Protection of Generator

Ø The generators used in the power system are used to

produce very high a.c.voltage

Ø The protection of generators is very much complex due to

the following reasons

1.The generators are very large machines producing very

high voltages and are connected to busbars.

2. Various other equipments are always associated with the

generators such equipments are

ü Prime movers
ü Excitation system
ü Voltage regulation
ü Cooling systems etc
Thus protection of generator must consider the presence of
these other equipment also.

3. generators is important factor in a power system. the failure

of the generator causes entire outage of the system so the
protection scheme needs great consideration .

 All these factors make the design of protection scheme for

the generator, very much complex.
Generator faults

1. Stator faults
2. Rotor faults
3. Abnormal running conditions

1. Stator faults
A. Phase to ground faults
B. Phase to phase faults
C. Stator inter-turn faults

3. Abnormal running conditions

v overloading
v over speeding
v unbalanced loading
v overvoltage
v failure of prime mover
v loss of excitation (field failure)
v cooling system failure
 Overloading
Ø Due to continuous overloading the overheating of stator
Results .this may increase the winding temperature if the
temperature rise exceeds certain limit the insulation of the
winding may get damage

• Over current protection is used to protect the overloading

problem

Over speeding

Ø In case of hydraulic generator a sudden loss of load

results in over speeding of the generator .
Unbalanced loading

 The unbalance loading of the generator results in the circulation of

negative sequence current these current produce the rotating magnetic
field

§ Negative sequence protection is important to protect this situation.

Failure of prime mover

Ø The failure of prime mover results in motoring operation of the
synchronous generator the generator draws active power from the
network and continues to run as synchronous motor

§ Reverse power protection is used to protect such problem.

loss of excitation
The loss of excitation or reduced excitation is possible due to the field
failure (opening of Field winding or due to short circuit in field )

Cooling system failure

The failure of cooling system also causes sever overheating to rise the
temperature above safe limit it may lead insulation failure.
1. Differential protection
2. Inter-turn fault protection
3. Stator earth fault protection
4. Over current & earth fault protection
5. Rotor earth fault protection
6. Reverse power protection
7. Field failure protection
8. Negative phase-sequence protection
9. Over load protection
10. Over voltage protection
11. Pole slipping protection
12. Back up impedance protection
13. Under frequency protection
Cases & Consequences of Stator Insulation Failure

 The breakdown of insulation (failure) may result in fault

between conductors or between conductor & iron core.

 The breakdown may be caused by

Ø over voltage
Ø over heating
Ø over-loads
Ø unbalanced currents
Ø ventilation troubles
Ø failure of cooling of system etc.
In ideal condition IA1=IA2
ia1=ia2

But in real condition IA1=IA2

ia1 ≠ ia2 due to
Unequal CT saturation and un equal
Pilot wire length
Ø If the CTs are identical nature ,in practice it is
impossible to achieve CTs With identical saturation
characteristics

Ø Hence the secondary currents of CTs are unequal even

though the primary currents are the same.

Ø This current is known as spill current. The spill current

pass through the relay And may mal-operate the relay
if its value exceeds the setting of the relay.

Ø Moreover if the length of the connecting wires (pilot

wire) is unequal the value of the spill current increase
 In order to avoid mal-operation of the differential relay by the
spill current two solutions are used

i. a Stabilizer resistance is connected in series with the relay

ii. Biased percentage differential protection scheme

 However incorporation of stabilizing resistance reduces the

sensitivity of the relay during an internal fault,
Where RR= relay resistance
Ø The inter-turn fault is a short circuit between the turns of
the same phase winding.

Ø The produced fault current does not affect the entering and
leaving current to the CTs .

Ø If the short circuit is developed between the adjacent turns

then current through S1 and S2 no longer remain same.

Ø Thus unequal current will be induced in the secondaries of

the CT the difference current flows through the rely R and
the breaking of the CB isolate the generator.
Ø The fault happen b/n the stator conductor and core of
stator occurs due to failure of insulation between
conductor and core.

Ø Stator earth fault will happen due to failure of insulation

b/n the stator conductor and core

Ø Hence the stator earth fault are very destructive faults if

ground fault current is large.
Ø The differential protection based on circulating current
principle provides the protection against internal faults.

Ø When the neutral is solidly grounded then the generator

gets completely protected against phase-to-ground fault.

Ø But the neutral is grounded through earth resistance ,then

the stator windings get partly protect against earth faults.

