876 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO.

2, APRIL 2010

Intermittent Line-to-Ground Faults in Generator

Stator Windings and Consequences on
Neutral Grounding
Dieter Braun, Member, IEEE, and Georg S. Koeppl

Abstract—Line-to-ground faults in the stator windings of unit II. NEUTRAL GROUNDING OF SYNCHRONOUS GENERATORS
generators have been simulated on the basis of test results obtained
on medium-voltage cables in systems with isolated neutral. Those The IEEE Guide for the Application of Neutral Grounding in
tests have shown that single-phase faults in insulating materials, Electrical Utility Systems, Part II—Grounding of Synchronous
such as polyethylene or comparable synthetics, are normally arcing
faults and the arcing channel in the insulating material behaves like
Generator Systems IEEE C62.92-2—1989 describes and dis-
a restriking switch which is able to interrupt transient fault cur- cusses the various methods of neutral grounding of unit genera-
rents at current zero; however, it restrikes at a certain voltage level tors. In order to reduce single-phase fault currents to very small
due to damaged insulation and small distances between the phase values and, therefore, to avoid iron burning, three methods of
conductor and ground. Similar behavior may be assumed for gen- neutral grounding of unit generators are discussed:
erator stator windings. The simulations show that for such a fault
pattern, resonant grounding is distinctly to be preferred to high
1) high-resistance grounding;
resistance grounding. The corresponding standards do not reflect 2) ungrounded;
transient and intermittent fault currents in stator windings and, 3) resonant grounding.
therefore, assess both grounding methods as nearly equivalent. As a considerable disadvantage of an ungrounded unit gener-
Index Terms—Fault currents, grounding, synchronous genera- ator, the possibility of excessive transient overvoltages resulting
tors, transient analysis. from switching operations or intermittent faults has been men-
tioned. An isolated generator neutral also does not correspond
to normal practice. Hence, in the following text, only high-re-
I. INTRODUCTION sistance grounding and resonant grounding are dealt with.
High-resistance grounding as well as resonant grounding is
practically always made via a single-phase distribution trans-
F OR unit generators, the two mainly used methods of neu-
tral grounding are high-resistance grounding and resonant
grounding. The consequences of these methods on single-phase
former between generator neutral and ground [1, Fig. 3]). The
method of calculating the transformer rating and the grounding
faults at the generator terminals and in the generator windings resistance or the resonant grounding coil, respectively, for both
are dealt with in [1]–[5]; however, predominantly on the basis grounding variants is also given for two examples in the IEEE
of stationary faults (i.e., persistent fault currents at the system guide.
frequency). While tests in an urban MV cable system with iso-
lated neutral have shown that single-phase faults in an insula-
tion based on polyethylene or comparable synthetic materials III. MODELS FOR SIMULATIONS
are normally arcing faults, the arcing channel in the insulating
material behaves like a restriking switch, which is able to in- A. Generator Model
terrupt transient fault currents at natural current zero; however,
it does restrike at a certain voltage level due to damaged in- For the calculation of faults in the generator winding, a gen-
sulation and small distances between the phase conductor and erator model with distributed impedances and voltage sources
ground [6]. It is the aim of this analysis to simulate these phe- is necessary. The corresponding single-line schematic is shown
nomena in generator windings and to assess the consequences in Fig. 1. The total phase inductance (subtransient inductance
on methods of neutral grounding and fault protection of syn- Ld”) and the total phase capacitance to ground are distributed
chronous generators. equally to ten elements per phase. In series to the inductances
are the distributed armature resistances.
Manuscript received May 27, 2008; revised September 22, 2009. First pub- Parallel to each inductance-resistance element is a high resis-
lished February 05, 2010; current version published March 24, 2010. Paper no. tance damping resistor tuned to an overvoltage factor of 1.5 p.u.
TPWRD-00412-2008.
D. Braun is with ABB Switzerland, Zurich CH-8050 , Switzerland (e-mail:
at the interruption of short-circuit currents.
[email protected]). Between the impedance elements, distributed voltage
G. S. Koeppl is with Koeppl Power Experts, Wettingen CH-5430, Switzerland sources—10 in total—are connected.
(e-mail: [email protected]). This type of model has been tested for the interruption of
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. short-circuit currents and the results have been compared favor-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2037967 ably to measurements.
0885-8977/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
BRAUN AND KOEPPL: INTERMITTENT LINE-TO-GROUND FAULTS IN GENERATOR STATOR WINDINGS 877

