Voltage and frequency control of parallel operated synchronous generator and induction generator with STATCOM in micro hydro

scheme
I. Tamrakar, L.B. Shilpakar, B.G. Fernandes and R. Nilsen Abstract: Parallel operation of synchronous and induction generators in micro hydro scheme is presented. The synchronous generator has an exciter, which provides a xed excitation to produce normal rated terminal voltage at full resistive load. On the other hand, the induction generator has neither exciter nor speed controller. Static compensator (STATCOM) is connected to the common bus for terminal voltage and frequency control. A resistive dump load is connected across the DC link capacitor of STATCOM through a chopper to control active power. Simulink model is developed to perform transient analysis of the proposed scheme. Experimental results are presented to compare with the simulation results. It is found that connection of an induction generator in parallel with the synchronous is much simpler than connecting two synchronous generators in parallel.

Introduction

Micro hydro plant (MHP) is one of the popular renewable energy sources in the developing countries. Most of the MHP plants operate in isolated mode supplying the electricity in the local rural area where the population is very small and sparsely distributed and the extension of grid system is not nancially feasible because of high-cost investment required for transmission line. The MHP designers have made their efforts to reduce the construction cost of MHP by adopting the following strategies: using electronic load controller (ELC) instead of conventional oil pressure mechanical governor, allowing larger variation of voltage and frequency to reduce the cost of control component and using induction generator instead of synchronous generator. Frequency variation of +2% and terminal voltage variation of +5% from their nominal rated values are generally acceptable in MHP schemes. Use of induction generator is increasingly becoming more popular in MHP application because of its simpler excitation system, lower fault level, lower capital cost and less maintenance requirement [1 3]. However, one of its major drawbacks is that it cannot generate the reactive power as demanded by the load. Most of the early stages MHP plants are equipped with synchronous generators. In future, many of the existing MHP plants with synchronous generator may have to install an add-on plant and connect it in parallel with the existing MHP plant to fulll the
# The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2007 doi:10.1049/iet-gtd:20060385 Paper rst received 26th September 2006 and in revised form 4th February 2007 I. Tamrakar is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Institute of Engineering, TU, Nepal L.B. Shilpakar is with the Nepal Electricity Authority and also with the Institute of Engineering, TU, Nepal B.G. Fernandes is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India R. Nilsen is with the Department of Electrical Power Engineering, NTNU, Norway, and currently with the Wartsila Automation, Norway E-mail: imtamrakar@ioe.edu.np

increasing load demand. In such a situation, the plant cost can be reduced further if induction generator could be used as the add-on plant to the MHP with synchronous generator. Analysis of grid connected induction generators has been reported in the literature [4, 5]. Parallel operation of multiple number of induction generators is also reported in the literature [6, 7]. Parallel operation of synchronous and induction generators in isolated MHP scheme has become the interesting topic of research. In such a scheme, controllers are required to control the terminal voltage and frequency within the acceptable range. STATCOM for terminal voltage control has been discussed in the literature [3, 8 11] and ELC for frequency control has been discussed in the literature [11]. This paper deals with the transient analysis of parallel operation of synchronous and induction generators in MHP scheme. In the proposed scheme, STATCOM is used for terminal voltage control as well as speed control. It does not need a separate ELC. The scheme is simulated using MatLab-Simulink and experimental study is carried out to validate the simulation results. 2 Proposed scheme

Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the proposed scheme. The synchronous generator has an exciter, which provides a constant excitation to produce normal rated terminal voltage at full resistive load and it is capable of generating some reactive power too. It is driven by constant mechanical power input of 1 pu. The induction generator has neither speed controller nor excitation controller, and it is also driven by constant mechanical power input of 1 pu. The STATCOM is connected to the common bus, which controls the terminal voltage as well as frequency of the scheme. In the absence of STATCOM, the synchronous generator is required to generate the reactive power demanded by the load. The STATCOM supplies the reactive power demanded by the load so that the reactive power generation of the synchronous generator does not exceed its capablity
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Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the proposed scheme

limit. The induction generator is driven by constant mechanical power input of 1 pu. Since it does not have speed controller, it is bound to follow the synchronous generator and runs with a constant speed above the synchronous speed with a negative slip corresponding to its full load. The synchronous generator is also driven by constant mechanical power input of 1 pu. When the consumers load changes, the chopper on the DC side of the STATCOM controls the active power consumed by the dump load so that the total load on the synchronous generator remains constant and equal to its full load capacity thus by resulting in constant speed operation. 3 Modelling of the proposed scheme

