Self-Excited Induction Generator Based Generation
System Regulation Using Synchronous Generator as
Reactive Power Compensator
2022 14th Seminar on Power Electronics and Control (SEPOC) | 978-1-6654-7089-6/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/SEPOC54972.2022.9976454
Raul E. Pivetta, Igor Luiz Dal Forno,
Lucas G. Scherer, Robinson F. de Camargo
Power Electronics and Control Research Group - GEPOC
Federal University of Santa Maria - UFSM
Santa Maria, Brazil
raul-pivetta@hotmail.com
Abstract—This article presents the modeling, simulation and
experimental results of a microgrid formed by the parallel
operation of the Self-Excited Induction Generator (SEIG) and
the Field-wound Synchronous Generator (SG), where the SG
acts as a reactive compensator. In the generation system, the
SEIG is kept supplying rated power, driven through a primary
source of constant power. The SG, on the other hand, is driven by
a constant speed source. A Electronic Load Controller (ELC) is
used to consume the surplus active power generated by the SEIG
that is not used by the consumer unit in order to regulate system’s
frequency. When the connected load is greater than the SEIG’s
rated power, the SG acts by supplying active power to supply
the demand, the ELC is turned off and the frequency control is
performed by the speed control of the SG’s primary machine.
The reactive power in the microgrid is controlled by the SG
static excitation system. This system, based on a Buck converter
powered by an external DC source, acts to control the voltage at
the Common Connection Point (CCP) of the system by adjusting
the SG field voltage. Experimental results shows the performance
and reliability of the system against load connections from no-
load to rated power.
Index Terms— microgrids, self-excited induction generator,
synchronous generator, power processing
I. I NTRODUCTION
A microgrid (MG) is characterized by the interconnection of
different forms of energy generation to feed an isolated load or
distribution network in order to obtain greater efficiency and
flexibility of energy resources in the place where it is installed
[1]. Due to this possibility of connecting different forms of
energy, currently, MGs are considered as decentralized and
promising electrical energy systems, enabling the interconnec-
tion of different renewable sources through interfaces made
up of power electronics [2]. The microgrid under study in
the present article is composed by a Self-excited Induction
Generator (SEIG) and a Wound Field Synchronous Generator
(SG) operating in parallel to feed AC loads.
The use of SEIG in isolated systems is already consoli-
dated. This type of generator has advantages such as low
cost, greater robustness, reduced need for maintenance and
application flexibility. However, in isolated applications, the
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Felipe Bovolini Grigoletto
Energy Processing and Control Laboratory - LAPEC
Federal University of Pampa - UNIPAMPA
Alegrete, Brazil
amplitude and frequency of the generated voltages varies
with the load applied to the machine terminals. Thus, the
stability of the generation system is strictly dependent on
the balance of active and reactive power at the generator
terminals [3], [4]. This condition makes the SEIG need reactive
power compensation techniques for effective regulation of the
generated voltages [5].
In opposition, the SG can control the generated reactive
power and, consequently, the amplitude of the generated
voltage by ajusting the field excitation [9]. Thus, in isolated
systems, the SG is used as a grid former [6]–[8].
Thus, the use of SG and SEIG in parallel presents comple-
mentary characteristics between each other. This association
becomes interesting mainly in the repowering of SG based
generation plants, where the inclusion of SEIG can increase
total installed power and improve system’s reliability [10]. The
main advantage is that the costs associated with the inclusion
of the induction generator are lower when compared to the
costs related to the SG [11]. Moreover, the parallel connection
of a SG and a SEIG is simpler than that of two SG, since
it does not require advanced synchronization techniques [12].
When the two generators operate in parallel, they can share the
same primary source when there is surplus primary resource
or combine two different primary sources, such as water, wind,
biomass or even non-renewable thermoelectric source [13].
Thus, this paper proposes the connection of a SG in parallel
to a SEIG, using a static excitation system based on a Buck
converter powered by an independent source for the SG in
order to control the generated voltage’s amplitude. The use of
an independent source to power the excitation system allows
the interconnection of a different energy resource to the MG.
II. S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION
Fig. 1 shows the proposed microgeneration system. The
SEIG primary mover is considered a constant power supplier,
characterizing, for example, a hydroelectric turbine driven by
constant flow. The SG, on the other hand, is driven by a
machine of constant speed and variable power, such as a
controlled thermoelectric or biofuel system.
connected, causing the terminal voltage to increase. At that
moment, the excitation system decreases the voltage vf d to a
value below vf d−no−load and the SG starts to consume the
excess reagents. Finally, the reactive power of the load is
zeroed and vf d takes on the value of vf d−no−load and the
system returns to the condition of the first instant.

