Main features of

Salient Pole (Slow Speed) Rotor

Most hydraulic turbines have to turn at low speeds (from

50 to 300 rpm)
Rotor is directly coupled to water wheel and a freq. of 60
Hz is required
To get 60Hz at low speed a large no. of poles are
required on the rotor
f = pn/120 >> p = 120f/n
A large diameter is required to provide necessary space
for the poles

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Main features of
Salient Pole (Slow Speed) Rotor

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Hydropower Plant

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Main features of
Salient Pole (Slow Speed) Rotor

In addition to dc field
winding, a squirrel-cage
winding is embedded in
the pole face
Under normal condition
this winding does not
carry any current
because rotor turns at
synchronous speed

Electro Mechanical System 4

Main features of
Salient Pole (Slow Speed) Rotor

If load on the generator suddenly changes, the rotor

speed begins to vary
This variation induces voltage in the squirrel cage
winding, causing large current to flow, which reacts with
the magnetic field of the stator, producing forces which
dampen the oscillation of the rotor
Squirrel cage winding is called damper winding
Damper winding also tends to maintain balanced 3-phase
voltages between the lines

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Main features of
Cylindrical (High Speed) Rotor
High speed synchronous generator are more efficient
To generate the required frequency less than two poles
can not be used which fixes the highest possible speed
On 60 Hz system it is 3600 rpm
The next lower speed is 1800 rpm corresponding to a 4-
pole machine
Steam turbine generator possess either 2 or 4 poles

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Main features of
Cylindrical (High Speed) Rotor
The rotor of a turbine generator is long, solid steel
cylinder, which contain series of longitudinal slots

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Thermal Power Plant

Electro Mechanical System 8

Thermal Power Plant

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Main features of
Cylindrical (High Speed) Rotor
The high speed of rotation produces a strong centrifugal
forces, which imposes an upper limit to the diameter of
the rotor
To build 1000 MVA to 1500 MVA generators the volume
of the rotor has to be very large
High-power, High-speed rotors have to be very long

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Field Excitation

The dc field excitation of a large synchronous generator

is an important part of its overall design
It ensures stable terminal ac voltage quick response to
load variations

For quickness of the response, two dc

generators, main exciter and a pilot
exciter are used
Main exciter feeds the exciting IX
current to rotor fields of generator
through brushes and slip rings
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Field Excitation

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Field Excitation

Under normal conditions the exciter

voltage lies between 125 V and 600 V
Main exciter voltage is regulated by pilot
exciter current IC
Under normal conditions the excitation is varied
automatically
It responds to the load changes so as to maintain a
constant ac line voltage
A serious disturbance on the system may produce a
sudden voltage drop across the terminals of the
alternator
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Field Excitation

The exciter must then react very quickly to keep the ac

voltage from falling
The exciter voltage may have to rise to twice its normal
value in as little as 300 to 400 msec

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Brushless Excitation

Due to brush wear and tear and slip-ring problems,

brushless exciters have been developed
An ac generator with fixed field winding and a rotor with a
three phase circuit is used instead of a dc generator
Diode/SCR rectification supplies dc current to the field
windings instead of the commutator and slip rings

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Brushless Excitation

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Size of Synchronous
Generators
Companies are very conscious about the efficiency of generators
If the efficiency of a 1000MW generating station improves by only 1% it
translates into extra revenues per day
The size of the generator is particularly important because its efficiency
automatically improves as the power increases

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Size of Synchronous
Generators
A small 1kW synchronous generator has an
efficiency of 50%
Alarger, but similar model having a capacity of 10
MW inevitably has an efficiency of about 90%
Synchronous generators of 1000 MW possess 99%
efficiency

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Size of Synchronous
Generators
Another advantage of large machines is that the power
output per kilogram increases as the power increases

1 kW generator weighs 20 kg (yielding

1000W/20 kg = 50 W/kg)
10MW generator of similar construction will weigh only
20,000 kg, thus yielding 500 W/kg
From a power standpoint, large machines weigh
relatively less than small machines; consequently, they
are cheaper

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Size of Synchronous
Generators
Serious cooling problems occur with increased size
Efficient cooling systems must be designed which
become ever more elaborate as power increases to
prevent a temperature rise
Circulating cold-air system is adequate to cool
synchronous generators whose rating is below 50 MW
Between 50 MW and 300 MW hydrogen cooling is used

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Hydrogen Cooling

Closed Cooling System

Hydrogen is continuously circulated around the generator
Density is 1/14th of air
Thermal conductivity is 6.7 times that of air
Heated Hydrogen gas is passed through water cooled
heat exchanger to cool it down
Deposition of dust and moisture is reduced
Filters are not required
Operation of generator is quite

Electro Mechanical System 21

Size of Synchronous
Generators
1000 MW range have to be equipped with water-cooled
conductors
Ultimately, a point is reached where the increased cost of
cooling exceeds the savings made, and this fixes the
upper limit to size
The evolution of big alternators has mainly been
determined by the evolution of sophisticated cooling
techniques

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Cooling of Generators

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Size of Synchronous
Generators
Slow-speed 500 MVA, 200 r/min synchronous generators
installed in a typical hydropower plant are air-cooled
High-speed 500 MVA, 1800 r/min units installed in a
steam plant have to be hydrogen-cooled

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No-load Saturation Curve

A 2-pole synchronous generator operating at no-load

is driven by a turbine at a constant speed
The generator is Wye connected with terminals
A,B,C,N
The variable exciting current Ix produces flux in the air
gap

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No-load Saturation Curve

The exciting current is gradually increased

while observing the ac voltage Eo between the
terminals
For small value of Ix , voltage increase is
directly proportional to exciting current

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No-load Saturation Curve

When the iron begins to saturate, voltage rise

much less for the same increase in Ix
No load saturation curve of a 36 MW, 3
phase, 12 kV nominal voltage synchronous
generator are shown

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 Synchronous Reactance-
Equivalent Circuit of Synchronous
Generator
A 3-phase synchronous generator
having terminals A, B, C feeding a
balanced 3-phase load is excited by a dc
current Ix
The machine and its load are both
connected in wye
Neutrals N1 and N2 are not connected,
but they are at the same potential

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 Synchronous Reactance-
Equivalent Circuit of Synchronous
Generator
Each phase possesses a resistance R
and Inductance L

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Equivalent Circuit

Induced voltage EO
Winding reactance
XS = 2fL
XS = Synchronous reactance per
phase[]
f = generator frequency [Hz]
L = Inductance of stator winding, per
phase [H]

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Equivalent Circuit

Winding resistance
Usually 1/100 of the size of the
reactance

Often neglected in the

equivalent circuit
Simplified equivalent circuit of
Synchronous Generator showing
only a single phase

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