Frequency Control of Grid Small Hydro Power 201

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all it is our pleasure to express our much gratitude to Jimma University institute of
technology for giving us this opportunity to do this mini-project preparing us for final project.
And also we would like to thank and appreciate our department Electrical and computer
engineering for providing us sufficient knowledge and facilitating things to perform this
project.

Next our heartily thank goes to our advisor, Ermiyas Shiferaw as without his encouragement,
insight, guidance, and professional expertise, this work would not be more realistic and
applicable. It is also our pleasure to thank all other people who helped us during our project
work.

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ABSTRACT
This project work titled “frequency control of grid small HP” describes the application of a
stepper motor in controlling the frequency of grid connected small hydropower plant.

In Ethiopia, the frequencies of the existing small hydropower plants are controlled by
mechanical governors. Unfortunately, these governors are expensive, complex and slow in
response. Furthermore, the governors do not act fast enough during big load changes;
consequently, frequency spikes are created. This in turn will disturb the overall stability of the
grid which may result in unit outage, inefficient operation of electrical devices, black outs, etc.

In this project work, a stepper motor is used to control the frequency of a small hydropower
plant. The stepper motor is selected because of its cheap, fast, and less complicated features. It
is used to control opening and closing of MIV, Main Inlet Valve, to control the flow of water
into the turbine of a small hydropower plant.

The position of the stepper motor is controlled by a PI controller. Thus, a frequency control
system using a stepper motor is modeled, designed and simulated by MatLab software.
Simulation results for small hydropower plants with different capacities demonstrate that
transient and steady state performances are enhanced by replacing mechanical governors with
stepper motors. Moreover, frequency overshoots are reduced.

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Table Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................ii
1 CHAPTER ONE....................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Project..............................................................................................1
1.2 Statement of the Problem................................................................................................2
1.3 Objectives of the Project.................................................................................................2
1.3.1 General objective of the Project..............................................................................2
1.3.2 Specific objective of the Project..............................................................................3
1.4 Significance of the Project..............................................................................................3
1.5 Scope of the project........................................................................................................3
1.6 Methodology...................................................................................................................3
2 CHAPTER TWO...................................................................................................................4
2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................4
2.2 Energy sources................................................................................................................4
2.2.1 Hydropower.............................................................................................................4
2.3 Components of small hydro-power plants......................................................................6
2.3.1 Diversion weir.........................................................................................................6
2.3.2 The power canal......................................................................................................6
2.3.3 The fore-bay............................................................................................................6
2.3.4 Penstock..................................................................................................................7
2.3.5 Hydraulic turbines...................................................................................................7
2.3.6 Synchronous generators..........................................................................................7
2.3.7 Coupling (drive system)..........................................................................................7
2.3.8 Overhead transmission lines....................................................................................8
2.4 Head and Flow................................................................................................................8

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2.5 Power developed by small hydro Systems.....................................................................9

2.6 Control systems of small hydropower systems..............................................................9
2.7 Automatic generation control.......................................................................................10
3 CHAPTER THREE.............................................................................................................11
3.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................11
3.2 Modeling the Synchronous Generator..........................................................................11
3.3 Modeling the Hydraulic Turbine..................................................................................18
3.4 Modeling the Load........................................................................................................19
3.5 Modeling the load controller (PI controller).................................................................20
3.6 Stepper motors..............................................................................................................20
3.7 Principles of operation of a stepper motor....................................................................21
3.8 Modeling the stepper motor..........................................................................................23
4 CHAPTER FOUR................................................................................................................24
4.1 Generator selection.......................................................................................................24
4.2 PI Controller.................................................................................................................25
4.3 Stepper Motor...............................................................................................................26
4.4 The overall system with numerical values....................................................................27
5 CHAPTER FIVE.................................................................................................................28
5.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................28
5.2 Simulation Results of the Flow control mode..............................................................29
5.3 Discussions...................................................................................................................32
5.4 Contributions of the Project work.................................................................................33
6 CHAPTER SIX....................................................................................................................34
6.1 Conclusions..................................................................................................................34
6.2 Recommendations for the future project......................................................................34
7 REFERENCES....................................................................................................................35

