75

IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. EC-1, No. 2, June 1986 75

CONVERTER FED SYNCHRONOUS GENERATOR SYSTEM FOR MEDIUM AND LARGE POWER PLANTS

C.Ammann '[.Reichert R.Joho

Member

Swiss Federal Institute Swiss Federal Institute Brown Boveri,

of Technology, Zurich of Technology, Zurich Baden
Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland

Abstract With this decoupling of the generator from the power

Converter fed synchronous generators have the follow• system, the following advantages may be achieved:
ing advantages: free choice of generator or turbine speed, hence
The turbine can operate at any speed, independant of optimizing of the turbine efficiency also at par•
the frequency of the power system, the part load effi• tial load

ciency may be improved if the speed can be adjusted. reduction of torques due to grid disturbances; no
The generator is protected and isolated. The stability faulty synchronization, no sub synchronous
is improved. resonances

This scheme is applicable to hydro, steam and wind improved stability, due to fast control response
generation. The paper gives details on a converter fed There may be the following disadvantages :
650 MW unit with steam turbine having a synchronous higher costs
generator with two 3-phase windings at 30° to each slight reduction in the efficiency of the electri•
other which directly feeds a 12-pulse HVDC link. The cal part
usual converter transformer, var-compensators and cur•
rent harmonics filters on the generator side are elim•
inated. The study shows the advantages and disadvan• 2. CHOICE OF UNIT-CONNECTION SYSTEM
tages of the system. The system stability is consider•
ably improved compared to the conventional design. As The evaluation is applied to a unit connection system
the steam turbine can be operated only with constant being designed to meet the following requirements:
speed, the improvements in the efficiency of the generator terminal output 650 MW, 2-pole design
thermal system are limited. A cost reduction can be steam-turbine
achieved only with a higher turbine speed. Details are 12-pulse rectifier and inverter bridges, because
given on the total system losses and the total system costs of harmonics on the power system
in comparison to the conventional design. no converter transformers, no reactors, and no
filters on the generator side of the converter
link
1. INTRODUCTION The arrangement fulfilling these conditions is shown
in Fig. 2.1. Its main features are :
Until now, HVDC links have been connected only to a.c. the stator of the synchronous generator has two 3-
buses. They enable the exchange of energy between phase windings, offset by 30° electrical to each
grids with differing frequencies, power ratings and other, which generate two a.c. systems having 30°
different control systems, thus maintaining the de• phase difference
sired power exchange level. each a.c. system feeds a 6-pulse rectifier bridge,
This paper considers a HVDC link which is fed by only the two bridges are connected in series to in•
one generator, and in which all of the generator out• crease the voltage
put is fed to the power system through the link. The using an inverter/converter transformer, the d.c.
configuration is illustrated by Fig. 1.1. In the lit• is changed to a.c. at power system frequency, and
erature it is referred to as a 'unit connection' or a is fed into the power system
'converter fed synchronous generator'. on the power system side, var compensators deliver
The generator output is rectified in a rectifier the reactive power for the inverter and provide
bridge, transmitted over a short d.c. bus having a filtering for damping the inverter harmonics
smoothing choke, converted to a.c. by a thyristor in- The limits of the system, as set by the individual
verter, and fed to the power system. components are :
the turbine determines the limits for the maximum
possible speed and the allowable speed range
the dielectric strength of the stator-winding
Grid insulation determines the limit on maximum possi•
ble terminal voltage
. Generator Rectifier Choke Inverter the converter valves set the limits on the maximum
Turbine allowable transmitted current and, because of
their recovery time, also the maximum allowable
frequency
Fig. 1.1 Converter Fed Synchronous Generator System

85 WM 104-5 A paper recommended and approved

by the IEEE Power Generation Committee of the IEEE
Power Engineering Society for presentation at the
IEEE/PES 1985 Winter Meeting, New York, New York,
February 3 - 8, 1985. Manuscript submitted Synchr. Rectifier Inverter
August 30, 1984; made available for printing Generator Var Compensators
November 27, 1984. Filters
76
IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. EC-1, No. 2, June 1986 76

Fig. 2.1 Converter Fed Synchronous Generator System

Selected

0885-8969/86/0006-0075$01.00© 1986 IEEE

77
IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. EC-1, No. 2, June 1986 77

3. THE SYSTEM COMPONENTS as inverters and the direction of power flow is

reversed.

