• Energy Research

AbstractThis paper presents a micro‐hydro generator driven frequency adaptive sliding mode (FASM) control‐based improved power quality permanent magnet brushless DC motor (PMBLDCM) driven air conditioning system for remote and hilly areas. In such locations, the grid availability is poor or limited. The self‐excited asynchronous generator (SEAG) is highly suitable for micro‐hydro power generation. The voltage and frequency regulations of SEAG systems are very poor. Therefore, an improved power quality FASM control of a new zeta function based modified CSC (ZFM‐CSC) converter scheme is developed to drive the micro‐hydro power driven SEAG fed air conditioning system. The conventional air‐conditioning schemes are suitable for the grid fed system, where the frequency and voltage remain constant. However, these conventional control schemes are not suitable for a standalone SEAG based micro‐hydro generator driven air conditioners since the frequency and voltage of this system vary frequently at different loadings and dynamic operating conditions. This leads to an incorrect estimation of reference source current in a conventional system, which in turn affects the system stability. The sudden change of loads in a conventional air conditioning system may de‐magnetize and de‐stabilize the micro‐hydro driven SEAG. The experimental and simulated results presented validate the robustness of this system.