Field Experience On A Novel Pico-Hydel System Using Self Excited Induction
Generator And Electronic Load Controller
S.S.Murthy, Bhim Singh, Ashish Kulkami, R. Sivarajan and Sushma Gupta
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi - I10016, India
Abstrocr- The paper presents a unique filed experience of a
standalone power generating scheme using self excited
induction generator and electronic load controller by
exploiting locally available small hydro potential needing
minimal civil works. Water is made to flow in a channel and
stored in a forebay tank whose discharge is regulated to have
a near constant head. A pelton wheel receiving water
through a penstock pipe works as a turbine which drives a
self excited induction generator(SE1G). Two types of
electronic load controllers(ELC), back to back thyristor
based ELC and uncontrolled rectifier chopper based ELC
were developed and installed in the field tu provide power
halance at varying consumer loads. Typical field data are
presented to prove the viability of the scheme and compare
the performance of the load controllers.
Keywords-Self Excited Induction Generator,
Electronic Load Controller, Small Hydro
I. INTRODUCTION
Exploitation of renewable energy sources to augment
power generation as a necessity is an established fact.
Among the sources that can be exploited, small hydro,
wind and biomass are proving to be in the forefront for
power generation. In remote locations where such sources
mainly exist establishment of grid has been found to be
uneconomical and not feasible. Feeding such generated
power to utility grids has often become unviable.
Therefore a standalone autonomous unit to feed local
consumers using such renewable energy sources is the
choice left. India has large number of identified small
hydro sites where such generation is possible. It is
estimated that there may be more than 10,000 sites with
possible power varying from I-100kW. These may be
classified as pico (I-IOkW) and micro(10-100kW) hydel
units. Such units must be simple, rugged, economical and
user-friendly. A sufficient consumer lond should also be
available in the vicinity. Further in such remote locations,
only domestic loads are prevalent needing single-phase
supply. Since simple uncontrolled turbines without
governors are preferred, the use of Electronic Load
controllers(ELC) comes into picture for providing quality
single-phase power with good voltage regulation for
varying consumer loads. This paper describes the field
experience of installing Pic0 Hydel plants in several
locations in the Indian state of Kamataka by a joint effort
of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi,
Technology Informatics Design Endeavor (TIDE) and
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Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore with funding
by Department of Science and Technology (Govt. of
India) and Indo Norwegian Environment Programme. It
also provides a comprehensive field data on the working
of two electronic load controllers Back to Back Thyristor
based ELC. Uncontrolled rectifier chopper based ELC at
the project site to demonstrate the viability of such a
system for worldwide use.
A Typical Pic0 Hydel plant consists of a Weir which
is manually made to divert the existing natural flow of the
water to a forebay which in turn feeds to a penstock. The
water impinges on an uncontrolled turbine. The turbine
runs the Self Excited Induction Generator (SEIG) which
is coupled to the turbine by V belts. The ELC helps in
maintaining a constant load on the S E E since input
power is constant with a fixed head and discharge of the
turbine. ELC also maintains a constant voltage at the
consumer end. The envisaged task was a great challenge
as regards both technology and project execution.
Execution involves shifting of machinery to remote
inhospitable locations and installation. Local community
is not normally techno-savvy and less literate. Technology
must he simple, reliable and cost effective. Low head
impulse turbines or pelton wheel were chosen with tailor
made design for site conditions. I n view of the advantages
of SEIG on synchronous generator[l,2,1 Ilfor low power
I-phase application the former was chosen. Off the shelf
induction motor could he employed. ELC[IO,I Ilneed to
he robust and reliable. While systems may work in the
laboratory environment they often fail in inhospitable
tiled conditions. Two types of load controllers were
designed, fabricated to industrial standards and installed
in the field
While the published literature [6, IO. 131 mainly deals
with conceptualization and laboratory experience.
challenging experience of translating such concept to field
conditions and electrifying local consumers for domestic
loads is rarely reported. This paper narrates this
experience.
