4.

STATIC EXCITATION SYSTEM: In order to maintain system stability in interconnected system network it is necessary to have fast acting excitation system for large synchronous machines which means the field current must be adjusted extremely fast to the changing operational conditions. Besides maintaining the field current and steady state stability the excitation system is required to extend the stability limits. It is because of these reasons the static excitation system is preferred to conventional excitation systems. In this system, the AC power is tapped off from the generator terminal stepped down and rectified by fully controlled Thyristor Bridges and then fed to the generator field thereby controlling the generator voltage output. A high control speed is achieved by using an internal free control and power electronic system. Any deviation in the generator terminal voltage is sensed by an error detector and causes the voltage regulator to advance or retard the firing angle of the thyristors thereby controlling the field excitation of the alternator. In Fig.2 SI. No. (4) Shows a block diagram for a static excitation system. Static Excitation system can be designed without any difficulty to achieve high response ratio which is required by the system. The response ratio in the order of 3 to 5 -can be achieved by this system. This equipment controls the generator terminal voltage, and hence the reactive load flow by adjusting the excitation current. The rotating exciter is dispensed with and Transformer & silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRS) are used which directly feed the field of the Alternator. Description of Static Excitation System. Static Excitation Equipment Consist of 1) Rectifier Transformer2) SCR output stage3) Excitation start- up & field discharge equipment 4) Regulator and operational control circuit. In the above 1, 2, 3 are power Circuit of Static Excitation System 4 is control Circuit of Static Excitation System. Rectifier Transformer: The excitation power is taken from generator output and fed through the excitation(rectifier) transformer which steps down to the required voltage, for the SCR bridge and thenfed through the field breaker to the generator field. The rectifier transformer used in the SEEshould have high reliability as failure of this will cause shutdown of unit/power station.Dry type cast coil transformer is suitable for static excitation applications. Thetransformer is selected such that it supplies rated excitation current at rated voltagecontinuously and is capable of supplying ceiling current at the ceiling excitation for a shortperiod of ten seconds. SCR OUTPUT STAGE : The SCR output stage consists of a suitable number of bridges connected in parallel.Each thyristor bridge comprises of six thyristors, working as a six pulse fully controlledbridge. Current carrying capacity of each bridge depends on the rating of individualthyristor. Thyristors are designed such that their junction temperature rise is well within itsspecified rating. By changing the firing angle of the thyristors variable output is obtained.Each bridge is controlled by one final pulse stage and is cooled by a fan.These bridges are equipped with protection devices and failure of one bridge causesalarm. If there is a failure of one more thyristor bridges then the excitation current will belimited to a predetermined value lesser than the normal current. However, failure of thethird, bridge results in tripping and rapid de-excitation of the generator. The above isapplicable for 4 bridges thyristor with (n-1) principle operation

EXCITATION START UP AND FIELD DISCHARGE EQUIPMENT: For the initial build-up of the generator voltage, a field-flashing equipment isrequired. The rating of this equipment depends on the no-load excitation requirement andfield time constant of the generator. From the reliability point of view, provision for both the AC & DC field flashing are provided. The field breaker is selected such that it carries the full load excitation current continuously and also it breaks the max. field current when the three phase short circuitoccurs at the generator terminals. The field discharge resistor is normally of non-linear type for medium and large capacity machines i.e. voltage dependent resistor. To protect the field winding of the generator against over voltages, an over voltage protection along with a current limiting resistor is used to limit the over voltage across the field winding. The OVP operates on the insulation break over Principle. The voltage levelat which OVP should operate is selected based on insulation level of field winding of the generator. REGULATOR & OPERATIONAL CONTROL CIRCUITS (CONTROL ELECTRONICS) : Regulator is the heart of the system. This regulates the generator voltage by controlling the firing pulses to the thyristors. a)ERROR DETECTOR & AMPLIFIER: The Generator terminal voltage is stepped down by a three phase PT.and fed to theAVR. The a.c. input thus obtained is rectified, filtered and compared against a highlystabilized reference value and the difference is amplified in different stages of amplification.The AVR is designed with highly stable elements so that variation in ambient temperaturedoes not cause any drift or change in the output level. Three CTs sensing the output currentof the generator feed proportional current across variable resistors in the AVR. The voltagethus obtained across the resistors, can be added vectorially either for compounding or fortransformer drop compensation. The percentage of compensation can be adjusted as theresistors are of variable type.

