7.

KONFERENCA SLOVENSKIH ELEKTROENERGETIKOV Velenje 2005

CIGRE K A1 - 10

Excitation systems for high power synchronous generators

with redundant configurations

Zvonimir Jurin, Blaenka Brklja, Marin Koli

KONAR Elektronika i informatika
Fallerovo etalite 22 , Zagreb, Croatia
E-mail: uzbude@koncar-inem.hr
tel. 00385 1 365 5768
Mladen Kajari, Vinko esi,
KONAR Institut za elektrotehniku
Fallerovo etalite 22, Zagreb, Croatia
E-mail: mkajari@koncar-institut.hr
tel. 00385 1 365 5301

Abstract In the article the solutions of synchronous generator excitation system with thyristor converter, digital voltage
regulator and field discharge equipment are presented with attention paid to achieve increased reliability and availability
by applying redundant configurations. The excitation system with thyristor converter in three-phase fully controllable
bridge connection and 1+1 configuration, twin channel digital voltage regulator and field discharge equipment for big
and important generators in parallel operation are shown. Field results verify the project-foreseen characteristics and
qualities of presented solution.

voltage shaft generator and static thyristor rectifier. The

I. INTRODUCTION
compound-source controlled-rectifier exciter that utilizes
To achieve high availability of synchronous genera- the potential and the current of synchronous generators, as
tors for electric energy production, attention has to be an excitation power source, together with thyristor-
paid to the increase of availability of all generator controlled rectifier is also used for special purposes.
subsystems and among them of the synchronous The actual and world most common solutions of
generator excitation system during a very long-term high power synchronous generator excitation system,
service. Requirements on availability of excitation system, is potential source thyristor rectifier exciters with
beside its technical functions, have been always high digital voltage regulator.
and improvements are still being implemented.
The basic approach to achieve high reliability and
The excitation system consists of exciter (the exci- availability is application the proper ratings for com-
tation power source) and voltage regulator. ponents and usage of high quality components. To
avoid production failures comprehensive during and
In the article, the solutions of thyristor rectifier
after production tests and commissioning have to be
exciter and digital voltage regulator are discussed with
carried out. Beside that it is not possible to guarantee
the aim of achieving reliable and redundant configu-
that no failure can occur.
rations with increased availability in synchronous
generators operation.
The actual solution of an excitation system consists
of a big number of electrical, electronic and mechanical
components and software products, working together
under heavy technical conditions.
The basic technical environmental requirements are
extreme working and storage temperatures, their devi-
ations and rate of change, combined with humidity,
dust and oil vapour, vibrations and shock strains and
electromagnetic interference.
The requirements on excitation power source depend on
machine characteristics and its role in power system.
There are potential-source and controlled rectifier exciter
(static excitation system), alternator supplied rectifier Fig. 1: Block diagram of a static excitation system
excitation system (brushless excitation system) that use with thyristor converter in 1+1 configuration, the twin
mechanical power on generator shaft and auxiliary constant channel digital voltage regulator and discharge equipment

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To minimize risks of failure of synchronous gene- significant disturbance of generator operation. Conver-
rators excitation system and outage of production of ters have redundant cooling fans.
the generator the hardware and software redundancy
is applied:
1. Thyristor converter configuration n-1 and 1+1,
2. Twin channel digital voltage regulator
3. Field discharge equipment and field over-
voltage protection
The block diagram of a static excitation system
with thyristor converter in 1+1 configuration, the twin
channel digital voltage regulator and discharge equip-
ment is in Fig 1.

II. THYRISTOR CONVERTER

CONFIGURATIONS
N-1 AND 1+1
Fig. 3. Thyristor converter in 1+1 configuration
The standard solution of excitation system thyristor
converter is a three-phase bridge converter with 1
thyristor in series and n thyristor in parallel per bridge
Behaviour of generator and excitation voltage after
arm. Fast fuse is in series with each thyristor, Fig 2.
simulated failure on one thyristor in the operating
The number of parallel thyristors per arm is n>3, to
thyristor bridge is shown in Fig. 4. Transfer to the
maintain selectivity of fuse protection. Current ratings
second bridge is carried out in app. 50 ms.
of thyristor are so that n-1 thyristor per arm are
capable to withstand all static and transient ratings
and one additional thyristor per arm is for security
reasons. The converter has redundant fans.