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1-Block diagram for Interdiciplinary work associated with building of HPs...................5
Figure 2-General block diagram of the small HP system...........................................................10
Figure 3-variation of load angle and speed in transient.............................................................13
Figure 4-Block diagram of a synchronous generator.................................................................17
Figure 5- Block diagram of a hydraulic turbine and a generator..............................................18
Figure 6-Turbine, generator and load block diagram................................................................20
Figure 7-Unipolar stepper motor................................................................................................21
Figure 8-Flow control model of a small hydropower system.....................................................23
Figure 9-Block diagram of generator and Load.........................................................................25
Figure 10-Simplified model of the system with PI controllers....................................................26
Figure 11-Block diagram of a low head small hydropower plant with flow control..................27
Figure 12-Transient-response characteristics of a control system.............................................28
Figure 13-Simulation result for small hydro power with and without controller.......................29
Figure 14-step response of the power error for a 3% load change............................................30
Figure 15-Frequency deviation step responses of low head small HPs.....................................31
Figure 16-Frequency deviation step responses of low, medium and high head small HPs........32

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1 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Small hydropower can be developed to meet power demand of small community or industrial
plant. The term “small hydro” refers to size of generation capacity from a few kilowatts to 50
megawatts of power output. Internationally, “small” hydro power plant capacities typically
range in size from 1 MW to 50 MW.

1.1 Background of the Project

Most of the rural part of Ethiopia is not yet electrified. It is not feasible, at the same time, both
technically and cost wise to extend the national grid to isolated rural communities. Therefore
the current international trend in rural electrification is to utilize renewable energy resources,
because of their reasonable construction costs.

Ethiopia is naturally endowed with several small and medium sized rivers which can be
harnessed for the development of small hydropower systems. However, this vast renewable
energy resource is not exploited yet sufficiently for electric generation.

One of the challenges in developing small hydropower systems is the control system. The
control system should be cost effective, less complex, and more reliable.

Similar to that of large power systems, the voltages and frequency of small hydropower
systems should be kept at scheduled values. To keep these parameters, voltage and frequency,
at the scheduled values, the small hydropower systems should be controlled.

In a power system, usually, voltage and frequency are controlled separately. Voltage is
maintained by control of reactive power of the synchronous generator while frequency is
maintained by balancing generation and demand.

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Most commercial synchronous generators have built-in automatic voltage regulators. Hence,
there is no need for the design of the voltage control system in grid small hydropower systems.

Thus, designing the control systems of grid small hydropower systems imply only the designs
of the frequency control systems. The frequency of a small hydropower system exclusively
depends on real power balance.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Conventionally, governors are used in the automatic generation control of grid small
hydropower systems. Recently, because of their cost, complexity, slow response, heavy
maintenance, and problems in accepting big load changes, traditional governors are not
applicable to grid small hydropower systems. DC servo motors with inlet valves are being used
in frequency control of grid small hydropower systems but servo motor governors are not
suited to the frequency control of grid small hydropower systems.

In this project work, a stepper motor with inlet valve is used to achieve automatic generation
control. Employing the stepper motor has made the control system less complex, less expensive
and more reliable.

In Ethiopia, there are some small hydropower generating stations that had been built by
EEPCO. The small hydropower systems use conventional governor systems. Because of
previously mentioned problems, only few of the small hydropower systems are operational
today.

Thus, in this project, a frequency controller that avoids the problems associated with
conventional speed governors and the imported digital load controllers is modeled, designed
and simulated.

1.3 Objectives of the Project

1.3.1 General objective of the Project

The primary objective of this project is to model, design and simulate a frequency controller of
grid small hydropower systems.

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1.3.2 Specific objective of the Project

• To study different frequency control mechanisms of small hydropower systems.

• To model grid small hydropower plants for frequency control.

• To design a frequency control system of grid small hydropower systems.

• To simulate the frequency control system using MATLAB.

•To design cost effective, reliable, and faster frequency controller

1.4 Significance of the Project

This study provides very important results for cost effective, reliable, and faster frequency
controller. Thus, the result will have the following significances for frequency controller in grid
small hydropower system.

 Easy maintenance
 Appropriate with our country’s context
 Provides more stable power for the customers.
 It will reduce the cost, complexity, slow response of the existing control
systems.

