Frequency Measurement of the Automatic Generator Quasi-synchronizer Based on PIC16F877 and FPGA

Generator paralleling is a frequent and essential operation in the power system. If the frequency error is too great, the oncoming generator could slip a pole, causing damage to the machine. Therefore, the precision frequency measurement of the generator and the power system is one of important conditions to ensure that the automatic quasi-synchronizer can operate accurately. A new method of frequency measurement used in the generator automatic quasi-synchronizer is discussed in this paper. The basic principle of the frequency measurement is introduced. The frequency measurement is finished by combining PIC16F877 and FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) technique. The hardware and software designs were introduced. The device adopted PIC16F877 as main controller and FPGA as assistant controller which detects the frequency and the PIC16F877 manages the data and implements intelligent control. The excellence of the mix design is that two advantages are reinforced. The hardware circuit is simple and the reliability of the system is high, so that the generator realizes quasi-synchronizing quickly and veracity.