ELECTRONIC LOAD CONTROLLER FOR ISLANDED ASYNCHRONOUS GENERATOR IN PICO HYDRO POWER GENERATION

Bhim Singh and V. Rajagopal Indian Institute of Technology Delhi ABSRTACT The SRF (synchronous reference frame) controller is developed for an electronic load controller (ELC) for islanded asynchronous generator (IAG) system in pico hydro plant applications. An implementation of the ELC for IAG system is carried out using an asynchronous generator, excitation capacitors, voltage source converter (VSC) with a dc link capacitor, a chopper, star/delta transformer, consumer loads and an auxiliary load at its dc bus. The IAG system with ELC provides a viable and costeffective solution to achieve power quality improvement, voltage and frequency control, harmonic elimination and load balancing for feeding nonlinear loads. Experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the ELC for IAG system. INDEX TERMS Power quality, islanded asynchronous generator, Hydroelectric power generation, Voltage control, Frequency control. INTRODUCTION Small hydropower (pico hydro) schemes, with an output of order of 5 kW, can be a cost-effective option for the electrification of remote and isolated rural communities. Despite the fact that each hydropower site is unique, there is a potential for using standardized equipment and low-cost approaches to system design. Relatively low rating equipment (machine including power electronic converters) costs are possible, particularly if these are locally manufactured in a developing country, which enable costs per unit of energy output to be lower than small wind turbines, petrol or diesel generators or PV systems. Nevertheless, it is important not to compromise on power quality of pico hydro schemes, as this may lead to poor efficiency and reduced life of the machine. The challenge is therefore to provide engineering designs and implementation methods with good power quality that can effectively be customized for a wide The islanded asynchronous generator system (IAG) consists of a 3.7 kW, 50 Hz asynchronous generator, an excitation capacitor of 4 kVAR rating, non-linear and linear consumer loads and proposed ELC as shown in Figure 1. The proposed ELC is the combination of an insulated gate bipolar junction transistors (IGBTs) based VSC, a dc bus capacitor, an auxiliary load with a dc chopper on the dc link. The ELC is connected at the point of common coupling (PCC) through the filtering inductors (Lf) and a star/delta transformer. As the asynchronous generator is operating in islanded mode, so the part of the reactive power requirement is met by a capacitor bank [7]. The IAG system (pico hydro plant) has a constant power as an input and variable consumer loads. The three-leg VSC with dc bus capacitor supplies the reactive power and regulates the load terminal voltage. The chopper switch and auxiliary load on the dc bus of VSC range of schemes [1-3]. The major challenge in such schemes is the power quality, voltage and frequency regulation aspect [4]. This paper deals with a simple algorithm based on a synchronous reference frame (SRF) theory [5-6]. The electronic load controller (ELC) is used for controlling the voltage and its frequency. An ELC consists of a voltage source converter (VSC) with a dc bus capacitor and a chopper with an auxiliary load which controls the reactive power and active power during frequent load perturbations thus controlling the frequency and voltage of the islanded asynchronous generator (IAG) system. The star/delta connected transformer is used to adjust the dc link voltage to an optimum level and for neutral current compensation in case of three-phase four wire loads. The advantage of using the star/delta transformer is to tone down the zero sequence and triplen harmonics currents in the secondary windings itself thus reducing the rating of VSC. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

controls the active power and frequency. The power PI controller generates a gating signal for the chopper on the dc link of an ELC which consumes the excess active power into the auxiliary load when the consumer load demand is less than rated power of the generator. The ELC improves the power quality of the IAG system. The neutral terminal for consumer loads is given from the neutral terminal of the star/ delta transformer thus supplying the three phase four wire consumer loads [8-10]. CONTROL ALGORITHM Figure 2 shows the control algorithm used for ELC. The ELC is used for controlling constant power output and regulating voltage and frequency along with power quality improvement. The control strategy for producing the signal for ELC is based on the generation of reference source currents and gating pulses for the chopper switch for constant power operation,

are given as input to a digital signal processor. These load currents of three phases are converted into the d-q-o using Parks transformation frame as,
iL d i Lq iLo = co s 2 sin 3 1 2 co s( 2 ) 3 2 sin ( ) 3 1 2 c o s( + 2 3 2 sin ( + 3 1 2 ) ) i La i Lb i Lc

(1)

Giving the three phase voltages to the threephase PLL (phase locked loop) the sine () and cosine () are extracted to synchronize the signals with the sensed three-phase terminal voltages. The transformed d-q components of load currents (iLd and iLq ) are then filtered to extract the dc components (idc and iqc).