Ø However neutral is earthed through resistance to limit e/f

current.
 A. Restricted earth fault protection of generator

While selecting the value of resistor & earth fault relay

setting, the following aspect should be kept in mind…
üCurrent rating of the resistor
üResistance value Relay
 Earth faults are not likely occur near the neutral point due to
less voltage with respect to earth

 It is usual practice to protect about 80 to 85% of winding

against earth fault. The remaining 15-20% winding from
neutral side left unprotected .

 A separate e/f protection is provided to take care of complete

winding against e/f (100% winding protection).
 A restricted e/f relay in the differential protection is shown in
figure below.

 In figure below, during earth fault the current if in the

alternator winding flows through a part of winding and
neutral to ground circuit.

 The corresponding secondary current Is flows through the

operating coil & restricted e/f relay the relay would operate
instantaneously if current is more than the pick-up setting of
the relay .
 Hence the earth fault current if will reduced.
Figure: Overcurrent & Earth fault protection of generator.
 In such a case, the relay have to be actuated by the short
circuit current supplied by the system.

 Such protection (by o/c and e/f relay) is ineffective when the
main breaker is open or if the system has no other generating
source.

 The normal practice is to monitor the over current relays by

an instantaneous under-voltage relay.

 The latter is connected to control the overcurrent relay

making it faster and more sensitive if the voltage drops
indicating a fault in the machine.
 The rotor carries the field winding which is kept isolated from
the ground. Neither the positive nor the negative terminal of
the dc supply is grounded. Thus any ground fault on the rotor
field winding does not affect the working of the alternator.

 However subsequent fault would cause a section of the rotor

winding to be short circuited ground fault due to insulation
failure will happen.
 A rotor earth fault increase the current in part of the winding may also
cause local heating which may distort rotor causing dangerous
irregularity, this also can cause vibration & serious damage.

 To protect generator from the rotor e/f, a high resistance is connected

across the rotor circuit.

 The center point of this is connected to earth through a sensitive relay.

 The relay detects the earth faults for most of the rotor circuit.
 Reverse power protection is provide against the failure of
prime mover of an alternator.

 When the prime mover of one of the alternator fails in a

power plant, the alternator will not stop but will run as a
synchronous motor taking power from the bus.

 There is no harm for the alternator when it is run as a

synchronous motor but the reversal of power is harmful to
the prime mover. The prime mover act as a load on the motor.
i.e. flow of power is reversed.

 The reversal of power is sensed by a reverse power relay.

 Field failure can be caused by failure of the exciter when the
generator losses its field result

ü loss of synchronism
ü Slightly increase the generator speed.

 If the generator is a single unit supplying a local load, the

loss of field causes loss of terminal voltage, sub-sequently
loss of synchronism depending upon the load condition.

 If the generator is connected in parallel with other units, it

can draw the magnetizing currents (reactive power) from the
bus bars & continuous to run as an induction generator.
 This magnetizing current is large of the order of 2 to 4 times
the rated current .
 The stator currents may increase above normal current rating
of generator during the run as induction generator.

 High currents may cause voltage drop & over heating of

generator bus-bars, stator winding etc.

 Figure illustrating the loss of field protection by means of an

Under Current Relay connected across a shunt in series with
the field winding.
Introduction

Ø The transformers are static devices without having

any rotating parts and are totally enclosed . Hence
the chance of faults occurring on transformer are
much rare as compared to faults occurring on
generator.

Ø The use of series fuses is very common in small

distribution transformers instead of circuit breaker
But the power transformers having large ratings always
need automatic protective relaying .
1. Over heating
The possible cause of overheating

a) Due to overloading effect overheating of transformer

causes insulation failure of transformer winding.
b) Due to failure of cooling system.

Ø Thermal overload relay and temperature relays,

sounding the alarm are used to protect protection
against overheating.

Ø Similarly temperature indicators are also provided on

the transformer ,when temperature exceeds the
permissible limits the alarm sounds and the fans are
started.
2 Winding faults
- Phase to phase faults
- Phase to ground faults
- Inter-turn faults

The over heating or mechanical shocks cause to deteriorate the

winding insulation if the winding insulation is weak, there is a
possibility of short circuit b/n the phase or b/n phase to
ground and also possibility of short ckt b/n the adjacent turns.

 The differential protection is very commonly used to provide

protection against such faults.
3.Open circuits
It causes the undesirable heating of transformer in case of
such faults the transformer can be manually disconnect from
the system.

4.Through faults
Through faults are the external faults which occur outside
The protected zone through faults are not detected by the
differential protection if the through faults stay for long
period of time the transformer may subjected to thermal and
mechanical stress

Ø The overcurrent relay used to protect such case.

