AC Regulators

INTRODUCTION
By connecting a pair of thyristors or Triac in reverse

parallel manner, between AC supply and the load,

voltage applied to the load can be controlled. This type
of power controller is known as an AC voltage
controller or AC regulators.
AC voltage regulators converts fixed mains voltage

directly to variable alternating voltage without a

change in the frequency.
The important applications are: Speed control of

polyphase induction motors, domestic and industrial

heating, light controls, on-load transformer tap
changing, static reactive power compensators, etc..
Earlier, the devices used for these applications were
auto transformers, tap-changing transformers,

INTRODUCTION
Now, thyristor and Triac a.c. regulators have replaced

them in most of the applications because of high

efficiency, compact size, flexibility in control, etc. The
a.c. regulators are also suitable for closed loop control
because of low control power and fast response.
Since the a.c. regulators are phase-controlled

converters, thyristors and Triacs are line commutated

and as such no complex commutation circuitry is
required in these controllers.
The main disadvantage of these regulators is the

presence of harmonics in the supply current and load

voltage waveforms, particularly at lower output
voltage levels.

Classification
The a.c. voltage controllers can be classified as
Single-phase controllers and
Three-phase controllers.
Each type of controllers can be subdivided into

(a) Unidirectional or half-wave control and

(b) Bidirectional or full wave control.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Half-Wave A.C. Voltage Regulator
Due to the presence of Diode D1, the control range is
limited and the effective RMS output voltage can only
be varied between 70.7 and 100%.
It can be observed that positive half-cycle is not
identical with negative half-cycle for both voltage and
current waveforms.
As a result, DC component is introduced in the supply
and load circuits, which is undesirable.
Since the power flow is controlled during the positive
half-cycle of input voltage, this type of controller is also
known as a unidirectional controller.
This type of controller is only suitable for low power
resistive loads, such as heating and lighting.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Power circuit diagram of a single phase half wave a.c voltage

regulator using one thristor in anti parallel with one diode.

REGULATOR

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Three possible configurations of single-phase a.c.

voltage controllers.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Full-wave (Bidirectional) A.C. Voltage Controllers

Figure (a) uses two thyristors connected in antiparallel.

In this circuit, isolation between control and power

circuit is a must because the cathodes of two
thyristors are not connected to a common point.
Figure (b) employs four diodes and one thyristor. In
this circuit, isolation between control and power circuit
is not mandatory. This scheme, therefore, offers a
cheap a.c. voltage controller.
Figure (c) shows the Triac based a.c. voltage regulator.
This circuit configuration is suitable for low power
applications where the load is resistive or has only a
small inductance. The triggering circuit for the Triac
need not be isolated from the power circuit.

resistive (R) load

resistive (R) load

Thyristors T1 and T2 are forward biased during

positive and negative halfcycle, respectirely.

During positive half-cycle, T1 is triggered at a
firing angle .
T1 starts conducting and source voltage is
applied to load from to : At ; both eo, io fall
to zero.
Just after ; T1 is subjected to reverse bias and
it is, therefore, turned-off. During negative halfcycle, T2 is triggered at ( + ). T2 conducts
from ( + ) to 2.
Soon after 2, T2 is subjected to a reverse bias
and it is, therefore, commutated.
From zero to , T1 is forward biased, therefore

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Examination of this figure reveals that for any value of

, each thyristor is reverse biased for / seconds.

If es = 2 Es sin t is the input voltage, and the firing
angles of thyristors T1 and T2 are equal (1= 2 = ),
the RMS output voltage can be obtained from.

Thus by varying from to 0, the RMS output voltage

can be controlled from RMS input voltage zero to Es .

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Harmonics of output quantities and input current:
The waveforms for output quantities (voltage eo and
current io) and input current is non-sinusoidal. These
waveforms can be described by Fourier series.
As the positive and negative half-cycles are identical,
d.c. component and even harmonics are absent.
The output voltage eo can be, therefore, represented
by Fourier series as

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

These Equations can be used to evaluate the magnitude

of harmonics for which n =3,5,7,.
It cannot be used to calculate the fundamental
component be cause substitution for n=1 leads to
indefined expressions.
The fundamental frequency, which has the same freq.
as the supply voltage, can however be obtained by
substituting n=1 in the basic integration expression for

