Design and Prototyping of Electronic Load Controller for Pico Hydropower System

Abstract

A hydroelectric power plant is an electrical energy generator that utilizes water energy to drive a water turbine coupled to a generator. The main problem in hydroelectric power plants is the frequency and voltage fluctuations in the generator due to fluctuations in consumer loads. The purpose of this research is to make a prototype of the Electronic Load Controller (ELC) system at the Pico Hydropower Plant. The main part of ELC is the frequency sensor and gating system. The first part is made by a Zero Crossing Detector, which detects the generator frequency. The gating system was developed with TRIAC. The method used is the addition of a complement load which is controlled by delaying the TRIAC. Load control is intended to maintain the stability of the electrical energy produced by the generator. The PID algorithm is used in frequency control. The results of the frequency sensor accuracy test are 99.78%, and the precision is 99.99%. The ELC system can adjust the frequency automatically by setting the firing delay on the TRIAC to distribute unused power by consumer loads to complementary loads so that the load used remains stable. The ELC is tested with increasing and decreasing load. The proposed ELC gives a stable frequency at 50Hz. Whereas at the first test, the mean voltage is 183V, and in the second test is 182.17V.