Fig. 2. Scheme for analysis of generator grounding.

Stepup transformer: 27/420 kV, 1200 MVA, 15.1%

F;
The capacitances to ground of the bus ducts and aux-
iliary transformer are included in the aforementioned
values.
Distribution transformer for neutral grounding:
Calculated according to [1], Appendix A for high-re-
sistance grounding
;
;
Fig. 1. Model of the synchronous generator with distributed voltage sources A.
(10), single-line diagram. Transformer rating, chosen: 80 kVA.
Calculated according to [1], Appendix B for resonant
grounding
B. Model for Intermittent Faults
The tests described in [6] have shown that after the interrup- ;
tions of the transient current at a natural current zero, the reigni- ;
tions occur very regularly at about the same voltage level. This ;
would suggest establishing a corresponding trigger level for a A;
model switch to close. The switch should also interrupt only at A.
a natural current zero, and this procedure should be repeatable Transformer rating, chosen: 100 kVA
as frequently as necessary. Moreover, the arcing time should be
adjustable in a wide range to cover faults from intermittent to .
permanent. This switch model is the type 12 switch for spark The corresponding single-line diagram is shown in Fig. 2.
gap and triac application of the Alternate Transients Program Normal condition is: generator connected to grid, feeding nearly
(ATP) [7]. rated power into the grid; for this condition, high-resistance
The firing is controlled by a TACS variable SPARK which grounding as well as resonant grounding are dimensioned.
starts and closes the switch if the voltage across the switch ex-
ceeds the restrike voltage. The SPARK signal becomes zero B. High-Resistance Grounding
after an adjustable arcing time and will lead to interruption of the
fault current switch current). To achieve this signal struc- For all of the analyzed cases, the restrike voltage of the faulted
ture, the pulse originating at has to be delayed by generator winding has been chosen to be 0.7 p.u.; a lower value
–
the arcing time; the sum of the original and of the delayed pulse would lead to more frequent restrikes, a higher value would lead
is used to deduce a “sample” signal which now forms the desired to slightly less frequent restrikes. With the cases analyzed, the
SPARK signal. The restrike voltage is a parameter which has to main parameters and the main results are listed in Table I. For
be fixed for the different locations in the generator winding. It is characteristic cases, plots are shown with the plot number cor-
obvious that the selected winding location has to be coordinated responding to the case number. The cases are briefly discussed
with the switch location . in the following text.
1) Case 1: As a basis for comparison, a persistent single-
IV. CASE ANALYSIS, RESULTS, DISCUSSION phase-to-ground fault at the generator terminals has been sim-
ulated. After fault initiation close to voltage peak, a transient
A. Circuit to be Analyzed discharge current with high amplitude (2060 A) and high fre-
The case data chosen for the analysis stem from a real gener- quency (8700 Hz) flows through the fault (Fig. 3).
ator configuration (Fig. 2). It is quickly damped, predominantly by the fault resistance
Generator: 27 kV, 1182 MVA, 50 Hz, 3000 r/min (assumed: 2 ). The amplitude of the transient fault current de-
mH, F/ pends mainly on the voltage L-G immediately before fault initi-
phase; ation, the frequency on the equivalent short-circuit inductance,
F (surge capacitor, frequently and on the total capacitance to ground [8]. Immediately after
used). fault initiation, the transient voltage in the healthy phases rises
878 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 2, APRIL 2010

Fig. 3. Case 1; persistent phase-to-ground fault at the generator terminal.