Fig. 2. Thyristor converter in n-1 configuration

The nowadays-applied configuration of thyristor con-
verter is 1+1 Fig. 3, because high rating thyristors are
now available. This configuration consists of two equal
three-phase bridge converters with 1 thyristor in series
and 1 thyristor in parallel per bridge arm. Fast fuse is in
series with each thyristor. Each bridge is rated to
withstand all static and transient generator excitation
ratings. One bridge converter is in operation while the
other is hot stand-by. AC current of bridges are moni- Fig. 4. Transfer of excitation Converter Bridge 1 to
tored and in case of a thyristor failure the changeover is Bridge 2 in the 1+1 configuration with the generator
taking place using free wheeling thyristor without any in parallel operation to the grid

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 7. KONFERENCA SLOVENSKIH ELEKTROENERGETIKOV Velenje 2005
III. TWIN CHANNEL DIGITAL VOLTAGE
REGULATOR
The single channel digital voltage regulator in com-
parison to the analogue voltage regulator offers a lot
of benefits such as:
Performing of sophisticated control, protection,
supervision and logical and sequential control
functions,
Short response time,
Long term stability,
Self monitoring functions,
Reduced diversity of hardware modules,
Digital standardized communication to the super-
imposed control system.
Twin channel digital voltage regulator is a solution
with two identical digital voltage regulators working
in parallel in hot stand-by configuration. Each of two
channels has the same input signals and is executing
the same application program. Each channel has a
complete structure with automatic and manual voltage
control, reactive power regulation, limiters protecting
the generator of going-out the generator capability
diagram, compound function, V/Hz limiter and power
system stabilizer (PSS) functions. Every channel controls
both thyristor bridges Comprehensive monitoring
program monitors the function of both regulators and
in case of detection of an irregularity or exception the
changeover is performed to the healthy channel
without interfering normal generator operation.
Fig. 5. Changeover of Channel 1 to Channel 2 with
generator in parallel operation to the grid
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The changeover between channels of two-channel
digital voltage regulator after simulated disturbance in
operating channel is shown in Figure 5.
IV. FIELD DISCHARGE EQUIPMENT AND
FIELD OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION
There are two basic solutions of generator field
discharge equipment, one, which include DC field circuit
breaker with discharge contact, non-linear discharge
resistor and separate circuit for overvoltage protection
and second which includes AC circuit breaker with
common circuit for discharge and overvoltage pro-
tection. Besides, there is normal operative procedure for
generator deexcitation, the transfer of thyristor exciter to
inverter operation mode.
In classic solutions of discharge equipment the
thyristor converter is connected to synchronous
machine field winding via de- excitation D.C. breaker
with a discharge contact and a discharge resistor, Fig.
6. When instantaneous electrical fault arises in the
synchronous machine or in outside facilities, the
short-circuit current will appear and the field should
be suppressed as quickly as possible in order to limit
fault current damage. It is also necessary to ensure
safe de-excitation in event of a fault in the exciter
control circuit causing severe over-excitation. The
voltage dependent or linear discharge resistor is used
to achieve rapid field suppression with regard to the
highest permissible voltage across the field winding
and the field breaker.
The purpose of the rotor overvoltage protection is
to prevent the machine field and thyristor converter
from being exposed to an excessive overvoltages
induced in the machine field with rectifier excitation,
which could arise during certain transient condition
such as improper synchronizing, loss of synchronism
and asynchronous operation.
The main overvoltage protection circuit comprises
the antiparalell connected thyristor (crow bar) and
resistor in series. The thyristors are controlled by the
over-voltage sensing triggering unit with BOD
elements. When the voltage exceeds the preset
protection level the thyristor switch-on and conduct
the current caused by over voltage. The series resistor
is intended to limit the current in the protection
circuits. On the other hand, the resistor must be so
designed that the voltage drop caused by the highest
induced field current flowing through the resistor does
not exceed the protection level. The overcurrent relay
supervises of the protection and gives a tripping
impulse when the protection operates.
When thyristor converter is applied in configuration
1+1, freewheeling thyristor is used to short-circuit
field winding during emergency change over between
bridges under high currents.
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CIGRE K A1 - 10

