High voltage generators

  • Thread starter sridhar Reddy. Deverapalli
  • Start date
sridhar,

What is it about High Voltage generators that you want to understand?

What do you consider High Voltage? 440 VAC? 11,500 VAC?

Do you need to understand how generators work? Or is it just synchronous generators you need help understanding?

Do you need to understand why AC generators (more rightly called alternators) have to be very carefully synchronized to other generators?

Do you need to understand how generators work in general? There's lots of information about them on the World Wide Web. We would need more specific information about your need to know in order to be able to provide more information to answer your specific question(s).
 
Thanks for you quick response.

I would like to know the generated AC voltage 6.6 KV and more.

Also i am comfortable on Alternator operations / functionality of Diesel generators. However I would like to know reason for generating higher voltage generators to feed power for High rise / multi-tenant office buildings.
 
This is good information.

I don't know if www.wikipedia.org is available in your part of the world, but it is an excellent resource for many questions.

AC is used for electric power systems primarily because the voltage of the power being transmitted over wires can be increased and decreased many times using transformers. Wires do have resistance, and long wires have higher resistance. When current flows through a resistance, heat is generated, and this results in a loss of power in the wires used to transmit the electricity, meaning that less is available at the "consumer" end of the wires.

However, by increasing the voltage of the electricity being transmitted over the same wires, the current is reduced--thereby reducing the losses in the wire.

The voltage at which electricity is generated is a function of the design of the generator--not the prime mover, but the generator. That voltage can be transformed up to higher voltage(s), or, down to lower voltage(s) as needed. It's possible that there are some "medium-voltage" motors in the buildings which require more than 440 VAC, and so the rating of the generator terminal voltage was chosen to accommodate these requirements.

It is customary for large loads (such as factories or multi-tenant office campuses) to use higher voltages at the entrance to the distribution facility and transform it down to lower voltages for use in the facilities. This reduces the transmission losses coming into the building for the power supplier/utility if the loads are "high."

Other than that, it's probably just decisions on the part of the building designers to minimize transmission losses and possibly an economic one based on the availability of the prime mover and generator and maybe even the space available.

Hope this helps!
 
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