A NOVEL MONITORING SYSTEM FOR GENERATOR CIRCUIT-

BREAKERS TO INCREASE AVAILABILITY OF POWER PLANTS

Mirko Palazzo and Oliver Fritz

ABB Switzerland, Brown Boveri Strasse 5, CH-8050, Switzerland

mirko.palazzo@ch.abb.com

ABSTRACT

Electric utilities pay more and more attention to optimized maintenance strategies because they are a
key point in reducing operative costs and improving the availability of a power plant. The way a generator is
connected to the associated step-up transformer has a decisive influence on power plant availability. Nowadays,
generators are usually connected by means of a generator circuit-breaker. The present paper is specifically
concerned with a novel monitoring system for generator circuit-breakers. In addition to the capability to assess
the residual life based on several criteria like cumulative current interruptions and number of mechanical
operations, this monitoring system allows to predict the time to the next overhaul based on statistical treatment
of the operation history of the circuit-breaker. This enables new service concepts to be created, promoting the
transition from the traditional reactive maintenance work to an optimized maintenance planning based on
residual lifetime prediction. Finally, the continuous monitoring of the condition of the generator circuit-breaker
allows to improve the availability of power plant layouts. Such an improvement has been quantified by means of
a computer code based on sequential Monte Carlo method. Data obtained from existing power plants have been
used for the assessment. The results of the analysis show that the presence of a SF6 generator circuit-breaker in
conjunction with a monitoring system increases the throughput power of the power plant leading to an increase
of full availability time of 47 h per year. The installation of SF6 generator circuit-breakers with monitoring system
can thus free the choice of alternative power plant layouts not commonly considered till today.

KEYWORDS: Availability Generator Circuit-Breaker Major Failure Monitoring system Monte Carlo
Power Plant Reliability Service

1. INTRODUCTION
In a deregulated electricity market scenario, where power plants are held by different generating
companies, outages are more critical and may have significant economic consequences. Therefore, the problem
of operating power plants with the highest possible availability has become more and more important in recent
years. Obviously, how a generator is connected to the high-voltage grid and how the power supply to the unit
auxiliaries is secured has a decisive influence in this respect. For this reason generating companies are beginning
to pay more attention on optimized maintenance strategies and on the reliability of power plant equipment because
they are a key point in reducing operative costs and improving the availability of a power plant.
Two basically different ways of connecting a generator to the high-voltage grid are in use today, namely
the connection without a circuit-breaker between the generator and the low-voltage terminals of the step-up
transformer (this solution is normally referred to as unit connection) and the connection with a generator circuit-
breaker (GenCB). Typical layouts employing unit connection and GenCB are depicted in Figure 1 and Figure 2
respectively. The layout with a GenCB has several advantages over the unit connection, e.g. simplified operational
procedures, improved protection of generator, step-up and unit auxiliary transformers, increased security and
higher power plant availability.
The present paper is specifically concerned with a novel monitoring system for GenCBs. In addition to
the capability to assess the residual life based on different criteria like cumulative current interruptions and number
of mechanical operations, this monitoring system allows to predict the time to the next overhaul based on statistical
treatment of the operation history of the circuit-breaker. This enables new service concepts to be created,
promoting the transition from the traditional reactive maintenance work to an optimized maintenance planning
based on residual lifetime prediction. Finally, the continuous monitoring of the condition of the GenCB allows to
improve the availability of power plant layouts. Such an improvement has been quantified by means of a computer
code based on sequential Monte Carlo method. Data obtained from existing power plants have been used for the
assessment.
 Main Net Reserve Net Reserve Net Main Net Reserve Net

HVCB HVCB HVCB HVCB

HVCB
Station Station
Step-Up Station
Transformer Transformer Step-Up
Transformer Transformer
Transformer

MVCB MVCB
MVCB
MV Busbar MV Busbar GenCB
Unit Auxiliary MV Busbar
Transformer Unit Auxiliary
MVCB MVCB Transformer
Generator MVCB
Generator

