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Alternator Basic Theory

WLSA

Wrtsil 24 April 2014 Presentation name / Author

ALTERNATOR BASICS For generating electricity/induction we require

Fundamentals

Coil Magnet Relative motion between the two

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Wrtsil 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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Fundamentals

Brush System
Advantages Permanent magnet replaced by an electromagnet

Principle

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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Fundamentals Brushless Separate excitation System

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

Principle

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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 AVRs are being used in DG sets

Analog Digital

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Fundamentals
Utility

Main Field

Surge Suppressor

Rotating Rectifiers

PT
Droop CT Main Armature

Exciter Armature

AVR
Short Circuit Back Up CTs
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Rotor

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DCT

SCC

Fundamentals
Utility

Main Field

Surge Suppressor

Rotating Rectifiers

PT
Booster Unit
Main Armature

AVR
Short Circuit Back Up CTs

Exciter Armature

Rotor

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End

BOOST

Fundamentals

N Main Field

AC
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Fundamentals Separate Excitation Brush System Slip Rings Carbon Brushes

Main Field

+
AC INTERNAL USE ONLY DC
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Fundamentals Separate Excitation Brushless System

Rotating Rectifiers Exciter

N Main Field

+
AC INTERNAL USE ONLY DC
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Fundamentals Self Excitation Brushless System Rotating Exciter Rectifiers

Main Field

INTERNAL USE ONLY

AC DC

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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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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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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 INTERNAL USE ONLY As a result, the AVR is protected and the voltage and hence the fault current are sustained to operate the protection relay
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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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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%

INTERNAL USE ONLY

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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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Questions

Questions ??

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