9 19-03-04 b) GRID - CONTROL UNIT: The output of the AVR is fed to a grid control unit, it gets its synchronous a.c.reference through a filter circuit and generates six double, pulses spaced 600 electrical apartwhose position depends on the output of the AVR, i.e. the pulse position varies continuouslyas a function of the control voltage. Two relays are provided, by energising which, thepulses can be either blocked completely or shifted to inverter mode of operation.c) PULSE - AMPLIFIER: The pulse output of the ""Grid control unit "' is amplified further at an intermediatestage amplification. This is also known as pulse intermediate stage. The unit has a d.c.power supply, which operates from a three phase 38OV supply and delivers +15V,1 l5V,+5V, and a coarse stabilized voltage VL. A built in relay is provided which can be usedfor blocking the 6 pulse channels. In a two channel system (like Auto and Manual), thechange over is effected by energising/ de-energizing the relay. d) PULSE FINAL STAGE:

This unit receives input pulses from the pulse amplifier and transmits them throughpulse transformers to the gates of the thyristors. A built in power supply provides therequired d.c. supply to the final pulse and amplifier. Each Thyristor bridge has its own finalpulse stage. Therefore, even if a thyristor bridge fails with its final pulse stage, theremaining thyristors bridges can continue to cater to full load requirement of the machineand thereby ensure (n-1) operation. e) MANUALCONTROLCHANNEL: A separate manual control channel is provided where the controlling d.c. signal intaken from a stabilized d.c. voltage through a motor operated potentiometer. The d.c. signalis fed to a separate grid control unit whose output pulses after being amplified at anintermediate stage can be fed to the final pulse stage. When one channel is working,generating the required pulses, the other remains blocked. Therefore a changeover from""Auto" to "Manual' control or vice versa is effected by blocking or releasing the pulses of the corresponding intermediate stage 10 19-03-04 "A pulse supervision unit detects spurious pulses or loss of pulses at the pulses busbar and transfers control from Automatic Channel to manual channel.f) FOLLOW-UP UNIT: To ensure a smooth changeover from 'Auto"' to Manual" control, it is necessary thatthe position of the pulses on both channels should be identical. A pulse comparison unitdetects any difference in the position of the pulses and with the help of a follow-up unitactuates the motor operated potentiometer on the "'Manual"' Channel to turn in a direction soas to eliminate the difference.However, while transferring control from "Manual"' to "Auto" mode any difference inthe two control levels can be visually checked on a balance meter and adjusted to obtain nullbefore change over.g) LIMIT CONTROLLERS: When a generator is running in parallel with the power network, it is essential tomaintain it in sychronism without exceeding the rating of the machine and also without theprotection system tripping. Only automatic Regulator cannot ensure this. It is necessary toinfluence the voltage regulator by suitable means to limit the over excitation and underexcitation. This not only improves the security of the parallel operation but makes operationof the system easier. However limiters do not replace the protection system but only preventthe protection system from tripping unnecessarily under extreme transient.conditions.The AVR also has a built-in frequency dependent circuit so that when the machine isrunning below the rated frequency from the regulated voltage should be proportional tofrequency. With the help of a potentiometer provided in the AVR, the circuit can be made torespond proportionally to voltage above a certain frequency and proportional to a voltagebelow the certain frequency. The range of adjustment of this cut off frequency lies between40 and 60 Hz. 11 19-03-04 The static excitation system is equipped with three limiters which act in conjunctionwith the AVR. These limiters are as under- Rotor current limiter- Rotor angle limiter- Stator current limiteri) ROTOR CURRENT LIMITER:

