IEEE 1999 International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems, PEDS’99, July 1999, Hong Kong.
A VARIABLE SPEED CONSTANT VOLTAGE CONTROLLER FOR
SELF-EXCITED INDUCTION GENERATOR WITH
MINIMUM CONTROL REQUIREMENTS
Shashank Wekhande
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Powai,Mumbai, India-400076
E-mail: agarwaI@ee.iitb.ernet.in
Abstract: The paper deals with a variable speed, constant
voltage controller for induction generator operating in self-
excited mode. A new PWM controller is proposed to regulate
the induction generator terminal voltage. The proposed
controller regulates three-phase AC output voltage of the self-
excited induction generator with varying rotor speed, transient
load conditions and reactive loads. The proposed scheme does
not require any real time computations for calculating
excitation current, thus m h h i z h g the electronic hardware
and the cost of the contrdler. A simple over-current protection
is incorporated to protect the inverter switches. Computer
simulation and experimentd resnlts shaw satisfactory operalion of
an indu&generatorwiththe proposed contrd scheme.
1. INTRODUCTION:
The squirrel cage induction generator is quite
popular in wind turbine systems [l] due to its simpler
construction. It requires low initial cost and is not costly to
maintain. However, the inductim geaerato: requires a
reactive power source for supplying the excitation current.
The induction generator can be operated in grid
c ~ ~ e c t eord stand-alone self-excited modes. In the self-
excited induction generator, the excitation current is
supplied by the capacitors connected across its terminals.
The terminal voltage is regulated against changing speed
and load conditions, by changing the terminal capacitance.
Effective capacitance can be controlled smoothly by varying
the firing angle of thyristor controlled reactors, connected in
parallel with a k e d capacitor [2]. A three-phase PWM
inverter may also be used as a static reactive power source.
The desired excitation can be controlled by controlling the
modulation index and phase of fundamental inverter voltage
with respect to the generated voltage. Use of PWM inverter
as a reactive power source for induction generator is
reported in [3,4]. All these schemes, however, are based on
load current sensing. The reactive load current and
excitation current required for maintaining constant output
voltage of an induction generator have to be supplied by the
PWM inverter. Complicated high speed electronic circuits
are required to determine reference generator current under
varying load and rotor speed conditions.
In this paper, a simple control scheme is proposed
for self-excitation control of induction generator. The
proposed scheme uses a static P W inverter for controlling
excitation. This-gives a-- transient response and smooth
1999IEEE
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Vivek Agarwal
variation of excitation current. The generated voltage is
regulated by controlling the current drawn by the inverter.
The voltage is regulated irrespective of varying rotor speed,
transient load, and reactive loads. The controller does not
require any real time mathematical computation,
minimizing hardware and reducing overall cost. A simple
over-current protection is incwporated to prevent the
inverter switches fiom being damaged
The principle of operation of the proposed
controller and its block diagram are explained in section 2.
The controller has been extensively simulated and the
operation is validated by experimental work. The details of
simulation and experimental work are presented in sections
3 and 4 respectively followed by conclusions in section 5.
2. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION:
The proposed voltage regulated induction generator
controller uses a hysteresis current controkd PWM inverta
to supply reactive load current and desired excitation current
for induction generator. The proposed scheme is shown in
Fig. 1. The reference current is the resultant of two currents
viz. the in-phase current and the quadrature current. The in-
phase current overcomes losses in the converter. The
mismatch between the active load current demand and the
generator current is reflected in the variation of DC link
voltage of the controller. The active current can be
controlled by controlling the in-phase current which is
obtained by multiplying the DC link error with reference
template voltage derived fiom the supply voltage. The
quadrature current decides the magnetizing current of the
induction generator. This magnetizing current determines
the generated voltage. The generated voltage is compared
with the reference and the error is multiplied with
corresponding cosine template. The variation in generated
voltage is reflected in ac error voltage and reference
quadrature current. Generation of reference current is shown
in Fig. 2.
Initially, the controller is kept disabled The indudon
gemratur is started in the conventional manner using three
capacitors of fixed value. When SUtFcient voltage is generated,
the controller is &led. In this scheme, only the inverter
current is sensed. The invehter is protected against overcurrent
by sensing the mat flowing through it and using this
informi#icmto~gatepulsesoftheIms.
 1 I

F i g 1:Block diagram ofproposed Induction generator mtroller

3. SIMULATION RESULTS: the generator voltages of respective phases. The AC error

The induction generator system with proposed
PWM controller was extensively simulated on the digital
computer using SAE%ER software. Various loading
conditions were simulated to validate the operation of the
PWM controller undm various conditions. These simulation
results are now discussed m e by one for differenct load
conditions:
voltage is derived by comparing the peak of generated
voltage with a reference signal. The actual reference current
is derived by adding the quadrature and in-phase reference
current components. This is illustrated in Fig. 2. The figure
shows the generated voltage, actual reference, quadrature
reference and in-phase reference current waveforms.

