Direct Power Control

442
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 25, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2010
Direct Power Control of Doubly-Fed-InductionGenerator-Based Wind Turbines Under

Unbalanced Grid Voltage
Gonzalo Abad, Member, IEEE, Miguel Angel

Rodrguez, Member, IEEE, Grzegorz Iwanski,
and Javier Poza, Member, IEEE
AbstractIn this paper, the behavior of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is studied under unbalanced grid voltage
conditions. It is shown that if no special control efforts are employed, the behavior of the generator is deteriorated, basically due
to two reasons: electromagnetic torque oscillations and nonsinusoidal current exchange with the grid. These phenomena are first
analyzed theoretically as a function of the stator active and reactive
instantaneous power exchange by the stator of the DFIG and the
grid-side converter (GSC). This analysis provides the main ideas
for generation of the active and reactive power references for the
rotor-side converter (RSC) and the GSC, controlled by means of
direct power control techniques. Therefore, this paper proposes
a new algorithm that generates the RSC power references, without the necessity of a sequence component extraction, in order to
eliminate torque oscillations and achieve sinusoidal stator currents
exchange. On the contrary, the GSC power references are provided
by means of voltage and current sequence extraction. Finally, simulation and experimental results successfully validate the proposed
power reference generation methods.
Index TermsDoubly fed induction generator (DFIG), direct
power control (DPC), unbalanced voltage.
NOMENCLATURE
Lh
Ls , Lr
P, Q, S
Rs , Rr
Tem
Vbus
v , i
,
s , m , r
Mutual inductance.
Stator and rotor self-inductances.
Active, reactive, and apparent powers.
Stator and rotor resistances.
Electromagnetic torque.
Voltage of the dc side of the voltage-source converter (VSC).
Flux, voltage, and current space vectors.
Synchronous, rotor, and slip speeds.
Superscripts and Subscripts

s, r, g
Stator, rotor, and grid reference frame for space

vectors.
Manuscript received November 26, 2008; revised May 27, 2009. Current
version published February 12, 2010. This work was supported in part by the
Departamento de Educacion, Universidades e Investigacion del Gobierno Vasco.
Recommended for publication by Associate Editor J. M. Guerrero.
G. Abad and J. Poza are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Mondragon, Mondragon 20500, Spain (e-mail: gabad@eps.
mondragon.edu; jpoza@eps.mondragon.edu).
M. A. Rodrguez is with Ingeteam Transmission and Distribution S.A.,
Basauri 48970, Spain (e-mail: miguelangel.rodriguez@ingeteam.com).
G. Iwanski is with Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw 00-662, Poland
(e-mail: iwanskig@isep.pw.edu.pl).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2009.2027438
Stator reference frame axes (stationary).

Complex conjugate.
I. INTRODUCTION
N RECENT years, the development of wind energy generation has been associated with wind farms located onshore
and offshore. The wind farms are connected to strong transmission grids and their power range from some tens to a hundred
megawatts.
More and more modern wind turbines are being installed in
distribution and rural grids, with low X/R ratios, and also in
developing countries where the distribution grid is very weak.
This application of modern power-electronics-based wind turbines has led to the development of new functionalities for the
wind turbines, such as voltage or frequency control or islanding operation, or the requirement of operating with unbalanced
voltages.
Nowadays, wind turbines based on a doubly fed induction
generator (DFIG) [1] have arisen as a commonly used solution
for many variable-speed wind turbine manufacturers. Several
authors [2][8] have shown that an unbalanced voltage operation
requires additional control efforts in order to avoid electromagnetic torque oscillations and nonsinusoidal currents exchange.
Traditionally, the techniques to control the rotor-side converter (RSC) and the grid-side converter (GSC) of DFIG-based
wind turbines include the vector control (VC) and the direct
torque control or the direct power control (DTC-DPC). The first
vector control proposal for the DFIG, which is associated with
a back-to-back converter, was presented in [1]; many authors
then proposed improvements such as sensorless operation or
new current regulators. After this, the direct control techniques
were proposed for this machine: the DPC in [9] and the DTC [10]
from ABB.
Until recently, the problems associated with the DFIG unbalanced operation have not been a main research topic. A new
speed regulator is proposed in [11] for compensating small
asymmetries in weak transmission lines, and the first doubly
vector control (DVC) for the positive and negative sequences is
presented in [12].
More recently, several authors have analyzed the generator behavior in this situation [5][13] and others have proposed modifications to the classical vector control. In [4], two controllers
are added to the standard stator flux VC current controllers
in order to eliminate the 100 Hz power oscillation. In [2], the
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ABAD et al.: DIRECT POWER CONTROL OF DOUBLY-FED-INDUCTION-GENERATOR-BASED WIND TURBINES
unbalance during stand-alone operation is partially compensated