3.1 Modelling of synchronous and induction machines The synchronous and induction machine models available in the MatLab-Simulink [12] are used for performing the transient analysis of the proposed scheme. The d q equivalent circuit models of the synchronous and induction machines are used in the simulation model, which takes care of dynamics of stator, eld and damper windings. Both the models have considered the effect of magnetic saturation. Stator windings of synchronous and induction generators are assumed to be connected in star with grounded neutral. 3.2 Modelling of STATCOM

compensate the lagging current drawn by the load from the bus. STATCOM proposed in the scheme also draws the in-phase component of the current and the active power ow through the STATCOM branch is dissipated into the heat energy through the dump load. The volt amp capacity of this type of STATCOM is equal to the sum of active power to be dissipated in the dump load and the reactive power to be injected to the bus. Simulink model of STATCOM is developed as a current-controlled inverter with the hysteresis band current control principle. Fig. 2 shows the basic circuit diagram and control strategy of the STATCOM with hysteresis band current control pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter which can control reactive power as well as active power. The bus voltage is sensed and compared with the reference value and the error thus obtained is passed through a proportional integral (PI) controller to obtain the magnitude of the q-axis component of the reference current iabc (ref). The frequency is sensed and compared with the reference frequency and the error thus obtained is passed through a PI controller to obtain the duty cycle of the chopper to control the power dissipation in the dump load. Similarly, the magnitude of the d-axis component of the reference current is determined by comparing the actual DC-link voltage with the reference value. The d q axes reference currents are then transformed to stationary a-b-c reference frame to obtain the three-phase reference current iabc (ref). The hysteresis band current controller compares the actual currents through the STATCOM branch with the reference currents and generates the gate signals to turn on and off the switch pairs T1-T2 , T3-T4 and T5-T6 several times in a cycle so that the actual inverter current i0 (actual) tracks the reference current iabc (ref ) within a limited hysteresis band. The actual current through the STATCOM branch current is given by the following equation [3] R0 1 i dt (Vsa V0a ) dt i0a L0 0a L0 R 1 (Vsb V0b ) dt i0b 0 i0b dt L0 L0 R0 1 i0c i dt (Vsc V0c ) dt L0 0c L0 (1) (2) (3)

STATCOM is widely used for reactive power compensation, because it has several advantages over the conventional shunt capacitor compensation [8, 9, 13]. Basically, STATCOM is an inverter connected to the system bus and controlled to draw leading current in order to

Fig. 3 shows the Simulink model developed to simulate the hysteresis band current controller, which generates gate signals Sa , Sb and Sc . The inverter model shown in Fig. 4 computes the phase voltages of inverter output as

Fig. 2 STATCOM with hysteresis band current control PWM inverter

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the following equations [3, 14] vDC iDC va ia vb ib vc ic iDC va i a vb i b vc i c vDC 1 i dt C DC (7) (8)

Fig. 3 Simulink model of hysteresis band current controller

vDC

(9) (10)

icap iDC id id Sd VDC Rd

(11)

where Sd is the switching function of the chopper. 4

Fig. 4 Simulink model of inverter

Simulation results

follows Vdc (2Sa Sb Sc ) 3 V Vob dc (2Sb Sa Sc ) 3 Vdc (2Sc Sb Sa ) Voc 3 Voa (4) (5) (6)

Sa , Sb and Sc are the switching functions of switch pairs T1-T2 , T3-T4 and T5-T6 , respectively. The switching function takes the value of 1 if the upper switch of the inverter leg is on and lower switch is off. It is 0 if the lower switch in the same leg is on and upper switch is off. The modelling of DC side of the inverter is based on the instantaneous power balance between AC side and DC side of the inverter and

