ECE 333

Renewable Energy Systems

Lecture 9: Wind Power Systems

Prof. Tom Overbye

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
overbye@illinois.edu
Announcements

• Read Chapter 7
• HW 4 is 7.1, 7.2, 7.4, 7.5; it will be covered by an in-
class quiz on Thursday Feb 20

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 In the News: On Feb 12 AWEA
Released Report on Wind Reliablity
• Report addressed issue of how much wind energy
could be integrated into the US grid
• Finding is wind could provide more than 40% of our
total electric energy
– In 2013 Iowa and South Dakota got 25% of their electricity
from wind, and for ERCOT it as 10.6%
• Key to integrating large amounts of
wind is that the wind plant outputs
are not correlated across large areas
– Changes in the wind tend to cancel out

Report: awea.files.cms-plus.com/AWEA%20Reliability%20White%20Paper%20-%202-12-15.pdf
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North American Power Grid
Load/Generation Contour
Image contours the load (green) and generation (red)

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Maximum Rotor Efficiency

Rotor efficiency
CP vs. wind
speed ratio λ.
Recall λ is the
ratio between the
downstream
wind velocity
and the upstream
velocity

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 Tip-Speed Ratio (TSR)

• Efficiency is a function of how fast the rotor turns

• Tip-Speed Ratio (TSR) is the speed of the outer tip
of the blade divided by wind speed
Rotor tip speed rpm   D
Tip-Speed-Ratio (TSR)  = (7.30)
Wind speed 60v

• D = rotor diameter (m)

• v = upwind undisturbed wind speed (m/s)
• rpm = rotor speed, (revolutions/min)
• One meter per second = 2.24 miles per hour
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Tip-Speed Ratio (TSR)

• TSR for various rotor

types
• If blade turns too slow
then wind passes
through without hitting
blade; too fast
results in turbulence
• Rotors with fewer Figure 7.18
blades reach their
maximum efficiency at A higher TSR is needed
higher tip-speed ratios when there are fewer blades
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Example

• 40-m wind turbine, three-blades, 600 kW, wind speed

is 14 m/s, air density is 1.225 kg/m3
a. Find the rpm of the rotor if it operates at a TSR of 4.0
b. Find the tip speed of the rotor
c. What gear ratio is needed to match the rotor speed to
the generator speed if the generator must turn at 1800
rpm?
d. What is the efficiency of the wind turbine under these
conditions?

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Example

a. Find the rpm of the rotor if it operates at a TSR of

4.0
Rewriting (7.30),
Tip-Speed-Ratio (TSR)  60v
rpm 
D
4.0  60sec/min 14m/s
rpm  = 26.7 rev/min
  40m/rev
We can also express this as seconds per revolution:
26.7 rev/min
rpm  = 0.445 rev/sec or 2.24 sec/rev
60 sec/min
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Example

b. Tip speed
rpm   D
From (7.30): Rotor tip speed=
60 sec/min
Rotor tip speed = (rev/sec)   D
Rotor tip speed = 0.445 rev/sec   40 m/rev = 55.92 m/s
c. Gear Ratio
Generator rpm 1800
Gear Ratio = = = 67.4
Rotor rpm 26.7

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Example

d. Efficiency of the complete wind turbine (blades,

gear box, generator) under these conditions
From (7.7):
1 1  
PW   Av = 1.225    402 143  2112 kW
3

2 2 4 
Overall efficiency:
600 kW
  28.4%
2112 kW

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Converting Wind into Electric Energy

• Design challenge is to convert rotating mechanical

energy into electrical energy
– This is, of course, commonly done in most power plants.
But the added challenges with wind turbines are 1) the shaft
is often rotating a variable speed [because of changes in the
wind speed], and 2) the rate of rotation is relatively slow
(dozens of rpm)
• Early wind turbines used a near fixed speed design,
which allowed use of simple and well proven
induction generators, but gave up aerodynamic
efficiency. Modern turbines tend to use a variable
speed design to keep tip-to-speed ratio near optimal
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Electric Machines

• Electric machines can usually function as either a

motor or as a generator
• Three main types of electric machines
– DC machines: Advantage is they can directly operate at
variable speed. For grid application the disadvantage is they
produce a dc output. Used for small wind turbines.
– AC synchronous machines
 Operate at fixed speed. Used extensively for traditional power
generation. The fixed speed had been a disadvantage for wind.
– AC induction machines
 Very rugged and allow some speed variation but usually not a lot for
efficient operation.

