A solid state controller for self-excited induction generator for voltage regulation, harmonic compensation and load balancing

Abstract

This paper deals with the performance analysis of static compensator (STATCOM) based voltage regulator for self-excited induction generators (SEIGs) supplying balanced/unbalanced and linear/ non-linear loads. In practice, most of the loads are linear. But the presence of non-linear loads in some applications injects harmonics into the generating system. Because an SEIG is a weak isolated system, these harmonics have a great effect on its performance. Additionally, SEIG’s offer poor voltage regulation and require an adjustable reactive power source to maintain a constant terminal voltage under a varying load. A three-phase insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based current controlled voltage source inverter (CC-VSI) known as STATCOM is used for harmonic elimination. It also provides the required reactive power an SEIG needs to maintain a constant terminal voltage under varying loads. A dynamic model of an SEIG-STATCOM system with the ability to simulate varying loads has been developed using a stationary d-q axes reference frame. This enables us to predict the behavior of the system under transient conditions. The simulated results show that by using a STATCOM based voltage regulator the SEIG terminal voltage can be maintained constant and free from harmonics under linear/non linear and balanced/unbalanced loads.