The complete simulation model of parallel operation of synchronous and induction generators with STATCOM is shown in Fig. 5. The scheme consists of a 16 kVA synchronous generator and 4 kW induction generator. The ratings of the machines are selected to match with the machines used in the experimental study. The excitation voltage Vf of synchronous generator is limited to 2 pu, which is just sufcient to produce 1 pu of stator terminal voltage at full resistive load. In such a situation, STATCOM is responsible for generating the reactive power demanded by the load. A xed excitation capacitor of 1.5 kVar is connected across the induction generator terminals. It is the minimum capacitance required for self-excitation of the induction generator at no-load. The ratings and parameters of the synchronous generator, induction generator and STATCOM are given in the Appendix. The model is simulated with initial load of (12 j8) kVA on the system bus. The induction generator is connected after 3 s of initial load switching and additional load of

Fig. 5 Simulation model of parallel operation of synchronous and induction generators

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Fig. 6 Simulation results of the program run for 10 s

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Terminal voltage of synchronous generator Stator current of synchronous generator Speed response of synchronous generator Active power output of synchronous generator Reactive power output of synchronous generator Terminal voltage of induction generator Stator current of induction generator Speed response of induction generator Active power output of induction generator Reactive power consumed by induction generator Active power consumed by STATCOM branch Reactive power generated by STATCOM Magnied view of inverter output voltage STATCOM current Magnied view of statcom current and reference current Active power consumed by load Reactive power consumed by load
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Fig. 6 Continued.

4 kW is connected after 6 s. The simulation results of the program run for 10 s are shown in Fig. 6. Table 1 shows the balance of active and reactive power between generation and consumption in the scheme and Table 2 shows the other performance variables of the system during the simulation period. These tables show the data obtained from the responses shown in Fig. 6. The positive sign refers to the generation and the negative sign refers to the consumption. The simulation results show that there are some transients because of switching on of induction generator at t 3 s and load perturbation at t 6 s. Initially, synchronous generator alone is supplying active power demanded by the load whereas synchronous generator together with STATCOM is supplying reactive power demanded by the load. There is a balance between generation and consumption of active and reactive power in the scheme resulting constant speed operation at 0.996 pu and constant terminal voltage of 1 pu from 0 to
Table 1: Balance of active and reactive power between generation and consumption
Sources/sinks PSG QSG PIG QIG PLoad QLoad PSTAT QSTAT unbalance of P Unbalance of Q 0 3, s 15.4 kW 1.0 kVar 0 0 2 11.7 kW 2 7.8 kVar 2 3.8 kW 6.8 kVar 2 0.1 Kw 0 kVar 3 6, s 15.4 kW 1.0 kVar 3.7 kW 0 2 12 kW 2 8 kVar 2 7.0 kW 7.0 kVar 0.1 kW 0 kVar 6 10, s 15.4 kW 1.0 kVar 3.7 kW 0 2 16 kW 2 8 kVar 2 3.2 kW 7.0 kVar 2 0.1 Kw 0 kVar

3 s as shown in Tables 1 and 2. When the induction generator freely running at the speed of 1.25 pu is connected at t 3 s, it suddenly draws the reactive power from the synchronous generator resulting in a voltage dip in the stator terminal voltage. A spike transient of 2.2 pu appeared in the stator current of synchronous generator, because the STATCOM, synchronous generator and the excitation capacitor cannot instantly generate the additional reactive power demanded by the induction generator. These transients die out in a short span of time and the terminal voltage and speed settles down to 1 pu each as shown in Table 2. Here the induction generator does not go through the voltage build-up process, but when it is suddenly switched on to the synchronous generator bus, it catches up the system voltage within 0.25 s. The induction generator draws a high transient current of 7.5 pu at starting to establish the air gap ux and then runs in generating mode. The speed of the induction generator drops down and becomes stable at 1.035 pu within 0.25 s. Here the induction generator has injected an additional active power of 3.7 kW to the system and at the same time,

Table 2: Other performance variables of the system during the simulation period
Variables speed (Syn Gen) VSG (Syn Gen) iSG (Syn Gen) speed (Ind Gen) VIG (Ind Gen) IIG (Ind Gen) V0(inverter voltage) 0 3, s 0.996 pu 1.0 pu 1.0 pu 0 1.25 pu 0 0 1.23 pu 36, s 1.0 pu 1.0 pu 1.0 pu 1.035 pu 1.0 pu 1.0 pu 1.23 pu 610, s 0.995 pu 1.0 pu 1.0 pu 1.035 pu 1.0 pu 1.0 pu 1.23 pu 747

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Table 3:

Steady-state data
Readings on synchronous generator VLL , V Freq, Hz 50 50.5 50.5 ISG , A 21.5 21.5 21.5 Readings on induction generator VLL , V 0 380 380 IIG , A 0 5.6 5.6 Speed, rpm 2150 1553 1553 Istat , A 4.2 9.5 4.8 IL , A 17 17 22 Readings on STATCOM Readings on load

Observation no.

