P_593

Simulation and Control of a Variable Speed Wind Turbine with Synchronous Generator
Stefanos B. Papaefthimiou and Stavros A. Papathanassiou
layout of the electrical part is depicted in Fig.1.
Abstract Currently installed variable speed wind turbines (WTs) utilize either a doubly fed induction generator or a direct drive synchronous generator and stator converter cascade. In this paper, a dynamic model is introduced for the latter wind turbine type, which is implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC. The WT control philosophy and implementation is discussed, including the speed, pitch, excitation and grid-side inverter controllers. Simulation results for varying wind conditions and grid disturbances are presented and analyzed.

Index Terms Wind turbine, variable speed, synchronous generator, simulation, control, PSCAD/EMTDC I. INTRODUCTION Wind turbines (WT) currently installed are based on one of the three main types [1]: 1) Fixed speed, with squirrel cage induction generator directly connected to the grid, 2) Variable speed, with doubly fed induction generator and 3) Variable speed, with direct-drive multi-pole synchronous generator. While a lot of literature is available on the two first types, little work has been published on the third one. This paper deals with the synchronous-generator type variable speed WT. A specific configuration is examined, corresponding to a 500 kW WT. The paper is organized as follows. First, the electrical scheme of the simulated WT is described. Then the modeling of the aerodynamic, mechanical and electrical subsystems is discussed and the controllers implemented are introduced. This includes the low level current and voltage controllers, as well as higher level blocks, such as the speed controller and the pitch regulator. Simulation results for various disturbances are finally provided, using the PSCAD/EMTDC code. II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The system of the paper is a variable speed WT based on a multi-pole, wound field synchronous generator. Due to the low generator speed, the rotor shaft is coupled directly to the generator. The generator is connected to the grid via an AC/DC/AC converter cascade and a step-up transformer. The converter consists of an uncontrolled diode rectifier, a DC/DC boost converter and a PWM voltage-source inverter. The
S.B.Papaefthimiou and S.A. Papathanassiou are with the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Electric Power Division, 9 Iroon Polytechniou Str., 15773 Athens, GREECE (Tel. 210 772 3658, e-mail: st@power.ece.ntua.gr). Fig.2. Controllers of the wind turbine. Fig.1 Electrical scheme of a variable speed wind turbine equipped with a direct-drive synchronous generator.

Major control systems of the simulated WT are shown in Fig. 2. They include the turbine speed controller, the pitch controller, the generator excitation controller and the grid-side converter controls.

P_593 III. SUBSYSTEM MODELS A. Aerodynamic Part The rotor aerodynamics are represented by the well-known static relation:
Pm =

2 voltage at the input of the grid-side inverter. The DC chopper is current controlled using a simple hysteretic controller. The grid-side inverter is a standard 3-phase two-level unit, consisting of six IGBTs and antiparallel diodes. It operates also in the current control mode, using hysteresis controllers. The reference currents are derived from the desired active and reactive power, the former of which is the output of the DC voltage regulator. All converters and their controllers are implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC using standard library models. The width of hysterisis band mustnt be too high in order not to have great harmonic distortion of output currents and neither too low in order not to have high switching frequencies. There are ready models for all the above devices in the library of PSCAD/EMTDC. IV. CONTROLLERS A. Speed Controller The goal of speed control is to maximize energy capture for wind speeds below rated. The speed controller (Fig.2) regulates the speed of the rotor by controlling the generator electrical power (and therefore torque) according to the prespecified speed vs. power control characteristic, discussed in the following. The error of the generator power, measured at the DC side, determines the DC current set-point via a PIcontroller. The DC current is then regulated at the reference value by the hysteresis controller of the boost converter. The parameters of the PI-controller (K and T) are chosen to achieve a fast and well-damped response of the generator power [5]. Low-pass filters are used for measuring both the rotor speed and the dc power, to cut out high frequency variations. The speed control strategy is based on the measurement of the rotor speed and the subsequent determination of the desired generator power (or torque). This is a simple control method, which is not based on measurement of the wind speed by anemometer. Its dynamic performance is satisfactory, reducing fluctuations of the input mechanical torque via the rotor inertia. Better smoothing of the electromagnetic torque and output power is achieved using a low-pass filter for the measured rotor speed, as shown in Fig.2. The value of the time constant T, depends on WT parameters and also on the turbulence and average wind speed. Here, a value equal to 1 s has been found to provide good damping with sufficient control accuracy. Below rated wind speed, the optimal rotor speed of the turbine is given by
m = opt * Vw
R

c p ( , ) A v w 3

(1)

where Pm is the power extracted from the airflow [W], is the air density [kg/m], Cp is the power coefficient, =R/Vw is the tip speed ratio, i.e. the ratio between the blade tip speed R and the wind speed upstream of the rotor Vw [m/s], is the pitch angle of the rotor blades [deg] and A is the area swept by the rotor [m]. Several numerical approximations exist for Cp(,). Here the following relation is used [2]:
C p ( , ) = 0.73 ( 151 0.58 0.002 2.14 13.2) e i i 1 i = 1 0.03 0.02 3 + 1
18.4

