New developments in diesel driven generators

The growing need for power worldwide, particularly in the developing countries, has led to a demand for power generation equipment which can be deployed and commissioned within very short timescales. Traditional solutions employing large steam turbine driven generators do not meet these demands leading to a rapid expansion in the use of gas and diesel driven power plant. Diesel generators have been used for a large number of years but increased attention is now being focused on the cost of the equipment and the time to order, deliver and commission the plant. A new range of generators has been designed for use with medium speed diesel engines spanning a range of powers from 5 MW to 40 MW and synchronous speeds of 333 rev/min to 750 rev/min to meet these new demands. The need to achieve economies by optimising the use of materials and achieve reductions in the time to manufacture and in the prices led to a complete reappraisal of the existing product range, covering both technical aspects materials and manufacturing processes. Valuable knowledge on the use of cast iron in a magnetic application was gained as was an insight into how the use of such a material affects the design. Evaluation and optimisation of the damper cage to assist in the reduction of voltage and power swings is now possible. The contribution of salient pole head and the effectiveness of different types of fan design have been established. A new facility to allow the collection of rotor parameters and data has been developed allowing the distribution of temperatures to be established.