Figure 2 Control algorithm of ELC. Figure 1 Schematic diagram of IAG with ELC with digital signal processor. Estimation of In-phase Reference Source Currents Component of The error in dc bus voltage of ELC (Vdce (m)) at mth sampling instant is as, Vdce(m) = Vdc(m)* Vdc(m)
*

(2)

Terminal voltages of two phases are sensed (va and vb) and third phase (vc) is calculated from the other two voltages. Source currents of two phases (isa and isb ) are sensed and third phase source current (isc) is calculated from the other two source currents. The dc bus voltage (vdc), and the load currents of three phases (iLa, iLb, iLc) are sensed and total of eight analog input signals

where Vdc(m) is the reference dc bus voltage and Vdc(m) is the sensed dc link voltage of the ELC. The output of the dc PI controller is used for maintaining constant dc bus voltage of the ELC at the mth sampling instant is expressed as, ILoss(m)=ILoss(m-1)+Kpd { Vdce(m)Vdce(m-1)}+KidVdce(m) (3) where ILoss(m) is considered as part of active power component of the source currents. Kpd and

Kid are the proportional and integral gains of the dc bus PI voltage controller of ELC. This dc component (iloss) is added to get the active power component of the source current of the load current (idc) to get id*as, id* = idc +iLoss (4) This id* is considered the amplitude of the active power (in-phase) component of the source current in d-q-o reference frame of an IAG system. Estimation of Quadrature Component of Reference Source Currents Similarly, an ac voltage PI controller is used to regulate the load terminal voltage at the PCC. The amplitude of terminal voltage and its reference value are fed to ac voltage PI controller. The terminal voltage error Ve is as, Ve(m) = Vt*(m) Vt(m)
*

transformation the resultant reference source d-q currents (id*, iq*) are converted to three-phase reference source currents in a-b-c frame (isa*, isb*, isc*) as,
i i i
* sa * sb * sc

s in 2 2 s in ( ) 3 3 2 s in ( + 3 )

cos 2 c o s ( ) 3 2 c o s ( + ) 3

1 2 1 2 1 2

* id * iq * io

(9)

These reference source currents (isa*, isb* and isc*) are compared with the sensed source currents (isa, isb and isc) in the current controller for generating gating signals of ELC. Chopper Controller The constant power control of the IAG system (pico hydro plant) can be achieved using the dc chopper switch on the dc bus of ELC. The estimated source power using sensed terminal voltages and source currents and compared with reference power (Pr) and error power Pe(m) at the mth sampling instant is calculated as, Pe(m) = Pr(m) Pg(m) (10) where Pr(m) is the reference source power and it is taken equal to rated power of the IAG. The generated power of the IAG is estimated as, Pg = Average of {(vaisa+vbisb+vcisc)} (11) where va, vb and vc are the three-phase terminal voltages and isa, isb and isc are the sensed source currents, The output of power PI controller at the mth sampling instant is expressed as, V*con(m)=V*con(m-1)+Kpp{ Pe(m)Pe(m-1)}+Kpi Pe(m) (12) where Kpp and Kip are the proportional and integral gains of the power PI controller. The output of this controller (V*con(m)) is compared with the triangular carrier waveform and its output is fed to the gate of the chopper of the ELC. The gating pulse of the chopper of an ELC is generated in such a manner that any excess power between the generator and consumer loads is consumed in the auxiliary load and keeping the IAG frequency constant at consumer load terminals. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION A prototype of the ELC for the islanded asynchronous generator system using a DSPACE DSP is developed in the laboratory on

