ELECTRO- HYDRAULIC GOVERNING

Debamalya Gon Choudhury

The EHG System is a PLC based system and works on the HDC 500 PLC System of FUJI
Electric, Japan. The governing logics are programmed on FAISES software. This forms the main
controller for turbine governing backed up by a mechanical system. Electro hydraulic governing ensures
smooth rolling, synchronizing and loading of turbine. A brief account of the various features and their
operations is given below.
EHG System is based on the following three controllers:
1) Speed control
2) Power control
3) Pressure control
SPEED CONTROL
Operation
The speed control of turbine is active whenever the generator circuit breaker (GCB) is open. It
ensures smooth rolling and synchronization of turbine. Basically speed control maintains constant speed of
the turbine according to the set point. During rolling the set point is generated automatically and the rate of
speed change is selected in depending on the condition of the turbine. If turbine rolling take place in Very
Hot Mode, Hot Mode or Warm mode the speed change rate will be fast at 500 rpm/min while in cold mode
the speed change rate will be slow at 200rpm/min.
There are three selections available at the control desk
1) Turning 2) Soaking 3) Rated
Turning
In turning the speed set point is 0 rpm so no command goes to the E/H converter and all MCVs
and stop valves are closed. Turning of turbine take place by the oil supplied by AOP through turning oil
valves with necessary lifting by jacking oil. In
Bakreswar turning speed is approximately around 180-220 rpm depending on vacuum.
Resetting of turbine
Soaking can only be selected if turbine is in reset condition. Resetting of turbine is possible only
when all trip conditions for turbine are removed. Turbine reset means that mechanical trip devices and stop
valves are reset and sufficient trip oil pressure is generated. The main source of trip oil is the control oil,
which is supplied by AOP during startup and by MOP after sufficient speed is attained. This control oil
passes through two remote trip solenoids and emergency trip device to form trip oil. So to generate trip oil
the remote trip solenoids are deactivated and emergency trip device is reset. RTS are deactivated if no trip
conditions persist and emergency trip device is reset by generating sufficient auxiliary startup oil by the
starting device. When starting device is fully closed start up oil and auxiliary start up oil are generated
which resets the stop valves and trip devices respectively. Thus trip oil pressure increases resetting the
turbine. Once turbine is reset the starting device and speeder gear (Mechanical Governor) is fully opened.
Care must be taken so that the governing is in EHG mode at that time.
Control oil

RTS1

RTS2

EMERGENCY
TRIP DEVICE

Trip oil

Soaking
Once this condition is achieved soaking of turbine is done by selecting HEAT SOAK from the
desk. In ATS mode Heat soak is automatically selected. This raises the set point to 1080 rpm at a rate
depending on the mode of operation. If under certain conditions metal matching conditions are not satisfied
a hold signal will be generated which will not allow the turbine to increase the speed. There is another
feature called the Run Down Operation .It takes care of the fact that turbine speed increases above a
certain rate to avoid unnecessary vibrations during critical speeds. If the rate of actual increase of speed
falls below 100 rpm/min during rolling from 400 rpm to 1080 rpm this action will be triggered and the
turbine will be brought down to turning speed.
The turbine is kept at soaking speed depending on the mode of rolling.

Rated
After necessary soaking RATED is selected from the desk, which brings the turbine at rated
speed i.e. 3000 rpm. There are three critical speed zones
1) Range-1:
1260-1610 rpm
2) Range-2:
1710-2185 rpm
3) Range-3:
2295-2800 rpm
If rate of increase falls below 100rpm/min during these speeds Run down becomes active and turbine is
brought down to soaking speed.

Hardware
Three hall probes mounted on bearing 1 of the turbine sense the speed. They generate pulse
signals, which are fed to Pulse Input Cards in the PLC.They are converted into corresponding digits by
these cards, which are used by the processor for processing. The mean value of the three signals are taken
and the deviation from the set point generated from the speed secondary setter is processed by a PI Control
loop to give appropriate signal to the E/H converter.

Target
Speed

Speed
2ndary
Setter

Speed
Setter

PI
CONTROL
Output
To valve controller
Speed Sensors
Pulse
Input
Card

Mean
Value

Speed setter generates required set points, which are fed to speed 2ndry setter, which determines
the rate of change of the speed set points according to the selected rate of change of speed.

Interfacing of Governing with autosynchroniser

The EHG system is interfaced with the autosynchroniser. The autosynchroniser gives speed raise
or lower command to the speed setter according to the beat frequency sensed by the autosynchroniser. The
speed of the turbine increases or decreases according to the command.

