Required Load Bank

Status
Not open for further replies.

Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
No but see below
No?
Then you are hardly in a position to lecture me about what standards are applicable there, are you?
Maybe the 50Hz from the OP could have have clued you in.

And, for the avoidance of doubt, the recent project for Saudi Arabia, like many before, specifies the following:

All equipment covered by this specification shall be according to the requirements of the latest
edition of the following documents:
60044, 60051, 60073, 60044, 60044-5, 60255, 60269, 62052.11, 60947, 61641?.

This is taken, verbatim, from the contract documents. For an actual contract going through our works right now.
You will of course, with your encyclopedic knowledge of all matters electrical, know that those required standards are IEC.
 

Sahib

Senior Member
Location
India
Maybe the 50Hz from the OP could have have clued you in.

You will of course, with your encyclopedic knowledge of all matters electrical, know that those required standards are IEC.

There are commonalities between all standards and NEC places no frequency restriction on its applicability as far as I know.

Now why not try my suggestion of opening a thread on the universal applicability of any NEC rules?
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Going back to testing the generator at .8 PF:
It is true, for the most part, that you could test the generator windings, etc. with a resistive load of 1.25 times the rated kW (corresponding to the current at rated KVA at .8 PF.) But I would be concerned that the prime mover could not support that, hence the need for a reactive load to set up the high current test.
 

iceworm

Curmudgeon still using printed IEEE Color Books
Location
North of the 65 parallel
Occupation
EE (Field - as little design as possible)
Going back to testing the generator at .8 PF:
It is true, for the most part, that you could test the generator windings, etc. with a resistive load of 1.25 times the rated kW (corresponding to the current at rated KVA at .8 PF.) But I would be concerned that the prime mover could not support that, hence the need for a reactive load to set up the high current test.

I've been involved with several FATs and it's rare that anything other than a resistive bank is used. In fact, the bigger the gen, the less likely the load bank will be anything other than resistive.

It's true that the alternator can not be run at FLA with a resistive bank, However, the usual weak link is the driver and one can test that to the spec with a resistive bank.

The only other method I have seen used is to run the test gen in parallel with another gen (~ equal sized), both driving into a resistive load bank. Then one can overdrive the test gen field and set it to put out vars. The paralleled gen will drop back on it's field and suck vars. This is a lot of machinery, but generally better than getting a reactive bank.

ice
 

topgone

Senior Member
Going back to testing the generator at .8 PF:
It is true, for the most part, that you could test the generator windings, etc. with a resistive load of 1.25 times the rated kW (corresponding to the current at rated KVA at .8 PF.) But I would be concerned that the prime mover could not support that, hence the need for a reactive load to set up the high current test.
Gold,

I guess the OP is concerned with the required regular test run of DEG per AHJ. Correct me if I'm wrong but, they're making sure equipment and procedures are in-place so problems like wet stacking are avoided. That said, it is the prime mover that needs to be exercised-->a resistive load bank does that, imo.
 

Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
Going back to testing the generator at .8 PF:
It is true, for the most part, that you could test the generator windings, etc. with a resistive load of 1.25 times the rated kW (corresponding to the current at rated KVA at .8 PF.) But I would be concerned that the prime mover could not support that, hence the need for a reactive load to set up the high current test.
Just resistive at 1.0pf would correspond to rated current. So 500kW. No need for reactance to get that. No need for the 1.25 times the rated kW.
 

topgone

Senior Member
Just resistive at 1.0pf would correspond to rated current. So 500kW. No need for reactance to get that. No need for the 1.25 times the rated kW.

I concur. 500kW is roughly 630 kVA @ 0.8pf-->the rating of the diesel engine prime mover!
 

Sahib

Senior Member
Location
India
Actually, the grid paralleling method of genny load testing is energy conservative and to be prefered. But resistance load testing is widespread perhaps due to lack of energy conservation consciousness.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top