1.5 Scope of the project

The scope of this project is limited to design frequency control system, assuming small hydro
power systems use synchronous generators that have built-in voltage control system. This
project covers controller modeling, design and simulation that requires less maintenance and
accepts big load changes. It also proposes solutions so as to provide low cost, easy maintenance
automatic frequency controller for small hydropower systems.

1.6 Methodology
The methodology of this project includes:-

i) Literature review and referencing different reference materials

ii) Mathematical modeling and s-domain representation of system elements
iii) Simulating results using MatLab software.

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2 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
This chapter will review the basics of small hydropower systems development focusing on the
control systems and different mechanisms of frequency control.

2.2 Energy sources

Nature provides different types of energy sources. In general, the energy sources can be
classified in to two types:

 Conventional :

It includes solid fuels (Coal, Lignite), Liquid fuels (Diesel petrol), Gaseous Fuels (Natural
&Petroleum gas) and Nuclear.

 Nonconventional:

It includes Sun, Ocean, Wind, Biomass, Ocean, Water (Hydro)

2.2.1 Hydropower
Hydropower is one of nonconventional renewable energy technology which is presently
commercially available on a large scale.

Hydro-power is produced by the use of gravitational force of falling water or energy of moving
water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Water goes through a turbine which
converts the water's energy into mechanical energy. The rotation of the water turbines is
transferred to a generator because of generator-turbine coupling, which produces electricity.

Hydropower has four major advantages:

 It is renewable
 It doesn’t produce greenhouse gases
 It is requires least operational cost
 It can easily adjust the amount of electricity produced to the amount demanded by
consumers.

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2.2.1.1 Classification of Hydro-power plants

Based on generating capacity small hydro-power plants can be classified into three categories.
These are:

 Small hydro;1-50MW
 Mini hydro; 100KW-1MW and
 Micro hydro. ;5KW-100KW

2.2.1.1.1 Small-scale hydropower

Small-scale hydropower is one of the most cost-effective and reliable energy technologies to be
considered for providing clean electricity generation. Small hydropower systems often require
small reservoirs.

Small hydropower systems can be used to electrify residential homes or industries. They can
also be connected to the grid system.

Development of small hydropower systems is interdisciplinary work that involves association

among civil engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, environmental researchers,
economic analysts, etc.

Material
Civil Engineers Engineers Mechanical
Engineers

Hydro Power Electro-

Environmental mechanical Eng.
Researchers

Geologists Economic Electrical

Analysts Engineers

Figure 1-Block diagram for Interdiciplinary work associated with building of HPs

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Civil engineers are responsible for the construction of diversion weirs, power canals, fore bays,
penstocks and tail races.

Mechanical engineers are responsible for the design and selection of turbines, bearings, shafts,
gears, hydraulic systems, etc.

Electrical engineers are required for the design and selection of turbines, generators,
transformers, transmission lines, control systems, etc.

After the completion of construction of the power plant, electrical engineers are still
responsible for the economic operation of the power plant, for load forecasting, for matching
load demand and generation capacity, to maintain the frequency within the limits for efficient
operation of equipment, etc.

2.3 Components of small hydro-power plants

2.3.1 Diversion weir

The diversion weir is a small dam that diverts the required flow of water from the river into the
power canal of the small hydropower system. It is designed and located precisely to ensure that
the full design-flow rate goes to the power canal.

Since many small hydropower systems are run-of-river types, a low-head weir could be used to
hold back the water to provide a steady flow of water through the power canal.

2.3.2 The power canal

The power canal is a channel that extends from the diversion weir to the fore-bay. Generally,
the power canal runs parallel to the river at an ever-increasing difference in elevation, which
gives the small hydropower system its head. Different alternatives can be used to carry the
water from the diversion weir to the fore bay. For instance, plastic pipes or an open channel can
be used.

2.3.3 The fore-bay

The fore-bay is a tank which is built at the mouth of the power canal. The tank allows fine silt
particles to settle before the water enters the penstock.

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The fore-bay consists of a trash rack which is designed to settle suspended silt and flush the
basin. Debris and silt may damage the turbine and valves.

The fore-bay may be constructed from different materials such as concrete, stone and clay, and
woods. The trash racks can also be constructed either from steel or wood (bamboo). The cost of
construction can be reduced by constructing the fore-bay from local materials.