 11. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHEME
;I
=
l Ly-l
Fig I :Typical Pic0 Hydro site
Figure 1 shows the schematic of a P I C 0 - HYDEL site
which consists of a weir, channel, forebay, penstock and
power house which has the turbine, SEIG and ELC with
dump load.
Weir: A weir is a small diversion which is made to divert
a part of the stream from its main course. The weir might
be natural one made by diverting the water with the help
of the available rocks too.
Forebay: A forebay is a tank in which the water diverted
from the main stream is stored. The forebay is again
designed according to the water available at the site.
Penstock The penstock is the pipe which starts at the
forebay and ends at the power house. The penstock feeds
water to the turbine inside the power house. The diameter
of the penstock also depends upon the availability of
water and the head.
Power House: The power house consists of a turbine
which acts as a prime mover, a SEIG and ELC. The water
from the penstock is directly fed to the turbine through a
butterfly valve. This water impinges on the blades of the
turbine and the turbine attains its speed. The turbine is
coupled to the SEIG with the help of v-belts. The ratio of
the pulleys is calculated such that the SEIG runs at 1500
rpm. The single-phase supply which is generated from the
SEIG is fed to the consumers through ELC which
maintains the generated voltage constant at the consumer
end, ensuring nearly constant output of generator.
D w p Load
Fig 2 : Power House Derails
Fig 2 shows a block diagram of the constituents of the
power house.
Turbine: The turbine is the prime mover for the SEIG in
the power house. In these pic0 hydel sites the turbine
selected was an impulse turbine because it is the most
suitable turbine for low head and low power hydro sites.
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The Impulse turbine h:is buckets fixed to the shaft . The
number of valve openings is again decided on the basis of
water availability and the head. The turbine is either
vertically or horizontally mounted according to the site
conditions. There is no control on the incoming water to
the turbine. Though stop and start of the power plant is
done with the help of the butterfly valve at the joint
between the penstock and the turbine.
Self Excited Induction Generator (SEIG): Any grid
independent autonomous unit prefers synchronous
machines. Induction generators can also be used in stand
- alone mode using capacitor excitation. With some
inherent advantages[ I I they are rugged, brushless and
economical. However for I-phase supply a tailor made I -
phase SEIG[L] or a 3-phase SEIG to supply single phase
load[3,1 I] may he chosen. The latter was preferred as 'off
the shelf 3-phase motor could be used with minor design
changes by any manufacturer. To minimize this unbalance
the single phase load is connected through a pair of
capacitors (normally with a capacitance ratio of 1:l.S). If
we connect as stated the output voltage of a star
connected three phase: S E E feeding single phase load
will be 415V. Therefore the SEIG was connected in delta
so that the output voltage was 230V as desired for local
loads.
Electronic Load Controller(ELC) : In conventional
hydro power system, ihe governor system is very big in
size, complex operalion and difficult to maintain and
has a huge investment cost. From efficiency point of
view, using a governor that steers a flow control valve
on the turbine would be much better. But then the
energy is saved by reducing water consumption of the
turbine so it only makes sense if water can b e stored in
a reservoir for future use. Usually micro hydro and
pic0 hydro systems do not have such large reservoirs:
They are 'run of rivar' systems and any water that is
not used right away, gets lost in an overflow.
Nowadays only mini hydro or full-scale hydro systems
have governors as these often have large reservoirs so
that water that is saved, can be stored. Governors are
expensive and require careful maintenance, making the
micro hydro system more expensive and less reliable.
Older micro hydro systems often had governors, but
that was because building affordable ELC's only
became possible using modern power electronics.
Therefore the voltage regulation in small hydro
projects is taken care o f by as ELC at the SEIG
terminals . The b a s k principle being consuming the
difference between the constant output power by the
generator and the power absorbed by the consumer
load. There are different types of load controllers.
Some are purely electrical and some which are using
power electronic snitching devices. The different
types of ELC's are :
(i)Binary weighted switched resistors.
(ii)Controlled rectitier feeding dump load.
(iii)Uncontrolled rectifier with chopper controlled dump
load.
(iv)Phase controlled thyristor based load controller.

