Electrical Interview Questions with

Answers
interview Questions on Electrical Machines:
Alternators:

[Q] What is the general system requirements of alternator?

For the generation of emf, there should be two basic systems.
(i) magnetic field system to produce the magnetic field
(ii) Armature system which houses the conductors on which the EMF is to be induced.

[Q] Will the alternators have rotating armature system or stationary

armature system?
Generally in alternators, the armature is stationary and the field rotates. Small low-
voltage alternators often have a rotating armature and a stationary field winding.But in
large alternators rotating armature field type is used.

[Q] What are the advantages of stationary armature and rotating

field system?
(i) The stationary armature coils can be insulated easily.
(ii) Higher peripheral speed can be achieved in the rotor.
(iii) Cooling of the winding is more efficient.
(iv) Only two slip rings are required to give DC supply to the field system
(v) Output current can be easily supplied to the load circuit. Slip-rings and brushes are
not necessary.

[Q] What is meant by stator? What is meant by rotor?

In any electrical machine ( AC/DC motor or generator) the stationary member is called
as stator. Similarly in all machines the rotating member is known as rotor.

[Q] What are the advantages of three phase motor over single phase
motor?
Three phase motors are having
(i) Higher starting torques
(ii) Improved speed regulation
(iii) Less vibration
( iv) Quieter operation
compared to the single phase motors.
[Q]What is basic principle of operation of alternators/DC
generators?
They are working on the fundamental principle based on Faraday's Laws of
Electromagnetic Induction.
This law states that, When a current carrying conductor moves in magnetic field, it
induces an EMF.

[Q] How to minimize the eddy current losses?

When the core is laminated and insulated from each other with paper or varnish the
eddy current loss is minimized.

[Q] What is meant by turbo alternators?

Turbo alternators are high speed alternators. Because of high speed of rotation, the
rotor diameter is reduced and the axial length is increased. Two or four poles are
generally used and steam turbines are used as prime movers.

[Q] What are the various types of rotors used in the alternators?
(i) Salient pole rotor
(ii) Non- salient pole rotor or Cylindrical rotor

[Q] Define Pole Pitch.

The distance between the centres of two adjacent poles is called pole pitch. One pole
pitch is equals to 180 electrical degrees. It is also defined as the number of slots per
pole.

[Q] Define coil span.

The distance between the two coil sides of a coil is called as coil span. It may be
expressed in electrical degrees or in number of slots.

[Q] What is meant by full pitched winding?

If the coil span is equal to pole pitch, the winding is called as full pitched winding.

[Q] What is meant by short pitched winding?

If the coil span is less than the pole pitch, the winding is called as shot-pitched winding.
It is also known as short-chorded winding.
[Q] What are the advantages and disadvantages of short-pitched
winding?
The advantages are
1. They save copper for end connections
2. They improve the waveform of the generated EMF.
3. The generated EMF can be made to approximate to a sine wave more easily and the
distorting harmonics can be reduced.
The disadvantages are
1. The total voltage around the coils is some what reduced. Because the voltage
induced in the two coil sides are slightly out of phase.

Basic Interview Questions on Induction Motors:

[Q] How does the Induction motor work? (OR) Why does the Rotor
rotate?

When the 3 phase stator windings are fed by 3 phase supply, a magnetic flux of
constant magnitude which is rotating at synchronous speed is set up.
The flux passes through the air-gap and sweeps past the rotor surface thus it
cuts the rotor conductors.
Due to the relative speed between the rotating flux and the stationary rotor
conductors, an emf is induced in the stationary rotor conductors as per the
Faraday's laws of electromagnetic induction.
The frequency of the induced emf is the same as the supply frequency.
Its magnitude is proportional to the relative velocity between the flux and the
conductors.
Its direction will be as per Fleming's right hand rule.
Since the rotor conductors form a closed circuit the rotor current is produced.
This current's direction will oppose the very cause producing it ( as per Len's
law)
Here the cause is the relative velocity between the rotating flux of the stator and
the stationary rotor conductors.
Hence, in order to reduce the relative speed, the rotor begins to rotate in the
same direction as that of the rotating magnetic flux and tries to catch up with the
rotating flux. Thus the rotor of induction motor starts to rotate.

