Ijetae Icitsem 2014 05

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Special Issue 2, February 2014)
Analysis and Design of Electronic Load Controllers

used in Micro Hydro Power Systems
ChetnaNagpal,RiyazBasheer,Abin Thomas,Rinjo Daniel,Irfan Yusuf
Electrical and Electronics Department,
Birla Institute of Technology - Ranchi
International centre RAK,
UAE
Abstract—Electronic Load Controller’s that can be used constant. Accordingly, if the electricity demand increase or
on micro-hydro power systems that do not have the the water flow is reduced, the respective amount of ballast
necessary means to have separate penstock to control the load is switched off.
speed of water. Electronic load controllers control the load
on the generator and not the flow through the turbine. The This type of load controllers can help in getting
objective is to hold the turbine and generator output at a electricity to rural parts of the world which is not directly
constant speed despite fluctuating user demand or water connected to the grid but has access to a free flowing water
flow. This is achieved by employing a separate electric body. To fit the requirements of use in a rural environment the
load, called ballast load, which absorbs the load not Controller should be rugged, cheap and have ease of
required by the consumers,also to explain and modification and repair as usually the communities that set up
demonstrate a simulation model of an ELC and future micro - hydro power systems have limited finance and limited
prospects that are available in this front. skilled labour.[4]
Keywords—Electronic load Governor, ELC, Micro- II. ELECTRONIC LOAD CONTROLLER

hydro, Rural power,Electronic Load Controller, Dump
loads, Self-excited induction generators, Simulation, The basic concept any ELC uses is to let the turbine and
LABview, model. generator run at their full power, or possibly a manually set
partial power, and keeps the electric load just right to attain
I. INTRODUCTION the correct speed. It's very similar to the old mechanical speed
governor that acts on a mechanical brake, only that an ELC
Electronic Load Controller devices represent a relatively uses electrical braking: Dump loads into which excess electric
new technology that was developed during the 1980’s. power can be put. If the generator is induction type it won't
Electronic load controllers control the load on the generator have internal voltage regulation, so it's better to use the ELC
and not the flow through the turbine. The objective is to hold as a voltage regulator, and sense voltage rather than
the turbine and generator output at a constant speed despite frequency.[7]
fluctuating user demand or water flow. This is achieved by
employing a separate electric load, called ballast load, which The power devices used to control the dump loads can be
absorbs the load not required by the consumers. relays, thyristors, MOSFETs, or IGBTs. With relays, only
very basic slow on/off control can be done, resulting in
If the electricity demand falls or the water flow unstable speed, and the relays tend to wear out quickly. With
increases the turbine and generator speed up resulting in thyristors, four types of operation are possible: Simple slow
higher output frequency. The ELC senses this frequency on/off individual half cycle control, individual full cycle
change and in response switches in extra ballast load of control, and phase control within each half cycle. In principle
exactly the same power to keep total load on the generator thyristors can also be used for more sophisticated control,
International Conference on Innovative Trends in Science, Engineering and Management (ITICSEM 2014), Dubai, UAE Page 26
using additional thyristors to turn off the main ones before a The main types of ELC’s in use are:
half cycle is over, finally, with MOSFETs or IGBTs it is
possible to implement any of the control methods mentioned, i. With ‘phase angle’ regulation and one, large dump
plus high frequency pulse width modulated control. IGBTs load. With these, the power component of the ELC is a
have a better power handling to price ratio, while MOSFETs triac or thyristor, just like in an ordinary light dimmer:
can work at higher frequency, reducing the size of filter The dump load is switched on at a moment (expressed
components.[1] as a phase angle) in each half period of voltage signal.
The triac switches off by itself when current through it
All these methods cause a constantly changing load drops to 0 by the end of each half period. When a large
on the generator. The changes might happen slowly or fast, dump load is switched on while voltage is at its highest
but always happen, and that translates into a poor power factor, generator current is seriously distorted. This makes that
requiring the generator to be oversized. When many dump generator oversized by some 25 % when such an ELC
loads are used, the extent of this problem is small, but it is a is used.
very bad idea to use such control with a single dump load. ii. With a `binary’ set of dump loads. Here, each dump
Instead, when high frequency pulse width modulation is used, load is switched either completely on or completely off,
along with proper filtering, this problem disappears. Such to avoid distortion of generator current. By switching
PWM control can have unity power factor, very smooth speed on different combinations, power diverted to dump
control, and can work with a single dump load, but it's more loads can be regulated in small steps. Such a system
expensive to implement production, are also larger than when will be quite expensive because of the costs of solid
using low frequency control with thyristorsbecause the state relays and the set of dump loads with the right
MOSFETs or IGBTs normally need to be combined with capacities.
several diodes, which cause additional loss, and the switching iii. With pulse width regulation (also called `mark-space’
loss at high frequency is significant.[8] regulation). Here, the AC voltage is first rectified and
dump load is switched on and off with a variable duty
cycle. For this, modern IGBT transistors are used that
Thomas Meler in his book[1] writes that“The principal can switch off current at any moment. Total heat
advantage of a load controller is that the overall system is less production is higher because dump load current passes
complex and less costly. It not only eliminates the need for a both the rectifier and the transistor.
precision-engineered mechanical governor mechanism, but it
may also allow the design of the turbine to be simplified
because there is no need for the guide vanes or rotor blades to
be adjustable since the turbine is always running at full flow” A. Binary load regulation
The other advantage is that electronic load controllers do In binary load regulation the ballast load is made up
not require maintenance, as they have no moving parts. Load from a switched combination of binary arrangement of
governing is ideal for micro hydro systems which are directly separate resistive loads. In response to a change in the
from water flow where there is no reservoir for water storage. consumer load, a switching selection is made to
Their disadvantage is waste of water, making them less connect the appropriate combination of load steps. This
suitable in case of water shortage in which case a reservoir is switching operation occurs during the transient period
essential. only, thereafter full system voltage is applied to the
new fraction of the ballast load and hence harmonics
III. LITERATURE REVIEW are not produced by this method in the steady-state. In
addition, it is usually the practice to adopt solid-state
switching relays which include a zero-voltage
The main type of ELC designs that are prevalent are: switching circuit that reduces the harmonic distortion
associated with the transient switching period.[12]
 Binary load regulation.
 Phase angle regulation.
 Pulse width regulation.
 Controlled bridge rectifier.
 Uncontrolled rectifier with a chopper.
In pulse angle regulation method some of the shortcomings
present are the presence of harmonics and that effectiveness
limited by timing accuracy of trigger pulse. Pulse angle
modulation also seriously distort the generator and this leads
to the increasing of size of the generator to almost 25%
C. Phase width Regulation
In pulse width regulation the AC voltage is first rectified

