Synchronous Generator Controllers for Micro Hydro Power Plants

Y. Muwonge, D. Maganda

Makerere University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Abstract

This paper deals with a synchronous generator controller (also known as an Electronic Load
Controller (ELC) that can be used on stand-alone Pico or Micro hydro power plants that use a
synchronous generator. The controller monitors real-time user load variations and ensures that
the overall load connected to the generator is constant thus regulating the voltage and frequency
as well as sustenance of the generator’s safety. This is achieved by diverting some or all of the
unused power to dump loads to compensate for unused power since the generator produces
constant power. The controller therefore regulates the voltage and frequency of the scheme by
ensuring that they are kept within acceptable ranges despite sudden changes in user load by
diverting unused power to the dump loads using the Phase Angle Regulation technique.

Keywords - ELC, synchronous generators, micro hydro power plants, stand alone, off grid
electricity, Triacs, Dump loads,

Introduction – People living in most remote can be communally owned, renewable

rural areas barely have access to modern (clean) energy, affordable tariffs for the
forms of energy such as electricity. This is people among others. Micro hydro power
most of the times due to the high costs that plants are among the commonest standalone
would be involved with extending the schemes used to electrify remote rural areas.
national grid to such areas. In such areas, However, for a cost friendly, efficient and
poverty is common and even the homes are operational power scheme in such areas, the
scattered all over the areas making the technologies involved should also be
transmission and distribution costs rather affordable, reliable, easy to manufacture and
unbearable. However, where suitable maintain, robust and simple. Among the
resources are available, renewable energy vital technologies on any stand-alone hydro
systems such as Pico/Micro-hydro, wind and power plant are the means of controlling the
solar are a feasible option for supplying voltage and frequency. Without control all
sustainable power at lower costs. These the power from the alternator will go to the
stand-alone generation points have several user load (village), and the alternator will
advantages over the conventional grid turn faster when the village uses less
supply such as easy management since they electricity or slower when more electricity is
used. The purpose of an ELC is to control the same speed, called the synchronous
the power flowing to the loads such that the speed. Synchronous machines are used
alternator sees a constant load all the time. primarily as generators of electrical power,
in which case they are called synchronous
Micro hydro power plants generators or alternators. [2] By the
In developing countries, areas with definition, synchronous generators produce
challenging terrain and far remote often electricity whose frequency is synchronised
have limited access to main grid electricity. with the mechanical rotational speed.
In such cases, it is less expensive to provide 𝑅𝑝𝑚=120𝑓∕𝑃 Where; rpm = shaft speed
electricity in such areas using off grid (rpm) f = electrical frequency (Hz) p =
projects rather than extending main grid number of magnetic poles on the generator
electricity to such areas. Off grid schemes windings. A Cut way view of a synchronous
may include; solar projects, harnessing wind generator with a solid cylindrical rotor is
energy or setting up micro hydro power shown below.
plants. [1] In remote areas with a suitable
source like a runaway river, micro-hydro is
one of the most energy technologies to be
considered for rural electrification in the
developing world. Micro-hydro power
plants have a ranging capacity between 5kW
and 100kW and can therefore provide
sufficient electricity to meet the basic energy
needs of small communities. Unlike
conventional large-scale hydro, micro hydro
generally employs ‘run-of-river’ style
Figure 1: Cut way through a synchronous generator
techniques that store little or no water, but
allow the exploitation of the river’s
hydroelectric potential without significant
damming. It is one of the most Electronic Load Controller (ELC)
environmentally benign energy technologies An Electronic Load Controller (ELC) is a
available and has been proven to be microprocessor based system used to control
extremely robust, with systems lasting for the voltage and frequency of a micro hydro
over 50 years whilst requiring little power plant. The ELC is used for a Micro
maintenance. [1] Hydro system fitted with a synchronous
Synchronous Generators (Alternators) generator and powering just some houses or
a small, local grid. It is not connected to the
Synchronous machines rotate at a constant national grid. Together with the dump loads
speed in the steady state unlike induction connected to it, an ELC serves as an
machines. The rotating air gap field and the automatic, electrical brake that controls
rotor in the synchronous machine rotate at frequency of electricity produced by the
generator. It measures frequency and, control is achieved by adjusting the
depending on whether this frequency is electrical power output rather than the
above or below nominal frequency, diverts hydraulic power input. An ELC is an
more or less power to the dump loads that electronic governor that functions as a
are connected to it. To a large extend, frequency and/or voltage regulator on a
mechanical power required to drive a generator by diverting surplus electrical
generator, is determined by total electrical energy to a resistive dump load. Dump loads
load connected to it. Mechanical power (also known as ballast loads) are activated

