Design and Simulation of an Electro-mechanical Control System for Mini Hydro Power Plants

Hydropower plant is the cheapest, environmental friendly and renewable energy production technology in rural and hilly areas. Most of it are run off river type plants, without reservoir at headrace and turbine is operated at constant head. But the water discharges and consumer load varies, which cause changes in the generator speed and frequency. To keep the generator speed and frequency constant, this paper presents fuzzy logic controller for water flow control through stepper motor and sliding gate. For abrupt changes in load, electronic load controller is used that switch the dummy loads at the zero crossing of the sine wave to keep the frequency constant. Aim of this project is to reduce sine wave harmonics, cost of control system, as well as increase efficiency and life time of generator. The system is designed in Simulink and tested with variation in load. The simulation result shows positive and appreciable response.