Introduction to modern generator protection

The pace of technological change has rapidly accelerated. This paper describes its impact on generation protection, which the authors consider to be more marked than in other areas of protection. Multifunction relays are currently available from many protection equipment suppliers, providing user configurable inputs and outputs, substation control system interfaces, disturbance recording, etc. The general protection concepts and philosophies have changed very little, however the new relays allow more functions to be cost effectively applied to even the smaller generators. The paper also describes how the importance of a generator is now not merely a function of its physical size