[Q] What is the general working principle of Induction

motor?
The conversion of electrical power into mechanical power takes place in the
rotating part of an electric motor.
In DC motors the electrical power is conducted directly to the armature through
brushes and commutator.
Thus the DC motor can be called as conduction motor. But in case of AC motors,
the rotor receives electric power, not by conduction but by induction.
 This is exactly in the same way as the secondary of two winding transformer
receives its power from the primary.
That is why such motors are known as induction motors.
Thus an induction motor is also known as rotating transformer ( ie, one in which
primary winding is stationary and the secondary is free to rotate)

[Q] What is the advantage of skewed stator slots in the rotor

of Induction motors?
In the induction motor design, the rotor slots are purposely made with a slight skew
arrangement. It will not be parallel to the shaft.

This is for the purpose of reducing magnetic locking or reducing magnetic attraction
between stator and rotor teeth.

In addition to that this arrangement will help to reduce the magnetic hum and noise.

[Q] What is meant by cogging in the Induction motor? How

to prevent the cogging?
When the number of teeth in stator and rotor are equal, the stator and rotor teeth have a
tendency to align themselves exactly opposite to each other, since this corresponds to
minimum reluctance position. In such case the rotor may refuse to accelerate. This
phenomenon is called as magnetic locking or cogging.

This problem can be prevented by proper choice of stator and rotor slots and also by
skewing the rotor slots by one slot pitch.

[Q] What are the various methods of measuring slip?

1. By actual measurement of rotor speed

2. By measurement of rotor frequency

3. Stroboscopic method

[Q] What are the various methods of speed control in three

phase induction motors?
(i) Control from stator side
1. By changing the supply frequency

2. By changing the number of stator poles

3. By changing the supply voltage

(ii) Control from rotor side
1. By inserting resistance in rotor circuit

2. By various ways of cascade connection

3. By injecting EMFs in the rotor circuit.

[Q] What is meant by crawing in the induction motor?

In induction motors, particularly squirrel cage type induction motors, sometimes exhibit
a tendency to run stably at speeds as low as one-seventh of their synchronous speed
Ns. This phenomenon is known as crawling of an induction motor and the speed is
called as crawling speed.

Power System
Power System Interview Question and Answers:

[Q] What is meant by synchronous condenser?

An over excited synchronous motor running on no load is known as synchronous
condenser. It is used to improve the power factor of the system.

[Q] Define Power Factor.

The cosine of angle between voltage and the current in an AC circuit is known as power
factor.

The value of power factor will always be less than 1.

It is a usual practice to attach a word lagging or leading with the numerical value
of power factor to signify whether the current lags or leads the voltage.

[Q] What is the difference between fuse and circuit breaker?

(i) Fuse performs both detection and interruption functions. Circuit breaker performs
interruption function only. The detection of fault is made by relay system.

(ii) The breaking capacity of fuse is very small compare to that of circuit breaker.

(iii) The operating time of the fuse is smaller than operating time of CB.

(iv) After every operation, replacement is required in the fuse. In case of circuit
breaker, replacement is not required.
[Q] What is meant by Sag?
The difference in level between points of supports and the lowest point on the
conductor is called sag.

[Q] What is corona?

The phenomenon of violet glow, hissing noise and production of ozone gas in an
overhead transmission line is known as corona.

[Q] How can we reduce the effect of corona?

1. By increasing conductor size:

By increasing conductor size, the voltage at which corona occurs is raised and hence
corona effects are considerably reduced.

2. By increasing conductor spacing:

By increasing the spacing between conductors, the voltage at which corona occurs is
raised and hence corona effects can be eliminated.

[Q] What is tariff?

The rate at which electrical energy is supplied to a consumer is known as tariff.

The tariff should include the following items:

(i) Recovery of cost of producing electrical energy at the power station

(ii) Recovery of cost on the capital investment in transmission and distribution systems.