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

When a.c. voltage controller is used for the speed
control of a single phase induction motor, only
fundamental component is useful in producing the
torque.
The harmonics in the motor current merely increase
the losses and therefore heating of the induction motor.
For heating and lighting loads, however, both
fundamental and harmonics are useful in producing the
a.c. controlled power. In such applications, RMS value of
the output voltage Eo is of interest.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Power factor:
Assuming that the source voltage remains sinusoidal
even though non-sinusoidal current is drawn from it, the
power factor is given by

The above equation gives the definition of

power factor when the source voltage is
sinusoidal but the current is non-sinusoidal.
For the present case, another expression for
PF can be obtained as follows:

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

The maximum values of RMS output voltage and
current occurs at = 0 and are given by E and E/R,
respectively.
Since harmonics are absent at = 0 these are also the
maximum values of fundamental RMS voltage and
current.
If these quantities are used to normalize various
voltages and currents, then
PF = normalized output voltage
= normalized source (or
load) current
The power factor is poor for low values of the load
current and appreciable amount of harmonics is present.
For example, at a per unit value of 0.4 of the load
current, third harmonic becomes comparable to the
fundamental and at a p.u. value of 0.2, fifth and seventh
harmonics also have comparable values.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Plot of
normalised
fundamental
component of
load current,
normalised values
of harmonics in
load current and
power factor
against
normalised RMS

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR with inductive (RL) load

During the interval zero to ; thyristor T1 is forward

biased. At t = , T1 is triggered and io = iT1 starts
building up through the load.
At ; load and source voltages are zero but the current is
not zero because of the presence of inductance in the
load circuit. Thyristor T1 will continue to conduct until its
current falls to zero at t=.
Angle is called as the extinction angle. The load is
subjected to the source voltage from to .
At ,when io is zero, T1 is turned-off as it is already
reversed biased. After the commutation of T1 at , a
voltage of magnitude Em sin at once appears as a
reverse bias across T1 and as a forward bias across T2.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Current io = iT2 starts building up in the reversed
direction through the load. At 2, eo and es are zero, but
iT2 = io is not zero .
At (++), iT2 = 0, and T2 is turned off because it is
already reverse biased. At (++), Em sin (++)
appears as a forward bias across T1 and a reverse bias
across T2.
From(++) to (2+), no current exists in the power
circuit.
At (2+), T1 is turned on and current starts building up
as before.

load

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

The Expression for load current is and the angle can be obtained as
follows:
es = Em sin(t) = R.io + L (dio dt)
The solution of this equation is of the form
io= (Em Z ). sin(t ) + Ae-(R/L)t

load

From these equations, one can obtain a relationship between and

for a given value of .

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

versus curves for various values of .

shows that as is decreased, the conduction angle increases.
The waveforms of current io reveals that for < ,current iT1 through
T1, flows from to (+) = , and T1 remains OFF from (+) up to
(+). At (+), current iT2 through T2 flows from (+) to (++).

load
T2 remains OFF from (++) to (2 + ). At (2 + ), T1 is turned-on.
With progressive decrease in , may become equal to .Under this
condition, when is just equal to , T1 will be ON from to ( + ) and
iT1 flows from to ( + ). Further, T2 will be ON from ( + ) to (2+ )
and current iT2 flows from + to (2 + ). Thus, when = ,
From
0 to T2 conducts.
from

to (

from

) T1 conducts

) to (2

) T2 conducts, and so on

This shows that load current will never become zero for any segment of
time and therefore, for all the time load is connected to source.
Hence, for = , the load voltage is equal to sinusoidal source voltage
provided the voltage drop in thyristors is neglected.
Under these conditions, load behaves as if it is being fed directly by the a.c.
source.
To determine the value of for which = and load is directly connected
to a.c. source, consider that the RL load, with load phase angle , is
connected directly to a.c. source. Under steady state, the load current will
be a sine wave and lag behind the voltage wave by an angle .

