Insulation breakdown of water-cooled generator stator windings occurs frequently due to leakage of cooling water and absorption into the insulation material. Leakage and absorption problems of water-cooled stator windings are often found during regular preventive maintenance. To evaluate cooling water leakage and absorption, diagnostic tests were performed on two water-cooled turbine generators, which have been in service for 13 and 17 years, respectively. The test results of the measured electrical properties such as dissipation factor (tano), capacitance and AC leakage current for water-cooled generator stator windings with wet bars are reported in this paper.

Citations

• Prognostics for Stator Windings of Water-Cooled Generator Against Water Absorption
  Beom Chan Jang, Byeng D. Youn, Hee Soo Kim, Yong Chae Bae
  Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A.2015; 39(6): 625.     CrossRef

Diagnostic tests were performed on two high voltage (HV) motor stator windings. These tests included the measurement of insulation resistance, polarization index, AC current, dissipation factor (tanδ) and partial discharge (PD) magnitude. Surface contamination of HV motor stator windings has an effect on the AC current and tanδ. When the stator windings were finished cleaning and insulation reinforcement, the increase rate of AC current (ΔI) and dissipation factor (Δtanδ) were very small compared to those before cleaning. However, the PD magnitude remained the same. These tests show that cleaning and insulation reinforcement of HV motor stator windings can reduce the insulation failure.

To assess the condition of stator insulation, nondestructive and overpotential tests were performed on four high voltage motors. The stator windings under these tests have nominal ratings of 6.6 kV. After completing nondestructive tests, the AC overvoltage applied to the stator windings was gradually increasing until insulation failure in order to obtain the breakdown voltage. No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 of 6.6 kV motors failed near rated voltage of 18.4 kV, 19.8 kV, 19.7 kV and 21.7 kV, respectively. The breakdown voltage of four motors was higher that expected for good quality coils(14.2 kV) in 6.6 kV motors. Almost all of failures were located in a line-end coil at the exit from the core slot. The breakdown voltages and the types of defects showed strong relation to the stator insulation tests such as in the case of AC current, dissipation factor(tanδ) and partial discharge magnitude.

Citations

• The Correlation Analysis Between Insulation Diagnosis and Breakdown Testing
  Hee-Dong Kim, Ja-Young Koo, Jun-Ho Kwak, Hyungchul Kim
  Journal of Electrical Engineering & Technology.2025; 20(8): 5659.     CrossRef

When the high voltage motor fails in power plants, there will be an occurrence where the generator`s output would be reduced or the generators would trip. Despite of these effects, the causes of deterioration of the high voltage motor is very seldom investigated. In this paper, the collected data which tested in the field over 10 years have been treated statistically, and analyzed to correlate the insulation deterioration of high voltage motor and installation environment, number of start/stop, and service life. Moreover, the proper period of insulation test is developed to map out maintenance strategy and reduce maintenance costs.