(iii) Recovery of cost of operation and maintenance of supply

(iv) A suitable profit on the capital investment.

[Q] What are the various types of tariff?

1. Simple tariff

2. Flat rate tariff

3. Block rate tariff

4. Two-part tariff

5. Maximum demand tariff

6. Power factor tariff

7. Three-part tariff

[Q] What are the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear

power plant?
Advantages:

(i) The amount of fuel required is quite small.

(ii) It requires less space so it can be located near to the load centre.

(iii) Huge deposits of nuclear fuels available all over the world. So supply of electricity
can be ensured.

(iv) It ensures reliability of operation.

Disadvantages:

(i) The fuel used is expensive and is difficult to recover.

(ii) The capital cost on a nuclear plant is very high as compared to other types of plants

(iii) The disposal of the by-products is a big problem. They are radioactive in nature.

(iv) The maintenance charges are high.

Power Electronics Interview Questions and Answers: Part-4

[Q] What is AC voltage controller?

It is defined as the power electronics converter which converts the fixed AC voltage into
a variable AC voltage without change in the frequency.

[Q] What is inverter? What are the types of Inverter?

A device which converts dc power into ac power at desired output voltage and
frequency is called as Inverter.
Inverters are broadly classified into
Voltage Source Inverter (VSI)
Current Source Inverter (CSI)
[Q] What is chopper?
It is equivalent to a dc transformer in ac circuit. The Chopper is a static switch which is
used to get the variable dc output voltage from a constant dc input voltage.
Chopper basics, types and principle of operation is discussed in a separate page.

Step down chopper:

In this circuit, the average output voltage [VO = D . VS] is less than the input supply
voltage. It is also known as Buck converter.

Step up chopper:
It is also known as Boost converter. Here the average output voltage [V O = VS / 1 - D] is
more than the input supply voltage.

[Q] What is load commutation?

In load commutation, the load current flowing through the thyristor either becomes zero
or is transferred to another device from the conducting SCR.

[Q] What is meant by pulse triggered devices?

As the name indicates, to trigger these devices just a pulse is sufficient. Continuous
gate voltage of entire on time is not required. The advantage of pulse triggering is, it will
avoid the hard triggering.
Ex. Thyristor, GTO

[Q] What is level-sensitive devices? give some examples

Some of the level sensitive devices are
MOSFET
IGBT
MCT
IGCT
In order to keep these devices in the ON state condition, we have to apply gate
current/voltage continuously to these devices.

[Q] What is meant by GTO?

It is a three terminal, four layer PNPN Power Semiconductor device that can be turned
on by a positive gate current and can be turned off by a reverse gate current.

[Q] What are the types of GTO?

Asymmetrical GTO
Symmetrical GTO
[Q] What does 10V AC mean? Is it the RMS voltage or Peak voltage or Average
voltage?
In general, AC voltages and currents are mentioned in RMS values only. It is sensible to
compare with steady DC voltages and currents.
For example 230V AC supply means, 230Vrms AC Supply.

[Q] When we have to connect the SCRs in a parallel manner?

To meet the high current demand we will connect the SCRs in a parallel manner.
Similarly to meet the high voltage demand we have to connect the SCRs in series.

[Q] Define Gate Charge in MOSFET?

The gate charge is defined as the amount of charge required for the device during turn-
on and turn-off time. It is the most important parameter we have to consider while
selecting the MOSFET. The switching speed of the MOSFET depends on the speed at
which the gate driver can charge or discharge the input gate charge.

[Q] When we have to connect the SCRs in a parallel manner?

To meet the high current demand we will connect the SCRs in a parallel manner.
Similarly to meet the high voltage demand we have to connect the SCRs in series.

[Q] Define Gate Charge in MOSFET?

The gate charge is defined as the amount of charge required for the device during turn-
on and turn-off time. It is the most important parameter we have to consider while
selecting the MOSFET. The switching speed of the MOSFET depends on the speed at
which the gate driver can charge or discharge the input gate charge.