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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO. 2, JUNE 2007

An Electronic Load Controller for the Self-Excited Induction Generator

Juan M. Ramirez, Member, IEEE, and Emmanuel Torres M, Student Member, IEEE

AbstractThis letter is aimed at designing an electronic load controller (ELC) for a self-excited induction generator (SEIG) on a stand alone application. With constant input power and xed value of capacitance, the induced voltage varies with the applied load. This paper proposes an ELC scheme whose control strategy is simple and reliable. Antiparallel insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) switches are used to control the dump load connection and disconnection. The proposed ELC has been tested under several critical situations, providing an excellent voltage and frequency regulation. Index TermsAC motors, control equipment, electric machines, induction generators, insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs).

I. INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1.

Model of the SEIG: d-axis. There is a similar model for the q -axis.

HE INCREASING rate of the depletion of conventional energy sources has given rise to an increased emphasis on renewable energy sources such as wind, mini/microhydro, etc. In renewable energy applications of low and medium power (up to 100 kW), the induction generator offers several advantages. In low power rating applications, uncontrolled turbines are preferred, as they maintain the input hydropower constant; thus, requiring the generator output power to be held constant while varying consumer loads. A dump load in shunt with the consumer load is necessary to keep the electrical load constant at the generator terminals; thus, the self-excited induction generator (SEIG) can operate with constant input power. In this letter, a novel electronic load controller for SEIG is proposed. II. SELF-EXCITED INDUCTION GENERATOR MODELING

The capacitor value is selected from the no-load condition (switch s is open in Fig. 1), and the self-excitation currents are obtained as in [1], from which the stator current becomes iqs = As6 + Bs5 + Ds4 U (s) + Es3 + F s2 + Gs + H (1)

where s is the Laplace operator, U (s) denotes the numerator that is independent on the capacitors initial condition and on the machine parameters. When the denominator of (1) is set to zero As6 + Bs5 + Ds4 + Es3 + F s2 + Gs + H = 0. (2)

The used SEIG in d-q coordinates is represented in Fig. 1 [1]. The induction machine employed as SEIG in this letter, is a three-phase squirrel cage rotor with the specications2 kW, 120/208 V, 15.2/8.8 A, 60 Hz, and 4 polesand the main parametersrs = 0.6 , rr = 1.06 , Lls = Llr = 6.4 mH, LM = 51.3 mH. When the induction machine is used as SEIG the magnetizing saturation is the main factor in the voltage build up and stabilization dynamics. Here, the saturation is estimated by driving the induction machine at synchronous speed, and taking measurements when the applied voltage is varied from 0% to 120% of the rated voltage at rated frequency. The corresponding adjusted polynomial is included into the model of the SEIG to take into account the saturation.

If any of the roots has a positive real part then there will be selfexcitation [2]. This way, it is possible to compute the minimum speed and capacitance for self-excitation for the no-load case. When the SEIG is loaded (switch s is closed), a similar analysis to compute the roots with positive real part is accomplished. Once the suitable capacitance and speed values for selfexcitation are selected, the roots with positive real part can be used to calculate the LM value which gives a root having a zero real part (steady-state condition). The computed LM value and the relation between the magnetizing inductance LM and phase voltage Vph are used to compute the terminal voltage, and the imaginary part of the root gives the frequency of selfexcitation [2]. III. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The block diagram of the proposed SEIG-electronic load controller (ELC) for load voltage regulation is illustrated in Fig. 2. The SEIG-ELC is constituted by an induction machine driven by a prime motor, a three-phase capacitor bank, and an electronic load controller [1][3]. The proposed ELC is a chopper circuit per-phase (Sa, Sb, and Sc switches) in series with the dump load, and it becomes simpler than that in [3], Fig. 3. Rd represents the dump load.

Manuscript received November 7, 2006; revised October 30, 2006. This letter was supported by Consejo National De Ciencia Y Technologia (CONACYT) under Grant 43478. Paper no. PESL-00089-2006. The authors are with Cinvestav, Guadalajara, Mexico (e-mail: jramirez@gdl. cinvestav.mx; etorres@gdl.cinvestav.mx). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TEC.2006.895392

0885-8969/$25.00 2007 IEEE

RAMIREZ AND TORRES M: AN ELECTRONIC LOAD CONTROLLER FOR THE SELF-EXCITED INDUCTION GENERATOR

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Fig. 2.

Schematic block diagram of the proposed SEIG-ELC.

Fig. 3.

Switch conguration per phase.

m The induced voltage vt and the load current im L are measured. m is compared with the reference voltage vref . If vt = vref , m the control does not take any action. If vt = vref , the control m and im system performs the following actions. Using vt L , the instantaneous load resistance is estimated as m vt e RL =

Vtm im L

(3)
Fig. 4. Dynamic response for unbalanced conditions, phase c.

where the superscripts m and e denote the measured and estimated variables, respectively. The apparent resistance value that ELC must provide to the system is calculated by
e Rd = e RL
e RL RL

switching logic is dened as follows: If i0 > ip , the St = 1 else when i0 < ip , the St = 0 (6)

(4)

The current through the ELC is computed using (5) ie d = Vref e . Rd (5)

where St represents the state of Sa , Sb , or Sc . When St = 0, the IGBT is open and when St = 1, the IGBT is closed. Such strategy takes the induced voltage to the reference value to keep it constant under any load condition. IV. EXAMPLE As the control strategy is per phase, the proposed ELC can operate under unbalanced conditions without caring for the unbalanced degree. Voltage and frequency remain constant and the system operates satisfactorily. Fig. 4 shows the operation of the

This current ie d is fed into a proportional controller whose output is the modulating signal i0 , which is compared with a triangular carrier signal ip to obtain the insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) gate signals. The frequency of ip is 500 Hz. The

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO. 2, JUNE 2007

SEIG-ELC under unbalanced conditions (the load is modied in phase c. The ELC keeps voltage constant under any unbalanced condition. The IGBTs gate signal frequency is always able to maintain voltage within the desired value with a minimum variation despite the load being connected or disconnected. V. CONCLUSION The proposed ELC exhibits high performance and low cost. It is reliable, simple, and an excellent option to be employed in microhydro applications. The proposed scheme can regulate the output voltage from no-load to full-load under balanced or unbalanced operation conditions. A harmonic distortion analy-

sis indicates better performance than similar schemes reported in literature. REFERENCES
[1] D. Seyoum, C. Grantham, and M. F. Rahman, The dynamic characteristics of an isolated self-excited induction generator driven by a wind turbine, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 936944, Jul./Aug. 2003. [2] L. Shridhar, B. Singh, C. S. Jha, B. P. Singh, and S. S. Murthy, Selection of capacitors for the self regulated short and shunt self excited induction generators, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 1017, Mar. 1995. [3] B. Singh, S. S. Murthy, and S. Gupta, Analysis and implementation of an electronic load controller for a self-excited induction generator, Inst. Electr. Eng. Proc.-Gener. Transm. Distrib., vol. 151, no. 1, pp. 5160, Jan. 2004.