8.

0 MV generators grounding
Winding damages in rotating machines are not of serious concern. The repairs can
be done by local rewinding agency. However in case of damage to core, repairs can
not be carried out at site. The machine has to be sent back to manufacturer’s works
for repair resulting in prolonged loss of production.
The generators rated from 3.3 kV to 21 kV are grounded through either high
resistance or low resistance to limit the ground fault current. If ground fault current
magnitude is high, the core damage at the point of fault in generator will be high. To
limit the damage to the core, manufacturers allow only a limited ground fault current.
This information is usually provided in ‘core damage curves’ supplied by
manufacturer. A typical core damage curve is shown in Fig 13. For example, ground
fault current upto 25A is tolerated for 1 sec. This curve is used as a guide when
selecting NGR and setting stator earth fault relays in generator protection. The
various grounding methods have been dealt in detail in Ref [3].

Fig13 Generator - Core damage curve

9.0 High Resistance Grounding
In High Resistance Grounded system, the ground fault current (ΙF) is limited to about
10A to 15A. The value of resistor is selected such that, for a ground fault, current
through resistor is equal to total system capacitive current. The system capacitive
current is approximately 3 to 5A per phase.

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 Consider a 11 kV system. Let the ground fault current be limited to 10A. The value of
NGR is approximately given by:
⎛11000 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
RG ≅ ⎝ ⎠
3
10
= 635 Ω.
10.0 Neutral Grounding Transformer (NGT)
But a more economical solution is to connect the resistor across the NGT. The
scheme with NGT is shown in Fig 14.

Fig 14 Resistor connected to NGT

⎛11000 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
The voltage ratio of NGT is chosen as ⎝ 3⎠
.
240
⎛11000 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
Turns ratio of NGT, TR = ⎝ 3⎠
240
= 26.5
635
Value of resistor on the LV side R’G =
( 26.5 )
2

= 0.9 Ω.
The use of low resistance low voltage resistor results in economical design. A
voltage relay (Neutral Displacement Relay) is connected across the resistor to detect
ground faults.
Power balance:
Directly connected: 102 x 635
= 63.5 KW
Through NGT: ΙPRI = 10A;

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 ΙSEC = TR x 10
= 265 A
Power = 2652 x 0.9
≅ 63.5 KW
The required NGT rating is 63.5 KVA for (max) 30 sec rating. It is expected that no
fault will hang on the generator for more than 30 sec. The derating factor KD is about
6 [4]. The rating of NGT on a continuous basis will be about 63.5 / 6 = 10.6 KVA.
The specification of NGT : 1 phase, 10KVA, (11000/√3) V / 240V
The actual fault current will be marginally less than 10A as the following are ignored
in the calculation:
(i) Resistance of transformer secondary and connecting cable to resistor
(ii) Leakage reactance of transformer
11.0 Low Resistance Grounding
The ground fault current is limited to about 100A to 400A compared to 10A in high
resistance grounded system. On a 11kV system, with ground fault current limited to
400A, value of NGR is approximately given by:
⎛11000 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
RG ≅ ⎝ 3⎠
400
≅ 16 Ω.
The resistor is directly connected between neutral and ground (Fig 15). Current relay
in neutral circuit is possible as ground fault current is not too low.

Fig 15 Sensitivity of ground fault Protection

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12.0 Sensitivity of ground fault protection
For fault on terminal (Fig 15),
⎛11000 ⎞
⎜ ⎟
ΙF T
= ⎝ 3⎠
16
≅ 400 A
For fault at a distance ‘h’ from neutral,
ΙF = h ΙFT … (1)
For fault on terminal, h = 1
ΙF = 400 A
For fault on neutral, h = 0
ΙF = 0
Assume the relay is set for a minimum pick up of 10%.
Minimum fault current for relay pick up:
ΙF = 300 x 0.1
= 30 A
From Eqn (1):
30 = h x 400
h = 0.075 (7.5%)
For this relay setting, 7.5% of winding from neutral is not protected. If setting is
increased, zone of unprotected winding also increases correspondingly.
Compared to high resistance grounded system, the core damage at the faulted
location will be more. Typical REF scheme for alternator is shown in Fig 16.

Fig 16 REF Protection with CBCT

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