Protection Systems & Devices (Relays)

3rd Year

CHAPTER 5
Generator Protection
There are a number of abnormal conditions that may occur with rotating equipment such as
generators. These include:

1. Faults in the windings.

2. Loss of excitation.
3. Motoring of generators.
4. Overload.
5. Overheating.
6. Over speed.
7. Unbalanced operation.
8. Out of synchronization.
9. External faults.

Several of these conditions require prompt tripping and can cause complete failure of the
generator or serious damage.

1. Faults in the windings

Figure 1 shows some types of faults that may

occur in the insulation system of a generator’s
winding. These faults are identified as:
a. Inter-phase short circuit.
b. Inter-turn fault.
c. Stator earth fault.
d. Rotor earth fault.
e. Inter-turn fault in rotor.

a. Inter-phase short circuit

A short circuit between parts of different phases of the winding such as fault #1 , results in a
sever fault current within the machine. A consequence of this a distinct difference between
the currents at the neutral and terminal ends of the particular winding which can be detected
by a differential protection system. We usually use “ Biased differential protection or Merz-
Price protection “.

Under normal operating conditions, the secondary outputs of the line current transformers
are equal to the current transformer at the neutral end. Thus there is a balanced circulating
current in the phase pilot wires and the relay restraining windings. Current does not flow in
the operating coils or in the common return pilot. Under fault condition this balance is upset
and current flows in the operating coils of these phase elements corresponding to primary
phases on which the fault has occurred. If this current reaches the preset magnitude, the
relay operates.

Differential protection gives complete protection to generator windings against phase to

phase faults. It is arranged to trip the main circuit breaker and to suppress the field.

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Desirable features of generator differential protection are:

- High speed operation ( about 15 ms ).

- Low setting.
- Full stability on external faults.

b. Inter turn fault:

The incidence of turn-to-turn fault in generators is rare. It can take place between turns of
the same phase or between parallel coils of the same phase. In large generators we protect
the system by using residual voltage method. A voltage transformer is connected between
each phase terminal and the neutral of the winding. The secondary terminals are connected
in an open delta to a polarized voltage relay as shown in figure 4. In the event of an inter
turn fault, a voltage appears at the terminal of the open delta causes the relay to trip.

During normal conditions, the residual voltage is zero, i.e.

VRes = V’RY + V’YB + V’BR = 0

Any short circuit between turns gives residual voltage of fundamental frequency, which
should operate the relay. Note that VRes is essentially a zero sequence voltage.

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The relay should not operate for earth fault. Earth fault also causes zero sequence voltages
of third harmonic. A low pass filter is used to offer a low resistance path to power frequency
and high resistance path to 3rd harmonic currents.

c. Stator earth fault

The protection against earth faults by differential protection is influenced by the grounding
scheme. When the generator winding is earthed through impedance, a separate additional
earth fault protection is necessary in addition to differential protection. The differential
protection provides earth fault protection to about 85% of generator windings. Figure 5
shows two types of earth protection which is usually used for generators above 1 MW. It can
also be used as a backup for external phase to phase faults. However it does not give
satisfactory protection against internal faults.

The resistance Rg is used to limit the earth fault current. If R g is too small (solid earthing),
earth fault current is very high. Hence this method is not used for large machines (> 1 MW).
Medium resistance limits the fault current to 200 A is used for generators up to 60 MW while
large resistance that limits the fault current to 10 A is used for larger generators.

As stated before, when we use differential protection only about 85% of generator winding
is protected. This is a function of the impedance between neutral and ground ( R g ), line to

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neutral voltage (V) and the minimum relay operating current ( I o ) in the primary of the CT
which is usually between 10 – 20 % ( relay setting ).

The %age of windings unprotected = Rg Io x 100

V

d. Rotor windings faults

These are caused by mechanical and temperature stresses. The field system is not
connected to earth so that a single earth fault does not give rise to any fault current. A
second earth fault will short circuit part of the winding and may produce unsymmetrical field
system giving unbalance force on the rotor. Such a force will cause excess pressure on
bearing and shaft distortion if not cleared quickly.
Rotor earth fault protection is provided for large generators. Rotor temperature indicates or
alarm is employed to indicate the level of temperature. If the temperature level is higher than
a preset value, an alarm will signal.

Figure 7 presents a schematic diagram of rotor earth fault protection. A high resistance is
connected across the rotor circuit. The centre point of this resistance is connected to earth
through a sensitive relay. The relay detects the earth fault for most of the rotor circuit except
the center point of the rotor.