Figure 1. Layout of a power plant with unit

connection (i.e. without GenCB) Figure 2. Layout of a power plant with GenCB

2. OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GENCBS

Initially in the larger power plants the individual generators were connected by means of their GenCBs
to a common busbar at their terminal voltage. The circuit-breakers used for switching the generators were
distribution-type units.
The continuous growth in size of the generators meant that the generator ratings exceeded the current-
carrying capability and the interrupting capability of the switchgear available at that time. As a consequence, the
larger generators could no longer satisfactorily be switched at their terminal voltage. For this reason the unit
connection was introduced in power plants. One of the disadvantages of the unit connection is that the unit
auxiliary supply cannot be obtained from the unit auxiliary transformer if the generator is not operating: during
the start-up and shut-down periods the unit auxiliary supply must be obtained from an alternative source, which
is normally a station transformer connected to the high-voltage grid.
The use of a GenCB installed between generator and the associated step-up transformer offers many
advantages when compared to the unit connection such as simplified operational procedures, better protection of
power plant equipment, higher power plant availability and economic benefits. These and other reasons
represented the impulse which led to the development of GenCBs specifically designed for this purpose during
the 1960s. The first GenCB designed to be installed in the run of generator busducts used compressed air as
operating and arc-extinguishing medium. In the 1980s SF6 GenCBs were successfully introduced into the market.
The design of these circuit-breakers was a three-phase system in single-phase enclosures, supplied fully assembled
on a common frame with operating mechanism and control equipment. Mainly the economical aspect and reasons
of reliability and maintainability convinced power plant operators of this modern arc-extinguishing medium.
Today SF6 GenCBs with rated currents up to 28500 A with natural cooling and up to 57000 A with forced
air cooling and with short-circuit breaking currents up to 300 kA are available (see Figure 3). This interrupting
capability corresponds to the highest short-circuit breaking current ever achieved with a single interrupting unit.
The development was made possible by using the most advanced SF 6 self-blast principle.
Another development has been the integration of all the associated items of switchgear into the GenCB
housing. Series disconnectors, earthing switches, short-circuiting switches, current transformers, single-bushing
voltage transformers, wave-slowing capacitors and surge arresters can be mounted in the enclosure of the GenCB
(see Figure 4). Depending on the type of power plant additional items like starting switches (for gas turbine and
hydro power plants) can also be fitted in the GenCB housing. This greatly improved functionality allows simpler
and more economic power plant layouts. Beside a substantial reduction of the acquisition costs, this new solution,
being fully factory assembled and tested, also makes possible considerable savings in time and expenditures for
erection and commissioning.

Figure 3. View of the 300 kA GenCB system Figure 4. View into one pole of a GenCB system
3. NOVEL MONITORING SYSTEM FOR GENCBS
The GMS600 is a novel monitoring system for GenCBs which has been specifically developed to support
power plant operators and maintenance engineers for a proactive and cost effective maintenance program, while
improving diagnostic capability through the recorded data and threshold levels. The monitoring system provides
precise indication of the GenCBs remaining time-to-preventive maintenance based on cumulative current
interruptions, total number of mechanical operations and time from last overhaul.
An important novel feature is temperature monitoring of the current-carrying path. The continuous
monitoring of the temperature allows the GenCB to be operated at the limit of its capability even in case of unusual
increase of ambient temperature. The core component of the temperature sensor is the infrared detector. Non-
cooled Si-based thermopile detectors were chosen due to their good cost/performance ratio. The performance of
the temperature sensor has been verified in several laboratory experiments. Prototypes have been built and
extensively tested in a climatic chamber to simulate different external influences. Very good sensor performance
(error within 2 C) has been found during temperature shock experiments (temperature change from 25 C to 70
C at a rate of 5 C/min) as well as during repetitive temperature cycles from -5 C to 60 C at a rate of 0.1 C/min.
To check the basic performance of the sensors, their response has been monitored for an object temperature range
from 30 C to 120 C at a constant ambient temperature of 25 C. The sensor response followed a linear behavior
with a linearity error within 3 C over the entire temperature range. A very important feature for the temperature
monitoring system is the reliable detection of excessive heating due to overload operation of the GenCB, when
the temperature of the main conductor can even attain 120 C. This scenario has been simulated by changing the
object temperature from 80 C to 120 C. The sensor accurately captured this temperature change and the
measurement deviation stayed well within the required accuracy interval of 3 C.
The temperature sensor communicates over a standard Modbus protocol. The GMS600 is the Modbus
master and reads out the measured temperature data of all sensors at a rate of approximately one sensor sample
per second. The monitoring system will provide the GenCB operator with all currently measured temperature
values and indicate if individual sensors are activated or if communication has been lost. The raw temperature
data will be processed by a temperature evaluation module every minute. This function will first perform a
plausibility check by comparing the current sample with the last valid one. If the deviation is greater than a pre-
set limit the current sample will be omitted from any post-processing. If communication to the sensor fails, this
sample is also regarded as invalid. If five consecutively samples are classified as invalid an error warning is
activated and indicated by a LED next to the display. In a second step, the data is analyzed with respect to the
temperature limits and a defined cross deviation of the three sensors within one phase. A warning or alarm is
generated in case the temperature deviation of the three sensors per phase exceeds the set limit or the temperature
reaches the maximum tolerated level. All information is displayed locally by local human machine interface as
well as remotely by webserver and web client application (see Figure 5 and Figure 6). Data can be transmitted
over the power plant network by the modern communication protocols IEC 61850 and DNP3. Moreover, the
monitoring system offers two different data loggers. The first one logs the maximum temperature per day and
stores the value of the average current that the conductor had seen within one hour before the maximum
temperature was reached. This correlation allows determining whether a temperature increase was caused by
higher current loads or other reasons. For example it can be discriminated if such a variation is caused by a change
in ambient temperature or if the resistance of the conductor has increased. The second one logs the measured
temperature values every 30 minutes and allows a supervision of the general system behaviour.

