GENERATION

How to locate a rotor earth fault

by Murray van Niekerk and Jimmy Goulding, Eskom
Eskom Peaking Generation has recently experienced the occurrence of spurious rotor earth faults at Gariep and
Vanderkloof Power Stations.

These two stations are hydroelectric

schemes situated on the Orange River
in South Africa. The machines are fitted
with salient pole rotors.
In both cases the fault was only detected
once the machine had started spinning,
at standstill there was no evidence of an
earth fault on the rotors.
Findings
At standstill the usual R-Zero volt drop
and insulation resistance tests on the
rotor were performed and showed no
evidence of an earth fault. However,
on completion of a running impedance
test and recording on the respective
rotors, with no excitation having been
applied, the fault was identified to be
at a connection point between poles.
This confirmed that the centrifugal
forces caused by the spinning rotor were
sufficient to cause a certain amount of
movement of the rotor pole/s which, in
turn, resulted in an earth fault occurring
on the rotor pole connections.
Testing
The running impedance test is performed
whilst the excitation to the rotor is
disconnected. The following equipment
is required to perform this test:

Single phase variac

1 to 1 isolation transformer

Multimeter/voltmeter

A recorder capable of AC voltage

recording for approximately the duration
of the run up of the machine

These instruments should be set up as

illustrated in Fig.1. The relevant AC voltage
to the rotor can be applied with test brushes.
(Keep in mind that all the excitation brushes
should be removed and that the test brush
holders, as with the volt drop test, are used.)
The test and measurement procedure is as
follows:

The recorder must be set up to record

two AC voltages of range corresponding
to the voltage applied to the rotor, for
a recording time equal to that from
standstill to full speed of the machine.
Channel 1 is connected to monitor the
bottom slip ring supply to ground and
channel 2 to monitor the top slip ring
supply to ground.

With the machine being at standstill,

apply an AC voltage across the rotor test
brushes of approximately two volts per
pole i.e. for a 44 pole machine, apply
a voltage of 88 V AC. This is measured
using the multimeter as illustrated in Fig.1.
Using a multimeter the voltage of the top
ring to ground and the bottom ring to

ground should be equal. In the example

used above, these two voltages should
be about 44 V AC each.

The machine can now be run up and the

recorder triggered.

Once the machine has reached full

speed the recorder can be stopped and
the machine shut down.

The recording then needs to be analysed

and recorded from the voltages during
run up.

The following conclusions can then be

made:

Using the example of supply

voltage as previously mentioned, a
voltagedepression on channel 1 would
correspond with a voltage increase on
channel 2. For example, if the voltage
on channel 1 at some stage during run
up decreased to about 22 V AC then
the voltage on channel 2 would have
increased to about 66 V AC. This is
because the total supply voltage across
all the poles is 88 V AC.

If the voltage per pole is 2 V AC, then

this example suggests that the fault is
between pole 11 and 12 from the bottom
ring. This is classified as a voltage divider
calculation.

However, if the voltages measured are

not exactly calculated to be between
two poles, the fault could well be in the
winding of the pole. For the same supply
example mentioned, if the channel 1
voltage was 23 V AC, it would suggest
that the fault is inside pole number 12.

Conclusion
The above method proved to be accurate
at both Gariep and Vanderkloof.
This method was recently used at Steenbras
Pumped Storage Scheme in Cape Town,
where a rotor earth fault had present, but
undetected, for 3 years. After intensive testing
of the rotor at standstill and of the rotor earth
fault protection equipment with no fault
having been found, the above-mentioned
procedure was applied and the fault was
located at one of the pole connectors and
repaired within 1 month.

Fig. 1: (It is essential that the neutral of the AC supply from the wall socket be referenced or has a
reference to earth).

energize - July 2006 - Page 42

Contact Corrie Vermeulen, Eskom,

Tel (013) 693-3557,
cvermeulen@eskom.co.za