Modern Technical Aspects of Field Discharge
Equipment for Excitation Systems
José Taborda ABB Switzerland Ltd, IEEE Member
Abstract- The ANSI/IEEE C37.18 1979 “Standard Enclosed
Field Discharge circuit Breakers for Rotating Electrical
Machinery” [1] has passed through several reaffirmations and
still valid until 2008. This standard provides excellent
information and is widely used as basis for the specification,
design and testing of field discharge equipment. However, the
content of this standard still reflecting the technological state of
the art for equipments designed and manufactured during the
time that this standard was being approved for the first time
(1976).
This paper contains an overview of the actual technological
aspects of field discharge equipment in terms of available
technology, design criteria and practical executions. The
information of this paper could be partially used for future
actualization of the IEC37.18.
Index Terms – Field discharge, Field discharge circuit breakers,
Field breaker, Field suppression, De-excitation, Field discharge
resistance, Field suppression resistors
I. INTRODUCTION
The field discharge equipment is relevant protection
equipment of the synchronous machine and excitation
system. In case of a severe electrical fault at the vicinities of
the synchronous machine or excitation system, the field
discharge equipment has the function to assure a quick
machine rotor flux reduction in order to limit the damages
caused by the very high energy released during the fault. The
field discharge equipment is also intended to disconnect the
DC voltage source from the field in case of severe excitation
system faults.
It is important to remark that during the normal shutdown
procedure of the synchronous machine, there is absolutely no
need to trip the field breaker and discharge the field over the
field discharge resistance. Almost all modern excitation
systems have the possibility to quickly reduce the field
current using the thyristor converter bridge. This function,
normally named “inverter operation”, can be even used in
case of mechanical faults. The “today’s” practice is to trip the
field breaker and use the discharge resistor only in case of
electrical faults. By adopting this philosophy, the number of
operations of the field discharge equipment is drastically
reduced and its life time is significantly increased. The
benefit of the inverter operation is mainly remarkable in
hydro power stations that need to start and stop the units
several times a day.
1
©2008 IEEE.
The real field suppression using tripping the field breaker and
discharging the field over the field suppression resistance is
only needed in order to limit the damages in case of electrical
faults on the generator. Further, the field suppression must be
initiated in case of certain faults occurring within the
excitation system up to generator slip rings. The basic
functions of the equipment are to eliminate the source voltage
that drives the fault current and the fast discharge of the field
energy.
The main fault cases in which a fast field discharge and
interruption of the feeding source is desired are:
• Stator faults (e.g.: short circuit, earth fault)
• Rotor faults (e.g.: earth fault, sliprings short circuit)
• Severe Excitation system faults (e.g. flash-over and
internal short circuit fault in power circuits, loss of
thyristor bridge control)
It is uncontested that fast field discharge has a positive impact
on the amount of damage. However, the relationship between
discharge time, the amount of damage and whether the repair
costs will finally be lower with a fast field discharge are
questionable. Specially when machine faults, i.e. and earth
fault in slot portion of stator winding, the machine has to be
dismantled independently of damage. Further, the fast decay
of field current does not mean that the total magnetic flux is
reduced with the same speed with the field current. Only the
flux on direct axis can be influenced whereas the discharge of
the flux in quadrature axis depends on the reactances and
resistances on this axis.
This means that some kind of field suppression equipment is
necessary, but the ratio between the equipment costs and the
effectiveness of the field suppression function shall be
considered during the selection and design of the excitation
system.
Many field suppression technologies have been developed in
the last 100 years. However the core idea of the field
suppression remains the same for all existing technologies.
The basic idea is to interrupt the DC source that feeds the
field and connect a resistor in parallel with the field winding
in order to reach a fast decay of the field current.
II. CLASSICAL FIELD DISCHARGE CIRCUIT
Figure 1 shows the classical field discharge circuit using the
field breaker at the DC side of the power converter. There are
two or more normally open power contacts equipped with Fig. 3: Breaker arcing voltage and field voltages during
arching chambers. The field suppression resistance is placed arcing current interruption process.
in series with a normally closed “make-before-breake” type
contact. This contact is also named as “field discharge
contact”.
2000
When the breaker is tripped the field discharge contact closes Main field breaker contacts current

2 to 5 ms before opening of the main contacts. As soon as the 1800 Field discharge contact current

main contacts start to open, the DC current flows initially 1600

trough the ionized air creating an arc. The arc impedance is 1400
inserted between source and field terminals producing a
current decay (negative di/dt) as shown in figure 2. Due to the 1200