Figure 5. Graphic interface of webserver Figure 6. Example of temperature log

The GMS600 allows to implement a predictive maintenance concept thus supporting a cost-efficient
power plant operation. From sensor information a clear picture of a devices health condition can be derived and
predictive maintenance strategies formulated.
4. ONLINE MEASUREMENT OF THE OVERLAPPING TIME OF GENCBS
The interrupting chamber of a GenCB consists of two contact systems: one which carries the current in
the closed state (nominal or main contact system) and another which is used for arc extinction during the GenCB
opening operation (arcing contact system). A schematic cross-section of an interrupting chamber is shown in
Figure 7. During a breaking (opening) operation, the nominal contacts disconnect first whereas the arcing contacts
remain connected and take the full current flow onward. At the moment of the arcing contacts separation, an arc
is incepted and it is extinguished at the next alternating current zero crossing through the self-blast principle. Each
breaking operation slightly ablates the arcing contacts because contact material is vaporized in the arc. Thus, the
arcing contacts become physically shorter. When the length of the arcing contacts is below the minimum
acceptable length to allow commutation from the nominal to the arcing contact system, during a breaking
operation the arc remains on the nominal contact system. This makes the ablation of the arcing contacts an
important indicator of the condition of a GenCB.
The innovative online measurement of the ablation of the arcing contact system consists in monitoring
the arcing contact wear by measuring the overlapping time, i.e. the time elapsed between the opening of the
nominal and the arcing contacts. Non-invasive methods to measure overlapping time and related parameters exist,
e.g. based on acoustic [1], [2] or high-frequency [3], [4] emissions. Usually, both methods process the acquired
data using pattern recognition techniques and compare it to a reference measurement.
The overlapping time can be measured using the Dynamic contact Resistance Measurement (DRM)
technique, which evaluates the (varying) contact resistance between the nominal and arcing contacts during an
opening operation of the breaker. The measurement consists in injecting a DC current in one phase of the CB and
measuring the current and voltage characteristics during an opening operation [5], [6]. However, state-of-the-art
DRM methods require the GenCB to be taken out of service and isolated from the rest of the power plant in order
to perform the measurement. A direct contact ablation measurement method which can be fully automatized and
used on the live breaker is therefore of great interest.
With this feature, it is possible to measure the overlapping time of GenCBs by injecting a controlled
high-frequency signal in one side of the breaker and reading it out on the other side. The signal frequency is in
the order of several megahertz. The amplitude of the received signal is correlated to the high-frequency impedance
of the contact systems; its analysis enables the automatic identification of the GenCBs dynamic state: i.e. open,
arcing contact system closed, or nominal contact system closed. It is then straightforward to compute the
overlapping time. The advantages of the proposed method are its intrinsic accuracy and, contrary to the system
reported in [7], the possibility to perform measurement on live breakers.
The proposed method consists in measuring the overlapping time using a test signal with a frequency
much higher than the grid frequency. As shown in Figure 7, the monitoring principle is based on a method which
transmits a high-frequency signal across the GenCB: the signal is fed in through a first coupler on one side of the
breaker and received through a second one on the other side. If the transmitter and receiver impedances of the test
signal loop are well chosen, variations of the GenCB impedance will result in variations of the received test signal
amplitude. Considering that the high-frequency impedance of the closed arcing contacts (with open nominal
contacts) is slightly larger than the impedance of the closed nominal contacts, but much smaller than that of the
open GenCB, during opening or closing operations, the amplitude of the received test signal is a staircase function
where the duration of the intermediate amplitude is the sought overlapping time shown in Figure 8. Determining
the closing time instants t1 of the arcing contacts and t2 of the nominal contacts enables to derive the overlapping
time (tovl) as tovl = t2-t1. The absolute value is used so that the same equation can be used to determine the
overlapping time during opening operations as well. More details can be found in [8].
 DRIVE

