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Part Two Of Series: Understanding AC Generators
By George Stratton
G.E. Jones Electric Co., Inc.
Amarillo, Texas
Technical Education Committee Member
Editor’s Note: George Stratton is a dedicated vol-
unteer with a unique writing style. He incorpo-
rates this style in the following article to make the
subject more understandable, especially for those
with a limited background in this area. While
some of the information is very basic, it is part of
his “big picture” approach to this subject. This is
the second in a three-part series about alternating
current generators.
***
All that I have gone over so far are the very
basics of AC power generation or the “where does
it come from” part. Now for the “this is how it re-
ally is” part.
In order to provide a useable AC power sup-
ply, all the variables of the generator must be
controlled. Those variables are frequency, volt-
age and current (amps). By the way, variables
are the things that change…either by accident or
on purpose. Current has not been discussed
much up until now but it is a very important
variable. Current is the actual work, let’s call it
load (that’s what us tekkies call it), we want
done. We can have volts and hertz and every-
thing is just swell but nothing is getting done
until the load is applied. The load is the great en-
emy of the generator.
Let’s look at frequency. As an example, here
in the U.S. we require 60 Hz. How fast we move
our field through the winding controls the fre-
quency. As long as the speed remains constant we
will maintain our 60 Hz, right? Okay, let’s turn on
a load. All of a sudden current comes into the pic-
ture. If we don’t change anything as far as the
prime mover goes, the load will slow the rate that
the field is passing though our winding and the
frequency, as well as voltage, drops. Well, we
can’t have that. Our appliances all require 60 Hz
so we must maintain the rotor speed. We must
control, or govern, the prime mover.
Governor - 1. A person who governs, espe-
cially: a. The chief executive of a state in the
United States. b. An official appointed to govern a
colony or territory. c. A member of a governing
body. 2. The manager or administrative head of an
organization, a business, or an institution. 3. A mili-
tary commandant. 4. Chiefly British. Used as a
October 2003
form of polite address
for a man. 5. A feedback
device on a machine or
an engine that is used to
provide automatic con-
trol, as of speed,
pressure, or temperature.
I always like to look
at definitions. Some-
times it’s pretty funny
and sometimes they
nail it. We can assume that the point of this defi-
nition is that a governor is a controller. Yes, just
as with politics, an AC generator without a gov-
ernor would allow our system to become
unstable. So a governor of some sort is required
to control the speed of the prime mover, or the
legislature in the case of politics. Only the prime
mover’s governor actually works.
Governor Depends On Prime Mover
Where is this governor and exactly what does it
do? It depends on the prime mover. If it’s a gas en-
gine, it controls the throttle just as you would an
automobile as you are cruising down the road. If
the speed limit is 70 mph (112 kph), your right foot
maintains the speed. So, I guess that, in this case,
your right foot is the governor! If the prime mover
is a diesel engine, the governor meters the amount
of fuel being fed to the fuel injectors. If the prime
mover is a steam turbine, the governor controls a
valve (or valves) that meters the amount of steam
pressure that hits the vanes of the turbine rotor. I
guess that you can call a governor a cruise control
because that’s virtually what it is.
Now let’s look at voltage. At the beginning of
this installment, I pointed out three things that can
affect the voltage of our AC generator. That mate-
rial now becomes very important. As with
frequency, when a load is applied to an AC gen-
erator the voltage will drop, even with a governor
to control the frequency. So, we must be able to
control the voltage level as well as govern the
speed. We can’t increase or decrease the turns in
our winding because the turns are a fixed con-
stant. It would be a little tricky throwing a few
more turns in there on the fly. We can’t increase or
decrease the speed of the rotating field because
we require a constant frequency. The only thing
left is to increase or decrease the force of the ro-
tating field. We can’t do that using a permanent
magnet for a field. So, what do we do? We must
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Part Two Of Series: Understanding AC Generators . . . Continued From Page 1
use electromagnets in order to increase and de-
crease the magnetic force of the field. Thus, we
are able to maintain the output voltage, as the
governor maintains the frequency, of our AC gen-
erator.
Another important definition is that of the
electromagnet. It is a magnet consisting essen-
tially of a coil of insulated wire wrapped around a
soft iron core that is magnetized only when elec-
tric current flows through the wire.
Our rotor consists of from two to many mul-
tiples of two electromagnets. These electro-
magnets are the poles of the rotating field that I
have been talking about. If you were really paying
attention when you were looking at Figures 1-8,
(Part One, in the September issue) you would
have noted that there is a North pole and adjacent
to it is a South pole. This is very necessary in or-
der to generate AC current. Where does the DC
required to power our rotating field come from
and how does it get there? The answer is the ex-
citer.
