Armin Zaimović
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana
2018
26.November at 8:00am
Contents
1 Nominal values of the induction motor used as a generator 2
2 Load characteristics 2
1
1 Nominal values of the induction motor used as a generator
Un = 400V
Pn = 1.25kW
In = 3.6A
cosϕ = 0.81
ns = 3000rpm
nn = 2700rpm
fn = 50Hz
2 Load characteristics
The induction machine we use in experiment was made to operate at frequency of 50Hz and voltage of 400V
when used as motor. Since in this case we are using it as generator it needs to produce voltage of 400V and
frequency of 50Hz. The voltage can go down to 380V, and it will still be fine to connect it to the grid.
First we need to understand how does induction machine works.
For example we will explain work of induction motor. We need to supply AC voltage to the stator which will
create magnetic field that rotates in synchronism with the AC voltage. Induction motor rotates slower than
stator field, and because of that we have two different speeds (speed of a stator field and speed of a rotor).
Relative difference between synchronus speed(ns ) and nominal rotor speed(nn ) is defined as slip: s = nsn−n
s
n
.
Because of the difference in speeds we say that stator magnetic field is changing or rotating relative to the
rotor. This induces opposing current in the induction motor’s rotor. Since the current needs to flow through
closed loop we have two different types of induction machines: wound and squirrel-cage type. This induced
current forms magnetic field in rotor that reacts against the stator field, due the Lenz’s Law direction of
magnetic field will try to contract change of current in rotor winding. And rotor will start to rotate in the
direction of stator magnetic field.
Let us take a look what will happen if our rotor would move with speed of stator magnetic field. Since there
would be no difference between the speed of stator magnetic field and rotor there would be no inducing of
current and therefor we could produce no torque. And in that case slip would be equal to zero since ns = nn .
This is shown on Figure 1.
In our case induction machine work as generator. Everything happens almost exactly as in our motor
case, but in reverse order. What is different, as is shown on Figure 1 we need to set our speed to be greater
2
than synchronus speed. Which means that our slip will be negative, since ng > ns where ng is speed of the
rotor when work as generator. By looking at the Figure 1 we can conclude that by increasing rotational
speed of torque is increasing. Since the torque is increasing so is our active power which generator sends to
the grid. We measured operating point of induction generator starting from no load state, and measurements
are given in Table 1.
At the first row in Table 1 we can see that power is negative, and by looking at speed we see that is under
synchronus speed. And by looking at Figure 1 we see that we are in motor state and our machine work as
motor. Second one is still negative due the imperfection.
By looking at the measurements we can see that cosϕ is low but it is rising as the active power rises. And
rest of the power goes to reactive which induction generator uses for creating magnetic field for core. This
power goes from grid to generator. This is no problem when operating connected to grid, but can produce
problems if we use it stand-alone mode. We will discuss it later on. Formula for calculating power factor is
given in equation (1).
P
cosϕ = √ (1)
3U I
3
At Figure 2 we have shown load characteristic of induction generator connected on grid. Since the data
are different we had to scale it. By scaling it we set that shown value of current is 1000 bigger so ratio is
1000:1. That means that 1000A on graph is equal to 1A in reality. Same thing we did with cosϕ but with
different ratio, here is 6000:1.
By looking at picture we can see that we have not shown values where P < 0(W ) because that means
machine work as motor, and here we discuss generator mode. By looking at picture we can see that for
grater power required by grid we need to have greater speed on the rotor. By doing so we are improving
cosϕ since we are giving more and more active power. And final thing is current, which is increasing as the
power increases.
4
Characteristic of open-circuit after measuring multiple points is given on Figure 3. For our generator to be
able to work with nominal voltage of U = 400V we need to find value of current when we have nominal
voltage. By looking at Figure 3 we can see that U = 400 when Im = 2A. Since we know current needed for
nominal voltage we need to decide if we want to use star or delta formation for capacitors.
Star formation is given in equations (2) and (3):
1 U0
XCY = =√ = 115.47Ω (2)
ωCY 3Im
1
CY = = 27.56µF (3)
ωXC
1 160.54
XCcritical = = = 293.3Ω
ωCY critical 0.316
1
CY critical = = 10.85µF
ωXCcritical
CY critical
C∆critical = = 3.6µF
3
So we can see that by connecting capacitor into delta formation we have smaller critical value.
5
4 Load characteristic of induction generator with constant speed
As we seen before for higher demand of power we need to change rotational speed of rotor. Since the torque
is increasing and we want to keep rotation at constant, let say we can not produce more than 3000rpm, our
voltage will fall same as will our frequency and current will rise. Date from measuring are given in Table 2.
Figure 4: Load characteristic for induction generator in stand-alone mode with constant speed
On Figure 4 we can see that voltage and frequency indeed drops and current increases. Since the values
differentiate from each other we needed to scale it. So our current is scaled with scale 200:1 and frequency
with scale 8:1.