Current[A]
large inductance of the field winding this current decay leads 1000
to the inversion of the field voltage polarity as illustrated in
800
the example of figure 3.
600
Field Discharge
Power breaker contact 400
converter Crowbar

200
Field
winding 0
1500 1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620 1640 1660 1680 1700
Time [ms]

Discharge
resistor
Fig. 4: Current transfer from voltage source to field
Fig. 1: Classical field discharge circuit with field breaker at suppression branch
DC side of power rectifier with mechanical field discharge During the arcing time one part of the field current is
contact. transformed in plasma and the other starts to flow through the
field suppression contact. After the first zero crossing of the
2000 breaker current, the arc get extinguished and the field
Field current
1800 discharge contact takes over the total remaining current that
1600
circulates through the field winding converting the magnetic
1400
di/dt caused by arc impedance
energy of the field in heat.
1200 The field discharge circuit also incorporates the DC-over
Field current[A]

1000
voltage protection devices named “crowbar” as shown in
figure 1. The crowbar has the function to protect the rotor
800
circuit against excessive over voltages across the field coil. It
600 contains an over voltage detector that fires two anti-parallel
400 thyristors connecting the field discharge resistor in parallel to
200 the field wingding in order to limit the value of positive and
negative over voltages that can be induced either by the
0
1500 1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620
Time [ms]
1640 1660 1680 1700 source excitation system or by imposed AC currents coming
stator the synchronous machine (e.g. after pole slip).
Fig 2: Field current decay caused by the insertion of arc The ANSI/IEEE C37.18 1979 [1] contains extensive and
resistance between voltage source and field terminals. complete information referring to definitions, design
requirements and testing of the classical field discharge
2000
Field voltage
circuits as per figure 1.
Arcing voltage
1500
III. MARKET AND TECHNOLOGY CHANGES
1000
At the second half of the 80’s the majority of the excitation
500 system manufacturers started to develop alternatives to
replace the classical field discharge circuit. These new
Voltage[V]

0
developments were driven by the following main two
-500 reasons.
-1000 • Many switching equipment manufactures stopped to
arcing time
produce field breakers and concentrate the efforts on
-1500
large scale manufacturing products like moulded case
-2000
1500 1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620 1640 1660 1680 1700
circuit breaker for low and medium voltage, targeting on
Time [ms]
larger productivity and profit.

2
• High power semiconductors reached very high current
and voltage levels and also shown that are more reliable
than electromechanical components representing a new
alternative to control and switch high currents.
IV FIELD DISCHARGE THYRISTORS
Many excitation system manufacturers replaced the field
discharge contact by a static switch using one or more
thyristors in parallel. This innovation has brought the
following main functional benefits:
• Faster response.
• Neither needs periodic contact position adjustment nor
calibration of contact superposition time.
• Higher reliability
In order to reach a very high reliability, almost all excitation
system equipment manufacturers developed field discharge
units with redundant thyristors and thyristor firing units a
well. Some manufactures extended the crowbar functionality
incorporating the field discharge thyristors and the respective
control circuits to the crowbar. Fig 5 shows an example of a
field discharge unit using 4 inches press-pack thyristors and
the corresponding thyristor control modules.
Fig. 5: Field discharge thyristors and corresponding control
unit at the upper right hand side.
V. USE OF CONVENTIONAL BREAKERS IN FIELD
DISCHARGE APPLICATIONS
Until now, there is no reliable and robust power
semiconductor in commercial use that is able to interrupt high
3
levels of DC current with extremely inductive loads like the
field of a synchronous machine. However, the combination of
static field discharge units with specific types conventional
breakers turned in to a widely applied solution for field
discharge equipment. The following standard breaker types
can be used for field discharge purposes when combined with
a static field discharge unit.
• High arcing power Single Pole DC breakers used for
traction applications
• Standard low and medium voltage AC circuit breakers
with DC interruption capacity.
The use of theses breakers have the all the known advantages
of using large production standard components like
commercial availability, lower costs, availability of spares,
quantity of representatives etc.
Figure 6 shows the basic scheme of a field discharge
equipment using conventional 3-pole breaker. This design
uses two contacts in the positive pole and one in the negative.
Some standard conventional breakers can be obtained with 4
poles. The in this case it is possible to put all four contacts in
series obtaining larger arcing voltages.
It is important to remark that the series connection of contacts
provides higher values of arcing voltage and higher arc
impedances the leads to shorter arcing times.
Discharge
Power thyristor
converter Crowbar
Field Field
breaker winding
Discharge
resistor
Fig 6: Conventional 3-pole field breaker at DC side of power
rectifier with static field discharge using thyristors.
In case that a high arcing power single pole DC breaker is
used as a field breaker, it is normally connected to the
positive pole of the field winding. The negative pole remains
connected to the power converter. Once the arcing voltage of
single pole breaker is high enough to allow a short arcing
time, there no disadvantage in terms of field discharge
performance. For maintenance or test purposes it is
recommended practice to install an additional off-load
isolator for stand still disconnection of the negative field
winding pole from the power converter.
Since the static field discharge unit is physically separated
from the field breaker, it is also possible to place the breaker
at the AC side of the power converter and interrupt the field
current at the AC side of the power converter. Fig 7. shows
the basic scheme of a field breaker installed at the AC side.
 smaller then the field discharge circuit, there is no current
commutation to the field discharge circuit and the field
discharge is occurs with the natural short circuit time constant
Td’ of the synchronous machine. This undesired behavior is
illustrated in figures 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3 and may occur if the
power converter control equipment is not able to detect the
fault condition and keeping sending the triggering pulses the
power converter thyristors.