by the GSC and no modifications are proposed for the RSC,
whereas in [3], the negative-sequence components are used in
RSC control for the output asymmetry correction. However, the
four-wire system described in [3] is employed for stand-alone
operation with single phase and unbalanced load and not for the
systems operated with the power grid. Current regulators are
added to VC in [6] for each harmonic of the direct and negative sequences. The harmonics extraction is based on low-pass
filters. Auxiliary controllers for the negative-sequence current
regulator similar to the DVC but without sequence extraction for
the positive-sequence VC are proposed in [14]. A coordinated
active power reference generator for the RSC and the GSC that
ensures constant active power output from the overall system
is also presented. Finally, the dc-link voltage fluctuations are
described in [15], and improvements in the GSC vector control
are proposed to minimize them.
Major improvements have also been made in the DPC in order
to tackle the unbalanced operation. A new reference generator
for the DPC is proposed in [7] in order to eliminate power,
torque oscillations, or current unbalances applying a factor that
prioritizes the variable to be compensated (torque, current, or
power).
The GSC control under unbalanced voltage has been more
extensively studied. A feedforward voltage compensation for
the VC is proposed in [16] in order to compensate the negativesequence voltages. The double vector control for positive- and
negative-sequence currents was first introduced in [17]. In [18],
resonant scalar converters are introduced, and more recently,
a new reference generation for the DPC is proposed in [19].
Hence, in this paper, DPC strategy for both the RSC and the
GSC is adopted. As will be later shown in this paper, and as
stated by several authors, e.g., [5] and [7], under an unbalanced
situation, if the operation is carried out with constant active and
reactive powers, electromagnetic torque oscillations and a quality deterioration of the current exchanged with the grid occur.
In this paper, in order to eliminate mechanical problems associated with the torque oscillations, the main objective will be to
achieve nonoscillating torque accompanied by a sinusoidal current exchange with the grid. In order to achieve this, both RSC
and GSC control strategies are developed, based on the appropriate active and reactive power reference generation strategy
for the DPC control. A theoretical analysis of flux, torque, and
power disturbances created by the grid voltage unbalance in the
DFIG is developed. Later, different control solutions are provided. Finally, simulation and experimental results validate the
theoretical study.
II. WIND POWER ENERGY GENERATION SYSTEM UNDER AN

UNBALANCED VOLTAGE GRID
The analyzed system considers the unbalance created in the
grid voltage by the presence of an unbalanced load, as illustrated
in Fig 1. In a general situation, not all the impedances (Rabc )
of the load are equal. The unbalanced consumption of currents
of the load (iL abc ), together with the impedance of the lines
443
Fig. 1. Wind energy generation system under unbalanced voltage grid

conditions.
(ZN1 , ZN2 ), induces an unbalanced voltage in the stator and in

the GSC of the wind turbine.
In this study, the DPC technique is adopted for both RSC
and GSC, as enunciated in [9] and [20]. By the RSC, the stator
active and reactive powers (Ps and Qs ) exchanged with the grid
are directly controlled. Similarly, the active and reactive powers
(Pg and Qg ) exchanged through the GSC are also directly controlled. Hence, the pulses for the controlled semiconductors of
the two-level back-to-back converter are calculated from the stator active and reactive power references, together with the GSC
active and reactive power references. Thus, by means of these
direct control techniques, it is possible to achieve quick dynamic
performances, without using current regulators and with reasonably good implementation simplicity. This strategy can be understood as an alternative solution to control methods based on
current loops [21]. However, although several works [22], [23]
have proposed improvements in order to address one of the most
important drawbacks of these control techniques, i.e., the nonconstant switching frequency behavior, in this paper, an easy
and standard version of the DPC has been utilized. One of the
most important reasons for this choice is that, in this study, it
is desired to show how the unbalanced problem can be tackled
by simply adding the appropriate power reference generation
strategy to a classic DPC technique.
Prior to the design of the control strategies, to address this
unbalanced situation, the following sections present the theoretical bases for analyzing the effect of voltage unbalance in the
active and reactive powers.
A. Space Vector Representation Under Unbalanced Conditions
In this section, the unbalance created by asymmetrical loads
is analyzed, with the mathematical symmetric decomposition
theory. An unbalanced three-phase system can be decomposed
into three balanced symmetric three-phase systems [24].
These three-phase systems are called the zero-sequence, the
positive-sequence, and the negative-sequence components, and
can be calculated according to the expression

o
xa
1 1 1
x
x+ = 1 1 a a2 xb
(1)
3
x
1 a2 a
xc
444
with a = ej (2 /3) being the time operator; xa , xb , and xc represent the three-phase unbalanced system; x0 the zero-sequence
component; x+ the positive-sequence component; and x the
negative-sequence component.
It must be stressed that all sequences and the system considered before are expressed in the theory of complexors used for
steady-state analysis of sinusoidal voltages and currents, as was
initially enunciated by Fortescue.
The three-phase systems considered in this analysis assume a
three-wire connection system, i.e., there does not exist any neutral point connection. This fact means that the sum of the currents will always be zero, i.e., ia + ib + ic = 0; consequently,
the zero sequence of the current will be zero as well. Due to
this reason, the zero sequence of the voltages will also be zero
(va + vb + vc = 0).
Related to this, by using the space vector definition
x = x + jx =

