Electronic load controller for micro-hydro power plant

• Main Authors: Bumanlag, Regieffer Ryan, Manahan, Armando Rosendo, Ramos, Fernan, Yason, Paolo Antonio
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1997
• Subjects: Hydroelectric power plants; Electronic control; Electronic circuits; Power electronics; Electric power-plants > Load
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/7417
• Institution: De La Salle University

The effective distribution of energy to remote areas has always been a major challenge in the field of power generation. This has been the driving force behind the development of micro-hydro technology. Through this technology, the generation of electricity from small water sources became possible without endangering the environment. It provided an effective and more efficient alternative to transmission lines that are very expensive and hard to implement specially on mountainous regions. However, due to the limited capacity of the micro-hydro scheme and the constant changes in the demand for power it experiences, the efficient management of energy is necessary to always keep the system running smoothly and problem free. This project seeks to develop a system that will enable us to monitor, detect and control the given conditions using readily available materials. It has been a well-known fact that hydro-electric power is one of the cheapest and most accessible source of energy. As compared to fossil-fueled, nuclear and geothermal power plants, it is the cheapest to construct, to operate and to maintain. It serves both economic and environmental concerns and is a practical solution for the electrification problem of isolated rural areas. The design of hydro-electric power plants is basically the same both in large and small scale applications. The propellant water is obtained from bodies of water such as lakes and rivers. Large scale plants however, employs the use of an artificial lake made possible by constructing a dam on a river. This causes the water level to rise providing potential energy to the water needed to drive the hydraulic turbines which in turn converts it to mechanical energy. Micro-hydro power plants, having no reservoir, only divert part of the flow of a body of water into a power canal, which leads it to the penstock and into the turbine. The mechanical energy of the turbine is converted to electrical energy with the utilization of motor generators. There are two types of AC generators suitable for micro-hydroelectric supply scheme. They are synchronous generators or alternators and induction generators. The synchronous generator is so called because the frequency generated is directly related to the shaft speed. Induction generators are known as asynchronous generators because the frequency generated, though dependent on shaft speed, is not directly proportional to it and does change slightly with load changes. The effective use and control of synchronous generators will be the main concern of this proposed project through the use of the electronic equipment. This aims to harness the maximum efficiency of the micro-hydroelectric power plant. Additional devices such as protection circuits will also be used for better performance management.