ISSN (Print): 2278-8948, Volume-2, Issue-1, 20123
55
Simulation of Advanced ELC with Synchronous Generator for Micro Hydro-
power Station
ANKITA GUPTA1
Alternate Hydro Energy Centre
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India
Email: [email protected]
Abstract- This paper presents an analysis and design of an
Electronic Load Controller (ELC) for standalone synchronous
generator suitable for micro hydropower stations. ELC is
basically used to maintain the constant power at the generator
terminals, which in turn helps to maintain the system frequency
constant. The designed ELC consists of a controlled bridge
rectifier-chopper system feeding a resistive dump load whose
power consumption is varied through the duty cycle of the
chopper. Proper design of rectifier, chopper and dump load is
very important for trouble free operation of ELC. The ELC is
designed and simulated in MATLAB using Simulink. This
scheme can be efficiently used in micro hydropower stations.
Index Terms - Electronic Load Controller; Synchronous
Generator; Micro Hydropower Station.
I. INTRODUCTION
Micro hydropower stations are emerging as a major
renewable energy resource today as they do not encounter
the problems of population displacement and environmental
problems associated with the large hydropower plants. They
have been playing a great role to provide electricity to
remote area especially in developing countries. Micro
hydropower stations are defined as hydro electric system
upto 100 kW power range.
Almost all of the micro hydropower stations are based
on run-off-river type. The operating point of the generator is
fixed such that it gives constant rated output at the rated
conditions of voltage, current and speed, but the consumer
load may vary. When the consumer load on the generator
decreases, the turbine begins to accelerate and increases
generated frequency. Similarly, an increase in consumer
load on the generator causes deceleration in the turbine
speed and the frequency decreases [1]. Now the variation in
the consumer load connected is neutralized by the controller
diverting the extra power to a dump load. ELC regulates the
voltage and frequency of the generator through monitoring
of consumer load variation and automatically dissipating
any surplus power produced by the generator in additional
load known as dump load, so that, the total output power of
generator remains equal to its rated power.
Synchronous generator has some advantages over
induction generator for such systems.
Synchronous generators can run isolated from the grid
and produce power since excitation is not grid-dependent.
Also, synchronous generators are readily available in
market, no excitation capacitors are required to provide
reactive power, highly efficient, having in-built AVR for
voltage regulation and using synchronous generator with
ELC we can achieve good frequency regulation.
Literature has revealed that lots of work is done on
ELC with asynchronous generator [2-7]. This paper
therefore deals with the unexplored and relevant topic of
Development of ELC for micro hydropower station using
Synchronous generator of 50kW. The designed system
consists of hydro turbine, exciter, synchronous generator,
consumer load and ELC. In this case it is 50kW generator
driven by a hydro turbine. The voltage output of the
generator is regulated by AVR. The ELC is controlled
rectifier type with chopper controlled dump load. Here
IGBT is used as chopper. The system is designed in
MATLAB Simulink and the results are analyzed.
II. DEVELOPED SCHEME
A schematic diagram of the developed ELC system
with synchronous generator is shown in “Fig. 1”. The
system consists of 3-phase synchronous generator of 50kW
driven by a constant hydro turbine. Since the input to the
hydro turbine (i.e. Head and discharge) is assumed to be
constant, so the output of hydro turbine is nearly constant,
output power of the Synchronous generator must be held
constant at all loads. Any decrease in load may accelerate
the machine and raise the frequency levels to high value.
The power in surplus of the consumer load is dumped in the
resistive dump load through an ELC connected at the
terminals of the synchronous generator.
The ELC consists of a controlled bridge rectifier in
series with IGBT chopper and dump load (resistors). The
duty cycle of the chopper is adjusted so that the output
power of the generator remains constant.
ELC reacts so fast to load change which is not even
noticeable unless a very large load is applied. The advantage
of ELC is that, it is reliable and not having any moving part,
so virtually maintenance free.
International Journal of Advanced Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (IJAEEE)
ISSN (Print): 2278-8948, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013
56
Fig 1: Schematic Diagram of Developed ELC Scheme
III. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
The Synchronous generator–ELC system consists of a three-
phase delta-connected generator driven by a micro hydro
turbine and an ELC. Since the input power is nearly
constant, the output power of the SEIG is held constant at
varying consumer loads. The power in surplus of the
consumer load is dumped in a dump load through the ELC.