5. Over fluxing

Ø The flux density in the transformer core is proportional

to the ratio of voltage to frequency i.e V/f .

Ø The power transformer are designed to work with certain

value of flux density in the core.

Ø In the generator transformer if full excitation is applied

before generator reaches its synchronous speed then due
to high V/f the over fluxing of core may result.

Ø Higher core flux means more core loss and overheating

of the core.
Buchholz Relay

ü Is the gas operated relay used for the protection of oil

immersed transformer against all types of faults.

ü The relay installed in between main tank & the

conservator tank.

ü Under normal condition the Buchholz Relay is full of oil

ü If there is incipient (minor) faults in the transformer the

buchholz relay gives an alarm.

ü If the faults are severe it disconnects the transformer

from the supply.
Operation

There are many types of internal faults (minor) such as

ü Insulation fault
ü Core heating
ü Bad switch contact
ü Faulty joints.

Ø When minor internal fault occurs in the transformer the

decomposition of oil in the main tank starts due to which
gases are generated most of the gases is hydrogen.

Ø The decomposed hydrogen gas will accumulate in the upper

part of the buchhloz container which causes fall of oil level
(lowering the position of float) tilting the mercury switch,
alarm ckt energize

Ø When more sever fault occur with high pressure strike the
lower mercury switch energize the trip ckt of the circuit
breaker break the transformer from the system
üanother hinged flap valve is locked in the lower part which
is directly in the path of oil b/n tank and the conservator.

üAnother mercury switch is attached to a flap valve. The

float closes the alarm Ckt while the lower flap valve closes
the circuit breaker
Ø This completes the alarm ckt to sound an alarm. Due to this
operator knows that there is some incipient faults in the
transformer .the transformer is disconnected and the gas
sample is tested.

Ø By collecting the accumulated gas from top of the container

Can predict the type of fault in the transformer

Ø The testing results gives the indication what type of faults

developing in the transformer . Hence the transformer
disconnected before fault grows into a serious one.

Ø The alarm ckt does not immediately disconnect the transformer

but gives only indication to the operator

Ø This is because some times bubbles in the oil circulating

system may operate the alarm Ckt through actually there is no
faults.
 Over current relays are provided in addition to differential
relays to take care of through faults & as a backup to
differential protection.
1. Magnetizing Inrush current:

 Instantaneous o/c units should be high set to avoid mal-operation.

 The setting of an instantaneous o/c relay on primary side of

transformer should be a little above asymmetrical value of the fault
current for a 3-phase fault on the secondary of the transformer.

 The setting is usually high enough to over-ride magnetizing inrush

current.

2. Primary full load current should be considered while setting the over
current relay.
Ø Power transformer are provided with restricted e/f
protection

Ø Transformer is normally connected in delta-star

Ø For external earth faults the time graded earth fault

relays are used.

Ø For the internal earth fault the restricted e/f relay

operates instantaneously .
 For an internal e/f (fig 3b) the fault current if flows in the
neutral CT only & not in the line CTs.
 Hence CT (neutral) secondary current if flows through the
relay & the relay would operate instantaneously if current is
more than the pick-up setting of the relay.
 For figure 3(a) below, the external fault current circulates in
the pilot wires & no current passes through the relay. Hence
the relay does not operate.
Problems in using the Differential Protection:

1. The transformer voltage rating if different for primary &

secondary, therefore voltage rating of CTs used in primary
& secondary are different.

Ø If CTs have different saturation characteristics, there

will be undesirable tripping of the relay
i.e. using a biased percentage differential relay.

2.The full load current of primary & secondary windings

are different .
Ø Hence the ratio of the CTs used on both sides should
select such that pilot wire currents are same on the
both the sides.
3.The CTs ratios are selected by considering the nominal
transformation ratio & hence some spill current will always flow
through the relay because of no load current component of
primary current.

4. Natural phase-shift of currents in the transformers. The

primary & secondary currents are not in phase in 3-phase
transformers connected delta-star. referring to the following
figure.
Ø The busbar is the junction of an electrical network where
many lines are connected together.

Ø It is the area in the power system where the magnitude of

fault current is very high.
When an internal fault occurs, the busbar protection
scheme operates and trips all the transmission lines
connected to that bus. Hence it isolate the bus from the
rest of system.
The bus bar arrangements depend on the following factors

1. System voltage

2. Reliability of supply

3. Position of substation systems

4. Simplicity of bus bar arrangement

5. Easy maintenance with interrupting power supply

6. Availability of backup of busbar arrangement in case of

outage.

