Control System

A control system holds voltage and frequency steady in an isolated plant whose water power is essentially constant while the village load changes every minute — without a full-time operator throttling the turbine.

At micro-hydro scale the standard solution is an electronic load controller (ELC) acting as an electronic governor — cheaper and more robust than a mechanical flow governor at this size. The turbine and generator run at constant output; the ELC continuously senses the generator frequency and voltage and diverts whatever power consumers are not using to a ballast (dummy) load of air- or water-cooled resistor heaters, switched by thyristor, IGBT or binary resistor steps. Generation always equals consumption plus ballast, so frequency (50 Hz) and voltage hold at their setpoints: if the village load rises, ballast is shed instantly; if it falls, the ballast absorbs the surplus. Modern panels add generator protection, metering, load management, and — for grid-connected plants — synchronising equipment, with the ELC disengaged while the plant runs parallel to the grid and re-engaging if the plant islands.

• ELC holding frequency and voltage by ballast diversion
• Dummy load sized to the full plant output, air or water cooled
• Thyristor / IGBT or binary-step resistor switching
• Protection, metering and load-management functions
• Setting, load testing and operator troubleshooting training

What you receive: a control panel with ELC, the ballast load unit, protection and metering, wiring diagrams and a settings record, commissioning test results, and operator instructions.

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