POWER CONTROL
The Power controller ensures smooth loading of the turbine. It is active when the Generator circuit
breaker (GCB) closes. Various features are incorporated in this controller, which includes
1) Initial Load Concept
2) Governor free operation
3) Limiting Pressure Operation
4) Frequency Influence
5) Interfacing with Coordinated Master control (CMC)
Initial Load
When Generator is synchronized the power set point automatically becomes 5% of rated load i.e.
10.5 MW. Since the turbine goes on power control with an initial load of 10.5 MW, this ensures that
generator never goes on motoring which was one of the synchronization problems. It should be noted that
this set point goes directly to secondary setter; hence no influence of rate is present.
Governor Free Operation

In the Governor Free Operation, turbine responds directly with speed even though the turbine is on
power controller. In Bakreswar, the Governor Free Operation has a droop of 4.5% .The present dead band
of this circuit is 0%, i.e. loading and unloading of machine starts just as it crosses 50 Hz.However this is a
variable quantity and can be changed as desired. The droop and the maximum load change can also be
changed as desired.
Presently the maximum load change from Governor free operation is 50% i.e. 105 MW. The
response of the load change can be controlled by proper setting of time constant for an integrator circuit.

+105 MW

Frequency (Hz)
51.125

50

48.875

-105MW

Presently it is very difficult to have governor free operation owing to the large variation of
frequency in the grid, which leads to large load changes.

Limiting Pressure Control (LPC)

If due to certain abnormal condition the pressure of the system falls, this control reduces the load
to a certain extent to control the pressure. This type of pressure control within the power control is known
as Limiting Pressure Control. Here it should be mentioned that LPC could be switched on only if the
turbine is on Power Control mode. In BKTPP Load rejection starts if pressure falls below 10% of the
limiting pressure setting. 21 MW load rejection take place when pressure deviation becomes more than
20% of the set point.

Load
Limit Press Setting
__
A
Actual Pressure

B
Press.
Dev

A=+10%(15 Kg/cm2) B=+20%(30 Kg/cm2) C=-10%(21MW)

Frequency Influence
There is a proportional Controller whose value depends on the speed deviation and which directly
influences the power controller. The purpose of this controller is to decrease the load at high frequency.
Here it must be mentioned that Governor free Operation does not have any dead band and it is mainly a
frequency controller. But the Frequency Influence circuit within the power controller restricts turbine
loading at high frequency. Unlike the governor free operation this circuit always remain active when power
controller is on. Initially a dead band of 1.5 Hz was present but now this dead band has been increased to
3.5 Hz owing to high frequency of the grid. However this has created some problems initially as the MHG
droop came into action whose rate of load rejection is very high compared to EHG. So in the mechanical
side this droop characteristic was modified such as to reject the load at much higher frequencies than the
originally designed.
53.5 51.5 Power
Frequency

Continuous: -Present
Dashed: Designed

Interfacing with the Coordinated Master Control (CMC)

Under CMC mode of operation the power controller becomes active and load set point is given by
the unit load set point of the CMC circuit. The secondary power setter tracks the unit load demand set
point. In this mode of operation the rate of load change is determined from the CMC circuit and secondary
power setter has no influence under CMC. Thus the turbine maintains load according to the demand from
the CMC.

Final Output of the Power Controller

As discussed above the final set point for the power controller is influenced by Governor Free
Control, Limiting Pressure Control and Droop Control (Frequency Influence).

Secondary Power Setting

+
LPC output

+
Governor Free Control Output

PI
Controller

Actual Load

Final
Output
to valve
Control
Actual Speed

PI
Controller

3000 rpm

PRESSURE CONTROL

There is a pressure controller within the EHG system, which maintains constant pressure at HP
turbine inlet. The pressure setting value is given from the CMC desk. This controller becomes active only
in the turbine follow mode (TFM). In this mode, the EHG is in AUTO and no set point for load can be
given. The power controller tracks at 5% higher value i.e. 10.5 MW higher than the original load. If due to
certain reason the pressure controller output reaches a value below 50% then the output is limited to 50%
.In this condition the pressure controller will not work properly. This is done to ensure that boiler has
sufficient energy to give desired load.

Pr. set point

Actual Pr.