GenCB ENCLOSURE

VT VT

CT CT

G
GenCB

TX COUPLER SURGE CAPS & RX COUPLER

ARRESTER

PROCESSING

Figure 7. Working principle of ablation monitoring function of GMS600

Figure 8. Signal seen by the receiver during closing operation

5. AVAILABILITY ASSESSMENT OF DIFFERENT POWER PLANT LAYOUTS

The cost effectiveness of a power plant layout with GenCBs depends to a large extent upon the reliability
of this circuit-breaker (the positioning of a GenCB between the generator and the step-up transformer, where its
performance directly influences the output of the unit, obviously also places high demands on its reliability) and
upon its capability to rapidly interrupt generator-fed short-circuit currents. The adoption of the novel monitoring
system GMS600 can further increase the availability of a GenCB and in turn of the entire power plant layout. In
order to quantify the availability of power plant layouts which employ GenCB in conjunction with the novel
monitoring system GMS600, a computer program based on Monte Carlo simulation has been used [9], [10]. The
throughput power increase achieved with the use of GenCBs in different types of power plants has been addressed
in [11]-[20]. Aim of this paper is to assess the availability achievable if a GenCB is equipped with the monitoring
system GMS600.
Because power plant layouts consist of several components, each of them capable of entering several
states with transition probability distributions of different type, a computer program based on the sequential Monte
Carlo method has been used. During a simulation run, starting from a given system configuration k0 at the time t0,
the computer program samples the time of transition of each component i leaving its current state ji and
arriving to the state mi. The time of transition is sampled from the transition probability distribution of each
component of the power plant layout. These times are obtained by generating random numbers uniformly
distributed in [0,1). The sampled for all the components are then arranged in ascending order along a
timeline from tmin to tmax. The component which actually performs the transition is the one corresponding to the
first transition in the timeline. The system time is then moved to the first occurring transition time tmin = t* in
correspondence of which the system configuration is changed to k* due to the component i* moved to its arrival
state m*. After setting the time of the first event, the state of the systems components is changed according to the
operational consequences of that event. During a simulation run, when a failure occurs, it is treated by tripping
the circuit-breakers forming the protection group of the failed component. After the time necessary to isolate the
failed component, the circuit-breakers are closed again. A circuit-breaker might fail to close or might fail to open
when required to do so. When the repair of the component is completed (or a spare part has become available),
the above procedure is repeated. The timeline is updated after each transition occurs and new next event times
are sampled. At this point, the new time of transition of each component i leaving its current state mi and
arriving to the state li is sampled from the transition probability distribution of each component of the power plant
layout. The sampled for all the components are then arranged in ascending order along a timeline from tmin
to tmax. The component which actually performs the transition is that corresponding to the first transition in the
timeline. The system time is again moved to the first occurring transition time tmin = t** in correspondence of which
the system configuration is changed to k** due to the component i** moved to its arrival state l**. The procedure is
repeated until the next first occurring transition time falls beyond the mission time TM.
The sequential Monte Carlo simulation used in this work consists of the following steps:
Step 0 - set the mission time and the acceptable variance of the availability indices;
Step 1 - the simulation starts from a normal system state (all the components of the system are in the up state);
Step 2 - generate random numbers for all the elements of the power plant and convert them into failure time
according to the failure probability distribution of each element;
Step 3 - compare the failure times of all the elements (the minimum failure time gives the next failure event and
the failed element);
Step 4 - change the state of the components of the power plant according to the operational consequences of that
event;
Step 5 - update the system time;
Step 6 - generate random numbers for the failed element and for the active elements, and convert them in repair
time and failure time according to the repair probability distribution of the failed element and to the failure
probability distribution of each active element respectively;
Step 7 - compare the repair time and the failure times of all the elements (the minimum time gives the next event);
Step 8 - change the state of the components of the power plant according to the operational consequences of that
event;
Step 9 - update the system time.
The procedure is repeated until the system time is equal to or longer than the mission time. Availability indices
are then calculated. The expected value E(F) and the variance V(F) of the estimate function F over all the histories
are calculated according to the following formulas [18]:
1
E(F) = (1)

