AUTO RECLOSING OF TURBINE-GENERATOR CONSIDERATIONS


Manual closing or autoreclosing without synchronization supervision at line terminals that are in close electrical proximity to turbine-generators can subject them to excessive shaft torques and winding stresses with resultant loss of life of the turbine-generator system.

These effects should be studied and evaluated before autoreclosing is initiated by tripping. It is preferable to re-energize a line at a terminal remote from the generator bus, check synchronism between the generator bus and line, and then close the breaker at the generator end.

In past years, considerable research and analysis focused on the stresses in the shafts and components of turbine-generators due to switching operations. There is little documentation of actual damage to, or failure of, turbine-generators resulting from autoreclosing or switching.

The effects of these stresses induced are cumulative and can be caused by normal switching operations or system faults. Therefore, autoreclosing can be a contributing factor to machine failure, but not necessarily the sole contributor.

An unsuccessful autoreclose attempt (particularly three-phase faults) close in to a generating plant can contribute to accelerated torsional fatigue on the turbine-generator shafts (ANSI C30.13-1977 [B1], IEEE Committee Report [B8], and Jackson et al. [B12]). This can be dealt with by not autoreclosing near generating plants or by blocking the autoreclose for close-in faults or three-phase faults.

Consideration should be given as well to the natural oscillatory frequency of the transmission line as autoreclosing can result in a resonance condition, which could contribute to other system problems. The operation of closing a breaker in the power system can result in the creation of power transients and current oscillations, which can stress or damage generating units located electrically close to that breaker.

These transients effect various components of the turbine-generator. The concern is the average initial power, dP, which occurs when the breaker is closed, and its effect in producing torsional stresses, primarily in the rotational members of the turbine-generator.

For this condition, the permissible limit for dP or dI at the generator terminals are 0.5 per unit based on the rated load and power factor. Regardless of the cause of initial disturbance, autoreclosing times in excess of 10 s appear long enough to allow the oscillations from the initial disturbance to die out.

Turbine-generators when subjected to high-speed autoreclosing can resonate at the natural frequencies of the turbine and shaft. These transient torques will cause cyclic stress variations in the generator shaft resulting in cumulative fatigue damage when they exceed material fatigue limits.

This results in reduced component life of shafts, retaining rings, and rotors. In extreme cases, these torsional vibrations have led to growing oscillations resulting in shaft damage. Some of the more recent papers on the subject of shaft fatigue as a result of high-speed autoreclosing (ANSI C30.13-1977 [B1]) suggest that simple measures such as dP or dI cannot be correlated directly.

Transient torque studies that quantify the impact of high-speed autoreclosing can be performed to calculate the impact on the turbine-generators. This study would require a detailed turbine-mass representation and is generally performed using the Electro Magnetic Transient Program (EMTP). This study can then provide a basis for evaluating the need for torsional monitors/relays on the turbine-generators.

The torsional monitoring devices monitor the turbine-generator shaft for torsional oscillations by providing torsional mechanical response evaluation, shaft torsional stress, and fatigue evaluation, and can be used by the operator to assess torsional impact of an event on a unit. The torsional protective devices continuously monitor the turbine-generator shaft and provide trip output contacts when shaft fatigue reaches predetermined levels.
As a result of the apparent risk to turbine-generator life, most utilities have modified their autoreclosing practices to some form of the following:

a) Autoreclose by synchronism check only
b) Allow a minimum of a 10-s delay prior to any autoreclose attempt
c) Use single pole tripping and allow autoreclose on single phase faults only
d) Autoreclose lines with tapped generation only under dead-line conditions
e) Use no autoreclosing near generation

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