and dump load is switched on and off with a variable duty
cycle.A PWM generator which alters its mark/space ratio in
response to the correspondingly varying voltage level if the
rotational speed of the generator drifts towards the higher side,
Fig.1 Binary weighted ballast load would create an equivalent rise in potential at the input and
which in turn would give rise to higher mark ratio to the
Costs of Solid State relay are far higher than the TRIACS
Mosfet, allowing it to conduct more current to the load. With
because each of them contains steering electronics.The
increase in the load current, the motor would find it harder to
number of dump loads and the associated wiring is high andto
rotate thus settling down back to its original speed.
achieve smooth regulation, these dump loads should all have
exactly the right capacity.With a low number of dump loads,
Exactly the opposite happens when the speed tends to drift
steps between dump load combinations remain too large and
toward lower levels, when the dummy load is weakened in
the system cannot regulate smoothly.
order to pull up the speed of the motor to its normal
specifications.[10]
B. Pulse angle regulation
PWM control can have fast response and compared to other
In phase angle regulation, the ballast load comprises of a schemes they usually have very smooth speed control,but
permanently connected single resistive load circuit of
total heat that is produced in this type of ELC is high and this
magnitude equal to (or slightly greater than) the full load rated
is due to current problems with both rectifier and the transistor
output of the generator. As a result of the detection of a
switching losses is really noticeable and significant in high
change in the consumer load, the firing angle of present power
frequency.
electronic switching device, such as a triac, is adjusted, thus
altering the average voltage Applied to and hence the power COMPARISON TABLE
dissipated by, the ballast load.
As with all power electronic switching of this nature, this Binary load regulation Phase
technique introduces harmonics onto the electrical system.
Minimal harmonics Harmonics are present
Have fixed number of dumb Can use anynumberofdump

loads loads
Effectiveness limitedby
Effectiveness limited by the
timing accuracyof trigger
number of dumb loads
pulse
Table 1 general comparison table

