Design and simulation of an RCN Controller to improve steady state behavior of a self-excited induction generator

Self-excited induction generators (SEIG) are gaining importance as compared to conventional generators due to their capability toconvert wind energy into electrical energy for a wide range of variation in operating speed. The performance of such a generator depends upon the load, rotor speed and excitation capacitance. Therefore, depending upon the operating conditions, the output voltage and frequency of this machine goes on changing and this imposes a restriction on its usage. In order to maintain constant voltage and frequency, it need controllers, which make the circuit complicated and also increases the overall cost of power generation. This paper presents a simple controller to regulate the output voltage and frequency of SEIG for variation in its operating conditions due to any change in load, rotor speed and excitation capacitance (R, N, C) and their combination. The controller presented is simple in design, user friendly and is also less expensive, as the elements used in the controller are only resistors, inductors and capacitors. A block of SEIG for steady state operation is also modeled and presented in this paper. SEIG, Controller and other components are modeled and simulated using Matlab/Simulink.