The Small Hydro Power Plants allow to increase the energy amount from renewable sources, especially from small rivers in mountainous areas. This paper presents a new concept of a energy conversion system for application in a Small Hydropower Plant (SHP) which is based on a permanent magnet generator (PM generator) with a propeller turbine integrated with the generator rotor. The PM generator can work at a variable speed and therefore energy produced by the PM generator has to be converted by means of a power electronic unit to fit to the three-phase power grid parameters. For this concept, dimensions and parameters of the PM generator were specially designed on account of integration with water turbine. The paper precisely describes elements of energy conversion system and also presents the results of numerical tests for chosen working conditions. An original algorithm of control strategy for power electronic unit was used to adjust generated energy to the required parameters of the three-phase grid.

The uncontrolled rectifier and controlled rectifier which use fixed switching frequency control strategy are applied usually during the working of a high-power high- speed permanent magnet generator (HSPMG). Even for the controlled rectifier, it will generate harmonics. The electromagnetic performance of the HSPMG is also affected by these harmonics. In this paper, the influences of the fixed switching frequency control strategy on a HSPMG were studied. Based on the Fourier theory, the harmonic currents of the generator were analyzed, and the change of harmonic distribution range and current total harmonic distortion (THD) were obtained. By using an indirect field-circuit coupling method, the influences of the fixed switching frequency control strategy on the losses and torque of the generator were analyzed. The relations between the switching frequency and the losses and torque of the generator were obtained, and the change mechanism of the loss was revealed. The obtained conclusions can provide reference for the optimized choice of the switching frequency of the distributed generation system with the HSPMG. It can also provide support for the HSPMG electromagnetic structural optimization and the optimization of the loss and harmonic on the system level.

When the machine is at high speed, serious problems occur, such as high frequency loss, difficult thermal management, and the rotor structural strength insufficiency. In this paper, the performances of two high-speed permanent magnet generators (HSP- MGs) with different rotational speeds and the same torque are compared and analyzed. The two-dimensional finite element model (FEM) of the 117 kW, 60 000 rpm HSPMG is established. By comparing a calculation result and test data, the accuracy of the model is verified. On this basis, the 40 kW, 20 000 rpm HSPMG is designed and the FEM is established. The relationship between the voltage regulation sensitivity and power factor of the two HSPMGs is determined. The influence mechanism of the voltage regulation sensitivity is further revealed. In addition, the air-gap flux density is decomposed by the Fourier transform principle, and the influence degree of different harmonic orders on the HSPMG performance is determined. The method to reduce the harmonic content is further proposed. Finally, the method to improve the HSPMG overload capacity is obtained by studying the maximum power. The research showed that the HSPMG at low speed (20 000 rpm) has high sensitivity of the voltage regulation, while the HSPMG at high speed (60 000 rpm) is superior to the HSPMG at low speed in reducing the harmonic content and increasing the overload capacity.