2.3.4 Penstock
The penstock pipe transports water under pressure from the fore-bay tank to the turbine, where
the potential energy of the water is converted into kinetic energy in order to rotate the turbine.

2.3.5 Hydraulic turbines

Hydraulic turbines convert the kinetic energy of flowing water into mechanical energy. The
hydraulic turbine consists of a runner connected to a shaft which may be connected directly to
the generator or connected by means of gears or belts and pulleys, depending on the speed
required by the synchronous generator.

2.3.6 Synchronous generators

Synchronous generators convert the mechanical energy produced to electrical energy; this is the
core part of any hydro electrical power system. Synchronous generators are standard in
electrical power generation and are used in most power plants.

However, in smaller systems less than 10 kW capacities, induction generators can be

considered. The synchronous generator must be driven at a constant speed to generate steady
power at 50 Hz frequency.

The speed is determined by the number of poles in the generator. A 1500-rpm, four-pole
synchronous generator is the most commonly used generator in small hydropower systems. To
match the speed of the generator to the low speed of the turbine, a drive system like gearbox is
used.

2.3.7 Coupling (drive system)

The drive system transmits power from the turbine to the shaft of generator in the required
direction and at the required speed.

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2.3.8 Overhead transmission lines

Overhead transmission lines are used to transport the generated power, from the synchronous
generator, to the customers. The size and type of the conductors required depends on the
amount of electrical power to be transmitted and the length of the lines to the customers.

Either a single or a three phase system can be employed based on the size of the hydropower
plant.

Ideally, neglecting the system failure, the load should get power 24 hours a day. In rural
communities, the common electrical loads prevalent are lighting, electronic devices,
refrigerators, small stoves, and simple motors.

2.4 Head and Flow

Hydraulic power can be captured wherever a flow of water falls from a higher level to a lower
level. This may occur where a stream runs down a hill side or a river passes over a waterfall or
man-made weir, or where a reservoir discharges water back into the main river.

The vertical fall of the water, known as the “head”, is essential for hydropower generation.
Hence two parameters that determine the generating capacity of the power plant are flow rate of
water Q, and a head H.

The Gross Head (H) is the maximum available vertical fall in the water, from the upstream
level to the downstream level. The actual head seen by a turbine will be slightly less than the
gross head due to losses incurred when transferring the water into and away from the machine.
This reduced head is known as the Net Head.

Sites where the gross head is less than 10 m would normally be classed as “low head”. From
10-50 m would typically be called “medium head”. Above 50 m would be classed as “high
head”.

The Flow Rate (Q) in the river is the volume of water passing per second, measured in m3/sec.
For small schemes, the flow rate may also be expressed in liters/second where 1000 liters/sec is
equal to 1 m3/sec.

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2.5 Power developed by small hydro Systems

Energy is an amount of work done, or a capacity to do work, measured in Joules. Power is the
energy converted per second, i.e. the rate of work being done, measured in watts. Hydro-
turbines convert water pressure into mechanical shaft power, which can be used to drive an
electricity generator.

The power available is proportional to the product of head and flow rate. The general formula
for any hydro system’s power output is:

P=× g ×Q × H × Ƞ overall ×10−3 KW

Where:

i) P:- is the electrical power produced by the synchronous generator (Watts),

ii) Ƞoverall:- is the overall efficiency of the power plant
iii) :-is the density of water (1000 kg/m3),
iv) g:-is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2),
v) Q:- is the volume flow rate passing through the turbine (m3/s),
vi) H: - is the effective pressure head of water across the turbine (m).

2.6 Control systems of small hydropower systems

Similar to large scale hydropower systems small hydropower systems should be controlled,
because customers require voltage and frequency at scheduled values.

As stated earlier, most synchronous generators are manufactured with built-in voltage
regulators and for this reason separate voltage control system is not required. But, the
frequency of a power system exclusively depends on the real power balance. Therefore, control
system for the frequency has to be designed exclusively.

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To keep the frequency at the nominal value, generation and demand should be balanced. This
can be achieved by automatic generation control.