Excite - 1. To stir to activity. 2. To call forth
(a reaction or emotion, for example); elicit. 3. To
arouse strong feeling in. 4. Physiology. To pro-
duce increased activity or response in (an organ, a
tissue, or a part); stimulate. 5. Physics. a. To in-
crease the energy of. b. To raise (an atom, for
example) to a higher energy level.
Power Must Be Adjustable
From this definition we can gather that to ex-
cite is to stimulate. Well, we’re going to stimulate
our AC generator by generating some DC current
and applying it to our rotating field. The power
that the exciter generates must be adjustable and
be large enough to supply sufficient DC current to
the rotating field not only while the generator is
operating at normal loads but should have enough
reserve capacity to deal with changing load condi-
tions such as electric motors and such. How do
they do that without twisting up the wires that
feed DC current to the rotating field, anyway?
Following are a few ways.
The remote mounted DC exciter—Usu-
ally belt driven from the same shaft that turns the
rotating field. The DC that is generated is con-
nected to the rotating field through a set of
collector rings. This is probably the oldest way
of generating our excitation current. The prob-
lem with the DC generator is maintenance. One,
it’s belt driven. Belt tension and wear issues
plague us to death, especially in bad environ-
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ments like sand and gravel quarries and in the oil
field where dirt is a-plenty. Two, brushes, com-
mutators, and collector rings tend to wear very
quickly in these type environments. Also,
brushes tend to stick in their holders when the
generator is inactive for long periods of time es-
pecially in dusty environments. Another type of
remote mounted exciter would be the motor/gen-
erator (M/G) set. This is simply a DC generator
that is powered by an electric motor. About the
only place you would see this type of exciter is
in a power plant. See Figure 9.
The shaft mounted DC generator—The
exciter is mounted on the same shaft, and turns
the same speed, as the rotating fields. The DC ar-
mature rotates inside a stationary field. The
exciter output is connected to the rotating field,
as with the remote mounted unit, through collec-
tor rings. (It is essentially the same as the remote
generator as far as brushes and stuff.) There is
one plus, though. The belts and sheaves have
been eliminated. Another possible plus is that
slower operating speeds of this DC exciter would
probably extend its parts life somewhat, just as in
Figure 9. By the way, folks call collector rings
“slip rings,” too. That’s okay.
Alternator Rotating Field DC Armature
DC Field
A
DC Exciter
Rheostat
Collector Rings
Figure 9
The static exciter—Here the term “static”
means no moving parts. This can be a solid state
electronic assembly that is remote mounted (not
shaft mounted). These units require power that is
generated by the alternator as shown in Figure 10
(next page). The static exciter also serves double
duty as a voltage regulator. I’ll get into that later.
The DC current that it generates is fed to the ro-
tating field through a set of collector rings and
brushes; that’s another annoying maintenance is-
sue. However, we do eliminate the DC exciter’s
commutator and its brushes. Static exciters can
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Part Two Of Series: Understanding AC Generators . . . Continued From Page 2
be used to replace a remote mounted or a shaft
mounted DC generator after all of the smoke
contained therein has been used up (generator
has failed). Figure 10 is a representative drawing
of a static exciter.
Alternator Rotating Field Collector Rings
A Static Exciter
Figure 10
The shaft mounted brushless DC gen-
erator—This is the most modern of these
devices. What happens here is the rotor of the
brushless exciter is a three-phase AC winding that
turns inside a stationary DC field that is excited
with current provided by a static voltage regulator
(again, more about this later). The AC voltage that
is generated by the above mentioned three-phase
AC winding is rectified by a diode bridge rotating
along with the exciter rotor/rotating field assem-
bly and wired directly to the rotating field. There
are no belts, sheaves, brushes, commutators, or
collector rings to deal with. This works!
Rotating Exciter
3 Phase AC
Rotating Field Exciter Armature
Alternator
A
Regulator Power
and Sensing
Figure 11
Now for the voltage regulator. First of all, what
does a regulator do?
Regulator - 1. One that regulates, as: a. The
mechanism in a watch by which its speed is gov-
erned. b. A highly accurate clock used as a
standard for timing other clocks. c. A device
used to maintain uniform speed in a machine; a
governor. d. A device used to control the flow of
gases, liquids, or electric current. 2. One, such as
the member of a governmental regulatory
agency, that ensures compliance with laws, regu-
lations, and established rules.
October 2003
We just can’t seem to get away from that gov-
ernment thing, can we? But when we get right
down to it, the voltage regulator is just another
form of a governor. It governs, or regulates, our
AC voltage at the level that we desire.
