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Design Calculation and Control System Simulation of a Microcontroller Based

Electronic Load Controller for Stand-alone Micro-hydropower Plant

Conference Paper · December 2014

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3775.9123

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 Design Calculation and Control System Simulation of a
Microcontroller Based Electronic Load Controller for Stand-alone
Micro-hydropower Plant
Nan Win Aung#1, Aung Ze Ya*2
#*
Department of Electrical Power Engineering, Mandalay Technological University
Mandalay, Myanmar
1
ahnanmg@gmail.com
2
dr.aungzeya010@gmail.com

Abstract— More recently an electronic load controller (ELC) generator. Load control is suitable for a micro hydro power
has been developed which has increased the simplicity and plant applied on rivers (without a dam). An ELC is also a
reliability of modern micro-hydro sets. The proposed design solid state electronic device designed to regulate output
of a microcontroller based ELC is a feedback voltage based power of a micro hydropower system. Maintaining a near
controller by using a load control technique to control and
retain the generator terminal voltage and system frequency
constant load on the turbine generates stable voltage and
constant. This technique mostly used in uncontrolled hydro frequency. The controller compensates for variation in the
turbine driven generators in a stand-alone power plant. main load by automatically varying the amount of power
This paper presents a design and calculation of an ELC for a dissipated in a resistive load, generally known as the ballast
stand-alone synchronous generator suitable for micro or dump load, in order to keep the total load on the
hydropower stations. . Load control system is designed by the generator and turbine constant. Water heaters are generally
combination of binary load regulation and pulse width used as ballast loads.
regulation. The control system of ELC is simulated by using There are several advantages of electronic load
Proteus 8.0 professional software. Voltage, current, frequency controller:
and duty cycle (%) are displayed on LCD by using PIC
16F887 microcontroller and J204s LCD for system monitoring. • ELC enables the use of simpler, cheaper turbine
with less moving part.
Keywords— a stand-alone power plant, uncontrolled hydro • No hammer effect from load changes.
turbine, binary load regulation, pulse width regulation, PIC • ELC allows lighter, less robust penstock and
16F887 microcontroller, J204s LCD, system monitoring imposes less wears and tears on machinery.
• High reliability, low maintenance and simple to
I. INTRODUCTION operate.
As micro hydropower stations encounter the problems • ELC can be fitted at any point in electrical system.
of population displacement and environmental problems • Ballast load can usefully deployed example water
associated with the large hydropower plants, they are and/or space heaters implying 100% load factor of
emerging as a major renewable energy resource today. the power plant.
They have been playing a great role to provide electricity to • ELC is less expensive than equivalent flow control
remote area especially in developing countries. Micro governor [1].
hydropower stations are defined as hydro electric system up
to 100 kW power range. Almost all of the micro III. PRINCIPLE OPERATION OF ELC
hydropower stations are based on run-off-river type.
The problem in micro-hydropower system is fluctuation P (kW) Generated Power (PG)
in frequency and voltage generated by the generator which
causes adverse affect in various electrical appliances. Dump Load (PD)
Electronic Load Controller (ELC) is used to solve that
problem. Control is done by diverting the unused power to Consumer Load (PC)
the ballast load. An ELC is a solid state electronic device
based PIC microprocessor control designed to regulate
output power of a micro-hydropower system and
maintaining a near-constant load on the turbine. In this
paper the control system of 30 kW hydropower generating Time
plant used synchronous generator is designed to regulate Fig. 1 Principle operation of ELC
the power flow in the main load and ballast load. An ELC
constantly senses and regulates the generated voltage and The Synchronous generator–ELC system consists of a
frequency. The voltage and frequency is directly three-phase star-connected generator driven by a micro
proportional to the speed of the turbine. hydro turbine and an ELC. Since the input power is nearly
The designed system consists of hydro turbine, fixed constant, the output power of the SESG is held constant at
varying consumer loads. The power in surplus of the
exciter, synchronous generator, consumer load and ELC.
consumer load is dumped in a dump load through the ELC.
Here IGBTs are used as electronic switches. The system is
Thus, Synchronous Generator feeds two loads in
designed in Proteus 8.0 professional software and the
parallel such that the total power is constant, that is,
results for system monitoring are shown of LCD display.
PG = P C + P D
II. ELECTRONIC LOAD CONTROLLER Where,
PG = Generated power of the generator (which should be
Electronics Load Controller is an electronic governor
kept constant),
that functions as a frequency and voltage regulator on a
PC = Consumer load power, and
PD = Dump load power Trigger
current 0.2 msec
The power dissipated in the dump load can be used for 100mA Trigger pulses to Triac
battery charging, water heating, cooking, etc.
+
IV. LITERATURE REVIEW Em
Dump load is switched on
The main type of ELC designs that are prevalent are:

