VSC With Star Delta Transformer Based Electronic Load Controller for a Stand-Alone Power Generation

Gaurav Kumar Kasal and Bhim Singh Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract This paper presents a novel configuration of a voltage and frequency controller for a stand alone pico hydro power generating system employing an asynchronous generator (IAG). The proposed controller is an electronic load controller (ELC), which consists of a three leg IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Junction Transistor) based voltage source converter (VSC), a DC chopper and an auxiliary load at its DC bus. The neutral terminal for the consumer loads is created using a star delta transformer. Three leg VSC is connected to the tertiary star connected winding of the star delta transformer to select the optimum voltage rating of the VSC. The control algorithm of the controller is developed to control the voltage and frequency of the system under varying consumer loads. The proposed system is modeled and simulated in MATLAB using Simulink and PSB toolboxes. Extensive simulation results are presented to demonstrate the capability of the controller as a harmonic eliminator, a load balancer, a neutral current compensator alongwith voltage and frequency controller. Index Terms - Stand-Alone Power Generation, Voltage Source Converter, Voltage and Frequency Control, Star Delta Transformer, Asynchronous Generator.

a DC chopper and an auxiliary load [6, 7] at its DC bus. The neutral terminal of the load is created using star delta transformer configuration [8]. Moreover, the proposed novel ELC configuration uses an additional isolated winding in the star delta transformer to select the optimum voltage rating of the VSC and DC bus capacitor by adjusting the turn ratio and to provide the path for the load neutral current. In addition to the voltage and frequency control, it also functions as a harmonic eliminator, a load balancer and a neutral terminal for 3-phase 4-wire loads [9]. II. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION Fig 1 shows an isolated generating system along with the proposed voltage and frequency controller. The proposed system consists of a squirrel cage asynchronous generator driven by uncontrolled pico hydro turbine and its controller is connected at the point of common coupling through interfacing transformers. A star delta transformer is used to create a neutral conductor to form four wire topology. The star delta transformer acts as a path for zero-sequence components of load currents while VSC serves the purpose of harmonic elimination, load balancing, and reactive power compensation for voltage control. The star delta transformer consists of three windings transformers with the turn ratio of 2:2:1 and the currents in three phases of the generator are balanced and sinusoidal. III. CONTROL STRATEGY Fig.2 shows the control scheme of the proposed controller to regulate the voltage and frequency of the asynchronous generator. The control scheme is based on the generation of reference source currents which one having two components one is in-phase or active power component and other one is in quadrature or reactive power component. The in-phase unity amplitude templates (ua, ub and uc) are three-phase sinusoidal functions, which are derived by unit templates of in phase with line voltages (uab, ubc, uca). These templates (uab, ubc, uca) are derived by dividing the AC line voltages vab, vbc and vca by their amplitude Vt. To generate the quadrature component of reference source currents, another set of sinusoidal quadrature unity amplitude templates (wa, wb, wc) is obtained from inphase unit templates (uab, ubc, uca). To regulate AC terminal voltage (Vt), it is sensed and compared with the reference voltage (Vtref). The voltage error is processed in a PI (Proportional-Integral) voltage controller. The output of the PI controller for AC voltage control loop decides the amplitude of reactive current (Ismq*). Multiplication of quadrature unity amplitude templates (wa, wb and wc) with the output of PI 1

I.

INTRODUCTION

HE soaring rates of fossil-fuels and their depletion over the last two decades combined with a growing concern about pollution of the environment have led to a boost for renewable energy generation such as wind, small hydro etc. In most of the cases these generating units have to operate at remote unattended site, therefore maintenance free system is desirable. In view of this, isolated asynchronous generators (IAGs) are gaining momentum for such applications due to low cost, small size, light weight, brushless construction, self short circuit protection etc compared to other electric generators. The pico hydro power is one of the prominent sources of energy in remotely located community, where the use of an asynchronous generator is economically viable [1, 2]. However a need of voltage and frequency controller for such isolated system is mandatory to feed wide variety of loads. In view of these requirements, different types of voltage and frequency controllers are proposed for such isolated system [37]. In this paper, a novel electronic load controller (ELC) is proposed which consists of IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Junction Transistor) based voltage source converter (VSC) and
Gaurav Kumar Kasal and Bhim Singh are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India (e-mail ; gauravkasal@gmail.com, bhimsinghr@gmail.com).

