3/25/2019 Common electrical engineering interview questions asked in PSU interviews

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS BLOG

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS BLOG

Common electrical engineering interview

questions asked in PSU interviews
May 22, 2017

(1) Why star delta starter is preferred with induction motor? (IOCL)
In induction motor as we know that it suck up huge amount of current
from the grid at the starting. So if we have delta connected induction
motor then we can apply a technique of star delta stating to reduce the
high current requirement of the motor. The advantage over here is that we
would have high starting torque as well as less current.

(2) Explain the working of 3 phase induction motor. (IOCL)

So if we look at the construction wise then it has a stator and the rotor.
The stator is having the three phase balanced distributed winding wile
that of rotor is having the squirrel cage like construction. As we know that
then N phase distributed winding is excited with N phase balanced supply
then we will have the production of rotating magnetic eld. Now that we
are having rotating magnetic eld we so we have the relative motion
between the rotor conductor and the rotating magnetic eld. As per
Faraday's law we will have the production of emf in the rotor conductor.
Since the rotor circuit is closed one ,we will also have the current in the
winding. Now this rotor current will produce its own magnetic eld which
will interact with the main rotating magnetic eld and we will have the
torque on the conductor and hence we will have the rotation of rotor.

(3) How is UPF Wattmeter different from LPF Wattmeter? (RIL)

UPF stands for unity power factor (AKA high power factor) while that of
LPF stands for low power factor. The main difference between them is
construction wise. Basically their uses are different. According to the
predicted circuit power factor value we use them accordingly. For
example, if we are going to measure the constant losses of transformer
by the help of open curcuit test on the transformer, then we surely know
that pf of that circuit will be certainly less than 0.5 so in such occasions
we should go for the low power factor wattmeter to get the more accurate
reading.
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(4) What happens if load increases when the generation is constant?
(ONGC)
If we have the constant generation while that our load increases then rst
thing which occur will be deceleration of the generator which will result in
the lesser frequency output. As load is more, then the reactive power
consumption will also be more because most of the loads are reactive in
nature. As the reactive power consumption is more, this will result in
decrease in the line voltage. So above are the two basic consequences.

(5) How can we measure reactive power consumed by three phase load.
(BHEL)
The reactive power can be measured with the help of two wattmeter
method. We have to speci cally connect the pressure coils and the
current coils of both the wattmeter to the three phase circuit to measure
it.

(6)What is the function of capacitor in the 1 phase induction motor?

(BHEL)
In single phase induction motor ,we already have the two balanced
distributed winding, but the supply available is only single phase. But we
need two phase supply for the production of rotating magnetic eld. To
solve that problem, we place capacitor in one of the winding (which we
call auxiliary winding) so that there will be phase difference between the
current in the main and the auxiliary winding. This will help us in
production in rotating magnetic eld (not perfectly though) so that motor
can start rotating.

(7) How can we improve the power factor of the system? (NTPC)
To improve the power factor,
Capacitor can always be used at the load end.
If it is some company which is facing such problem, then generally they
use synchronous motor and operate it at over exited no load condition. So
it will supply back the reactive power to the grid and improve the power
factor.

(8) What is the difference between the electronic regulator and the
resistor regulator of the ceiling fan? (CIL)
Normal resistor regulator is nothing but a set of resistors connected in
series and tapings are provided on it so that we will have different voltage
at the terminal of fan and hence its speed can be varied. The drawback is
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the losses in these resistors and bulky size.

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Electronic fan regulator is simply the AC to AC voltage regulator with the
help of anti-parallel thyristors or the tric. so by varying it's ring angle we
can have the chopped AC wave at the output which is having different rms
and average value and hence we will be able to vary the speed of the fan
accordingly.

(9) How to improve the transient stability of the transmission line? (vizag
steel)
To improve the transient stability,
single pole operating breakers can be utilized.
fast acting breakers should be used.
Neutral of the alternator should be earthed with resistor.
Arti cial loading scheme can be implemented.