2.7 Automatic generation control

Conventional governor systems, because of their cost and complexity, are not suited for small
hydropower systems. Recently, stepper motor governors are used in small hydropower systems.
Usually, DC stepper motors are used.

In this project, a low cost, permanent magnet stepper motor is used to operate the spear valve or
main inlet valve (MIV) of the turbine of a small hydropower system. The water flow into the
turbine is controlled by rotating the spear valve (MIV) using a stepper motor. P

SS

Main Inlet Valve

Flow Turbine Coupling Generator Load

Stepper Controller Frequency

motor sensor

Figure 2-General block diagram of the small HP system

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3 CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction
This chapter presents methods used to accomplish the project. Methods followed in this project
development are modeling, designing, and simulating the control system response.

The first step in the design of the control system of small hydropower systems is mathematical
modeling of the different components. In this project paper, the S-domain method is used to
represent system elements.

After proper assumptions and approximations are made to linear the mathematical equations
describing the components, transfer functions are obtained.

The block diagram in figure-2 shows the main components of a small hydropower system.
Before designing the frequency control system, the appropriate model for each component
should be obtained.

3.2 Modeling the Synchronous Generator

The model of the synchronous generator can derived from the swing equation. The swing
equation states that the net torque, which causes acceleration or deceleration of the rotor of the
synchronous generator, is the difference between the electromagnetic torque and mechanical
torque applied to the generator.

The net torque is the product of the moment of inertia of the rotor and its couples, and the
angular acceleration of the rotor. And the swing equation dynamics of synchronous generator is
under normal condition the relative position of rotor axis and resulting magnetic field axis is
fixed. The angle between rotor axis and field axis is called power angle/torque angle.

During any disturbance the rotor may accelerate/decelerate with respect to synchronously
rotating machine.

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Under steady state operation and neglecting loss

T m= T e

The difference of the two gives acceleration torque (Ta)

T a=Tm−Te

T
But T e=¿ Pe ¿ , m=¿ ωP m
,T 2
d θm
¿
ωe m
a=¿J
dt
2
¿

Where Te- Electrical torque

Tm-Mechanical Torque

Ta- Accelerating Torque

By substitution

d 2 θm P m Pe
J dt 2 = ω ± ω
m m

Multiplying the above equation byω mwe get:

d 2 θm
Jω m dt 2
= Pm - Pe

Where:-

 J -is the combined moment of inertia of the generator and the prime-mover [kgm 2]
 θm-is the angular displacement of the rotor in mechanical radian
 Tm is the mechanical torque in N.m
 Te is the electromagnetic torque in N.m
 t is time in seconds.

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The angular displacement of the rotor of the synchronous generator and prime-mover of the
turbine is given by:

Rotor speed ˂ Synchronous speed

ωr

δ Rotor Speed = synchronous speed

ω0
δ0
Reference Speed

Figure 3-variation of load angle and speed in transient

Thus,

Where:

 ω sm is rated angular velocity of the rotor in mechanical radians per sec

 δm is the angular displacement of the rotor with respect to the rotating magnetic field of
the synchronous generator.

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Derivation of the above equation yields:

d2δ m d 2 θm
Where is change in speed (Δɷ) and is the angular acceleration of the rotor
d t2 dt2

The equation above can be re written as

The angular momentum: M =Jɷ

It is convenient to write swing equation in terms of electrical power. Electrical power angle δ is
related to mechanical power angle δm by:

Where:- P is number of pole

The swing equation can be

The per unit inertia (H) is defined as the kinetic energy in watt-seconds at rated speed divided
by the rated volt-ampere, S base (G). Thus, using ω mo denote rated angular velocity in
mechanical radians per second, the per unit inertia constant is mathematically,
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Where: J is momentum of inertia and angular momentum, M =Jɷtherefore,

The above equation can be normalized in terms of the per unit inertia constant H. After solving
and rearranging it yields the following expression:

Further the above equation can be simplifies as:

Where: P m=ω mo × Tm is the mechanical input power to the synchronous generator and

Pe=ωmo ×Te is the electrical power generated by the generator.

Thus, the swing Equation in per unit is:

From the network equation we have:

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Where: ɷo =0.5 pɷmis the synchronous angular velocity of the rotor in electrical rad/s , p-is
number of poles and δ =0.5 p δmis angular displacement in electrical radians.