2
xa + axb + a2 xc .
3
(2)
The unbalanced three-phase system can be represented by a

space vector x, calculated from the addition of two space vectors
x + and x , rotating in opposite direction and same pulsation
x = x + + x = |x + |ej ( t+
+ |x |ej ( t+ ) .
(3)
Hence, the positive- and the negative-sequence space vectors

describe circular trajectories, while the space vector x describes
an ellipsoid trajectory [19].
B. Instantaneous Power Representation Under
Unbalanced Conditions
On the other hand, the apparent power can be calculated by
using the following equation [25]:

= P (t) + jQ(t) = 3 v i
S(t)
2
(4)
which yields the following active and reactive power expressions:

3
3
P (t) = Re v i = (v i + v i )
(5)
2
2
Q(t) =
3 3
Im v i = (v i v i ).
2
2
(6)
Note that since the voltage is unbalanced, all the space vectors
could have positive and negative sequences. Hence, considering
the positive and negative sequences, voltage and current space
vectors yield
v = (v
+ v ) = v + jv =
(v+
v )
j(v+
v )
i = (i+ + i ) = i + ji = (i+
+ i ) + j(i + i ).
(7)
(8)
Substituting expressions (7) and (8) into (4), we get

= P (t) + jQ(t)
S(t)

3 + +
=
v i + v i + v + i + v i + . (9)
2
By expanding (9), the active and reactive power expressions as

a function of the positive and negative sequences of the voltage
and currents yield
P = AP + BP + CP + DP
(10)
Q = AQ + BQ + CQ + DQ
(11)
with
3
3
+ +
Re{v + i + } = (v+ i+
(12)
+ v i )
2
2
3
3

BP = Re{v i } = (v i
(13)
+ v i )
2
2
3
3
+
CP = Re{v + i } = (v+ i
(14)
+ v i )
2
2
3
3
+
DP = Re{v i + } = (v i+
(15)
+ v i )
2
2
3
3
+ +
AQ = Im{v + i + } = (v+ i+
(16)
v i )
2
2
3
3

BQ = Im{v i } = (v i
(17)
v i )
2
2
3
3
+
CQ = Im{v + i } = (v+ i
(18)
v i )
2
2
3
3
+
DQ = Im{v i+ } = (v i+
(19)
v i ).
2
2
Note that for simplicity, the time dependence of each term
has been omitted. On the other hand, terms AP , AQ and BP ,
BQ are constant at steady state, since they are composed by the
same sequence product. However, terms CP , CQ and DP , DQ
oscillate at 2 pulsation, since they are composed by positiveand negative-sequence products [16], [25]. In the following two
sections, this basic analysis is applied to the DFIG and the GSC.
AP =
III. DFIG ANALYSIS AND CONTROL

A. DFIG Analysis
The DFIG can be modeled with the following voltage and
flux equations in the stator reference frame [19]:
s
d
vs = Rsis +
dt
r
d
r
vr = Rrir +
jm
dt
s = Lsis + Lhir
r = Lrir + Lhis .
(20)
(21)
(22)
(23)
On the other hand, the electromagnetic torque can be expressed using the following equation:

3
is = 3 p(s is s is ).
(24)
Tem = pIm
s
2
2
It must be highlighted that as the stator voltage is unbalanced,
all the space vectors of (20)(24) may present positive and
negative sequences.
First of all, the influence of the unbalanced voltage will be
analyzed in the stator flux. From expressions (7) and (20), the
445
share four common terms, i.e., As P , Bs P , Cs P , and Ds P .