7. Flexibility in expansion or increase with reference to future

load growth.
Most of the bus faults are ground faults .
a) 67% (L-G)
b) 15% (L-L-G)
c) 19% (L-L-L-G)

Causes of faults
i insulation failure due to the deterioration of the material

ii. Flashover caused by prolonged and excessive over

voltages

iii. Failure of circuit breakers or other switchgear

iv. Human errors in operating and maintaining switchgear

v. Foreign object falling and contact by animals across

busbar.
- High speed protection during in-zone faults .

- Stability during all external faults (unnecessary

interruption of supply).

- Proper discrimination b/n two zones (tripping a

minimum number of CBs)

- It gives reliable operation to avoid extensive damage to

the equipments and disruption of service.
1.Single busbar arrangement
Differential protection is the most reliable method of protection
for bus bars.
Since a large number of circuits are involved, different current
levels are encountered

Differential protection (circulating current)

Time-relays provide an easy protection mechanism
The relays interrupt the supply to the bus bars if one or
more supplies (but not feeders) are conducting a fault
current, as shown in the diagram

Power direction relays are used in the transformer supply

side to respond to a fault at the bus bars
Protection of Transmission & Distribution Line
 Non-unit type protection which includes…
ü Time-graded over current protection
ü Current-grades over current protection
ü Distance protection – coordinating by the relays setting.

 Unit type of protection such as

 Pilot wire differential protection

 Carrier current protection based on the phase comparison
method etc.
 Fuses are used in distribution systems fuses are preferable due
to their low cost, current limiting features etc.

 Distance protection is applied for faster protection, where

 Time & Current graded relaying is too slow or selectivity is not

obtained.

Ø Time graded o/c protection for phase faults is

supplemented by time graded e/f protection.

Ø The e/f relay is residually connected. In general, two

relays are employed for phase faults and one for earth
faults.
Ø In this system the time setting of o/c relays at different
locations is graded.

Ø The relaying is provided at each station 5, 4, 3,2 &1. The

arrow marked in both direction indicates non-directional relay.

 In the event of fault at F in the fig the relay 2 will operate and
the fault will be isolated before the relays at 3,4 and 5 have
sufficient time to operate.

 Due to some failure relay 2 fails to operate, the relay 3

provides backup protection, thus unnecessary tripping is
avoided
.
 Time lag is to be provided, time lag is not desirable for short
circuits.

 The method is not suitable for ring mains or interconnected

lines. It is suitable for radial lines with supply at the one end
only.

 It is difficult to co-ordinate & need changes with new

connections.

 It is not suitable for long distance transmission lines where

rapid fault clearing necessary to ensure stability of the
system.
 The parallel feeders cannot be protected with simple o/c relay
but it necessarily requires a directional type relay as with
non-directional type of relay it would be impossible to time
grade the relays for selective tripping.
 Consider the parallel feeders AB & CD
 first the relay B will cause to trip the feeder AB
 later feeder CD will tripped
 Parallel feeders AB & CD which feeds the load. Let the power
station side of feeders be provided with non-directional
relays which are represented as both side with the arrow
mark.

 If fault at point F1, If will be via AF1 & CDF1 (hence BF1 in
opposite direction).

 In case, if the relays at B & D are directional type & if their

settings are lower than relays at A & C, at the instant of fault
at F1, first the relay B will cause to trip the feeder AB and
later feeder CD will tripped. Thus even the sound (healthy)
feeder is cut-off.
 The ring mains protection is similar to that of parallel feeder,
time graded directional type relays & e/f relays are
used.

 Below figure illustrates the setting of a directional o/c

relaying for a given ring main system.
 In addition to time grading, current grading system can be
applied when the impedance between two substation is
sufficient.

 The long time delay occurring in the time grading system can
be partly avoided.

 Current graded systems normally employ high speed high set

o/c relays. They operate at pre-determined setting without a
time lag.

 Figure given below illustrates the protection of a radial feeder

with instantaneous o/c relay.
2. Current Graded System

 In a figure given for a fault beyond C, relay at C is actuated.

 For fault between C & B, B is actuated.
 For fault between B & A, relay A is actuated.
 The current setting diminishes progressively from the source
to the remote end of the line.

Ø Since in current grading when the length increase the

impedance increase the fault current decrease
Current grading: The fact that fault currents are higher the
closer the fault is to the source is utilized in the current grading
method.

