GENERATOR AND

GENERATOR-TRANSFORMER PROTECTION

4. OTHER GENERATOR FAULTS

4.1. OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION

• Over-voltages on a generator may occur due to

i. transient surges on the network, or
ii. prolonged power frequency over-voltages arising from a variety of conditions.

• Surge arrestors may be required to protect against transient over-voltages.

• Relay protection may be used to protect against power frequency over-voltages.
• A sustained over-voltage condition should not occur for a machine with a healthy
voltage regulator.

Possible causes of sustained over-voltages:

i. defective operation of the automatic voltage regulator when the machine is in isolated
operation.

ii. 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.

iii. 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.
• For these reasons, it is prudent to provide power frequency over-voltage protection,
in the form of a time-delayed element, 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.
1
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.

4.2. LOW FORWARD POWER/REVERSE POWER PROTECTION

Low forward power or reverse power protection may be required for some generators to
protect the prime mover. Parts of the prime mover may not be designed to experience
reverse torque or they may become damaged through continued rotation after the prime
mover has suffered some form of failure.

4.2.1. Low 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 high-
impedance earthed generator, or when a normal shutdown of a set is taking place. This is
to minimise 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(s) 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.

4.2.2. REVERSE POWER PROTECTION

Reverse power protection is applied to prevent damage to mechanical plant items in the
event of failure of the prime mover.

Table 4.2.1 gives details of the potential problems for various prime mover types and the
typical settings for reverse power protection.

For applications where a protection sensitivity of better than 3% is required, a metering

class CT should be employed to avoid incorrect protection behaviour due to CT phase
angle errors when the generator supplies a significant level of reactive power at close to
zero power factor.

The reverse power protection should be provided with a definite time delay on operation to
prevent spurious operation with transient power swings that may arise following
synchronisation or in the event of a power transmission system disturbance.

2
 Table 4.2.1. Generator reverse power problems.

4.3. UNBALANCED LOADING

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 component
produces no main armature reaction.

4.3.1. 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. So severe is this effect that a single-phase
load equal to the normal three-phase rated current can quickly heat the rotor slot wedges to
the softening point. They may then be extruded under centrifugal force until they stand
above the rotor surface, when it is possible that they may strike the stator core.

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 withstand 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:

2
I 2R tK Figure 4.3.1. Typical negative phase sequence current
where: withstand of cylindrical rotor generators.
I2R = negative sequence
component (per unit of MCR)
t = time (seconds)
3
K = constant proportional to the
thermal capacity of the generator
rotor

For heating over a period of more

than a few seconds, it is necessary
to allow for the heat dissipated.
From a combination of the
continuous and short time ratings,
the overall heating characteristic
can be deduced to be:

I2 1
M   I 22R
I2R 
1 e K

where:
I2R = negative sequence
component (per unit of MCR)

The heating characteristics of

various designs of generator are
shown in Figure 4.1.

4.3.2. Negative Phase Sequence Protection

This protection is applied to prevent over-heating due to negative-sequence currents. Small

salient-pole generators have a proportionately larger negative sequence capacity and may
not require protection. Modern numerical relays derive the negative-sequence current level
by calculation, with no need for special circuits to extract the negative-sequence
component. A true thermal replica approach is often followed, to allow for:

i. standing levels of negative-sequence current below the continuous withstand capability.

This has the effect of shortening the time to reach the critical temperature after an increase
in negative sequence current above the continuous withstand capability.

ii. cooling effects when negative-sequence current levels are below the continuous
withstand capability.

The advantage of this approach is that cooling effects are modelled more accurately, but the
disadvantage is that the tripping characteristic may not follow the withstand characteristic
specified by the manufacturer accurately.

The typical relay element characteristic takes the form of

4
 K   I 2 
t log e 1   2 set   ... eqn. 4.1.
I 22set   I 2  
where:
2
 I flc   I flc 
t = time to trip; K = K g    ; I 2set  I 2 cmr   I
 Ip   I p  n
   
K g = negative-sequence withstand coefficient; I 2cmr  generator maximum continuous I 2 withstand;
Iflc  generator rated primary current; I P = CT primary current; I n = relay rated current.

Figure 4.3.1 also shows the thermal replica time characteristic described by Equation 4.1,
from which it will be seen that a significant gain in capability is achieved at low levels of
negative-sequence current.

Such a protection element will also respond to phase-earth and phase-phase faults where
sufficient negative-sequence current arises. Grading with down-stream power system
protection relays is therefore required.

A definite minimum time setting must be applied to the negative-sequence relay element to
ensure correct grading.

