Self excited induction generator: A review

Abstract: The increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind energy, bio gas energy, solar energy and hydro potential have become to adopt a low cost generating system, which are capable of operating in the remote areas, and in conjugation with the variety of prime movers. With wind turbine and micro/mini hydro generators as an alternative energy source, the induction generators are being considered as an alternative choice to well developed synchronous generator because of their simplicity, ruggedness, little maintenance, price , brushless (in squirrel cage construction), absence of separate dc source, self-protection against severe overloads and short circuits. In isolated systems, squirrel cage induction generators with capacitor excitation, known as self-excited induction generators (SEIGs), are very popular. This paper presents an exhaustive survey of literature of research on self excited induction generator (SEIG) over the past 30 years discussing the classification of induction generator, steady state and transient analysis, voltage control aspects and parallel operation of SEIG. Keywords: Self excited induction generator, self excitation & voltage buildup, steady state analysis, transient analysis, parallel operation of SEIG.