General Electric Company

Electric Power Research Institute Incorporated

Electric Power Research Limited

Murray A Eitzmann

Einar Vaughn Larsen

Loren H Walker

Kara Clark

Josef Urbanek

Ann T Hill

Sandeep Nyati

An approach for reduction in generator-sourced fault current contribution is disclosed. In one aspect, automatic excitation control of a generator is coordinated with a generator step-up transformer operating on maximized tap selection to reduce generator fault current contribution to an electrical power distribution network.

Reduction in generator-sourced fault current contribution

A metal oxide varistor in series with a semiconductor switch forms a protection circuit that reduces the steady-state voltage across the metal oxide varistor during normal operation, During an overvoltage transient condition, the semiconductor switch is gated on and the metal oxide varistor is placed in the voltage clamping mode.

Switched MOV device

Disclosed is an End-Turn Solid-State Switching (ETSS) transfomer tap which makes use of a high-speed solid-state switching network to select either the end-turn lead or one of a number of non-isolated taps on a transformer regulating winding, and connects the selected tap to, while disconnecting the previously selected tap from, a single output conductor carrying the transformer load current. ETSS effectively changes the reference to one of the possible taps interfaced to a solid-state switching network. The same transformer regulating winding connected to ETSS can also be connected in series with a slow-speed mechanically-switched tap-changer (LTC). ETSS selects one connection point on the regulating winding while LTC operation selects the second point. A difference voltage is produced, depending on the number of turns between the ETSS selected tap and the LTC selected tap. The sign of the difference in voltage depends on whether the ETSS selected tap is higher or lower than the LTC selected tap. The difference or tap selected voltage is in series with the transformer load current. In one embodiment, the high-speed solid-state switching network uses a 'Staggered Progression of Solid-State Switches' (SPSS) to select one of a number of non-isolated taps on a transformer regulating winding and connect the selected tap in series with the load circuit. A switching network arranged according to the method SPSS reduces the necessary total switch power rating, and steady-state losses. ETSS can accomplish modulation of the tap-selected voltage about the nominal value established by the LTC.

Combined solid-state and mechanically-switched transformer tap-changer

A thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC) system, including a method and apparatus, uses phase controlled firing based on monitored capacitor voltage and line current. For vernier operation, the TCSC system predicts an upcoming firing angle for switching a thyristor controlled commutating circuit to bypass line current around a series capacitor. Each bypass current pulse changes the capacitor voltage proportionally to the integrated value of the current pulse. To damp the natural oscillatory response of the inductive commutating circuit and the capacitor, a bypass mode firing angle is introduced to create a nonlinear response. The harmonic distortion on the commutating circuit current waveform is determined from the capacitor voltage, which is then used to determine the magnitude of the firing angle. Preferably the firing angle magnitude decreases in response to decreasing capacitor voltage, eventually returning to steady-state conditions.

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Ballston Lake, NY, United States of America

Murray A Eitzmann