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR with RL-

load
The current is positive from to ( + ) and negative from ( + )
to (2 + ). If it is required to obtain the current waveform of Fig. c
above, through the operation of power circuit of Fig. (a), then
From
0 to T2 conducts
to ( + ) T1 conducts
( + ) to (2 + ) T2 conducts, and so on
Comparison of expressions reveals that when = , = .
When = ,
and

sin ( ) = 0 = sin

or,

( ) =

= ( ) =

This shows that for a single-phase a.c. voltage controller, waveforms

of Fig. (b) are applicable only when > and that of Fig. (c) for
.

load
The rms output voltage can be found from

2
2
2
1/ 2
Eo [
2
E
sin

td
(

t
)]
s
2
2

Es
[4
4

Es

1/ 2
(
1

cos
2

t
)
d
(

t
)]

1
sin 2 sin 2

2
2

The RMS thyristor current can be found as

I rms [

1
2
1/ 2
i
d
(

t
)]
o
2

R / L ( t )
Es 1
[ {sin( t ) sin( )e }2 d (t )]1/ 2
Z

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

The RMS output current can then be

determined by combining the RMS current of
each thyristor as
2
2 1/ 2
I o [ I rms I rms ]

2 I rms

The average value of thyristor current can also

be found from
1
I av [

i d (t )]

2
o

R / L ( t )
2 Es

[sin(

sin(

)
e
d (t )]

2Z

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Operation with <=

Assume that a.c. voltage controller is working under steady-state with =.
From zero to , T2 conducts and from to (+),T1 conducts; from (+)
to (2+) T2 conducts, and so on.
Now, let be decreased below . When T1 is triggered at, < , T1 will not
get turned-on because it is reverse biased by voltage drop in T2 which is
conducting current iT2 . T1 will get turned-on only at when iT2 = 0 and
reverse bias due to voltage drop in T2 vanishes. Now T1 will conduct from
to (+). T2 will be triggered at an angle ( + ) to (+). As T1 is
conducting, a voltage drop in T1 will apply a reverse bias across T2 as a
result T2 will not get turned-on at ( + ) but only at (+), when iT1 = 0.
Now T2 will conduct from (+) to (2 +) and so on. This shows that load
voltage and current waveforms will not change from what they are at = .
Thus, the reduction of below is not able to control the load voltage and
load current. The a.c. output power can be controlled only for > .
Note that for <= , remains equal to thus, the control range of firing
angle is
< < 180.

Gating Signal Requirements:

For resistive load as in Fig. 3, thyristor TI stops conducting at ,
and thyristor T2 becomes forward biased after .When Thyristor
T2 is triggered at (+ ), it gets turned-on as it is already forward
biased by source voltage. Thus pulse gating is suitable for
Resistive load as shown in Fig. 3.
However pulse gating is not suitable for RL Loads. The reason for
this can be explained by refering to Fig. 7. Thyristor T1 is
triggered at an angle and the current flows as shown in figure 7.
At period(+ ), SCR T2 is triggered. As SCR T1 is still conducting,
voltage drop across T1 reverse biases T2 at (+ ), T2 is
therefore, not turned on at (+ ).
At (+ ), current iT1 decays to zero and T1 stops conducting, as a
result T2 gets forward biased but the gate pulse Ig2 applied to
SCR T2 at (+ ) is already zero and therefore T2 does not get
turned on.
At period (2+ ), when gate pulse is applied to T1, it gets turned

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR RL Load, Pulse Gating.

Fig. 7

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Thus, AC Voltage controller gives asymmetrical output voltage
waveform, due to conduction of T1 alone. This Halfwave operation
of the ac voltage controller is undesirable.
This difficulty can be overcome by applying a continuos gate signal
to the SCRs T1 and T2, so that when iT1 becomes zero at (+ ), T2
gets turned on due to the presence of continuous signal.
The duration of the continuos gate signal should last for a period of
(+ )/w seconds. Strictly speaking. Sustained gate pulse may not
last from ( to ) as shown. The minimum duration of gate pulse
should be equal to plus the angle required for the current to
reach latching current value.
In practice, continuous gating is undesirable as it leads to more
heating of the SCR gate and at the same time, it increases the size
at the pulse transformer.
The technique that avoids the above disadvantages of continuous
gate signal and ensures that thyristor is turned-on is to use a train

Gating Signals

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

SEQUENCE CONTROL OF A.C. REGULATORS
For the improvement of system power factor, and reduction of
harmonics in the source current and the load voltage, sequence
control of a.c. regulators is employed.
Sequence control of a.c. regulators means the use of two or more
stages of voltage controllers in parallel for the regulation of output
voltage.
The term sequence control means that the stages of voltage
controllers in parallel are triggered in a proper sequence one after
the other so as to obtain a variable output with low harmonic
content.
Sequence controlled a.c. regulators can be used as voltage
regulators in supply systems and for the speed control of induction
motors.
Such type of controllers are also known as synchronous tap
changers or transformer tap changers.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Two Stage Sequence Control
Two stage sequence control of a.c. regulators employs two stages
in parallel.
The turns ratio from primary to each secondary is taken as unity
for the sake of simplicity. This means that for source voltage es =
Em sinwt , e1 = e2 = Em sinwt and the sum of two secondary
voltages is 2 Em sin wt.
The load may be R or RL. For both types of loads, for obtaining
output voltage control from zero to RMS value E, use only thyristor
pair T3, T4 .
For zero output voltage, is 180deg for T3, T4 and for E, is zero.
For output voltage control from E to 2E, for thyristor pair T3, T4
is always zero and for thyristor pair T1, T2, is varied from zero to
180 deg

