Self-excited single-phase induction generators for mini-hydro systems

• Main Author: Soon, Peggy Pei Yi.
• Other Authors: Mohammed Hamidul Haque
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Electric power::Auxiliaries, applications and electric industries
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/17333
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This project aims to reduce the dependence on utility power by using induction generators in rural areas. This is in accordance with the current focus of the world on renewable energy. With greenhouse effect becoming a pressing concern of the environment, renewable sources are increasingly being explored. Sources like wind and water can be commonly found in rural areas and thus, can be used for turbines. This is also advantageous as utility power is rarely found in those places. In this report, experiments were conducted on both single phase and three-phase squirrel cage induction motors to produce single phase power. A circuit consisting of lamps as loads, and capacitors to provide excitation for the voltage was improvised and improved upon to test the load characteristics. This was carried out by modifying an old circuit by adding in more terminals such that both the load and capacitance can be controlled by their own terminals. Following that, no-load tests, blocked-rotor tests, synchronous speed tests, load tests for shunt and short shunt were conducted for both single-phase and three-phase induction generator. The results was analyzed and plotted for ease of comparison. Research was done in order to carry out the theoretical analysis of the single-phase and three-phase characteristics. This was done by reading up on relevant materials and writing a program in MATLAB for the simulation. The results should be compared with the experimental values. However, the student was not able to fully explore the software section of this project due to time constraints.