Protection of alternators

Rotor Faults

 The conductor to earth faults and

 Short circuit between the turns of the field winding

Causes: These faults are caused due to the severe mechanical and thermal
stresses, acting on the field insulation.

Explanation: A field winding is generally not grounded and hence single line to
ground fault does not cause circulating current to flow through the rotor
circuit. Hence, single ground fault in rotor does not cause any damage to it. But
this fault causes an increase in the stress to ground at other points in the field
winding when voltages are induced in the rotor due to transients. Thus the
probability of second ground fault increases.

If the second ground fault occurs then part of the rotor winding is bypassed
and the currents in the remaining portion increase abruptly. This causes the
unbalance of rotor

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 Protection of alternators
Rotor Faults

Effects:

 The unbalanced field system causes mechanical and thermal stresses

on the rotor. Due to this, rotor may get damaged. Sometimes damage
of bearings and bending of rotor shaft takes place due to the vibrations.

 Due to this fault there will be unbalance in 3 stator currents and

negative sequence currents will flow there that will heat stator as well
as rotor.

So it is very much necessary to know the existence of the first occurrence

of the earth fault so that corrective measures can be taken before second
fault occurs.

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 Protection of alternators

Rotor Earth Fault Protection:

A small dc power supply is connected to

the field circuit. A fault detecting sensitive
relay and the resistance are also
connected in series with the circuit. This
high resistance limits the current through
the circuit.

A fault at any point on the field circuit will

pass a current of sufficient magnitude
through the relay to cause its operation.
Fig. Rotor earth fault protection

The earth relays are instantaneous in operation and are connected to an

alarm circuit for indication and to take the proper action. This is because, a
single ground fault does not require an immediate action of isolating the
generator.

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 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults

Good stator winding Winding shorted phase- Winding shorted

to-phase turn-to-turn

These faults occur mainly due to the insulation failure of the stator windings.

The main types of stator winding faults, in order of importance are:

(a) fault between phase and ground

(b) fault between phases
(c) inter-turn fault involving turns of the same phase winding
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults

Stator winding faults are the most dangerous and are likely to cause
considerable damage to the expensive machinery.

Automatic protection is absolutely necessary to clear such faults in the

quickest possible time in order to minimize the extent of damage.

• If the stator winding fault is not cleared quickly, it may lead to

(i) burning of stator coils

(ii) burning and welding-up of stator laminations
 Protection of alternators
Differential method of protection (also knows as Merz-
Stator winding faults Price circulating current scheme) is most commonly
Protection scheme employed due to its greater sensitivity and reliability.

The relay circuit is so

arranged that its
energizing causes
(i) opening of the
breaker connecting the
alternator to the bus-
bars and (ii) opening of
the *field circuit of the
* Although disconnection of faulty alternator prevents other alternator.
alternators on the system feeding into the fault, it is necessary
to suppress the field of faulty alternator to stop the machine
itself feeding into the fault.
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Protection scheme (with balancing resistors)
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults

Limitations

If earth fault occurs near the neutral point, fault current may be less due
to insufficient voltage across the short-circuited portion. The current is
further less due to earth fault resistance. Hence it is impossible to protect
whole of the stator windings of a star-connected alternator during earth-
faults.

The magnitude of unprotected zone depends upon the value of earthing

resistance and relay setting.

It is a usual practice to protect only 85% of the winding because the

chances of an earth fault occurring near the neutral point are very rare
due to the uniform insulation of the winding throughout.
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Modified Differrential Protection for Alternators

- High earthing resistance causes low earth fault current and low earth fault relay setting.
- Too low a relay setting is undesirable for reliable stability on heavy through phase-faults.
- Here, setting of earth fault relay is reduced without impairing stability.
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Balanced Earth-fault Protection
 Protection of alternators
Stator winding faults
Stator Inter-turn Protection

Circulating current scheme does not

protect intern-turn fault because
current flow in a local circuit
between turns involved and no
differential current is produced.

It is usually considered unnecessary

to provide protection for inter-turn
faults because they invariably
develop into earth-faults.

Inter-turn protection is provided in

alternators with double-winding
armatures such as hydro-electric
generators where each phase
winding is divided into two halves.
Protection of alternators

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Protection of alternators

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