Can an Electrical Engineering Student Be Expelled for Fabricating Synchronous Generator Capability Curves?

A university will summarily expel an electrical or power systems engineering undergraduate, cancel all electrical machines and power generation laboratory credits, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating three-phase synchronous generator operating capability curves ($P-Q$ diagrams), faking field excitation current limits, or forging electrical machines laboratory instructor verification signatures without conducting physical machine load testing. In engineering curricula accredited by COREN, power station generator operation—including operating synchronous machines connected to infinite bus systems, measuring active power ($P$ in MW) and reactive power ($Q$ in MVAR) boundaries, and calculating armature heating, field heating, and stator core end-iron heating stability limits—represents a life-critical grid stability competency; fabricating generator capability curves subverts power plant dispatch limits, risks catastrophic generator thermal burnout and grid system collapse, and violates professional engineering ethics.

Departmental laboratory coordinators and power systems testing examiners utilize high-voltage machine test bench data logs to detect fabricated experimental submissions.

1. The electrical machines course lecturer audits submitted practical portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized operating capability boundaries that ignore stator magnetic saturation and prime mover governor limits.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the high-voltage machines testing bay sign-in register and confirms that the student never signed out synchronous motor-generator sets, DC excitation supplies, or digital power quality analyzers.
3. The technologist checks the electrical power logs and confirms that the three-phase 415V laboratory machine busbar was not energized during the student’s claimed testing hours.
4. The student is formally issued an academic query requiring them to perform a live synchronization of an alternator to a busbar and plot stable operating margins under leading and lagging power factors.
5. Inability to demonstrate dark-lamp synchronization protocols or replicate $P-Q$ capability derivations leads to a formal charge of scientific fabrication and academic fraud.
6. The Head of Department transmits an investigative dossier to the Faculty of Engineering Board and the University Central Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC).
7. The student appears before the disciplinary committee to defend their submissions under constitutional principles of fair hearing.
8. The University Senate considers the committee’s findings and ratifies an order of rustication or summary expulsion, notifying COREN to bar future professional licensure.

Acquiring hands-on competency in synchronous generator testing is essential for power engineers who will manage national electricity grid control centres, thermal power stations, and hydroelectric generating facilities.

• Standardized electrical machines laboratory manual with approved synchronous machine testing protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording terminal voltages, armature currents, field currents, active power, and reactive power readings.
• High-voltage machines testing bay sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and test rig usage.
• Plotted generator capability curves displaying safe operating regions bounded by rotor heating, stator heating, and steady-state stability limits.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for excitation ripple and instrument calibration offsets, rather than manufacturing idealized generator data.

Under COREN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating electrical power generation testing data is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory expulsion and total debarment from the engineering profession nationwide.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that electrical engineering diplomates and graduates develop sound technical judgement required to operate high-voltage power generation and transmission systems safely.