The use of induction generators for electricity production in small power isolated systems represents the topic for a wide research area. As in such topologies single-phase consumers are predominant, besides three-phase induction generators with adequate balancing circuits, single-phase induction generators qualify as a reliable alternative. In the last 38 years, a significant number of research papers have tackled the problems related to the autonomous operation of single-phase induction generators (SPIGs) such as determining excitation capacitors values and their optimal arrangement, ensuring stable operation in terms of voltage and frequency balancing under varying loads and finally enhancing the quality of the energy delivered to the isolated single-phase consumers. While in case of simple topologies the operation of SPIGs is mainly investigated for fundamental electric parameters dependence with loading, excitation capacitance and speed, the use of power electronics based converters ensures stable operation over a wide range of varying/non-linear loads. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the literature dedicated to SPIGs, focusing on several significant aspects such as main topologies, modeling, steady-state analysis and performance investigations.

This paper presents a control strategy that aims to improve the parallel operation of two micro hydro power plants (MHPP) on an islanded micro-grid (MG). The two MHPP are equipped with a synchronous (SG) and an induction generator (IG). The proposed control systems ensures voltage and frequency regulation. The voltage is kept constant by the SG voltage controller, while the frequency by the use of a dump load circuit (SL). Besides this, the control system ensures active and reactive power management in order to reduce energy losses and optimize hydraulic resources utilization. Simulations are carried out in order to highlight the reliability of such a configuration.

This paper presents an efficient method to supply single-phase loads with a three-phase induction generator (IG). A combination between a properly controlled voltage source inverter (VSI) and dump load (DL) ensures, besides the phase balancing of the IG, the voltage and frequency regulation. The VSI operates at constant frequency - thus keeping the system frequency also constant - and deals with unbalances compensation, while the DL performs the voltage regulation. Simulations are carried out in order to highlight the reliability of such a configuration.