Synchronous Generator Short-Circuit and System Faults

Abstract

Although the majority of the faults occurring in practice on a power system are unsymmetrical between the phases, the symmetrical fault is important because, although rarer, it is more severe. It is, moreover, a simpler condition to analyse, and therefore forms a suitable starting-point for a study of fault conditions. The short-circuit test, in which the three terminals of an unloaded synchronous generator are all short-circuited simultaneously, is a well-established method of checking its transient characteristics. The present section gives a full analysis of a sudden symmetrical short-circuit of an unloaded synchronous generator, and the solution is then extended in Section 8.3 so that it can be applied to a loaded machine [24].