Design, Construction, and Testing of Microprocessors-Based Electronic Load Controller for Micro-Hydro System

ABSTRACT

Electricity is one of the most important needs in today’s modern life. Almost every aspect of our life is influenced by the use of electricity. In an archipelagic country like the Philippines, bringing electricity to every home from the grid is a big challenge. One of such system is the micro-hydro power (MHP) which uses water to power the turbine that drives the generator to produce electricity. One problem of the standalone system is the variation of voltage and frequency when the system is subjected to varying load. This condition is detrimental to the connected load. To eliminate this problem, the micro-hydro system requires an electronic load controller (ELC) to maintain the voltage and frequency of the system at a varying load condition. The availability of electronic load controller in the Philippine market is limited. Most designs are imported and cannot be easily repaired when damaged. These are the reasons why a locally manufactured ELC was developed. It uses Arduino microcontroller to control the voltage and frequency of the system. The advantage of the microcontroller, it has few components which are available locally. This make the system easy to repair when damaged. The ELC has the ability to detect fault in the power system providing a redundant protection to the circuit breakers and fuses.