Advances in Motor and Generator Rotor Health

Novel Techniques for Continuous Monitoring of Field Winding Insulation Resistance and
Rotor Thermal Conditions

Clyde V. Maughan John M. Reschovsky

Maughan Generator Consultants Accumetrics Associates, Inc.
Schenectady NY, USA Schenectady NY, USA
cmaughan@nycap.rr.com jreschovsky@accumetrix.com

Abstract—Until recently, power plant operators have had very electronic modules fabricated in a manner to withstand the high
limited options for on-line monitoring of the health of motor and centrifugal forces are mounted on the rotor. These modules
generator rotors, particularly those with brushless excitation combine sensor and measurement signals and digitize them
systems. Degradation of field winding insulation can lead to into high speed digital data streams for wireless transmission
ground faults or shorted turns, with little or no warning. off the rotor.
Moreover, the capability to monitor local hot spot temperatures
on rotor windings in service has not been available even though On electrical machines, this technique is most frequently
monitoring of stator windings with Resistance Temperature used to monitor the condition of insulation systems.
Detectors (RTDs) has always been commonplace. Techniques have been developed to measure insulation
resistance to ground (including instantaneous and continuous
In the past decade, digital rotor telemetry technology has come of ground detection) as well as local temperatures. On brushless
age, offering new options for rotor condition monitoring on exciter systems, winding voltage and current can be read,
motors and generators. This technology involves placing thereby giving average winding temperature.
electronic modules on rotors that perform direct measurements
of electrical signals and sensor inputs, digitizing the information,
and using wireless technology to pass the data off the rotor. This II. DETECTING FIELD GROUND FAULTS
allows long term trending of field voltage and current as well as On synchronous motors and generators, field ground faults
insulation resistance to ground, average winding temperatures (also referred to as earth faults) are perhaps the most dangerous
and hot spot temperatures. In addition, the technology common defect that can occur on rotors. Insulation breakdown
conveniently allows incorporating continuous monitoring for can cause shorts between the field winding and the rotor
ground detection and immediate alarm in the event of a ground forgings. When two grounds occur at different locations on the
occurring on brushless excitation systems.
windings, excitation current will be diverted into the rotor
This paper discusses application of this new class of rotor
forgings, which can lead to serious damage or even complete
condition monitoring options using digital rotor telemetry destruction of generator, and in the worst case, extensive
technology to continuously monitor the health of rotor insulation damage to the power plant. But a single ground can be equally
systems in large generators. dangerous, as it may be the result of a coil-to-coil short or a
break in the copper turns and connections. These faults are
quite common and typically are accompanied by severe arcing
I. INTRODUCTION with serious damage to the insulation as well as field forgings.
Rotor telemetry addresses the challenge of acquiring During a recent ten-month period, one of the authors observed
measurement data from rotors. For a number of years, five grounded fields. One was a double ground, with minor
telemetry has been used by manufacturers of rotating burning of the field forging. Photo1.
machinery for testing new designs through applying strain The other four would be classed as single grounds, and in
gages, thermocouples and other sensors to their rotating each case, significant-to-dangerous forging burning was
components to characterize and validate their designs. These occurring. One of these resulted from a coil-to-coil short
techniques were generally used for short term and experimental (bypassing 2 coils in the excitation circuit). The resulting
purposes and were often primitive and awkward. With the burning of the retaining ring is shown in Photo 2. The other
explosive growth of telecommunication technology, rotor three burn damage situations resulted from broken turns or
telemetry has now advanced to the stage where robust, pole-to-pole connections.
sophisticated systems are being used for continuous monitoring
of the health of rotor components. Typically, these systems Because field grounds can result in such serious
employ closely coupled rotating and stationary antenna consequences, it is preferable to continuously monitor the field
structures to transmit data off the rotor and also pass sufficient winding for ground detection. This is easily and uniformly
radio frequency energy to the rotor to power the rotating done on brush/collector fields by simply applying a bias
electronics, even when the machine in not operating. Small voltage on the field excitation circuit (which is designed to
operate ungrounded); the resulting current flow into the field is growths that can result in rotor bowing and severe rotor
monitored and initiates an alarm immediately if a ground vibration.
appears. But on a brushless excitation system, there is no
Most synchronous machines are protected from field
ground faults with simple protective relays that detect grounds
faults using the classical DC bias voltage injection technique
mentioned above. This approach yields a go/no go alarm when
a fault occurs, but gives no information on the severity or
location of the fault. Moreover, the severity of the fault at the
threshold of alarm detection is not fixed – it is influenced by
the fault location. With low side injection, a fault near the
negative side of the winding will need to be typically an order
of magnitude lower in resistance before detection than a fault
near the positive winding terminal.
A more sophisticated technique for monitoring for ground
faults is shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, a ground fault is
represented by a resistance, RL which connects some location
on the field winding to the rotor forging. The potential at this
location on the winding relative to the negative excitation bus
is K*Vx where K is defined as the Location Factor. K takes a
Photo 1. Field forging burning from a double grounded field winding. value of 0% at the negative field terminal, increasing for faults
along the winding to 100% at the positive field terminal. The
advanced ground fault resistance monitor injects a pulsed
voltage between the field negative bus and the rotor ground.
The current flowing from the ground terminal into the
transmitter is digitized with high resolution along with the field
excitation voltage. A computation of the change in current as
the pulse transitions allows the resistance, RL, as well as the
location factor, K, to be independently computed. The total
excitation voltage, VX is used in this computation to enhance its
performance.

