MARK M KIIGROUNDF FAULT CTIF TRE FICAT TION

Introduction Fuji Fertilizer Company Limited has two Ur plants nea Sadiqabad, d rea ar ctRahimYarK
KhanPakistan. Electrical power sourcetot this Ammonia Distric Urea complex,aret twoGasTurbin
nesTG701& TG702,servin ngrelentlessly as a b backbone of th plants for t past 30 ye he the ears.
MARKII i installed on is TG70 TG701 tur 01. rbine has had Speedtronic and 125VDC power supply
groun faults since 2003. These ground fault caused man mysterious nd e e ts ny outag gesontheturb
bine.Historyda ataanalysisrev vealsatleasto onetrippingor emerg gency shutdow each year that can
be attributed to these ground wn faults. Attempts for the detection and rectifica r n ation of these
ground faults eral turnaroun with no s nds success. This year in plant were made in seve 09,thislongaw
waitedtargetw wasaccomplish hed. turnaroundOct200 papergivesab briefoverview ofthesequen
nceofthejobs conductedto Thisp find b both the groun faults one by one. It gives an insight t the hidden
nd to proble ems that engi ineers came a across while dealing with M MarkII control system of General
Electric, insta m alled on the G Turbine. It also unveils Gas some ingenious ideas that help ped us to
tac ckle with the grounding
lem. probl
BackgroundTG701 MARKII control system has three possible sources of ground faults namely
Speedtronic Ground Fault, 125VDC Ground Fault and Thermocouple Ground Fault. The Speedtronic
Ground Fault and 125VDC Ground Fault were hampering the turbines smooth operation and
functioning for the past seven years. The latest tripping of TG701 occurred in September just one
month before the turnaround 2009 as a direct effect of 125VDCGroundFault. Ground faults are
extremely dangerous to any typeofelectricalorelectronicssystems.Besides
outagestheycancausesparkinganddamageto hardware. Groundfaultsareannunciatedwhenoneofthe
two poles, positive or negative, is grounded. The fault should be addressed in first opportunity as
grounding of second pole will resultinsparkingandtrippingofthemachine. Based on above, the overhaul
of Speedtronic MARKII System and rectification of both groundfaultswereplannedintheTA2009.
Oncethegroundfaultwasremovedthevoltage shiftswerenormalized.
SNO1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
SUPPLY TERMINALP28 P28,PCOM
REGULATOR VDC28.03
SGDD VDC28
P28,GND PCOM,GNDP12 P12,ACOM
23.68 4.311.99
23.6 4.5411.9
P12,GND ACOM,GNDN12 N12,ACOM
7.52 4.3912.04
7.5 4.4611.99
N12,GND ACOM,GNDP5 P5,DCOM
16.3 4.65.08
16.15 4.34.92
P5,GND DCOM,GND
0.53 4.56
0.62 4.44
Table:1SpeedtronicVoltageLevelswithGroundFault
Ground fault indication was consistently persisting on the Firstout Panel before
turnaround.Itwasduetotheactuationofboth, Speedtronic SGDD card and the 64D relay for
125VDCgroundfaultdetectors. Ground fault rectification activity started with
completeoverhaulingandcleaningofMARKII control system. Following modules were
dismantledandcleaned: SpeedtronicPage:Speedtronicpageor1Lpage contains control and logic cards
of the system, 126 in number. All cards were taken out checked,cleanedandinsertedback.
SystemMaintenance
Preliminary numeric and photographic sample dataofMARKIIcontrolsystemwascollectedat
differentphasesofTG701shutdown.Thedata was later used for ground fault analysis and
comparativestudy,oncethefaultwasremoved. This data helped us in determining the Speedtronic
ground fault as permanent fault and the 125VDC as intermittent fault. Thermocouple ground fault was
ruled out because the thermocouple ground fault detectorcardSGDEwasnotonalarm. The Speedtronic
voltage levels under fault conditionareshowninthetablebelow.Aclear
abnormalshiftof4.5VDCinallpowersupplies andCOMswithrespecttogroundishighlighted.
Fig1:SpeedtronicPageCards
Ontherearsideofthispagethousandsofwires areconnected.Alltheseconnectingwireswere
checkedandcleaned.
Fig2:SpeedtronicPageRearView Fig4:BulkPowerSupplyModule
FinalRegulatorModule:Allpowersupplycards (+28VDC,+12VDC,12VDC,+5VDC,BusMonitor card) of
Final Regulator were taken to instrument shop, checked and overhauled. The
supplyconnectionsatthebackofregulatorrack were cleaned and lugs were changed where required.
Black Start Inverter: Black Start Inverter was dismantledfromthecontrolpanelandtakento
electricalshopformaintenanceandcheckingof agingcomponents.
Fig3:BlackStartInverterInstallation
Fig5:FinalRegulatorSupplyCards
Power Supply Module: Bulk power supply module was overhauled in electrical shop. Its power
switching cards EPSU and EPSV were found in bad condition covered with carbon dust. These cards
were cleaned, checked and reinstalled. One capacitor was replaced as it wasshowingzeromicrofarads.
