A New Selective Transient Protection for the Ground

Fault of Large Unit-connected Generators

Bi Daqiang, Wang Weijian, Gui Lin and Wang Xiangheng

Abstract-Based on the multi-loop circuit method of A C

machine a mathematic model is established for the large
unit-connected generators, namely the outlet terminal of
generators connected to a common busbar, and the transient
zero-sequence current and voltage of these generators are
simulated and analyzed at different grounding location. Further,
making use of the wavelet transform sensitively detecting the
singularity o f signal, the properties o f their value of wavelet
transform are analyzed, and a selective transient protection is
proposed according to the sign and value of the modulus maxima
o f wavelet transform. The results o f simulation and experiment
verify the new protection can correctly detect the generator with
ground fault, and discriminate between the internal and external
Faults.
Index Terms--generator, 'ground fault, zero-sequence
component, transient protection, wavelet transform
1.

INTRODUCTION

circuit method of AC machine, transient zero-sequence current

and voltage of these generator are simulated and analyzed
under this model of connect at different grounding location, a
selective protection is proposed by using the wavelet
transform to extract these transient information.
ESTABLISHING
THE SlMULAllON MODEL
A. Assuming Conditions
The diagram of large unit-connected system is showed in
Fig. 1. In the procession of establishing the simulation model
of whole system, self-conduction and mutual-conduction of
generator windings are calculated by using the multi-loop
circuit method of AC machine [5]. The distributed capacitance
of stator winding to ground is substituted by several lumped
capacitances with uniform distribution along the stator
windings, and the additional capacitance at terminal, low side
winding capacitance of step-up transformer to ground and the
grounding impedance on neutral are considered. The step-up
transformer is represented by its equivalent circuit.
At present the neutral of generator mainly grounded
through Petersen coil or resistor, the variation of stator current
caused by ground fault is so small that the damping winding
can be ignored during simulation, which means a generator
with damping windings can be regarded as a non-damping
windings generator during the ground fault.
11.

enerator stator is most frequently subject to the damage

caused by the ground faults, and they often precede other
worse winding faults such as turn-to-turn and phase-to-phase
faults, therefore ground-fault protection is the key element of
the protection system for generators [4]. At present, the
protection schemes against the ground fault mainly include the
zero-sequence fundamental voltage scheme, the third
harmonic voltage scheme and subharmonic voltage injection
scheme, their combination can provide 100% coverage of
stator windings.
But these schemes aren't able to discriminate which
generator suffers the ground fault if several medium or
small-sized generators are connected to the common busbar.,
And they also can't distinguish between an internal and
external .ground fault for a unit-connected generator. To avoid
the unnecessary stopping of no-fault generator in the large
unit-connected generators, it is desired for the protection
scheme with selectivity.
In fact, when a fault occurs, some relevant signals appear
singular. These transient signals contain extensive fault
L
L
information such as type, direction, location and sustained
time. The information covers the entire frequency domain
Fig. I.The diagram oflarge unitsannected system
including DC, power frequency and high frequency [l].
Extracting and utilizing these transient information can B. Establishing the state equations
provide a new way to resolve the problem about the selectivity
Choosing the current of inductance and the voltage of
of protection scheme.
capacitance as the state variables, the last form of state
This paper establishes a mathematic model for several eouations is
~.
derived .....
in n trix as follows.
generators connected to a common busbar using the multi-loop
pM+r A I
~

The authors are with the department of Electrical Engineering and Applied
Electronic Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijmg, 100084 China (e-mail:
bidaqiang990mails.tsinghuaeducn).

0-7803-7459~2/0~$17.00
0 2002 IEEE

=[-

where,

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F][U]+["]

p is the differential operator;

M, C and r is the inductance, capacitance and resistance
matrix of .generator windings, terminal and neutral
respectively;
A and B are the associated matrix between node and
branch;
U, is the vector of voltage source;
I and U are the vector of state variables;
F is the associated matrix of between the fault node and
branch, under normal condition F = [O], when ground fault
occurring, a zero element on the leading diagonal ought to be
substituted by - l / R g according to the fault location, here Rg

is the transient resistance.