Hence, it can be shown that the relation between the torque and
the active power results in
Ps =
Tem s
+ 2Bs
p
+ 2Ds
+ Es
(33)
This expression is used later in order to improve the control

performance under unbalanced grid voltage conditions.
B. Active Power Oscillations Cancellation (APOC) Strategy
Fig. 2.
Relation between stator voltage, current, and flux space vectors.
relationship between the stator flux and the stator voltage can
be obtained as follows:
+
vs+ = Rsi+
+ js
s
s
(25)

vs = Rsi
js
s.
s
(26)
The stator flux evolves as the superposition of the positiveand negative-sequence fluxes: the first one rotating clockwise
and the second one anticlockwise, as illustrated in Fig. 2.
Substituting the positive- and negative-sequence components
of the stator current and the stator flux into the torque expression
(24), we obtain
+ +

3
s is +
+
+
Tem = p Im
s is + s is + s is . (27)
2
It is deduced that the torque is composed of two constant terms
associated with equal sequence products and two 2 pulsating
terms associated with nonequal sequence products.
Substituting the flux from expressions (25) and (26) in torque
equation (27), we get

3 1
Tem = p Re vs+is+ vsis vsis+ + vs+is
2 s

Rs (|is+ |2 |is |2 ) .
(28)
By similitude with the active power expression (10) and defining the constant term Es T as
Es
= Rs (|is+ |2 |is |2 )
the torque can be expressed as

p
Tem =
(As P Bs P + Cs
s
(29)
As depicted in Fig. 1, the control strategy for the DFIG is

divided into two different general blocks. The first block is a
DPC technique controlling the stator active and reactive powers
directly.
Then, the second block performs the required stator power references to deal with the problems generated by the grid voltage
unbalance, i.e., electromagnetic torque oscillations and nonsinusoidal stator currents.
However, in this section, the control strategy that produces
constant active power will be analyzed. From the stator active
power expression (31), it can be noted that by making the sum
of the two oscillating terms zero, i.e.,
Cs
Es
T)
(30)
where the subindex s indicates stator variables.

On the other hand, the stator active and reactive power expressions as a function of the positive and negative sequences
of the voltage and currents yield
Ps = As
+ Bs
+ Cs
+ Ds
(31)
Qs = As
+ Bs
+ Cs
+ Ds
Q.
(32)
As can be observed from (30) and (31), the stator active power
and the electromagnetic torque are closely related since they
+ Ds
=0
(34)
the active power will remain constant, and since Cs P and Ds P

depend on both positive and negative stator currents sequences,
it is impossible to make both oscillating terms zero at the same
time (Cs P = 0 and Ds P = 0), because it will require zero
stator currents imposition. The required power (Ps required ) is
equal to the reference active power (Ps ref )
Ps
ref
= Ps
required
= As
+ Bs
(35)
but the electromagnetic torque (30) will present oscillating terms

p
(As P Bs P 2Ds P Es T )
Tem =
s
p
(As P Bs P + 2Cs P Es T ).
(36)
=
s
C. Torque Oscillations Cancellation (TOC) Strategy
As is the case with the active power, the analysis of expression
(30) shows that the only way to achieve constant electromagnetic
torque under unbalanced grid voltage conditions is by imposing
Cs
Ds
Ds
= 0.
which results in an electromagnetic torque

p
(As P Bs P Es
Tem =
s
(37)
).
(38)
This imposition for a given voltage unbalance, in general,

does not make the positive or the negative sequences of the
stator currents zero.
Under this situation, the required power and the reference
stator active power are related by the following expression:
Ps
ref
= Ps
required
+ 2Cs
= Ps
required
+ 2Ds
. (39)
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IV. GSC ANALYSIS AND CONTROL

A. Grid-Side Converter Analysis
Fig. 3.
Stator active power generation strategy.
Note that by equating the oscillating terms of this expression

and (31) yields (37). On the other hand, as a function of electromagnetic torque from (33), the active power reference results
in
Ps
ref
Tem s
+ 2Bs
p
+ 2Cs
+ Es
Tem s
+ 2Bs
p
+ 2Ds
+ Es
(40)
In addition, as is later shown in simulation and experimental

results, with this power reference generation strategy, the stator
currents exchanged with the grid are also unbalanced, but they
are sinusoidal, thus ensuring that there is no further deterioration
in their quality [7].
D. Torque Oscillations Cancellation Without Sequence
Calculation (TOC-WSC)
In the previous two power reference generation strategies,
positive- and negative-sequence calculations of voltages and
currents were needed to avoid powertorque oscillations. In this
section, an improved method to avoid these sequence calculations is presented.
For a given active power reference (Ps required ), suppose an
oscillating term obtained from the electromagnetic torque and
stator power is added as follows (Fig. 3):

s
Tem .
(41)
Ps ref = Ps required + Ps
p
Now, by substituting (30) and (31) into (41), the stator active
power reference expression yields
Ps
ref
= Ps
required
+ (2Bs
+ 2Ds
+ Es
).
(42)
Again, this expression must be equal to (31); thus, the oscillating terms yield
Cs
+ Ds
= 2Ds
(43)
Thus, with (41), the condition to cancel the torque oscillations