Fig. 4. Case 3: phase-to-ground fault with arc extinctions and restrikes.

TABLE I
HIGH-RESISTANCE GROUNDING (RESTRIKES AT 0.7 p.u.) identical to Case 1 (Fig. 4). After current extinction, however,
the voltage in the faulted phase recovers up to 0.7 p.u. and then
a restrike occurs, causing current and voltage transients again.
This sequence recurs many times until the total destruction of
the insulation and/or disconnection and deexcitation of the gen-
erator. It is interesting to note that the energy absorption in the
fault resistance of 2 is now substantially higher than in Case
1 (13.8 kJ/s). This is caused by the high transient discharge cur-
rents and would lead to an accelerated destruction of the insu-
lation and to iron burning.
The secondary current in the grounding resistor is only
slightly less than in case 1 (i.e., it is no problem to detect such
intermittent faults).
4) Case 4, Same as Case 3, But Shorter Arcing Time: The
to high peaks (2.37 p.u.). The steady-state fault current is mainly tests described in [6] showed that arc extinctions in cable insu-
resistive and amounts in this case to 8.8 A, determined by the lation (EPR) occurred regularly already after the first half pe-
neutral grounding resistance. The energy absorbed in the fault riod of the transient fault current (i.e., at high di/dt). Hence, for
resistance of 2 is consequently very modest (0.3 kJ/s). The this case, the arcing time was reduced to 0.8 ms. This is shown
secondary current in the grounding resistor amounts to 835 A. in Fig. 5. The fault current is interrupted nearly at the end of
2) Case 2, Same as Case 1, But Fault Resistance 1480 : At the oscillatory part. The sequence of events is very similar to
a persistent fault with high fault resistance, practically no tran- Case 3.
sients occur (no plot); the fault current is further reduced to 5 A, 5) Case 5, Same as Case 4, But Still Shorter Arcing Time: A
the energy in the fault resistance is extremely high however (43 reduction of arcing time from 0.8 ms to 0.4 ms is not of great
kJ/s). It should be mentioned that such a condition is not prob- influence (no plot).
able; a breakdown of insulation normally takes place in the form 6) Case 6, Same as Case 3, But the Fault in the Lower Part
of an electric arc with rather small arc voltage (small distance) of the Winding Corresponds to 20% Generator Voltage: The
and correspondingly small energy absorption. restrike voltage has again been chosen to be 0.7 p.u. (i.e., 14%
3) Case 3, Same as Case 1, But With Arc Extinctions and Re- of peak voltage L-G at the chosen fault location). For an arcing
strikes: It has been assumed that the fault arc would only be time of 5 ms, the results are basically similar to case 3; how-
extinguished at a natural current zero of the 50-Hz fault cur- ever, with lower transient peak currents, there is higher oscil-
rent (i.e., after an arcing time of about 5 ms and at extremely lation frequency (due to smaller equivalent inductance), drasti-
low di/dt). The phenomena immediately after fault initiation are cally smaller fault energy, and smaller secondary current in the
BRAUN AND KOEPPL: INTERMITTENT LINE-TO-GROUND FAULTS IN GENERATOR STATOR WINDINGS 879

TABLE II
RESONANT GROUNDING (RESTRIKES AT 0.7 p.u.)

7) Case 7, Same as Case 6, But Shorter Arcing Time: An

arcing time of 0.4 ms increases only the frequency of restrikes
(no plot).