Resistive load 2 0 -r

The induction generator is loaded with balanced (A) i:O (b)

three phase resistive load of lOOR in each phase. The -LO I I

induction generator is started with 10pF capacitor upto 40

ms while the controller is kept disabled. Subsequently, the
controller is enabled and governs the control. Initially, the om *
DC link capacitor is charged to 900V.The induction motor
model used in SABER does not have any residual
magnetism. The AC capacitors are assigned some initial
voltage to start the induction generator.
The reference current has two components viz. in-
phase reference current and quadrature reference current.
Reactive load
The in-phase reference current is responsible for regulating
the DC link voltage and is derived by multiplying the DC The induction generator controller regulates the
generated voltage for reactive loads also. In case of reactive
link voltage error with in-phase voltage template derived
loads, the controller supplies required excitation current to
fiom the generated voltage. The quadrature reference
the induction generator and compensates for reactive Icad
current is responsible for regulation of the generated voltage.
current. The operation of the controller is validated with
This reference current is derived by multiplying the AC
balanced three phase I U load. The RL load comprises of
error voltage with a voltage templates leading by 90' w.r.t.

99
fixed 70S2 resistance in series with 100 mH inductor. Fig. 4 controller current are shown in Fig. 6. The controller current
shows the generated voltage, lagging load current and the decreases with a reduction in excitation current demand.
controller current. The controller supplies the leading 10

current to overcome the lagging load current apart fiom

supplying excitation current to the generator.

I I

II I55 I6 1.65 I7 1.75 I8 1.85 1.9

TmIE (.)

Fig. 5: Response to step haease in load current (a) Controlla current

(b) Load current (c) Generator line voltage
1 3 L29
2.27 128
= *)
230 2.31 2.32

Fig, 3: Response to resistive load (a) Geuerated voltage

(b) Controller cunem (c) Load current
40 I J
400

0 O0

40

(A) 00
3 0 4 . . - . - . . , . . . . . . . . J
I S 16 165 17 171 18 185 19 195 LO
m 0)
F i g 6: Respom to step d m in load current (a) Load current
(b) Generated voltage (c) Control!a currect

With v q i n g rotor speed

Fig 4: Response to reactive kad (a) Generated voltage
(b) Load current (c) Coobollex current
Transient load
The induction generator controller is designed to
operate with fluctuating load currents. Also, the use of static
PWM inverter results in a M e r transient response as
compared to the conventional controller with thyristor
controlled reactor. The simulation of this induction
generator based system, shows a constant voltage
irrespective of 33% step increase in the resistive load
current. The initial load resistance is 1000 and is changed
The induction generator is normally used in
applications such as wind or micro-hydro energy generation
with variable rotor shaft speeds. The controller is capable of
regulating the generated voltage within specified variation of
rotor speed. The simulation results for rotor speed variation
fiom -160 rad/= to -200 radsec are shown in Fig. 7. Figure
shows a varying rotor speed, the regulated generated voltage
and controller current waveforms.
-1IO I I
4,

to 66 52 at 1.6s. The simulation results for a step increase in

o ao
load current are shown in Fig. 5. The figure shows that a
step increase in load current increases the controller current ..-
a ,
30
instantaneously to support the additional excitation current 1
demand which regulates the output voltage to the set value
almost instantaneously. -3Q I . 1
The operation of the induction generator is also 24 15 16 17 l8 19 3.0 3.1 32
Inas (.)
verified for step decrease in load current. This is realised by
F i g 7: Response to variation in rotor specd (a) Rotor speed
suddenly increasing the load resistance fiom 66R to 10052 at (b) Generatedvoltage (c) Controllercurrent
t = 1.6s. The transient load anrent, supply voltage and the (the negative rotor speed mpxsem aaticlockwise rotation of the shaft)

100
Over-current protection

(A)

0
The placement of current sensors directly in series
with the controller, enable the controller to be protected
against over-current. Operation of the controller against
over-current is shown in Fig. 8, where the transient load
current reaches the trip current reference at 1.64 sec. A
mechanical contactor trips the controller and generator
voltage decays as shown in the figure.
1.0

0.0

-LO
4111,

:1
4 o J

0.0
1

1.3 1.3s 1.4 1.45

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS:
1.5 155
TImE (a
1.6

To veri@ the simulation results presented in section

3, a three phase IGBT based experimental prototype has
been developed for a 1 I-P induction generator. The terminal
voltage is regulated at 110 V(rms). An armature controlled
DC motor is used as a prime mover. The proposed scheme
has been experimentally verified for various loads and the
results are presented in this section.