Photo 2. Burning of inside diameter of retaining ring from single winding

ground.

accessible connection point on the winding to attach such a

monitoring system. Some brushless generators are designed
with a small separate slip ring which is electrically connected
to the winding. Periodically the associated brush is dropped
down on the ring to detect whether or not a ground has
developed. (Continuous brush-ring contact is not common
because of problems associated with brush wear and contact
resistance to the ring.)
Non-continuous monitoring carries a hazard, since a ground
which results from arcing between winding and forging can be
immediately dangerous. This delay problem can be easily
overcome with wireless technology, and a field ground can be
detected instantaneously.
Field ground faults can occur in the slots or end windings of
cylindrical rotor machines or to the pole steel or laminations of
salient pole machines. In addition to damaging insulation and
rotor steel, ground faults can also produce nonsymmetrical flux Figure 1. An advanced method for characterizing rotor ground faults.
patterns that can cause extreme vibration, as well as thermal
 This more advanced technique allows the characteristics of
the fault (resistance and location) to be precisely determined
and changes tracked over time. This offers users the ability to
trend these characteristics over the life of the machine. Subtle
changes in insulation characteristics resulting from physical
damage, moisture absorption or contamination can be tracked.
This information can be useful in helping operators make
decisions about continued operation and to predict maintenance
needs before they become critical.