The preferred type of protective relaying equipment is shown in figure 8. Either d.c. or a.c.
voltage may be impressed between the field circuit and the ground through an over voltage
relay. A single earth fault in the rotor circuit completes the circuit the fault is then sensed by
the voltage relay.

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It may be necessary to provide a brush on the

rotor shaft that will effectively ground the rotor.
One should not rely on the path of the bearing oil
to ground for two reasons:

1. The resistance of this path to ground may be

high enough so that the relay would not
operate at grounded fault.
2. Even very small current flowing through the
bearing may pit the surface and destroy the
bearings.

2. Loss of excitation

When a synchronous generator losses excitation and if it is connected in parallel with other
units, it can draw the magnetizing current from the bus bars and continue to run as an
induction generator. It will then run above synchronous speed. Some systems depend on
the rotor design (with salient poles and damper windings) can run for long time without any
problem. Some systems cannot tolerate the continued operation without excitation.
Automatic quick-acting protective system should be used. Undercurrent relays connected in
the field circuit have been used quite extensively.

The most sensitive type of loss of excitation protection is a distance relay operated from the
a.c current and voltage of the main generator terminals. This application is based on the
behavior of the system impedance as seen from the generator terminals for various under-
excited conditions. This will not be explained in this course.

3. Motoring of generators

Motoring protection is for the benefit of the prime mover and not the generator. When the
input to the turbine is topped, the generator continues to run as a synchronous motor. A
sensitive power directional relaying is widely used for such protection. This is called revered
power protection.

4. Overload

Overload protection is used to provide backup protection for bus or feeder faults than to
protect the machine directly. We don’t use an over current relay since the generator’s
synchronous impedance limits the fault currents of a sustained faults to obtain the same as
the maximum rated load current . A thermal relay may be used to monitor the stator winding
temperature and signal an alarm if a certain limit is exceeded.

5. Overheating

Bearing overheating or loss of prime mover cooling system or lubricating oil may damage
the mechanical system and cause serious problems. Temperature detection is then
important. Thermocouple system is usually inserted in the bearings and different other
locations in the system to monitor the temperature and signal an alarm if necessary.

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6. Over speed

It is essential to incorporate safety device in turbine governing system to prevent over

speeding, which may cause over voltages and increase frequency.

Over speeding can occur due to sudden loss of the load before disconnecting the prime
mover. To maintain the speed of the generator, the prime mover shaft is equipped by a
centrifugal device or electronic sensors.

It must be recognized that in practical situations when many generators are connected, over
speed can not occur unless the unit is disconnected from the system.

7. Unbalanced load

The unbalanced 3 phase stator currents causes negative sequence currents ( 100 Hz ) and
induces double frequency current in the rotor which tends to flow on the rotor surface and in
the non-magnetic rotor wedges and rings. The resulting I 2R loss quickly raises the
temperature and damage the rotor surface.

The time for which the machine can be allowed to operate for various amounts of relative
asymmetries depends on the machine design. Usually the time that a generator may be
expected to operate with unbalanced stator currents without damage can be expressed in
the form:
T

0  (i2 )2 dt = K

Where i2 is the instantaneous negative sequence per unit component of the stator current
based on the generator rating and K is a constant = 30 for steam turbines and 40 for
hydraulic turbines.

If we let I22 be the average value of i 22 over the time interval then the foregoing equation can
be expressed in the form

I22 T = K

The recommended type of relaying equipment is an inverse time over current relay
operating from the output of a negative phase sequence current filter that is energized from
the generator CTs.

The relay time current characteristics are of the form I 2 T = K , so that with the pick up and
time delay adjustment, that are provided, the relay characteristic can be chosen to match
closely any machine
characteristic.

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8. Out of synchronization similar to loss of excitation & over speed.

9. External faults similar to overload.

Example:
A 6600 V , 3 phase turbo-alternator has a maximum continuous rating of 2000 kW at 0.8
p.f. and its reactance is 12.5 %. It is equipped with Merz-Prize circulating differential relay
which is set to operate at fault current not less than 200 A. Find the value of the neutral
earthing resistance leaving 10% of the windings unprotected.
Solution:
Let the earth resistance be Rg

IFL = 2000 x 103 = 219 A

0.8 x √3 x 6600
the reactance per phase of the alternator = X

where 12.5 = √3 X x 219 x 100

6600
x = 2.19 
reactance of 10% of the winding = 0.219 

voltage induced in NA = 6600 x 0.1 = 381 V

√3
the protection operates at a current = 200 A

200 = 381 Rg = 1.89 

√Rg2 + (0.219)2

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