111. SIMULATION
ANDANALYSIS
Using the above mathematic model, this part simulates a
system, which includes two same generators (No.1 and No.2)
connected to the common busbar. Their main data are as
follows.
Rated power lZkW, rated voltage 400V, pole pair number 2,
parallel branches per phase 2, coil number per branch 7,
excitation current under no-load and rated voltage 8.24A, rated
excitation current 22.6A. For generator 1 and generator 2, The
capacitance of stator windings to ground is 0.12 P F and 0.08
P F and the additional capacitance at terminal is 0.03 P F and
0.02 P F respectively. The neutral is grounded through the
Petersen coil and resistor with small value in series. The
sampling frequency is IO&.
Two typical faults, occurring inside and outside generator,
are simulated and analyzed. Defining io, and io2 is the
zero-sequence current of generator 1 and ,2, and uo is the
zero-sequence voltage of the busbar.
Fig. 2(a) gives the simulation results of io,,io,and uo when
a ground fault takes place at 42.9% of the first branch of A
phase of generator 2 close to the neutral via 500 0 transient
resistance. It is showed the transient zero-sequence current and
voltage is discontinuous, and the direction of change between
h a n d io2 is contrary after the ground fault occurring. Because
the zero-sequence current through the outlet terminal of the
fault generator is equal to the all ground capacitance current of
external voltage network expect that of itself, the transient
zero-sequence current of the fault generator is greater than that
of the normal generators, which can be seen from Fig. 2(a).
Fig. 3(a) shows the simulation results of an external ground
fault at K, in Fig. 1 through 500 R transient resistance. io,and
io, change in the same direction, and uo produces a sharp
change during the transient. Because the ground fault is
outside generators, uo has a larger variation than normal
condition. In this case, the zero-sequence currents through the
outlet terminal of generators are the ground capacitance
current of themselves individually.

A.

IV. SELECTIVE PROTFCTION SCHEME For GROUND

FAULT
Analysis of the wavelet transform
Conventional Fourier transform can only give the

information in frequency domain and has no ability of time

resolution so that it is not fit to analyze the transient signal,
and cant detect the singularity of signal in time field. Rather
than as a developing time-frequency method, the wave
transform is a powerful tool in processing the transient signal
because of its ability to extract information from transient
signal simultaneously in both time and frequency domain.
According to the singularity detection theory of the wavelet
transform [2] and [6], if a sudden change or discontinuation of
signal appears, its wavelet transform values have the local
modulus maxima, which carry some important information.
The fault type and location can be discriminated by
comprehensively using the sign and value of these local
modulus maxima. This paper chooses Daubechies 5
orthogonal wavelet as the mother wavelet and adopts the.
atrous algorithm [3] to analyze the zero-sequence components
by the detection of singularity with multiscale transforms, and
the values of wavelet transform at scale 2 are used in the
protection scheme at the sampling frequency IOkHz. Here
WTI, and WTUo are defined as the values of wavelet
transform of zero-sequence current of generator i and
zero-sequence voltage of busbar respectively.
During the normal condition, the variation of WTI,, WTI,
and WTUo is very flat in Fig. 2(b). But when the ground
occurring inside generator 2, their values sharply change and
there are the modulus maxima. Compared with the results of
transform, the modulus maxima of WTI, and. WT12 occur
simultaneously and have the same sign. The value of the
modulus maxima of WTI, is more than that of W I Z .
When the ground fault happening outside generators, there
appear the modulus maxima of the zero-sequence components.
Comparing the results of transform, the modulus maxima
occur simultaneously but their signs are contrary in Fig. 3(b).

B.

Elective protection scheme

Through the above analysis, the elective protective scheme
is advanced as follows,
(1) Choose the values of the wavelet transform of the
zero-sequence current and voltage of generators at scale 2 as
the characteristics of ground fault at the lokHz sampling
frequency;
(2) Calculate the modulus maxima WTI,,k of zero-sequence
currents (including the positive and negative, i=l-n is the
number of generator, k is the position of maximum). If the sign
of mI,,h of generator i is contrary to that of all other
generators, then the ground fault occurs inside a generator;
(3) Under the condition 2, if the number of generators
connected together is more than 2, then generator i is the fault
generator. When there are only two generators, if IWTI,,,I is
greater than that of the other generator additionally, then the
generator i is the fault generator;
(4) If all of sign is identical among WTIj,i (i=l-n), then the
ground fault is external;
( 5 ) To improve the reliability of detecting external faults,
supplement IWT(II,kI>WT(I,,. For the external ground fault,
the range of the zero-sequence voltage variation is very large,
so that the value of WU,*,is easily set;

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"'I

021

(a) Transient zero-sequence components

4 os

019

(a) Transient zero-sequence components

02

021

022

on

ou

02s

t(3)

-319

62

Oil

oi2
C(4

(b) The results of wavelet transform at scale 2

Fig. 2. The simulation results of an internal pound fault

ob

ais

(b) The results ofwavela transform at sede 2

Fig 3 The simulstlon resulls ofan external pound fault

(6) To enhance the reliability of whole protection scheme,

only after more than three points of the modulus maxima
continuously meet the conditions, the protection scheme
decides whether and where the ground fault happens.