(10) Explain the application of storage batteries. (NPCIL)

Storage batteries are nothing but the device which are used to store the
electrical energy in terms of DC form. It contains selfuric acid and with
that it can store the energy in terms of chemical form. It is very e cient in
doing it. Basically they are used as a backup at the time of power outage.
For example breaker in the switchyard need DC supply for the purpose of
spring charging and functioning it's logic circuit. As we know that no
matter what, breaker has to operate at the time of fault so it de nitely
need backup supply to do so. so above is one of the application.

(11) What is slip in an induction motor? (NPCIL)

It is just a gure which gives the information about at what speed the
induction motor rotates at speci c condition. It is the difference between
given speed and rotating magnetic eld speed relative to the rotating
magnetic eld speed.

(12) Why the starting current of the DC motor is high? (DRDO)

At the starting, DC motor's rotor is at rest or at very low speed, this result
in zero or very low development of back emf generation. We know that
current required will be given by,
I*R = V - E
Since E is zero so very large current will be drawn.

(13) What is power factor? (GSECL)

It is nothing but a value which gives information about the amount of
active and reacting power owing relatively. Theoretically it is the ratio of
h ( )d b h l d h (
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the active power(KW) drawn by the load to the apparent power(KVA)
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drawn by the same load. It plays signi cant role in determining the
e ciency and current drawn by load.

(14) Why we use hollow conductors for bus bar? (NTPC)

We use hollow conductor mainly to reduce the corona effect due to high
electrical stress. It has another advantage of lesser skin effect compared
to that of solid conductor.

(15) For what protection, buchholz relay are used? (GSECL)

buchholz relay is used for the internal fault protection of the transformer.
It is mounted on the pipe between the oil tank and the main transformer
body. It detects the gas formed due to the heating of oil and act
accordingly as per the settings provided.

(16) If we are having 400 KV switchyard (as example), what is the phase
to phase voltage? and how yard equipments like CT, PT are rated? (L&T)
The phase to phase voltage will be 400 KV while the yard equipments will
be rated based on the phase value which is 230 KV.

(17) Explain synchronous condenser. (DRDO)

It is nothing but synchronous motor which is on no load and which is over
excited. Due to this, it does not consume any active power (P) but it feed
the reactive power (Q) back to the grid. The main purpose is to improve
the power factor of the system.

(18) Why only synchronous generator is used for generation in plants?

(NTPC)
We can vary the frequency output at the time of heavy loaded condition
and we can also vary the PF of the machine. These are the reasons.

(19) How to reverse the direction of rotation of dc motor? (NTPC)

To reverse direction of rotation of dc motor, either direction of main eld
produced by the eld winding is reversed or direction of the current
passing through the armature is reversed.

(20) Why pole shoe in DC machine has been given a speci c shape?
(DRDO)
Pole of DC machine is chamfered in shape, reason for that is to provide
the uniform magnetic eld in the air gap.Due to this,we can have the emf
wave of at topped nature. Flat topped wave has high amount of rms
value which is very useful This wave is having harmonics but that is not
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value which is very useful. This wave is having harmonics but that is not

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the issue in the DC machines.

(21)What are the necessary conditions for the production of rotating

magnetic eld? (BARC)
'n' phase balanced distributed winding should be there.
'n' phase balanced supply has to be given to this winding.
Above two things are must for the production of rotating magnetic eld in
machine.

(22) What is meant by stator? What is meant by rotor? (NPCIL)

In any electrical machine it may be AC or DC; motor or generator, the
stationary part is called as stator while rotating part is known as rotor.
Both these parts are give speci c kind of winding so that their magnetic
eld interact with each other and we have the production of torque or EMF
based on the nature of the machine.

(23) How to minimize the eddy current losses? (DRDO)

When the core is laminated and insulated from each other with paper or
varnish the eddy current loss is minimized in the core of transformer.
In the conductors, we should use stranded conductors instead of one big
conductor and all these strands should be given insulation layers on it.

