Abstract:
In Sri Lanka only around 35% of rural population has reached grid electricity. Therefore
stand alone power generation systems will be a major option to provide electricity to rural
population as we are rich with hydro resources.//
In rural electrification, even though DC generators and synchronous generators are used,
induction generator has become common in use due to more convenient features like ready
availability, simplicity, reliability and robustness.//
Now the single-phase power with a three- phase induction machine has become an
economical options to generate power in stand- alone power generating systems. It is now
widely used in Pico scale stand alone power generating systems in Sri Lanka.
When a three- phase induction motor is used as a generator in single- phase mode, it should
be designed to operate near the best operating point, to provide maximum power output and
minimum unbalance. Literatures on this area of subject and published test results are few;
manufactures of motors rarely show an interest to measure and publish test res ults of their
standard machines in generator mode [2],//
In this situation it is difficult to find data in this type of generators installed in this country
also. It was seen that to find and analyze data of stand alone power generating systems and
to study about its parameters will be useful due to the poor availability of literature in this
area.//
Also according to the investigations made, many Pico scale hydro developers seems not paid
due attention on whether their plants operate at optimum power out put at minimum
unbalance.//
This study was basically focused to investigate the parameters of a stand alone single phase
power generating system using a three phase induction generator to find the system
behavior, specially at minimum unbalance with a maximum power output. The study also
includes the analysis of the system to find the behavior of the total( generating and
distribution) system.
