Protection against stator-to-ground fault will depend to a great extent upon the type of generator grounding. Generator grounding is necessary through some impedance in order to reduce the current level of a phase-to-ground fault.

With solid generator grounding, this current will reach destructive levels. In order to avoid this, at least low impedance grounding through a resistance or a reactance is required.

High-impedance through a distribution transformer with a resistor connected across the secondary winding will limit the current level of a phase-to-ground fault to a few primary amperes.

The most common and minimum protection against a stator-to-ground fault with a high-impedance grounding scheme is an overvoltage element connected across the grounding transformer secondary, as shown in Fig. 9.5.

For faults very close to the generator neutral, the overvoltage element will not pick up because the voltage level will be below the voltage element pick-up level. In order to cover 100% of the stator windings, two techniques are readily available:

1. use of the third harmonic generated at the neutral and generator terminals, and
2. voltage injection technique.

Looking at Fig. 9.6, a small amount of third harmonic voltage will be produced by most generators at their neutral and terminals. The level of these third harmonic voltages depends upon the generator operating point as shown in Fig. 9.6a.

Normally they would be higher at full load. If a fault develops near the neutral, the third harmonic neutral voltage will approach zero and the terminal voltage will increase. However, if a fault develops near the terminals, the terminal third harmonic voltage will reach zero and the neutral voltage will increase.

Based on this, three possible schemes have been devised. The relays available to cover the three possible choices are:

1. Use of a third harmonic undervoltage at the neutral. It will pick up for a fault at the neutral.
2. Use of a third harmonic overvoltage at the terminals. It will pick up for a fault near the neutral.
3. The most sensitive schemes are based on third harmonic differential relays that monitor the ratio of third harmonic at the neutral and the terminals (Yin et al., 1990).

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