Securing Critical Infrastructures, Grenoble, October 2004

MODELLING OF VARIABLE SPEED WIND TURBINES WITH PITCH CONTROL

K. Rudion (*), A. Orths (+), Z. Styczynski (*)
(*) Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg, Germany, (+) Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF Magdeburg, Germany simulation of several units, i.e. wind farm simulation. One basic supposition is the one-dimensional wind flow, so the wind speed at the whole swept rotor area is assumed to be the same. Additionally, variations of the horizontal direction of wind speed are not considered, thus the wind is assumed to have a yaw angle of zero. In practice the horizontal variation causes an energy loss of 1-2% which can be neglected for the purpose of simulation [5]. Regarding earlier assumptions the method of wind rotor modelling will be presented in the following section. The power extracted from the wind can be described by the following equation [4]:

Today pitch controlled wind turbines are the most widely used type of wind turbine. In the present power system with many dispersed generation units new control strategies are required. Furthermore, the electric energy of wind turbines should be dispatchable to ensure voltage stability and frequency. Pitch controlled wind turbines makes this is possible. A proper control of the wind turbine guarantees safe and reliable operation as well as high efficiency. This paper presents a mathematical modelling method for wind turbines with pitch control and their control concept. 1 Introduction

1 PTurb = ? A v3 c p (? , ) 2

(1)

Next to water energy, wind energy is the most important source of pollution-free energy world-wide. Therefore, the number of wind turbines in the power system continues to grow. At the beginning of wind turbine development most wind turbines were operated at a constant speed for electrical purpose. This situation has changed, and currently the most often applied units are operable at varying speeds. These units are usually equipped with a bladepitching system. In general, wind turbines can be designed with a synchronous or asynchronous induction generator. A widely used concept is the variable speed doubly-fed induction generator wind turbine. To analyze the behaviour of wind turbines a mathematical model is needed. Depending on the type of analysis the model gets an adequate rank of complexity, e.g. for analysis of load flow or voltage variation the model can be designed as a voltage source or voltage and real power source, etc. For a more complex analysis the model requires more detailed. 2 Wind turbine modelling

Where, is the air density (1,225 [kg/m3] in standard atmosphere), A is the swept rotor area (A=R2 [m2]), v is the wind speed [m/s], and cp(,) is the power coefficient. This coefficient for variable speed pitch controlled wind turbines depends on both the pitch angle - see Figure 1 - and the tip speed ratio - see Figure 2 - which is defined as

?=

? T R v

(2)

Here, T is the turbine angular speed, and R is the turbine radius. Values of power coefficients are different for each turbine, and have to be determined experimentally. For the range of wind speed from the cut in wind speed vCutIn until the cut off wind speed vCutOff the turbine power PTurbM has to be measured with as the parameter. The other parameter is the angular speed T of the turbine, which can vary within a permissible range.

To maximize the energy production not only wind conditions and geometrical parameters of a wind turbine are significant, but the control strategy is very important, too. In order to develop and simulate the control system a proper model of the wind turbine has to be built. The model should be able to represent the nonlinear behavior of wind turbines. Some simplifications can be assumed, which shorten the simulation time significantly while the simulation accuracy remains at a comparable level. This is important especially with respect to the simultaneous

Figure 1 Principal of pitch control

The tip speed ratio is obtained from both quantities. For each wind speed the potential wind power in front of the converter - PWind has to be calculated. Then the power coefficient cP is equal to cp(,) cp

0,45 0,4 0,35 0,3 0,25 0,2 0,15 0,1

c p (? , ) =

PTurbM PTurbM = PWind 0,5 ? A v 3

(3)

20 25
1 3 5 7

15

10

The power coefficient can be obtained by an analytical approximation, too. The approach is defined as follows [2]:

0,05 0

11

13

15

17

c p (? ,) = c 1(c 2 c 3 c 4 ? c 5 )e c 6

(4)

Figure 2 Analytical approximation of cp(,) characteristics computed with (4) Where, cT(,) is the torque coefficient, which can be obtained from:

The coefficients c1-c6 and characterize each wind turbine and can be different for various turbines. These coefficients can be calculated in software for rotor designing, or they can be found experimentally so that the analytical approximation of cP-curves fits to the measured cP -curves. For example, for the MOD 2 turbine the coefficients have the following values [2]: c1=0,5; c2=vw/T; c6=0,17vw/w; =2. c3=0; c4=0,022; c5=5,6;

c T (? , ) =

c p (? , ) ?