Fig 1 Schematic diagram of a proposed system configuration.

based AC voltage controller (Ismq*) yields the quadrature component of the reference source currents (isaq*, isbq* and iscq*). For maintaining constant frequency, active power component of source currents is computed by taking difference of the rated generator current (IG) and frequency PI controller (Ismd) which is the amplitude of in-phase component of source current (Ismd*). Multiplication of in-phase unit amplitude templates (ua, ub and uc) with in phase component of source current (Ismd*) yields the in-phase component of the reference source currents (isad*, isbd*and iscd*). The sum of instantaneous quadrature and in-phase components of currents is the reference source currents (isa*, isb* and isc*), which are compared with the sensed source currents (isa, isb and isc). These current error signals are fed to PWM current controller for generating the PWM signals for switching of the devices of CC-VSC of ELC. The excess generated power other than consumer loads is absorbed in the DC chopper fed auxiliary load resistor (Rd) using DC bus PI voltage controller. The DC bus voltage of VSCs of the controller is compared with its reference voltage. The DC bus error voltage is processed in a PI controller. The output of the PI controller is compared with saw-tooth carrier wave to generate gating signal of DC chopper switch (IGBT) of the controller. IV. CONTROL ALGORITHM Basic equations of the control scheme of the proposed controller for IAG are as follows. Modeling of the control scheme for the voltage source converter (VSC) for voltage control is given as follows:

A. Active Component of Reference Source Current For the constant frequency, in-phase component of reference source current is estimated by taking the difference of rated generator current (IG) and output of frequency PI controller (Ismd). The frequency error is defined as: fer(n) = fref(n) f(n) (1) where fref is reference frequency (50Hz in present system) and f is the frequency of the voltage of an asynchronous generator. The instantaneous value of f is estimated using phase locked loop (PLL) over sensed terminal voltages. At the nth sampling instant, the output of frequency PI controller (Ismd) is as: Ismd(n) = Ismd(n-1) + Kpf { fer(n) fer(n-1)} + Kif fer(n) (2) The rated current of the generator is calculated as: IG = 2(Prated)/{3 (Vrated)} (3) where Prated and Vrated are rated power and rated voltage of the asynchronous generator. The amplitude of active component of the source current is computed as: I*smd = IG(n) - Ismd(n) (4) The instantaneous values of in-phase components of reference source currents are estimated as: i*sad = I*smd ua; i*sbd = I*smd ub; i*scd = I*smd uc (5) The instantaneous line voltages at the terminals of an asynchronous generator (vab, vbc and vca) are considered sinusoidal and their amplitude is computed as:

Fig 2 Control scheme of the proposed controller.

Vt = {(2/3) (vab2 +vbc2 +vca2)}1/2 (6) The unity amplitude templates are having instantaneous value in phase with instantaneous line voltages (vab, vbc and vca), which are derived as: uab = vab/Vt ; ubc = vbc/Vt ; uca = vca/Vt (7) From these in phase line voltage templates unit templates in phase with phase voltage can be estimated as: ua = (3/2) uab +{1/(23)} {(ubc-uca)} (8) ub = -(3/2) uab +{(1/(23)}{(ubd-uca)} (9) uc = -(1/3){(ubd-ucd)} (10) B. Reactive Component of Reference Source Current The reactive current is mainly responsible to regulate the AC terminal voltage and it is estimated through a PI control over AC terminal voltage. The AC voltage error Ver at the nth sampling instant is: Ver(n) = Vtref(n) Vt(n) (11) where Vtref(n) is the amplitude of reference AC terminal voltage and Vt(n) is the amplitude of the sensed three-phase AC voltage at the IAG terminals at nth instant. The output of the PI controller (I*smq(n)) for maintaining constant AC terminal voltage at the nth sampling instant is expressed as: I*smq(n) = I*smq(n-1) + Kpa {Ver(n) Ver(n-1)} + Kia Ver(n) (12) where Kpa and Kia are the proportional and integral gain constants of the proportional integral (PI) controller (values are given in Appendix). Ver (n) and Ver(n-1) are the voltage errors in nth and (n-1)th instant and I*smq(n-1) is the amplitude of