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

(A) Resistance load
For resistance load, the load current waveform is identical with
output voltage waveform. When thyristor pair T3, T4 is in
operation, then the output voltage and current waveforms are
as shown in Fig. 10.
When both pairs T1, T2 and T3, T4 are in operation, then firing
angle for T3, T4 is always zero, whereas firing angle for pair T1,
T2 is varied from 180deg to zero for obtaining output voltage
from E to 2E .
The output voltage, when SCR T3 is triggered at w t= 0, follows
e2 =Em sinwt curve. When SCR T1 is triggered at to t = 0;
voltage e1 reverse biases T3, it is, therefore, turned-off. After
this, T1 begins conduction and the output voltage jumps from e2
to (e1 + e2) and follows 2 Em sin wt curve.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

At wt= ; output voltage and current are zero. At this instant, T4 is
triggered and output voltage follows Em sin wt curve. At wt = +
, when forward biased SCR T2 is triggered, T4 is reverse biased by
Em sin, it is, therefore, turned-off.
When T2 begins conduction, output voltage follows 2Emsinwt curve
as shown by the negative half-cycle in Fig. 10. In this figure, output
current waveform io is shown identical with output voltage
waveform eo.
(B) Resistance-inductance (RL) load
When thyristor pair T3, T4 alone is in operation, then the
waveforms of output voltage and current are as shown in Fig (b) for
> and in Fig (c) for <=.
For the control of output voltage from E to 2E, thyristor pair T3, T4
is operated with a firing angle equal to zero, whereas firing angle
for T1, T2 is varied from 180deg to zero.

load

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

The operation of the circuit is considered assuming that the
duration of the firing pulse is chosen such that during positive halfcycle, firing pulses for T1, T3 last from to wt = 0 to wt= and
during negative half-cycle, firing pulse for thyristor pair T2, T4
extend from wt = to 2.
Thyristor T3 is conducting during positive half-cycle and a voltage
e2 = 2E sinwt is applied to the load. When SCR T1 is triggered at
to wt = ; then SCR T3 is turned-off and the reverse voltage e1 and
output voltage jump to (e1 + e2), as shown.
At to wt = ; (e1 + e2) reaches zero but output current io is not
zero because of the presence of inductance L in the load. Thus, T1
continues conducting until wt = where current io decays to zero
and T1, already reverse biased by (e1 + e2), is turned-off.
Thyristor T4, already gated at wt = , starts conducting lowering
the voltage to e2 as shown.
At wt = (+ ), SCR T2 is triggered, voltage e1 turns-off T4 and
output voltage in the negative half-cycle jumps to voltage (el +e2).

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

At wt = 2, voltage (el + e2) reaches zero but io is not zero
because of inductance L.
At instant wt = ( + ), current io reaches zero. SCR T2, already
reverse biased by (el + e2), is turned-off and SCR T3, already gated
at wt = 2, is turned-on, lowering the voltage to e2 at wt = (+ ).
At wt = (2 + ), already gated SCR TI turns-on and SCR T3 turnsoff. The output voltage jumps from voltage e2 to (el + e2) in the
positive half-cycle. The output voltage and current waveforms are
shown in Fig. 11
Sequence of operation described above indicates that during a
normal opertion of the circuit in steady state, whatever may be the
value of , for a positive half cycle, turning ON of T1, will be
preceded by the conduction of either T2 or T3 and the turning OFF
of T1, will be only in the negative half-cycle. Thus there is no
possibilty of T1 and T4 conducting together in the positive halfcycle. Similarly, there is no possibility of T3 and T2 conducting
simultaneously during the negative half-cycle during a normal
steady state operation. Hence, upper secondary winding will not be

