Novel Rotor Ground-Fault Detection Algorithm for Synchronous Machines With Static Excitation Based on Third-Harmonic Voltage-Phasor Comparison

This paper presents a new algorithm for detecting ground faults in rotor windings. This location method is suitable for synchronous generators with static excitation, whose excitation field winding is fed by controlled rectifiers through an excitation transformer. This new algorithm is an improvement of an online ground-fault location method presented previously, in which the effect of the rotor capacitance has a high influence in the correct detection of the fault. The detection of the ground fault is performed by the supervision of the phase angle between two phasor voltages. The first one is the third-harmonic phasor voltage obtained from the measurement of the field voltage, which is used as a reference. The second one is the third-harmonic voltage phasor obtained by the measurement in a grounding resistance placed in the neutral of the excitation transformer. It allows not only detecting the ground fault along the field winding but also distinguishing the cases of ground fault in the rotor winding, from the cases of high influence of the rotor capacitance in healthy condition. This new algorithm has been tested with satisfactory results in a 106-MVA hydro generating unit.