V.

on

RESULTS O F EWERIMENT

To verify the above elective protection scheme, some

experiments were carried on a large unit-connected system
with two generators, and its diagram likes Fig. 1. The main
data of two generators are as follows.
Generator]: rated capacity 5.0kW, rated voltage 400V. pole
pair number 2, parallel branches per phase 1, excitation
current under no-load 0.162A, the capacitance of stator
windings to ground 0.048 P E Generator2 rated capacity
3.75kW, rated voltage 400V. pole pair number 2, parallel
branches per phase 1, excitation current under no-load 0.357A,
the capacitance of stator windings to ground 0.036 11 E

There are 6 taps (25%. 33.3%, 41.7%, 45.5%, 47.7% and

49.2% close to the neutral) on the windings of phase A. The
neutrals of two generators are grounded through the potential
transformer, and their outlet terminals are connected to 800V
high voltage system via a step-up transformer. The record data
is via two level current and voltage transformer at lo&
sampling frequency.
The zero-sequence current of two generators and
zero-sequence voltage of busbar are given in Fig. 4(a) when a
solid ground fault occurs at terminal of generator 2 (K2in Fig.
1). Fig. 4(b) shows the results of the wavelet transform, their
properties are consistent with the analysis of simulation results
in part IV. The values of wavelet transform at the time of
ground fault are distinctly higher those at normal time for the
zero-sequence components. The sign of the modulus maxima
between io] and io2is contrary, and the amplitude of the latter
is higher than that of the former at scale 2.

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(a) Transient zero-sequence components

(8)

Transient zero-sequence components

2-

In Fig. 5(a) the location of ground fault (K, in Fig. 1) is

external, correspondingly it can be seen that at the scale 2 the
sign and position of the modulus maxima of iol accords with
that of iO2fromFig. 5(b), and u0 has modulus maxima too.
lfthe fault location is close to the neutral ( K , in Fig. I), the
scheme still can work, because the deviation voltage exists on
the neutral, and the zero-sequence current and voltage still
produce the transient when a ground fault occurring.

VII. RFERENCES

Periodicals:
Bo Zhiqian, Transient based protectionew generation of power
system protection, Power Syilem Technology, ~01.20,Na.3, pp. 34-36,
1996.
Stephane Mallet and WenLiang Hwang, Singularity detection and
Processing with uwelets, IEEE Tram lnforormorion 7heory. Vo1.38,
Na.2,pp. 617-643,Mar1992.
Mark J. Shenra, Wedding the ~ U O Y Sand the Mallet algorithm, IEEE
Trow. SignalProcessing, Va1.40,No.10, pp. 24642482,,Oet.1992.

[I]
121
[3]

VI. CONCLUSIONS

Books:

Usual protection schemes against the ground fault cant

realize the selectivity protection for the large unit-connected
generators. Based on the simulation and analysis of this
connect model established by the multi-loop circuit method, a
new and selective protection scheme is presented. It uses
Daubechies 5 orthogonal wavelet to detect the singularities of
zero-sequence current and voltage, further utilizes the sign and
amplitude of the modulus maxima to realize the selective
protection. The experimental results verified the selectivity

[4]

[SI
161

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Wang Wcijan, Principle and mpplication of electne power equipmenr

proleclion, Beijing: China Electric Power Press, 1998, pp. 200-203.
Gao Jingde, Wang Xiangheng, Li Fahai, Anolpir of altemrive c u m m
machine and {Is system, Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 1994,
pp.l-43.
Yang Fusheng, 7he engineering m l y > i s and application of wovelet
lronsform,Beijing: Science Press, 2000, pp. 145.157,

VIII. BICGRAPHIES
Bi Daqiang was born in Jilin Province, China,
on December 20, 1973. He received his M.S.
degree in Electrical Engineering from Shenyang
University of Technology in 1996 Now he is
pursuing his Ph.D. at Tsinghua University His
field of interest mainly is the relay protection of
main equipment in power system.

W m g Weijim was barn in Jiangru Province of

China in 1930. He graduated from Electric
Engineering DeparUnent of Tsinghua University
in 1955. Now he is a professor in the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University
He has been researching and teaching on the
relw protection for large electric machine

C~~$sv-#

,.-.
t -

I?* >

Cui Lin was barn in Anhui Province, China, on

July 16, 1974. He received his B.S. and M.S.
degree in Electrical Engineering from Hefei
University of Technology in 19% and 1999.
Now he is pursuing his Ph.D. at Tsinghua
University His research interests are the analysis
and relay protection of internal fault of
large-sized generators

W m g Xiangheng WBS born in Anhui province of

china, an October 19, ,1940. He graduated from
Electrical Engineenng Depanment of Tsinghua
University in 1964. He worked at Dongfang
Electric Machine Works in Sishuan Province
from 1968 to 1978 and obtained his P.h D
diploma from Tsinghua University in 1986. He is
currently a professor at Tsinghua University His
presently conducts research on the analysis and
wnbd for electric machine and its system, fault
analysis and its protection for electric machine.

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