MINI/MICRO HYDRO ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION USING AN AXIALLY LAMINATED ANISOTROPIC SELF-EXCITED RELUCTANCE GENERATOR AJAY SRIVASTAVA, S. K. GOEL, RAVI SAXENA & GEETA NEGI Department of Electrical Engineering G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology Uttarakhand, Pantnagar-263145 INDIA Abstract: - Energy is key input to drive and improve the life cycle. Due to depletion of fossils fuel, the main source of energy, strongly suggests that harnessing of non conventional, renewable and environment friendly energy resources is vital for steering the global energy supply towards a sustainable path. Mini/micro hydropower is a form of non-depleting, self–replenishing energy that can be harnessed without adversely affecting the environment. To tap this potential self excited reluctance generator may be a better alternative for induction generator. This paper presents a mathematical model of self excited synchronous reluctance generator using Park’s transformation. Fabrication and testing of axially laminated anisotropic rotor have been presented in this paper. Performance of self excited reluctance generator has been enhanced by increasing its saliency ratio. The self regulating feature of a self excited reluctance generator is also examined. Key-Words: - Reluctance machine, saliency ratio, self–excitation, anisotropic, axially laminated rotor 1 Introduction The whole essence of human civilization is the way natural energy has been harnessed to meet the requirements of human race without causing ecological imbalance. Fossil fuels are the main source of conventional energy. Depletion of conventional energy resources and increasing demand of energy forced the researchers to think over renewable resources of energy e.g. solar, wind, tidal and minor hydro power etc. The ability of induction generator to convert mechanical power to electrical power over a wide range of speed has made them good candidates to replace synchronous machines in such applications. Its other merits are low unit price, brushless rotor, no separate source for excitation, robustness in operation and low maintenance cost etc. However, this machine suffers from variations in frequency and voltage with changes in load. A complex technology is needed to overcome this inherent problem in induction generator which will increase its cost. Reluctance generator offers the solution to the problems faced by induction generator nevertheless it includes almost all the benefits of induction machines. Reluctance machine have been known as early as induction machines but they have not been developed and exploited until the early sixties[7,8]. The reason for lack of attention in the early days had been due to their poor overall performance compared with well developed squirrel-cage induction machine. But reluctance machine have attracted considerable attention during the last two decades or so, resulting in much improved performance. Various rotor configurations other than salient pole structure were thought over to improve the performance of reluctance machine by increasing the reluctance power. The reluctance power depends upon the saliency ratio(L d /L q ) of the machine There have been various proposals2 to increase L d /L q , resulting in different rotor configuration. All the classes of rotor design aimed at maximizing saliency ratio to provide a flux guide to d-axis flux by increasing Ld and flux barrier to q- axis flux by decreasing Lq. To obtain high saliency ratio two pole axially laminated anisotropic rotor reported1 in recent years is not naturally suitable for a conventional shaft. Expect few works[3-6] recently, little efforts have been done to use reluctance machine as a generator. This paper implements the fabrication and laboratory testing of a practical four pole ALA rotor synchronous reluctance machine (SRM). The stator of reluctance machine with any class of rotor is similar to that of an induction machine. A mathematical model has been presented in this paper to simulate the 7th WSEAS International Conference on Electric Power Systems, High Voltages, Electric Machines, Venice, Italy, November 21-23, 2007 109