Dump load voltage

• Binary load regulation.
• Phase angle regulation.
• Pulse width regulation.
• Controlled bridge rectifier.
• Uncontrolled rectifier with a chopper.
- Em
A. Binary load regulation 180 30 60 90 120 150 180 30 60 90 120 150 180
In binary load regulation the ballast load is made up 0 0 0

from a switched combination of binary arrangement of Fig.3 Firing angle of phase angle regulation
separate resistive loads. In response to a change in the
consumer load, a switching selection is made to connect the C. Pulse width regulation
appropriate combination of load steps. This switching In pulse width regulation, AC voltage is first rectified
operation occurs during the transient period only, thereafter and dump load is switched on and off with a variable duty
full system voltage is applied to the new fraction of the cycle. Duty cycle is the ratio of switch on time of a cycle to
ballast load and hence harmonics are not produced by this the time for a cycle. Control is done by varying the on-time
method in the steady-state. In addition, it is usually the of a cycle when the time of a cycle is constant for fixed
practice to adopt solid-state switching relays which include frequency. PWM control can have fast response and
a zero-voltage switching circuit that reduces the harmonic compared to other schemes they usually have very smooth
distortion associated with the transient switching period [3]. speed control, but total heat that is produced in this type of
ELC is high and this is due to current problems with both
Total rectifier and the transistor switching losses is really
Ballast noticeable and significant in high frequency [2].
Load
4 D. Controlled bridge rectifier
4 In controlled bridge rectifier, AC voltage is not only
2 4 rectified to DC voltage but also controlled to variable DC
2 output voltage whose magnitude is varied by phase control.
2
1 1 1 So, a controlled bridge rectifier involves both conversion
Increasing Ballast Load and control of electrical power. To achieve both conversion
and control of electrical power, silicon controlled rectifiers
Fig.2 Binary weighted ballast load (SCR) which are also called thyristors are used in power
circuit as the power electronic devices. To turn SCR on,
Costs of Solid State relay are far higher than the gate pulse must be provided to the gate of SCR. To achieve
TRIACS because each of them contains steering the dump load control, the rectifier output voltage is
electronics. The number of dump loads and the associated controlled by varying the delay time of gate pulse called
wiring is high and to achieve smooth regulation, these delay angle (α).
dump loads should all have exactly the right capacity. With As phase angle regulation, this technique introduces
a low number of dump loads, steps between dump load harmonics onto the electrical system. Moreover the timing
combinations remain too large and the system cannot accuracy of trigger pulses is very complex and limits the
regulate smoothly. effectiveness of the system.

B. Phase angle regulation E. Uncontrolled bridge rectifier with a chopper

In phase angle regulation, the ballast load comprises of a In uncontrolled bridge rectifier with a chopper, AC
permanently connected single resistive load circuit of voltage is first rectified to DC voltage and then a chopper
magnitude equal to (or slightly greater than) the full load controls it to variable DC voltage by varying the chopper
rated output of the generator. As a result of the detection of duty cycle (D) for dump load control. Dump load power is
a change in the consumer load, the firing angle of present controlled by adjusting the duty cycle (D). It is very similar
power electronic switching device, such as a triac, is to pulse width regulation method except the chopper
adjusted, thus altering the average voltage applied to and design. But it has two control methods such as pulse width
hence the power dissipated by, the ballast load. modulation and pulse frequency modulation. In pulse
As with all power electronic switching of this nature, frequency modulation, the time of a cycle must be varied
this technique introduces harmonics onto the electrical for frequency modulation when the switch on time is
system. In phase angle regulation method some of the constant [4].
shortcomings present are the presence of harmonics and
that effectiveness limited by timing accuracy of trigger V. PROPOSED ELC DESIGN AND SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
pulse. Phase angle modulation also seriously distorts the The selected system of proposed ELC is the
generator and this leads to the increasing of size of the combination of binary load regulation and pulse width
generator to almost 25%. regulation. Because binary load regulation is minimal
harmonics and pulse width regulation is fast respond Control circuit consists of:
compared to others schemes. • Feedback voltage and frequency sensing circuit
• Power supply circuit
3Ø, Synchronous • Microcontroller, LCD display and optoisolator
Generator Power circuit consists of:
• Binary dump or ballast load power circuit
Feedback V and f Transformer Consumer load power circuit
Control
sensing circuit (Step Down) Power
circuit VI. DESIGN CALCULATION OF ELC FOR SIMULATION
supply
circuit A number of Electronic Load Controller circuits are
developed based on various methods, to dissipate the power
in dump load, to obtain the balancing between the hydro
Rectifier Rectifier turbine input and the generator output [5]. With the
variation of consumer load the load controller has to
change the effective dump load resistance, so that,
Filter
Filter P G = PC + PD

