INTERNAL USE ONLY

Alternator Basic Theory

WLSA

1 © Wärtsilä 21 January 2009 Presentation name / Author

 Fundamentals
ALTERNATOR BASICS
For generating electricity/induction we require
Coil
Magnet
Relative motion between the two

N S

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2 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Fundamentals
Bicycle Dynamo

Principle
Simplest & most basic form of alternator is bicycle dynamo

Rotor is a Two Pole Permanent Magnet

Voltage Speed

Voltage Strength of the magnet. (Preset, not adjustable)

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3 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Fundamentals

Brush System
Principle

Advantages

Permanent magnet replaced by an electromagnet

Output voltage can be adjusted without changing prime mover speed

by regulating DC supply to main field

Disadvantages

Two Carbon brushes are required to be used

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4 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Fundamentals
Brushless Separate excitation System
Principle
Advantages

A small alternator named ‘Exciter’ is used to avoid the brushes

Main field, exciter armature & rectifier are mounted on same shaft

Excitation supply comes to exciter field instead of main field

DC power required for excitation is much lesser

Disadvantages

This is an open loop system & input to exciter does not vary for
variation in output voltage
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5 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Fundamentals
Self Excited & Regulated Shunt System

Principle

In order to give correction in the exciter input according to the

voltage output, AVR are being used

Different types of AVR’s are being used in DG sets

Analog

Digital

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6 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Fundamentals
Utility
Surge Rotating
Main
Suppressor Rectifiers
Field

PT

Droop CT
Main
Armature
Exciter
Armature
AVR Rotor
Short Circuit Exciter
Back Up CT’s Field

INTERNAL USE ONLY

7 DCT
© Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS SCC
 Fundamentals
Utility
Surge Rotating
Main
Suppressor Rectifiers
Field

PT

Booster
Unit
Main
Armature
Exciter
Armature
AVR
Rotor
Short Circuit
Back Up CT’s Exciter
Field

INTERNAL USE ONLY

8 End
© Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS BOOST
 Fundamentals

Stator
Winding

Main
Field

V S

AC
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9 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Fundamentals
Separate Excitation Brush System

Stator
Winding Slip
Main Rings
Field Carbon
N
Brushes

V S -
+

AC
INTERNAL USE ONLY
DC
10 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS
 Fundamentals

Separate Excitation Brushless System

Stator Rotating
Rectifiers Exciter
Winding
Main
N Field

V S
-
+

AC
INTERNAL USE ONLY
DC
11 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS
 Fundamentals

Self Excitation Brushless System

Stator Rotating Exciter

Winding Rectifiers
Main
N Field

V S

INTERNAL USE ONLY AC

DC
12 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS
Function Of Droop CT

Droop CT is normally connected in the second ( V or Y or B) phase

Output of the CT secondary is connected to the AVR , and the AVR

gets the load information through this input

Helps the AVR to maintain voltage as per the Droop curve in solo
mode

Helps for load sharing according to droop curve during parallel mode

Generally disabled during solo mode by single/parallel selector

switch/ relay
If enabled in solo mode causes generator output voltage to drop as
per droop curve

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13 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Droop CT

Caution about Droop CT connection

In Solo mode

Change in polarity results in increase of voltage with increase in load

In Parallel mode

Results in erratic Reactive load sharing

Power factor can not be maintained

Might result in cascade tripping due to over current because of

unequal KVAr load sharing

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14 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Short Circuit Back up CT
Function Of SC back up CT- External faults
During an external faults the terminal voltage tends to reach
zero, which makes the fault current sensed by a protection
relay also tend to zero, & this results in the defeat of the
protection
To sustain the fault current during the time delay period set in the
relay, the terminal voltage also should sustain & hence
additional excitation power is needed
This additional power requirement might exceed the capacity of the
AVR & might damage the AVR
Since the current during faults is very high, and the secondary
output of the SCC CT is also high
AVR Circuit is so designed that during the fault conditions, the
additional excitation power needed is supplied from the high
output of the SCC CT, while the AVR supplies the minimum
power
As a
INTERNAL USE result, the AVR is protected and the voltage and hence the fault
ONLY
current are sustained to operate the protection relay
15 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS
 Short Circuit Back up CT
Function Of SC back up CT- Heavy Motor starts
When a large Induction motor drawing a very large starting
current is started, the alternator, in addition to the existing base
load, is forced to supply a large current , even though the
terminal voltage of alternator does not tend to zero
This increased current demand and the very low lagging power
factor during motor start, requires field forcing i.e increase in
excitation power
The high secondary output of the SC back up CT, due to large
primary current , is used to supply the field forcing power
Field forcing during motor starts also helps the voltage to
recover much faster helping the motor to attain the rated speed
As the motor speed increases the back emf produced by the
motor also increases and hence the current drawn by motor
reduces, reducing the excitation power
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16 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Short Circuit Back up CT
Function Of SC back up CT- Heavy Motor starts
As the motor speed increases the back emf produced by the
motor also increases and hence the current drawn by motor
reduces, reducing the excitation power
The net result is that during heavy motor starts or during application
of heavy loads, the additional excitation power required for field
forcing is drawn from the high starting or load current in proportion
through the SCC CT, and the power supplied by the AVR directly
through it`s internal circuitry remains within its rated value

Generally the output of the SCC CT is connected to the

excitation circuit by a voltage controlled relay, whose contacts
maintain the secondary of the SCC shorted when the voltage of the
alternator is above a preset value, normally 70%

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17 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Booster
Booster circuit
In some of the excitation systems e.g. Leroy Somer RBS 6000,the
field forcing by the SCC CTs is permanently connected to support the
output of the AVR, through a rectifier arrangement known as Booster
Booster consists of a three phase bridge rectifier, a filter capacitor,
and an adjustable bleeder resistor
The secondary output of the SCC CT is rectified and filtered to get a
smooth DC output and connected to the field circuit in parallel with
adjustable bleeder resistor. The bleeder resistor is adjusted in such a
way that under normal operation, the excitation
The bleeder resistor is adjusted in such a way that under normal
operation, the excitation power is supplied from the booster, and
voltage variations are corrected by the Pulse width modulated (PWM)
output of the AVR

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18 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 Questions

Questions ??

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19 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS

 INTERNAL USE ONLY

20 © Wärtsilä 19/01/2007 GKT/TS-TRAINING/ALTER BASICS