has been obtained.
Note that with this reference generation strategy, as mentioned
before, since the positive- and negative-sequence calculations
are not needed to avoid the electromagnetic torque oscillations,
the implementation simplicity of the strategy is highly improved.
In a DFIG-based wind turbine [1], the GSC is used to control

the dc bus voltage (Vbus ) of the back-to-back converter and the
reactive power exchanged through this converter to the grid Qg .
As illustrated in Fig. 1, in this research, this objective is achieved
by means of a DPC method, with references Pg ref and Qg ref .
In fact, the GSC must deal with disturbances caused by the
grid voltage unbalance and the oscillatory rotor active power
supplied by the RSC to the dc bus.
The grid voltage unbalance, as can be demonstrated from (10)
and (11), generates the exchange of active and reactive powers
with oscillatory terms (Cg and Dg )
Pg = Ag
+ Bg
+ Cg
+ Dg
(44)
Qg = Ag
+ Bg
+ Cg
+ Dg
Q.
(45)
The stator voltage unbalance produces active power oscillations in the dc bus. Since the rotor active power exchanged
through the rotor of the machine can be calculated according to
(5) and (6)
3
Re vr ir
2
Pr =
(46)
by combining this expression with (20)(24), the approximated

relation between the stator and rotor active powers yields
Lr Ls
Pr
= 2 [(As
Lh
+ Cs
+ (Bs
)slip
+ Ds
)(2 slip)].
(47)
where the slip is calculated as follows:

slip =
s m
.
s
(48)
Hence, the stator active power oscillations of (43) required

to achieve constant torque and sinusoidal stator currents will be
instantaneously propagated through the rotor of the machine, as
a function of the mechanical speed according to (47). This fact
demands additional control efforts that are addressed in the next
section.
However, for a control strategy that cancels torque oscillations, as proposed by (39) and (43), the rotor power expression
is given as follows:
Lr Ls
Pr
= 2 [slipAs
Lh
+ (2 slip)Bs
+ 2Ds
].
(49)
It can be noted that the speed of the machine does not affect
the oscillatory term of the rotor power.
B. Power References Generation Strategy
By applying sequence analysis to this side of the converter,
it is possible to eliminate the negative-sequence component of
the GSC currents, exchanging balanced and sinusoidal currents,
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.
GSC active and reactive power generation strategy.
by adding only two oscillating terms to the active and reactive

power references [19].
The proposed reference generation strategy is shown in Fig. 4.
The active and reactive power references result in
Pg
ref
= Pg
required
+ Dg
(50)
Qg
ref
= Qg
required
+ Dg
Q.
(51)
Note that in this case, the positive and negative sequences of

ig and vs must be calculated to achieve the oscillating terms
Dg P and Dg Q
Dg
Dg
3 +
+
(v i + vs
ig )
2 s g
3 +
+
= (vs
ig vs
ig ).
2
=
(52)
(53)
In this paper, this positive- and negative-sequence calculation,

together with the synchronization system, is implemented based
on the method proposed in [27]. Compared with other more
sophisticated methods, it provides enough accuracy by using
only basic axis transformations and a delayed signal cancellation
(DSC) calculus for the symmetrical components extraction.
The main characteristics of this reference generation strategy
are summarized as follows.
1) The oscillating terms Dg P and Dg Q must be the unique
oscillations of the powers Pg and Qg in order to eliminate the negative-sequence component of the exchanged
currents ig .
2) The Vbus regulator provides only the mean value of the
exchanged active power Pg , i.e., the mean value of the
transmitted rotor active power (Pr ) plus the active power
losses of the back-to-back converter. For this purpose, it
should be tuned with very smooth dynamics; otherwise, it
will produce additional oscillations in Pg that will generate
a nonproper cancellation of the negative sequence of the
currents.
3) The oscillations of the active power Pr due to the grid
voltage unbalance will produce oscillations of the Vbus
voltage value.
Note that it is possible to add special features such as a feedforward term at the output of the Vbus regulator by means of
447
DC bus voltage oscillations.
a factor of the rotor power Pr , derived from (47) or a simplified calculation of the rotor power. In this manner, the stress of
the Vbus regulator would be reduced, for instance, under highspeed variations. However, for easy understanding and in order
to improve the implementation simplicity of the proposed control technique, only the most important features are taken into
account.
Consequently, by this control procedure, it is possible to address two main difficulties: unbalance voltage operation conditions and exchanging balanced currents with the grid when
the active and reactive powers exchanged through the rotor are
oscillating.
C. DC Bus Voltage Oscillations
The unbalanced grid voltage situation requires an increase of
the voltage at both ac sides of the converter due to the induced
voltage oscillations. This fact increases the necessary dc bus
voltage, as described, for instance, in [13] and [14].
However, as described in previous sections, since the active
and reactive powers at both sides of the back-to-back converter
present oscillatory behavior to achieve good performance of currents and torque, it is necessary to further analyze the effect that
they produce in the dc bus voltage. Hence, as graphically shown
in Fig. 5, different P and Q oscillations at both ac sides of the
converter generate different oscillatory ir dc and ig dc currents
in the dc bus voltage. Neglecting the losses and assuming an
ideal converter, the average value of both these currents is equal
and leads to the average power flow from the rotor to the grid
ig
dc
= ig
dc
+ ig
dc
(54)
ir
dc
= ir
dc
+ ir
dc .
(55)
Consequently, the remaining current oscillations will be delivered through the capacitor, thus generating dc bus voltage
oscillations at two times the frequency of the grid (Fig. 5)
ir
Vbus =
ig dc
.
2s Cbus
dc
(56)
448
The oscillating components of currents ir dc and ig