Fig. 6 Discharge equipment with DC field circuit

breaker and separate circuit for rotor over voltage
protection

In the Fig. 6 the usual and most adequate solution for

the field circuit breaker and over voltage protection is
shown. The merits of this solution are the completely
independent over voltage protection circuit and field
circuit breaker that separates generator excitation on both
poles from thyristor rectifier. In case of failure on field
circuit breaker or non-linear deexcitation resistor, the rotor Fig. 8 Discharging of generator by DC field circuit
over voltage protection could act as back-up deexcitation. breaker and nonlinear discharge resistor
Usually DC field circuit breaker has two coils for Site tests are carried out on excitation system type
switching-off, which, together with monitoring of SEM 11E, delivered and putted into operation for two
switching-off circuits, realize very reliable solution. units on Hydro Power Plant Varadin. Generator and
The alternative solution of discharge equipment is excitation system data are given in Table 1.
implementation thyristors from thyristors over-voltage It is Potential source thyristor rectifier exciter (static
protection (crow bar) and AC circuit breaker at excitation system) supplied from the generator
primary of thytistor rectifier Fig. 7. Deexcitation is terminals. It is controlled by twin (two) channel
performed by switching-off of the AC circuit breaker digital voltage controller with separate hardware for
what causes the over voltage on the generator each channel. Each channel of digital voltage
excitation winding. This over-voltage will activate regulator comprises Generator voltage regulator
over-voltage protection (crow bar), reduce the over- (AVR), Excitation current regulator (SR), Trigger
voltage and deexcite the generator. In this case the pulse system and Follow-up control between main
same resistor is used for the de-excitation and for the and stand-by controller, and between AVR and SR
field circuit over voltage protection, and in a case of mode for each channel. Excitation power is derived
its failure, there is no redundant deexcitation circuit to by: three-phase fully-controlled (6-pulse), air forced
prevent damage of rotor winding. cooled, thyristor converter in configuration 1+1, with
one thyristor per branch and two converter bridges in
parallel. One thyristor bridge is in stand-by and
blocked.
TABLE I
GENERATOR AND EXCITATION SYSTEM DATA
Unit A Unit B
Rated power Sn MVA 53.5 50
Nominal voltage Un KV 10.5 10.5
Power factor cosn 0.85 0.85
Speed nn min-1 125 125
Frequency fn Hz 50 50
Nominal current In A 2920 2740
Nominal excitation current IfN A 890 940
Fig. 7 Discharge equipment with AC field circuit
Nominal excitation voltage UfN V 210 220
breaker and common discharge resistor wit rotor
over voltage protection Nominal exciter current IEN A 1250 1250
Ceiling current Ip A 1780 1880

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 7. KONFERENCA SLOVENSKIH ELEKTROENERGETIKOV Velenje 2005
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V. CONCLUSION
The presented excitation system with redundant
configuration with a thyristor converter in consisting
1+1 three phase thyristor bridges, classic discharge
equipment with field circuit breaker and separate
circuit for over-voltage protection, and micropro-
cessor based twin-channel voltage regulator is suitable
for big and important synchronous machines in
parallel operation. The excitation system is characte-
rized by increased safety, reliability and availability
because of build-in redundancy.
Field results have verified characteristics in explo-
itation and qualities of presented strategy.

REFERENCE
[1] Z. Jurin, M. Koli, M. Kajari, V. esi:
Redundant configuration in synchronous genera-
tor excitation system Hydro conference, Dubrov-
nik 2003.
[2] S. Marijan, M. Kajari, N. Peri: Microprocessor-
based Control System for Electrical Machines,
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference
on Electrical Drives and Power Electronics,
EDPE94, Pula, Croatia, pp 203 - 209, September
1994.
[3] Mladen Kajari, Sinia Marijan, Vinko esi,
Nedjeljko Peri: Digital Control of a Synchro-
nous Generator Excitation System, Proceedings
of the 8th International Conference on Electrical
Drives and Power Electronics, EDPE94, Pula,
Croatia, pp 203 - 209, September 1994.
[4] N. Peri, S. Marijan, M. Kajari: Microprocessor-
based control system for the control of electrical
machines and processes. 6th European
Conference on Power Electronics and Applica-
tions, EPE95, Sevilla, pp (2546-2550)
[5] S. Marijan, M. Kajari, N. Peri: Microprocessor-
based control system for electrical machines,
Automatic 1-2/1995, Zagreb, pp (19-26).
[6] V. esi, M. Kajari, S. Marijan, Z. Jurin, M.
Koli: Excitation system with microprocessor
based twin-channel voltage regulator for
synchronous machines, EPE-PEMC 2002.
Dubrovnik & Cavtat,

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