A maximum trip time setting may also be used to ensure correct tripping when the negative-
sequence current level is only slightly in excess of the continuous withstand capability and
hence the trip time from the thermal model may depart significantly from the rotor withstand
limits.

4.4. PROTECTION AGAINST INADVERTENT ENERGISATION

Accidental energisation of a generator when it is not running may cause severe damage to
it.

With the generator at standstill, closing the circuit-breaker results in the generator acting as
an induction motor; the field winding (if closed) and the rotor solid iron/damper circuits
acting as rotor circuits. Very high currents are induced in these rotor components, and also
occur in the stator, with resultant rapid overheating and damage.

Protection against this condition is therefore desirable. A combination of stator under-

voltage and over-current can be used to detect this condition. An instantaneous over-current
element is used, and gated with a three-phase under-voltage element (fed from a VT on the
generator side of the circuit-breaker) to provide the protection.

The over-current element can have a low setting, as operation is blocked when the
generator is operating normally. The voltage setting should be low enough to ensure that
operation cannot occur for transient faults. A setting of about 50% of rated voltage is typical.
VT failure can cause mal-operation of the protection, so the element should be inhibited
under these conditions.

5
4.5. UNDER-FREQUENCY/OVER-FREQUENCY/OVER-FLUXING PROTECTION

These conditions are grouped together because these problems often occur due to a
departure from synchronous speed.

4.5.1. Over-fluxing

Over-fluxing occurs when the ratio of voltage to frequency is too high. The iron saturates
owing to the high flux density and results in stray flux occurring in components not designed
to carry it.

Over-heating can then occur, resulting in damage. The problem affects both direct-and
indirectly-connected generators. Either excessive voltage, or low frequency, or a
combination of both can result in over-fluxing, a voltage-to-frequency ratio in excess of 1.05
p.u. normally being indicative of this condition.

Excessive flux can arise transiently, which is not a problem for the generator. For example,
a generator can be subjected to a transiently high power frequency voltage, at nominal
frequency, immediately after full-load rejection. Since the condition would not be sustained,
it only presents a problem for the stability of the transformer differential protection schemes
applied at the power station.

Sustained over-fluxing can arise during run up, if excitation is applied too early with the AVR
in service, or if the generator is run down, with the excitation still applied. Other over-fluxing
instances have occurred from loss of the AVR voltage feed-back signal, due to a reference
VT problem. Such sustained conditions must be detected by a dedicated over-fluxing
protection function that will raise an alarm and possibly force an immediate reduction in
excitation.

Most AVRs’ have an over-fluxing protection facility included. This may only be operative
when the generator is on open circuit, and hence fail to detect over-fluxing conditions due to
abnormally low system frequency. However, this facility is not engineered to protection relay
standards, and should not be solely relied upon to provide over-fluxing protection.

A separate relay element is therefore desirable and provided in most modern relays. It is
usual to provide a definite time-delayed alarm setting and an instantaneous or inverse
time-delayed trip setting, to match the withstand characteristics of the protected generator
and transformer.
It is very important that the VT reference for over-fluxing protection is not the same as that
used for the AVR.

4.5.2. Under-frequency/Over-frequency

The governor fitted to the prime mover normally provides protection against over-frequency.

Under-frequency may occur as a result of over-load 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.
6
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 a cumulative life time duration of operation in such
frequency bands. This typically occurs due to the presence of rotor torsional frequencies in
such frequency bands. In such cases, monitoring of the period of time spent in these
frequency bands is required. A special relay is fitted in such cases, arranged to provide
alarm and trip facilities if either an individual or cumulative period exceeds a set time.

4.6. ROTOR FAULTS

The field circuit of a generator, comprising the field winding of the generator and the
armature of the exciter, together with any associated field circuit breaker if it exists, is
an isolated d.c. circuit which is not normally earthed. If an earth fault occurs, there will be no
steady-state fault current and the need for action will not be evident.

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 4..6.1. The attracting force at the surface of the rotor is given by:
B2 A
F where: A = area and B = flux density.
8

It will be seen from Figure 4.6.1 that the flux

is concentrated on one pole but widely
dispersed over the other and intervening
surfaces.

The attracting force is in consequence large

on one pole but very weak on the opposite
one, while flux on the quadrature axis will
produce a balancing force on this axis.

