Laboratory report III

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

3 Island operation of induction generator 4

3.1 Calculation of needed capacity using open-circuit characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

4 Load characteristic of induction generator with constant speed 6

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.

Figure 1: Torque characteristic of induction machine

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.

U(V) I(A) P(W) cosϕ f(Hz) n(rpm)

388.8 1.73 -199.5 0.171 50.02 2991.8
387.1 1.73 -92.7 0.080 50.01 3002.4
388.6 1.86 102.7 0.082 50.01 3027.2
388.9 1.96 202.8 0.154 50.00 3037.7
388.8 2.08 303.8 0.217 49.98 3049.9
388.9 2.20 409.8 0.277 49.99 3063.1
387.4 2.29 506.8 0.330 49.98 3075.2
389.4 2.46 601.5 0.362 49.99 3087.9
389.0 2.60 704.2 0.402 49.99 3100.3
389.2 2.76 806.9 0.433 49.99 3114.9
389.0 2.91 900.7 0.460 49.99 3128.0
389.5 3.10 1009.8 0.483 50.01 3143.0
Table 1: Measurements for induction generator connected to grid

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.

Figure 2: Load characteristic of induction generator operating on grid

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.

3 Island operation of induction generator

In island or in our case stand-alone operation generator is not connected to the grid, and it supplies all load
with electrical energy. Since we discussed about working principle of a induction motor and generator, we
know that induction generator requires reactive power to start producing active power. Without reactive
power we can not create magnetization for the core therefor we can not produce active power. To supply
reactive power we can use synchronus generator, but that would no be stand-alone operation since it has
more than one generator. Second thing are capacitors, they can provide reactive power.
To use capacitors for starting our induction generator we need to have some remanent magnetization in
our generator from before, without that process can not start.

3.1 Calculation of needed capacity using open-circuit characteristic

To magnetize the core we need to use reactive power, so we need to measure reactive current, since we can
not do it directly, we can calculate it my measuring power factor(cosϕ) and current(I) and using some math
we can find that:
Im = Isin(ϕ)

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Characteristic of open-circuit after measuring multiple points is given on Figure 3. For our generator to be

Figure 3: Open-circuit characteristic

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

Delta formation is given in equation (4):

CY
C∆ = = 9.19µF (4)
3
How does magnetization with capacitors works is shown in Figure 3 with red arrows. If we take a look
we can see that by certain voltage we have certain current which induces higher voltage till it comes to the
intersection. So we can ask ourselves what would happen if there would be no intersection. That would mean
that with that capacitors we are not able to magnetize our core. So we can calculate critical capacitance.
We just need to find linear part of our line and use it as reference. We will use last point since we know that
linear part is not exactly linear:
U = 160.54V and Im = 0.316A

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.

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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.

U(V) I(A) P(W) cosϕ f(Hz) n(rpm)

402.8 0 0 – 49.73 3001.2
394.5 0.159 102.4 0.942 49.55 3000.9
388.2 0.315 207.5 0.979 49.39 3004.9
380.3 0.475 309.6 0.988 49.22 3005.4
371.2 0.635 405.5 0.992 48.94 3003.1
360.4 0.829 515.0 0.995 48.70 3004.9
348.9 1.003 603.8 0.996 48.38 3002.4
333.2 1.236 710.9 0.997 47.94 3001.6
313.7 1.490 809.9 1.000 47.50 3004.9
284.6 1.735 857.8 1.000 46.80 2999.5
Table 2: Measurements for induction generator in stand-alone mode with constant speed

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.