SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR STARTING WITH AN EXTERNAL MOTOR

The second method of starting a synchronous motor is to attach an external starting motor (pony motor) to it and bring the synchronous machine to near about its rated speed (but not exactly equal to it, as the synchronization process may fail to indicate the point of closure of the main switch connecting the synchronous machine to the supply system) with the pony motor. Then the output of the synchronous machine can be synchronized or paralleled with its power supply system as a generator, and the pony motor can be detached from the shaft of the machine or the supply to the pony motor can be disconnected. Once the pony motor is turned OFF, the shaft of the machine slows down, the speed of the rotor magnetic field B_R falls behind B_net, momentarily and the synchronous machine continues to operate as a motor. As soon as it begins to operates as a motor the synchronous motor can be loaded in the usual manner just like any motor.
This whole procedure is not as cumbersome as it sounds, since many synchronous motors are parts of motor-generator sets, and the synchronous machine in the motor-generator set may be started with the other machine serving as the starting motor. Moreover, the starting motor is required to overcome only the mechanical inertia of the synchronous machine without any mechanical load (load is attached only after the synchronous machine is paralleled to the power supply system). Since only the motor’s inertia must be overcome, the starting motor can have a much smaller rating than the synchronous motor it is going to start. Generally most of the large synchronous motors have brushless excitation systems mounted on their shafts. It is then possible to use these exciters as the starting motors. For many medium-size to large synchronous motors, an external starting motor or starting by using the exciter may be the only possible solution, because the power systems they are tied to may not be able to handle the starting currents needed to use the damper (amortisseur) winding approach.