Generator Protection

A generator is subjected to electrical stresses imposed on the insulation of the

machine, mechanical forces acting on the various parts of the machine, and
temperature rise. These are the main factors which make protection necessary for
the generator or alternator. Even when properly used, a machine in its perfect
running condition does not only maintain its specified rated performance for
many years, but it does also repeatedly withstand certain excess of overload.

Preventive measures must be taken against overloads and abnormal conditions of

the machine so that it can serve safely. Even ensuring an efficient design,
construction, operation, and preventive means of protection – the risk of a fault
cannot be completely eliminated from any machine. The devices used in
generator protection, ensure that when a fault arises, it is eliminated as quickly as
possible.

An electrical generator can be subjected to either an internal fault or external

fault or both. The generators are normally connected to an electrical power
system, hence any fault occurred in the power system should also be cleared from
the generator as soon as possible otherwise it may create permanent damage in
the generator. The number and variety of faults occur in a generator are huge.
That is why generator or alternator is protected with several protective schemes.
Generator protection is of both discriminative and non-discriminative type. Great
care is to be taken in coordinating the systems used and the settings adopted to
ensure that a sensitive, selective and discriminative generator protection scheme
is achieved.
Types of Generator Protection
The various forms of protection applied to the generator can be categorized into
two manners,

Protective relays to detect faults occurring outside the generator.

Protective relays to detect faults occurring inside the generator.

Other than protective relays, associated directly with the generator and its
associated transformer, there are lightning arrestors, over speed safe guards, oil
flow devises and temperature measuring devises for shaft bearing, stator winding,
transformer winding and transformer oil etc. Some of these protective
arrangement are of non-trip type i.e. they only generate alarm during
abnormalities.

But the other protective schemes ultimately operate master tripping relay of the
generator. This should be noted that no protective relay can prevent fault, it only
indicates and minimizes the duration of the fault to prevent high temperature rise
in the generator otherwise there may be permanent damage in it. It is desirable
to avoid any undue tresses in the generator, and for that it is usual practice to
install surge capacitor or surge diverter or both to reduce the effects of lightning
and other voltage surges on the machine.

The protection schemes usually applied to the generator are discussed here
below in brief.
Protection against Insulation Failure
The main protection provided in the stator winding against phase to phase or
phase to earth fault, is longitudinal differential protection of generator. Second
most important protection scheme for stator winding is inter turn fault
protection. This type of protection was considered unnecessary in previous days
because breakdown of insulation between points in the same phase winding,
contained in the same slot, and between which a potential difference exists, very
rapidly changes into an earth fault, and then it is detected by either the stator
differential protection or the stator earth fault protection. A generator is designed
to produce relatively high voltage in comparison to its output and which therefore
contains a large number of conductors per slot. With increasing size and voltage
of the generator, this form of protection is becoming essential for all large
generating units.

Stator Earth Fault Protection

When the stator neutral is earthed through a resistor, a current transformer is
mounted in the neutral to earth connection. Inverse Time Relay is used across the
CT secondary when the generator is connected directly to the bus bar. In case of
generator feeds power via a delta star transformer, an Instantaneous Relay is
used for the same purpose. In the former case, the earth faults relay is required
to be graded with other fault relays in the system. This is the reason why Inverse
Time Relay is used in this case. But in the latter case, the earth fault loop is
restricted to the stator winding and primary winding of the transformer, hence,
there is no need of grading or discrimination with other earth fault relays in the
system. That is why Instantaneous Relay is preferable in the case.
Rotor Earth Fault Protection
A single earth fault does not create any major problem in the generator but if the
second earth fault is occurred, however, part of the field winding will become
short-circuited and resulting and unbalanced magnetic field in the system and
consequently there may be major mechanical damage to the bearings of the
generator. There are three methods available to detect the types of fault in the
rotor. The methods are

Potentiometer method
AC injection method
DC injection method
Unbalanced Stator Loading Protection

Unbalancing in loading produces negative sequence currents in the stator circuit.

This negative sequence current produces a reaction field rotating at twice of
synchronous speed with respect to the rotor and hence induce double frequency
current in the rotor. This current is quite large and causes overheating in the rotor
circuit, especially in the alternator. If any unbalancing occurred due to fault in the
stator winding itself, that would be cleared instantaneously by the differential
protection provided in the generator. If the unbalancing is occurred due to any
external fault or unbalanced loading in the system, it may remain undetected or
may persist for a significant period of time depending on the protection
coordination of the system. These faults then be cleared by installing a negative
phase sequence relay with the characteristics to match the withstand curve of the
machine.
Protection against Stator Overheating
Overloading can causes overheating in the stator winding of the generator. Not
only overloading, failure of cooling systems and insulation failure of stator
laminations also cause overheating of the stator winding. The overheating is
detected by embedded temperature detectors at various points in the stator
winding. The temperature detector coils are normally resistance elements which
form one arm of the Wheatstone bridge circuit. In the case of smaller generator
normally below 30 MW, the generators are not equipped with embedded
temperature coil but are usually fitted with thermal relay and they are arranged
to measure the current flowing in the stator winding. This arrangement only
detects overheating caused by overloading and does not provide any protection
against overheating due to failure of cooling systems or short circuited stator
laminations. Although over current relays, negative phase sequence relays, and
devises for monitoring constant flow are also used to provide a certain degree of
thermal overload protection.

