GEK 107043

October 1998
Replaces SPNLD00

GE Power Systems
Gas Turbine

Speed Control Non–Linear Droop

I. GENERAL

The speed control system is designed to control the speed and load of the turbine, operating in response to
the actual turbine speed signal and the called–for speed reference. While on speed control the control mode
message “DROOP SPEED “ (or “ISCOH SPEED “) will be displayed.

On generator drive gas turbines the speed control system typically consists of the “HP Turbine Speed Con-
trol”, FSRN algorithm in conjunction with the “Droop Speed/Load Setpoint”, TNR, and “Isochronous
Speed Control Setpoint”, TNRI (optional), alogorithms. The usual droop control system operates by govern-
ing fuel flow. The droop relation is predictable only for a fuel of constant characteristics.

Non-linear droop control is a special speed control system capable of accommodating variation in gas fuel
heating values. When operating on droop speed control, this system maintains the droop relation even as the
heating value of the fuel changes. To do this a watts transducer and algorithms “Turbine Load Droop”,
DWDROOP, “Load Turbine Speed Reference”, TNRL and “Setpoint Tracking” L70TRACK are added to
the typical software program. Refer to the Control Sequence Program and Control Specifications for details
of the Non-linear Droop Speed Control System.

A. Speed Signal

The speed of the turbine is measured by three magnetic sensors. These magnetic pickup sensors
(77NH–1, 2, 3) are high output devices, consisting of a permanent magnet, surrounded by a coil and
hermetically sealed case. The pickups are mounted in a ring around a 60–toothed wheel on the gas tur-
bine compressor rotor shaft. With the 60–tooth wheel, the frequency of the voltage output in Hertz is
exactly equal to the speed of the turbine in revolutions per minute. The voltage output is a direct function
of the speed of the wheel and is affected by the clearance between the teeth of the wheel and the tip of
the magnetic pickup.

Clearance between the outside diameter of the toothed wheel and the tip of the magnetic pickup should
be kept within the limits specified on the Control Specifications. If the clearance is not maintained within
the specified limits, the pulse signal can be distorted causing generation of an erroneous speed signal.
Turbine speed control will then operate in response to the incorrect speed feedback signal.

B. Droop Operation

If the power grid speed is held relatively constant at synchronous speed, fuel flow in excess of that neces-
sary to maintain full–speed–no–load, will result not in increased speed, but increased power produced

These instructions do not purport to cover all details or variations in equipment nor to provide for every possible
contingency to be met in connection with installation, operation or maintenance. Should further information be desired or
should particular problems arise which are not covered sufficiently for the purchaser’s purposes the matter should be
referred to the GE Company.
 1998 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
GEK 107043 Speed Control Non–Linear Droop

by the generator. Thus the speed control loop acts as a load control loop and the speed setpoint, TNR,
is a control of the desired load on the turbine–generator unit.

A watts transducer is used to measure the output of the generator. The droop characteristic is established
with respect to the watts transducer signal. Speed control is an integrating control acting in response to
the load signal from the watts transducer, the speed setpoint signal, a 100% speed signal and the turbine
speed signal. The integrating control will act in response to an error signal at the input to reduce the error
signal to zero. For example: if the turbine is operating at 100% speed (grid frequency) the speed control
will match the speed setpoint signal and the load signal.

Establishing the droop relationship using the load signal as the feedback, instead of the fuel command
signal FSR, permits FSR to change in response to fuel variation while maintaining the proportional
droop relationship.

Normally speed control is accomplished by using FSR feedback to the speed control software making
it control in proportion to fuel changes which are equivalent to power changes. The advantages of using
feedback (watts) in this system are twofold:

1. As fuel gas changes, the droop relation is preserved. The control automatically compensates for
variations in heating values by using the gas turbine itself as a calorimenter. Constant regulation
could not be maintained without power sensing.

2. As fuel gas changes the setpoint setting would cause a different load in proportion to the heating
value. Load margin, therefore, could not be maintained constant without power sensing.