Fig. 7: Field breaker located at the AC side of converter

bridge.

The main advantage of the field configuration shown in

figure 7 is the capability to interrupt faults in the power
circuits of the excitation system and at the AC and DC side of
power converter.
When tripping the breaker, the two last triggered thyristors
remain conducting imposing an AC voltage in the field.
When the voltage gets negative the crowbar is forced to
conduct and the field current commutates to the field
discharge circuit. It means that the arc period is limited to less
than the period of the network frequency. Figure 8 shows the
field voltage and the field current for a static excitation
system supplied form auxiliary line after a three phase fault at
generator terminals followed by trip of the AC field breaker. Fig. 9.1: Power converter thyristor currents

Fig 9.2: AC field breaker currents

Fig. 8: field discharge using AC field breaker after a three
phase fault at machine terminals for an auxiliary line supplied
static excitation system.

However the field breaker placed at the AC side has some

disadvantages in terms of field discharge performance. When
the breaker trips the current flows only through two contacts
and the arc voltage is only obtained from two contacts that
are in series with the field circuit. One the three contacts
doesn’t conduct any current. It means that such
configurations may not be very suitable for excitation
systems with high voltages at the AC side of power converter.
One other very critical aspect of this solution is the efficacy
of field discharge after a three phase short circuit in shunt
supplied systems. In such a fault the power converter source
voltage drops down to zero and there is a risk to have a free-
wheel effect over the power converter thyristors. Since the Figure 9.3: field voltage and field current
impedance of the two thyristors in series is significantly
4

Figure 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3 shows the ideal behavior field
discharge equipment using the breaker at the AC side. As
soon as the fault occurs the fast suppression of the thyristor
triggering pulses avoids the free-wheel effect allowing a
successful current commutation to the discharge circuit.
Fig 10.1: Power converter thyristor currents
Fig. 10.2: AC field breaker currents
Fig. 10.3: field voltage and field current
5
VI. IMPORTANT REMARKS FOR DC AND AC SIDE
FIELD BREAKERS
Breaker placed in the DC side
• Higher initial arc voltage levels can be reached because,
depending on the breaker type and contact
characteristics, up 4 contacts may be connected in series
assuring higher initial arcing voltages and shorter current
commutation times to the field discharge circuit.
• If the breaker arcing voltage is higher than the largest
possible voltage at the output of the power converter, it is
always possible start the current commutation process to
the field discharge circuit. It is just a matter of arcing
time. A higher arcing voltage capability leads to a shorter
arcing time and vice versa.
• In case of a three phase short circuit at machine terminals
in shunt supplied excitation systems, the field
suppression will be guaranteed even in case that the
thyristor bridge operates in free-wheel. The current can
commutate to the field discharge resistor because the
arcing voltage impedance is practically being inserted
between power converter and field terminals.
• There are no means to disconnect the power source in
case of faults between AC power feeders and power
converter.
• The series connection of breaker contacts on DC side is
relative expensive and needs more space.
Breaker placed at the AC side of power converter:
• It is able to disconnect the AC power source in case of
faults between AC power connections of excitation
system and the field breaker connections at the converter
side.
• If the power supply voltage is available, the imposed AC
voltage from the source assures the current commutation
to the field discharge circuit and limits the arcing time to
less then 20ms.
• The mechanical arrangements are simple and require less
electrical connections. More compact mechanical design.
• When using AC field breaker in shunt supplied excitation
systems, a specific pulse suppression logic is needed in
order to avoid the free-wheel effect over the converter
bridge after a three phase faults at generator terminals.
• Due to the lower initial arcing voltage, longer current
arcing time have to be considered. This issue may be
quite critical when non-linear field discharge resistors are
used. The high impedance of non linear resistance at
lower field voltage values leads to longer arcing times.
 VII. FIELD DISCHARGE RESISTANCE

