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Nuremberg, Germany
Nanjing, P.R.China
Large hydro power plants are designed in a unit connection. The neutral point of the generator is
isolated or high ohmic earthed. The probability of a phase to earth fault - the stator earth fault - is
much higher than the other fault types. To detect this type of fault within a generator is one of the
important protection tasks. This contribution focuses on the stator earth fault protection in general
and highlights a principle which covers 100 % of the stator winding.
By virtue of the galvanic isolation of the rotor, an earth fault in the rotor leads to very small fault
currents and doesnt damage the rotor. If a second earth fault occurs at another location in the field
system, the current will be flowing through the affected turns. The field current from a large machine
can be high causing serious damage on the rotor and the exciter. If a large part of the field-winding
is short-circuited, the flux may result in a mechanical force which is strong on one pole but weak on
the opposite one. The result is an unbalanced force which in large machines may be of the order of
50-100 tons. This causes violent vibrations which may damage bearings or even displace the rotor
to damage the stator. Therefore it is important to design the protection as sensitive as possible.
Keywords: Stator earth fault protection, 100% protection range, 20-Hz-injection method, rotor earth
fault protection, sensitivity, numerical protection
Figure 1:
In praxis there exist two ways of calculating the necessary load resistance R L. In literature [1] the
argumentation starts with the possibility of transient overvoltages during intermittent earth faults at
isolated generator star points. A grounding of the star point only serves for limiting these transient
overvoltages, but a compromise must be found between the permitted fault current and the allowed
transient overvoltage. The general design rule describes equation (1).
RL
with:
(1)
CE
CE
According [1] this design limits the transient overvoltage in the healthy phases to a maximum of 2.5
times of the phase to earth voltage.
Another argumentation in literature [2] highlights the risk of an overfunction by the stator earth fault
protection due to an earth fault on the high voltage side of the step-up transformer. The
displacement voltage on HV-side can lead to a disturbance voltage on generator side via the
capacitive voltage divider according figure 3.
Figure 3:
The load resistor on the generator side minimizes the disturbances influence of the displacement
voltage from the high voltage side and determines the protective range (80%, 90% or 95%) which
can be covered.
For typical unit connections both calculation methods lead to nearly identical load resistances,
determined by the given earth and coupling capacitances.
Example:
90 % protection range: K = 0.1;
Generator voltage: UN;G = 20 kV; Network voltage: UN,Net = 550 kV ; fN = 50Hz
CE = 1.4 F/phase; Ccoup = 10 nF
Method 1:
RL
Method 2:
I C Fearth
CE
U N, Net
3
1
758
2 50 3 1,4 10-6
C coup 0.8
550 103
2 50 10 10 -9 A 0.8 A
3
U
1
1
20 103
K N;G
0,1
2
3 2
3 721
RL
IC
0,8
The factor Fearth =1 is used for isolated networks. For safety reasons the factor 0.8 (possibility of
open transformer star point) is recommended in solidly earthed networks. Normally the actual
displacement voltage will be lower and the required load resistor may be higher than calculated.
The final discussion to this topic is the location of the load resistor. Normally a secondary resistor
with a transformer is used. One way is the connection on the neutral side of the generator with a
neutral transformer. This cost optimized solution lives with the risk of failures on the high voltage
side of the neutral transformer due to transient overvoltages, e.g. lightning overvoltages. Earthing of
the generator is then possible. Therefore this application requires unconditionally a 100% stator
earth fault protection.
A different preferred solution is an absolutely free neutral point of the generator. Nothing is
connected on generator star point and this minimizes the additional risk of unintentional earthing of
the star point. The secondary load resistor is connected on a five-limb earthing transformer which is
located on the generator main leads (see chapter 1.3, figure 5).
Figure 4:
Figure 5 represents a more detailed drawing with the necessary additional accessories. The band
pass smoothes the 20-Hz-square voltage and additionally protects the 20-Hz-generator in the case
of an earth fault with a full displacement voltage. The 20-Hz-e.m.f. on the load side results from the
voltage divider: load resistor and 20-Hz-series resistance of the band pass (8). Therefore a design
requirement for the load resistor exists. The resistor shall be higher than 0.5 (worst case 0.3). In
this case the secondary injected 20-Hz-voltage is close to (0.5/8.5)*25 V 1.5 V. The
requirement for a higher secondary load resistor can be easy fulfilled, if a higher secondary voltage
on the neutral transformer is used or the primary voltage is the same as the phase to earth voltage
of the generator (saturation degree shall be according the rated generator voltage). A reduced
transformer ratio by the factor of 3 automatically leads to a 3 times higher load resistor.