PI
Controller

Pressure control output

for valve pos. control

Electrical Load Limiter (77E) and ALFC

Electrical Load limiter can be used for sudden decrease of load during emergency conditions.
Electrical Load limiter works in association with Automatic Load Limiter Follow up control or ALFC,
which is activated above 82 MW. If ALFC is ON then the Electrical Load Limiter (77E) tracks the
controller outputs (valve position) with a 10% higher value. This tracking is done at a certain rate
controlled by the Load Limit 2nd Setter. During ALFC this rate is 33% per minute. Thus this also ensures
that no sudden increase or decrease of load changes take place under any abnormal conditions.

Load
Limit
Setter

Load Limit
2ndry
Setter

Load Limiter Output

Controller output
+
10%
ALFC ON

Valve Position Controller

All controller output is finally fed into the valve position controller which controls the opening of
the control valves. This is a PI Controller.
Selection Of the various controllers
If Generator Circuit breaker is opened then speed controller is always active. The output of the
speed and power controller is fed to an added circuit. When GCB is closed output of speed controller
becomes zero and power controller becomes active. The output of speed controller and pressure controller
are fed to a low value selector. When pressure control is not selected the output of this controller is 100%,
thus the power controller becomes active. If we select the pressure control then the power control output
tracks the load at a value 5% higher than the actual load thus pressure controller output is selected for the
control. A logical diagram below describes the operation: Speed
Control Output

Minimum
Value
Selector

Minimum
Value
Selector

Power
Control Output
100%
Pressure
Control Output
Pressure Control ON

S
E
L
1

load limiter (77E)

PI
Control

E/H
Converter

HARDWARE: The valve position controller gives command to the E/H convertor in voltage. The output card
generates a voltage of 0- -10V which is used for lifting the pistons within the E/H convertor. If 0V is
applied to the E/H convertor the piston is lifted and the auxiliary secondary oil pressure is maximum
leading to opening of control valves. At a voltage of around 5.5V the lift is 0% and the auxiliary
secondary oil pressure is negligible leading to closing of control valves. A graph showing the piston lift and
oil pressures in relation to voltage output from E/H converter is given below:

LIFT/VOLTAGE
50
40
LIFT

30
Series1
20
10
0
-6

-4

-2

VOLTAGE

PRESSURE

LIFT/OIL PRESSURE
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1 0

Series1
Series2
Series3
Series4
Series5
10

20

30

40

LIFT

Blue: -Auxiliary Secondary Oil Pressure

Pink: -Secondary Oil Pressure for MCV1, 2
Yellow: -Secondary Oil Pressure for MC 3,4
Light Blue: -Secondary Oil Pressure ICV L, R
Brown: -Secondary Oil Pressure

50

Auto Follow Up of Mechanical Governing:

This circuit makes the speeder gear to follow the Electro hydraulic Governor at a value above 5%
of the valve position of the E/H convertor. A function generator maps the 65M position with the E/H
convertor valve position.

Valve Pos
Command
+

5%

65M position

__

Auto
Follow Up
Controller
Command
to 65M

F1
(x)

valve Position

65M Position
50%

Due to large variations of frequency the autofollow up circuit is not functioning properly at
BkTPP and hence the normal practise here is to keep 65M at 100%. MHG droop curve changes as 65M is
lowered and if there is a fluctuation in frequency it may so happen that MHG sometimes come into action
which is undesirable.The disadvantage of this is that if due to certain reason the EHG fails the control
valves will suddenly go to 100% causing accidents and damage in certain conditions.

Starting device (77M) and Speeder Gear (65M) for Electrohydraulic Governing

The starting device or 77M is used as a mechanical load limiter and also to generate start up oil for
resetting the stop valves and auxillary start up oil for resetting all trip devices.Control oil is the main source
of start up oil and auxillary start up oil .This oil is generated when the starting device is brought to 0%.
If all trip conditions are removed, the turbine resets when starting device goes to 0% as trip oil pressure
becomes available once emergency trip device is reset.Under normal operation the starting device is kept at
100%.However these can be used to decrease load as this also acts as the mechanical load limiter.
Start Up Oil for restting stop valves
Control Oil

Starting
Device
0%

Aux start up oil for resetting trip devices

Thus during Electro hydraulic governing, the starting device is used as the resetting device.
Speeder gear or 65M is the mechanical governor and we can control the load when MHG is
selected. If Auto follow up feature is selected then this follows the E/H valve position with a 5% higher
value. Otherwise the normal practice is to keep it at 100% so that mechanical governor does not influence
the EHG system. One thing must be mentioned here that 65M have certain droop characteristics and this
droop depends on frequency.

