Analysis of integration flow control valve and electronic load controller for micro hydro power plant frequency regulation

Abstract

Frequency regulation is very important for microhydro power system. Flow control valve (FCV) and electronic load controller (ELC) are common control systems developed for micro hydro power plant (MHPP) with synchronous generator. However, these control systems each other has a drawback in term of frequency response or harmonics issues. This paper proposes an integrate control system, in which FCV and ELC system work together for MHPP in order to obtain a better performance in frequency response and total harmonic distortion (THD). PID and PI controllers were used for FCV and ELC, respectively. The integrated control method influences on the MHPP performance was verified by MATLAB simulation, when the load reduced 10KW in two sequences time. Results of the simulation confirm that the integration of FCV and ELC offered a better trade-off between frequency response and THD issues for MHPP, which cannot be solved by standalone FCV or ELC. By integrating both control systems, they gave the best values for frequency response and THD in around 1.4071 second and 8.57%, respectively.