Fig 3 and 4 show two ELC schemes used in the field.
Using AC controller and rectifier chopper based ELC's
respectively. A combination of capacitors C l and C2
provide a single phase output for three-phase delta
connected SEIG..
7rlb %I.
Fig 3 Schematic Diagram of Three Phase SEIG wdh Single Phase
Bach to back Thyristor based ELC
Fig 4 : SElG wth Uncontrded Rectifier .GBT basedELC
Back to Back thyristor based ELC : In this scheme. the
principle of phase angle control of back to back thyristor
is made use of. A thyristor is fired at a specific delay
angle relative to the zero voltage crossing of the sine
wave (symmetrical for both halves of the sine wave). The
thyristor commutates at next zero crossing. Switching
occurs a twice the frequency and generates total harmonic
distortion (THD) as high as 35 - 40 lo in current with
added reactive power burden. This scheme can
continuously vary the dump power over nearly the entire
range from zero to full load as the delay angle varies from
I80" to 00.
Uncontrolled Rectifier Chopper based ELC: This load
controller is also known as mark-space ratio controller
indicating the chopper operation of the controller. This
uses the pulse width modulation for the chopper operation
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in which the duty cycle of the pulse if controlled from 0 to
10010, the power is controlled over the entire range. The
PWM for such chopper can be generated by comparing
the error signal generated by comparing a reference
signal with a saw tooth wave is the switching frequency
of the chopper. The scheme includes the uncontrolled
rectification of the SEIG terminal followed by a series
chopper. Using IGBT as the switching device due to its
advantages over thyristor or MOSFET can be used as
chopper switch. This removes the complexity of the
power circuit. This scheme generates harmonics but these
harmonics are less compared to thyristor based ELC.
Moreover there is no reactive power burden in this type of
ELC.
111. FIELD DATA
Fig 5 shows the photograph for the inside of the power
house installed in village Asolli in North Kanara district
of Karnataka located between the two towns of Sirsi and
Kumta. Village is about lOkm off the motorable Sirsi -
Kumta road in inhospitable mountain terrain in thick
forest inhabited by wild animals in Western Ghats.
Installation of this unit was a great technological
challenge which has become a great boon to the villagers
who were assured uninterrupted electricity whenever they
need. Selected persons from the village who have studied
up to middle school are trained to operate and maintain
the system. Field data is collected from the above site by
continuous and regular monitoring during evening and
night when the customer load is significant.
Fig 5 . Photograph of !he power house a1 the site Asolli.
I.Turbine 2. Penstock 3. Dump Load 4. SEIG
5. IGBT based ELC 6. Thyristor based ELC.
The details of the site are as follows The field data collected on both the load controllers is
Gross Head : 23M summaxized in Table1 and Table2 and Table3.
Discharge : 281ps Symbols used are:
Power : 3kW VLy,VYbVbv = 3-Phase line voltages across SEIG
Feeder Pipe : 1600MM dia PVC, 50m length. Ir Iy I b = 3 -Phase cnrrents in SEIG
Forebay : 3*1.2*1.23M VI,,^, Iload = Load voltage and current
Penstock : 160MM diaPVC pipe, 80M length V,ha,Ithd = % THD of load voltage and current
Turbine : Pelton Wheel, without governor. Vdump, Idump = Voltage and current in dump load
SEIG : 3- phase Induction Motor, SSkW, Po,,,Pa = Power of customer load and dump load
230V Delta Connected. 1500rpm

Table 1 : Field Data with Back to Back Thyristor based ELC :

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Table 2 : Field Data with Uncontrolled Rectifier chopper based ELC

Table 3 : Voltages at the five houses in the village when the power was fed to the distribution cable

Voltage Vo Power Output Voltage Vs Power Output

200
0 0.5
Power Output(kW)
1 1.5
t
m
c
?i
> 210
230
220

200 -
0 1
Power Output(kW)

Fig 6. Voltage Regulation by Thyristor Fig 7. Voltnge Regulation by

Based ELC IGBT bisedELC

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 IV.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Field data presented on pic0 hydel system with two

types of controllers prove the viability of using such
systems for further installations. Uncontrolled turbine or
pump as turbine may he used. Self excited induction
generators are found to he ideal as they are rugged,
cheap and user friendly. Reliability of the system
centers on the reliability of the electronic load controller
(ELC) which must he rugged and failure proof. The
IGBT based ELC had a better voltage regulation than
the thyristor based ELC

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