quadrature component of the reference source current at (n-1)th instant. The instantaneous quadrature components of reference source currents are estimated as: i*saq = I*smq wa; i*sbq = I*smq wb; i*scq = I*smq wc (13) where wa, wb and wc are another set of unit templates having a phase shift of 90 leading the corresponding unit templates of phase voltages (ua, ub and uc) which are computed as follows: wa = (1/2) uab - 3 (ubc uca) / (23) (14) wb = (1/2) uab + 3 (ubc uca) / (23) (15) wc = - uab (16) C. Reference Source Current The reference source currents are sum of in-phase and quadrature components of the reference source currents as: i*sa = i*saq +i*sad (17) i*sb = i*sbq +i*sbd (18) i*sc = i*scq +i*scd (19) D. PWM Current Controller The reference source currents (i*sa, i*sb and i*sc) are compared with the sensed source currents (isa, isb and isc).The current errors are computed as: isaerr = i*sa isa (20) isberr = i*sb isb (21) iscerr = i*sc isc (22) These current errors are fed to PWM current controller to generate gating signals for IGBTs of VSC of ELC.

Fig. 3 Performance of the controller under application of balanced/unbalanced linear loads.

E. Control for DC Bus Chopper To maintain constant DC bus voltage of VSC, the DC voltage error Vdcer(n) at nth sampling instant is calculated as: Vdcer(n) = Vdcref(n) Vdc(n) (23) where Vdcref(n) is the reference DC voltage and Vdc(n) is the sensed DC link voltage of the CC-VSC. The output of the PI voltage controller at the nth sampling instant is expressed as: V*con(n) = V*con(n-1) + Kpp {Per(n) Per(n-1)} + Kpi Per(n) (24) where Kpp and Kpi are the proportional and integral gain constants of the DC bus voltage controller. The PI controller output (V*con(n)) is compared with the triangular carrier (Vtri) waveform and output is fed to the gate of the chopper switch (IGBT) in ELC. V. MATLAB BASED MODELING The proposed isolated generating system is modeled and simulated in MATLAB using Simulink and PSB toolboxes. The main system consists of an asynchronous machine with excitation capacitor bank, a star delta transformer with tertiary winding and VSC based controller. The modeling of AGs is 4

carried out using a 22 kW, 415V, 50Hz, Y connected asynchronous machine. The controller is realized with a voltage source converter and DC chopper at its DC bus. Both linear and non-linear loads are considered here to demonstrate the capability of the controller. Simulation is carried out in discrete mode at 5e-6s step size with ode23tb (stiff/ TR-BDF2) solver. VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The performance of voltage and frequency controller for IAG system feeding 3-phase 4-wire nonlinear, balanced/unbalanced and mixed loads is simulated and waveforms of the generator voltages (vabc) and currents (iabc), capacitor current (icca), load currents (ilabc), controller currents (icabc), neutral current of load (iln), terminal voltage (Vt), DC bus voltage (vdc), frequency (f) and the variation of power (Pgen, Pload and Pdump) etc are shown in Figs. 3-4. For the simulation, a 22 kW, 415V, 4 pole asynchronous machine has been used as an asynchronous generator and parameters are given in Appendix

A Performance of Isolated System Feeding 3-Phase 4-Wire Linear Loads Fig 3 demonstrates the performance of the controller for feeding 3-phase, 4- wire, 0.8 pf lagging reactive load. At 2.1 s three single phase, 0.8 pf lagging reactive loads are applied between each phase and neutral terminal and it is observed that momentarily the DC bus capacitor voltage is increased however due to action of the controller it is regulated at constant value and it maintains the frequency constant. At 2.3 s one phase and later on at 2.4 s another phase of the load is opened and the load becomes unbalanced. It is observed that the controller responds in desirable manner and maintaining constant voltage and frequency. It also functions as a load balancer and generator currents remain balanced and sinusoidal. B Performance of Isolated System Feeding 3-Phase 4-Wire Non-linear Loads Fig. 4 shows the performance of the proposed generating system with 3-phase 4-wire balanced-unbalanced non-linear loads using single phase diode rectifier with resistive load and