Okay, we have all of the parts in place in or-
der to generate our AC current. As I mentioned
Voltage Adjusting
Potentiometer
before, our requirements for good AC power are
that our frequency and our voltage must be
stable. After all, it would be a bit difficult to read
this article if the lights were gyrating and flash-
Input Power and
Voltage Sensing ing. In Figure 9, the DC generator type exciter,
I drew in a rheostat to control the level of DC
that is required by our generator to maintain the
voltage. This is perfectly okay if the load is
fairly constant and little adjustment of the volt-
age is required.
Use Your Imagination
The best way that I know to explain how a
voltage regulator works is to ask you to imagine
that there is a very tiny little “fellow” inside that
regulator box. We provide a voltage to the regula-
tor and we tell the little guy to watch that voltage
on a tiny little voltmeter on a tiny little panel and
make sure that it stays where we say to keep it.
The little guy has his tiny little hand on a tiny
little rheostat on the tiny little panel. When a load
is applied to the generator the voltage will drop.
That’s a physical law; just accept it! The little fel-
low sees the voltmeter drop below what we told
DC Exciter Field
him so he cranks hard on the tiny little rheostat
trying to maintain the voltage. When the load is
Brushless Exciter
taken away the little guy backs off his tiny little
Electronic Static
Voltage Regulator
rheostat keeping the voltage where he was told to.
What does the little guy do? He is comparing
the output voltage with a reference (set point)
Voltage Adjusting that we select and reacts accordingly. That’s
Potentiometer
what the voltage regulator does. We supply a
voltage to the regulator for the purpose of sens-
ing and also to provide power for the output to
the exciter field. We supply a potentiometer for a
reference device in order to select the level of
voltage that is to be maintained. So, the regulator
compares the output voltage to the reference (set
point) and reacts accordingly. That’s how it
works, electronic or otherwise.
The voltage regulator performs exactly the
same function as that little fellow that’s watching
the voltmeter and making adjustments. If the AC
volts go down, it increases the voltage to the ex-
citer field. That, in turn, increases the voltage to
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Part Two Of Series: Understanding AC Generators . . . Continued From Page 3
the rotating field, which maintains our AC voltage
at the desired level. If the AC volts go up, it’s vice
versa. The regulator is just a lot better than he is at
this because reaction time is much quicker.
Besides that, who would want to sit and watch
a voltmeter all day? Wow, that’s just too much
trouble. Let’s do this automatically.
Voltage regulators have been around for quite
some time. Let’s look at some of the older units:
1. Vibrating Contact – This used a half wave
rectifier that supplied current to a solenoid
coil that caused a set of contacts to vibrate
together and apart. The time that the contact
was touching was when the field got its
power. When the contact opened it removed
the power from the field. If the AC voltage
dropped, the contacts would touch for longer
periods of time. When the AC voltage
increased, the opposite would take place.
This worked pretty well except for some
maintenance issues. The current, being DC,
caused one contact to wear faster than the
other contact. A polarity switch had to be
reversed occasionally for the contacts to wear
more evenly.
2. Carbon Pile – Just as the name implies, it is
a pile of carbon disks that were squeezed
together for less resistance and loosened for
more resistance. This required a servo of sorts
and springs along with a considerable amount
of room. It worked well, though!
3. Rocking Contact – This was a neat gadget.
It was a servo of sorts that operated a curved
device, similar to a rocker of a rocking chair,
that in turn operated several contacts that were
hooked up to a gang of resistors. The more
contacts that were closed, the less resistance
and therefore the more excitation. The less
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contacts that were closed, vice versa.
4. The Saturable Reactor – The exciter field is
powered by rectified voltage (usually 120
volts) that is supplied by the generator. Two of
the load leads are wound through the saturable
reactor that in turn creates a secondary voltage
that is placed across the AC input of the same
rectifier. The more load, the higher the voltage
to the field rectifier. If everything is set up
correctly the voltage is regulated. I don’t
know what anyone else calls it but I call it
summing. The sum of the voltage from the
reactor plus the nominal excitation voltage
provided by the generator itself equals a
voltage regulator. It works pretty well!
Except for the saturable reactor, we see very
few of the above mentioned regulators. What we
do see a lot of, these days, is the electronic volt-
age regulator. In Figures 10 and 11 you can see
some examples of the application of the electronic
voltage regulator.
Okay, let’s review the stuff that makes the AC
generator tick.
1. The prime mover’s job is to turn at a constant
speed requiring…
2. A governor that controls the RPM of…
3. The rotor shaft assembly that turns the
exciter, except in the case of a static exciter,
both of which supply DC current to…
4. The rotating field that provides the moving
magnetic poles that pass through the coils of
wire (the AC winding) causing AC current to
flow…
5. Resulting in voltage that must be constant so a
voltage regulator must be used.
In Part III next month, we will learn about
troubleshooting AC generators.