Analog Constant DC The power in dump load depends on both the duty cycle
Analog
voltage signal
frequency voltage supply of PWM and binary load regulation and is given as:
signal
D Vdc2
PD =
RD
PIC Microcontroller where,
D = Duty cycle of PWM
Vdc = DC output voltage of uncontrolled bridge rectifier
LCD display Optoisolater RD= Dump load resistance
(PWM and The rating of dump load resistance is given by:
(V, I, f) IGBT signals)
Vdc2
RD =
PD
Three phase synchronous generator is designed for
3Ø, 6 pulse
Current Ballast simulation. The calculation is based on assumption and it
Uncontrolled IGBTs
Sensor Loads can be used to analyse the system and to understand the
Rectifier
effect of using ELC on the micro hydropower plant. The
model was designed to control the frequency and the
Dump load
power circuit voltage of the system.
Current Consumer
Sensor Consumer load Loads
power circuit A. Generator Parameters
Three phase synchronous generator model of 30 kW,
400 V, 50 Hz, 4-pole is considered. The generator is Salient
Fig. 4 Block diagram of proposed ELC design
pole type. The speed of synchronous generator is calculated
as below:
Vca Mechanical 120 f
power (Pm) N=
p
Vab Vbc Hydro turbine
Synchronous where,
generator N = synchronous speed of generator
(SESG) Consumer load
Ia Ib Ic f = frequency of generated voltage
p = no. of poles
B. Design of ELC
The rating of bridge rectifier and PWM switch depends
PWM load Binary dummy loads
on the rated voltage and power of the synchronous
Idc generator. The DC output voltage of uncontrolled bridge
16 kW
8 kW
2 kW

2 kW

4 kW

D1 D3 D5 + IGBT rectifier is given as below:

Vdc
_ 3√2 VL
PWM Vdc =
D4 D6 D2 signal π
Error Binary signals
Actual _
signal IGBTs 3√2 x 400
Control unit Vdc = π = 540 V
voltage
+
Reference voltage

Fig. 5 Power line circuit diagram of proposed ELC design ELC current is given as,
 TABLE I
PG DUTY CYCLE CALCULATION OF PWM LOAD FOR 200 W RANGE
Idc =
Vdc
30000
Idc = = 55.56 A PL Vo =√ PL RL (V) Io = Vo / RL (A) D = Vo / Vi
540 (W)

The total dump load resistance is calculated as : 200 171 1.17 0.31
400 241 1.66 0.45
Vdc2 5402 600 296 2.03 0.55
RD = = = 9.7 Ω 800 342 2.34 0.63
PD 30000 1000 382 2.62 0.71
1200 418 2.87 0.77
For binary load arrangement, total dump load is divided 1400 452 3.10 0.84
into four dump loads. So, 1600 483 3.31 0.89
1800 512 3.51 0.95
PD = PD1 + PD2 + PD3 + PD4 2000 540 3.70 1

PD = 2 kW + 4 kW + 8 kW + 16 kW = 30 kW Duty cycle is calculated as:

TON
The individual dump load resistance is calculated as : D=
T
Vdc2 5402 1
RD1 = = = 145.8 Ω T=
PD1 2000 fsw
2 2
Vdc 540 Where,
RD2 = = = 72.4 Ω D = duty cycle
PD2 4000 TON= on-time of pulse width
2
Vdc 5402 T= the time of a cycle
RD3 = = = 36.45 Ω fsw = switching frequency of PWM
PD3 8000
Vdc2 5402 TABLE I
RD4 = = = 18.23 Ω TIME WITH RESPECT TO DUTY CYCLE
PD4 16000
10 kHz 20 kHz
D
T (μs) TON (μs) T(μs) TON (μs)
C. Design of DC filter capacitor 0.31 100 31 50 15.5
When the AC signal passed through rectifier it would 0.45 100 45 50 22.5
become an uneven DC. A filtering section is used to 0.55 100 55 50 27.5
smooth out this uneven DC signal. Filters filter unwanted 0.63 100 63 50 31.5
AC in the output of a rectifier. The Ripple factor for C- 0.71 100 71 50 35.5
0.77 100 77 50 38.5
filter is given by:
0.84 100 84 50 42.0
1 0.89 100 89 50 44.5
r=
0.95 100 95 50 47.5
4√3fCR L
1 100 100 50 50
Where,
r = Ripple factor of C- filter
f = frequency (in Hz) VII. SIMULATION OF PROPOSED ELC DESIGN
RL = Resistance of dump load (in Ohm)
or,
1
C=
4√3fR L r