(24) Why swamping resistor is made up of manganin? (DRDO)

Manganin is the material which is having very less temperature coe cient
of resistance. Because of this nature, it's resistance does not vary much
upon application of heat. So if we use such material in the measuring
equipments as a swamping resistor, it solves the purpose and help the
meter to give accurate reading.

(25) How to remove the third harmonics from STAR-STAR connected

power transformer?
There are two main methods to remove third harmonics from the
transforms having star-star connection.
First one is to use the small delta connected winding just to remove the
third harmonics form the line side. By this, technically the transformer will
become three winding transformer but it will be very useful since it help
us to remove the third harmonics and it's multiples form the line side of
the transformer. This method is generally used in the large substation
power transformers.
Second method is to ground the star point (neutral point). By this, we can
remove the third harmonics ux from the core of the transformer. Since
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remove the third harmonics ux from the core of the transformer. Since
we will not have third harmonic ux in the core, we will not have third
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harmonic induced emf.

(26) Explain the purpose of scott connection. (NPCIL)

It is the method of converting the 3 phase supply to the 2 phase supply
and vice versa. Here we are utilizing two numbers of single phase
transformers and doing the connection in such a way to get the required
result. This connection is generally used for supplying induction furnace
and many 2 phase loads.

(27) What is ferranti effect? (ABB)

It is the phenomena which occurs in transmission line based on which the
receiving end voltage of the transmission becomes more than that of the
sending end voltage during the light load condition. This is due to the
capacitance of the line. During light load condition, we have more
production of reactive power from capacitor compared to the
consumption from load. This results in swelling voltage pro le at the
receiving end of the line.

(28) Why we use SF6 circuit breaker in the high voltage transmission
line? (PGCIL)
SF6 is having very good arc quenching ability compared to any other
medium we have till now. Due to this we can have low breaker operation
time which is must for high voltage lines. This can result into the
improvement of transient stability of the transmission line.

(29) Is the battery used in mobile phones an active element as per circuit
theory? (BEL)
Yes, As per de nition any element which is having it's own source of
energy can be considered as active element. So locally (in the mobile
circuit) it can be considered as active. But universally if we see then we
get that it stores the energy from the external supply source and release
the energy during mobile use. So in that sense we have to consider it as
passive element.

(30) How do we check the insulation in industry? (L&T)

We check the reliability of the insulation of any equipment with the help of
megger device. It gives us the reading in terms of kilo and mega ohms
and that is how we know it's healthiness.

(31) Why single phase induction motor is not self starting? (HPCL)
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As per two eld theory, when the supply is given to the single phase
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winding there is the generation of two rotating magnetic eld in the stator
of the machine. Here both the eld are of equal magnitude but running in
opposite direction. This results in the null net torque on the rotor
conductor. That's why we can not start the motor as the net torque is
absent.

(32) What is the dielectric strength of the material? (NALCO)

It is the ability of the material to withstand the voltage applied across it.
Based on the dielectric strength of the material, the class is given to
different types of insulators.

(33) What is commutation in the DC machine? (NFL)

It is the process of reversal of direction of current ow in the armature
conductor of the DC machine. This is really very important for the proper
functioning of the machine. For example, if in DC motor the direction
current does not change then it will result into the zero net torque on the
rotor and motor stops rotating.

(34) Where is the compensating winding placed in DC machine and what

is it's use? (BARC)
Compensating winding is placed on the pole shoe of the DC machine. It is
connected in series with the armature of the machine. The main purpose
of it's use is to compensate the armature reaction in DC machine.

(35) What is sensitivity of a measuring instrument? (BARC)

Generally, sensitivity means change in output to the corresponding
change in input. Now for the measuring instrument, it indicates how much
de ection we will get for the corresponding change in the quantity ( to be
measured ). Higher the sensitivity, better is the performance to measure
the small change in the quantity.

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