Ø Relays are set to operate at a suitably graded the current

setting of the relay that decreases as the distance from the
source is increased
Ø Thus the fundamental weakness of time-graded o/c relays is
the fact that the heaviest fault is cleared slowest.

Ø This difficulty can be overcome by introducing an

instantaneous o/c element in-built in the definite time unit.

Ø Current graded system normally employ high speed high set

over current relay
Hence for discrimination the relays are set to protect only 80% part of the line
 It is one of the most commonly used backup protection
schemes on high voltage (HV) and (EHV) transmission line in
such a scheme of protection a distance relay has three zone
of protection .

 Backup protection is made possible in distance protection by

stepped distance characteristics.
If the load is resistive the impedance close to the
x-axis

inductive component

Resistive component

Capacitive component
Ø Impedance of the system become impedance of source
plus impedance of part of the Trx line before the fault

Ø so most of the impedance is the trx line before the fault

(mostly inductive) R-X diagram close to the y-axis
It also detect fault in the reverse direction
Ø The zone with very high resistive component.
Ø Never used to trip the trx line used to supervise another zone
distance relay
Ø For the fault on the load most of the load is resistive
component It indicates the fault is not on the trx line (external
fault)
Ø Zone I of distance relay(1) covers 80% of the line from
bus A
if any fault occur in these region the relay operates
instantaneously

Ø Zone I of distance relay (2) covers 80 % of the line from

bus A
if any fault occur in these region the relay operates
instantaneously

Ø Zone II of distance relay (1) covers 120% (100% from

bus A +20%
from bus B) if any fault occur in these region the relay
operates after the delay of 20second .

Ø Zone II of distance relay (2) covers 120% (100% from

bus A +20%
from bus B) if any fault occur in these region the relay
operates after the delay of 20second .
 Relay 1 Relay 2 operation
Fault 1 Z1 Z2 Z2 Z1
Fault 2 Z1 Z2 Z1 Z2 Z1 Z1
Fault 3 Z1 Z2 Z1 Z2 Z1 Z1

Fault 4 Z2 Z1 Z2 Z1
2. Unit type of protection

a) Pilot-wire Feeder Protection

Ø This led to the concept of " unit protection" involving the

measurement of fault currents at each end of a limited zone
of the feeder and the transmission of information between
the equipment at zone boundaries.

Ø Relays at the far ends of a given transmission line. This is in

order to realize the benefits of having information from
both ends of the line in order to make accurate relaying
decisions.
Different types of channels are use

i) Wire pilot
ii) Carrier current pilot

Ø Wire pilot can be buried cables(extra wire) or private

telephone lines used up to 30 km length lines for transmit
information.

Ø Carrier current pilot wire uses low voltage frequency signal

(50khz-700khz) to transmit information through the same
high voltage line between two ends used for line
length > 30km and also called power lines.
b) Pilot-wire differential systems

The net instantaneous current flowing into or out of the

conductor is zero if the conductor is healthy
(1) the circulating-current systems
(2) the balanced-voltage systems
(3) the phase-comparison
1 ) Circulating-current systems

The two equal-ratio current transformers, one at each end

of the protective circuit, have their secondary windings
connected in series so that under load or external fault
conditions their induced secondary voltages add together
to produce a circulating current in the pilot-wire circuit
The relay R, shown connected at the midpoint of the
pilot-circuit, carries the difference between the two C.T.
secondary currents
Differential protection
• Compares the currents entering and leaving the protected
zone and operates when the differential between these
currents exceeds a pre-determined magnitude. This type of
protection can be divided into two types, namely
– Balanced current
– Balanced voltage

Balanced current Protection

• The CTs are connected in series and the secondary current
circulates between them. The relay is connected across the
midpoint thus the voltage across the relay is theoretically
nil, therefore no current through the relay and hence no
operation for any faults outside the protected zone.

Similarly
under normal conditions the currents, leaving zone A and B
are equal,
making the relay to be inactive by the current balance
2.Balance-voltages systems:

The principle of operation of balance-voltage systems of

differential feeder protection is illustrated for a single-phase
circuit Principle of balanced-voltage system
Balanced voltage system
• As the name implies, it is necessary to create a balanced
voltage across the relays in end A and end B under healthy
and out-of-zone fault conditions (external).
In this arrangement, the CTs are connected to oppose each
other .

Balanced voltage system

– External fault (stable) voltages produced by the secondary
currents are equal and opposite; thus no currents flow in
the pilots or relays, hence stable on through-fault
conditions. under internal fault conditions relays will
operate.
END ????