ELC active SG active IG active Load active

power
PIG nom

power
PIG nom

power
PIG nom

power
PIG nom

Frequency
fnom
Fig. 1. Proposed System.
Time
Due to the greater robustness, the SEIG is kept operating at
its rated power. Thus, a capacitor bank is designed to supply Fig. 2. Microgrid active power regulation.
the reactive power demanded by the load in the rated condition
of the SEIG. The SG acts by compensating the reactive power
IG reactive Load reactive

1 2 3 4
demanded by the loads to keep the amplitude of the generated
power

voltage constant. It is also capable of providing active power

when the load demand is greater than the SEIG capacity.
Since SIEG is kept supplying rated power by it’s unregu-
lated primary mover, surplus active power must be consumed
power

to keep system’s frequency constant. Thus, a Electronic Load

QCexc
Controller (ELC) is employed to regulates the system’s fre-
quency, consuming this excess power to ensure the correct
SG reactive

balance between generated and consumed active power. Fig. 2

power

demonstrate the active power regulation dynamics. During the

entire operation, SEIG is kept supplying rated power, PIGnom .
As load power increases, the ELC decreases the consumed
voltage

vfd-no-load
field

power, to the point where it is completely zeroed, when load

power is greater than or equal to SEIG capacity (PIGnom ).
From that point on, SG also starts to provide active power
voltage

and SG primer mover takes over the frequency control.

CCP

Reactive power regulation is performed through the control
of the SG excitation, where a Buck converter powered by an
external DC bus adjusts the generator’s field voltage, varying
the amount of generated reactive power. 3 exemplify the
reactive power regulation. Fig. 3 can be divided into 4 instants.
Initially, the load connected to the system does not consume
reactive power and, consequently, the SG generates only a
portion of reactives to maintain rated terminal voltage, with a
field voltage (vf d ) equal to vf d−no−load . In the second instant,
an inductive load is connected. In this way, the terminal
voltage tends to drop, but the excitation system increases vf d ,
increasing the generated reactive power and regulating the grid
voltage amplitude. At the third instant, a capacitive load is
VTnom
Time
Fig. 3. Microgrid reactive power regulation.
III. S YSTEM M ODELING
In this section, the SG, Buck converter and ELC model are
exposed. It is noteworthy that it is not necessary to model the
SEIG, as there is no control over it.
A. SG and Buck converter modeling
In [14] is presented the modeling and design of a SG
terminal voltage control system using a static excitation system

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controlled by a Buck converter powered by an external source, B. ELC modeling
where the models used in this paper are obtained and validated
The ELC topology is shown in Fig. 1. It can be considered
by simulation and experimental results.
as a power-draining resistor, that is, it does not insert dynamics
1) Transfer Functions: According to [15], SG excitation
model can be represented by a first-order function that relates
into the system. Therefore, the ELC model Gelc (s) is taken as
terminal voltage amplitude (modeled by the vd component
function that relates the estimated frequency variations, fe , to
of the phase voltages) to the field voltage vf d , given by (1).
′ ELC duty cycle, de , including the frequency estimation delay
Td0 is the direct-axis open-circuit transient time constant (also
of 0.1 seconds. The ELC model, given by (3), is obtained
called the field circuit time constant, as it is related to the
through experimental data.
parameters of this winding) and KG is a gain that depends
on the field voltage required to generate the nominal no-load
∆fe (s) 12
terminal voltage. The parameters presented in (1) correspond Gelc (s) = = (3)
to the SG of the experimental bench. When a power invariant ∆de (s) 0.1s + 1
dq0 transformation is applied to the generator phase voltages, IV. C ONTROL SYSTEM
the d component is equivalent to the RMS value of the line
voltages [14]. This substitution eliminates the delay caused by Fig. 5 shows the block diagram of the design control system.
calculating the RMS value [16]. As this is a balanced three-phase three-wire system, only two
line voltages are measured. From these, the equivalent phase
vd (s) KG 19.54121 voltages are obtained, used for applying the dq0 transforma-
G(s) = = ′ = (1)
vf d (s) Td0 s + 1 0.47619s + 1 tion. This reference system change requires knowledge of the
The non-ideal Buck converter with RL load topology is angular position of system voltages, the synchronism signal θ.
shown in Fig. 4. In this circuit, the converter’s load is the
SG field winding, modeled by a RL circuit, Rf d and Lf d .
The LC filter is used in the Buck converter output stage to Control system - DSP TMS320F28335
ensure lower output voltage ripple.
ωv
sin θ Frequency
identification fe