3.1 Steam Turbine

It is of primary interest to know whether the effi•

ciency of the steam turbine could be improved if the
turbine speed can be modified without limits. Two
cases were considered: efficiency improvement through
turbine design, and efficiency improvement in partial•
load operation resulting from speed variation.

Efficiency Improvement through Turbine Design

In the 650 MW output range,the design problems have
mostly been solved. Steam turbines can be built and
optimized for speeds between 2500 and 4000 rpm. Yet Voltage relation shii:>s Power relation ships
deviations from the standard speeds (3600,3000,1800 or Dio = 2·{·V3·V2·U = 4.68 U
Pd =Di-Id= Pac= 6·U·l·cos(J>
1500 rpm) produce no significant improvement in effi• Di ""' Dio (cos a -dx)
a = p ac . tan (J> ' where

ciency. cos (J> = cos a + cos ( a + µ, ) and

Dio" dx = 2 TT Jx Id a:: 10%

By decoupling the speed from frequency of the power cos ( a + µ, ) = cos! - .!!.. · x · lU
UN1E = Di/4 3
system, however, it would become possible to design
x = commutation reactance
standardized turbines, at a more economical price. The UN2E = -Di/4

same turbine, for instance, could be used for either

50 Hz or 60 Hz systems.
In general it can be proved that the efficiency of
lowspeed turbines is slightly better than for high•

speed turbines. However, the costs of high-speed flows from the a.c. system into the d.c. circuit.
turbines are considerably less than for low-speed With a between 180° and 360°, the bridges perform
turbines, because the high-speed ones can be made much
more compact. Thus considerable plant cost reductions
in order of up to 40~ - can be realized by raising
the speed above the usual 3000 or 3600 rpm.

Efficiency Improvement during Partial Load Operation

Steam turbine and generator shaft lines are flexible
systems having various natural frequencies (critical
speeds), hence the operating speed may vary only with•
in the narrow range of -5~ to +6~. It is therefor not
possible to design a steam turbine having variable
speed.
In addition, the investigation of the relationship be•
tween speed and turbine efficiency being on partial
load, thereby neglecting the resonance problems, shows
that practically no improvement in efficiency can be
gained by a speed adjustment.
This is due to the following facts:
During operation with partial load, the steam
inlet pressure drops considerably, but the flow
rate and outlet pressure remain practically con•
stant.
It can be shown that even in the partial load
range, the pressure drop per blade row remains
practically constant.
By drawing the speed triangle, it can be derived that
a change in speed brings no improvement in blade effi•
ciency, hence the overall efficiency of the turbine
cannot be raised.

3.2 The Converter System

Description of Converter Circuit

Figure 3.1 illustrates the circuits used, and shows
the voltage and power relationships. The main features
are:
Each of two a.c. systems, having 30° phase differ•
ence, is feeding a 6-pulse bridge.
The two bridges are connected in series
With a firing angle a between o0 and 180°, the
bridges perform as rectifiers, i.e. the power
 78
IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. EC-1, No. 2, June 1986 78

Fig. 3.1 Description of Converter Circuit

Current Harmonics
Because of the pulsation of the valve currents, typi•
cal harmonics appear in addition to the fundamentals.
In table 3.2, the amplitudes of these a.c. side
harmonics are listed for two cases : first, with ideal
commutation with delay angle a= o0 and overlap angle
µ = o0 (the worst case) and second, for a typical op•
eration point with technically minimum delay angle a
14° and overlap angleµ= 21°, which already gives a
considerable reduction in amplitudes.

order of
harmonic v = 1 s 7 11 13 17 19 23 25

a= oo,µ= 00
iv/ il = 100 20.0 14.3 9.1 7.7 5.9 5.3 4.4 4.0

a=14°,µ=21°
iv/il = 100 17.5 11.0 4.5 2.6 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.9

table 3.2 Amplitudes of Current Harmonics in per cent

on a.c. Side of a 6-Pulse Bridge

In the generator the harmonics of 5th, 7th, 17th and

19th order cancel each other because of the 30° offset
of the a.c. current coverages. Hence the generator
rotor is affected only by the 11th, 13th, 23rd and
25th harmonics, which are asynchronous to the rotor
and which induce currents of the 12th and 24th order
in the damper winding and the solid parts of the
rotor. A corresponding compensation also occurs in the
converter transformers. In the a.c. power system, only
harmonics of the 11th, 13th, 23rd and 25th order are
present.