1 2 3

380 380 380

STATCOM has responded to draw this additional active power to make active power balance as shown in Table 1 resulting constant speed operation of synchronous generator at 1.001 pu. When 4 kW of consumers load is switched on at t 6 s, there are some transients in the system. The induction generator does not respond to this change in consumers load. The terminal voltage, stator current, speed,

active power generation and reactive power consumption of the induction generator remain constant at their previous values with a small transient at the switching instant. The synchronous generator and STATCOM have responded to this change in consumers load to make the active power balance as shown in Table 1, thus maintaining a constant speed operation of synchronous generator at 0.995 pu.

Fig. 7 Transient and load perturbation are recorded and are compared with the simulated results
a Transient in stator terminal voltage and current of synchronous generator because of switching of IG b Transient in stator terminal voltage and current of induction generator because of switching of IG c Transient in stator terminal voltage and STATCOM current because of resistive load perturbation
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Fig. 6n shows the response of STATCOM current and its magnied view along with the reference current is shown in Fig. 6o. It is found that the STATCOM current is tracking the reference current within the set values of hysteresis band. 5 Experimental results

Experimental study is carried out on the laboratory set up which consists of a 16 kVA synchronous generator with xed excitation and 4 kW induction generator with excitation capacitor. The experiment is aimed to validate transients because of switching on of induction generator and resistive load perturbation. Synchronous generator is rst started and loaded it near to the full load. Its turbine with partial gate opening then drives the induction generator, but it is not connected yet to the synchronous generator bus. The induction generator is freely running without generating any voltage and its speed is found to be 2150 rpm. The induction generator stator terminal is then connected to the synchronous generator bus. It is observed that the induction generator catches up with the synchronous generator and stabilises at a speed of 1553 rpm within a fraction of a second and delivers power to the load thus by increasing the active power ow through the STATCOM branch. The consumer load is suddenly switched on in order to observe the effect of sudden load perturbation on the system terminal condition. The steady-state data recorded are tabulated in Table 3. It is observed from the experimental study that connecting an induction generator in parallel with the synchronous generator is much simpler than connecting two synchronous generators in parallel. It does not require synchronising panel hardware. A simple commercially available induction motor can be used as generator without the turbine controller and excitation controller. It is also observed from Table 3 that the change in consumers load is responded by the synchronous generator and STATCOM to keep the frequency nearly constant to 50 Hz. The induction generator does not respond to the change in consumers load. It always operates at its full rating. The transient during the switching of induction generator and load perturbation are recorded and measured they are compared with the simulated results as shown in Fig. 7. The simulated results shown in Fig. 7 are the magnied views of the waveforms shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 7a shows the transient in stator terminal voltage and current of synchronous generator because of the switching on of induction generator. Fig. 7b shows the transient in stator terminal voltage and current of induction generator because of the switching on of induction generator and Fig. 7c shows the transient in stator terminal voltage of synchronous and STATCOM current because of the resistive load perturbation. The measured responses are matching with the corresponding simulated responses. 6 Conclusions

switching on of induction generator is also found to be very small and settle down to steady-state speed within fraction of a second. The Simulink model developed for STATCOM has shown the perfect control of system bus voltage to 1 pu and the frequency control within the range of 49 51 Hz which is good enough for isolated plant supplying the rural area. The experimental results are matching with the simulation results, which validate the perfection of the simulation model. The experimental results also show that connecting an induction generator in parallel with the synchronous is much simpler than connecting two synchronous generators in parallel. It does not require synchronising panel hardware and a simple commercially available induction motor can be used as generator without governor. Any change in consumers load is responded by the synchronous generator and STATCOM to keep the speed nearly constant to 1 pu. The induction generator does not respond to the change in consumers load and it always operates at its full rating. 7 References

