Implementation of electronic load controller for control of micro hydro power plant

Electronic Load Controllers (ELC) are used to balance the power at generator terminal to maintain the frequency of the system at nominal value. Load controllers for micro hydro power plants have been an area of interest for researchers as well as for developers as it is of paramount importance to keep the frequency constant, which is not possible without controlling the load particularly in the case of micro hydro power plants. The present paper deals with use of an ELC for synchronous generator of micro hydro power plant of rating 60 KW in MATLAB Simulink. The design of ELC using a controlled bridge rectifier and IGBT chopper feeding a resistive dump load has been implemented for simulation in this paper. The power consumption of chopper has been varied by the duty cycle of the chopper. The simulation results have shown the changes in various parameters, i.e., excitation voltage, stator current, mechanical power output, output power of generator, power across consumer load, and dump load as a result of the change in demand/load.