210 MW
65M position
100%
75%
50%

0MW
51.75

53.75

Above figure shows the droop characteristics of 65M. Presently the mechanical droop is set at
7.5% and turbine can generate 210 MW without the influence of 65M droop up to a frequency of 51.75 Hz.
This should be noted that this is the case when 65M is 100%. If 65M position is decreased the droop
characteristics will also fall parallely i.e. at 75% 65M position we can supply 210 MW at relatively lower
frequency. If there is a frequency fluctuation and auto follow up of 65M is made on then there may be a
position where 65M falls below EHG command and comes into action which may be undesirable. So for
smooth running of 65M we should maintain a constant frequency.

Auto Change Over Circuit

There is an automatic circuit present in EHG for smooth transfer from EHG to MHG and vice
versa.
EHG to MHG change over
During this condition the MHG command is decreased and this continues up to the point when
actual load is reduced by 2 MW from the load set point (in case of power control) or by 10 rpm in case of
speed control.
As the load reduces the valve control deviation of EHG increases and hence EHG gives a rising
command and this continues until EHG reaches 100%. MHG is selected once the valve position for EHG
reaches 100%
Series1: - MHG
Series2: - EHG
EHG /MHG CHANGE OVER
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

Series1
Series2

10

11

MHG to EHG changeover

During this changeover the 65P set point is set at 2 MW less than actual power in case of power
control and 10 rpm less in case of speed control. This leads to decrease of EHG valve position command.
When power control deviation (in case of power control) or speed control deviation becomes less than .1%
the raise command for MHG is activated and finally MHG reaches 100%. When MHG reaches 100% value
the changeover from EHG to MHG is completed.

MHG /EHG CAHNGE OVER

120
100
80
60
40
20
0

Series1
Series2

10

11

Series1: - EHG
Series2: - MHG

Load Shedding Relays and House Load Operation

During House Load Operation the GCB is opened and in this case the turbine goes on speed
control. That means auxiliary power for the plant is supplied by the turbine at a constant frequency of 50
Hz. Load can be increased or decreased by the speed set point.
There are two Load Shedding Relays, which are activated if load rejection rate goes above a
certain limit. This type of situation takes place when GCB is opened and protects the turbine from over
speeding at that instant. Load shedding relays activate two solenoid valves. One of them present in the
auxiliary secondary oil line and the other present in the secondary oil line of the ICVs.If load shedding
relays operate they drain the auxiliary secondary oil and secondary oil for ICVs so that all control valves
closes. After two seconds they again open and maintain load according to the given command. This activity
mainly takes place in house load operations. When GCB opens, sudden load throw off take place, which
initiates the load shedding relay without tripping the turbine. The turbine goes on speed control while the
control valves closes for 2 seconds due to the draining of auxiliary secondary oil at that instant and then
again opens to maintain the load at that condition (House Load).

50%
MCV Position
10%
House Load
0%

Load Shedding
ON
2 Seconds

Turbine Stress Influence

The Turbine Stress Controller (TSC) generates a hold function i.e. it does not allow turbine to
increase or decrease load or speed if metal matching conditions are not satisfied. These prevent the turbine
from excessive stress during load change or speed change. The turbine stress controller calculates the
temperature margin from the midwall temperature and surface temperature of MSV, HP Casing, HP Shaft
and IP Shaft and if this margin falls below 15 deg centigrade it generates a trigger to the EHG and
consequently EHG blocks any increase or decrease of load during such conditions. Here it must be noted
that this HOLD function is generated only if TSC is selected.

GOVERNOR FREE OPERATION

In the Governor Free operation Turbine responds directly with speed even though the turbine is on power
controller.In Bakreswar the Governor Free has a droop of 4.5% .The present deadband of this circuit is
0%,i.e. loading and unloading of machine starts just as it crosses 50Hz.However this is a variable quantity
and can be changed as desired.The droop and the maximum load change can also be changed as desired.
Presently the maximum load change from Governor free operation is 50% i.e. 105MW.

+105 MW

Frequency(Hz)
51.125

50

48.875

-105MW

Circuit Details:The Governor free circuit uses the speed detection circuit(midvalue of the three sensors) of the range 018,000 digits corresponding to 0-3000rpm.This value is subtracted from 18000 digits to get the speed
deviation in the range 0-18000 digits.A dead band circuit is present which presently has 0 dead band.

18000

DB

__
ACTUAL
SPEED
0%

INT

POWER
SET
+

LPC
OUTPUT

10

4.5

LIMIT