Generator Protection

Generators used at thermal power generating units are equipped with two pole non salient
cylindrical rotor. Thus they are known as turbo alternator or turbo generator. Turbo generators
required comprehensive safety and supervisory devices to prevent damage and long forced
outages. The generators require protection against mechanical and electrical faults. The
mechanical faults are described below
1. High cold gas temperature in generator.
2. Liquid in Generator Terminal Box.
3. High Hot Air Temperature in Exciter Unit.
Each of these criteria activates a turbine trip. The generator is disconnected from the grid and de
excited through the two channel reverse power relay.
The protection against these faults is done through following protection circuits:
1. Protection against overheating of Generator
The protection circuit for criterion 1 prevents insufficient cooling and thus
overheating of the hydrogen cooled components. This is done by measuring temperature
of the cooling gas by using RTD (Resistance Temperature Detector) and transmitted
directly to the protection circuit.
2. Protection against Internal Ground fault through Terminal Short circuit
The generator can be damaged due to leakage in its components through which the
cooling water or seal oil flows. The operation of Generator is affected when there is large
leakage. In case of large leakage due to the restricted volume of the compartment or
terminal box, the level of liquid rise quickly, resulting in terminal short circuit or ground
fault. For this two level detectors are connected to generator terminal box and signal is
sent to the protection circuit.
3. Protection against the overheating of Exciter Unit
The hot air temperature after the main exciter is sensed with the help of RTD
(Resistance Temperature Detector) and is transmitted directly to the protection circuit.
This is required for protection against the overheating of the Exciter unit due to insufficient
cooling (failure of exciter cooler).
Apart from the protection required against faults developed mechanically, protection against
electrical faults is also required. The protection schemes used for protection of generator against
electrical faults are described below.
Generators may be endangered by short circuits, ground faults, under excitation, over voltages
and thermal stresses.
Following protective equipments are recommended:

Differential protection
Stator ground fault protection
Rotor ground fault protection
Under excitation protection
Over voltage protection
Over current protection

Load unbalance protection

Rise in voltage protection

Reverse power protection

Under frequency protection
Pole slipping protection

Differential protection

Breakdown of insulation between different stator phase windings result in an internal short
circuit. The fault is detected by a differential relay which initiates immediate isolation and
de-excitation of the generator. In order to obtain high sensitivity, the protected area
should include the generator only.
Relay time<=60ms
In certain cases the generator may also be included in the differential protection for the
main transformer and station service feeder

Stator ground fault protection

Stator ground fault protection
The

breakdown of insulation between stator winding and the frame result in a stator
ground fault. The stator ground fault protection should cover the complete winding
including the neutral point of the generator. The protection is to initiate the immediate
isolation and de-excitation of the generator.
Relay time <= 1s
The load resistance of a grounding transformer and any required boost to raise the
neutral point potential should be selected so that the ground current due to a fault
should be less than 15 Ampere.

Rotor ground fault protection

For rotor ground fault protection rapid fault detection is required because an interruption of
the field circuit with arcing releases high amount of energy in the form of heat which may
cause severe burning.

A one line to ground fault may develop into a double ground fault resulting in dangerous
magnetic unbalances, especially on four pole generators. Danger arises if a second earth
fault occurs at a separate point in the field system, to cause the high field current to be
diverted, in part at least, from the intervening turns. Serious damage to the conductors
and possibly the rotor can occur very rapidly under these conditions. More damage may
be caused mechanically. If a large portion of the winding is short-circuited, the flux may
adopt a pattern such as that shown in Figure.

To minimize the consequential damage, it is recommended to provide two-pole and four- pole
generators with a protection circuit featuring a delayed response in the core of four pole
generators, the rotor ground fault protection must always operate to avoid the hazard of
sudden, extremely high vibrations due to magnetic unbalances.
Relay time: approximately 1 s

Field winding
circuit

short

Under excitation

protection
Failure of the voltage regulator, mal-operation of the
generator or
transformer control systems and generator operation in a system with capacitive load may
result in a reduction of the excitation required to ensure system stability below a
predetermined minimum value. Short -circuits or interruptions in a field circuit result in a
complete loss of field and thus in instability of the generator this result in the higher rise of
temperature in the rotor and core end portion.