C. Resonant Grounding
The resonant circuit is tuned to the generator connected to
the stepup transformer. Similar cases have been analyzed as for
Fig. 5. Case 4; same as Case 3, but shorter arcing times. high-resistance grounding. The cases and results are listed in
Table II.
1) Case 8, (No Plot): Again, as a basis for comparison, a per-
sistent single-phase-to-ground fault at the generator terminals
has been simulated. After fault initiation close to voltage peak,
the transient phenomena are practically identical with those of
case 1. The steady-state fault current, however, is now deter-
mined by the losses caused in the resonant circuit, and shows
a very small magnitude of 0.4 A. In the secondary side, reso-
nant coil flows a current of 515 A, which corresponds at the pri-
mary side to the phase-to-ground fault without compensation
of 515/66.67 7.7 A. The energy absorbed in the fault resis-
tance of 2 is negligible apart from that caused by the transient
current.
2) Case 9, Same as Case 8, But Fault Resistance 1480 :
Similar to case 2, no transients appear (no plot). Again, it should
be noted that this case is very theoretical.
3) Case 10, Same as Case 8, But Extinctions and Restrikes:
Assuming an arcing time of about 5 ms, the fault current is easily
extinguished and the voltage L-G recovers very slowly due to
the exact tuning of the resonant circuit (Fig. 7). The time con-
stant for the recovery at resonant tuning is 2
s (i.e., the restrike at 0.7 p.u. will occur
0.159 s after fault-current extinction). This is a significant im-
provement compared to high-resistance grounding, where two
restrikes per period are to be expected.
The initial current in the resonant coil is about 480 A and
Fig. 6. Case 6; same as Case 3, but with a fault in the lower part of the winding decays with the same time constant. That means that even a
(20%). fugitive fault can still be securely detected.
It should be mentioned that if a restrike does not occur at
the voltage peak but at another instant of the sine wave, the
grounding resistor (Fig. 6). All of those effects can be easily ex- steady-state fault current will have an asymmetric shape and
plained by the lower voltage at the fault location. The secondary possibly delayed current zeroes.
current in the grounding resistor is still high enough to securely 4) Case 11, Same as Case 10, But Arcing Time 0.4 ms: Prac-
detect even a fault relatively close to the generator neutral. tically the same result as case 10
880 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 2, APRIL 2010

6) Case 13, Same as Case 12, But Arcing Time 0.4 ms: Prac-
tically the same result as case 12

V. CONCLUSION
As tests in an MV cable system have shown, single-phase
fault currents are quickly extinguished in the arc channel of the
insulating material, in most cases, already after the first half
wave of the transient fault current. When the voltage then re-
covers, a restrike occurs at a certain voltage threshold in the
range of 0.7 p.u. of the L-G voltage. This phenomenon recurs
many times until the total destruction of the insulation and pos-
sibly widening into multiphase faults. It is assumed that sim-
ilar phenomena occur in generators. Therefore, generator faults
with such a characteristic have been simulated for high-resis-
tance grounding and for resonant grounding.
The calculations and simulations performed lead to the fol-
lowing conclusions:
• At each flashover (arcing), a high transient discharge cur-
rent flows. For the most probable insulation breakdown at
peak voltage, transient current peaks in the range of 2000 A
may be expected. Since this is a discharge current, its mag-
nitude is not at all influenced by the grounding method.
The corresponding steady-state fault current (rms), how-
Fig. 7. Case 10; same as Case 8, but extinctions and restrikes.
ever, is and amounts to only less than 10 A for the men-
tioned grounding methods.
• The high transient arc current causes serious destructions
(welding) at the conductor and at the ground electrode
(stator iron).
• A fault arc in a synthetic insulation material will be ex-
tinguished certainly at the current zero of the steady-state
fault current; after that, the voltage rises and at a certain
magnitude, a restrike occurs, again with a high transient
peak current. This voltage recovery appears very quickly
with high-resistance grounding, with the consequence of
several restrikes and extinctions per cycle. At resonant
grounding, however, the voltage recovers very slowly
(depending on the degree of tuning) and there will be only
one restrike and extinction per several cycles.
• It is obvious that each restrike also causes transient over-
voltages up to 2.5 p.u. in the healthy phases.
• Early fault arc extinctions at the end of the transient
phase are possible too; this will increase the frequency of
restrikes and extinctions preferably with high-resistance
grounding.
• It is to be expected that phase-to-ground faults in the lower
part of the winding show the same picture of intermittent
faults but at a correspondingly lower voltage.
• Regarding the protection of generators against intermittent
faults, it is very important to have a distinct and definite
Fig. 8. Case 12; same as Case 10, but with a fault in the lower part of the
signal for this type of event. This is ensured by the current
winding (20%). flowing in the secondary-side resistor or in the secondary-
side coil caused by the strong displacement of the neutral.
This is valid also for short arcing times and long intervals
5) Case 12, Same as Case 10, But Fault in Lower Part of between extinction and restrike and for faults in the lower
Winding Corresponding to 20% Generator Voltage: The very part of the winding.
weak steady-state fault current is easily extinguished at its first • For containing winding damages and iron burning in case
natural current zero, and the voltage in the faulted phase re- of a single-phase-to-ground fault, the resonant grounding
covers slowly (Fig. 8). is to be preferred to high-resistance grounding.
BRAUN AND KOEPPL: INTERMITTENT LINE-TO-GROUND FAULTS IN GENERATOR STATOR WINDINGS 881