The field discharge time constant in open circuit condition is

obtained by the following expression:

⎛ ⎞
⎜ ⎟
1 (1)
TFD0 = T' do ⋅⎜ ⎟
⎜ Rd ⎟
⎜1+ ⎟
⎝ Rf ⎠

Where:

TFDO: field discharge time in open circuit condition [s]

T’do: direct axis open circuit unsaturated transient time

constant [s]
Fig.11: V x I characteristic for a Silicon carbide field
Rd: field discharge resistance [Ohm] discharge resistance.

Rf: field resistance [Ohm]

For short circuit condition at the stator of the synchronous the

same expression is valid, however, the value T’do needs to be
replaced by T’d that represents the unsaturated direct axis
time constant in short circuit condition.

Expression (1) shows that the shortest field discharge time is

reached for the largest possible field discharge resistance.

The section 9 of [1] covers the design limitations and the

impact of large values of the discharge resistance on the level
on the reached voltage levels during field suppression starting
from extreme operating conditions like ceiling current or
immediately after a three phase fault at stator terminals.
However, [1] does not consider the use of voltage dependent
non-linear resistances. Non linear resistances are widely used
in field discharge circuits in order to obtain shorter field
discharge times and limit the maximum field voltages to safe
values.
The most common non linear resistance types used in field
discharge circuits are:
• Silicon Carbide composite resistances (SiC)
• Metal-Oxid (ZnO) varistors
Fig 12: V x I characteristic for a Zinc-Oxid field discharge
resistance.
At the first view, the ZnO-resistance approaches to the ideal
field discharge resistance. It provides quite defined voltage
limits to protect the rotor circuits and has extreme high
resistance values at lower current levels causing the drastic
reduction of the field discharge time. However, actual
technological and practical aspects make the SiC-resistance to
the most suitable, reliable and preferred non-linear field
discharge resistance.

Examples of a SiC- and ZnO- resistance characteristics are Today, ZnO-Resistances are mostly used in low power
shown in figures 11 and 12. excitation systems.

Excitation systems with high voltage and current ratings need

also large field discharge resistance with high energy
capacities. In such large systems it is necessary to use parallel
associations of non linear resistor assemblies as shown in
figure 13.