Thus, Synchronous Generator feeds two loads in parallel
such that the total power is constant, that is,
PG = PC + PD
where, PG = Generated power of the generator (which
should be kept constant),
PC = Consumer load power, and
PD = Dump load power
The power dissipated in the dump load can be used for
battery charging, water heating, cooking, etc.
IV. DESIGN OF ELC FOR SIMULATION
A number of Electronic Load Controller circuits are
developed based on various methods, to dissipate the power
in dump load, to obtain the balancing between the hydro
turbine input and the generator output [1]. With the
variation of consumer load the load controller has to change
the effective dump load resistance, so that,
PG = PC + PD (1)
where,
PG = Output power of synchronous generator
PC = Consumer load power
PD = Dump load power
The power in dump load depends on the duty cycle of the
chopper and is given as:
2( )dc
D
D
S VP
R
(2)
where,
S = Duty cycle of chopper
Vdc = DC output voltage of thyristor bridge rectifier
RD = Dump load resistance
The rating of dump load resistance is given by: 2( )dc
D
G
VR
P
(3)
The model of the 50 kW synchronous generator is
designed for simulation. The calculation is based on
assumption and it can be used to analyze the system and to
understand the effect of using ELC on the micro
hydropower plant. The model was designed to control the
frequency of the system but the voltage is controlled by
Automatic voltage regulator (AVR).
A. Generator Parameters
For simulation, the 3 phase synchronous generator
model of 50 kW, 400 V, 50 Hz, 4-pole is considered. The
generator is Salient pole type. The speed of synchronous
generator is calculated as below:
1201500
fN rpm
p
(4)
where,
N = synchronous speed of generator
f = frequency of generated voltage
p = no. of poles
B. Design of ELC
The rating of bridge rectifier and chopper switch
depends on the rated voltage and power of the synchronous
generator. The DC output voltage of controlled bridge
rectifier is given as below:
3 3cosm
dc
VV
(5)
where,
α = firing angle
Vm = Input voltage at ELC terminal
The maximum value of Vdc occurs when α=0, and is given
as,
3 3 mdc
VV
(6)
VVdc 59.66440033
(7)
International Journal of Advanced Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (IJAEEE)
ISSN (Print): 2278-8948, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013
57
ELC current is given as,
Gdc
dc
PI
V
(8)
AIdc 57.7559.661
50000 (9)
The dump load resistance is calculated as : 2 2( ) (661.59)
8.75450000
dcD
gen
VR
P
(10)
C. Design of DC Filter capacitor
When the AC signal passed through rectifier it would
become an uneven DC. A filtering section is used to smooth
out this uneven DC signal. Filters filter unwanted AC in the
output of a rectifier. The Ripple factor for C- filter is given
by:
1
4 3 L
rfCR
(11)
Where,
r = Ripple factor of C- filter
f = frequency (in Hz)
RL = Resistance of dump load (in Ohm)
or,
1
4 3 D
CfR r
(12)
Assume, the ripple factor is 15%,
312.1994 10
4 3 50 8.75 0.15C F
(13)
V. SIMULINK MODEL OF DESIGNED SCHEME
The imulink model of the designed scheme is as shown
in Fig 2. In this scheme, the ELC consists of a three-phase
controlled bridge rectifier and an IGBT chopper. The AC
voltage is rectified by means of a controlled bridge rectifier.
An electrolytic capacitor is connected across the bridge
rectifier to filter out the ripples. The dump load in series
with the chopper switch is connected across the DC link.
The dump load is designed such that, when the duty cycle of
the chopper is unity, it should consume the rated output
power of the generator.
The output power of the synchronous generator is kept
constant by the ELC.
The change in speed of generator (change in frequency)
corresponding to the change of load is measured. This is
compared with a reference frequency, which is taken as
proportional to the rated frequency of the generator. A
controller is used to process the error between feedback and
reference frequency signals. The error frequency is fed to a
controller as shown in “Fig. 2”.
The output of the controller is compared with a saw-
tooth carrier waveform to result in a PWM signal to alter the
duty cycle of the chopper.