The result is an unbalanced force that in a large

machine may be of the order of 50-100 tons. A
violent vibration is set up that may damage
bearing surfaces or even displace the rotor by an
amount sufficient to cause it to foul the stator.
Figure 4.6.1. Flux distribution on rotor with
partial winding short circuit

4.6.1. Rotor Earth-Fault Protection

7
Two methods are available to detect this type of fault. The first method is suitable for
generators that incorporate brushes in the main generator field winding. The second method
requires at least a slip-ring connection to the field circuit:

i. potentiometer method
ii. a.c. injection method

4.6.1.1. Potentiometer method

This is a scheme that was fitted to

older generators, and it is illustrated
in Figure 4.6.2.

An earth fault on the field winding

would produce a voltage across the
relay, the maximum voltage
occurring for faults at the ends of
the winding. Figure 4.6.2. Earth fault protection of field circuit by
potentiometer method

A ‘blind spot' would exist at the centre of the field winding. To avoid a fault at this location
remaining undetected, the tapping point on the potentiometer could be varied by a
pushbutton or switch.

The relay setting is typically about 5% of the exciter voltage.

4.6.1.2. Injection methods

Two methods are in common use. The first is based on low frequency signal injection, with
series filtering, as shown in Figure 4.6.3(a).

It comprises an injection source that is connected between earth and one side of the field
circuit, through capacitive coupling and the measurement circuit. The field circuit is
subjected to an alternating potential at substantially the same level throughout. An earth
fault anywhere in the field system will give rise to a current that is detected as an equivalent
voltage across the adjustable resistor by the relay. The capacitive coupling blocks the
normal d.c. field voltage, preventing the discharge of a large direct current through the
protection scheme. The combination of series capacitor and reactor forms a low-pass tuned
circuit, the intention being to filter higher frequency rotor currents that may occur for a
variety of reasons.

Other schemes are based on power frequency signal injection. An impedance relay element
is used, a field winding earth fault reducing the impedance seen by the relay. These suffer
the draw back of being susceptible to static excitation system harmonic currents when there
is significant field winding and excitation system shunt capacitance. Greater immunity for
such systems is offered by capacitively coupling the protection scheme to both ends of the
field winding, where brush or slip ring access is possible (Figure 4.4.(b)). The low–frequency
injection scheme is also advantageous in that the current flow through the field winding
shunt capacitance will be lower than for a power frequency scheme. Such current would
flow through the machine bearings to cause erosion of the bearing surface. For power
8
frequency schemes, a solution is to insulate the bearings and provide an earthing brush for
the shaft.

Figure 4.6.3. Earth fault protection of field circuit by a.c. injection.

4.6.2. Rotor Earth Fault Protection for Brushless Generators

A brushless generator has an excitation system consisting of:

i. a main exciter with rotating armature and stationary field windings

ii. a rotating rectifier assembly, carried on the main shaft line out
iii. a controlled rectifier producing the d.c. field voltage for the main exciter field from an a.c.
source (often a small ‘pilot’ exciter)

Hence, no brushes are required in the generator field circuit. All control is carried out in the
field circuit of the main exciter. Detection of a rotor circuit earth fault is still necessary, but
this must be based on a dedicated rotor-mounted system that has a telemetry link to provide
an alarm/data.

4.6.2. Field Suppression

It is necessary to rapidly suppress the field of a machine in which a fault has developed
because as long as the excitation is maintained, the machine will feed its own fault even
though isolated from the power system. Any delay in the decay of rotor flux will extend the
fault damage.

The field winding current cannot be interrupted instantaneously as it flows in a highly

inductive circuit. Consequently, the flux energy must be dissipated to prevent an excessive
inductive voltage rise in the field circuit.

For machines of moderate size, it is satisfactory to open the field circuit with an air-break
circuit breaker without arc blow-out coils. Such a breaker permits only a moderate arc
voltage, which is nevertheless high enough to suppress the field current fairly rapidly. The
inductive energy is dissipated partly in the arc and partly in eddy-currents in the rotor core
and damper windings.

With generators above about 5MVA rating, it is better to provide a more definite means of
absorbing the energy without incurring damage. Connecting a ‘field discharge resistor’ in
parallel with the rotor winding before opening the field circuit breaker will achieve this
9
objective. The resistor, which may have a resistance value of approximately five times the
rotor winding resistance, is connected by an auxiliary contact on the field circuit breaker.
The breaker duty is thereby reduced to that of opening a circuit with a low L/R ratio. After
the breaker has opened the field current flows through the discharge resistance and dies
down harmlessly. The use of a fairly high value of discharge resistance reduces the field
time constant to an acceptably low value, though it may still be more than one second.

Alternatively, generators fitted with static excitation systems may temporarily invert the
applied field voltage to reduce excitation current rapidly to zero before the excitation system
is tripped.