capacitor filter at its DC bus. At 2.2 sec, a balanced non- linear load is applied then the auxiliary power (Pdump) in ELC is reduced for regulating the generated power, and controller currents (icabc) become non-linear in nature for eliminating harmonic currents. During the unbalanced load, the DC bus capacitor (vdc) charging and discharging are observed and the load neutral current (iln) flows through the windings of the star delta transformer. In addition, this controller also maintains the constant DC voltage (Vdc) across DC bus of ELC. Fig. 5 demonstrates the harmonic spectra of the generator voltage (va), generator current (ia) and load current (ilc). It is observed from these figures that total harmonic distortion (THD) of terminal voltage and generator current is less than 5%, as the limit imposed by IEEE 519 standards [10]. Therefore it demonstrates that this controller also functions as a harmonic eliminator. VII. CONCLUSIONS A novel configuration of voltage and frequency controller for an isolated asynchronous generator driven by uncontrolled pico hydro turbine has been used for feeding 3-phase 4-wire

Fig. 4 Performance of the controller under application of balanced/unbalanced non-linear loads.

generating system. The obtained results have demonstrated the capability of the controller as a harmonic eliminator, a load balancer and a neutral current compensator alongwith voltage and frequency regulator in such type of stand-alone power generating system. The performance of the controller has been found quite satisfactory under different dynamic conditions. VIII. APPENDICES

A. The Parameters of 22kW, 415V, 50Hz, Y-Connected, 4Pole Induction Machine Rs = 0.2511, Rr =0.2489, Xlr= Xls= .52, J = 0.304 kgm2, C = 12 kVAR Lm = 0.075 Im<8.0 8<Im<13 Lm = 0.075-0.003(Im-8.0) Lm = 0.06-0.002(Im-13) 13<Im<23 Im>23 Lm = 0.041 B. Controller Parameters Kpf = .8, Kif = 1.23, Kpa = 0.08, Kia = 0.02, Kpp = .67, Kpi = 0.98, Rd = 8, Lf = 2.5mH, Rf = 0.01 . Cdc = 8000F. C. Consumer Loads Resistive load 6kW single phase loads Non-linear load 5kW with 1200F capacitor and 3mH inductor at DC end of single phase diode rectifier D. Prime Mover Characteristics Tsh = K1-K2 r, K1 = 3300, K2 = 10. IX. REFERENCES M. Godoy Simoes and Felix A. Farret, Renewable Energy Systems, CRC Press Florida, 2004. [2] L.L. Lai and T.F. Chan, Distributed Generation -Induction and Permanent Magnet Generators John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Chichester, UK,2007. [3] Gaurav Kumar Kasal and Bhim Singh, Decoupled voltage and frequency controller for isolated asynchronous generator supplying 3phase 4-wire loads, in IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, vol.23, no.2, pp.966-973, April 2008. [4] J.M. Ramirez, Emmanuel. and M Torres, An Electronic Load Controller for the Self-Excited Induction Generator, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol. 22, no. 2, pp 546 548, June 2007. [5] B. Singh, S.S Murthy and S. Gupta, Analysis and design of electronic load controller for self-excited induction Generators, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, vol 21, no. 1, pp 285-93, March 2006. [6] J.A. Barrado and R. Grino, Voltage and frequency control for a self excited induction generator using a 3-phase 4-wire electronic converters, in Proc of 12th International IEEE Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference, Aug 2006, pp. 1419-1424. [7] Bhim Singh, S.S Murthy, and S. Gupta, A voltage and frequency controller for self-excited induction generators, Electric Power Components and Systems, vol 34, no. 2, pp 141-157, Feb 2006. [8] P.N. Enjeti, Wajiha Shireen, Paul Packebush and Ira J. Pitel, Analysis and design of a new active power filter to cancel neutral current harmonics in three-phase four-Wire electric distribution systems IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 30, no.6, pp 1565-1572, Dec 1994. [9] B. Singh, K. Al-Haddad and A. Chandra, Harmonic elimination, reactive power compensation and load balancing in three-phase four wire electric distribution system supplying non-linear loads, Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 44, pp. 93-100, 1998. [10] IEEE Guide for Harmonic Control and Reactive Compensation of Static Power Converters, IEEE Standard 5191992.
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Fig 5 Waveforms and harmonic spectra of generator voltage (va), generator current (ia) and consumer load current (ilc) feeding balanced non-linear load.

loads. The size, cost and complexity of the controller have comparatively reduced than other 3-phase 4-wire topology of the voltage and frequency controllers in a stand alone power 6