accurately approximated with the expressions
ig
dc
ir
dc
Pg
conv
Pr
conv
g
Q
3 Vbus
dc
can be
conv
r
Q
3 Vbus
conv
TABLE I
NOMINAL RATINGS OF THE SIMULATED AND EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEM
(57)
.
(58)
The oscillations of the powers at both sides of the converter

are equal to
Pg
conv
Pr
conv
r
Q
conv
= Pg = Dg
g
Q
conv
g = Dg
=Q
= Pr
= 2Ds P
r
=Q
= 2Ds Q (1 slip).
(59)
(60)
Hence, the amplitude of the dc bus voltage oscillations depends on the exchanged active and reactive powers at both sides
of the converter for a given unbalance of the grid. In order to
reduce these oscillations, it is possible to increase the value of
the dc bus capacitor.
As stated in the previous section, it is very important that the
dc bus voltage regulator does not generate additional oscillations
in the active power. Due to this reason, it should be tuned in such
a way that it produces only the mean value of the exchanged
active power, i.e., Pg .
D. Contribution to Balance the Grid Voltage Unbalance
Once it has been seen that it is possible to simultaneously
eliminate the torque oscillations and exchange sinusoidal currents with the grid (unbalanced stator currents and balanced
GSC currents), the next task is to analyze how the generated
total currents affect the unbalance of the grid voltage.
Hence, the current demanded by the unbalanced load will be
partially provided by the DFIG system (grid side and stator side).
Unfortunately, the unbalance of the stator voltage is equivalent
to the unbalance of the generated stator currents. This means
that, for example, for an unbalanced load with Ra = Rb = Rc ,
the stator currents (is abc ) will also be unbalanced. The GSC
currents (ig abc ) will be balanced, while the total current (iL abc )
will still be unbalanced and will not contribute to reduce the
unbalance in the grid voltage since, in general, the GSC operates
only with 30% of the total power [2].
Consequently, although the proposed control strategy avoids
the necessity to disconnect the wind turbine due to the elimination of the mechanical torque oscillations, it is not possible to
palliate the unbalance of the grid.
V. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this section, the proposed control strategies are validated.
Different experimental and simulation results are presented in
order to validate the theoretical performance and the resultant
practical behavior in the experimental rig.
For simulation results, MATLABSimlulink software has
been used together with the Power System Blockset library tool.
Several simulation models have been developed with the objec-
Fig. 6.
Schematic of the laboratory setup.
tive to reproduce and predict as close as possible the behavior

of the experimentally implemented system.
The main characteristics of the simulated and experimental system are shown in Table I. The simulated generator is a
2-MW DFIG, while the scaled experimental prototype is a
15-kW generator. Thus, by means of the simulation results, it
is shown that the proposed control strategies are valid for a real
wind turbine. Then, by means of the experimental results, the
performances are compared and validated in a real prototype.
On the other hand, the experimental platform is basically
composed of the elements schematically represented in Fig. 6.
The grid voltage unbalance has been generated by the Programmable AC source 61705 from Chroma. By using the different operating modes of the source, the system will be fed
by different ac voltage waveforms, thus allowing to analyze
different behaviors and performances. The speed is controlled
externally by a dc machine [26]. All the proposed control strategies have been implemented in a dSPACE 1103 platform at
100 s sample time.
Grid-side and rotor-side inductive filters are introduced in
order to achieve a reasonably good quality of the generated
power [26]. For the high-power system, a lower filter requirement is needed compared to the low-power prototype. In fact,
the rotor-side filter is not needed for the studied 2-MW system.
This particular filter necessity is basically due to the following
reasons.
1) DPC techniques (in this case, implemented at 100 s), if
not special improvements are considered, provide lower
quality of currents than modulation schemas such as
pulsewidth modulation (PWM), space vector (SV), etc.
Fig. 7. Grid voltage unbalance of both simulation and experimental results.