1
V(F) = [ E(F)] (2)
1

where N is the number of histories and Fi is the generic availability index of the i-th history.
If the variance calculated according to (2) is higher than the value set in step 0, the procedure returns to step 1. If
the variance is equal to or smaller than the value set in step 0, the output E(F) is provided as the simulation result.
An example of availability index is the average throughput power ATPi which is calculated as follows:

= (3)
where
TPj is the throughput power of the power plant during the period of time Tj;
u is the number of periods of time during which the power plant delivers power;
TM is the mission time defined in step 0.
Correspondingly, it is possible to calculate the average equivalent time AETi during which the generators of the
power plant are in the up state delivering full power. AETi can be calculated as follows:

= (4)

where Pk is the rated active power of the k-th generator and G is the total number of generators of the power plant.
The average number of critical events, such as the number of step-up transformer failures (with and
without subsequent explosion), the number of components failures, the number unit auxiliaries changeover
operations, the number of circuit-breaker operations and the number of circuit-breaker failures to operate on
demand are also calculated and reported.

6. SIMULATION RESULTS
Simulations have been carried out to quantify the impact of a GenCB equipped with monitoring system
on power plant availability. The analysis has been performed assuming that the power plant supplies base load. A
mission time of 30 years has been taken into account. The power plant consists of a 170 MW steam turbine
connected to a step-up transformer. Two unit auxiliary transformers are employed to supply power to auxiliary
system. A reserve net is the backup source for the unit auxiliaries whenever the generator is shut down and no
path is available from the main net. The presence of a GenCB between the generator and the step-up transformer
improves the availability of the power plant [19]. Firstly it allows the unit auxiliaries to be fed directly from the
main net. Supply from this source is considered more reliable than the connection to a local sub-transmission
system (reserve net) and results in an improved plant auxiliary equipment availability. Secondly, the rapid
interruption of generator-fed short-circuit currents reduces the extent of fault damage and the related downtime,
contributing to an increased power plant availability. Specifically, investigations have shown that a GenCB can
prevent transformer tank rupture in about 80% of all cases [20]. Failure and repair data of power plant equipment
has been taken from published literature [11], [12], [21]-[25]. In the simulations a fully rated GenCB employing
SF6 as arc-extinguishing medium and hydro-mechanical spring operating mechanism has been considered. Finally
it has been assumed that the generator can deliver 50% of it rated active power in case of loss of one of its unit
auxiliaries. The simulations end when the sample standard deviation is equal to or less than 0.0001 times the rated
active power of the generator. The results in Table I show that the presence of a GenCB in conjunction with a
monitoring system improves the throughput power of the power plant by approximately 0.6% thus leading to an
increase of full availability time of 47 h per year. Despite a detailed economic analysis is not in the scope of the
present work, it is evident that, taking into account the market price and life cycle costs of SF 6 GenCB, the
investment in these circuit-breakers proves to be cost effective and leads to a very short payback time. The
installation of SF6 GenCBs with monitoring system can thus free the choice of alternative power plant layouts not
commonly considered till today.

Table I. Simulation results

With GenCB and monitoring system Unit connection (without
Item
GMS600 GenCB)
Average throughput power
166.63 165.71
(MW)
Sample standard deviation 0.017 0.017
(MW)
Full availability time per 8586 8539
year (h)

7. CONCLUSIONS
The present paper is specifically concerned with a novel monitoring system for GenCBs. In addition to
the capability to assess the residual life based on several criteria like cumulative current interruptions and number
of mechanical operations, this monitoring system allows to predict the time to the next overhaul based on statistical
treatment of the operation history of the circuit-breaker. This enables new service concepts to be created,
promoting the transition from the traditional reactive maintenance work to an optimized maintenance planning
based on residual lifetime prediction.
Finally, the continuous monitoring of the condition of the GenCB allows to improve the availability of
power plant layouts. Such an improvement has been quantified by means of a computer code based on sequential
Monte Carlo method. Data obtained from existing power plants have been used for the assessment.
The results of the analysis show that the presence of a SF 6 GenCB in conjunction with a monitoring
system increases the throughput power of the power plant by approximately 0.6% thus leading to an increase of
full availability time of 47 h per year.
The installation of SF6 GenCBs with monitoring system can thus free the choice of alternative power
plant layouts not commonly considered till today.
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