Loss of excitation may occur for a variety of reasons. If the generator was initially operating
at only 20%-30%of rated power, it may settle to run super-synchronously as an induction
generator, at a low level of slip. In doing so, it will draw reactive current from the power
system for rotor excitation. This form of response is particularly true of salient pole
generators. In these circumstances, the generator may be able to run for several minutes
without requiring to be tripped. There may be sufficient time for remedial action to restore
the excitation, but the reactive power demand of the machine during the failure may severely
depress the power system voltage to an unacceptable level. For operation at high initial
power output, the rotor speed may rise to approximately 105% of rated speed, where there
would be low power output and where a high reactive current of up to 2.0p.u. may be drawn
from the supply. Rapid automatic disconnection is then required to protect the stator
windings from excessive current and to protect the rotor from damage caused by induced slip
frequency currents.
The protection used varies according to the size of generator being protected. A momentary
excursion beyond a steady state stability limit must not result in a loss of stability .therefore a
under excitation protection is designed to give a warning when steady state limit is reached.
The protection must operate instantaneously if a loss of field occurs when a steady state
stability limit is reached.

Scheme for loss of excitation could be based on impedance measurement. The

impedance characteristic must be appropriately set or shaped to ensure decisive
operation for loss of excitation while permitting stable generator operation within
allowable limits. One or two offset mho under impedance elements are ideally suited
for providing loss of excitation protection as long as a generator operating at low
power output (20-30% Pn)does not settle down to operate as an induction generator.
The impedance characteristics of a mho relays typical two-stage loss of excitation
protection scheme changes say it is set to x1 and x2 can be applied to provide detection
of loss of excitation.

Over-voltage Protection.

Over-voltages on a generator may occur due to transient surges on the network, or

prolonged power frequency over-voltages may arise from a variety of conditions.
Surge arrestors may be required to protect against transient over-voltages, but relay
protection may be used to protect against power frequency over-voltages. A sustained
overvoltage condition should not occur for a machine with a healthy voltage
regulator, but it may be caused by the following contingencies:
a. Defective operation of the automatic voltage regulator when the machine is in
isolated operation
b. Operation under manual control with the voltage regulator out of service. A
sudden variation of the load, in particular the reactive power component, will give
rise to a substantial change in voltage because of the large voltage regulation
inherent in a typical alternator.
c. Sudden loss of load (due to tripping of outgoing feeders, leaving the set isolated
or feeding a very small load) may cause a sudden rise in terminal voltage due to
the trapped field flux and/or over speed
Sudden loss of load should only cause a transient over-voltage while the voltage
regulator and governor act to correct the situation. A maladjusted voltage regulator may
trip to manual, maintaining excitation at the value prior to load loss while the generator
supplies little or no load. The terminal voltage will increase substantially, and in severe
cases it would be limited only by the saturation characteristic of the generator. A rise in
speed simply compounds the problem. If load that is sensitive to over-voltages remains
connected, the consequences in terms of equipment damage and lost revenue can be
severe. Prolonged over-voltages may also occur on isolated networks, or ones with weak
interconnections, due to the fault conditions listed earlier. It is prudent to provide power
frequency overvoltage protection, in the form of a time-delayed elements either IDMT or
definite time. The time delay should be long enough to prevent operation during normal
regulator action, and therefore should take account of the type of AVR fitted and its
transient response. Sometimes a high-set element is provided as well, with a very short
definite-time delay or instantaneous setting to provide a rapid trip in extreme
circumstances. The usefulness of this is questionable for generators fitted with an
excitation system other than a static type, because the excitation will decay in
accordance with the open-circuit time constant of the field winding. This decay can last
several seconds. The relay element is arranged to trip both the main circuit breaker (if
not already open) and the excitation; tripping the main circuit breaker alone is not
sufficient.

Over-current Protection.

Over-current protection of generators may take two forms. Plain over-current protection
may be used as the principle form of protection for small generators, and back-up
protection for larger ones where differential protection is used as the primary method of
generator stator winding protection. Voltage dependent Over-current protection may be
applied where differential protection is not justified on larger generators, or where
problems are met in applying plain over-current protection.

