Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Upgrading
Hydroelectric Generator Protection
Using Digital Technology
Charles J. Mozina
Beckwith Electric Company
6190-118th Avenue North
Largo, FL 33773-3724 U.S.A.
11
Mozina
Abstract
This proposed paper presents the reasons/rationale why hydroelectric generator owners should
consider upgrading the electrical protection of their generators to meet todays IEEE/ANSI standards. It specifically outlines the risks assumed by the owners in several functional protection
areas where 20+ year old generator protection is inadequate.
Introduction
Contrary to popular belief, generators do experience short circuits and abnormal electrical
conditions. In many cases, equipment damage due to these events can be reduced or prevented by
proper generator protection. Generators, unlike most other power system components, need to be
protected not only from short circuits, but from abnormal electrical conditions. Examples of such
abnormal conditions are: overexcitation, overvoltage, loss-of-field, unbalanced currents, reverse
power, and abnormal frequency. When subjected to these conditions, damage or complete failure
can occur within seconds; thus, automatic detection and tripping are required.
In the early 1990s, the IEEE Power System Relaying Committee conducted a survey to determine how major synchronous generators in North America were protected from short circuits
and abnormal electrical conditions. Survey findings indicated that despite the clear need to upgrade older generator protection schemes to meet current standards, utilities seemed reluctant to
make needed modifications to existing power plants. This reluctance may be due to several
factors: a lack of expertise, a misunderstood belief that generators do not fail often enough to
warrant proper protection, or a belief that operating procedures will cover protection design
deficiencies.
Areas of Protection Upgrade on Older Generators
The areas of upgrading of 20+ year old generator protection fall into three broad categories:
1) Improved Sensitivity in protection areas where older relaying does not provide the level
of detection required to prevent damages. Examples of protection in this area are:
negative sequence (unbalanced current) protection
100% stator ground fault protection
2) New or Additional Protection Areas that 20 years ago were not perceived to be a problem, but operating experiences have proved otherwise. These areas are:
1
Mozina
There are a number of system conditions that can cause unbalanced three-phase currents in a
generator. These system conditions produce negative sequence components of current which
induce a double-frequency current in the surface of the rotor. The skin effect of the doublefrequency rotor current causes it to be forced into the surface elements of the rotor. These rotor
currents can cause excessive temperatures in a very short time.
The current flows across the metal-to-metal contact of the retaining rings to the rotor forging
wedges. Because of the skin effect, only a very small portion of this high frequency current
flows in the field windings. Excessive negative sequence heating beyond rotor thermal limits
results in failure. These limits are based on the following equation, for a given generator:
K=I22t
Where:
K = constant depending on generator design and size
t = time in seconds
I2 = RMS value of negative sequence current in p.u.
The continuous unbalanced current capability of a generator is defined in ANSI C50.13 (references 4 and 5). This standard states that "generator shall be capable of withstanding, without
injury, the effects of a continuous current unbalance corresponding to a negative-phase-sequence
current I2 of the following values, providing the rated kVA is not exceeded and the maximum
current does not exceed 105 percent of rated current in any phase."
Type of Generator
Permissible I2
(percent of stator rating)
Salient Pole
With connected amortisseur windings
10
With non-connected amortisseur windings 5
These values also express the negative-phase-sequence current capability at reduced generator
KVA capabilities.
It is common practice to provide protection for the generator for external unbalanced current
conditions that might damage the machine. This protection consists of a time overcurrent relay
which is responsive to negative sequence current. Two types of relays are available for this
protection: an electromechanical time overcurrent relay with an extremely inverse characteristic,
and a static or digital relay with a time overcurrent characteristic which matches the negative
sequence current capabilities of the generator. For open conductor or open breaker pole condi-
Mozina
tions, the negative sequence relay is usually the only protection. The low magnitude of negative
sequence currents created by this type of event (typically 10-20% of stator rating) prevents other
fault relays from providing protection. For electromechanical negative sequence relays, the minimum pickup can be set to provide only 60% of stator rated current sensitivity. Thus, these relays
will provide no protection for open phase or open generator breaker pole conditions which are
frequent negative sequence events within the industry. The sensitivity of negative sequence static
or digital relays is required. Almost all 20+ year old generators are protected with electromechanical negative sequence relays which make this an important upgrade area.
100% Stator Ground Fault Protection
High-impedance generator neutral grounding utilizes a distribution transformer and a secondary resistor. The secondary resistor is usually selected so that for a single line to ground fault at
the terminals of the generator, the power dissipated in the resistor is approximately equal to the
reactive volt-amperes in the zero sequence capacitive reactance of the generator windings, its
leads, and the windings of any transformers connected to the generator terminals. Using this
grounding method, a single line to ground fault is generally limited to 3-25 primary amperes.
59
N
Mozina
One method uses the fact that for a fault near the neutral, the level of third-harmonic voltage
at the neutral decreases. Therefore, an undervoltage relay operating from third-harmonic voltage
measured at the neutral end could be used to detect faults near the neutral. The ground faults in
the remaining portion of the windings can be detected by conventional ground fault protection,
e.g., the overvoltage relay (59N) which operates on the 60 Hz neutral voltage. The combination
of both relays provide 100% stator winding protection. A simplified protection scheme using this
technique is shown in Figure 2.
