Enforcement of ELC using reduced dump load for micro hydropower plant with the interpretation of switching transients and vibrations

Development of decentralized power generation for rural electrification has improved by the concept of micro hydropower plants. Generally in isolated areas self-excited synchronous or asynchronous generators are used and it had be continually haunted by voltage and frequency regulation issues due to the variation of consumer loads. Employing electronic load controller in the system regulates the generator output, but it could produce more energy wastage with less efficiency, leading to reduction in machine life. This limitation in the existing ELC can be overcome by reducing dump loads. In this paper, the performance of reduced dump load (20%) on a synchronous generator is analyzed experimentally. The effect of electrothermal aging has been examined to estimate the lifetime of stator windings. Additionally, characteristics of switching effects in course of main load and dump load under various load points are discussed. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to reduce the power losses and to increase the life span of the generator through decreasing the thermo-electromechanical stresses using reduced dump load strategy.