va Kalman
filter

θ
va vd
v ab abc
line-phase vb vq
v bc transformation vc v0
dq0
Fig. 4. Non-ideal Buck converter with RL load.

The parameters of the designed converter, as well as the Voltage loop

parameters of the SG, obtained experimentally, are presented controller
vdref ev uv vPWM_Buck
in Table 1. It is considered that the converter is powered by +
- Cv PWM
a 150 V bus. The high value of Lf d is due to high value of modulation
vd
′
Td0 .
Carrier 20 kHz
TABLE I
N ON - IDEAL B UCK C ONVERTER PARAMETERS Frequency loop
controller
Parameter Value fref ee ue vPWM_ELC
+
- Ce PWM
Input Voltage (Vin ) 150 V
modulation
Switching frequency (fs ) 20 kHz fe
Filter inductor (L) 4.55 mH
Filter capacitor (Cf ) 3.3 µF
Carrier 20 kHz
Field resistance (Rf d ) 31.94 Ω
Field inductance (Lf d ) 16 H
Capacitor parasitic resistance (rC ) 0.2 Ω
Fig. 5. Control System Block Diagram.
Inductor parasitic resistance (rL ) 0.263 Ω

Vf d (s) Cf Lf d Vs rC s2 + Vs (Cf Rf d rC + Lf d )s + Rf d Vs
Gvd (s) = =
D(s) Cf LLf d s3 + Cf (LRf d + LrC + Lf d rC + Lf d rL )s2 + (L + Lf d + Cf Rf d rC + Cf Rf d rL + Cf rC rL )s + (Rf d + rL )
(2)

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 In [17], a method for estimating the states of linear systems way, a PI controller in the form of (5) is designed, with gains
corrupted by uncertainties and noise is presented, based on KP e = 0.08333 e KIe = 0.58333.
the use of the Kalman filter. The method consists of obtain the
KIe
fundamental component of the PCC voltages. From this signal, Ce (s) = KP e + (5)
the system frequency fe is estimated through the frequency s
identification algorithm, as shown in Fig. 5.
From the synchronization angle θ and the equivalent phase 420 vd

voltage (V)
Terminal
voltages, the dq0 transformation is applied. In this way, the 400 vdref
voltage amplitude vd and the system’s estimated frequency fe 380
are obtained and fed back to the control system. 360
340
A. Excitation system control 0,3

action u v
Control
Fig. 6 shows the block diagram of the excitation system 0,2
control, where a controller Cv (s) receives the voltage error 0,1
signal between the vd component reference value vdref (s) 0
and the CCP voltages actual vd (s) component. This controller 60

voltage (V)
generates the duty cycle of the buck converter, dv (s), which

Field
40
applies the field voltage required to regulate the value of vd (s).
20
0
4 4,5 5
Time (seconds)

Fig. 7. SG control validation.

Fig. 6. Excitation system control block diagram.

According to IEEE standard 421.2 [18], a excitation system

control must have a gain margin greater than 6 dB, Phase
Margin greater than 40° and overshoot below 15% to ensure
good voltage regulation. Thus, from these conditions, Cv (s)
is design as a PI type controller, given by (4), with gains KP v
= 0.00261 and KIv = 0.00564.
Fig. 8. ELC control block diagram.
KIv
Cv (s) = KP v + , (4) 1) ELC control validation: In order to partially validate
s
the frequency controller design, a simulation of the SEIG with
1) Excitation control validation: In order to validate the ELC is performed. The controller response is evaluated against
designed controller, a simulation of SG excitation system is variations in the reference frequency of the system. Fig. 9
performed. The designed controller is evaluated by varying shows the system frequency compared to the reference value
the voltage reference with the machine in the no-load condi- and the duty cycle of the ELC switch. It can be seen that the
tion, isolated from the system. Fig. 7 shows the voltage vd system follows the imposed reference value with a settling
compared to the reference value, the control action uv and the time of 0.5 seconds, that meets the criteria of this application.
field voltage vf d . The simulation result evidences the correct
performance of the control system, as vd follows the imposed
referente with a settling time of 0.3 seconds.