Assume, the ripple factor is 15% for 3 phase, bridge

rectifier,
1
C= = 1980 x10-6F
4√3 x 50 x 9.72 x 0.15

D. Design of duty cycle for PWM load

The calculation of duty cycle is heart of the PWM
control for PWM load. PWM load control is required to
smooth the load control system. Because 2 kW steps
between dump load combinations cannot regulate the
system smoothly. Proper duty cycle can be calculated
according to PWM load range and resistance.
Fig. 6 Complete circuit diagram of proposed ELC
 Start Figure (6) show the complete circuit diagram of
Convert Vin from analog to digital value proposed ELC to simulate the monitroring system. In
Assign the reference value for Vref
system monitoring, system voltage, system frequency,
consumer load current, dummy load current and duty cycle
Set the duty cycle of PWM= 100% (%) of PWM are displayed on the J204s LCD screen. PWM
output waveform and monitering system are simulated for
Read V in
four mentioned cases by proteus 8.0 professional software.
No Vin > Vref In simulation, both consumer and dump load are pure
Yes resistive loads. Therefore, assume power factor as unity.
Binary load output= 0001

No
A. Case I: Consumer load is 27.7kW and damp load is
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0001 2.3kW
Yes
Binary load output= 0010

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0010
Yes
Binary load output= 0011

No Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0011

Yes
Binary load output= 0100

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0100
Yes
Binary load output= 0101
Fig. 8 Simulation result of PWM
No Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0101
Yes
Binary load output= 0110

No Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0110

Yes
Binary load output= 0111

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 0111
Yes
Binary load output= 1000

No Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 1000

Yes Fig. 9 Simulation result by monitoring system
Binary load output= 1001

No Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 1001

B. Case II: Consumer load is 21.4 kW and damp load is
Yes
Binary load output= 1010 8.6 kW
No Vin > Vref && Binary load output=1010
Yes
Binary load output= 1011

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 1011
Yes
Binary load output= 1100

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 1100
Yes
Binary load output= 1101

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 1101
Yes
Fig. 10 Simulation result of PWM
Binary load output= 1110

No
Vin > Vref && Binary load output= 1110
Yes
Binary load output= 1111

No Vin < Vref

Yes
Increase the duty cycle ++ Decrease the duty cycle - -

No Vin = Vref
Yes
End
Fig. 11 Simulation result by monitoring system

Fig. 7 Flow chart program of proposed ELC

C. Case III: Consumer load is 18.7 kW and damp load is available. So, electronic load controllers (ELC) are
11.3 kW invented to be advance more and more with the wide using
of micro hydropower generation. The developed
microcontroller based ELC is found to be reliable, compact
and above all, cost effective. Microcontroller based circuit
can easily sense the system parameters such as voltage,
current, frequency, power and power factor. It also
provides the flexibility for change control parameters for
providing a duty cycle over a wide range. The same ELC
can also be used for different rating of machines, including
single-phase machines by changing the control parameters
in the program of the microcontroller. As the advantages of
the minimal harmonics of binary load regulation and fast
Fig. 12 Simulation result of PWM control respond of pulse width regulation, the proposed
ELC is ideal for applications in stand-alone micro
hydropower plants.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to express his deepest gratitude to
his Excellency, Union Minister Dr. Ko Ko Oo,
Ministry of Science and Technology for the celebration
of this international conference on science and
engineering at Yangon, Myanmar. The author is deeply
Fig. 13 Simulation result by monitoring system gratitude to Dr. Myint Thein, Prorector, Mandalay
Technological University, for his guidance and advice. The
D. Case IV: Consumer load is 12.2 kW and damp load is author would like to thank to Dr. Khin Thu Zar Soe,
17.8 kW
Associated Professor, Head of Department of Electrical
Power Engineering, Mandalay Technological University,
for her kind permission, providing encouragement and
giving helpful advices and comments. The author would
like to express grateful thanks to his supervisor, Dr. Aung
Ze Ya, Associated Professor, Department of Electrical
Power Engineering, Mandalay Technological University,
for thoroughly proof-reading these paper and giving useful
remarks on it.

REFERENCES
Fig. 14 Simulation result of PWM
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