Source Selector Module: Source selector was removed from the cabinet, overhauled in the
shopandreinstalled.
All cards and relays on this panel were also checkedcleanedthoroughly.
Fig6:SourceSelector
Speedtronic Relay Page:All70relaysonrelay page were taken out, cleaned and checked for contact &
coil resistance. Relays with higher contact resistance were replaced. Cable
connectionsatthebackofRelaypagewerealso cleaned. Mechanical actuation of relays was
alsochecked.
Fig8:RemoteAnnunciatorModule
Remote Annunciator Panel: MarkII UCR panel was also cleaned and checked for any faulty
instruments. Fused bulbs and lamp holders werereplaced. All above modules were extremely dirty
and had carbon dust deposition. They were removed from their location for the first time
andwereattendedinworkshop. Overhauling of 10 local annunciator cards and 17 receptacle cards was
done at site. Terminal strips HCTB, LCTB, and RTB were also cleaned. Twelve Input Isolator cards
were overhauled. Onecardwasalsoreplacedafterwards. All fused bulb and lamp holder of local and
remotepanelswerealsochanged. Once the maintenance was completed system
wasreinstalled,integratedandpoweredup.
MARKIICalibrationFig7:RelayPageandRemoteAnnunciator
RemoteAnnunciatorModule:TheModulewas taken to the instrument shop for overhauling.
Calibration of different controls and protection loopswasperformed.Checking&calibrationof power
supply, Speed control loop, acceleration control loop, temperature control loop, PCD bias adjustment,
overtemperature, speed protectionandstartupcontrolwasperformed.
therewasnogroundingonanyofthe125cards pulledoutof1Lpage.
Inthenextstepallpowersupplycables28VDC, +12VDC, 12VDC, 5VDC, PCOM, ACOM and DCOM were
disconnected on 1L page. These are130powersupplycablesdisconnectedfrom
theverticalandhorizontalbusesof1Lpage. Disconnectionsequenceofpowersupplycables was from
horizontal bus one by one from bottomtotop. Fig9:SpeedtronicCalibrationSetup
SpeedtronicGroundFaultSpeedtronic ground fault was persisting on
SGDDgrounddetectorcardandonthefirstout panel. It was necessary to isolate wiring and hardware step
by step while observing the statusofgroundfaultindication. All 126 cards on Speedtronic 1L page were
pulled out one by one. Each card has 51 pins. Ground fault indication kept persisting till the
lastcardwaspulledout.
There was a problem in disconnecting power supply of the first row of 1L page. This action would have
disconnected the SGDD card from power supply whereas its ground fault indication was important to
us in troubleshooting. A technique was adopted to overcome this problem. SGDD card was powered
up outside the 1L page. External biasing was provided to the card through the wires directly from Main
BusBar.Thisstephelpedusalotincatchingthe ground fault. 1L page was then completely disconnected
from Main Bus Bar. Yet ground faultIndicationpersisted,rulingouttheground faultin1Lpage.
Fig10:1LPageCards Fig11:SGDDCardWired&PoweredUpOutsideits Slot
IntheendonlySGDDgrounddetectorcardwas leftonthe1Lpageandgroundfaultindication was there on
the card. This confirmed that
Once the card was functioning all the power distributioncablesofregulatedsupplies28VDC, 12VDC,
12VDC, 5VDC, PCOM, ACOM, DCOM
were disconnected one by one from the main busbar.
traced and it led us to the fuel gas pressure transmitter96FG. To conclude the grounded part, 96FG
was disconnected from the area JB while 12VDC still connected to main bus bar. SGDD card indication
remained reset. The situation was verifiedseveraltimes.
Fig12:MainBusBarsof28VDC,+12,12,+5&COM
In the above step REMAN module, Local annunciator module, thermocouple processing module and
synchronizer module were disconnected.SGDDgroundfaultindicationstill
persisted.Atotalof235cableswereremoved while isolating all above modules from Main
BusandtheirrespectiveTerminalBlocks.
Fig14:SGDDCardIndicationReset
Voltage level of complete system was rechecked for analysis. Voltage shift in all regulated supplies
and COMs normalized as highlighted in the table. No effective voltage
betweensupply,COMandgroundwasfound.It wasconcludedthatSpeedtronicgroundfaultis removed
from MARKII system. Complete system was reassembled. All cables/modules
wereconnectedonebyonetodetectanyother possible cause of Speedtronic ground fault.
Finally1Lpagewasreconnectedtothebusbar. SNO1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
SUPPLY TERMINALP28 P28,PCOM P28,GND
REGULATOR VDC28.03 28.08
SGDD VDC28 28.1
PCOM,GNDP12 P12,ACOM P12,GND
.7211.99 11.86
.7211.9 11.83
ACOM,GNDN12 N12,ACOM N12,GND
.7312.04 12.3
.7311.99 12.15
ACOM,GNDP5 P5,DCOM P5,GND
.765.08 4.9
.735.02 4.89
Fig13:ThermocoupleModule&Annunciator
10 11 12
DCOM,GND
.75
.71
After disconnecting about 50 more cables we found the suspected cable on 12VDC distributio