59
(+)
59
59N
2-1
2-2
100%
95%
59
N
27
Th
27Th
2-2
2-1
86
COMPLETE
SHUTDOWN
(-)
59
59N
Mozina
CT
50
27
50
VT
Overcurrent
I>P.U.
AND
Pickup
Delay
27
GEN
Output
Contact
Undervoltage*
V<P.U.
Dropout
Delay
a) Relay Inputs
Where:
X1S = System Positive Sequence Reactance
I
GEN
X2G
EG
ES
Equivalent
System
Voltage
Loss of the vt signal can occur due to a number of causes, the most common cause being fuse
failure. Other causes may be an actual vt or wiring failure, an open in the draw-out assemblies, a
contact opening due to corrosion, or a blown fuse due to screwdriver shorts during on-line main-
Mozina
tenance. Such loss of vt signal can cause protective relays misoperations or generator voltage
regulator runaway leading to an overexcitation condition. Some method of detection is required
so that the effected relay tripping can be blocked and the voltage regulator transferred to manual
operation. Typically, protective functions such as 21, 32, 40 and 51V are impacted and are
normally blocked when a loss of potential is detected.
On larger generators, it is common practice to use two sets of voltage transformers (vts) in the
generator zone of protection. As shown in Figure 5a, the vts that are usually connected grounded
wye-grounded wye, normally have secondary and possibly primary fuses. These vts are used to
provide potential to a number of protective relays and the voltage regulator. If a fuse blows in the
vt circuits, the secondary voltages applied to the relays and voltage regulator will be reduced in
magnitude. This change in voltage signal can cause the misoperation of the relays and the regulator to overexcite the generator.
GEN
GEN
VT
60
FL
60
VOLTAGE
BALANCE
RELAY
TO
PROTECTIVE
RELAY
TO PROTECTIVE
RELAY AND
VOLTAGE
REGULATOR
TO
VOLTAGE
REGULATOR
The monitoring of a utility's transmission system with oscillographs which record relay currents and voltages has long been accepted within the industry as providing the basic data to
analyze the performance of the transmission protective system. Because of the greater number of
transmission line faults versus generator faults and abnormal conditions, it was felt by many that
similar monitoring of generators could not be economically justified with stand alone oscillographs. However, with the advent of digital protective relays for generators, oscillographs are
built into the protective relay. Figure 6 is an example of an oscillographic recording from such a
relay.
Mozina
A breaker failure scheme needs to be initiated when the protective relay system operates to
trip the generator circuit breaker but the breaker fails to operate. Because of the sensitivities
required, there are major differences in how local breaker failure is applied on a generator breaker
versus a transmission line breaker. Figure 7 shows the functional diagram of a typical breaker
failure scheme used on a transmission line breaker.
When the protective relays detect a fault, they will attempt to trip the primary transmission
line breaker and at the same time initiate breaker failure. If the line breaker does not clear the
fault in a specified time, the timer will trip the necessary backup breakers to remove the failed
circuit breaker from service. The successful tripping of the primary breaker is determined by the
drop out of its current detector (CD) which stops the breaker failure timer (62). When breaker
failure is applied on a generator breaker, however, its tripping may not be initiated by a short
circuit but by an abnormal operating condition for which there maybe little or no short circuit
current. Abnormal operating conditions such as overvoltage, overexcitation, excessive underfrequency,
reverse power and stator ground faults will not produce sufficient current to operate the current
detectors (CD). The breaker 52a switch must be used in parallel with the fault detectors to
provide additional indication in a breaker failure scheme for generator breakers. This logic is
shown in Figure 8.
CD
Protective
Relays
AND
BFI
Trip
Generator
Breaker
62
Timer
A
CD - Current Detector
Trips
Backup
Breakers
and
Unit
Mozina
52a
OR
CD
62
Timer
A
AND
Trips
Backup
Breaker
and
Unit
BFI
Protective
Relays
Trip
Generator
Breaker
Utility System
TYPICAL
MULTIFUNCTION
RELAY
IA, B, C
52
Unit
50
52
C
BF-N
Denotes Upgrade
Functions
81
81
27
59
27
59
24
27
24
5
27
5
50
BF
87
GD
50
50
BF
50
87
IA, B, C
87
4
60FL
4
60FL
40
51V
32
50
46
Ia, b, c
40
21
32
46
27
Ia, b, c
27
51N
50N
2
27
27
TN
59N
High-Impedance
Grounding
Low-Impedance
Grounding
Denotes
Upgrade
Functions
Mozina
These functions, plus nine (9) additional protection functions, are included in a single compact package. Space considerations are an important concern when doing upgrade work and can
have a significant impact on project cost, making multifunction digital relays ideal for upgrade
projects.
Additional features, which make these types of relays extremely flexible for upgrade applications, include:
Telephone
Line
IBM-Compatible PC
Modem
Modem
Communications-Line
Splitter
Address 6
Address 5
Address 4
Address 1
Address 3
Address 2
a) RS-232 Port
Address 1
Address 2
Address 5
RX
- +
RX
- +
RX
- +
TX
- +
TX
- +
TX
- +
PC Master
TT+
RR+
Twisted Pair
RS-232 to RS-485 4-wire converter
b) RS-485 Port
Figure 10 Multiple System Addressing Using Communications-Line Splitter
9
Mozina
Relay 1
Relay 2
Relay 3
Relay
PLANT
DCS System
Data link to
EMS Center
Local
Operator
CRT
Display
EMS
Center
10
Mozina