(2) (3)

with

The rotor diameter of the simulated WT is 2R=34 m. From eq. (2), the optimum Cp is calculated C,opt=0.44, at opt=5.82. quation (1) does nt account for higher order harmonics in the aerodynamic torque, because of wind shear and the tower shadow effect [3]. A simplified aerodynamic model has been applied, since the focus is mainly on the electrical behavior of the WT. However, tests performed show that the controllers implemented are effective in damping such oscillations, which are not transmitted to the output, an essential issue for the quality of the produced power. For a gearless WT, the drive train is simulated by a single, lumped inertia. B. Synchronous Generator The synchronous generator is simulated by the standard 5th order dq dynamic model, [4], already available in the library of PSCAD/EMTDC, suitable for salient pole machines. The generator is rated 550 kVA, 690 V/50 Hz and its number of poles is equal to 70, resulting in a nominal speed equal to the maximum rotor speed, determined by the speed control characteristic introduced later in the paper. The generator terminal voltage is rectified to feed the field winding. The excitation voltage is regulated via the Ef controller of Fig.2, which has sufficient over-excitation capability. Notably, if a permanent magnet generator were used (or a constant field excitation were maintained), then it can be shown [3] that, for a WT rated power of 500 kW, a generator of nearly double rating would be required. C. Converter The converter connected to the generator consists of a diode rectifier, a boost DC/DC converter and a PWM voltage-source inverter. The boost converter comprises an inductor, an IGBT switch, a diode and the output capacitor, and its purpose is to control the rectifier output current and therefore the generator current and torque. At the same time, it interfaces the rectified generator voltage, which varies with speed, to the constant

(4)

The optimal mechanical power for each specific wind speed is then calculated from eq. (1), for C=C,opt=0.44 and shown in Fig. 3, as a function of the corresponding optimal rotor speed. The range of rotor speed variation is approximately 1343 rpm. The diagram of Fig. 3 constitutes the control characteristic implemented in the speed controller. Power losses in the drive train, generator and rectifier have been

P_593 taken into account in this characteristic. The cut-in wind speed is considered equal to 4 m/s.
1,2 1

3
3 Ef 2 Ef = 2 X d m 2 Te, max X d m 3

Te, max =

(5)

Pm(p.u.)

0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

For a specific rotor speed m and corresponding torque (based on the speed control characteristic) the minimum required Ef is found. A security factor, here equal to 15%, is then applied to account for inaccuracies of eq. (5) and dynamic considerations. From the minimum internal EMF value, the corresponding field winding voltage, Vr, is then found, taking into account that their p.u. values are related by E f = Vr m ( p.u.) . The field voltage control characteristic obtained is shown in Fig. 4.
1 .8 1 .6 1 .4 1 .2 1 0 .8 0 .6 0 .4 0 .2 0

m( rad/ sec)

Fig.3. Speed control characteristic.

B. Pitch Controller While speed control is effective below the rated wind speed, to achieve maximum energy capture, at higher winds the goal of the WT control system is to maintain rated output power, without rotor over-speed, [8,9,10,12]. This is achieved by the pitch controller, which is active only at high wind speeds. Then, the generator power is regulated at its rated value, to avoid overloading the generator and converters, while the blade pitch angle is increased in order to reduce Cp and the resulting mechanical torque. The objective is to prevent the rotor speed from increasing beyond its maximum value. For operation below rated wind speed, the pitch angle is approximately zero, for maximum aerodynamic efficiency. In Fig. 2, a simple implementation of the pitch controller is shown, as implemented in this study. When the rotor speed is lower than its maximum value (corresponding to the rated power on the control characteristic of Fig. 3), the control switch is at position B, forcing a zero error (max- max=0) and hence zero pitch angle output. Otherwise, the positive error drives the pitch mechanism to higher angles. A rate limiter, set at 5 deg/s appears on the diagram. The first order lag represents the time delay to the pitch mechanism. Finally, a proportional controller is employed since small overspeeds can be allowed and because the system is never actually in steady state and hence the advantage of zero steady state error of an integral controller is not applicable [2,6,7]. The value of the gain G has been selected via repeated simulations, for good dynamic performance. C. Excitation Controller Objective of this controller is to regulate the voltage imposed to the excitation (field) winding of the generator. Higher excitation voltages increase the maximum torque capability of the generator but result also in increased iron losses. Hence, for operation at low wind speeds, and therefore at low rotor speeds, the field voltage may be decreased, since the generator torque requirements are reduced. At high winds, on the other hand, high excitations are needed for the generator to develop its full torque. The maximum torque of a non-salient-pole generator, when its terminal voltage is not externally imposed, is related to its internal EMF Ef [3,4]:

Vr(p.u.)