B. ELC control
Fig. 8 shows the block diagram of the ELC control system.
A Ce (s) controller receives the error between the reference
frequency and the estimated frequency of the system, generat-
ing the ELC duty cycle, which regulates the MG frequency by
varying the consumed active power. Since a positive frequency
error (fref > fe ) implies a decrease in the active power
consumed by the ELC (and consequently a decrease in the
duty cycle), the controller must have negative gain. Likewise, Fig. 9. ELC Control Validation.
negative errors (fref < fe ) imply an increase in de . In this

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 V. E XPERIMENTAL RESULTS Load 2 is disconnected. From the result, it can be seen that the
system is capable of maintaining the regulated voltage within
The results of the generation system are obtained in
the proper operating range according to the standard. From the
an experimental bench. The measurement signal acquisition
field voltage graph, it can be observed the excitation system’s
and processing of control signals is performed in a DSP
fast response to contain the voltage sags caused by the low PF
TMS320F28335. Fig. 10 shows the group of machines used
load. Likewise, the excitation system acts quickly to reduce the
on the bench. A 5 kVA, 380 V SG with 4 salient pole pairs,
field voltage during the load disconnection.
with a rated speed of 900 RPM, connected to three wires (no
The SG does not supply active power to the system while
neutral conductor available) is used. The GI used is a three-
the load power is less than the rated power of the SEIG. After
phase squirrel-cage rotor machine, 3.7 kW and 380 V. The GI
12 seconds, when the UC load exceeds 3.7 kW, the ELC is
is driven by an induction motor that provides constant power.
completely turned off and the SG starts to supply active power
The SG is driven by DC motor with regulated speed.
to the microgrid. Even when Load 2 is removed, at 18 seconds,
the ELC remains off, as the load power is still greater than
3.7 kW, so only the power delivered by the SG is reduced.
VI. C ONCLUSION
This work presented a microgrid formed by connecting two
generators, the SG and the SEIG, in parallel. The results
corroborate the concept of complementary operation between
the two generators, showing that the technologies can be
associated in order to obtain satisfactory results in terms of
reliability in generation systems.
The use of a SG static excitation system based on a Buck
converter powered by an external source was proposed and
validated since the system was able to maintain regulated
voltage amplitude against load variations from no-load to rated
power.
The results showed the correct performance of the ELC to
consume the SEIG surplus active power in order to control
bus frequency. When the load exceeds the SEIG limit, the
ELC is completely turned off and the SG’s primary mover
Fig. 10. Rotating machines used in the experimental bench.
takes control of the MG frequency. The correct coordination
between the two actuators controlling the same variable is the
The objective of the control system is to keep the voltage
result of an adequate control system.
amplitude within ±10% of the rated value of the RMS voltage,
Thus, the system complies with Brazilian National Electric
according to the brazilian National Electric Energy Agency
Energy Agency (ANEEL) standard both in steady-state and
(ANEEL) standards [19]. Dips or elevations that exceed this
transient conditions and, therefore, meets the objective of
range must last less than 3 seconds. In proposed microgrid,
providing electrical energy with quality and high reliability.
the voltage is controlled through vd , which is related to the
RMS value of the line voltages, as mentioned in Section III. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Regarding frequency, the control system must keep the
This study was financed in part by the Coordenacção
frequency within the range of 59.9 Hz to 60.1 Hz. Variations
de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nı́vel Superior - Brasil
above this range must be extinguished in less than 30 seconds,
(CAPES/PROEX) - Finance Code 001. The authors are grate-
as per [19].
ful to the National Institute of Technology and Develop-
To show the correct functioning of the system, a series of
ment in Distributed Generation (INCT-GD), CNPq process
load connections was made. Fig. 11 shows the behavior of the
n° 465640/2014-1, CAPES process n° 23038.000776/2017-54
system when the following loads are added over time:
and FAPERGS process n° 17/2551-0000517-1
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