6

Fig. 13: group of 3 parallel connected non-linear SiC-field
discharge resistances.
From the voltage characteristic shown in figure 12 it is
possible to realize that the paralleling of ZnO-resistances is
very difficult because small differences in the voltage
characteristic of parallel resistances cause to very significant
current unbalance.
Since the voltage characteristic of the SiC-resistance is not so
“sharp” as the ZnO, the paralleling of multiples SiC resistor
assemblies is less critical and the practical discrepancies
between characteristics of parallel resistances cause
acceptable current unbalancing levels.
There are also human safety concerns when using ZnO-
resistances. In case that the energy absorption limit is
exceeded, the ZnO-resistances explode. Due to this physical
characteristic, it is necessary to used explosion save
enclosures.
When reaching the maximum energy absorption limit the
SiC-resistance cracks and start to melt representing a safer
component since there is no risk of explosion.
Another critical aspect of the ZnO is the extreme high
resistance at lower voltage levels. During the arcing time,
when the current commutation process is on going, the field
current tends to flow through the circuit of lowest impedance.
If the arcing impedance is smaller than the field discharge
resistance at given voltage, the current remains flowing
through the arc extending the arcing time. It manes that ZnO-
resistances should be preferably used on the selected field
breaker has a quite high arcing voltage, otherwise the arcing
time can be extremely long.
7
VIII. DESIGN CRITERIA
The main designs criteria for the field discharge components
are quite well and clearly described and explained in [1]
The three phase short circuit at machine terminals and the
ceiling conditions were mostly used as base for the design of
field discharge components. The practical experiences over
decades have shown that this approach is valid and delivered
very good results. However, in a small number of cases, the
classical design conditions may be exceeded causing damages
in field discharge equipment and excitation system as well.
One additional real condition that should be included as
design criteria for shunt supplied excitation systems is the
field suppression in no-load condition starting from the non-
controlled ceiling current with the synchronous machine at
overvoltage range according to the saturation curve. It
assumes that there is no control over the power converter that
commands the ceiling current to the field.
This condition is quite critical due to the following reasons:
• Longer field discharge time (proportional to T’do)
• Voltage source increases proportionally to the
overvoltage (up to 140% of nominal)
• Ceiling current also increases proportionally to the
source.
Over the past years some of such incidents have been
reported and in some cases, also involving large damages on
field discharge equipment and excitation system.
In this extreme condition, the level of stresses for the field
discharge equipment is very high. The stresses are given by,
extreme high voltages and currents, longer arcing times and
very high level of energy to be absorbed by the field
discharge resistances.
One of the possibilities to reduce the arcing time is the
interruption (hardwired) of the power supply for the
triggering pulses of the non-controlled power converter. By
doing that, even if the converter control electronics is not
responding, it is possible to suppress the pulses and get the
only the last two triggered thyristors conducting. The
imposed AC voltage coming from the source forces the
crowbar to conduct in a similar way as shown in figure 8. By
adopting this method it is possible to limit the arcing time and
ensure the field discharge using the abnormal high source
voltage as a benefit.
At the time that [1] was published, there were only very
limited and restricted means to simulate and accurately
predict the rotor quantities during disturbances.
Today, the design of field discharge circuits can not be only
be based in formulas as per [1], but need to consider also the
following additional aspects and means:
• Accurate modeling and simulation of the synchronous
machine [2], [3], [4],[5]
• Consider all possible extreme operational conditions like
three phase short circuit at machine terminal and non-
controlled ceiling condition with the synchronous
machine I no-load.
• Type of source and dependencies from operation
conditions.
• Behavior of power converter and corresponding control
circuits
• Accurate computational methods for estimation of
required energy levels in all relevant components of field
discharge equipment.
• Voltage limitations given not only given by rotor
insulation levels but also considering blocking voltages
(VRRM) of semiconductors of the excitation system.
IX. CONCLUSION
This article provides a brief overview of actual technology
used in field discharge circuits. It also makes a summary of
new aspects that are not being considered in the existing
standards.
The author hopes that this article serves as an impulse for the
actualization of C37.18 in order to improve and up-date this
excellent standard bringing it up to the current state of the art
in terms of modern field discharge equipment.
X. REFERENCES
[1]. ANSI / IEEE C37.18.1979 Standard Enclosed Field
discharge Circuit Breakers for Rotating Electric
Machinery
[2]. Dr. I. M. Canay, “Physical significance of sub-transient
quantities in dynamic behaviour of synchronous
machines”. IEE Proceedings Vol 135, Pt. B. No. 6
November 1988.
[3]. Dr. I.M. Canay, “Determination of model parameters of
synchronous machines”. IEE Proceedings Vol 130. Pt. B
No. 2 March 1983
[4]. I.M. Canay, “Modeling of Alternating Current Machines
having Multiple rotor Circuits”, IEEE Transactions on
Energy Conversion, Vol 8, No. 2 June 1993
[5]. IEEE Std. 1110.1991 “IEEE Guide for Synchronous
Genrator Modeling and Practices in stability Analysis”
[6]. Hansjörg Herzog and José Taborda, ABB Industrie AG
Switzerland, “Important Design Features of Modern
Static Excitation Systems”, Three Gorges Project
Technology, International Seminar Yichang 1995.
XI. BIOGRAPHY
José Taborda was born in Brazil 1961.
He received the degree on electrical
engineering from the University of São
Paulo in 1985. Since 1985 he has been
working for ABB where he occupied
several positions starting from
development, commissioning, design,
product management, technical sales support and electrical
studies. His speciality is control systems and power
electronics applied to electrical machines. José Taborda is
IEEE member and currently working as senior system
consultant of Excitation System Group in ABB Switzerland
Ltd.