Operating Limits for High-Power Valves

The most important limits for high-power thyristor
valves will be described here.
The technically minimum gate trigger angle a is 14°.
With an overlap angleµ of 20°, there will be a m1n1-
mum power factor of 0.9, i.e. the minimum commutation
reactive power required for' a 650 MW output is about
315 MVAR.
77 77

The load capacity at rated load depends on the short•
circuit current. The largest thyristor valves today
can carry a continous load of 4000A. as long as the
short-circuit current is less than ten times the rated
current. By connecting pairs of thyristors in paral•
lel, where the valve frame, RC circuit, etc. can be
retained, the rated d.c. current can be raised to max.
8000 A. This limitation is due to the limited thermal
overload capacity of the thyristors.
The recovery time for thyristors is about 500 µs. With
a normal extinction angle of 18°, the maximum frequen•
cy attainable will be 70-80 Hz, i.e. the power system
and generator frequency must not exceed 70 Hz.
Control of Converter System
Figure 3.3 illustrates the usual control design for
the converter system. By controlling the gate trigger
angle of the inverter, a constant voltage is main•
tained on the d.c. side of the inverter. The
transmission capacity is given by the voltage drop in
DC Voltage Load on Stator
In Fig. 3.1. Description of Converter circuit, it can
be seen that the potentials of neutral points of the
windings are raised by +2s, or -2s, of the d.c.
voltage. For the stator winding, this represents an
unusual d.c. load superimposed on the normal conductor
voltages.
The stator winding is illustrated shematically in Fig.
3.4. The voltages given are those for which the
winding insulation must now be redesigned. With an
output of 650 MW and a maximum d.c. current of 8000 A.
the d.c. voltage Dio must be equal to 81.25 kV. There•
fore, in the system under study (for a m1n1mum gate
trigger angle a of 14° and about 10% voltage drop over
the commutation reactance) the phase voltage U must be
15 kV and the maximum voltage between two phases
amounts to 76.5 kV, i.e. 3.6 times the normal load.
Voltage D.c. Max.

--
A.c. voltage
the intermediate d.c. circuit, i.e. by varying the u between voltage voltages

rectifier gate trigger angle, the transmission capaci• N, E 0.25 Dio 1.17 U

ty can be controlled through the rectifier voltage. N1 fEU1 V1 u, E 0,25 Dio V2U cos wt 2.6U
W1 u, v, V3 V2Ucoswt 2.5U
u, U2 0.5Dio 1,93 V2 U cosot 5,1 U
N2 EU2 V2
W2
~E
Ro e for Po = 650 MW, lo max = BOOOA Dio 81,25 kV
• for amin = 14°, dx "'10% U 15kV

Fig. 3.4 Voltages in Stator Winding

Additional Losses due to Current Harmonics

The current harmonics may induce additional losses in
UoR actual Uo1 actual
the stator windings and in the rotor. The amplitudes
af the harmonics for a 6-pulse bridge, at a typical
operation point (a= 14°, µ = 21°), were given in Fig•
ure 3.2 above. If one considers a machine having d.c.
losses P0 in the stator winding, the a.c. losses P_
will increased as follows
Po setpoint UOI set point

when a harmonic current Iv is present in addition to

the fundamental current 11• The value of c1 depends on
UoR- UoJ the specific conductor design of the stator winding.
Po
Ro Calculations made for four different 650 MW machines
show that the stator losses on converter load are
raised, relative to the rated output, from about
UoR K · U1 • cos aR 0.00225 pu to a value of 0.0025 pu.
Uo1 Because of the two stator windings with 30° phase dif•
. K · U 2 • cos a I ference, the current coverages from the 5th, 7th, 17th
and 19th order cancel out (amplitudes of opposite sign
but coincident phase position). The current coverages
of the 11th, 13th, 23rd and 25th order run
Fig. 3.3 Control Sheme of Converter System asynchronous to the rotor. They induce currents of the
12th and 24th order in the damper winding and in the
solid iron parts of the rotor.
3.3 The Generator With respect to the additional losses in the rotor
these currents can be represented by an equivalent•
The generator considered is a synchronous machine hav• loss inverse current :
ing two 3-phase stator windings. each offset by 30°
per pole pair to compensate harmonics. Each winding is
feeding a grid-controlled 6-pulse rectifier bridge,
i2eq = ~2 ((im-1 + im+1>2fni'/2)1 m=6k, k=l,2,3 .•.