The unit basically comprises an actual value converter a limiter with adjustable PIDcharacteristics a reference value; dv/dt sensor and a signalisation unit.The field current is measured on the a.c. input side of the thyristor converter and isconverted into proportional d.c. voitages. The signal is compared with an adjustablereference value, amplified, and with necessary time lapse fed to the voltage regulator input.Rotor current limiter avoids thermal overloading of the rotor winding and is providedto protect the generator rotor against excessively long duration over loads. The ceilingexcitation is limited to a predetermined limit and is allowed to flow for a time which isdependant upon the rate of rise of field current before being limited to the thermal limitvalue. ii) ROTOR ANGLE LIMITER: This unit limits the angle between the voltage of the network centre and the rotorvoltage or it limits the angle between the generator voltage and the rotor voltage. Itcomprises an actual value converter, a limiting amplifier with adjustable PID characteristicsand a reference value unit. The limiting regulator operates as soon as the d.c. value exceedsthe reference value. For its operation the Unit is given separate power supply from a d.c.power pack

12 19-03-04 It generates a d.c. signal proportional to the load or rotor angle from the stator currentand voltage by means of a simple analog circuit. The device takes over as soon as the setlimit angle is exceeded. By increasing the excitation and ignoring opposite control signalsthe unit is prevented from failing out of step. iii) STATOR CURRENT LIMITER: This unit functions in conjunction with an integrator unit which provides thenecessary dead time and the gradient, that can be adjusted by potentiometers. The regulatorconsists essentially of a measuring converter, two comparators, two PID regulators and a d.c.power pack. A discriminator in the circuit differentiates between inductive and capacitivecurrent. The positive and negative signals processed by two separate amplifiers are broughtto the output stage and only that output which has to take care of the limitation is madeeffective.Stator current limiter avoids thermal over loading of the stator windings. Statorcurrent limiter is provided to protect the generator against long duration of large statorcurrents. For excessive inductive current it acts over the AVR after a certain time lag anddecreases the excitation current to limit the inductive current to the limit value. But forexcessive capacitive current it acts on the AVR without time delay to increase the Excitationand thereby reduce the capacitive loading. This is necessary as there is a risk for themachine failing out of step during under excited mode of operation. h) SLIP STABILIZING UNITS: The slip stabilizing unit is used for the suppression of rotor oscillations of thealternator through the additional influence of excitation. The slip as well as accelerationsignals needed for the stabilization are derived from active power delivered by the alternator.Both the signals, which are correspondingly amplified and summed up, influence the 13 19-03-04

excitation of the synchronous machine through AVR in a manner as to suppress the Rotoroscillations. POWER SUPPLY: The voltage regulating equipment needs an a.c. supply 38OV 3 Phase for its powersupply units which is derived from the secondary side of the rectifier transformer through anauxiliary transformer. This voltage is reduced to different levels required for the powerpacks by means of multi-winding transformers.A separate transformer supplies the synchronous voltage 3x38OV for the filter circuitof each channel and the voltage relay. During testing and pre-commissioning activities whengenerator voltage is not available, the station auxiliary supply 3 Phase 415V can betemporarily connected through an. auxiliary step down transformer for testing purpose withthe help of a regulator test/service switch.The supply for the, thyristor Bridge fan is taken from an independent transformerwhich gets it input supply from the secondary of the excitation transformer.The control & protection relays need 48V & 24VDC which are delivered from thestation battery by means of the DC/DC converters, which are internally protected againstoverload. PROTECTIONS: The following protections are provided in the Static Excitation Equipment.1) Rectifier transformer over current instantaneous and delayed.2) Rectifier transformer over Temperature3) Rotor Over-Voltage4) Rotor earth fault.5) Fuse failure monitoring circuit for thyristors6) Loss of control voltage (48V & 24V)7) dv/dt protection of SCR by snubber net works8) Cooling System failure for thyristorsThe block diagram of the Static Excitation Equipment is given in Fig.(3)