Preferential tripping

It is essential to prevent interruption of services necessary to maintain propulsion and

navigation. These must be safeguarded even if the other services such as domestic
supplies are temporarily sacrificed.

There are two ways to safeguard these services. First there must be at least
two generators, the rating of which must be such that essential services can be
maintained if one set is out of commission. Secondly, a protection must be provided that
if sea load is too much for one generator a system of preferential selection will operate.

In some cases the non essential load is relatively too small to warrant
additional switchgear. It is generally in larger installations where loads not under direct
control of the engineer that they must be fitted. If the heating, lighting and galley were
all switched on without prior warning, then the generators could become overloaded.
Without preferential trips this may so overload the generators as to cause a complete
shutdown. Therefore non essential services are fed through one or more circuit breakers
fitted with shunt retaining coils or shunt tripping coils. Over current relays with time lags
are provided for each generator. When overloaded, appropriate relays operate and trip
out the non essential services. Some being more important than others, degrees of
preference may be given.

Setting

Usual setting is 150% (50% overload) with a time delay of 15 seconds for generator
overload protection and the following times come into operation when the generator
reaches 110%.

First tripping circuit 5 seconds

Second tripping circuit 10 seconds
Third tripping circuit 15 seconds