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Types of Wind Turbines by Machine

• From an electric point of view there are four main

types of large-scale wind turbines (IEEE naming
convention)
– Type 1: Induction generator with fixed rotor resistance
– Type 2: Induction generators with variable rotor resistance
– Type 3: Doubly-fed induction generators
– Type 4: Full converter generators which main use either a
synchronous generator or an induction generator
• Most new wind turbines are either Type 3 or Type 4
• In Europe these are sometimes called Types A, B, C,
D respectively.
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Wind Generator Types

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Rotating Magnetic Field

• Imagine coils in the stator of this 3-phase generator

• Positive current iA flows from A to A’
• Magnetic fields from positive currents are shown by the
bold arrows
• Magnetic flux is proportional to current, with direction
given by the right-hand rule (from Ampere's circuit law)

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Rotating Magnetic Field

• Three-phase currents are flowing in the stator

• At ωt = 0, iA is at the maximum positive value and
iB=iC are both negative

Resultant magnetic flux points

vertically down
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Rotating Magnetic Field Demo

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 Magnetic Poles

• Synchronous speed depends on the electrical

frequency and the number of poles, with
2 fe
fm  where f e is electrical frequency
P
P is the number of poles, f m is mechanical frequency

Image source :cnx.org/contents/cbb3bd3b-430a-487b-9c53-b17d79e3367c@1/Chapter_5:_Synchronous_Machine

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Synchronous Machines

• Spin at a rotational speed determined by the number of

poles and by the frequency (3600 rpm at 60Hz, 2 pole)
• The magnetic field is created on their rotors
• Create the magnetic field by running DC through
windings around the core
– A permanent magnet can also be used
• A gear box if often needed between the blades and the
generator
– Some newer machines are designed without a gear box
• Slip rings are needed to get a dc current on the rotor

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Asynchronous Induction Machines

• Do not turn at a fixed speed

• Acts as a motor during start up; can act as a generator
when spun faster then synchronous speed
• Do not require exciter, brushes, and slip rings
– Less expensive, require less maintenance
• The magnetic field is created on the stator not the rotor
• Current is induced in the rotor
(Faraday's law: v= dl/dt)
• Lorenz force on wire with current in magnetic field:
F  Il  B
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Squirrel Cage Rotor

• The rotor of many induction generators has copper

or aluminum bars shorted together at the ends, looks
like a cage
• Can be thought of as a
pair of magnets
spinning around a cage
• Rotor current iR flows
easily through the thick
conductor bars

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Squirrel Cage Rotor

• Instead of thinking of a rotating stator field, you can

think of a stationary stator field and the rotor
moving counterclockwise
• The conductor experiences a clockwise force

Figure 6.16
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The Inductance Machine as a Motor

• The rotating magnetic field in the stator causes the

rotor to spin in the same direction
• As rotor approaches synchronous speed of the
rotating magnetic field, the relative motion becomes
less and less
• If the rotor could move at synchronous speed, there
would be no relative motion, no current, and no
force to keep the rotor going
• Thus, an induction machine as a motor always spins
somewhat slower than synchronous speed

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Slip

• The difference in speed between the stator and the

rotor
NS  NR NR
  1
NS NS
• s = rotor slip – positive for a motor, negative for a
generator
• NS = no-load synchronous speed (rpm)
• f = frequency (Hz)
120 f
• p = number of poles NS 
p
• NR = rotor speed (rpm)

