Test Loads from the Tester's View-point
Before proceeding to describe the points of actual interest in the consumption test, a few considerations respecting test loads will be dealt with from the tester's point of view. Here again we often find ourselves restricted, to an extent, by the surrounding conditions. The very first considerations, when undertaking to carry out a consumption test, should be devoted to obtaining the steadiest possible lead. It may be, and is in many cases, that circumstances are such as to allow a steady electrical load to be obtained at almost any time. On the other hand an electrical load of any description is sometimes not procurable at all, without the installation of a special plant for the purpose. In such cases a mechanical friction load, as, for example, that obtained by the water brake, is sometimes available, or can easily be procured. Whereas, however, this type of load may be satisfactory for small machines, it is usually quite impossible for use with large units, of, say, 5000 kilowatts and upward. It is seldom, however, that turbines are made in large sizes for directly driving anything but electrical plants, although there is every possibility of direct mechanical driving between large steam turbines and plants of various descriptions, shortly coming into vogue, so that usually there exist some facilities for obtaining an electrical load at both the maker's works and upon the site of operation.
One consideration of importance is worth inquiring into, and this has relation to the largest turbo-generators supplied for power-station and like purposes. Obviously, the testing of, say, a 7000-kilowatt alternator by any standard electrical-testing method must entail considerable expense, if such a test is to be carried out in the maker's works. Nor would this expense be materially decreased by transferring the operations to the power-station, and there erecting the necessary electrical plant for obtaining a water load, or any other installation of sufficient capacity to carry the required load according to the rated full capacity of the machine.
Assuming, then, that there exist no permanent facilities at either end, namely the maker's works and the power station, for adequately procuring a steady electrical-testing load of sufficient capacity, there still remains, in this instance, an alternative source of power which is usually sufficiently elastic to serve all purposes, and this is of course the total variable load procurable from the station bus-bars. It is conceivable that one out of a number of machines running in parallel might carry a perfectly steady load, the latter being a fraction of a total varying quantity, leaving the remaining machines to receive and deal with all fluctuations which might occur. Even in the event of there being only two machines, it is possible to maintain the load on one of them comparatively steady, though the percentage variation in load on either side of the normal would in the latter case be greater than in the previous one. This is accomplished by governor regulation after the machines have been paralleled. For example, assuming three turbo-alternators of similar make and capacity to be running in parallel, each machine carrying exactly one-third of the total distributed load, it is fair to regard the governor condition, allowing for slight mechanical disparities of construction, of all three machines as being similar; and even in the case of three machines of different capacity and construction, the governor conditions when the machines are paralleled are more or less relatively and permanently fixed in relation to one another. In other words, while the variation in load on each machine is the same, the relative variation in the governor condition must be constant.
By a previously mentioned system of governor regulation, however, it is possible, considering again for a moment the case of three machines in parallel, by decreasing the sensitiveness of one governor only, to accommodate nearly all the total variation in load by means of the two remaining machines, the unresponsiveness of the one governor to change in speed maintaining the load on that machine fairly constant. By this method, at any rate, the variation in load on any one machine can be minimized down to, say, 3 per cent, either side of the normal full load.
There is another and more positive method by which a perfectly steady load can be maintained upon one machine of several running in parallel. This may be carried out as follows: Suppose, in a station having a total capacity of 20,000 kilowatts, there are three machines, two of 6000 kilowatts each, and one of 8000 kilowatts, and it is desired to carry out a steady full-load test upon one of the 6000 kilowatts units. Assuming that the test is to be of six hours' duration, and that the conditions of load fluctuations upon the station are well known, the first step to take is to select a period for the test during which the total load upon all machines is not likely to fall below, say, 8000 kilowatts. The tension upon the governor spring of the turbine to be tested must then be adjusted so that the machine on each peak load is taxed to its utmost normal capacity; and even when the station load falls to its minimum, the load from the particular machine shall not be released sufficiently to allow it to fall below 6000 kilowatts. Under these conditions, then, it may be assumed that although the load on the test machine will vary, it cannot fall below 6000 kilowatts. Therefore, all that remains to be done to insure a perfectly steady load equal to the normal full load of the machine, or 6000 kilowatts, is to fix the main throttle or governing valve in such a position that the steam passing through at constant pressure is just capable of sustaining full speed under the load required. When this method is adopted, it is desirable to fix a simple hight-adjusting and locking mechanism to the governing-valve spindle. The load as read on the indicating wattmeter can then be very accurately varied until correct, and farther varied, if necessary, should any change occur in the general conditions which might either directly or indirectly bring about a change of load.