the d.c. sides of each bridge being connected in se•
ries. This arrangement poses two main problems which
the machine designers have to solve:
the two stator neutral points are boosted to a
d.c. potential, and
At the rated operating point of the 650 MW generators
investigated, there was a loss-equivalent inverse cur•
rent of 0.084 pu. The inverse currents can be assessed
as follows

the
cur
78 78

rent harmonics of the converter load lead to up to 84' acceptable

additional losses in the stator and in the rotor. 8 - 12% acceptable only with suitable design
over 124' unacceptable
79 79

By means of this inverse current, the current coverage
on the rotor surface can be calculated and from this,
by means of the surge impedance, the mean loss densi•
ty. For the generators under investigation, the rotor
additional losses on converter load, at the rated op•
For the four machines considered, the maximum allow•
able fault durations (critical fault duration) were
determined and were found to lie within the following
ranges:

erating point, were about 0.00025 pu. Power Factor Critical Fault Duration
The additional losses in the rotor and stator increase 0.9 170 - 200 ms
with the square of the amplitudes of the current 0.8 190 - 220 ms
harmonics. These amplitudes increase as the overlap 0.7 200 - 230 ms
angle µ decreases or with a large reduction in firing
angle a, reaching their maximum at the ideal commuta• Fig. 4.2 illustrates the machine behaviour when sub•
tion point (a= o0, µ = o0). The stator additional ject to a fault of critical duration. It is notice•
losses can be marginally reduced by a reduction in able, that after fault clearing the power of the gen•
current replacement factors, e.g. by reducing the erator is considerably oscillating. The generator ac•
height of the subconductors in the bars. tually runs as a motor for a short period.
Fig. 4.3 illustrates the machine behaviour when sub•
ject to an even longer fault duration. After fault
4. STABILITY INVESTIGATIONS clearing the generator cannot stabilize itself, it ac•
celerates further, power oscillations are very
In order to investigate stability, the behaviours of pronounced, and the generator must be tripped.
the converter fed synchronous machine system and of a
conventional generator connected directly to the power 15~5 03,5
system were compared under fault conditions. For this
comparison, the configuration illustrated in Fig. 4.1 02,5

was modelled by means of differential and algebraic 61,6

equations to be solved by a computer.
In this model, two synchronous generators of equal eo,5
rating supply a power system, one supplying through 59, 5
conventional equipment, and the other forming part of
a converter fed system. The transmission lines are
<+!OO.OO(lg() \20 \110 \110
each designed as double lines, represented by an Generator load angle 1'2
impedance R + jX.
The fault condition applied was a 3-phase short cir• 1000

cuit, having fault duration Tf, on the line side of Conventional arrangement
500
cos I(' =0,7
the transformers, and assuming fault clearance by
o.o T, = 200ms
disconnecting one transmission line in each case. Af• (critical fault duration)
ter the disconnection, the line impedance rises to -100
1.8(R+jX). G
A power flow calculation yielded the stable initial -1000 aenerator terminal voltage V
2,
values for generator power factors of 0.7, 0.8 and ctive Power P 2 and reactive

0.9. Following this calculation, the fault condition -ls~l-oo~-q~3o~~qeo~~o,110~~1.2-o -.--1~.so~~~ Power 02
described was simulated.
Fig. 4.2 Conventional Plant with Critical Fault Dura•
tion
Legend

SL = Slack node 1750

PV = PVnode
PQ = PQnode
~t.---;==t---'l-t---4Grid 511
SL
ft/ = Fault location oe

Conventional Arrangement

82

0,60

Generator frequency f2
900

Grid 450 Conventional arrangemen t

SL cos I('=0,7
T, =210ms
Unit - Connection System (overcritical fault duration)
-450

-IIOO

Fig. 4.1 Arrangement for Comparing Stabilities

There are basic differences between the behaviours of

the conventional plant and of the converter fed system
during faults. Fig. 4.3 Conventional Plant with Overcritical Fault.
Duration
Stability of Conventional Plant
The power factor of the generator and the fault dura• Stability of Converter Fed System
tion Tf determine whether, after fault clearing, the As the generator and the power system are now sepa•
machine can stabilize, or whether it will fall out of rated by the intermediate d.c. circuit, faulty syn•
step. chronization cannot occur.
80 80

