EEt : 3363

electrical machines III

Lecture 3

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 Voltage Regulation

• When an alternator is subjected to a varying load , the terminal voltage

varies.

• The amount of this variation determines the regulation of the machine.

• The voltage regulation of an alternator is defined as the change in terminal

voltage from no-load to full-load (the speed and field excitation being
constant) divided by full-load voltage.

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• E0 - V is the arithmetic difference and not the
phasor difference.
• The factors affecting the voltage regulation of an
alternator are:
i. IaRa drop in armature winding
ii. IaXL drop in armature winding
iii. Voltage change due to armature reaction
• The change in terminal voltage due to armature
reaction depends upon the armature current as
well as power-factor of the load.
• The effects of different load power factors on the
change in the terminal voltage with changes of
load on the alternator are shown:
• For leading load p.f., the no-load voltage is less than the full -load voltage. Hence voltage regulation is
negative in this case. 3
 Determination of Voltage Regulation
• In the case of small machines, voltage regulation can be obtained by direct loading
method. The procedure for direct loading method is:
1. The alternator is driven at synchronous speed and the terminal voltage is
adjusted to its rated value V.
2. The load is varied until the wattmeter and ammeter indicate the rated values at
desired p.f.
3. Then the entire load is switched off while the speed and field excitation are
kept constant.
4. The open-circuit or no-load voltage E0 is read.
• Hence, regulation can be found from

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• In the case of large machines, indirect methods which require only a small amount
of power as compared to direct loading method can be used. The most common
methods are:

– i) Synchronous impedance or E.M.F. method

– ii) Ampere-turn or M.M.F. method

– iii) Zero Power Factor or Potier Method

• For either method, the following data is required:

– i) Armature resistance

– ii) Open-circuit characteristic (O.C.C.)

– iii) Short-Circuit characteristic (S.C.C.) 5

Armature resistance
• The armature resistance Ra per phase is determined by using direct current and the
voltmeter-ammeter method.
• This is the d.c. value. The effective armature resistance (a.c. resistance) is greater
than this value due to skin effect. It is a usual practice to take the effective
resistance 1.5-1.6 times the d.c. value (Ra ≈ 1.5Rdc).
Open-circuit characteristic (O.C.C)
• Like the magnetization curve for a d.c. machine, the Open-circuit characteristic of
an alternator is the curve between armature terminal voltage (phase value) on open
circuit and the field current when the alternator is running at rated speed.
• The circuit for determining the O.C.C. of an alternator is shown in the following
Fig (i):
• The alternator is run on no-load at the rated speed.
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• The field current If is gradually increased from zero (by adjusting field rheostat)
until open-circuit voltage E0 (phase value) is about 50% greater than the rated
phase voltage.
• The graph is drawn between open-circuit voltage values and the corresponding
values of If as shown in Fig. (ii).

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Short-circuit characteristic (S.C.C.)
• In a short-circuit test, the alternator is run at
rated speed and the armature terminals are
short-circuited through identical ammeters
[See Fig. (i)].
• Only one ammeter need be read; but three are
used for balance.
• The field current If is gradually increased
from zero until the short-circuit armature
current ISC is about twice the rated current.
• The graph between short-circuit armature
current and field current gives the short-
circuit characteristic (S.C.C.) as shown in
Fig.(ii).
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 Practice Question

• Qn. In a 50-kVA, star connected, 0.44-kV, 3-phase, 50-Hz alternator, the effective
armature resistance is 0.25 Ω per phase. The synchronous reactance is 3.2 Ω per
phase and leakage reactance is 0.5 Ω per phase. Determine at rated load and unity
p.f.:

a) Internal e.m.f. Ea

b) No- load e.m.f. Eo

c) Percentage regulation on full-load

d) Value of synchronous reactance which replaces armature reaction

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Solution

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 Synchronous Impedance Method
• It is called the synchronous impedance method since synchronous impedance Zs
(and hence synchronous reactance Xs) of the alternator is obtained from the O.C.C.
and S.S.C.
• The procedure is:
i. Plot the O.C.C. and S.S.C. on the same field current base as shown Fig (i):
ii. Consider a field current If. The open-circuit voltage corresponding to this field
current is E1. The short-circuit armature current corresponding to field current If is
I1. On short-circuit p.d. = 0 and voltage E1 is being used to circulate the short-
circuit armature current I1 against the synchronous impedance Zs.
This is illustrated [Fig (ii)] :

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• iii. The synchronous reactance can be found using:

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• iv) Once we know Ra and Xs, the phasor diagram can be drawn for any load and
any p.f.
• The figure below shows the phasor diagram for the usual case of inductive load;
the load p.f. being cos 𝜙 lagging.