4.7. LOSS OF EXCITATION PROTECTION

When a synchronous generator loses excitation, it operates as an induction generator, running above
synchronous speed. Round-rotor generators are not suited to such operation because they do not have
amortisseur (damper) windings that can carry the induced rotor currents. Consequently, a steam-turbine-
generator’s rotor will overheat rather quickly from the induced currents flowing in the rotor iron, particularly
at the ends of the rotor where the currents flow across the slots through the wedges and the retaining ring, if
used. The length of time to reach dangerous rotor overheating depends on the rate of slip, and it may be as
short as 2 or 3 minutes.

Salient-pole generators invariably have amortisseur windings, and, therefore, they are not subject to such
overheating. The stator of any type of synchronous generator may overheat, owing to over-current in the stator
windings, while the machine is running as an induction generator. The stator current may be as high as 2 to 4
times rated, depending on the slip. Such overheating is not apt to occur as quickly as rotor overheating.

Some systems cannot tolerate the continued operation of a generator without excitation. In fact, if the
generator is not disconnected immediately when it loses excitation, widespread instability may very quickly
develop, and a major system shutdown may occur. Such systems are those in which quick-acting automatic
generator voltage regulators are not employed.

When a generator loses excitation, it draws reactive power from the system, amounting to as much as 2 to 4
times the generator’s rated load. Before it lost excitation, the generator may have been delivering reactive
power to the system. Thus, this large reactive load suddenly thrown on the system, together with the loss of the
generator’s reactive-power output, may cause widespread voltage reduction, which, in turn, may cause
extensive instability unless the other generators can automatically pick up the additional reactive load
immediately. In a system in which severe disturbances can follow loss of excitation in a given generator,
automatic quick-acting protective-relaying equipment should be provided to trip the generator’s main and field
breakers.

An operator does not have sufficient time to act under such circumstances. Where system disturbances
definitely will not follow loss of excitation, an operator will usually have at least 2 or 3 minutes in which to act
in lieu of automatic tripping. Sometimes an emergency excitation source and manual throw-over are provided
that may make it unnecessary to remove a generator from service. However, an operator can usually do
nothing except remove the generator from service, unless the operator himself has accidentally removed
excitation.

If a loss-of-excitation condition should not be recognised and a generator should run without excitation for an
unknown length of time, it ought to be shut down and carefully examined for damage before returning it to
service. In systems in which severe disturbances may or may not follow loss of excitation in a given generator,
the generator must sometimes be tripped when the system does not require it, merely to be sure that the
generator will always be tripped when the system does require it.

10
Undercurrent relays connected in the field circuit have been used quite extensively, but the most selective type
of lose-of-excitation relay is a directional-distance type operating from the a-c current and voltage at the main
generator terminals. Figure 4.7.1 shows several loss-of-excitation characteristics and the operating
characteristic of one type of loss-of excitation relay on an R-X diagram.

No matter what the initial

conditions are, when excitation is
lost, the equivalent generator
impedance traces a path from the
first quadrant into a region of the
fourth quadrant that is entered only
when excitation is severely
reduced or lost.

By encompassing this region

within the relay characteristic, the
relay will operate when the
generator first starts to slip poles
and will trip the field breaker and
disconnect the generator from the
system before either the generator
or the system can be harmed. The
generator may then be returned to
service immediately when the
cause of excitation failure is
corrected. Figure 4.7.1. Loss-of-excitation relay and system
characteristics.

4.8. STATOR OVERHEATING

Over-heating of the stator may result from:

i. over-load
ii. failure of the cooling system
iii. over-fluxing
iv. core faults

Accidental over-loading might occur through the combination of full active load current
component, governed by the prime mover output and an abnormally high reactive current
component, governed by the level of rotor excitation and/or step-up transformer tap.

The practice is to embed resistance temperature-detector coils or thermocouples in the

slots with the stator windings of generators larger than about 500 to 1500 kVA. Enough of
these detectors are located at different places in the windings so that an indication can be
obtained of the temperature conditions throughout the stator.

Several of the detectors that give the highest temperature indication are selected for use
with a temperature indicator or recorder, usually having alarm contacts; or the detector
giving the highest indication may be arranged to operate a temperature relay to sound an
alarm.
Supplementary
temperature devices may Figure 4.8.1. Stator overheating relaying with resistance
monitor the cooling temperature detectors.

11
system; such equipment
would give the earliest
alarm in the event of
cooling-system failure,
but it is generally felt that
the stator temperature
detectors and alarm
devices are sufficient.