The simulation results show that when an induction generator driven by constant mechanical power input is connected in parallel with the synchronous generator, the induction generator is bound to follow the synchronous generator with a speed little above the speed of synchronous generator with a negative slip of about 0.035 pu. The transients in stator terminal voltage, stator current of synchronous generator and induction generator at the switching instants are found to be acceptable for practical implementation. The speed deviation of synchronous generator because of
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1 Al-Bahrani, A.H., and Malik, N.H.: Steady state analysis and performance characteristics of a three phase induction generator self excited with a single capacitor, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, 1990, 5, (4), pp 725732 2 Henderson, D.S.: Synchronous or induction generators? - The choice for small scale generation. Opportunities and Advances in Int. Power Generation, IEE Conf., March 1996, (Publication No. 419), pp. 146149 3 Singh, B., and Shilpakar, L.B.: Analysis of a novel solid state voltage regulator for self-exited induction generator, IEE Proc. Gener. Transm. Distrib., 1998, 145, (6), pp. 647 655 4 Wang, L., Yang, Y.-F., and Kuo, S.-C.: Analysis of grid-connected induction generators under three-phase balanced conditions. Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Energy Conversion 2002, 2002, pp. 413 416 5 Murthy, S.S., Jha, C.S., Ghorashi, A.H., and P. S. Nagendra Roa: Performance analysis of grid connected induction generators driven by hydro/wind turbines including grid abnormalities. Proc. of the 24th Int. Conf. on Energy Conversion, 1989, vol. 4, pp. 2045 2050 6 Wang, L., and Lee, C.H.: Dynamic analyses of parallel operated self-excited induction generators feeding an induction motor load, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, 1999, 14, (3), pp. 479 485 7 Chakraborty, C., Das, S.P., and Bhadra, S.N.: Some studies on the parallel operation of self excited induction generators. Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Energy Conversion, 1993, pp. 361 366 8 Marra, E.G., and Pomilio, J.A.: Self-excited induction generator controlled by a VS-PWM bi-directional converter for rural applications, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., 2000, 47, (4), pp. 908 914 9 Freitas, W., Asada, E., Morelato, A., and Xu, W.: Dynamic improvement of induction generator connected to distribution system using a DSTATCOM, Power System Technology, 2202. Proc. Power Con. 2002, Int. Conf., October 2002, vol. 1, pp. 173177 10 Jayaramaiah, G.V., and Fernandes, B.G.: Analysis of voltage regulator for a 3-phase self-excited induction generator using current controlled voltage source inverter. Proc. on First Int. Conf. on Power Electronics System and Application 2004, November 2004, pp. 102106 11 Singh, B., Murthy, S.S., and Gupta, S.: Analysis and design of electronic load controller for self-excited induction generators, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, 2006, 21, (1), pp. 285 293 12 MathLab version-7.1, Release-14, 2005 13 Tamrakar, I., and Malik, O.P.: Power factor correction of induction motors using PWM inverter fed auxiliary stator winding, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, 1999, 14, (3), pp. 426 432 14 Giroux, P., Sybille, G., and Le-Huy, H.: Modeling and simulation of a distribution STATCOM using Simulinks power system blockset. Proc. of IECON01: the 27th annual Conf. of the IEEE industrial electronics society, 2001, pp. 990 994

Appendix

Ratings and parameters of synchronous generator, induction generator and STATCOM used in the simulation are as follows:
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Synchronous generator: 16 kVA, 400 V, 50 Hz, 1500 rpm Xd 1.734 pu, Xd0 0.177 pu, Xd00 0.112 pu Xq 0.861 pu, Xq00 0.199 pu, Xl 0.07 pu Td0 0.018 s, Td00 0.0045 s, Tq00 0.0045 s RS 0.02 pu, H 6 s Induction generator: 4 kW, 400 V, 50 Hz

RS 0.035 pu, Lls 0.045 pu, Rr 0.034 pu, Llr 0.045 pu, Lm 2.8 pu, H 1.2 s, P 4 Excitation capacitor 1.5 kVar, 400 V STATCOM parameters: 25 kVar, 400 V VDC 600 V, DC capacitor C 600 mF Coupling inductor: R0 2.5 V, L0 0.008H Dump load resistance: Rd 25 V

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