(5)

where Vt(m) is the reference ac terminal voltage and Vt(m) is the amplitude of the sensed ac voltages at the PCC at mth instant. This amplitude of three-phase terminal voltage (Vt) is computed as, Vt = {(2/3) (va2 +vb2 +vc2)}1/2 (6) The output of the ac voltage PI controller (I*qv(m)) for regulating the amplitude of the ac terminal voltage to a constant value at the mth sampling instant is given as, Iqv(m)* = Iqv(m-1)* + Kpa { Ve(m) Ve(m-1)} + Kia Ve(m) (7) where Kpa and Kia are the proportional and integral gains of the ac voltage PI controller, Ve (m) and Ve(m-1) are the voltage errors in mth and (m1)th instant and Iqv(m-1)* is the amplitude of quadrature component of the required reactive power component current of ELC at (m-1)th instant. Thus the reactive power component of the source currents in d-q-o frame is given as, iq* = iqv* -iqc (8) This iq* is considered as an amplitude of reactive power (quadrature) component of reference source current of an IAG system. Estimation of Source Reference Currents The SRF control theory is used for terminal voltage and frequency regulation, elimination of harmonics in source currents and the load balancing. Using the inverse Parks

3.7 kW, 230V, 50Hz, 4 pole, Y-connected asynchronous machine with 4 kVAR excitation capacitor banks for its VAR requirement. The consumer loads (linear and nonlinear) are considered here to validate the effectiveness of ELC. The implementation of this proposed scheme requires an ELC, a dc bus capacitor for ELC, an auxiliary load, ac filtering inductors and interface hardware circuits. Three LEM CV31500 Hall effect voltage sensors are used to sense ac phase voltages (va, vb) and dc link voltage (vdc). Five LEM CT100S Hall effect current sensors are used to sense load currents (iLa, iLb, iLc,) and source currents of two phases (iSa, iSb). The third phase source current (isc) is calculated considering the balanced source currents. The eight sensed voltages and currents are given as feedback signals to the DSP for generating the switching signals of IGBTs of ELC using synchronous reference frame theory based reference current estimation technique. The switching signals are fed to the SKHI 22A driver for isolation and amplification, which finally provide gate signals for the Semikron GB 128DN IGBT module of ELC and the chopper switch on the dc link. The control algorithm is run at fixed step size of 55 s in the digital signal processor. The detailed system data are given in Appendix. A star/delta transformer is used for the neutral current compensation for three phase four wire loads and to adjust the dc bus voltage of ELC, which is shown in Fig. 1.Three-phase transformer is used to form star connection of primary windings and the delta connection of secondary windings of 140V/140V, 10A rating. The 3-leg VSC with a chopper on its dc link is used for connecting to a 3.7 kW, 230V, 50Hz, Yconnected asynchronous machine at point of common coupling (PCC) through the star/delta transformer and filtering inductors.The dc bus capacitor used is 3000 F and the dc bus voltage is maintained at 300V. The auxiliary load resistance is selected as 15 for consuming the excess power to keep the frequency constant. Experimental results are stored using Agilent four channel digital storage oscilloscope for transient performance and a Fluke 43B power analyzer is used to record the data of steady state performance of IAG system. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A laboratory prototype of ELC with IAG system consisting of three-phase asynchronous generator of 4 pole, 3.7kW 230V, 50 Hz is tested

under balanced and unbalanced linear and nonlinear loads for voltage and frequency regulation along with harmonic elimination, power quality improvement and neutral current compensation. The experimental results are shown to validate its effectiveness for steady state and transient performances of a proposed ELC with IAG system. The salient features of the experimental results shown in Figs. 3-6 are discussed below. Steady State Performance of IAG System with ELC under Nonlinear Loads. Figure 3 shows the experimental results of steady state performance of the IAG system with ELC. Figs. 3(a) - 3(c) show the terminal voltage of phase a with three-phase generator currents. Figs. 3(d) - 3(f) show the terminal voltage of phase a with three-phase nonlinear load currents. Figs. 3(g) - 3(i) show the terminal voltage of phase a with three-phase primary compensator currents. Fig. 3(j) shows the line voltage waveform and its harmonic spectrum, which has a THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) of 1.3 %. Fig 3 (k) shows the harmonic spectrum and THD of the generator current waveform, which is 3.7 %. Fig 3 (l) shows the nonlinear load current waveform and harmonic spectrum which has a THD of 35.0 %. The THD of the terminal voltage and generator current is within 5% limit of IEEE 519 harmonic standard. Figs. 3(m) - 3(o) show the generator power, consumer load power and a compensator (ELC) power. It is seen that when the load currents are nonlinear the generator currents are balanced and harmonic free. In constant power control mode, an addition of the consumer load power and an auxiliary power gives the source load power resulting in the frequency constant at load perturbations. Transient Performance of IAG System under Application and Removal of Unbalanced Nonlinear Loads. Test results of transient performance of IAG system with ELC under single-phase load removal is shown in Fig. 4. These phase balanced generator currents (iga, igb and igc), excitation capacitor currents(icca, iccb and iccc), source currents (isa, isb and isc), consumer load currents (iLa, iLb and iLc), primary ELC currents (icona, iconb and iconc), are shown in Figs. 4 (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) respectively. Fig. 4 (f) shows the phase voltage (va), ELC dc bus voltage (vdc), ELC dc chopper current (ichopper) and primary ELC current (iconb).