The simulations show, that the power factor and the 5. INVESTIGATION OF EFFICIENCY
fault duration Tf have no effect on machine stability.
When a line fault occurs, the inverter can no longer Based on the data for a IIVDC link and for a conven•
commutate, and the value of transmitted power drops to tional generator connection, the efficiency of the
zero. The turbine accelerates the generator during the converter fed system was estimated.
period of fault duration according to the turbine Fig. 5.1 shows the loss distribution in a HVDC link.
governor control. As soon as the fault is cleared, the The total losses amount to 1.8% of the rated apparent
controls immediately return the converter to rated power, i.e. for 650 MW and power factor 0.9, about 13
transmission power, and the generator stabilizes at MW. The losses in the individual parts of the system
the new speed until the turbine control picks up and are given in per cent. It can be seen that a large
returns the set to rated speed. part of the losses occur in the converter
Fig. 4.4 illustrates the situation with a fault dura• transformers.
tion of 210ms, Fig.4.5 for the very long fault dura•
tion of 600ms. It is noteable, that even after very
long fault durations there is no load oscillation fol• Grid1
lowing fault clearance.
On the network side of the converter, a var compensa• u,h-
tor delivers the required reactive power for ·the f1
inverter. Control of the compensator must be provided,
to avoid any excessive voltage rise during a fault.
I
The fault duration will be limited by the permitable Filter Station Filter
deviation of the turbine from rated speed. By using and load and

fast turbine controls having delay times of about compensators com pen-
1.5 s, very long fault durations can be allowed. sators

! t ! ! t
1200 ' ' '
63

1000
/-1', ---- 62 --- 7,5% 22% 9% 1% 9% 22% 22% 7,5%

600

300_/

0,0{=:::;_.,-~~~---,----:;:-:--r---:,:::-'"""-::C 60~.-~~~---.---r---r--r--r-r-~.
ooo 0,30 Q6o Q90 izo 100 \80
Losses
0,00 q 0,60 (!90 1,20 1,00 1,80
Generator load angle 1'1 Generator frequency f,

370,0
Fig. 5.1 Loss Distribution in a HVDC Link
--,.....:,V.:.1 V, Unit Connection
120.0
cos 'P =0.7
-125,0
0.0
T, =210ms
Fig.5.2.shows the distribution of losses in a conven•
tional synchronous generator. With an overall effi•
-370,0 ciency of 0.9860 at rated load, and a power factor of
P, 0.85, over 30% of the losses are incurred by the
-625,0 Generator terminal voltage V,.
Q, active Power P 1 and reactive
excitation, 28% by mechanical friction and windage,
-875,0
Q15 Power 0, and the rest consists of losses in the iron, copper,
0,00
pole surface and field and end winding. With the con•
verter load, additional losses due to current
harmonics occur, so that at rated load the generator
Fig. 4.4 Converter Fed System with Normal Fault Dura• efficiency is slightly reduced, from 0.9860 to 0~9856.
tion

2500 70

2000 68 additional additional

Harmonics Losses 129kW Harmonics Losses 142kW

_,,,, .- -- 66

.1:: fa Pole surface 182kW Iron loss

Copper loss
Field and
776kW
1283kW

end-winding 1058kW
500~ 62

QO 60 -~~~---.---r---r--r--r-r--r---,

0,00 0,30 0,60 0,90 1, 0 1,50 \80 0,00

81 81

Generator load angle tf, oso C\60 o. o 1,;io 1,50 1 o Pel= 650MW
Generatorfrequency t,

376
Efficiency_; (cos <p = 0.85)
V1
1201------------
Friction, Normal Operation
0.0 .-----.P, Unit connection
-125 Q, cos rp =0,7 windage Excitation loss Total Losses: 9234 kW
T1 =600ms 2501 kW 3262kW
-375
71 4 /4 : 0.9860

with Converter
a= 14°, µ= 21°
Stray Load Losses: 271 kW
Exciter losses
172kW 71 4/4 : 0.9856

Fig. 4.5 Converter Fed System with Very Long Fault

Duration Fig. 5.2 Loss Distribution in a Synchronous Generator
80

Fig. 5.3 shows the chain of losses through a conven•

tional generator to network connection. With a turbine Supports, RC circuits : 65% }
1 00 % Valve costs
efficiency of 40~ and a thermal input of 1650 MW, the ~ Electronics : 20%
~ about 10 $/ kW
mechanical input to the generator is 660 MW. Generator "-- Thyristors ( None in parallel): 15 o/a
losses are about 9 MW, and transformer losses about
1 MW.

