ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products
ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products
Olivier Basset, global commodity manager for GE Renewable Energy
The generators used in hydroelectric plants have specific requirements that machine designers must address. As well as being large, the generators must be highly efficient and reliable. “Because of the special challenges hydroelectric power stations pose, the generators must be tailor-made, and robust,” notes Sigrid Jacobs, portfolio director for electrical steels at ArcelorMittal Global R&D.
“The efficiency of a GE hydro generator is closely related to the loss performance of the electrical steel used in its stator,” notes Olivier Basset, global commodity manager for GE Renewable Energy. “At GE we only use electrical steels with the best electromagnetic performance.”
ArcelorMittal and GE recently worked together to develop a new methodology to calculate iron losses in large, synchronous hydro-generators as Sigrid Jacobs explains: “Today the overall efficiency of large generators for hydropower plants is above 99 percent. However, even a one-percent loss on a 300 megawatt (MW) machine corresponds to 3 MW of losses. To improve the modelling tools both GE and ArcelorMittal use, we looked at the effect of punching on iron losses. They can account for up to a quarter of the total losses in this type of generator.”
Working with Thomas Lugand and Alexander Schwery from GE Renewable Energy, Lode Vandenbossche and Sigrid Jacobs from ArcelorMittal Global R&D discovered that some manufacturing processes can impact a machine’s performance. “These include punching of the electrical steel’s laminations, and applying stresses on the lamination stacks during machine production,” notes Sigrid Jacobs. “These processes can impact the torque and efficiency of the machine.”
“Cooperating with a raw material supplier was a new approach for us,” says Olivier Basset. “With the assistance of ArcelorMittal Global R&D, we gained a comprehensive understanding of the origin of losses in the stators of our hydroelectric machines. It will help us enhance our design and ArcelorMittal has become a strategic partner as a result.”
Hydroelectric power is one of the cleanest forms of renewable energy
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