1 .0

1 .5

2 .0

2 .5

3 .0

3 .5

4 .0

4 .5

5 .0

m( rad/ s ) ec
Fig. 4. Speed vs. field voltage control characteristic.

D. Grid-side Inverter Controller Objective of this controller is to regulate the output power of the WT, when it is connected to the grid. It includes an inner current control loop, based on hysteresis controller, which regulates the output currents to their reference values, determined by the power control section, via static manipulations, as outlined in the following (and described in more detail in [13]). The measured three phase voltages at the output of the WT are transformed to the synchronous reference frame (rotating at the grid frequency):
2 [cos t Va + cos(t 120) Vb + cos(t + 120) Vc ] 3 2 Vq = [ sin t Va sin(t 120) Vb sin(t + 120) Vc ] 3 Vd =

(6) (7)
*

Given the desired output active and reactive powers, P and Q*, the current references are then given by:
I d jI q = 2 P * + jQ * 2 ( P * Vd + Q * Vq ) j ( P * Vq Q * Vd ) (8) = 3 Vd + jVq 3 Vd 2 + Vq 2

The reference output currents are then transformed in phase coordinates: (9) I a * = [cos t I d sin t I q ]

[ ] I c * = [cos(t + 120 ) I d sin(t + 120 ) I q ]

I b * = cos(t 120) I d sin(t 120) I q

(10) (11)

and used as inputs to the hysteresis current controllers. The active power set point P* is determined by the output of the DC voltage controller, implemented via a PI regulator which accepts as input the error between the measured and the reference DC voltage.

P_593
19.0 18.0 17.0 16.0 15.0 14.0 13.0 12.0 11.0 10.0 9.0 8.0 7.0
10.0

4
Vw (m/sec)
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Vw (m /sec)

15.0
D E E P S D N I W

D E E P S D N I W

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4.75
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10.0
D E E P S R O T O R

Wm (RAD/SE C)

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E U Q R O T C I M A N Y D O R E A

1.30

Tturbine (p.u.)

1.00

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1.20

E U Q R O T C I T E N G A M O R T C E L E

1.10

0.80
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E U Q R O T C I T E N G A M O R T C E L E

Te (p.u.)

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R E W O P E V I T C A T U P T U O

0.40

1.00

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E L G N A H C T I P

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Vdc (KV)
1.60
E L G N A H C T I P

8.0

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r o t i c a p a c f o e g a t l o v c d

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Fig.5. Simulation results for fast changes of the wind speed. Starting from above: wind speed, rotor speed, electromagnetic torque, active output power, pitch angle and capacitor dc-voltage.

Fig.6. Simulation results for stochastic wind time series. Starting from above: wind speed, rotor speed, aerodynamic torque, electromagnetic torque, output active power and pitch angle.

P_593
30

5
Vout (KV)

0.0200
0.0150

Iaout (KA)

E G A T L O V D N U O R G O T E N I L

20
10
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-30
14.90

A T N E R R U C T U P T U O

0.0100
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D E E P S R O T O R

3.600 3.580 3.560 3.540 3.520 3.500 3.480 3.460 3.440 3.420 3.400 3.380 3.360

Wm (RAD/SE C)

0.0200
0.0150

Ibout (KA)

B T N E R R U C T U P T U O

0.0100
0.0050
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14.90

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Icout (KA)

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Te (p.u.) E U Q R O T C I T E N G A M O R T C E L E

0.570

0.560

0.0150
C T N E R R U C T U P T U O

0.550

0.0100

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0.0050

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Pout (MW)

Fig.7 (continued from previous column). WT output currents for each phase.

R E W 0.2175 O P E V I T 0.2150 C A T U 0.2125 P T U O

0.2100
14.90

V. SIMULATION RESULTS In Fig. 5 simulation results are presented for an indicative fast wind speed change, first from 9 to 13 m/s and then from 13 to 17 m/s. The first change demonstrates the action of the speed controller (maximum power tracking operation), while the second one shows the response of the pitch controller (power curtailment mode). The good response characteristics, with adequate damping and absence of any overspeed or overpower is apparent. The DC voltage is also maintained at its rated value. The response in case of stochastic wind speed variations is shown in Fig. 6, using a 50s long wind speed time series, which includes intervals below and above the rated wind speed of the WT. The smoothing achieved in the electromagnetic torque and output power, compared to the input mechanical power of the turbine, is evident. Otherwise, the variation of the rotor speed indeed tracks the variations of the average wind speed, as expected, whereas at higher winds the pitch controller effectively maintains the rated rotor speed. The reactive output power during the whole operation interval is practically zero, i.e. equal to the set-point value used. The response of the WTs during such disturbances, known as the fault-ride-through capability, has been the subject of several publications (e.g [9-11]) and is a critical requirement for all modern machines. In this paper, this subject is not explored in detail, although the model developed is suitable for such investigations. Simulation results for an indicative

