Protection of Alternators

• The generating units, especially the larger ones, are relatively few in
number and higher in individual cost than most other equipments.
• Therefore, it is desirable and necessary to provide protection to
cover the wide range of faults which may occur in the modern
generating plant.
• Some of the important faults which may occur on an alternator
are
(i) stator faults
a) phase to phase faults b)phase to earth faults (c)inter turn faults
(ii) Rotor faults
(iii) abnormal conditions
(i) failure of prime-mover (ii) failure of field (iii) over loading
(iv) Over speeding (v) overvoltage (vi) unbalanced loading
(vii) cooling system failures
 Differential Protection of Alternators
• The most common system used for the protection of stator
winding faults employs circulating-current principle
• Under normal operating conditions, these currents are equal but
may become unequal on the occurrence of a fault in the protected
section.
• The difference of the currents under fault conditions is arranged
to pass through the operating coil of the relay.
• The relay then closes its contacts to isolate protected section
from the system.
• This form of protection is also known as Merz-Price circulating
current scheme
Merz-Price circulating current scheme
Modified Differential Protection for Alternators
Merz-Price protection of star connected
alternator
 Restricted Earth Fault Protection of Generator
• Generally Merz-Price protection based on circulating current
principle provides the protection against internal earth faults.
• But for large generators, as there are costly, an additional protection
scheme called restricted earth fault protection is provided.
• The percentage of windings protected depends on the value of
earthing resistance and the relay setting.
• In this scheme, the value of earth resistance, relay setting, current
rating of earth resistance must be carefully selected.
• The earth faults are rare near the neutral point as the voltage of
neutral point with respect to earth is very less.
• But when earth fault occurs near the neutral point then the
insufficient voltage across the fault drivers very low fault current
than the pick up current of relay coil.
• Hence the relay coil remains unprotected in this scheme. Hence it is
called restricted earth fault protection. It is usual practice to protect
85% of the winding
 Restricted Earth Fault Protection of Generator

• Hence practically 15% of winding from the neutral point is kept

unprotected, protecting the remaining 85% of the winding against
phase to earth faults.
 Effect of Earth Resistance on % of Winding Unprotected
• If the resistance R is very small i.e. the neutral is almost solidly
grounded, then the fault current is very high.
• But high fault currents are not desirable hence small R is not
preferred for the large machines.
•        For low resistance R, the value of R is selected such that full
load current passes through the neutral, for a full line to neutral
voltage V.
•        In medium resistance R, the earth fault current is limited to
about 200A for full line to neutral voltage V, for a 60 MW
machine.
•        In high resistance R, the earth fault current is limited to about
10 A. This is used for distribution transformers and generator-
transformer units.
    
• Now higher the value of earth resistance R, less is the earth fault
current and less percentage of winding gets protected. Large
percentage of winding remains unprotected.
• Let                  V= Full line to neutral voltage
                        I = Full load current of largest capacity generator
                        R = Earth resistance
       The value of the resistance R is,
                         R = V/I
       And the percentage of winding unprotected is given by

Wher Io = Maximum operating current in the primary of C.T.

   If relay setting used is 15% then Io is 15% of full load current of
the largest machine and so on.Greater percentage of windings of
small capacity machines running parallel get protected.
 Unrestricted Earth Fault Protection
• The unrestricted earth fault protection uses a residually connected
earth fault relay. It consists of three C.T.s, one in each phase.
• The secondary windings of three C.T.s are connected in parallel.
• The earth fault relay is connected across the secondaries which
carries a residual current.
•  Where there is no fault, under normal conditions, vector sum of
the three line currents is zero. Hence the vector sum of the three
secondary currents is also zero.
• So if Irs, Iys and Ibs C.T. secondary currents then under normal
conditions we can write,
          Īrs+ Īys + Ībs = 0
•        The sum of the three currents is residual current IRs which is
zero under normal conditions.
• The earth fault relay is connected in such a way that the residual
current flows through the relay operating coil.
• Under normal condition, residual current is zero so relay does not
carry any current and is inoperative.
• the earth fault at any location near or away from the location of
C.T.s can cause the residual current.
• Hence the protected zone is not definite. Such a scheme is hence
called unrestricted earth fault protection.
 Balanced Earth Fault Protection for Generator
In practice for small rating alternators, the neutral ends of the three
phases are connected to a single point. Hence it is not possible to
introduce C.T. in each phase on neutral side as required in Merz-
Price Protection. In such cases, the balanced earth fault
protection can be used.
•  At the outgoing side, the three C.T.s are connected in parallel as
are connected in unrestricted earth fault protection.
• A single C.T. is connected on the neutral side in the pilot wire
connecting neutral of alternator to earth. The neutral earthing is
achieved through the earthing resistance.
• A relay is connected across the C.T. secondaries.
•  Under normal conditions, the alternator line currents add to zero.
• Hence the vector sum of the currents through the secondaries of
C.T. is also zero.
• Thus no currents flows through the relay and as neutral carries
zero current hence no current is supplied to relay from neutral
side. So relay is inoperative.
• By this scheme, the protection against earth faults is restricted to
the region between the neutral and the position where line current
transformers are installed
 Stator Protection Against Interturn Faults
• The Merz-Price protection system gives protection against phase
to phase faults and earth faults. It does not give protection against
interturn faults.
• The interturn fault is a short circuit between the turns of the same
phase winding.
• Thus the current produced due to such fault is a local circuit
current and it does not affect the currents entering and leaving the
winding at the two ends, where C.T.s are located.
• Hence Merz-Price protection can not give protection against
interturn faults.
• Such an interturn fault protection system is extremely sensitive
but it can be applied to the generators having doubly wound
armatures
Stator Protection Against Interturn Faults
 Rotor Earth Fault Protection
• The rotor circuit of the alternator is not earthed and d.c. voltage is
imposed on it.
• hence single ground fault in rotor does not cause circulating current to
flow through the rotor circuit.
• Hence single ground fault in rotor does not cause any damage to it.
• But single ground fault causes an increase in the stress to ground at other
points in the field winding when voltage are induced in the rotor due to
transients.
• Thus the probability of second ground fault increases part of the rotor
winding is bypassed and the currents in the remaining portion increases
abruptly.
• This cause the unbalance of rotor circuit and hence the mechanical and
thermal stresses on the rotor.
• Due to this, rotor may get damaged. Sometimes damage of bearings and
bending of rotor shaft take place due to the vibrations.
• Hence the rotor must be protected against earth fault.
Rotor Earth Fault Protection
 Negative Sequence Relays
• The negative relays are also called phase unbalance relays because
these relays provide protection against negative sequence component of
unbalanced currents existing due to unbalanced loads or phase-phase
faults.
• The unbalanced currents are dangerous from generators and motors
point of view as these currents can cause overheating.
• Negative sequence relays are generally used to give protection to
generators and motors against unbalanced current.
•  A negative sequence relay has a filter circuit which is operative only
for negative sequence components.
• Low order of over current also can cause dangerous situations hence a
negative sequence relay has low current settings.
• The earth relay provides protection for phase to earth fault but not for
phase to phase fault.
• A negative sequence relay provides protection against phase to phase
faults which are responsible to produce negative sequence components
Negative Sequence Relays