System and method for detecting bearing insulation and ground brush health in a generator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12487269-B2
Application number	US-202318158647-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2023
Priority date	Jan 24, 2023
Publication date	Dec 2, 2025
Grant date	Dec 2, 2025

Abstract

A method for preventing damage in a bearing of a generator of an electrical power system having a power conversion assembly with a first converter coupled to a second converter, and the power conversion assembly electrically coupled to the generator. Further, the method includes monitoring a phase current and voltage of the first converter. The method also includes calculating a common mode power using the phase current and the voltage of the first converter. Moreover, the method includes comparing the common mode power to a predefined power threshold. The method also includes determining whether the common mode power is indicative of degradation in at least one of a bearing insulation or a ground brush based on the comparison of the common mode power to the predefined power threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for preventing damage in a bearing of a generator of an electrical power system by estimating power dissipated in a rotor-side common mode network of the electrical power system, the electrical power system having a power conversion assembly with a rotor-side converter coupled to a line-side converter, the power conversion assembly electrically coupled to the generator, the method comprising:
monitoring a rotor phase current and a rotor phase voltage of the rotor-side converter; calculating a common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network using the rotor phase current and the rotor phase voltage of the rotor-side converter; comparing the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network to a predefined power threshold; determining the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of a bearing insulation or a ground brush of the bearing when the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is greater than the predefined power threshold; implementing a control action when the common mode power is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush, the control action comprising at least one of changing an operating set point of the wind turbine power system, shutting down the wind turbine power system, repairing at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush, or replacing at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network using the rotor phase current and the rotor phase voltage of the rotor-side converter comprises:
calculating a common mode voltage using a three-phase voltage; calculating a common mode current using a three-phase current; and calculating the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network as a function of the common mode voltage and the common mode current.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining whether the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush of the bearing further comprises:
producing a time-domain graph of the common mode power for a predefined time period; producing one or more time-domain features from the time-domain graph; and analyzing the one or more time-domain features for anomalies in the time-domain graph.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein determining whether the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush of the bearing further comprises:
producing one or more frequency features from the time-domain graph as a function of the rotor phase current or the common mode current, the rotor phase voltage or the common mode voltage, or the common mode power; combining the one or more frequency features with the one or more time-domain features; and analyzing the one or more time-domain features fused with the one or more frequency features for anomalies.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein producing a time-domain graph of the common mode power for a predefined time period and producing one or more time-domain features from the time-domain graph comprises extracting the time-domain features from pulse code modulation (PCM) data using a temporal convolutional network (TCN).

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein determining whether the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush of the bearing further comprises:
combining the one or more time-domain features with frequency features from the rotor phase current; analyzing the one or more time-domain features fused with the one or more frequency features; and generating one or more anomaly metrics, based on the analysis, that are indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush.

7 . The method of claim 5 , wherein determining whether the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush of the bearing further comprises trending the one or more anomaly metrics over time.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating an average of the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network over a predefined time, wherein comparing the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network to the predefined power threshold further comprises comparing the average of the common mode power to a predefined average threshold.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the damage in the bearing is caused by electric discharge machining (EDM).

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the generator comprises a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG).

11 . A wind turbine power system connected to a power grid, the wind turbine power system comprising:
a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) comprising a rotor and a stator; a power conversion assembly electrically coupled to the DFIG, the power conversion assembly comprising a rotor-side converter coupled to a line-side converter; a controller configured to control the wind turbine power system by estimating power dissipated in a rotor-side common mode network of the wind turbine power system, the controller configured to perform a plurality of operations, the plurality of operations comprising:
monitoring a rotor phase current and rotor-side voltage of the rotor-side converter;
calculating a common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network using the rotor phase current and the rotor-side voltage;
comparing the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network to a predefined power threshold; and
determining whether the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of a bearing insulation or a ground brush of the DFIG when the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is greater than the predefined power threshold; and
implementing a control action when the common mode power is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush, the control action comprising at least one of changing an operating set point of the wind turbine power system, shutting down the wind turbine power system, repairing at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush, or replacing at least one of the bearing insulation or the ground brush.

12 . The wind turbine power system of claim 11 , wherein calculating the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network using the rotor phase current and the rotor-side voltage comprises:
calculating a common mode voltage using the rotor-side voltage; calculating a common mode current using a three-phase current; and calculating the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network as a function of the common mode voltage and the common mode current.

13 . The wind turbine power system of claim 11 , further comprising calculating an average of the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network over a predefined time, wherein comparing the common mode power to the predefined power threshold further comprises comparing the average of the common mode power to a predefined average threshold.

14 . The wind turbine power system of claim 11 , wherein determining whether the common mode power of the rotor-side common mode network is indicative of degradation in at least one of the bearing

Assignees

• General Electric Renovables Espana Sl
• Ge Vernova Infrastructure Tech Llc

Inventors

• Jha Kapil
• Mukherjee Rupam
• Tiwari Arvind Kumar

Classifications

• H02J2101/28

  Wind energy · CPC title

• H02P9/007 Primary

  Control circuits for doubly fed generators · CPC title

• F03D17/032

  Bearings · CPC title

• G01R21/00

  Arrangements for measuring electric power or power factor (G01R7/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F03D80/50

  Maintenance or repair · CPC title