Mains Syncronisation

Joined
7 Sep 2006
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
Location
Essex
Country
United Kingdom
Hi Guys,
Can anyone please point me in the right direction to a Web-Page or Site that explains, simply, how Mains Voltage & Current generated from, say, a Wind Generator, links into household mains and suppliments the supply?
Thanks in advance.
HoraceG
 
Sponsored Links
The small scale wind generators i've seen don't supplement the existing mains - there is either a changeover switch or more often a single circuit is powered from the wind.
 
the B&Q wind turbine claims to:

The Windsave wind turbine delivers up to 1KW of supplementary energy synchronised and adjusted to supply directly into your household power circuits, using Windsaves unique technology the appliances in the house will absorb all the energy from the turbine before using grid voltage
but I'm sorry i dont know how it does it, thebig control box connects to the ring via a FCU!

I am also interested in the workings behind it.
 
When I was at Uni it was just a matter of connecting 3 lamps across the 3 switches linking the 3 phases of the mains to the generator and adjusting the generator excitation and load with the switches open so that the phase slip was slow enough to see and then when all the lamps went out we just hit the switch that linked the gene to the mains - this locked the gene to the mains, and then we turned up the exitation to push power into the grid.

(Standard experiment in 1st year elec eng course)

I expect a similar but automated technique would not be hard to implement using micro-controllers.
 
Sponsored Links
I don't know how the B&Q one works, but, with real generators, the way they keep in synch is that a generator is the same as an electric motor. If you connect it to supply without driving it, it will spin up to speed driven by the grid. If you try to make it go faster, it could only do that by providing enough power to speed up all the other generators on the grid (which it can't). If you try to make it go slower, it could only do that by slowing down all the others.

Before connecting, you spin it up to speed and synchronise it with a simple instrument (it can be done with three light bulbs). Otherwise there will be an immediate acceleration or deceleration when it goes on supply.

There is a story told in the industry of a generator that was put on supply without being synchronised; it ripped its mountings out of its concrete bed, jumped in the air and rolled across the hall floor. No-one seems to know if the story is true.
 
Thanks for the replies.
If I've got this right, and once the generator is syncronised, the appliances in the installation will draw their required current from the generator first and THEN suppliment any additional load required from the Mains via the Meter?
So, in theory, if the generator were capable of supplying all the load requirement of the installation then no current would be consumed from the mains and therefore no meter reading.
What would happen then, if the generator were capable of supplying a greater load than was required from the installation? Would the extra load go the 'other way' and run the meter backwards?
Interesting!
HoraceG
 
but could you do it properly with only one phase?

if you had a big turbine on a windy day and were exceeding your home's demand, then you'd be pushing power into the grid - but only one phase of it. surely the DNO wouldn't like that for phase balancing reasons?
 
I see the thing only produces 1kW under the right conditions, I doubt the DNO would even notice it.
 
Ah well now,
In the bad ol' days, if you swopped the tails in the meter i.e. incoming in the right hand side and load into the lHS then the meter used to run backwards!
Not that I've ever actually done this you understand.
I don't know about contempory meters though.
 
I heard that the old type with a spinning disk could be made to go backwards, I doubt the modern digital ones do.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top