Fig. 2firing angle of pulse angle regulation
SIMULATION voltage is bypassed to the ballast load. Hence the domestic
The simulation depicts the electronic load controller (ELC) load gets a steady voltage even if there is any change in the
using the simulation software LABview. The layout generating module.
demonstrates how the loads are toggled from the OFF state to
ON and vice versa in response to the variation of output from The Electronic Load Controller is so designed as to
the generator. The complexity of the layout has been maintain a constant electrical load on the generator. This is
minimized by creating a modern metric type of measurement generally used for generators powered by hydro turbine. In
systems associated with the generating and consumption of such applications where the generator is loaded with constant
voltages. The loads added to fray can be increased depending power then the generator remains constant and hence the
upon the need for compensating the voltages at higher level output frequency will remain constant. It is assumed here that
and other design considerations. Thus the voltages get the water falling on the turbine blades and the water head is
bypassed to the loads by the dynamic method of electronic not constant and is varying depending upon the weather and
load controlling depending upon various controllers used. The other conditions. The generator output goes through the ELC
end user voltage rating is valued to be steady as there is no to the user load. Resistive loads are connected to the ELC
change in the utilization point of view. Meters have been module.The conventional governors made using mechanical
placed to provide accurate and precise reading on how many and hydraulic governors to control the flow of the water in the
loads are active as well as inactive. penstock are uneconomical and not simple to be maintained
and constructed in remote areas. Thus, in micro hydro systems
The system also gives the exact rating on how many loads inwhich cost is the major factor electronic governor this type
are connected to the load control module. After compensating of ELC is the best way of controllingthe output of the
the domestic load voltage which is steady the remaining generator.
Fig. 3 Simulation block diagram
The electronic load controller is an electronic device secondary ballast loadwith the power not required by the main
that maintains a constant electricalload on the generator in load. Consider the plant running at near full loadand governed
spite of changing user loads.This permits the use of turbine by an ELC.
with no flow regulating and their governor control system.The
ELC maintains a constant generator output by supplying a
Fig. 4 Front panel layout

scenario.The power capacity of the ELC can be increased
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
by adding comparators in final comparator module.The
product can be packaged in a proper housing with panels
From the results of the study and simulation a outside for easy and quick access and also to keep the
working model can be built for further study on components and wiring protected.
implementation of the Load controller and to integrate it
with micro-hydro generation schemes so as to have a CONCLUSION
sustainable power source in remote areas and areas that
does not usually have access to electricity. The hardware ELCs using any of these different systems and methods
model can also be modified to be able to integrate into several manufacturers are available, but some are of poor
other forms of alternate energy generation schemes such as quality, many are very expensive, and a few are both. The
wind, tidal, solar and so on where the output of the problem is that micro hydro is a niche market, and ELCs
generator is not necessarily constant. are typically hand-made in very small quantities. This
results in an unfavorable ratio of cost to performance. So
Entire circuit can be assembled in a single PCB. ELCs belong to the select group of equipments to be made
This mitigates the problems that can arise in packaging and simpler to make and accessible to people with little
interconnection between four PCBs as that of present experience and technical background. And hence the need
for a simple yet effective ELC which can be made with
easily acquirable parts and easy to construct is
required.Though use of ELCs is existent in micro-hydro
systems these days, the present ELCs face different
problems such as getting damaged very soon, inconsistent
in performance and also the high cost. Damaged ELCs
today are replaced instead of repairing. The selection of
ELC in our project is to make an effort to mitigate the
problems stated above. Also the cost of the ELC is much
lower as compared to the existing ELCs. All these lead to
the conclusion that, with some minor modifications,and
testing this project can be a superior alternative to the
existing designs available
REFERENCES
[1] Thomas Meier,Mini Hydropower for Rural Development

[2] Adam Harvey,Micro-Hydro Design Manual: A Guide to Small-
Scale Water Power Schemes
[3] Ahmed F.Zobaa, Ramesh C.Bansal.,Handbook of Renewable
Energy Technology
[4] Dr D. S. Henderson and W Pearson,‘An improved control
algorithm for anelectronic load governor’
[5] K. Subramanian, K. K. Ray, K.Hari Prasad,NandGopal.E,Nimisha
Gupta,Nirupama.V,Pragyajha and MeenakshiSinha,‘State Of The
Art of Electronic Load Controller of Self- Excited Asynchronous
Generator UsedIn Mini / Micro Hydro Power Generation’
[6] Jan Portegijs,The `humming bird’Electronic Load
Controller/Induction Generator Controller
[7] Vimal Singh Bisht, Y.R Sood, Nikhil Kushwaha, and
Suryakant,‘Review On Electronic Load Controller’
[8] D. S. Henderson and W Pearson.‘Electronic Load Governor -
application of derivative controlaction for improving transient
response’
[9] A. Harvey,Micro-hydro Design Manual. Rugby: Intermediate
Technology Publications, 2006.
[10] H.Ludens. (2010,Electronic Load Controller for micro-hydro
system).
[11] D. Henderson, "An Advanced Electronic Load Governor for
Control of Micro Hydroelectric Generation”
[12] J.Portegijs. (2000, 6 December). The `Humming Bird' Electronic
Load Controller / Induction Generator Controller’

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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Analysis and Design of Electronic Load Controllers

Keywords—Electronic load Governor, ELC, Micro- II. ELECTRONIC LOAD CONTROLLER

C. Phase width Regulation

In pulse width regulation the AC voltage is first rectified

Minimal harmonics Harmonics are present

Have fixed number of dumb Can use anynumberofdump

Table 1 general comparison table

Fig. 3 Simulation block diagram

Fig. 4 Front panel layout

[1] Thomas Meier,Mini Hydropower for Rural Development

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