Low Cost Voltage Regulator for Micro Scale Hydro Electricity Generators

This paper presents design and development of a low cost voltage regulator for micro scale hydro electricity generators operated in rural areas where national grid electricity is not available. Most of the rural villages in heavily depend on micro scale hydro electricity generators for electricity because of low cost and availability. One of the major problems they have is lack of controllability of the power and voltage of these generators. Most of them use simple voltage regulators base on fixed dummy loads with can be selected under the house loading conditions. These regulators are very inefficient and most of the time they cannot supply enough voltage levels or power to operate high power house hold appliances. As solution to this we have developed a PIC micro-controller based voltage regulator that can dynamically adjust the power supplied to the house and can supply maximum power when required. Remaining power is effectively used for water heating proposes. We have tested this technique with a 2 KW synchronize induction generator supplying power to a medium size house, under various loading and unloading conditions of the house hold appliances like TV ,Iron, and washing machine, and we have obtained satisfactory results.