relay operating coil
and thus relay trips their contacts.

Problem Associated with Differential Protection System

A neutral resistance wire is used in the differential protection system for

avoiding the adverse effect of earth fault currents. When an earth fault
occurs near the neutral, it will cause a small, short circuit current to flow
through the neutral point because of small emf. This current is further
reduced by the resistance of the neutral grounding. Thus, the small current
 will flow through the relay. This small current will not operate the relay
coil, and hence the generator gets damage.

Modified Scheme of Differential Protection System

To overcome the above problem, the modified scheme has been developed.
In this scheme two elements are arranged, one for the protection of the
phase fault and other for the earth fault protection.

The phase elements are connected in stars along with the resistor. The
earth fault relay is kept between the star and neutral. The two-phase
elements together with a balancing resistor are connected in star, and the
earth fault relay is connected between the star and neutral pilot wire.

The star-connected circuit is symmetrical, and any balanced overflow

current from the current circulating point will not flow through the earth
fault relay. So in this system, the sensitive earth fault relay will operate at a
high degree of stability.

❖ Restricted Earth Fault Protection

Earth fault is the unintended fault between the live conductor and the earth.
It also occurs, because of the insulation breakdown. When the fault occurs,
the short-circuit currents flow through the system, and this current is
returned through the earth or any electrical equipment. This fault current
damaged the equipment of the power system and also interrupted the
continuity of the supply.

The earth fault can be dispersed by using the restricted earth fault
protection scheme. The earth fault protection scheme consists the earth
fault relay, which gives the tripping command to the circuit breaker and
hence restricted the fault current.

The earth fault relay is placed in the residual part of the current
transformers shown in the figure below. This relay protects the delta or
unearthed star winding of the power transformer against the fault current.
The connection of earth fault relay with the star or delta winding of the
transformer is shown in the figure below.
The current transformers are placed on both sides of the protective zone.
The secondary terminal of the current transformer is connected in parallel
with the relay. The output of the current transformer is equal to the zero
sequence current flows in the line. The zero sequence current is absent for
the external fault and for the internal fault it becomes twice the value of
fault current.

Working with Earth Fault Protection System

The star connected side is protected by a restricted earth fault protection

shown in the figure below.
Let F1 be the external fault occurs in the network. This fault induces the
I1 and I2 current which flows in the secondary of the CTs. The resultant
current of the I1 and I2 becomes zero. When the fault occurs inside the
protective zone say F2, then only current I2 exist, and I1 is neglected. The
current I2 passes through the earth fault relay. The earth fault relay operates
only for the internal fault of the protective zone.

The earth fault relay must be very sensitive for sensing the fault. The relay
is designed for sensing the fault current which is 15% more than that of the
rated winding current. Such settings protect a restricted portion of the
winding. Hence the name restricted earth fault protection.

The stabilising current is connected in series with the relay for avoiding the
magnetising in rush current.