Neutral Grounding Design Procedure 12/18/79

Generator Reactor Resistor Distr. Trans. With Grounding Trans.

Grounding Secondary Resistor
Method

or

Generator System General Inherently high fault Ground fault current Ground fault current Provides permanent
current permits use of restricted to that very low; ground source;
Comments
grounded-neutral required for relaying; Ground fault current
No current for
arresters if restricted to that required
selective relaying;
for relaying;
X0
X1 ≤ 3
Ungrounded-neutral Ungrounded-neutral Ungrounded-neutral
arresters required arresters required arresters usually required

Low Voltage Bus No direct exposure Satisfactory but Preferred Generally not
(No low voltage to lightning; fault current high applicable but may be
used if selective
feeders) ground relaying of
machines is not
Ground current for required or if special
relaying is used to
selective relaying obtain selectivity
required
Low Voltage Bus Direct exposure to Preferred where Preferred where Not suitable due to
(Overhead low lightning; Ground lightning esposure is lightning exposure is lack of relaying
current for selective severe; slight;
voltage feeders) relaying required;
selectivity
Required for 4-wire May be preferred for very
Sufficient machines to systems large machines because
of desire to restrict fault
provide permanent currrent
ground
Low Voltage Bus No direct exposure to Preferred where Preferred where Not suitable due to
lightning; ground current
(Cable Feeders) for selective relaying primary objective primary objective lack of relaying
required; is to keep dynamic is to keep fault selectivity
Sufficient machines to overvoltage on current to a
provide permanent cable network to minimum
grounding; desirable to
keep dynamic voltages as minimum
well as fault current low

Single Machine Cannot depend on Does not provide Does not provide Does not provide Preferred in
(Low voltage machine neutral for permanent ground permanent ground permanent ground addition to reactor
permanent ground
feeders) or distribution
transf. Grounding
of generator
Generator neutral neutral
desirable to detect
machine faults before
synchronizing
Unit System No direct exposure to Satisfactory but Satisfactory but Preferred
lightning high ground fault high ground fault
No selective relaying current current
required

Step-Up Through No direct exposure to Required where auto- Impedance Impedance

Auto-Transformer lightning; trans has no tertiary; undesirably high if undesirably high if
used with auto- used with auto-
trans, having no trans, having no
No selective relaying
required; tertiary tertiary
Generator and auto-
Generator neutral need
not be grounded if auto- trans should be
trans has tertiary and connected to common
X0/X1 < 10 ground point.

Figure 1
Summary of Generator Grounding Applications