The speed control changes FSR as it needs to change power (watts) in proportion to the difference be-
tween turbine speed and the set point. Thus any change in actual speed (grid frequency) will also cause
a change in unit load. This proportionality is adjustable to the desired regulation or “Droop”. The non-
linear droop software is configured to be less responsive (higher % droop) for small grid frequency dis-
turbances and more responsive (lower % droop) to large frequency changes.

If the entire grid system tends to be overloaded, grid frequency (or speed) will decrease and cause a FSR
increase in proportion to the droop setting. If all units have the same droop, all will share a load increase
equally. Load sharing is the main advantage of this method of speed control.

Another advantage of droop control is that the gain of the system is high. When 4% droop is used only
a 1% change in speed will produce a change in fuel flow equivalent to 25% of rated load. This results
in fast system response to transient changes and helps hold system frequency.

Refer to the Control Specifications for the speed ranges and percents of regulation.

II. ISOCHRONOUS CONTROL

When a gas turbine is applied in a system where its speed is not dictated by the system, isochronous speed
control is used on the gas turbine. In this mode of operation the speed signal is compared with the speed refer-
ence signal. The speed control software operates as an integrating controller in this mode, increasing or de-
creasing FSR as required to hold speed. The load demanded by the system will cause the speed control to
change FSR as a speed error exists, thus power demand is developed by the needs of the system and cannot
be controlled by the gas turbine control.

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Speed Control Non–Linear Droop GEK 107043

The speed control system can be readily switched to operate as an isochronous control since the control algo-
rithm is always operating as an integrator. The setpoint tracking algorithm L70TRACK raises and lowers
the droop setpoint TNR while in the isochronous mode to keep the setpoint within a deadband of the correct
setpoint for the actual load. This allows transfer to droop control with negligible load speed disturbances.

III. ISOCHRONOUS LOAD SHARING

Isochronous load sharing (ILS) allows multiple turbines to operate together as though they were one, iso-
chronously controlled unit. When in this mode, the turbines will maintain constant system frequency and
share the existing system load amongst themselves in proportion to their individual unit ratings. The control
system is similar to a standard isochronous speed control but there is one additional input. The standard in-
puts are speed reference and actual speed which feed an integrating type fuel controller. The additional input,
which is the output of the ILS control, is a load error signal. This signal, DWS, is the difference between the
particular unit’s load, DW, and the average of all the units tied together operating isochronously. This latter
signal is referred to as DWAVG. This is the means by which the units share the existing system load.

There are five primary signals in the ILS control; DW, DWN, DWAVG, DWS, and DWLDDIV. Following
is a description of each of these signals.

DW – Unit load.

DWN – Normalized unit load. The unit’s load signal, DW, is normalized to its rated load value.
Constant DWKSGN performs this function. The normalized load signal, not the load signal, is used
in the ILS control. This way the control will cause the units to share normalized load equally. This
is another way of saying the units will share load in proportion to their individual unit ratings.

DWAVG – Average normalized unit load. The normalized unit load signals of all the units operating
isochronously are tied together through a resistor network to create this signal. To do this, a wire
must physically be run amongst all the units to tie the resistor networks together. The resultant volt-
age signal is actually one half of the average normalized unit load because of the voltage division
which occurs in the resistor network. Consequently, the DWN signal is multiplied by one half before
it is compared to this signal. Constant DWKSGT in the DWSV1 algorithm performs this function.

DWS – Output signal of the ILS controller. This signal is fed to the summing junction of the isochro-
nous speed fuel controller. Whenever there is a difference between the DWN and DWAVG signals,
the DWS signal will change and cause the fuel flow to change in such a way as to make these signals
equal again.

DWLDDIV – Average normalized load. This signal is used when a unit is being started up and added
to a group of isochronous load sharing units which are already running. It is used to load the unit
at a normal rate before placing it in to isochronous control.