Low Vacuum Protection

This protection, usually is in the form of a regulator which compares the vacuum
against atmospheric pressure, it is normally fitted to the generator set above 30
MW. The modern practice is for the regulator to unload the set via the secondary
governor until normal vacuum conditions are restored. If the vacuum conditions
do not improve below 21 inch the stop valves are closed and the main circuit
breaker is tripped.

Protection against Lubrication Oil Failure

This protection is not considered essential since the lubrication oil is normally
obtained from the same pump as governor oil and a failure of the governor oil will
automatically make stop valve to close.
Protection against Loss of Boiler Firing

Two methods are available for detecting the loss of boiler firing. In the first
method, normally opened (NO) contacts are provided with the fan motors which
may trip the generator if more than two motors fail. The second methods use a
boiler pressure contacts which unload the generator if boiler pressure falls below
approximately 90%.

Protection against Prime Mover Failure

If the prime mover fails to supply mechanical energy to the generator, the
generator will continue to rotate in motoring mode that means it takes electrical
energy from the system instead of supplying it to the system. In steam turbine set
the steam acts as a coolant maintaining the turbine blades at a constant
temperature. Failure of the supply will therefore result in overheating due to
friction, with subsequent distortion of turbine blades. The, failure of steam supply
can cause severe mechanical damage in addition of imposing a heavy motoring
load on the generator. Reverse power relay is used for this purpose. As soon as
the generator starts rotating in motoring mode, the reverse power relay will trip
the generator set.

Over Speed Protection

While it is the general practice to provide mechanical over speed devices on both
steam and hydro turbine, which operate directly on the steam throttle valve or
main step valve, it is not usual to backup this devises by an over speed relay on
steam driven sets. It is, however, considered good practice on hydroelectric units,
as the response of the governor is comparatively slow and the set is more prone
to over-speed. The relay when fitted is usually supplied from the permanent
magnet generator used for the control of governor.

Protection against Rotor Distortion

The cooling rates following shutdown, at the top and bottom of the turbine
casing, are different and this uneven temperature distribution tends to cause
destruction of the rotor. To minimize the disruption, it is common practice to turn
the rotor at low speed during the cooling down period. In the view of the forces
involved with large modern rotor, it is now standard practice to fit shaft
eccentricity detectors.

Protection against Difference in Expansion between Rotating and Stationary parts

During the running up period, the rate of heating of the rotor differs from that of
the casing, due to the difference in mass. As a result, the rotor expands at a
different rate to the casing and it is necessary to overcome this unequal
expansion. To this end, proposition is made on the larger machine for
independent supplies of steam to be set to certain joints on the casing. It is
desirable therefore to provide a means of measuring the axial expansion to assist
the operator to feed the steam to the correct points and also to provide
indication of any dangerous expansion. The shaft axial expansion detector is
basically similar to the equipment described for rotor distortion equipment,
except that the detector magnets are fixed to the turbine casing.

Protection against Vibration

Vibration detectors are usually mounted on the bearing pedestals. The detector
consists of a coil mounted on springs between U shaped permanent magnets. The
voltage output from the coil, which is proportional to the degree of vibration, is
passed from the coil into integrating circuits and then into interval indicating
instrument.

Back up Protection of Generator

Back up protection should always be given in highly rated machine like
synchronous generator or alternator. If faults occurred had not been cleared by
the appropriate protection scheme then back up protection relays should be
operated to clear the fault. Over current relays are generally used for this
purpose. Because the synchronous reactance of modern machine is often greater
than hundred percent, the sustained fault current fed from the machine into an
external fault is invariably below the normal full load current. The normal IDMT
relays would not prove satisfactory because their current settings must be close
to the full load and their time sitting short if operation is to be obtained, resulting
in probable lack of discrimination with other over current relays in the system.
Further, the over current relay would most probably operate for loss of field on
the machine, disconnecting it prematurely. To overcome this problem is it has
become customary to apply an over current relay in combination with under
voltage relay, the latter relay controlling the fault settings of the former as shown
in the figure below.