Design of electronic load controller for a self excited induction generator using fuzzy logic method based microcontroller

The self-excited induction generators (SEIGs) are considered to be well suited for generating electricity by means of conventional energy sources and for supplying electrical energy in remote and rural areas. Induction generators have many advantages such as cost, reduced maintenance, rugged, and simple construction, brushless rotor (squirrel cage). A three-phase induction generator can be operated on a C-2C connection for supplying single phase loads. The main disadvantage of SEIG has is that it poor voltage regulation, and its value depends on the prime mover speed, capacitance, load current and power factor of the load. The electronic load controller (ELC) can be used for maintaining constant voltage and frequency of SEIG with variable consumer load driven by constant primer mover. This paper presents the design and implementation of a digitally controlled ELC using fuzzy logic method based microcontroller for an SEIG feeding single-phase load. The ELC consist of a rectifier, MOSFET as a chopper switch, ATMega32 microcontroller, voltage sensor, opto-coupler, and resistive dump load in which power consumption was varied through the duty cycle of the chopper. However an ELC consist of electronics system, in general, has complex nonlinear model with parameter variation problem, and the control need to be very fast. The fuzzy logic based controller gives nonlinear control with fast response and virtually no overshoot. The proposed ELC has been tested by step change in the consumer load. The simulated perfomance of the controller is supplmented by experimental results.