Voltage and Frequency Controller for an Autonomous Micro Hydro Generating System

This paper presents an investigation on a voltage and frequency controller (VFC), which functions as an improved electronic load controller (IELC) for parallel operated isolated asynchronous generators (IAGs) in an autonomous micro hydro power generation system. In such type of micro hydro scheme whole generating system is isolated from the grid and supply electricity to the remote communities. The single point operation of these generators is realized, in such a manner that excitation capacitors, speeds, voltage, currents of generators remain constant under various operating loads conditions. The proposed controller consists of a 3-leg IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) based voltage source converter (VSC) and a DC chopper with an auxiliary load at the DC bus of the VSC. The IELC controls the reactive and active power simultaneously for controlling the voltage and frequency under varying consumer loads. Along with voltage and frequency control through single point operation of IAGs driven by uncontrolled micro hydro turbines, the IELC meets the power quality standard an IEEE-519 and it keeps the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the terminal voltage and generator currents within the limit of 5%. Here the proposed electrical system along with its controller is modeled in MATLAB along with Simulink and PSB (Power System Block-set) toolboxes. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the capability of proposed controller for an isolated generating system.