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The Induction Machine as a Motor

Torque- slip curve for an induction motor

• As load on motor increases, rotor slows down

• When rotor slows down, slip increases
• “Breakdown torque” increasing slip no longer
satisfies the load and rotor stops
• Braking- rotor is forced to operate in the opposite
direction to the stator field
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 The Induction Machine as a
Generator
• The stator requires excitation current
– from the grid if it is grid-connected or
– by incorporating external capacitors

Single-phase, self-excited, induction generator

• Wind speed forces generator shaft to exceed
synchronous speed
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 The Induction Machine as a
Generator
• Slip is negative because the rotor spins faster than
synchronous speed
• Slip is normally less than 1% for grid-connected
generator
• Typical rotor speed

NR  (1  s) NS  [1  (0.01)]  3600  3636 rpm

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Speed Control

• Necessary to be able to shed wind in high-speed

winds
• Rotor efficiency changes for different Tip-Speed
Ratios (TSR), and TSR is a function of windspeed
• To maintain a constant TSR, blade speed should
change as wind speed changes
• A challenge is to design machines that can
accommodate variable rotor speed and fixed
generator speed

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Blade Efficiency vs. Windspeed

At lower windspeeds, the best efficiency is achieved

at a lower rotational speed
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Power Delivered vs. Windspeed

Impact of rotational speed adjustment on delivered

power, assuming gear and generator efficiency is 70%
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 Pole-Changing Induction
Generators
• Being able to change the number of poles allows
you to change operating speeds
• A 2 pole, 60 Hz, 3600 rpm generator can switch to 4
poles and 1800 rpm
• Can do this by switching external connections to the
stator and no change is needed in the rotor
• Common approach for 2-3 speed appliance motors
like those in washing machines and exhaust fans
– Increasingly this approach is being replaced by machine
drives that convert ac at grid frequency to ac at a varying
frequency (covered in ECE 464)
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Variable-Slip Induction Generators

• Purposely add variable resistance to the rotor

• External adjustable resistors - this can mean using a
wound rotor with slip rings and brushes which
requires more maintenance
• Mount resistors and control electronics on the rotor
and use an optical fiber link to send the rotor a
signal for how much resistance to provide

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Effect of Rotor Resistance on Induction
Machine Power-Speed Curves
Real Pow er
Real Pow er
0.9
1.6
0.8
1.4 0.7
1.2 0.6
1 0.5

0.8 0.4

0.6 0.3
0.2
0.4

Real Power
0.1
Real Power

0.2
0
0
-0.1
-0.2 -0.2
-0.4 -0.3
-0.6 -0.4
-0.8 -0.5

-1 -0.6
-0.7
-1.2
-0.8
-1.4
-0.9
-1.6
-0.95
-0.9
-0.85
-0.8
-0.75
-0.7
-0.65
-0.6
-0.55
-0.5
-0.45
-0.4
-0.35
-0.3
-0.25
-0.2
-0.15
-0.1
-0.0500.050.10.150.20.250.30.350.40.450.50.550.60.650.70.750.80.850.90.951
-0.95
-0.9
-0.85
-0.8
-0.75
-0.7
-0.65
-0.6
-0.55
-0.5
-0.45
-0.4
-0.35
-0.3
-0.25
-0.2
-0.15
-0.1
-0.0500.050.10.150.20.250.30.350.40.450.50.550.60.650.70.750.80.850.90.951 Slip
Slip
Real Pow er
Real Pow er

Left plot shows the torque-power curve from slip of -1 to

1 with external resistance = 0.05; right plot is with
external resistance set to 0.99 pu.

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 Variable Slip Example: Vestas V80
1.8 MW
• The Vestas V80 1.8 MW turbine is an
example in which an induction
generator is operated
with variable rotor resistance
(opti-slip).
• Adjusting the rotor resistance
changes the torque-speed curve
• Operates between 9 and 19 rpm

Source: Vestas V80 brochure

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