(9)

Where vw is the wind speed and T is the angular speed of the turbine. Another combination of coefficients for the Enercon E-40 turbine - is as follows [2], [3]: c1=0,5; c2=116/i; c3=0,4; c4=0; c5=5; c6=21/i Where i is equal to, [2]:
1 1 0,035 = ? i ? + 0,08 3 + 1

(5)

A third possibility to obtain the power coefficient cP is based on the characteristics of the drag and lift coefficients as function of the blade pitch angle for a given blade from the following relationship [3]:

c p (? ,) =

16 c 1 1 27 N?

c2 1.29 c D e? ? cL

(6)

where, N is the number of blades, cD and cL are the drag and lift ratio of the blade airfoil; c1 and c2 are additional coefficients. Figure 2 gives the example of the power coefficient characteristics as function of blade angle and tip speed ratio computed based on (4) with the second combination of parameters given above (Enercon E-40). The torque produced by the wind turbine can be computed as follows:
TTurb = PTurb ?T

The torque TTurb obtained according to (8) gives the average turbine torque value. It neglects the oscillation in output power due to the uneven wind speed-distribution in the rotor plane, as well as oscillations due to the tower shadow. This can be considered as an additional correction term [2], [4]. The torque coefficient curves (9) are used for torque assessment for the dimensioning of gear boxes and brakes. The cT(,) curves have their peaks at lower values of tip speed ratio in comparison with peaks of power coefficient characteristics, see Figure 3. The mechanical system of the wind turbine consists of blades, a hub, a rotor shaft, a gearbox (if included) and a generator. The moment of inertia of the wind rotor is about 90 % of the total moment of inertia [3]. Drive-train models usually are simplified concerning the blades and the wind rotor which are assumed to be a single, lumped mass. The second mass system represents the generator. Hence, the model has the character of a two-mass system. The movement equation of the wind turbine without gearbox is then given by a lumped-mass model [5]:

d? T = TTurb TG TB ? T dt

(10)

(7)

Solving (2) for angular speed T and substituting (1) into (7), it is obtained:

TTurb =

1 ? p R 3 v 2 c T (? , ) 2

Here J is the combined moment of inertia of the turbine and the generator, TTurb is the turbine torque computed with (8), TG is the generator torque obtained from generator model as output value, TB is the damping of bearing and seals. The term of losses in bearing is neglected, because many authors use the movement equation without this term, for example [7] and [9]. Being more precisely the term should be considered whereas the proper value of damping must be known.

(8)

Figure 4 Block diagram of the wind turbine Figure 3 CP and CT curves as a function of tip speed ratio for pitch angle =0. If the modeled system includes a gearbox the transmission ratio n (11) must be considered. 3 Control system modelling

n=

?G ?T

(11)

The objectives of wind turbine control can be divided into two basic groups: The first is the group with mechanical objectives of control, the latter is the group with electrical objectives. The mechanical objectives are the following [5]: reduction of torque variation peaks generated by wind gusts and thus minimizing both stress on the mechanical parts of the wind turbine and power fluctuations in the grid, reduction of drive-train transients, suppression of those frequencies which may cause resonance within the mechanical structure.

The relevant data have to be transformed into one common system, either into the generator side or into the wind rotor side. The transformation system is given in equation (12), [3].

T J ?

(T) G

= TG n = JG n 2 ? = G n
(12)

(T) G (T) G

The superscript (T) stands for quantities at the wind rotor side of the gearbox. Considering the above given equations the wind turbine model can be built. Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the pitch controlled wind turbine model. As input quantities the wind speed v, the angular speed of the wind turbine and the pitch angle of blades are necessary. The angular speed is obtained from the movement equation (10) after the integration of the angular acceleration. The angle is obtained from the controller, which is usually modeled as proportional-integral controller, see next section. The most complex task is to adapt the cp(,) curves, which have to be adapted for each single wind wheel. Of course, the best solution would be the implementation of the original manufacturers characteristics, but these characteristics are not always available. Therefore, the curves are constructed artificially, see equation (4). In order to calculate the cp--curves the generally accessible data for airfoils can be used, i.e. drag and lift coefficients as function of angle of attack.

The electrical objectives of wind turbine control are [5]: maximization of energy yield of wind by tracking the tip speed ratio closely at the maximum point of the power coefficient, limitation of power to the nominal power of the wind turbine, control of grid voltage and power by regulating the output of the wind turbine.

The additional objectives, which concern both groups, are [5]: minimization of control action, stabilization of the system under all operating conditions.

