Power Generation Riddle No.4 – Variable speed generators in Hydro dam schemes

Most hydropower plants employ conventional generators with one generator for each turbine. Generally both the turbines and the generators are designed for a specific site and the turbine and generator speeds are fixed. More recently variable-speed generators have also started to appear in hydropower applications. These allow an additional degree of flexibility by allowing the turbine speed to be varied in order to operate at the optimum efficiency under differing flow conditions. However variable-speed generators are generally more expensive than their fixed-speed equivalents. In a standard configuration when the hydraulic machine is coupled to a synchronous machine which is directly connected to the electric grid this speed variation is not possible at all. The use of a static frequency converter which is inserted between the grid and the stator is a well known solution to achieve an adjustable speed machine. Adjustable speed drive systems have already been applied in the past to hydro power plants. Up to now they have mainly been used for start -up purposes of pumps or pump -turbines. The used converters were therefore rather small in respect of converter power output (< 30 MVA). When a static frequency converter is used in the stator, this converter has to be sized for the full electrical machine power. The solution is therefore not applicable in an economical way to very big unit outputs (>250 MVA). In the last few years, considerable work has been done in order to develop a system which does not use a big converter and which presents considerable advantages also on the grid

You are welcome, the most important of my references is: Adjustable speed Asynchronous Machine in Hydro Power Plants and its Advantages for the Electric Grid Stability Daniel Schafer R&D Manager ABB Power Generation Ltd. Dept. KWHT 5242 Birr Prof. Jean-Jacques Simond Electrical Engineering Department Swiss Federal Institute of Technology DE-LEME 1015 Lausanne

Dear chris, It is not any pain, indeed we appreciate you for new discussions issuance. Best Regards Site Manager Jafarpour

dear Chris, I confirm you the possibility to drive a syn generator with a static converter. we already did that with synchronous wound salient rotor poles, and with permanent magnet generators in both cases the range of rotation of the turbine is 20-30% (ex. 180-230 rpm, 500-600 rpm, …) Agostino