When there is a load change in the small hydropower system, it is reflected as a change in
electrical torque output of the synchronous generator. This introduces a mismatch between the
mechanical and electrical torques and thus accelerating or decelerating the rotor of the
synchronous generator. This in turn results in the deviation of the frequency of the small
hydropower system from its nominal value.

For small deviations (denoted by Δ) from initial values, the mechanical power, the electrical
power, and the rotor angle are given by

Where: δ - is rotor angle after perturbation

δo -is initial rotor angle and

Δδ - is change in rotor angle due to perturbation

Substituting the above equations into the swing equation yields:

Simplifying the above equation yields:

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In terms of small perturbations in speed, the above equation can be expressed as:

With the speed expressed in per unit and without explicit per unit notation, the swing equation
is modified to the following equation:

Taking the Laplace Transform of the above equation yields:

The above transfer function is simple representation of synchronous generator and its block
diagram is shown below:

Figure 4-Block diagram of a synchronous generator

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3.3 Modeling the Hydraulic Turbine

In small hydropower systems, hydraulic turbines are used to drive synchronous generators.
These hydraulic turbines convert the energy of flowing water into mechanical energy which in
turn is converted into electrical energy. Atypical hydraulic turbine can be assumed to have the
following transfer function:

Where: Tw :is referred to as the water starting time. It represents the time required for a head Ho
to accelerate the water in the penstock from standstill to the velocityUo.

The above equation represents the classical transfer function of a hydraulic turbine. It shows
how the turbine power output changes in response to a change in gate opening or an ideal
lossless turbine.

Figure 5- Block diagram of a hydraulic turbine and a generator

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3.4 Modeling the Load

In this project we assumed that the change in the total electrical load is due to changes in the
customer load and it is expressed in the following expression as:

Where: ΔP CLis the change in customer load.

The customer load on a small hydropower system consists of various types of electrical
devices.

Generally, the consumer load can be divided into two: frequency insensitive and frequency
sensitive loads. Loads such as lighting and heating are independent of frequency whereas motor
loads are sensitive to changes in frequency.

How a load is sensitive to frequency depends on the combination of the speed-load

characteristics of all the driven devices.

The speed load characteristic of a composite load is given by:

Where: Δ P L and DΔ ω are frequency insensitive and frequency sensitive load changes in the
consumer load respectively. D is the load damping constant and is expressed as percent change
in load divided by percent change in frequency.

Substituting the above equation into the synchronous generator transfer function yields:

Simplifying the above equation yields the transfer function of the customer load and
synchronous generator:

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Figure 6-Turbine, generator and load block diagram

3.5 Modeling the load controller (PI controller)

The load controller is modeled in the same way the governors of medium and large scale
hydropower systems are modeled. In medium or large scale hydropower systems, governors are
designed to permit the speed to drop as the load is increased.

A typical PI controller is generally assumed to have the following transfer function:

Where:

KI -is an integral constant

R -is speed regulation constant (5% -6%)

K pis position error ( K p= 1/R. )

3.6 Stepper motors

A stepper motor is a motor with a rotating, armature magnetic field. The field is made to rotate
through electronic switches. Sample applications include ink jet printers, machines and
volumetric pumps. A stepper motor transforms digital pulses into mechanical shaft rotation. It
is less expensive, more reliable, and less complex.

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It operates in almost at any environment and produces high torque at low speeds. These
advantages are exploited to control an inlet valve that controls the flow of water into the turbine
of a small hydropower system.

3.7 Principles of operation of a stepper motor

A stepper motor moves in a series of steps. The rotor has a number of magnets mounted on it,
and the coils on the stator are alternately energized, creating rotating magnetic fields which
repulse or attract the magnets on the rotor, causing the rotor to move.

The stepper motor is controlled by applying voltage to each of the four coils in a specific phase
sequence. The phasing sequence for a 3-phase, unipolar stepper motor is shown

Figure 7-Unipolar stepper motor

Only half of each winding is energized at a time in the above sequence. As above, the
following sequence will spin the motor clockwise 12 steps or one revolution.