Figure 4.8.1 shows one

form of detector-operated
relaying equipment using
a Wheatstone-bridge
circuit and a directional
relay. In another form of
equipment, the stator
current is used to
energize the bridge.

Replica-type temperature relays may be used with small generators that do not have
temperature detectors. Such a relay is energized either directly by the current flowing in one
of the stator windings of the machine or indirectly from current transformers in the stator
circuit. The relay is arranged with heating and heat-storage elements so as to heat up and
cool down as nearly as possible at the same rate as the machine in response to the same
variations in the current. A thermostatic element closes contacts at a selected temperature.
It will be evident that such a relay will not operate for failure of the cooling system.

The temperature-detector-operated devices are preferred because they respond more

nearly to the actual temperature of the stator.

In unattended stations, temperature relays are arranged to reduce the load or shut down
the unit if it overheats, but in an attended station the relay, if used, merely sounds an
alarm.

4.10. MECHANICAL FAULTS

Various faults may occur on the mechanical side of a generating set. The following sections
detail the more important ones from an electrical point of view.

4.10.1. Failure of the Prime Mover

When a generator operating in parallel with others loses its power input, it remains in
synchronism with the system and continues to run as a synchronous motor, drawing
sufficient power to drive the prime mover. This condition may not appear to be dangerous
and in some circumstances will not be so. However, there is a danger of further damage
being caused. Table 4.2.1 lists some typical problems that may occur. Protection is provided
by a low forward power/reverse power relay, as detailed in Section 4.2.

4.10.2. Over-speed

12
The speed of a turbo-generator set rises when the steam input is in excess of that required
to drive the load at nominal frequency. The speed governor can normally control the speed,
and, in any case, a set running in parallel with others in an interconnected system cannot
accelerate much independently even if synchronism is lost.

However, if load is suddenly lost when the HV circuit breaker is tripped, the set will begin to
accelerate rapidly. The speed governor is designed to prevent a dangerous speed rise even
with a 100% load rejection, but nevertheless an additional centrifugal over-speed trip device
is provided to initiate an emergency mechanical shutdown if the over-speed exceeds 10%.

To minimise over-speed on load rejection and hence the mechanical stresses on the rotor,
the following sequence is used whenever electrical tripping is not urgently required:

i. trip prime mover or gradually reduce power input to zero

ii. allow generated power to decay towards zero
iii. trip generator circuit breaker only when generated power is close to zero or when the
power flow starts to reverse, to drive the idle turbine

5. COMPLETE GENERATOR PROTECTION SCHEMES

From the preceding sections, it is obvious that the protection scheme for a generator has to
take account of many possible faults and plant design variations. Determination of the types
of protection used for a particular generator will depend on the nature of the plant and upon
economic considerations, which in turn is affected by set size.

Fortunately, modern, multifunction, numerical relays are sufficiently versatile to include all of
the commonly required protection functions in a single package, thus simplifying the
decisions to be made.

The following two sections provide illustrations of typical protection schemes for generators
connected to a grid network, but not all possibilities are illustrated, due to the wide variation
in generator sizes and types.

5.1. Direct-Connected Generator

A typical protection scheme for a direct-connected generator is shown in Figure 5.1. It

comprises the following protection functions:

1. Stator differential protection

2. Over-current protection – conventional or voltage dependent
3. Stator earth fault protection
4. Over-voltage protection
5. Under-voltage protection
6. Over-load/low forward power/ reverse power protection (according to prime mover type)
7. Unbalanced loading
8. Overheating
9. Pole slipping
10. Loss of excitation
11. Under-frequency
12. Inadvertent energisation
13
13. Over-fluxing
14. Mechanical faults

Figure 5.1 illustrates which trips require an instantaneous electrical trip and which can be
time delayed until electrical power has been reduced to a low value. The faults that require
tripping of the prime mover as well as the generator circuit breaker are also shown.

Figure 5.1. Typical protection arrangement for a direct-connected generator

5.2. Generator-Transformer Units

These units are generally of higher output than direct-connected generators, and hence
more comprehensive protection is warranted. In addition, the generator transformer also
requires protection. Overall biased generator/generator transformer differential protection is
commonly applied in addition, or instead of, differential protection for the transformer alone.
A single protection relay may incorporate all of the required functions, or the protection of
the transformer (including overall generator/generator transformer differential protection)
may utilise a separate relay. Figure 5.2 shows a typical overall scheme.

14
Figure 5.2: Typical tripping arrangements for generator-transformer unit

15