REFERENCES [7] Alternative Transients Program (ATP), Rule Book, Canadian/Amer-

[1] IEEE Guide for the Application of Neutral Grounding in Electric Utility ican EMTP User Group, 1987–1992.
Systems, IEEE C62.92-2, Part II—Grounding of Synchronous Gener- [8] P. Schwetz, “Ausgleichsstroeme beim Erdschluss im geloeschten
ator Systems, IEEE Std. CG2.92.2 –1989 (R 2005). Netz,” Elektrizitaetswirtschaft, vol. 78, no. 22, pp. 854–858, 1980.
[2] K. J. S. Khunkun, J. L. Koepfinger, and M. V. Haddad, “Resonant
grounding (ground fault neutralizer) of a unit connected generator,”
IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-96, no. 2, pt. 1, pp. 550–559, Dieter Braun (M’95) graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the Swiss Fed-
Mar./Apr. 1977. eral Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, in 1975.
[3] P. G. Brown, I. B. Johnson, and J. R. Stevenson, “Generator neutral After graduation, he joined the study group of the Medium Voltage Apparatus
grounding–Some aspects of application for distribution transformer Department of Brown, Boveri & Cie. Ltd., Baden, Switzerland. Since 1993,
with secondary resistor and resonant types,” IEEE Trans. Power App. he has been with the High Current System Division of ABB Switzerland Ltd.,
Syst., vol. PAS-97, no. 3, pp. 683–694, May/Jun. 1978. Zurich, Switzerland, where he is responsible for studies in conjunction with the
[4] E. M. Gulachenski and E. W. Courville, “New England Electric’s 39 application of generator switchgear.
years of experience with resonant neutral grounding of unit-genera-
tors,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 1016–1024, Jul. 1991.
[5] L. J. Powell, “The impact of system grounding practices on generator Georg S. Koeppl was born in Passau, Germany, in 1937. He received the
fault damage,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 34, no. 5, Sep./Oct. 1998. diploma in electrical engineering from the Technical University Munich,
[6] G. Koeppl, P. Abaecherli, A. Schmid, and G. Voss, “Concept and prac- Munich, Germany, in 1961.
tical testing of single pole operated earthing breakers in an urban cable In the same year, he joined Brown, Boveri & Cie., Ltd., Baden, Switzerland,
network,” presented at the Proc. CIRED 18th Int. Conf. Electricity Dis- where he worked in several fields, such as high-voltage circuit-breaker develop-
tribution, Turin, Italy, Jun. 2005, Session No 3. ment and testing system studies. He has been a Consulting Engineer since 1989.