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Phase sequence of a 4-pole unipolar stepper motor

Table 1-Phase sequence of stepper motor

Steps L1 L2 L3 L4

1 1 0 0 0

2 1 1 0 0

3 0 1 0 0

4 0 1 1 0

5 0 0 1 0

6 0 0 1 1

7 0 0 0 1

8 1 0 0 1

9 1 0 0 0

10 1 1 0 0

11 0 1 0 0

12 0 1 0 0

3.8 Modeling the stepper motor

A permanent magnet stepper motor is used in controlling the inlet valve of a small hydropower
system. Conveniently a permanent magnet stepper can be assumed to have the following
transfer function:

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Where: Өo is the output angle,

θi-is the desired angle,

J-is the moment of inertia of the rotor,

Km-is the torque constant of the permanent magnet stepper motor,

Ip-is the phase current,

Nr-is the number of rotor teeth, and

B-is viscous friction coefficient.

The stepper motor is controlled by a controller. The controller calculates the deviation in the
desired angle based on the frequency deviation in the small hydropower system.

Here again, the controller is assumed to be proportional integral controller similar to the load
controller. In general, the transfer function form of the block diagram is shown below:

Figure 8-Flow control model of a small hydropower system

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4 CHAPTER FOUR
Design and Analysis of the Control System

The frequency controller system is flow control based. The flow control mode is applied to the
frequency control of small hydropower systems. Thus, in this section we will discuss the flow
control mode.

4.1 Generator selection

A synchronous generator that has four poles and a step angle of 1.8 0 is selected for this project
purpose. To meet our country’s context, a frequency of 50 Hz is selected. Then synchronous
speed of the motor is calculated as:

Ns = 120f/p=120*50/4 =1500rpm = 157.0796 rad/sec.

For mini hydro-electric power generation a synchronous generator having a general

specification of the following type is selected:

Table 2-Specifications of Synchronous Generator

Parameter Value

The moment of inertia 3 kgm2

Power factor 0.8

Load damping coefficient 1.5%

Power rating 225kvA

Speed 1500rpm

Number of pole 4

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Thus Block diagram of the synchronous generator and customer load in terms of numerical
basis becomes:

Figure 9-Block diagram of generator and Load

4.2 PI Controller
The main features of PI controllers are the capacity to eliminate steady-state error of the
response to a step reference signal because of integral action and the ability to anticipate output
changes when derivative action is employed and it provides the steady state error to zero.

Values of the proportional and integral gains are selected to be 0.125 and 1 respectively in
order to have good transient response.

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Figure 10-Simplified model of the system with PI controllers

4.3 Stepper Motor

The transfer function between the input and output angles of the permanent magnet stepper
motor is given by :

Km × Ip × Nr
Js 2+ βs + Km × Ip × Nr

Where Nr is no of rotor teeth, Ip is rated current of the generator, Km is torque constant.

The rated current of the synchronous generator is selected to be 6.5A. Thus Stepper motor
model becomes:

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Let the water starting time selected to be Tw= 1.0sec.

4.4 The overall system with numerical values

The water starting time, the synchronous generator parameters and the PM stepper motor
parameters are illustrated in the small hydropower plant block diagram.

Figure 11-Block diagram of a low head small hydropower plant with flow control

5 CHAPTER FIVE
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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5.1 Introduction

The frequency controller was modeled, and designed in the methods section chapter of this
project paper. This chapter deals with the results and discussion of MATLAB simulations and
mathematical model

A power system subjected to small disturbance (perturbation) will be returned to steady state
operation if the stored kinetic energy due to accelerating torque dies through time and is
dissipated on deceleration region.

The transient response of a practical control system often exhibits damped oscillations before
reaching steady state.

Figure 12-Transient-response characteristics of a control system

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5.2 Simulation Results of the Flow control mode

Using Mat Lab simulator software the response of frequency controller has been checked for
flow control of different heads. Beside this, the controller was also tested for different
capacities of small hydropower systems.

The transfer function model of a small hydropower system with frequency control mode is
portrayed on the following picture.

Figure 13-Simulation result for small hydro power with and without controller
The simulation result shows that without frequency controller the frequency deviation after the
small disturbance (perturbation) i.e. ,that is for this simulation it has been assumed that the
load change is of 3%,will persist and will stay for an infinite time. But if controller is used, the
system will return to normal operating frequency after deviation for a while that is about after
80 seconds.