Figure 2: Simplified ELC schematic

produced by the turbine is nearly constant so by an ELC to dissipate power that is not
when more power is diverted to dump loads, required by the user loads. Dump loads are
generator demands more mechanical power electrical resistive loads sized to equal or be
than the turbine can deliver, causing turbine slightly greater than the total power output
and generator to slow down. This type of of the generator they are connected to. [3]
control systems are used for control of Usually ambient air or water heaters are
hydroelectric units because of the speed and used to get rid of the surplus power,
flexibility needed to run the real time control however devices such as food dryers or
algorithms and to manage the associated kettles can make use of it if set up to do so.
data. The microprocessor based system
interfaces to the plant and to the Design of the ELC
conventional control system via input / The simplified design of the ELC system is
output (I/O) interface equipment suitable for shown in figure 2. The system design is based
operation in the harsh power plant on the Hummingbird ELC by Jan Portegijs and
environment. This interface may be parallel the remote hydrolight ELC design by
to the hardwired control system and may Anders Austegard. It employs the phase
operate conventional hard wired. When angle modulation technique using a triac as
equipped with an ELC, the turbine always the power switch to divert unused power to
runs at full power and shaft speed/frequency
the dump load. The gate signal that turns on The voltage sensing circuit
the triac is generated by the microcontroller.
The voltage sensing circuit shifts the A.C
Power circuit voltage from the phase such that it alternates
through positive values only since the
The purpose of the power circuit is to power microcontroller cannot detect negative

Figure 3: The Power circuit

the microcontroller with a steady dc voltage values. The input voltage goes through the
(Vcc). It’s shown in figure 3. The power voltage divider circuitry such that it is scaled
circuit comprises of a step-down transformer down to a voltage range of 0V to Vcc which
which steps down the high voltage from the is the voltage the microcontroller reads
alternator to a low ac voltage (Ideally 12 without altering the input frequency. A small
Vrms) and also provides electrical isolation capacitor (C1) is used to smooth the signal. [2]
between the ELC circuit and the generator The circuit is shown in figure 4. The simulated
output.. The low ac voltage is then rectified waveforms of both input and output of the
using a full wave bridge rectifier and a voltage sensing circuit are shown in figure 5.
capacitor filter is used to filter the ripples The output of the sensing circuit is fed onto
thus giving a nearly constant dc voltage. The an analog input pin of the microcontroller.
dc voltage then goes through a voltage
regulator which gives a steady at the output.
The output is connected to the Vcc terminal
of the microcontroller.
 Triac gate driver circuit

The gate driving circuit connects the output

of the microcontroller to the gate of the
triac. It is there to ensure that the signal is
strong enough to drive the triac. It is
basically comprised of a Darlington pair of
Bipolar Junction transistors to amplify the
current flowing into the gate of the triac
whenever it is switched on. A 220V PTC
can be added to protect the transistors from
burning at high temperatures. [2]
Figure 4: The voltage sensing circuit

The microcontroller

The proposed ELC uses an MSP430F2012PW

which is an ultralow-power mixed signal
microcontroller with an inbuilt 16-bit timer
by Texas Instruments. It has a DIP14
package with 2.54 mm between the
terminals, which makes it easy to use for
handmade boards. It also has a 10 bits
analog to digital (ADC) converter that reads
Figure 6: Input (blue) and Output (yellow) waveforms the input voltage 12600 times each second.
of the sensing circuit
The microcontroller has 14 terminals where
10 are GPIO pins. The microcontroller has a

Figure 5: The MSP430F2012 pinout [7]

