A comparative Study of Capacitor Phase Splitter for the Operation of Irrigation Pump Motors

Agriculture is backbone of India, where irrigated agriculture sector plays an important role in its economic development and poverty alleviation. Near about 70-75% of population in India is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Agriculture contributes about 16% of total GDP and 10% of total exports. Irrigation is the base for about 56% of total agricultural output. Recognizing the importance of irrigation as a crucial input in India’s agricultural development harnessing of water resources for irrigation through motor pumps is necessary. Irrigation in India is carried by various types of systems such as wells, tanks, perennial canal, multipurpose river valley projects, inundation etc. Running 3 phase pump on single phase supply leads to unbalanced condition in the system that leads to various negative effects such as overheating, insulation degradation, line current unbalance, torque pulsation, de rating and inefficiency. In spite of these adverse effects on motor and irrigation feeder, it is observed that farmers run their 3 phase motor on single phase supply and under reduced voltage condition using capacitor splitter. A case study of capacitor based phase splitter (single phase supply mode) is implemented on work bench and compared the performance after simulating the similar in MATLAB/SIMULINK. As a extension of work a comparative study of operation of pump motor for balanced and unbalanced supply condition is also done.