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 Practice Questions
• Qn.1. A 50 kVA, 500V, single phase ac generator gave the following test results:
– OC test: a field current of 12 A produced an emf of 300 V
– SC test: a field current of 12 A caused a current of 175 A to flow in the short
circuited armature.
The effective armature resistance is 0.2 Ω
i. Calculate the synchronous impedance and synchronous reactance.
ii. If the altenator is supplying full load current of 100A at 0.8pf lagging, to what
value would the terminal voltage rise if the load was removed? Find also the
voltage regulation (VR) for this load and pf.
• Qn.2. A 3-phase, 10 kVA, 400 V, 50 Hz, Y-connected alternator supplies the rated
load of 0.8pf lagging. If the armature resistance is 0.5 Ω/phase and synchronous
reactance is 10 Ω/phase, find the VR and power angle.

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Solution Qn1

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Solution Qn2

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 Practice Questions

• Qn.3. A 100-kVA, 3 kV, 50 Hz, 3-phase star connected has effective alternator has
effective armature resistance of 0.2 Ω . The field current of 40 A produces a short
circuit current of 200 A and an OC emf of 1040 V (line value). With aid of phasor
diagrams, calculate the full load voltage regulation at 0.8 p.f. lagging and 0.8 p.f
leading.

• Qn. 4. the effective resistance of a 1.2 MVA, 3.3 kV, 50 Hz, 3 phase, Y-connected
alternator is 0.25 Ω/phase. A field current of 35 A produces a current of 200 A on
short circuit and 1.1 kV (line to line)on open circuit. Calculate the power angle and
p.u. change in magnitude of the terminal voltage when the full load of 1 200 kVA
at 0.8 p.f (lag) is thrown off. Draw the corresponding phasor diagram.
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 Ampere-turn method
• It assumes the armature leakage reactance to be
additional armature reaction.
• In this method the emfs produced by rotor and
stator are replaced by their equivalent MMFs
(fluxes), and hence called mmf method.
• Neglecting armature resistance (always small),
this method assumes that change in terminal p.d.
on load is entirely due to armature reaction.
• Under short-circuit, the current lags by 90o (Ra
considered zero) and the power factor is zero.
• Hence the armature reaction is entirely
demagnetizing.
• Since the terminal p.d. is zero, all the field AT
(ampereturns) are neutralized by armature AT
produced by the short circuit armature current. 19
• Suppose the alternator is supplying full-load current at normal voltage V (i.e.,
operating load voltage) and zero p.f. lagging.
• Then d.c. field AT required will be those needed to produce normal voltage V (or if
Ra is to be taken into account, then V + IaRaCos φ) on no-load plus those to
overcome the armature reaction.

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General case

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Procedure for AT method

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 Practice Questions
• Qn.1. The open-and short-circuit test readings for a 3-phase, star-connected, 1000-
kVA, 2000 V, 50-Hz, synchronous generator are:

• The armature effective resistance is 0.2 Ω per phase. Draw the characteristic curves
and estimate the full-load percentage regulation at:
i. 0.8 p.f. lagging
ii. 0.8 p.f. leading

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Solution

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 Practice Question
• A 3.5-MVA, Y-connected alternator rated at 4160 V at 50-Hz has the open circuit
characteristic given by the following data:

• A field current of 200 A is found necessary to circulate full-load current on short-

circuit of the alternator. Calculate by:
i. Synchronous impedance method
ii. Ampere-turn method
The full-load voltage regulation at 0.8 p.f. lagging, neglect resistance.

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Solution

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