An improved energy saving v/f control technique for solar powered single-phase induction motor

With the increased energy demand and fast decaying of fossil fuels, renewable energy has remarkably gained importance in recent years. Hence a novel speed control method for wide speed operation of single-phase induction motor utilizing the non-conventional energy such as solar power is proposed in this paper. The proposed speed control method consists of two-stages of power conversion; the DC-DC boost converter with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) forms the first stage and the second stage is made up of parallel connected inverter fed single-phase induction motor load. Wide speed operation with proposed method is accomplished by volt/hertz (v/f) control technique. The performance characteristics of the motor load with the proposed method are determined for different operating conditions. The results obtained are compared with existing method of speed control. Simulated and experimental results are substantiated to validate the superiority of the proposed system. Significant energy saving together with better efficiency is achieved. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.