The saw-tooth waveform is defined as [7]:
mst
p
A t V
T
(14)
where,
Am= amplitude of the saw-tooth carrier waveform
t = time in m-sec
Tp= time period of the saw-tooth PWM carrier wave
The controller output is compared with the saw-tooth
carrier waveform and output is fed to the gate of the chopper
switch (IGBT). The switching logic is as follows:
If Vst > Vo, then S=1
If Vst < Vo, then S=0
Where, S is the switching function used for generating the
gating pulse of IGBT of the chopper of ELC.
Figure 2: Simulink model of Designed scheme
D. Cases consider for analysis of designed scheme
For analysis of ELC with synchronous generator, we
considered three cases with synchronous generator of output
power 50kW and varying consumer load demand as shown
in table 1.
International Journal of Advanced Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (IJAEEE)
ISSN (Print): 2278-8948, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013
58
TABLE 1: DIFFERENT CASES FOR SIMULINK MODEL ANALYSIS
Case No. Consumer load in kW
1 50
2 30
3 40
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSUION
The simulation circuit is simulated in MATLAB
Simulink, after simulation we get the results as shown in
“Fig 3, 4 and 5”, case 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The
oscilloscope output shows the Excitation Voltage, Rotor
Speed (in pu), Mechanical Power Output of Turbine, 3-
Phase Current output of generator, Error in Frequency and
Power outputs for all the three mentioned cases.
A. CASE 1: Generator output is 50kW and Consumer load
demand is 50kW
Figure 3(a): Excitation voltage
Figure 3(b): Rotor Speed of Synchronous Generator (in pu)
Figure 3(c): Mechanical Power Output of hydro turbine
Figure3 (d): 3-Phase Current Output of Generator
Figure 3 (e): Error in Frequency
Figure 3(f): Output power of generator and power across
consumer load and dump load (PG = PC + PD)
B. CASE 2: Generator output is 50kW and Consumer load
demand is 30kW
Figure 4(a): Excitation voltage
Figure 4(b): Rotor Speed of Synchronous Generator (in pu)
Figure 4(c): Mechanical Power Output of hydro turbine
International Journal of Advanced Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (IJAEEE)
ISSN (Print): 2278-8948, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013
59
Figure 4(d): 3-Phase Current Output of Generator
Figure 4(e): Error in Frequency
Figure (f): Output power of generator and power across
consumer load and dump load (PG = PC + PD)
C. CASE 3: Generator output is 50kW and Consumer load
demand is 40kW
Figure 5 (a): Excitation voltage
Figure 5(b): Rotor Speed of Synchronous Generator (in pu)
Figure 5(c): Mechanical Power Output of hydro turbine
Figure 5(d): 3-Phase Current Output of Generator
Figure 5(e): Error Frequency
Figure 5(f): Output power of generator and power across
consumer load and dump load (PG = PC + PD)
International Journal of Advanced Electrical and Electronics Engineering, (IJAEEE)
ISSN (Print): 2278-8948, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013
60
VII. CONCLUSION
An Electronic Load Controller with synchronous
generator using a three-phase controlled bridge rectifier and
IGBT as chopper converter has been modeled in MATLAB
Simulink, for controlling the frequency of micro hydro
turbine under varying load conditions. The controller is
modeled and the results are analyzed after simulation. The
designed ELC is achieving its objective to control the
frequency. This ELC can be fabricated and used efficiently
in any micro hydropower plant.
REFERENCES
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Steady State Analysis on Voltage and Frequency Control of Self-Excited Induction Generator in Micro-Hydro System”, International conference on power electronics, Drives and Energy Systems, pp.1-6, 2006
[2] S.S.Murthy, B.Singh, A.Kulkarni, R.Sivarajan and S.Gupta, “Field Experience on A Novel Pico Hydel System using SEIG and ELC”, IEEE Conference, Vol. 2, pp.842-847, 2003
[2] B.Singh, S.S.Murthy and S.Gupta, “Analysis and Design of Electronic Load Controller for Self-Excited Induction Generators”, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 21, pp.285-293, 2006.
[3] M.Ramirez, “An Electronic Load Controller for the Self-Excited Induction Generator”, IEEE Transactions on energy conversion, Vol .22, No. 2, pp.546-548, 2007.
[4] B.Singh, G.K.Kasal and S.Gairola, “Power Quality Improvement in Conventional Electronic Load Controller for an Isolated Power Generation”, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 764-773, 2008.
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