GENERATOR AUXILIARIES (SEAL OIL SYSTEM)

PART-I ABC OF THERMAL POWER PLANT

Till last dispatch I have outlined the installation of turbine and generator
of thermal power plant briefly with the help of photos. I have also
discussed what are pitfalls during erection . From now onwards I will
discuss about few important systems /processes required for Turbine and
Generator so that readers can have an idea of the total system of a power
plant. I will first discuss about the Generator System.
Shaft seals supplied with pressurized seal oil are provided to prevent
hydrogen losses at the shaft and the ingress of air into the hydrogencooled generator. All generators having rating more than 500 MW
stator winding is cooled by water and rotor winding is cooled by
Hydrogen. Stator water and Hydrogen is again cooled by water as
secondary cooling through stator water cooler and hydrogen
cooler. As long as the seal oil pressure in the annular gap is more than
the gas pressure in the generator, no hydrogen will escape from the
generator housing. During normal operation, the air side seal oil pump
(AC) draws the seal oil from the seal oil storage tank and feeds it to the
shaft seals via coolers and filters. The seal oil supplied to the shaft seals
which drains towards the air side through the annular gaps between the
shaft and seal rings is returned to the seal oil storage tank. For the air side
seal oil circuit, three seal oil pumps are provided with one of the three
pumps always in operation. In the event of a failure of the pump in service
due to a mechanical or electrical failure, the second pump automatically
takes over. If both pumps fail, the seal oil supply is taken over by the
stand-by pump without any interruption.
During normal operation, the hydrogen side pump draws the seal oil from the
seal oil storage tank
and feeds it to the shaft seal via coolers and filters. The seal oil supplied to the
shaft seals which
drains towards the hydrogen side through the annular gaps between the shaft and
the seal rings is first collected in the generator pre-chambers and then returned to the seal
oil tank.
Oil pressures which exceed the generator gas pressure are required to ensure proper
sealing of the generator. With the seal oil pumps in operation, the seal oil pressure is
controlled by differential pressure valves. The first valve controls the seal oil pressure after
two equal-priority ac air side seal oil pumps. The pressure after the stand-by seal oil pump is
separately controlled by the second valve. Depending on the valve setting and the impulse
oil pressure prevailing (seal oil pressure and hydrogen casing pressure), a larger or smaller
amount of oil is returned to the suction pipe so that the required seal oil pressures is

established at the shaft seals . A typical seal oil circuit is given below. Now seal oil system is
coming as a skid item where every item is connected ,pre-wired and instrumentation
completed. Only job is left to connect the lines from different places with proper slope.
However only small disadvantage is there i.e. the size of the skid is fairly big because of
cooler and tank fitted on it. If proper co-ordination is not done there will be problem on
shifting the same to foundation in one piece. One must keep in mind pre-plan its path before
hand.

Scavenging Type

To keep the hydrogen inside the generator, various places in the generator are
required to seal against hydrogen leakage to atmosphere.
Picture beside is from Siemens Generator which use scavenging system that is
very easy to understanding how seal oil works. There are two type of generator
seal oil system, scavenging type and vacuum type.

Vacuum type
The seal oil itself actually a portion of the lube oil, diverted from the lube oil
system. It is then fed to a separate system of its own with pump, motor,
hydrogen de-training or vacuum degassing equipment, and controls to regulate
the pressure and flow.

The seal oil pressure at hydrogen seals is maintained generally about 15 psi
above the hydrogen pressure to stop hydrogen from leaking past the seals.
Once of the critical component of the seal oil system is the hydrogen degasifying plant. The most common method of removing entrained hydrogen and
other gases is to vacuum treat the seal oil before supplying it to the seals. This is
generally done in the main seal oil supply tank. As the oil is pulled into the
storage tank under vacuum through a spray nozzle, the seal is broken up into the
fine spray. This allows the removal of dissolved gases. In addition there is often
re-circulate oil back to the tank through a series of spray nozzles for continuous
gas removal.
After passing through the generator shaft seals, the oil goes through the
detraining sections before it returns to the bearing oil drain. As a safety feature
there is often a dc motor driven emergency seal oil pump provided. This motor
will start automatically on loss of oil pressure from the main seal oil pump. This is
to ensure that the generator can be shut down without risk to personnel or the
equipment.

Water and Air Contamination in Seal Oil

Water contamination in seal oil can vaporize when it comes in contact with the
spinning turbine shaft. This water vapor can enter the generator shell, and cause
a reduction in the purity of the hydrogen gas. Lower dew point readings are
consequently noted. Also, entrained air can be released from the oil and into the
hydrogen, again reducing hydrogen purity. Decreased hydrogen purity results in
increased windage loss which reduces the amount of usable energy available to
produce electricity. This can result in lost revenue to the utility!
To minimize these losses, the concentration of water and entrained air in the oil
should be kept well below the saturation level. Since the seal oil is drawn from
the main turbine lube oil reservoir, measures must be taken to control water and
air contamination there. It is recommended that a Pall Vacuum Dehydration
Purifier be used on the main turbine lube oil reservoir to remove 100% of the free

water and air, and up to 80% of the dissolved water and air present in the oil.
This will result in improved performance and reliability of both the hydrogen seal
oil and main turbine lube systems