Figure 5:
The numerical protection samples the injected voltages and measured current. With FIR-filters the
20-Hz-components are calculated and further on a special failure replica for determination of the
fault resistance is used. The advantage is a higher sensitivity against the pure 20-Hz-current
measurement. Especially at large hydro generators, due to the larger stator earth capacitances, a
higher capacitive 20-Hz-current will be measured under fault free conditions. In that case there
exists no safety margin for a reliable setting of a 20-Hz-current stage. The used model in [3]
eliminates the disturbance influence of the earth capacitances. The literature gives additional setting
recommendations and describes the commissioning procedure.
Figure 8:
Offline calculation of the earth fault resistance form the fault record
With this fault record the measured fault resistance could be calculated offline and figure 8 shows
the result. The measured resistance was for a certain time below the threshold which is marked by
the dotted lines (pickup at 60 and dropout at 86 - these are secondary setting values).
Figure 9:
The alternative solution - low frequency square wave principle (LF-principle) - unites both, the
elimination of the rotor earth capacitances and the attenuation of disturbance influence from
excitation equipment side. At low disturbances a sensitivity up to 80k can be reached without any
problems. For detailed discussions see the next chapter.
A parallel operation of both principles which were explained reduces the sensitivity on both sides,
because the principles influence each other. The AC principle measures the coupling resistors from
the LF-principle in parallel with the fault resistance (see figure 11). On the other side, the coupling
capacitances of the AC principle operate as an additional large rotor earth capacitance for the LFprinciple. These capacitors can not be fully charged and therefore they limit the sensitivity.
A usual practice is the permanent application with one measuring principle. In the case of a
detected failure in the protection by the self supervision a change over to the second injection
principle will be executed manually or by logic (see figure 10).
Figure 10:
2.2 Sensitive rotor earth fault protection with square injection method
This well proven measuring principle was successful used in the analog static relays and was
adapted for numerical applications. The basic principle with the necessary equipment is shown in
figure 11. A low frequency square wave generator with a frequency range between 1 to 3 Hz
charges the rotor earth capacitances via a series resistor (R S). After these capacitances are fully
charged there can only flow a current determined by the fault resistance. With the known voltage
source and the coupling resistor the rotor earth resistance can be calculated. To avoid over
functions due to DC offsets caused by excitation voltage the protection uses only the difference
voltage. The rotor earth capacitances will always be charged in both directions. If two successive
measuring results are the same, the measuring is declared valid. This minimizes measuring errors if
there is a change in the excitation voltage.
Figure 11:
Through the used low frequency the noise margin to harmonics of the excitation equipment is much
higher compared with the AC method and therefore the disturbance influence is lower. As
mentioned before, a sensitivity up to 80k can be reached. The normal setting for the alarm stage
is between 40 and 80k. The trip stage is set approximately at 5k.
Figure 12 gives a feeling for the measuring principle. This was recorded during a commissioning on
a 1000 MVA generator with rotating diodes. The first curve shows the control voltages. This voltage
is used for triggering the measurement and calculating the actual e.m.f.-voltage. The second curve
shows the voltage drop via the measuring shunt R M of figure 11. The change in the square waves
indicates different fault resistances which were simulated by test resistors. On the bottom there are
the binary traces with the pickup and the trip signals. The trip delay was set to 0.5 s.
3. Summary
The contribution dealt with two important topics for hydro generators, the stator and rotor earth fault
protection. These protection principles are basic functions in each large power plant. At hydro power
plants there exist special operating conditions particularly in pump storage power station
applications.
One major attention in the paper was the sensitivity and the protective range which can be covered.
It was clearly shown, that the 100 % stator earth fault protection with the 20-Hz-injection method
covers the full stator winding and is nearly independent from the operating conditions of the
generator.
The rotor earth fault protection with a low frequency square wave injection is characterized by a
high sensitivity. High ohmic rotor earth faults can be detected. Two stages with different settings
shall be the standard, one for alarm and the other for trip.
With practical examples the performance of both protection functions was shown.
4. Literature
[1]
IEEE Guide for the application of neutral grounding in electrical utility systems.
Part II Grounding of synchronous generator systems, published by IEEE, New York, 1989
[2]
[3]
Author Resume
Dr. Hans-Joachim Herrmann
Born in 1952 and have 29-years protection experience. He graduated from Technical University of Dresden in 1977.During
1977-1991, worked as Assistant Professor on the Technical University of Zittau. Then join SIEMENS as Member of Product
Management Protection in the Energy Automation Division. Up to now, there are totally approx. 60 Contributions in Papers
and Conferences published. He is also the Co-author of a Protection Book (in Russian) and the author of a Book Numerical
Protection (in German).
Diego Gao
Born in 1975 and have 8-years protection experience. In 2004, he joined Siemens Power Automation Ltd. (SPA) serving as
a technical support engineer on generator-transformer protection.