Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)

Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016

ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

Implementation of Free Governing

Mode at 315MW Sabarigiri Power
Station, Kerala State Electricity Board
Amit Kumar Lamba1, Md. Umar2 & Kapil Mangla3
Satya College of Engineering & Technology, Palwal, Haryana, India

Abstract: The most important practice while Overview

generation and distribution of power is that the
supply should be almost equal to the demand Speed governor is the most important part of a
defaulting it results to loss of resources. For hydroelectric power house. The governor opens the
maintaining this requirement and supply of power, nozzles up to the percentage which rotates the
the operators have to keep an eye over various machine on rated rpm. After synchronizing with grid
parameters like frequency, voltage power factor etc. increasing the opening of nozzle will increase the
In India the grid is designed for 50 Hz. But during generated output and vice versa.
peak hours dipping in frequency is frequently
observed and during daytime, when the demand of Hydro Speed Governor is used to:
supply is less, the frequency overshooting may be • Run the machine on rated rpm.
observed. This fluctuation can also be responsible • To vary the load according to the requirement.
for entire grid collapse. So, to avoid this situation a • To take the machine on stand still position.
very important proven technique was introduced
which is named as Free Governing Mode of • To protect the turbine from damages in the cases
Operation. Commissioning of Free governing mode of any unsafe operating conditions.
of operation in Kerala state electricity board’s
Sabarigiri Hydroelectric project will demonstrate the The steady state and dynamic response behavior of
entire philosophy of the system. the turbine is influenced mainly by the characteristics
of the Governing system.
Introduction
Need for Governing System
By the term Free – Governing mode of Operation
or FGMO in short, we mean the feature of Frequency When the machine is synchronized with grid, the
Control under load operation condition and the supply of power is controlled by the governing
turbine governor continuously keeps on monitoring system. If the requirement of load is not met by the
and correcting the frequency of the grid by load supply then there will be an oscillation in frequency
regulation. The term free governing means that the or speed of machine which is an indication of poor
control is active on the entire frequency range. system. The regulation of frequency and power can
In India the grid frequency should be 50 Hz. Lot of be controlled by opening the nozzles or guide vanes,
efforts are done to maintain it. But load rejection and depending upon the type of hydro machine.
supply can only be managed by having a continuous Now a days digital governors are used, which are
eye over various parameters. Frequency is one of programmed according to the machine and its
them. philosophy of working. Programming is flexible and
For the sake of better control efforts are being made depends upon the programmer to meet the
to enable the frequency governors to respond to requirements.
entire range of frequency. This is called free Main inlet valves, deflectors, gates and guide vanes
governor mode of operation (FGMO). in a hydro power house are operated in case of any
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission has made unsafe operation and these are controlled by
it mandatory in all power stations beyond the load governor through hydraulic circuits called oil
capacity of 10MW. pumping unit and hydraulic servo motors.

Page 632
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

frequency, it will result to a change of 55 MW

change in power.

We can say that:-

Droop = change in frequency with respect to change
in power = ∆ω with respect to ∆P
If, droop value is 0.04 per unit or 4% then, for a
change of 4 Hz the change in power is 100% i.e.
55MW
For 1 Hz, the change in power output is 55/4 MW
For a change of (x) Hz the change in output power
Figure 1. Digital governor (Siemens make) will be (55/4)(x) MW.
The digital governor unit consists of inputs, outputs The value of x can be calculated by comparing the
and the processor. The processor compares the input current frequency with the nominal frequency i.e.
data with the program and logics stored in the 50Hz.
memory of governor and give the output accordingly. Hence, the change in power can be calculated by
droop value and change in frequency (∆ω).