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

Multistage Sequence Control of A.C. Regulators
By using more than two stages of sequence control, it is possible to
have further improvement in power factor and reduction in
harmonics than that in a two stage sequence control.
Figure 12 shows the power circuit for n-stage sequence control of
a.c. regulators. As shown, the transformer has n secondary
windings. Each secondary is rated for es/n, where es is the source
voltage.
The voltage of node P with respect to K is es. Voltage of terminal q
is (n 1)es/n and so on. If voltage control from esK = (n - 3)es/n
to erk = (n - 2) es/n is required, then thyristor pair 4 is triggered at
= 0 and the firing angle of thyristor pair 3 is controlled from =
0 to 180, whereas all other thyristor pairs are kept OFF.
Similarly, for controlling the voltage from VpK = (n - 1) es/n to
epk = e , thyristor pair 2 is triggered at = 0, whereas for pair
1, firing angle is varied from 0 to 180, keeping the remaining
(n-2) SCR pairs OFF.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

The presence of harmonics in the output voltage depends upon
the magnitude of voltage variation. If this voltage variation is a
small fraction of the total output Voltage, the harmonic content
in the output voltage is small.
For example, for Voltage control from (n-2)es/n to (n-1)es/n, if
voltage variation of n (n1)es/n, then the harmonic content
in the output voltage would be small.
Single-Phase Sinusoidal Voltage Regulator
If continuous voltage control over a wide range with low
harmonic content and improved power factor is required, then a
large number of stages will have to be used in a multistage
sequence voltage controller. However, this is an expensive
proposition. An alternative circuit requiring less number of
stages is shown in Fig. 13.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

This voltage controller, as shown in Fig. 13, has one primary
winding and (n + 1) secondary windings, i.e. it employs (n + 1)
stage; 0, 1,2, ...., n.
The top secondary winding, numbered p, is called as vernier
winding. Its rating is e volts. The voltage ratings of the
remaining n windings are in geometric progression with a ratio
of 2.
n1

e) of secondary numbered 1, then

Thus, If e is the voltage( 2rating
voltage rating of secondary numbered 2 is 2e,
that of numbered 4 is 8e =
and that of numbered n is volts is
As shown, the power circuit uses two sets of thyristors, named
as
control thyristors (TC1, TC2, ... ,TCn) and by-pass thyristors.
(TB1, TB2,.., TBn).

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

This means that control and by-pass thyristors are made to act
as switches which remain either ON or OFF during a cycle.
When control SCR pair for any stage is ON and its by-pass
thyristor pair is OFF, then voltage of that stage would appear
across the load and a load current would flow accordingly.
On the other hand, if the control SCR pair is off and bypass pair
is ON for any stage, then this particular stage could be bypassed and will not contribute any voltage across the load.
Thus, with an appropriate series combination of secondary's
from 1to n (without vernier winding), the load voltage can be
varied from e to (2n-1)e in discrete steps of e.
This special feature of choosing any series combination of
secondary windings is, however, not available
in the multistage sequence control of thyristors in Fig.12.

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

In the power circuit of Fig. 13, an additional stage A is employed
as a vernier to permit continuous control of voltage from zero to
e.
It is a phase controlled secondary winding. This winding
contributes harmonics to line and load currents.
The harmonic content would, however, be much lower because
contribution of voltage by vernier winding to the load voltage is
only a small fraction of the total load voltage.
The operation of the power circuit of Fig. 13 can now be
explained for a resistance load. Let the load need a stepless
variation of voltage from 10e to 11e. Stages 2 and 4 together
can be used to get a voltage 10e and the variation from 10e to l
l e is obtained by using stage 0.
For stages 2 and 4, by-pass SCRs are kept OFF but their control
SCRs are kept ON all the time. For the remaining stages, all by-

SINGLE-PHASE A.C. REGULATOR

During the positive half-cycle, SCR T3 is turned on at wt = 0. A
voltage equal to 10e is applied to the load.
At wt = , T1 is turned on and this turns off T3, the voltage now
jumps from 10e to l 1e, i.e. from (10 Emsin ) to (11 Emsin ),
as shown in Fig. 14(b).
After wt = , output voltage follows (11 Emsinwt) curve. At the
end of positive half-cycle, T4 is turned on at wt = , the load
voltage is now 10e.
At wt = ( + ), SCR T2 is turned on and with this SCR T4 is
turned-off and load voltage jumps from 10e (10 Em sin ) to l l e
(11 Em sin ) in the negative half-cycle. In this manner, load
voltage can be continuously controlled from zero to 2ne by a
suitable choice of output voltage range.