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This technical article gives key points about the generator protection. To
recover the generator from various kinds of faults, the generator protection
scheme of the plant must be designed in such a way that groupings of
protection are made respect to the plant’s need.
Protection Of The Power System Heart - The Generator (on photo: Located at
the deepest in NYC, these generators powered the NYC railroad system; credit:
Wasabi Bob via Flickr)
As it was 100 years ago, generator is still the heart of an electrical power
system. The prime mover which drives the generator provides the necessary
input mechanical energy for conversion into electrical energy by the generator.
The prime mover can be based on steam, gas, water power and diesel engines,
and so on.
While the smaller generating sets may be directly connected to the distribution
system, larger units are usually associated with generator transformers for
connection to EHV transmission systems.
The power for the auxiliaries is also drawn from the large generating units via
auxiliary transformers.
Typical SLD
representation of a generating unit
Some of the faults do not require the unit to be tripped automatically since in a
properly attended station, they can be corrected while the machine remains in
service. These conditions are sig-nalled by alarms. However, certain faults
require prompt isolation of the machine.
These are:
2. Classification Of Tripping
The classification of tripping is categorized on the basis of the location and
type of faults. The classes of tripping are different from one another in respect
to the action to be taken
The objective is to trip only the absolutely essential equipment so that the
damage is minimum and over-speeding of the machine due to sudden load
throw-off is avoided. The idea is that the impact of tripping of a large generating
set on the grid is minimum and if possible, the auxiliaries are kept energised so
that the time to re-start the unit is normal.
There are normally three types of classes of tripping, namely Class A, Class B
and Class C.
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This will cause tripping of the generator transformer HV side circuit breaker, de-
excitation of the generator, tripping of LV side incomer breaker of unit auxiliary
transformer, auto-changeover from unit to station supply for unit auxiliaries and
tripping of turbine.
For large generators (500 MW and above), Class A tripping is further sub-
divided into Class Al and Class A2 with class A2 excluding the generator
transformer HVCB tripping and unit transformer LVCB tripping.
However, Class A2 tripping takes place only when there is a generator circuit
breaker.
Figure 2 – Generator circuit breaker scheme
The auxiliaries are fed through unit transformer by back charging of GT. Thus in
Class A2 trip we are able to maintain uninterrupted power to the Unit bus and
auxiliaries which was not possible in the scheme without generator circuit
breaker.
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This ensures that the unit does not over-speed due to trapped steam in the
turbine during the shut-down and that the loss of power to the grid is not
sudden.
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In case of a thermal unit, the TG set runs with an HP/LP bypass system in
operation and the generator continues to feed the unit auxiliary transformer.
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4. Protection Philosophy
For increased reliability, some vital protections are duplicated. However, since
many protective relays either back-up or overlap, it is not necessary to duplicate
all the protections.
Higher reliability can be achieved by dividing the protective relays into two
groups, with each group catering to the basic minimum protection of the unit.
The typical groupings of protections for a large unit (500 MW) are given Table 1
in next section.
Typical groupings of protections for a large unit (500 MW) are delineated in
Table 1 below.
A typical list of such faults for a large unit may include the following. Note that
these faults are signaled as alarms on the digital distributed control and
monitoring information system:
However, for better reliability in larger units (210 MW and above), it is felt
that two such integrated multi-functional generator protection
relays should be used. The compact design and functional integration
minimizes panel space.
It also maximizes protection availability through extensive self-monitoring and
system supervision.
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References //
1. Switchgears book by BHEL – Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
2. An Overview of Classes and Grouping in Generator Protection at V.I.P.L.
(Nagpur) by Prof. V. R. Doifode, Manali V.Aranke, Suyash M.Choudhary,
Vividha V.Dhengre and Anmol M.Thawkar