Thermal Input

1650M'fb

'660Mb...._-m II 6M
50 I
wGrid

990MW

' ' '

Turbine

Losses
9MW
Generator
Losses

incl. Exciter
Losses
1MW
Transformer
Losses

,_
Converter
transformer.
filter.
Valves ,
cooling

c_o .m...,..p_e_ns_a_t_or_ '-v--''-v-"- .-

Valves ,
cooling
Converter
transformer.
filter,
, co_m_pe...._n,..s_a_to_r _ _,

17.5% 22,5% 5%. 22.51/a 17,5%

Fig. S.3 Loss Chain for a Conventional Plant + 1 O % Equipment without structures
+ 5 % Supervisory control
Fig. 5.4 shows the chain of losses through the con• 10()%Total costs~ about 50$/kW
verter fed system. A turbine efficiency of 40~ is as•
sumed. The losses in the electrical plant are divided
almost equally between the generator and the converter Fig. 6.1 Cost Distribution for a HVDC Link
system. The losses of the converter system, because of
elimination of the converter transformer, compensator Fig. 6.2 gives a cost breakdown for a conventional
and filters on the generator side, are considerably turboset, with its connection to network. The ratio of
lower than in a conventional HVDC link. turbine to generator costs is almost 2 1, the
transformer is about 10~ of the costs, and 5~ is taken
Thermal Input
for supervisory control and equipment, without build•
ings and structures. Total costs are about 45 i/kVA.
1650
MW

Grid

- Turbine Generator Transformers

___... Compen
10MW 2,5MW 3MW Station sators and
990MW Load
Excitation
Turbine Generator Valve Losses Converter I I
Losses Losses Trans- l l
incl. Exciter former 55% 30% 10%
Losses Losses 3MW 1MW
+ 5 % Equipment without structures. sup r. controls
990MW 10MW 9,5MW
'--.--'~ 1 00 % Total costs ~ about 4 5 I kW s
Turbine. Generator HVDCLosses
Losses Losses

Fig. 5.4 Loss Chain for the Converter Fed System Fig. 6.2 Cost Distribution for a Conventional Plant

Fig. 6.3 shows the costs for the converter fed system
6. COST CONSIDERATIONS under investigation. Turbine and generator costs re•
main about the same as for a conventional plant. As
The costs per installed kilowatt of output are as fol• compared with the usual HVDC link, savings are made on
lows (in us$. 1983 prices) the prime-mover side by eliminating the converter
transformer, the reactor, and the harmonics filters.
Transformers 4 5 t/kVA Because of the low voltage level, however, pairs of
Generators 12 - 15 thyristors must be connected in parallel, making the
Steam turbines 20 - 25 valve costs higher than for conventional HVDC instal•
HVDC grid short conn. about 50 lations.
Fossil power plants over 500 From the above estimates, the total costs of a con•
verter fed system (steam turbine, generator and HVDC)
To be able to estimate the costs of the converter fed should be about 80 - 90 t per kVA installed power.For
system, a cost breakdown for a HVDC link was made, as comparison, it should be noted that the total costs of
shown in Fig. 6.1. It is obvious, that the converter a fossil po•er plant is about 10 times this amount,
transformers, together with the filters and var and also that the outage costs for a 650 MW plant are
compensators, represent a substantial part of the to• well over 25,000 i/hour.
tal.
 81

GLOSSARY OF SYMBOLS
D DC Voltage a delay angle
E Energy µ overlap angle
p active Power ~ load angle
Q reactive 11 efficiency
u,v AC Voltage cos( Power factor
Generator f frequency
Excitation
i inverter
Turbine Valves, Valves Converter r rectifier
Cooling Cooling Transformer.
Filter,

J J J
REFERENCES
J J Compensator

t [11 E.Kimbark, Direct Current Transmission, John

Wiley and Sons, 1971.