V s a lfa versus V s b e ta .
2) The high-power system operates with higher fundamental

currents than the low-power system.
3) Since the scaled prototype presents equal rated stator and
rotor voltage, it operates with higher scaled rotor currents
than high-power generators with 1/3 statorrotor voltage
ratio characteristic.
4) The high-power system needs scaled lower dc bus voltage
than the low-power system.
A. Steady-State Performance Under Unbalanced Voltage Grid
First of all, the performance of the system will be analyzed
under steady-state operation conditions. Simulation and experimental results of the system will be compared under the same
operation conditions. Thus, the grid voltage unbalance programmed for this experiment is shown in Fig. 7 (vsa = 0.95|0 ,
vsb = 0.83|113 , vsc = 0.99|231 , yielding 0.91 of positive
sequence and 0.09 of negative sequence in per unit (p.u.) value).
In the first half of the experiment, the behavior of the machineside magnitudes and the grid-side magnitudes are presented
when the system is commanded with the electromagnetic torque
oscillations cancellation strategy without sequence calculation
(TOC-WSC), as proposed in Section III-D. After this, in the
second half of the experiment, the cancellation strategy is disabled (Figs. 8 and 9). Only the most representative magnitudes
of the experiment are shown.
Hence, in Fig. 8, the machine-side results are presented. The
stator active and reactive power references are set to 0.166 and
0.33 p.u. at a constant speed of 1100 r/min. The first half of
Fig. 8(a) and (d) shows the power tracking behavior in order
to cancel the electromagnetic torque oscillations. Fig. 8(b) and
(e) shows the currents exchanged through the stator under these
operation conditions. In both experimental and simulation results, a strong deterioration of the currents can be observed after
0.05 s. This fact is due to the oscillating behavior of the electromagnetic torque during this second half of the experiment,
as shown in Fig. 8(c) and (f). It can be noted that although the
torque behavior of simulated and experimental results does not
449
match exactly, the behavior of the overall system is reasonably

validated, probably because nonlinearities and losses of the real
machine are not considered.
In addition, when the torque oscillation cancellation strategy
is operating, the stator currents are unbalanced, but sinusoidal
[Fig. 8(b) and (e)]. A short deterioration in the quality of the
experimentally achieved stator currents is observed as compared
with the currents obtained under simulation results.
On the other hand, as mentioned before, in Fig. 9, the gridside simulation and experimental results are presented. These
results are part of the same experiment, represented with Fig. 8,
but for simplicity in the exposition, they have been separately
grouped in Figs. 8 and 9. Hence, first, Fig. 9(a) and (d) shows
the grid-side active and reactive power performance. Again, in
the first half of the experiment, the oscillatory behavior of the
powers to achieve the negative-sequence cancellation is shown.
Then, in the second half of the experiment, the compensation is
disabled.
Thus, as reported in Fig. 9(b) and (c), during the compensation, the currents exchanged with the grid are balanced and
sinusoidal, while when the negative-sequence cancellation is
disabled, the exchange of currents is deteriorated.
Finally, due to the oscillating behavior of the stator active
power or electromagnetic torque of the experiment, the exchanged rotor active power will also oscillate. As justified in the
previous section, for a proper negative-sequence cancellation of
the grid-side currents, this rotor active power oscillation must
not be transmitted to the grid side, thus yielding an oscillating
dc bus voltage behavior, as shown in Fig. 9(c) and (f).
B. Variable-Speed Performance Under Unbalanced