From the above figure, it is seen that the small hydropower system is stable and the steady-state
frequency deviation is eliminated by the controller. Therefore, the low head, small hydropower
system with frequency control mode is stable and shows good transient and steady state
performances.

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The following MatLab simulation result again depicts the step response of the power error for a
3% load change.

Figure 14-step response of the power error for a 3% load change

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On the above two simulation results both the steady-state frequency error and power error are
zero.

The frequency controller shows good transient and steady-state performances during flow
control mode for different heads.

Beside this, the controller was also tested for different capacities of small hydropower systems.
The inertia constants for small hydropower systems range from 2.8 to10.

The following graph shows MatLab simulation result for low head small Hydro power plants
with flow control mechanism:

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Figure 15-Frequency deviation step responses of low head small HPs

The effectiveness of frequency controller up on application for low, medium and high head
small hydropower systems, the following simulation has been made. It shows the frequency
deviation step responses of the three types of small hydropower systems for a 3% load change .

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Figure 16-Frequency deviation step responses of low, medium and high head small HPs

5.3 Discussions
Using Mat Lab simulator software the response of frequency controller shows good transient
and steady-state performances during flow control of different heads. Beside this, the controller
was also tested for different capacities of small hydropower systems.

The inertia constants for small hydropower systems range from 2.seconds to 10 seconds.
Generally, to test the effectiveness of the frequency controller, similar tests had been done for
low, medium and high head small hydropower systems. The frequency deviation step responses
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of the three types of small hydropower systems for a 3% load change. The steady state
frequency error is zero in all the cases and the transient performances for ranging capacities of
small hydropower systems as shown above in table of low head small hydro-power system.

From the results of MatLab simulation it is seen that the small hydropower systems with the
same flow control mode have shown good transient performances and the steady state
frequency errors were found to be zero. Therefore, the designed frequency controller is applied
to the whole range of small hydropower systems it is possible to control the system by varying
H easily. On the other hand, the frequency controller was also tested for different types of
loadings.

In general, from the flow control mode simulation results, it is concluded that the controller
performs well for different heads, capacities and types of loadings of small hydropower system.

5.4 Contributions of the Project work

The frequency controller for small hydropower systems has been developed in this project. This
work is new and original. Though several electronic flow controllers have been developed,
flow controller is increased the flexibility of the controller and decreased the cost significantly.

The other contribution of this project is modeling and analysis of small hydropower system is
the analysis of the flow control model.

Different from related works, the flow control analysis in this work was done by employing a
permanent magnet stepper motor controlled inlet valve because a stepper motor is cheaper,
more reliable and easy to control. This is a new approach.

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6 CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 Conclusions
In this project, the frequency controller for small hydropower systems has been developed.

Furthermore, simulation using MATLAB has shown that the developed controller is applicable
for different capacities, types of loadings and heads of small hydropower systems.

It is also seen that the small hydropower systems with the same flow control mode have shown
good transient performances and the steady state frequency errors were found to be zero.

On the other hand, the frequency controller was also tested for different types of loadings, and
also for frequency controller is efficient for all the three types of small hydropower systems for
different types of load damping constants.

The recent frequency control for small hydropower system was controlled by human operator
manually, but we are controlling the small hydropower system by automatic generation and
control method that is used to minimize cost . To control this frequency by varying inertia
constant and load damping constant using mathematical modeling, transfer function and mat
lab simulation method.

6.2 Recommendations for the future project

For the future project we would like to recommend that anyone interested on this project shall
consider the effect of disturbances that come from the grid and methods or control systems to
stabilize those problems.

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7 REFERENCES
[1] NRC, Introduction to Small-Hydropower Systems, Canada, 2005.

[3] P. Kundur, Power System Stability and Control, McGraw Hill, New York, 1994.

[4] H. Sadat, Power System Analysis, McGraw Hill Companies, 2002.

[5] Debapriya Das, Electrical Power Systems

[6] M.E El-Hawary, “Electrical Power Systems Design and Analysis”, Reston Publishing
Company, Virginia, 1983

[7] www.aguidetoukmini-hydrodevelopments.com

[8] www.goggle.com/small hydro power systems supervisions

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