III. USING ROTOR TELEMETRY FOR GROUND FAULT

MONITORING
When applied to generators with brush/collector excitation
systems, rotor connections for ground fault monitoring can be
made through the field excitation brush/collector. However,
ground fault detection on brushless motors and generators is
more challenging because these machines use brushless
exciters with rotating rectifiers to deliver DC field current to
the rotor. As a result, ground fault detection has traditionally
used solenoid driven brushes that are periodically engaged as
described above, and this method is non continuous and less
reliable.
The use of rotor telemetry overcomes these limitations on Photo 3. End of shaft mounted system. (Photo courtesy of Arizona Public
brushless motors and generators. When combined with the Service)
advanced methodologies shown in Fig. 1, it provides a
powerful tool for rotor protection and monitoring. It offers
continuous monitoring of the insulation system, even when the
machine is not operating. It also yields quantitative data that
can be used for trending and predictive maintenance rather than
just indicating alarm conditions.
A system of this type called Earth Fault Resistance Monitor
(EFREM) has been offered by Accumetrics for the past five
years. It is installed on a wide variety of motors and generators,
both as original equipment on new machines and as retrofitted
monitors on existing machines. The insulation resistance can be
measured up to 80 Megohms, allowing users to track gradual
degradation of the rotor ground insulation system long before
serious problems occur. These data may be displayed and
archived on the user’s PC or may be transferred to the plant’s
Distributed Control System over analog/digital interfaces. It
can also be configured for local archival storage on an SD
memory card in the device’s receiver unit, and then be
Photo 4. Mid shaft mounted system. (Photo courtesy of Reliant Energy)
available for later retrieval.
To accommodate the variety of applications, this Since its introduction in 2005, the Earth Fault Resistance
technology has been configured in a variety of packaging Monitor system has been supplied for about 80 installations,
forms. The simplest arrangement, shown in Photo 3, mounts and these systems are currently operating on-line on machines
the rotating transmitter module at the end of the shaft. Rotating on four continents. The results have been very positive. In
antenna coils are integrated into this package and communicate addition to protecting rotors and the building of trending data
to a small stationary antenna over a small air gap. Signals bases, some of these devices have demonstrated additional
containing both power for the rotor module and data from the value. In one notable case, after detecting a ground fault on a
rotor module then pass over a cable from the stationary antenna peaking generator, the unit was shut down. The diagnostic
to a remote receiver enclosure which, in turn, provides alarms capabilities were used to identify and correct the fault, allowing
and data outputs to the user. the plant to quickly return to service. Another generating plant
located in an extremely humid climate where condensation on
In applications where access to the end of the shaft is not the rotors of several air-cooled generators is a problem, the
possible, a mid-shaft clamp-on collar arrangement is mounted Earth Fault Resistance Monitor system is used to monitor
containing the rotating transmitter module. An example of this resistance as a condition for start-up.
kind of arrangement is shown on Photo 4.
 IV. THERMAL MONITORING ON ROTORS Operators have never before had an opportunity to measure
Rotor telemetry can also be used to measure thermal actual copper temperatures at these specific locations to verify
conditions on the rotors of electric machinery. This capability that they are below the temperature rating for the class of
is well established but is not well known or understood among insulation used on the machine. Moreover, generator
designers or users of electric machines. Rotor temperature manufacturers establish reactive capability curves for
measurements on synchronous motors and generators are generators, based in part on the temperature capability of the
generally made only as average winding temperatures. field windings. Users who operate at the limits of these curves
may find it valuable to verify that they are not introducing
Average winding temperatures are made by measuring both excessive temperatures on their rotors.
the winding voltage and current. Current measurements
generally require that a current shunt be installed between the RTDs could be installed both in the slots and under the
exciter and the field winding. Once these two quantities are retaining rings. The installation of RTDs at these locations can
known, the average temperature of the entire field winding may be done when the rotor is removed from the machine. During
be computed using the temperature coefficient of resistance for original manufacture or during rotor rewind, the telemetry can
the copper windings. Abnormal changes in the field winding be packaged in a clamp-on collar on the generator shaft in-
temperature, particularly when assessed in conjunction with board of the bearing, where connection to the sensor leads is
generator operating conditions and cooling gas temperatures, easier. Routing the sensor leads to the telemetry modules would
can give users valuable information about the overall condition be a challenge probably requiring input from the OEM.
of cooling features of the rotor. This average temperature RTD measurements on rotors are also used on salient pole
measurement has traditionally only been possible on generators synchronous machines. On ac motors, for example, knowledge
with brush/collector systems. With the introduction of rotor of the rotor pole temperatures can be used to optimize the
telemetry solutions, average field temperature monitoring is timing of motor restarts. Starting synchronous motors with
now also possible on brushless machines. fixed frequency drives causes considerable heating of the rotor.
But hot spot temperature is far more important to achieving Generally, it is necessary for operators to wait until the rotor
high generator reliability. The ability to place RTDs on rotors has cooled sufficiently before restarting, to avoid overheating
can give designers and users particularly valuable information. of the rotor. By having a direct measurement of temperatures
On cylindrical rotor machines, field windings have hot on the poles, the time delay before starting can be determined
locations which are generally known to the designer. These hot with precision and certainty, and can allow safe restarts without
areas are sometimes evidenced by localized discoloration of excessive delay. Likewise, some operators of hydroelectric
slot liners. Photo 5. generators monitor pole tip and winding temperatures using
RTDs transmitted through telemetry. Knowing these
temperatures allows operators to maximize loads without
jeopardizing insulation systems.

V. CONCLUSIONS
The use of rotor telemetry technology opens up the
opportunity to significantly improve the condition assessment
of generator and motor field windings during normal operation.
Immediate detection of a field winding ground is also
conveniently permitted on brushless excitation systems.
Combined with advanced techniques for measurement of
insulation fault characteristics and temperatures, this
technology offers operators sophisticated tools for monitoring
rotor insulation systems and offers both designers and operators
a powerful design, operation and predictive maintenance tool.

Photo 5. Discolored insulation at axial centerline of slot liner. (Inside

REFERENCES
surface of liner against copper was black.) [1] J. Demcko and J. Reschovsky, “Guarding the Health and Availability of
a Brushless Generator Using an Earth Fault Resistance Monitor,”
Electric Power Conference, Chicago IL (USA), May 2007.