Reactive load
The reactive load test is performed with a balanced
three phase RL load comprising IOOQ resistance in series
with 200 mH inductor. The generated voltage and lagging
load current waveforms are shown in Fig. 9, while, the
generator voltage and w e n t wavefonns are shown in Fig. 10.

Trmient load
The rotor speed is adjusted to 900 rpm at steady
state with 200Q resistance. The three phase balanced
resistive load is decreased from 200R to IOOQ using a
mechanical contactor. After the sudden change in load, the
rotor speed drops to 870 rpm. The increase in load causes
transient decrease in the generated voltage as shown in Fig.
11.
Similarly, the response of the controller to step
decrease in load is shown in Fig. 12. In this experiment,
rotor speed is adjusted to 900 rpm at lOOQ load resistance.
The per phase balanced load resistance is suddenly increased
form lOOQ to 200Q in a step manner. The rotor speed
1.6s 17 1.75

Fig. 8: Overcurrent protection : (a) controller line current (b)Gznerated

voltage (c) Overcurrent sensingsignal
1

1.8 T@

m%v
-- ..

..

.
..
. ..
..

.. ... ...
. . .
.
...

. . . .. . . . .. . . . .
..

ai2
..

.
.
..
..

.
.

tow
..
.
..........................................
--

M
..

.
ms

..
..
..
. . . . ....................... . . :.... :.... : . . ..:. . . .

Fig. 9: Reactive load: (a) Generated voltage (b) Load ament

. +,. . . .. . . . ...stw
. . . ... . . ... . . . . . . . .
. .. .. .
...................
.. .. . ...
. . . .
.

Fig 10 :Reaaive load (a) Generator voltage (b) Genaaux c u m t

.
.

.
...

Fig. 11: Response to step increase in load current

..

. . . -. . . . ... . . .MPor:-4CU#lms

e
.

.
.

.
...
.

.
: I

... . . . .. . . . .
- . ............
-
,-....
-
. .
, .
.................
. . .
-- ., .. .. ..
.

...
En\
.
..

(a) Generator voltage (b) Load current

increases to 925 rpm after transient.

101
 0 stop MPorl48X)mr
.. .. ... ... -- ..
.
..
.
..
.
..
.

.. .. .. .. -- .. .. .. ..
. . . . ..................... .... : .... : ....: .... :.... ............................
.. .. .. - . . . .
-- .. .. .. ..
2 2
F . . . . : . . . . : ..............
.. .. .. .. - .. .. .. ..
. . . .
...........................
- . . . .
C

Fig. 12: Response to step deaease in load current

(1) Load cumnt ( 2 ) Genexator voltage
With v q i n g rotor speed
The rotor speed is increased fkom 900 rpm to 1200
rpm by keeping load constant. A three phase balanced load
of 100 S2 in each phase is c o ~ e c t e dacross the IG. The rotor
speed is increased by increasing the armature voltage of the
DC motor which is used as a prime mover. The generator
voltage remains nearly constant as shown in Fig. 13.
Fig 14: Overcumnt protCaion (a) Generator cumnt
(b) Controller current
5. CONCLUSIONS:
A new controller for variable speed, constant
voltage operation of induction generator, in self-excited
mode has been presented in this paper. The proposed
controller does not require any on-line computations or any
mechanical sensor thereby reducing the complexity and cost
of the controller. .

The contro!ler has been simulated on digital

computer and the operation is experimentally verified. The
results of simulation and experimental work follow expected
pattern.
.. .. .. .. .- .. .. .. ..
.... ..................... ....:.... :....:....:....
REFERENCES :
[ 11 Bhim Sin& “Induction generators-A prospective“, Int. J.
.. .. . . . . . . . . ... ...I- . ! on Electric machines and power systems, vol. 23, 1995.
.. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . pp. 163-177.
A. A. Shaltout and M. A. Abdel-Halim, “Solid-state
Fig. 13: Response to rarymg rotor speed
control of a wind driven self-excited induction
(a) Generator voltage (b) Generatorcurrent generator”, Int. J. on Electric machines and power
systems, vol. 23, 1995, pp. 571-582.
Over currentprotection N. Ammasaigounden and M. Subbiah,
In this scheme the current flowing in the PWM “Microprocessor based voltage controller for wind
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102
 machine wind generation system”, KEEE trans. on PE
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191 S. S. Wekhande and V. A g m a l , “ Static VAR
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”, IEEE-PEDES’98, Australia, pp. 757-76 1.
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