Test results of transient performance of IAG system with ELC under single-phase load applied back is shown in Fig. 5. These phase balanced generator currents (iga, igb and igc), excitation capacitor currents(icca, iccb and iccc), source currents (isa, isb and isc), consumer load currents (iLa, iLb and iLc), primary ELC currents (icona, iconb and iconc), are shown in Figs. 5 (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) respectively. Fig. 5 (f) shows the phase voltage (va), ELC dc bus voltage (vdc), ELC dc chopper current (ichopper) and primary ELC current (iconb).

current into the line and the ELC chopper current is also increased accordingly on the load phase removal and comes to the original value when the same load phase is applied back on the system. CONCLUSION A prototype of ELC for a three-phase IAG system has been implemented using a SRF theory based algorithm. The performance of an IAG system has been demonstrated under balanced and unbalanced nonlinear load conditions. An improved power quality of the voltage and current has been achieved along with voltage and frequency regulation of the IAG system. The THD of the terminal voltage, generator currents has been found within 5%, well below the limit of IEEE 519 standard. It has also been observed that the ELC results in a satisfactory performance under different loading conditions with the frequency and voltage control, load balancing and harmonic elimination of three-phase four wire loads. The SRF theory has been found suitable and simple, and fast in response and the dc bus voltage of ELC is found more stable to the load perturbations and considered as suitable voltage and frequency controller. APPENDICES Parameters of Three-Phase 4 - Pole 3.7 k W, 230 V, 50 Hz, Y connected Asynchronous Machine Xlr = 0.6335, Xls = 0.7898 , Xm = 24.08114 , Rs=0.3939 , Rr = 0.4791 , Parameters of ELC Hardware Diode rectifier and chopper module 3-leg Module: SKM 100 GB128DN (100A, 1200 V, 15kVA) IGBT 3-leg Module: SKM 100 GB128DN (100A, 1200 V, 25kVA, IGBT Module) Star/delta transformer: Three single-phase transformers of rating 140V/140V, 10A. Lf = 1.25 mH, Rd = 15 . Gate driver for VSC and Chopper: SKHI 22B Driver Hall Effect Current Sensors: LEM CT 100S Hall Effect Voltage sensors: LEM CV3 - 1500 DC bus capacitance of VSC: 2900 F/ 800V DC bus voltage of VSC: 300 V Digital Signal Processor Processor: dSPACE DS 1104 R&D Controller board with TMS320F240 slave DSP.

Figure 3 Steady state performance of IAG with ELC (a) iga (b) igb (c) igc (d) iLa (e) iLb (f) iLc (g) icona (h) iconb (i) iconc (j) Harmonic spectrum and THD of va (k) Harmonic spectrum and THD of iga (l) Harmonic spectrum and THD of iLa (m) power of the source (n) power of the load (o) power of the compensator. It is observed that when b phase of the load is either removed or applied back on the IAG system the generator currents, source currents, excitation capacitor currents are balanced and b phase of the compensator is injecting higher

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 50A.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 50A.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 50A.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 20A.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 20A.

Ch.1, 2 div=200V, Ch. 3, 4- 1div= 20A.

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figure 4 Dynamic Performance of IAG with ELC on 1-phase nonlinear load removal (a) Generator voltage with iga, igb and igc (b) icca, iccb and iccc (c) isa, isb and isc (d) iLa, iLb and iLc (e) icona, iconb and iconc (f) va, vdc, ichopper and iconb.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 50A.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 50A.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 50A.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 20A.

