1 – Generator performance

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses generator performance. The purpose of an electrical generator is to produce electrical energy to some load, but it must do so within specified operating limits of frequency and voltage. The load behavior affects the generator requirements but the environmental conditions and the characteristics of the prime mover and the generator control systems are all relevant to the actual generator performance during steady duty or rated condition and also during transient, sub-transient, pre-transient, and all dynamic conditions encountered. With electrical generators, it is easy to determine when the load changes, and this can be done before the speed has changed. It can enable the governor to preempt this signal and give a faster and more accurate response to the actual load change being imposed. Electrical generators themselves are not ideal devices and produce system conditions that may have undesirable consequences in particular situations. When combined with the wide range of characteristics that can result from practical electrical loads, these problems can be very significant. An independent generator must have characteristics suitable to all its possible operating functions, and must be connected into the system and controlled in such a manner as to provide the overall requirements of the connected loads.