15.00
Qout (MVAr)

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15.70

R E W O P E V I T C A E R T U P T U O

0.0240
0.0210
0.0180
0.0150
0.0120

14.90

15.00

15.10

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15.70

Vdc (KV)
1.240

r o t i c a p a c f o e g a t l o v c d

1.220
1.200
1.180
1.160
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1.120
1.100
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15.00

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Fig.7. Simulation results for a single-phase-to-ground short-circuit at the MV output of the WT (30 fault impedance). Starting from above: line-to-ground voltage, rotor speed, electromagnetic torque, active output power, reactive output power, capacitor dc-voltage (continued in next column).

P_593 grid disturbance are shown in Fig. 7. A single-phase voltage dip is created at the MV side of the WT transformer, as a result of a single-phase-to-ground fault via a 30 fault impedance. The duration of the fault is 0.5 s, during which the wind speed is constant at 10m/s. WT protection has been ignored. Since the output voltage depression is not extreme, the generated power can still be transferred to the grid, if a moderate overcurrent capability is assumed for the output inverter. Hence, the operation of the turbine and the generator is not affected at all. The only noticeable influence is limited to the grid-side converter and the DC link, with a small variation of the powers at the occurrence and clearing of the faults, along with an increase of the phase currents. Larger voltage sags (or sags occurring in more than one phase), longer sag durations or operation of the WT at higher power, may lead to WT disconnection, usually due to DC voltage increase. VI. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, a dynamic model has been presented for a pitch-controlled variable speed WT, equipped with a woundfield synchronous generator and stator AC/DC/AC converter cascade. The model has been implemented using PSCAD/EMTDC. The simulations performed indicate that the system presents good dynamic characteristics, without any stability problems. PSCAD/EMTDC proved to be a valuable tool in predicting the behavior of the WT, in selecting controller parameters and optimizing in general the control and operation of the machine. VII. APPENDIX: WT CHARACTERISTICS
[9] [10] [4] [5]

VIII. REFERENCES
[1] [2] H. Slootweg, E. de Vries, Fixed vs. Variable, Renewable Energy World, January-February 2003. J. G. Slootweg, S. W. H. de Haan, H. Polinder, W. L. Kling, General Model for Representing Variable Speed Wind Turbines in Power System Dynamics Simulations, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 18, No.1, Feb. 2003. D. C. Aliprantis, Modelling and control of a variable speed wind turbine with a permanent magnet synchronous generator, Diploma Thesis, NTUA, 1999. Paul C. Krause, Oleg Wasynczuk, Scott D. Sudhoff, Analysis of Electric Machinery, IEEE PRESS, 1995. Morten H. Hansen, Anca Hansen, Torben J. Larsen, Stig ye, Poul Srensen, Peter Fuglsang, Control design for a pitch-regulated, variable speed wind turbine, Ris-R Report, Ris National Laboratory, Roskilde Denmark, January 2005. J. G. Slootweg, S. W. H. de Haan, H. Polinder, W. L. Kling, Representing Wind Turbine Electrical Generating Systems in Fundamental Frequency Simulations, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol.18, No.4, Dec. 2003. J. G. Slootweg, H. Polinder, W. L. Kling, Dynamic Modeling of a Wind Turbine with Doubly-Fed Induction Generator, IEEE PES Summer Meeting 2001. Mika Rasila, Torque and Speed Control of a Pitch Regulated Wind Turbine, Department of Electric Power Engineering, Technical Report No.1A, Chalmers University, Goteborg, Sweden 2003. Tao Sun, Zhe Chen, Frede Blaabjerg, Transient Stability of DFIG Wind Turbines at an External Short-Circuit Fault, Wind Energ. 2005; 8:345360. F. Michael Hughes, Olimpo Anaya-Lara, Nicholas Jenkins, Goran Strbac, Control of DFIG-Based Wind Generation for Power Network Support, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 20, No.4, Nov. 2005. Alan Mullane, Gordon Lightbody, Wind-Turbine Fault-Ride Through Enhancement, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 20, No.4, Nov. 2005. S. B. Papaefthimiou, Simulation and control of a variable speed wind turbine with synchronous generator, Diploma Thesis, NTUA, September 2005. F. N. Gakis, S.A. Papathanassiou, Simple control schemes for gridconnected three-phase voltage-source inverters of DG units. Proc. ICEM06, Chania, Crete, Greece, Sept. 2006.

[3]

[6]

[7] [8]

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