Ch.1-1 div=200V, Ch.2, 3, 4- 1div= 20A.

Ch.1, 2 div=200V, Ch. 3, 4- 1div= 20A.

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figure 5 Dynamic Performance of IAG with ELC on 1-phase nonlinear load application after removal (a) Generator voltage with iga, igb and igc (b) icca, iccb and iccc (c) isa, isb and isc (d) iLa, iLb and iLc (e) icona, iconb and iconc (f) va, vdc, ichopper and iconb.

Controller parameters Power PI controller Kpf = 0.02, Kif =0.03. AC voltage PI controller: Kpa =0.5, Kia = 0.6. DC voltage PI controller Kpd = 0.4, Kid =0.6. REFERENCES [1] I. Boldea, The electric generators handbook, variable
speed generators, C.R.C., Taylor & Francis, 2006.

[2] J. M. Elder, J. T. Boys and J. L. Woodward, Self

[3] [4]

[5]

[6]

[7] [8]

[9]

[10]

excited induction machine as a low cost generator, IEE Proc. Pt. C, vol. 131, no. 2, pp. 33-40, March 1984. L.L. Lai and T.F. Chan, Distributed Generation Induction and Permanent Magnet Generators, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2007. G. K. Kasal, and B. Singh, Decoupled Voltage and Frequency Controller for Isolated Asynchronous Generators Feeding Three-Phase Four-Wire Loads, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 966 973, Apr. 2008. Po-Tai Cheng, S. Bhattacharya and D.M. Divan, Line harmonics reduction in high-power systems using square-wave inverters-based dominant harmonic active filter, IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 265-272, Aug 1999. S. Bhattacharya, A. Veltman, D.M. Divan and R. D. Lorenz, Flux-based active filter controller, IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 491502, Aug 1996. T.F. Chan, Capacitance requirements of self-excited induction generators, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion, vol. EC-8, no. 2, pp. 304-311, June 1993. F.G. Marra and J.A. Pomilio, Induction generator based system providing regulated voltage with constant frequency, IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 908-914, Aug 2000. J. M. Ramirez and M Emmanuel Torres, An Electronic Load Controller for the Self-Excited Induction Generator, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 546 548, Jun. 2007. Wang Jun and Yu Bo, A novel electronic load controller: theory and implementation Electrical Machines and Systems, in Proc. of ICEM Conf. 2001, vol. 2, pp. 1276 - 1278.

of University of Roorkee in the year 1991. He is recipient of JC Bose and Bimal K Bose awards of The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) for his contribution in the field of Power Electronics in the year 2000. He is also a recipient of Maharashtra State National Award of Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) in recognition of his outstanding research work in the area of Power Quality in the year 2006. He has received PES Delhi Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award for the year 2006. He has been the General Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives and Energy Systems (PEDES2006) held in New Delhi. His current research interests include power electronics, electrical machines and drives, active filters, flexible ac transmission system (FACTS), high-voltage dc (HVDC), and power quality. Dr. Singh is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the National Academy of Science, India (NASI), the Institution of Engineers (India) (IE (I)), and the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). He is a Life Member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), the System Society of India (SSI), and the National Institution of Quality and Reliability (NIQR), and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). V Rajagopal (S10) was born in Kazipet, Warangal, India, in 1969. He received the AMIE (Electrical) degree from The Institution of Engineers (India), in 1999 and the M.Tech degree from the Uttar Pradesh Technical University India, in 2004, His area of interest includes power electronics and drives, renewable energy generation and applications, FACTS, and power quality. He is currently working for Ph D degree at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India. He is a life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) and the Institution of Engineers (India) (IE (I)) and a Student Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Bhim Singh (SM99, F10) was born in Rahamapur, India, in 1956. He received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Roorkee, Roorkee, India, in 1977, and the M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi, New Delhi, India, in 1979 and 1983, respectively. In 1983, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Roorkee, as a Lecturer, and in 1988, became a Reader. In December 1990, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT-Delhi, as an Assistant Professor and became an Associate Professor in 1994 and a Professor in 1997. He has received Khosla Research Prize