PROJECT : NALCO CPP UNIT 7 AND 8 PROBLEM : ISLANDING OPERATION

Islanding

operation

of

units -

1 to 6 was

successfully

demonstrated earlier.

However, after addition of units - 7 & 8,

under the grid disturbances, the total plant used to trip causing loss of power to the smelter plants. During islanding operation trials of unit 7 and 8 of NALCO CPP, wide fluctuations of load, frequency and voltages were noticed, which could not be stabilized even after 10 minutes. WHY ISLANDING CRITICAL? During the grid disturbances, such as under frequency or under

voltage smelter pot lines control gets disturbed and metal in the pot lines will get solidified causing production loss and down time of smelters for a week. Due to this, a circuit has been envisaged such that in NALCO CPP Generators and Smelters will get isolated from the grid on under frequency or under voltage to protect the pot lines and avoid losses.

DETAILS OF THE PLANT: NALCO CPP is having 8 units of 120 MW each, that are feeding the captive consumption of 600 MW at their smelter plant. Unit 1 6 steam turbines are having Electro-Hydraulic Governing system

( EHTC) and are of

KWU design. Unit 7 and 8 steam turbines are

supplied with Electronic High pressure Governing and are of KN series of Siemens Design. OBSERVATIONS DURING TRIALS OF ISLANDING OPERATIONS: TRIAL - 1 dated 28 th October, 2005 (From 16:49:30 hrs to 17:15:40 hrs) Islanding Operation was tried as per the scheme 1 enclosed. During the trial wide fluctuations of load, frequency and voltages were noticed which could not be stabilized and smelter feeders tripped on under voltage (Trend-1 enclosed). Further during the trial, it was observed that in unit - 7 high speed controller was interfering and

causing valves to close & open continuously.

During

trial starting and load limiting device (SLLD) of unit 7 was

reduced such that load limiting devices action superseded the speed controllers action. It was observed on reduction o SLLD hunting had f reduced and on release of SLLD hunting again started.

TRIAL- 2 dated 25th April, 2006 (From 11:37:30 hrs to 11:51:05 hrs) From the above trial , certain logics were modified for avoiding high speed controller interference and in such a way that a gain of 1.5 will get automatically reduced to 0.3 during islanding operation to eliminate the along with fluctuations. Islanding trial operation of unit - 7

units - 5 & and 6 was carried out under the conditions

of export of 30 MW and with smelter load of 195 MW by opening the bus coupler (refer scheme 2). The transient performance was

not settling even after 13 minutes and wide fluctuations of load, frequency and voltages were observed as below:

? Load fluctuation of 10 MW in unit 5, 30 MW in unit 6 and 60 MW in unit 7 ? Frequency fluctuations of 1.6 Hz in all units ? Generator Voltage fluctuation of 2.5 kV in all units

During wide fluctuation of load, frequency and voltage ,it was decided to take unit-5 to load control mode for improvement . When Unit -

5 was taken to load control mode ,the machine got unloaded fully and tripped. The system frequency dropped and smelter feeder tripped on under frequency and units - 6 & 7 tripped on over speed protection after tripping of smelter feeder.

The wide fluctuations observed in the above two trials were attributed to mismatch in Governor/ Valve response time, AVR response time between the old units and units - 7 & 8. Hence it was decided to check the Governor/ Valve response time, AVR response of old units and new units (7 and 8). From 15 th October 2006 to 18 th October 2006, responses of valves were recorded with high speed recorder, for units - 5, 7 & 8. AVR responses were also recorded. The following were observed:
Serial No. TEST CONDITIONS OBSERVATIONS

UNIT 5: 3V 8V For 3- 8 V step command HPCV step up command to and IPCV started responding position controller after 0.2 seconds and stabilized in 7 seconds (Refer graph 1) UNIT 5: 8V 3V For 8- 3 V step down command step down command HPCV and IPCV started to position responding after 0.1 second, controller HPCV stabilized in 2.6 seconds and IPCV stabilized in 5 seconds ( Refer graph 2) UNIT 7: 3V 8V HPCV and IPCV responded step up command to immediately, HPCV stabilized in position controller 1.54 seconds and IPCV stabilized in 5.29 seconds. UNIT 7: 8V 3V HPCV and IPCV responded step down command immediately, HPCV stabilized in to position 2.2 seconds and IPCV stabilized controller in 5.4 seconds.

5 6 7

AVR Step response in Found OK unit 5 AVR Step response in Response was faster and unit 7 retuned to match unit 5. Unit 8 Valve response was similar to unit 7 and AVR response was retuned to match unit 5. further studied and it was decided to

The above responses were carry out the following.

? To slow down the valve response of units - 7 & 8, PT blocks were provided (First order time delay function block) in position reference circuit of HPCV 1 & 2, IPCV 1 & 2 and Over load Control Valve (OLCV). This time delay block is in operation only under islanding conditions and when frequency is less than 52 Hz. ? To Disable Power System Stabilizer (PSS) in units - 7 & 8 as was in units 1-6, where no PSS is provided. The above modifications were carried out on 23rd April 2008. On 25 th April 2008, islanding operation was carried out under the conditions of export of 30 MW and smelter load of 195 MW by opening bus coupler (Refer scheme 3). The transient performance was found to be satisfactory with a settling time of 1 minute of load, frequency and voltage. Machines were run on islanded mode for around 50 minutes. After satisfactory Speed reference of units - 7, 8 and 5 were varied one at a time and voltages and frequencies were matched and re-synchronized with the grid.

During wide fluctuation of load, frequency and voltage ,it was decided to take unit-5 to load control mode for improvement . When Unit -

5 was taken to load control mode ,the machine got unloaded fully and tripped. The system frequency dropped and smelter feeder tripped on under frequency and units - 6 & 7 tripped on over speed protection after tripping of smelter feeder.

Conclusions: After the above demonstration of Island operation at NALCO-CPP, it can be concluded that before carrying out islanding trials, the following are to be checked / carried out for a successful islanding operation 1. Valve response time of each machine is to be measured, compared and matched with other units by suitable modifications in position reference circuit and or in the servo timing of valves. 2. AVR response time of each machine is to be measured and matched precisely by retuning AVR PID.