30% 16% 15% 3% 15% 10%
+7% Equipment. without structures
+4% Supervisory control
100% Total costs = BO - 90 $ /kW
Fig. 6.3 Cost Distribution of the Converter
tem
7. CONCLUSIONS
A connection has been studied, by which a generator
having two 3-phase windings beeing 30° displaced to
each other directly feeds a 12-pulse converter, so
that the usual converter transformer, var-compensators
and current-harmonics filters are eliminated.
The study shows, that today the possible maximum
rating of such a converter fed system is in the order
of 650 MW, because of limitations in the insulation
strength of the generator stator, and in the maximum
thyristor-valve currents.
Through the possible use of variable speed, the steam
turbine efficiency cannot be raised, neither in par•
tial load operation nor by design measures, but
turbine costs could be greatly reduced by
standardizing the models offered.
In the generator, the two 6-pulse converter bridges in
serie cause a d.c. load on the stator winding, super•
imposed on the usual conductor load. The converter
load also causes additional losses in stator and rotor
due to current harmonics.
Computer simulations show, that the fast, precise re•
sponse of the converter, combined with the decoupling
of the generator frequency from the power system fre•
quency, results in considerable improvement in stabil•
ity. Network disturbances are blocked by the converter
and faulty synchronization, subsynchronous resonances
and large torque shocks due to network disturbances
cannot occur.
The total system losses are increased by about 1.5% of
the generator rating. In comparison with conventional
design (turbine, generator, unit transformer), the
costs for a converter fed system (turbine, generator,
converters) are increased by 60%, i.e. about 80-90
$/kVA. For fossil power-plants, this represents an in•
crease of about 2% in total plant costs.
The study shows that it is technically possible to re•
alize such a system. Because of the high costs, how•
ever, and the small loss in efficiency, the converter
fed synchronous machine system would most probably be
of interest only in special cases, i.e. in cases where
fast response, high stability and flexibility are the
deciding factors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge information and sup•
port supplied by numerous engineers and collaborators
of Brown Boveri and of the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology.
[21 B.M.Weedy, Electric Power Systems, John Wiley and
Sons, 1979.
[31 Uhlmann, Power Transmission by DC, Springer
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[41 M.Haeusler and K.W.Kanngiesser, Generator-Conver•
ter Unit Connection with Thyristor and Diode
Rectifiers, HVDC-Symposium, Phoenix, Arizona
1980.
Fed Sys• [51 G.J.Neidhoefer and B.N.Bose, Negative Sequence
Losses in Solid Rotors of Turbo Generators and
Equivalent Wave Resistance, IEEE Trans PAS;Vol
94, Nr 3.
[61 E.I.King et al, A Standard for Generator Contin•
uous Unbalanced Current Capability, IEEE Trans
PAS Vol 92 (1973), pp1547-1549.
[71 D.S.Bajura et al, Re-rating of Synchronous Gener•
ators Supplying HVDC Converters, with Special
Reference to Unit Connections, IEEE Canadian
Conf. on Communications and Power 1976.
Conrad Ammann was born in Switzerland on march 24th,
1959. He received his Dipl. Ing. degree in Electrical
Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in 1983. Since then he is staff member of
the Institute for Electrical Machines at the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Konrad Reichert was born in Leutkirch, Germany, on
December 14th, 1930. He received the Dipl.-Ing. and
the Dr. Ing. degrees in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, in
1956 and 1962, respectively, and the venia legendi for
electrical machinery in 1969.
From 1956 to 1968 he worked as a Research Fellow at
the University of Stuttgart in the areas
electromagnetic fields, eddy currents, electric
machinery, magnets , transformers, and electric ma•
chinery with supercooled normal metal or super•
conducting conductors. He was also a Consultant to
various electric industries. In 1968 he joined Brown
Boveri and Company, Limited, Baden, Switzerland, where
he has been working in electromagnetic fields and
power system control, operation and planning problems
as the head of the scientific computer applications
and power systems engineering department.
Since 1980 he is professor for electromagnetic energy
conversion at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology and head of the Institute for Electrical
Machines.
Reinhard Joho was born in Olten, Switzerland on
January 13th, 1950. He received his Dipl. Ing. degree
in Electrical Engineering from the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in 1975. He joined Brown
Boveri, Switzerland in 1975, where he has been working
on design development in the field of large
turbogenerators.