Voltage Grid
In this section, the performance of the system is analyzed
at variable speed. For this purpose, a ramp that covers a wide
range of speeds is performed, as presented in Fig. 10(a). The
unbalanced grid voltage programmed in this experiment is
less severe than in the previous experiment: vsa = 0.73|0 ,
vsb = 0.7|116 , vsc = 0.79|237 , yielding 0.74 of positive
sequence and 0.04 of negative sequence.
There is no significant additional control requirement for the
GSC under these operation conditions, and since the most challenging performance is that of the machine side, the grid-side
results have been omitted from this experiment. Hence, in this
case, the electromagnetic torque oscillations cancellation strategy is enabled during the whole experiment. Fig. 10(a) and (d)
shows the speed of the machine and the rotor-side currents during the entire experiment. The rest of the figures show the transition to the synchronous speed under detail. Hence, Fig. 10(b)
represents the stator currents during this transition. To achieve
these currents, the stator active and reactive powers represented
in Fig. 10(c) are set. Under these circumstances, there is an
absolute absence of low-frequency oscillations in the electromagnetic torque, as shown in Fig. 10(f). Finally, from the rotor
currents point of view as well, there is a reasonable uniform and
safe behavior, as inferred from Fig. 10(d) and (e).
450
Fig. 8. Simulation and experimental results comparison of the DFIG behavior, with and without torque oscillations cancellation (TOC-WSC) strategy.
(a) Simulated, stator active, and reactive powers. (b) Simulated, stator currents. (c) Simulated, electromagnetic torque. (d) Experimental stator active and
reactive powers. (e) Experimental stator currents. (f) Experimental electromagnetic torque.
Fig. 9. Comparison of simulation and experimental results of the GSC magnitudes behavior, with and without negative sequence of currents cancellation
strategy. (a) Simulated, grid-side active, and reactive powers. (b) Simulated grid-side currents. (c) Simulated dc bus voltage. (d) Experimental grid-side active and
reactive powers. (e) Experimental grid-side currents. (f) Experimental dc bus voltage.
451
Fig. 10. Experimental results under a ramp speed of the DFIG under unbalanced grid voltage with TOC-WSC strategy. (a) Speed. (b) Stator currents. (c) Stator
active and reactive powers. (d) Rotor currents. (e) Rotor currents (zoom). (f) Electromagnetic torque.
VI. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
In this paper, a new problem associated with DFIG-based

wind turbines has been addressed. Under unbalanced voltage
grid operation conditions, it has been shown that a simple DPC
technique accompanied by a proper active and reactive power
reference generation strategy is able to eliminate the electromagnetic torque oscillations, thus avoiding mechanical stresses
in the wind turbine and interchanging sinusoidal currents with
the grid.
Hence, by using an oscillating stator active reference, calculated from the power and torque estimation, it is possible to
eliminate the torque oscillations and ensure sinusoidal stator
currents exchange, thus avoiding the necessity to calculate the
positive- and negative-sequence components.
On the other hand, from the GSC point of view, in order to
exchange balanced and sinusoidal currents with the grid, active
and reactive power oscillating references have been generated
from the positive and negative sequences of voltage and currents,
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experimental test bench, demonstrating that the DPC techniques
can be easily adapted to avoid the difficulties of an unbalanced
grid voltage scenario. However, due to the fact that by means
of the proposed control strategy, the total current exchanged by
the wind turbine is unbalanced, it is not possible to contribute
to palliate the grid voltage unbalance.
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Gonzalo Abad (M07) was born in Bergara, Spain,

on October 11, 1976. He received the B.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering from the University of
Mondragon, Mondragon, Spain, in 2000, the M.Sc.
degree in advanced control from the University of
Manchester, Manchester, U.K., in 2001, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of Mondragon, in 2008.
In 2001, he joined the Electronics Department,
University of Mondragon, where he is currently an
Associate Professor. He teaches courses in power
electronics, power converters, and control and robotics. His current research
interests include renewable energies, power conversion, and motor drives. He
has authored or coauthored several papers in the areas of wind power generation, multilevel power converters, and direct torque control of ac drives. He has
participated in different industrial projects related to these fields.
Miguel Angel
Rodrguez (M06) was born in San
Sebastian, Spain, in August 1966. He received the
M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne,
Switzerland, in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in industrial engineering from the University of Zaragoza,
Zaragoza, Spain, in 2000.
From 1992 to 2008, he was an Associate Professor in the Electronics Department, University of
Mondragon. He participated in different research
projects in the field of wind energy systems, lift
drives, and railway traction. In September 2008, he joined Ingeteam Transmission and Distribution S.A., Basauri, Spain, as a Senior Engineer. His current
research interests include electrical machines modeling and control, in particular, for single and doubly fed asynchronous machines, and voltage-source
inverter control for flexible ac transmission systems applications.
Grzegorz Iwanski was born in Kielce, Poland, in

1977. He received the M.Sc. degree in robotics
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Warsaw,
Poland, in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
From January 2006 to December 2008, he was
a Research Worker in the Electrical Drive Division,
Warsaw University of Technology, where he is currently a Lecturer at the Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics. He was involved in international
project within 6FP EU and investigated the hightemperature current sensors dedicated to high-density automotive power electronics converters. He teaches courses on power electronics and drives and
power conversion systems. His current research interests include variable- and
adjustable-speed power generation with permanent-magnet and doubly fed induction generators, automotive power electronics and drives, and current measurement systems for power electronics.
Javier Poza (M07) was born in Bergara, Spain, in

June 1975. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mondragon,
Mondragon, Spain, in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France.
In 2002, he joined the Electronics Department,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mondragon,
where he is currently an Associate Professor. His
current research interests include electrical machines
design, modeling, and control. He participated in different research projects in the field of wind energy systems, lift drives, and
railway traction.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 25, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2010