Frequency Control by FGMO

F Free governing mode is a very fast technique to
overcome the frequency dip occurred in the grid.
Sabarigiri power house consists of 6 vertical pelton
type machines. Each machine is of 55 MW. If one
Figure 2. Basic overview of Digital governor machine trips, there is a slight change in frequency,
but if the 6 machines trips simultaneously then there
Working of a Governing System is a sudden drop of 330 MW, which will create a
huge drop of frequency, which is not good for the
A governing system works as a closed loop grid.
system. It varies the flow of water to the runner We can calculate the drop in frequency by the
according to the speed and load. following calculations.
Droop is an important parameter in frequency Let us assume that the Sabarigiri power house is
regulation. According to central electricity regulatory connected with a grid of 10000 MW generations on
commission, the value of frequency droop is 4%. FGMO with 4% droop. Now, this will increase the
system stiffness by 2500MW per Hertz.
Case-1
If no machine is having FGMO then by tripping all
the machines of Sabarigiri power house
simultaneously, the drop in frequency of the grid will
be (50x330)/10000= 1.65Hz
Case-2
If FGMO is installed for generating 5000 MW and
all the machines of Sabarigiri power house are
tripped simultaneously, the drop in frequency of the
Figure 3. Hydro Governor Overview grid will be (4/100)x(330/5000)x50 = 0.132Hz
Case-3
Droop or Regulation If FGMO is installed for the generation of 10000
MW, and all the 6 machines of Sabarigiri power
As per CERC the droop value for hydro governor house trips simultaneously than there will be a
must be 4 %. In Sabarigiri power house the droop or frequency drop of (4/100)x(330/10000)= 0.066Hz
speed regulation is kept as 4 %. So, it is proved that the system having FGMO is
In simple words it can be said that if the droop value better and results to better quality of generation of
is 4%. It means that if there is a change of 4Hz in the power.
frequency, there would be a change of 100% load of This technique also works when machines on other
the machine rating. power houses trips, in that case all the 6 machines of
In Kerala state electricity board’s Sabarigiri power Sabarigiri power house adjusts the load according to
house there are 6 units of 55 MW each. The droop the frequency and droop.
value is set at 4%. When there is a change of 1 Hz in

Page 633
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

system", IEEE Power Engineering Society General

Meeting, Vol. 3,pp.2738-2745, SanFrancisco, California,
USA, 2005
[5] A.Roy,S.A. Khaparde, "Operating Experience of
Regional interconnections in India", Senior Member, IEEE,
P.Pentayya, S.Usha, A.R. Abhyankar @ IEEE 2005
[6] Geetha T, Mala E, Jayashankar V, Jagadeesh Kumar V,
Sankaran P, "@ Operating Strategies for generation
deficient power system", 16th IMEKO TC4 Symposium
Sept. 22-24, 2008, Florence, Italy.
Figure 4. Free governing mode of operation

Conclusion
Frequency instability occurs due to the mismatch
between load and generation caused by tripping of
generators and / or rejection of loads giving rise to a
sudden change in frequency. When the turbo
generator is on bars, the governor of the turbine, if its
wings are not clipped, responds to a change in
frequency by varying the control valve lift and so
varying the generation. The change in generation
depends on the droop characteristics of the governor.
All the turbo generators in the grid participating in
the governing action tend to annul the change in
frequency by increasing or decreasing the generation.
This mode of governor operation compensates the
change in frequency by change in generation and is
called Free Governor Mode of Operation (FGMO).
If the provisions available in the governor and
control circuits viz., load limiter, dead band,
switching off the governor etc., are employed to
curtail the FGMO, it will lead to higher swings in
frequency, instability of the grid and subsequent pull
out even. It is clear that, more the constituent units
are under FGMO more is the stability of the Grid. In
Southern Region, by operating maximum possible
number of units with their governors in free mode,
by automatic under frequency load shedding and by
way of using special protection schemes, etc. the
frequency stability is being ensured.

1. References

[1] P. Nelson Vinotha Kumar Xavier and S. Muthukumar

"Frequency regulation by free governor mode of operation
in power station", 2010 IEEE international conference on
computational intelligence and computing research.
[2] S. K. Parida, S. N. Singh, S.C. Srivastava, and P.
Chanda, "Pros and Cons of existing Frequency Regulation
Mechanism in Indian Power Industry", 978-1-4244-1762-
9/08/©2008IEEE.
[3] Subrata Mukhopadhyay, "An Indian Experience of
Defense Against Blackouts and Restoration Mechanism
followed", Doctoral Thesis,© 2008 IEEE.

[4] A.Roy, S.A. Khaparde,P. Pentayya, S. Pushpa,

"Operating Strategies for generation deficient power

Page 634