Plain over-current protection

It is usual to apply time-delayed plain over-current protection to generators. For
generators rated less than 1MVA, this will form the principal stator winding protection for
phase faults. For larger generators, Over-current protection can be applied as remote
back-up protection, to disconnect the unit from any uncleared external fault. Where
there is only one set of differential main protection, for a smaller generator, the overcurrent protection will also provide local back-up protection for the protected plant, in
the event that the main protection fails to operate.
In the case of a single generator feeding an isolated system, current transformers at the
neutral end of the machine should energies the over-current protection, to allow a
response to winding fault conditions. Relay characteristics should be selected to take
into account the fault current decrement behavior of the generator, with allowance for
the performance of the excitation

Voltage controlled over-current Protection.

Voltage controlled over-current protection has two time/current characteristics which are
selected according to the status of a generator terminal voltage measuring element.
The voltage threshold setting for the switching element is chosen according to the
following criteria.
1. During overloads, when the system voltage is sustained near normal, the over-current
protection should have a current setting above full load current and an operating time
characteristic that will prevent the generating plant from passing current to a remote
external fault for a period in excess of the plant short-time withstand limits.
2. Under close-up fault conditions, the bus bar voltage must fall below the voltage
threshold so that the second protection characteristic will be selected.
This
characteristic should be set to allow relay operation with fault current decrement for a
close-up fault at the generator terminals or at the HV bus bars. The protection should
also time-grade with external circuit protection. There may be additional in feeds to an
external circuit fault that will assist with grading.

Voltage dependent over-current Protection.

alternatives for the

The plain over-current protection setting difficulty referred to in the

previous section arises because allowance has to be made both for
the decrement of the generator fault current with time and for the
passage of full load current.
To overcome the difficulty of
discrimination, the generator terminal voltage can be measured and
used to dynamically modify the basic relay
current/time over-current characteristic for faults
close to the generating plant. There are two basic
application of voltage-dependent over-current protection,

1-Voltage controlled over-current protection

2-Voltage restrained over-current protection
The choice depends upon the power system characteristics and level of protection to be
provided. Voltage-dependent over-current relays are often found applied to generators used on
industrial systems as an alternative to full differential protection.
Voltage restrained over-current Protection
The alternative technique is to continuously vary the relay element pickup setting with generator
voltage variation between upper and lower limits. The voltage is said to restrain the operation of
the current element. The effect is to provide a dynamic I.D.M.T. protection characteristic,
according to the voltage at the machine terminals. Alternatively, the relay element may be
regarded as an impedance type with a long dependent time delay. In consequence, for a given
fault condition, the relay continues to operate more or less independently of current decrement
in the machine. A typical characteristic is shown in Figure

Protection against unbalanced loading.

When the unbalanced loading occur it result in the unbalanced stator currents the
negative component of this unbalanced stator current causes a double frequency current

to be induced in the rotor iron. If this component becomes high severe overheating of
the rotor may be caused.
A three-phase balanced load produces a reaction field that, to a first approximation, is
constant and rotates synchronously with the rotor field system. Any unbalanced
condition can be resolved into positive, negative and zero sequence components. The
positive sequence component is similar to the normal balanced load. The zero sequence
components produce no main armature reaction.
Effect of negative sequence current:
The negative sequence component is similar to the positive sequence system, except
that the resulting reaction field rotates in the opposite direction to the d.c. field
system. Hence, a flux is produced which cuts the rotor at twice the rotational
velocity, thereby inducing double frequency currents in the field system and in the
rotor body. The resulting eddy-currents are very large and cause severe heating of
the rotor .

A generator is assigned a continuous negative sequence rating. For turbo-generators

this rating is low; standard values of 10% and 15% of the generator continuous rating
have been adopted.
The lower rating applies when the more intensive cooling
techniques are applied, for example hydrogen-cooling with gas ducts in the rotor to
facilitate direct cooling of the winding. Short time heating is of interest during system
fault conditions and it is usual in determining the generator negative sequence
withstands capability to assume that the heat dissipation during such periods is
negligible.
Using this approximation it is possible to express the heating by the law:
I22t=k

Negative phase sequence protection.

A specialized relay to detect these circulating currents, called a Negative Sequence
Current Relay (since the "induced" currents are called negative sequence currents"), is
used to detect the phase imbalance within the generator during unbalanced fault
conditions. A differential scheme could be used between the three phases to detect
excessive variations in current caused by uneven loading.
The unbalanced magnetic forces within the generator due to these currents will also
cause excessive vibration. This may result in bearing wear/damage and reduced machine
life, and may result in a high vibration trip"".
Causes of phase imbalance include unequal load distribution, grid faults and windings
faults.

