12 KVA Fisher Panda genset and 10kw 3 phase electric motor

"Rob" wrote... > I have a 3000 rpm 11.8 KVA Fisher Panda generator that has both 1 and

Probably not--slim chance if it's the only load and very sluggish starting is tolerable. 10kW is by convention shaft {mechanical output} power... Electrically, KW and KVA are typically significantly more--even overlooking electrical starting demand. If you haven't purchased a genset yet, best get vendor's/producer's printed literature/recommendation on acceptable motor-starting capability.

--s falke

Does the bow thruster actually pull rated power or not. Your 11.8KVA gen equates to only 9.44 Kw, which if the motor it is supplying is over specced for the job you should be ok. There will be quite a surge on switch on if there is no speed control type apparatus.

Tim..

It would be 'problematical'. A cap bank won't really help with starting of AC motor.

I *have* seen a 2400 hp electric motor started on a 3000 hp diesel-gen set. Engine running at about 60.5 hz, closed in the breaker. Engine dogged down like anything and the motor started turning. The two met about 40 hz and the governor of the engine was full open. Then both came up to full speed and things ran fine from there. Had special overcurrent trips that were blocked for 5 seconds right after shutting breaker. Quite a sight to see/hear.

Starting such a large motor on a generator that is closely rated, well, it may work, it may not. The voltage and frequency dip will be substantial. But if its just dedicated to that one load, hey it may work. It would be

Since it will take longer than usual to come up to speed if the engine is only just big enough, you may have to look at the overload protection. And you will definitely want to limit the number of starts you do in a given time frame. Obviously, being a bow thruster you may have to start/stop it more than you would like, just to keep the barge from going where it shouldn't.

You don't mention the type of thruster, but I guess it would be water-cooled so probably not much problem there. The genny may need some extra cooling if you plan on lots of start/stops.

And obviously you will want an engine that's well tuned and not going to stall/sputter when you hit it with the load. My boating experiences on the GLakes has taught me when you need maneuvering power, you *need* maneuvering power. Not the time to have to nurse a sickly engine.

daestrom

Ahah yes, good.

Oh completely useless for that. Give the generator to me.

Lateral thinking.

Why not use the boat engine - or a small car engine - to charge a bank of car batteries and use a DC motor instead?

You could use the rest of the truck motor and alternator to power the batteries :)

I have no direct experience of this. However the power requirements of the bow thruster won't approach anything like the rated 10KW until the speed of the propellor is fairly close to the 1500 rpm. IIRC the power required is proportional to the cube of the prop speed. The power factor of the motor will be poor on starting but improve as the prop comes up to speed and a pf of 0.8 is plausible giving 11.8 kVA

• 0.8 = 8.9 kW.

Does your colleague have capacitors? What sort of over current protection? The fact that he/she has it working means it's possible in principle and there is nothing that makes you setup different.

What size of barge? The power requirement of the bow thruster seems to be out of all proportion ot those normally fitted. Are you using a waterjet (horribly inefficient) rather than a ducted propellor?

I'm guessing it has to be a waterjet to permit you to control port/starboard thrust since the motor won't be reversible.

Lawrence

usenet at lklyne dt co dt uk

^ This bit is the key.^

But there is another factor, that motor start current is many times rated run current. So the only thing that'll keep it going thru the start period is heavy gen speed drop reducing motor current. Thre's only one way to find out if your gen will do this reliably without stalling.

There is a way round it tho, and that's to electrically reduce the motor power during start. Several methods possible:

2 is the one you can use with any setup, the rest depend on equipment or money.

It should be possible, and some gens will manage it with no start-up provisions, but you certainly cant count on that without trying it.

Regards, NT

Good points. Another one that comes to mind is a star-delta motor starter. If all six leads of the motor can be taken out to the motor control, this

daestrom