Modified Differential Protection of

Generators
The most common schemes employed for the protection
of a three-phase generator stator windings from earth
faults phase-to-phase faults make use of circulating
current principle.
 
In these protection schemes, currents at the two ends of
the protected section are compared. Under normal
conditions, these currents are equal became different on
the occurrence of a fault in the protected section. Due to
this difference of the currents in the faulty condition, 
the operating voltage appears across the relay operating
coil.
 
Then the relay closes its contacts, trips the circuit
breaker and thus isolates the protected section. Such
protective schemes are very effective for earth faults and
faults between phases. These protection schemes are as
follows:

• Generator differential protection

• Modified differential protection of generators
• Balanced earth fault protection
Now I shall describe these schemes one by one.
 
Generator Differential Protection
 
The schematic arrangement of this protection scheme
for three-phase generator is shown in Figure.

There are two sets of identical CTs, each set is

mounted on both sides of the stator phase windings.
The secondaries of these CT sets are connected in
star at one end and their other ends are connected
through pilot wires. The relay coils are connected to
the CTs and pilot wires as shown in Figure.
 
To provide equal burden on the all three CTs,
these are connected across equipotential points
of the pilot wires. It is obvious, the equipotential
points of the pilot wires would be located at the
centers of these wires and so the relays are placed
midway of the pilot wires.
 
However, it is always convenient to place the relays
adjacent to the CTs near the main circuit breaker.
This can be achieved by inserting balancing
resistances in series with the pilot wires to shift
equipotential points near to the main circuit breaker.
Usually the adjustable resistances are used for
adjusting the exact balance.

Generally, the electromagnetic type relays arranged

for instantaneous operation are used in this protection
scheme to clear the fault as quickly as possible.
 
Under normal operating conditions, the current at the
both ends of each winding will be equal, the induced
EMFs in the secondaries of CTs will be equal and
therefore no current will be flow through the operating
coils of the relays. When a phase-to-phase fault or an
earth fault occurs in the winding, this condition no
longer holds good and the current flows through the
operating coil and trips the circuit breaker.
 
Now suppose, there is an earth fault on the R phase.
The current in this phase winding will flow through the
core and frame of the generator to earth. The circuit 
is being completed through the neutral earthing
resistance. This will make the current flowing through
the primaries of the two CTs in the R phase unequal.
And the unequal EMFs will be induced across
secondaries of these two CTs, a resultant EMF will
appear across the corresponding relay coil. It will trip
the circuit breaker.
 
Limitations of Generator Differential Protection
 
To limit the earth fault current, the neutral point of a
generator is connected to the earth via a resistor,
reactor or transformer. Earthing by means of reactors
is very rare and earthing by a transformer is used only
in large machines. In such a case, it is not possible to
protect the stator winding from earth faults completely
by the above-mentioned methods.
 
When an earth fault take place near the neutral point,
very small EMF appears across relay operating coil
and very small relay current flows. Also, this current is
further decreased by the neutral resistance. Thus,
relay may not response to such faults. Actually, by
the application of differential protection scheme,
we can protect the only 80 to 85% of the stator
winding. The remaining 20 to 15% stator winding
is unprotected.
 
Modified Differential Protection of Generators
 
To overcome the limitations of differential protection
scheme, ‘”modified differential protection of
generators” scheme has been developed. The
schematic diagram of this system is shown in Figure.
In this scheme, two relays are used for phase fault
protection and the third relay is used for only earth
fault protection.
 
On the occurrence of a phase-to-phase fault, the
operating current only flows through phase fault relay
and earth fault relay remains intact in this situation.
The operating current flows through earth fault relay
at the time of earth fault only. Therefore, we can set
the earth fault relay to a very low value and can
protect a greater percentage of the stator winding.
 
Balanced Earth-Fault Protection
 
In small-size generators, the neutral ends of the stator
windings are often connected internally to a single
terminal. Therefore, it is not possible to use
“differential protection of generators” or “modified
differential protection of generators” schemes
described above because the neutral connection of
each phase winding is not accessible.
 
Under these circumstances, balanced earth-fault
protection scheme is applied. This scheme provides
only protection against earth faults. The phase-to-
phase faults cannot be sensed by this scheme
until they develop into earth-faults.
 
The schematic arrangement of a balanced earth-fault
protection for  3-phase generator is shown in Figure.
It consists of three line CTs, one on each phase, one
neutral CT and one relay. And the connections are
made according to Figure.
This scheme can protect the generator from the
earth fault in the region between the neutral CT
and the line CTs. Any earth fault external to this
region cannot be sensed by this scheme.
 
Under normal operating conditions, sum of the
induced EMFs in CT2 is equal to the induced EMF in
CT1. Therefore, no EMF appears across the relay and
it remains de-energized.
 
But when an earth fault occurs in the protected zone,
this balance is get destroyed. And as a result,
operating EMF appears across the relay to trip the
circuit breaker.
 
However, in case, when an earth fault develops
near the neutral terminal of the generator and
neutral is earthed via a resistance, too low EMF
appears across and the relay doesn’t operate. It is
a main limitation of this scheme.
 
Thanks for reading about “modified differential
protection of alternators and generators”.