2 kB flash memory and 128 byte RAM decreases the trigger angle so that more
memory. A detailed pinout microcontroller power is diverted to the dump loads. This
is shown in the figure 6. will make the generator slow down and
frequency decreases. And for the reverse, if

Figure 7: Voltage, frequency and total harmonic distortion without the controller

The microcontroller reads the analog input the actual frequency is too low, trigger angle
voltage on its analog input pin (A0), and is increased, power diverted to dump loads
through its Analog to Digital Converter decreases and the generator can speed up
(ADC), computes the system voltage and some more.
frequency. The system voltage is estimated
using the peak value whereas the frequency Experimental Results
is estimated using the period which is The ELC was tested using a test bench that
deduced from the time between two zero consists of a three phase induction motor
points. The microcontroller program controlled by a Variable Speed Drive to
performs an un-linear PI regulation where enable controlled adjustments of the rotation
the proportional term is on the frequency speed for simulation of the turbine
and the integral term is on voltage. It behaviour in micro hydro power plants. The
compares the actual system frequency (an alternator used was got from a petrol engine
input variable) with desired reference ac generator system with the engine part
frequency and reacts to the difference. If the removed and a pulley connected to the rotor.
actual frequency is too high, the controller (Pulley ratio = 3:2). It is a 2-pole
synchronous machine. Two) incandescent figure 7 and figure 8 respectively. The
lamps rated at 100W and one compact graphs show the variations of the voltage
fluorescent lamp rated at 18W as the main (rms), frequency and the total harmonic

Figure 8: Voltage, frequency and total harmonic distortion with the ELC

load and a wire wound resistor of power distortion as the main loads are varied. With
rating of 500W used as the dump load. no controller, the voltage and frequency are
way beyond the desired range and vary
The setup was initially run without the ELC, instantly with load changes. When the ELC
the loads varied in intervals of one minute connected, the voltage is restrained within
and the recordings in variations of different the range 220-240V and the frequency kept
electrical parameters recorded using a power nearly constant at 50 Hz despite several user
quality analyser. The load variations load variations. The harmonic however rises
(procedure) followed during the test and test to from the previous 20% to as high as 34%
results are tabulated below. The data was and varies with different loading because of
imported using TopView software from the the changes in the trigger angle as the loads
memory storage of the power quality are varied. This is a disadvantage of using
analyser (PQA824). Graphs generated using the phase angle modulation technique in
the TopView software for the test results control of voltage ad frequency. It causes
without and with the ELC are shown in considerable electronic noise which is
highest when the triac is triggered while the load controller, December 6, 2000.
generator voltage is at its highest (around
90° trigger angle). [3] [7] Texas Instruments, "MIXED SIGNAL
MICROCONTROLLER (MSP430x20x1,
Conclusion MSP430x20x2, MSP430x20x3)," Texas
Instruments, Dallas, Texas, USA, DATASHEET
In low power stand-alone micro hydro
2009.
power systems, the ELC proves to be a
profitable solution for frequency and voltage
regulation. The studied ELC design ensures
a simple, cost-friendly and robust control
strategy. The design structure presented in
this paper deals with a single phase machine
however, with a few modifications, the ELC
can as well be used on three phase stand-
alone systems.

References

[1] A. Doig, "Off grid electricity for developing

countries, IEEE review, pp 25-28," 1999.

[2] S. Mbabazi and J. Leary, "Analysis and

Design of Electronic Load Controllers for
Micro-hydro Systems in the Developing
World," Sheffield, March 2010.

[3] P.C SEN, principles of electrical Machines

and power electronics. Ontario.

[4] Ioan SERBAN, Corneliu MARINESCU Catalin

Petrea ION, "A SINGLE-PHASE DUMP LOAD
FOR STAND-ALONE GENERATING UNITS
WITH INDUCTION GENERATOR," Transilvania
University of Brasov, Romania, 2006.

[5] Anders Austegard, "Electronic Load Control

(ELC) from Remote Hydrolight for
Synchronous generators,"
remotehydrolight.com, Afghanistan, 2012.

[6] Jan Portegijs, The hummng bird Electronic