Load forward power Protection

Low forward power protection is often used as an interlocking function to enable opening
of the main circuit breaker for non-urgent trips e.g. for a stator earth fault on a highimpedance earthed generator, or when a normal shutdown of a set is taking place. This
is to minimize the risk of plant over-speeding when the electrical load is removed from a
high-speed cylindrical rotor generator. The rotor of this type of generator is highly
stressed mechanically and cannot tolerate much over-speed. While the governor should
control over-speed conditions, it is not good practice to open the main circuit breaker
simultaneously with tripping of the prime mover for non-urgent trips. For a steam
turbine, for example, there is a risk of over-speeding due to energy storage in the
trapped steam, after steam valve tripping, or in the event that the steam valve do not
fully close for some reason. For urgent trip conditions, such as stator differential
protection operation, the risk involved in simultaneous prime mover and generator
breaker tripping must be accepted.

Reverse power Protection

Reverse power protection is applied to prevent damage to mechanical plant items in the
event of failure of the prime mover. When the prime movers fails then the A.C generator
begin acting like a synchronous motor it draws power from the grid to remain in
synchronism with the grid that is, the device changing from a producer of electrical
power to a consumer of it. Following a reactor trip to step back to a very low power
level. It is beneficial to enter the motoring mode of turbine generator operation However,
this is not a desirable mode of operation for standby or emergency generators. They are
not designed to operate this manner and can be seriously damaged if power is allowed
to flow in the wrong direction.

A means of indicating when the transition from exporter to importer of power occurs is
provided by a device known as a reverse power relay. As its name suggests, it is
triggered by power flowing in a direction opposite to that which is normally desired. This
can be used for generator protection, as is the case with standby generators, or as a
permissive alarm/interlock for turbine generator motoring Figure shows a typical
arrangement of a reverse power protection circuit employing both a CT and a voltage
transformer (VT) to power the relay, and hence, protect the generator. The relay will
operate when any negative power flow is detected.

Under frequency Protection

The governor fitted to the prime mover normally provides protection against overfrequency. Under-frequency may occur as a result of overload of generators operating on
an isolated system, or a serious fault on the power system that results in a deficit of
generation compared to load. This may occur if a grid system suffers a major fault on
transmission lines linking two parts of the system, and the system then splits into two. It
is likely that one part will have an excess of generation over load, and the other will have
a corresponding deficit. Frequency will fall fairly rapidly in the latter part, and the normal
response is load shedding, either by load shedding relays or operator action. However,
prime movers may have to be protected against

excessively low frequency by tripping of the generators concerned. With some prime
movers, operation in narrow frequency bands that lie close to normal running speed
(either above or below) may only be permitted for short periods, together with
cumulative lifetime duration of operation in such frequency bands. While connected to a
stable grid, the grid frequency and voltage are usually constant If the system frequency
drops excessively. it indicates that there has been a significant increase in load. This
could lead to a serious problem in the grid, and it is of little use to supply a grid that may
be about to collapse. In this case, the generator would be separated from the grid. The
grid (or at least portions of it) may well collapse. The system can slowly rebuild (with
system generators ready to restore power) to proper, Pre-collapse operating conditions;
As mentioned above, if a generator connected to the grid has sufficient excitation
applied below synchronous speed (since grid frequency has dropped) for it to produce
rated voltage, the excitation level is actually higher than that required at synchronous
speed.
A specialized volts/hertz relay compares voltage level and frequency and will trip the
generator if preset volts/hertz levels are exceeded.

pole slipping Protection (out of step protection).

A generator may pole-slip, or fall out of synchronism with the power system for a
number of reasons. The principal causes are prolonged clearance of a heavy fault on
the power system, when the generator is operating at a high load angle close to the
stability limit, or partial or complete loss of excitation. Weak transmission links
between the generator and the bulk of the power system aggravate the situation. It
can also occur with embedded generators running in parallel with a strong Utility
network if the time for a fault clearance on the Utility network slow, perhaps because
only IDMT relays are provided. Pole slipping is characterized by large and rapid
oscillations in active and reactive power. Rapid disconnection of the generator from
the network is required to ensure that damage to the generator is avoided and that
loads supplied by the network are not affected for very long. Protection can be
provided using several methods. The choice of method will depend on the probability
of pole slipping occurring and on the consequences should it occur.
1-protection using reverse power element
2-protection using under impedance element