DWLDDIV represents the average normalized load of the other units operating isochronously. No-
tice the relationship of this signal, the DWAVG signal and the 83LS contact. When a unit is being
started up and isochronous control is selected prior to generator breaker closure, the unit will be in
the droop speed/load control mode and its 83LS contact will be open. After the generator breaker
closes, the normalized load of this unit, DWN, is compared to the average of the others operating
isochronously, DWLDDIV. If an error exists, the droop speed/load setpoint, TNR, is automatically
raised at a normal loading rate until these two signals are within a few per cent of each other, typical-
ly 3%. At that point, the unit will be automatically switched to isochronous control. This automatic

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GEK 107043 Speed Control Non–Linear Droop

loading feature loads a unit at a normal rate, instead of the much faster rate which the isochronous
control would produce if it were in effect at the time the generator breaker closed.

IV. ACCELERATION CONTROL

Included in the speed control software is another function acting to differentiate the speed signal.

The differential signal, acceleration, is compared to a fixed signal at the summing junction to modulate FSR
if the acceleration rate specified in the Control Specifications is exceeded. See the Control Sequence Pro-
gram and Control Specifications. The acceleration control usually acts only during portions of startup but
can act at any time the acceleration rate is exceeded.

V. SYNCHRONIZING

Automatic synchronizing is accomplished using synchronizing algorithms programmed into the RST soft-
ware. The inputs are transmitted from an interface module. The interface module contains an isolation trans-
former for the generator and line input signals and the breaker closing relay. The synchronizing software is
part of the SPEEDTRONIC. See Figure 3.

For synchronizing, the gas turbine is brought to 100.3% speed. The matching circuit in the synchronizer will
adjust the turbine speed to reduce the slip frequency and permit synchronizing, if the system frequency has
varied enough to cause an unacceptable high slip.

For added protection a synchronizing check relay is provided in the generator panel. It is used in series with
both the auto synchronizing relay and the manual breaker close switch to prevent large out-of-phase breaker
closures.

VI. SPEED MATCHING

The speed matching function sets the gas turbine at synchronizing speed at the completion of startup. See
Figure 4.

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Speed Control Non–Linear Droop GEK 107043

L70L
TNRV1_0200
L70R FSRNV2_0000

TNRC DROOP
TNRLV1_0000 SPEED
L830ST SPEED/LOAD TNR
L83TNROP SETPOINT CONTROL
L83PRES1 TNH LOAD FSR
L83PRES2 TURBINE TNRL FSRN
L83REC
L83COMF SPEED THN
L83BC2
L83REC FSR
DWS REFERENCE

L83REC TNRV1_0000
L83ISOK
THN FSRACCV1_0000
L7OIL ISOCHRONOUS
ACCELERATION PSRAOC
L7OIR SPEED CONTROL
THRI FSR
TNRIC SETPOINT CONTROL

L3COMF L7OTRACKV1_0000
LSEP
SETPOINT TO–RAISE/LOWER FOR
DROOP/ISOCH
DWDROOPV1_0000 TRACKING SETPOINT TRACKING
DW LSEN
TURBINE

LOAD DWDROOP

DROOP

Figure 1. Speed Control Constant Settable Droop, Generator Drive

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GEK 107043 Speed Control Non–Linear Droop

Figure 2. Droop Control Called For Speed vs Power.

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Speed Control Non–Linear Droop GEK 107043

<RST>
Auto Synch
<RST>
Auto Synch
Permissive SSDIFF1
A
Predicted Phase at Synch. A>B And
Gen. Volts Setpoint B
A
A>B SFDIFF1 L25
Ref. B And L83AS
Predicted Slip at Synch. A
Auto Synch A≤B Breaker
Permissive Setpoint B Close
Line Volts
A
A>B
Ref. B L83AS

<RST>
Synch. Speed Matcher

FSR Max

FSR Min

Median
FSNL Select

FSR
SFL FSRSYN
Line Frequency

TNH
Speed

To Make
Gain
Slightly Above SFL
Ramp To Max.
FSRSYN3

L83AS

Figure 3 .Synchronizing Control Schematic.

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GEK 107043 Speed Control Non–Linear Droop

Figure 4. Turbine Speed Matching Control.

GE Power Systems

General Electric Company

One River Road, Schenectady, NY 12345
518 • 385 • 2211 TX: 145354