Studies on high performance inverter generation system of microhydraulic water turbine

Microhydropower energy resources is a renewable resource which could be an environmentally-sound source of energy since it requires no large scale dam construction and can coexist with its surroundings. For the purpose of utilizing renewable energy resources, the authors have focused on the inverter system that makes variable speed control possible for application to microhydraulic energy and wind energy. In this paper, the inverter generation system of a microhydraulic water turbine with variable speed control under both natural and fluctuating river flow conditions is presented and its performance is experimentally evaluated through a number of field tests. Comparison of the this inverter system with a conventional fixed-speed control system is also made to show the superiority and advantages of the variable speed control system