The control system structure depends on the type of wind turbine. For pitch controlled wind turbines driven with constant speed the control system consists of a turbine controller, whereas for variable speed wind turbines it consists of a turbine - as well as a generator controller [3]. As already mentioned the pitch control system is currently the most often used system. The blades of the wind turbine with pitch control can be turned around its axis to stall or to feather. The system with pitching to feather is characterized in this paper because it is the most used system. By pitching into stall, the angle of attack increases at decreasing pitch angle, while by pitching

into feather the angle of attack decreases when the pitch angle increases, see Figure 1. By changing the pitch angle, the rotor speed and output power can be controlled. In control strategies three main conditions can be distinguished. The first condition responds to start-up operation of the wind turbine. The second responds to partial load operation, and the third to full load operation, see Figure 5. In the first condition the wind turbine is starting, therefore the generator is not connected to the electrical network and the wind rotor speed is optimized by changing the pitch angle. In the second condition the wind speed is below the rated value and the energy extracted from the wind has to be optimized, i.e. as much electric energy as possible at the given wind speed has to be produced. Depending on the turbine type the pitch angle is either adjusted to the optimal value or it is kept constant. In the third condition the wind speeds are above the rated value and the energy extracted must be limited to the nominal reference power of the generator, see Figure 5. In this region the mechanical construction of the wind turbine has to be protected against damages, therefore the thrust has to be reduced. Thus, the most important condition is the second one, because wind turbines spend a significant part of their operation time here. At high wind speeds it is not necessary to use complicated algorithms for control and optimization. The power can not exceed the generators rated power, the generator can be overloaded and the rotor speed has to be kept within an acceptable range. The wind rotor is used as a buffer for the energy-surplus within an acceptable range of rotational speed. For the second condition many different control methods have been developed to achieve a maximum energy yield [13]. In the presented model the generic blade-angle control system is used [6]. This control system optimizes the initial blade angle at light wind conditions (second control region) OPT. The optimal value can be obtained using the blade element momentum method [6], including the incoming wind speed. In generic modeling usually the OPT is set to zero in the range of wind speeds below the rated one [6]. Figure 6 shows the block diagram

Figure 6 Generic control scheme of the blade angle control, [6]. of the blade angle control system. The blade angle is controlled by the input value X. This input can represent an electric value, for example the electric power; a mechanical value, for example the generator rotor speed; or it can represent a combination of electrical and mechanical values, [6]. The input value X is compared with its reference XREF. As a result an error signal XERR arises, which is sent to a proportional-differential controller (PD) and then to a proportional-integral controller (PI). The PD controller can be neglected, it only serves to improve the sensitivity and is only applied optionally. From the PI controller the reference value of the blade angle is received. This value can vary between the optimized value OPT and the maximal value MAX=90. It is assumed, that the reference value REF can not be lower than the optimized value OPT. This is the basic control system, which is applied at normal operation of standard wind turbines. For the modeling of large offshore wind farms the standard model has to be extended. Namely, an additional function will be added which can reduce the produced energy based on an external set point signal. When the signal is sent the standard control module is disabled and instead of the REF reference value - the signal ORDR which corresponds to power reduction will be set as new reference value. The power is reduced as long as the order signal is given. When the order signal is disabled the standard control is restarted again. Another option is the modeling of the safety stop function. This function is activated when the safety stop order is given. Then the standard control module is disabled again and MAX=90 is given as a reference value and the wind turbine will be turned off. In the next step, the assigned reference value is compared with the actual pitch angle. The resulting signal is given to the module which represents the pitch servo system. In order to get a realistic response the servo system is represented with a time constant TSERVO. Additionally, the limitations of the pitch angle and its gradient are implemented. The assumed limit for the pitch angle gradient is equal to 10/s [2]. The dynamic of actuators and blades can be represented with first or second order system, [4]. The output of the generic angle controller is the pitch angle of the blades.

Figure 5 Power curve of pitch controlled wind turbine with marked load regions

Simulation results

Simulations were made with a 500 kW wind turbine model with 52 m rotor diameter. The necessary cP curves were calculated with (4) and (5) for coefficients of Enercon E-40 turbine. As input for simulation the wind curve in the time range of 900 seconds was prepared, see Figure 7. The power and rotor speed of the turbine was controlled with the pitch angle controller. For wind speed lower than rated the pitch angle was set to zero. Otherwise, the suitable pitch angle was calculated by the controller. Figure 7 gives the results of simulation. The diagrams present adequately wind speed vWind, electrical power Pel, rotor speed T and pitch angle . The power and rotor speed are almost constant for wind speed higher than rated. The pitch angle is adequately set in this rangeto keep a constant power and rotor speed. The deviations from rated values of turbine power and rotor speed can be caused by inertia of pitch drive. For wind speed lower than rated the power and rotor speed decrease and the pitch angle is set to zero.
Wind Speed [m/s] 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 100
5

paper can easily be implemented into simulation software. Additionally, for simulation the wind turbine generator has to be modelled. For this simulation a simplified generator model was taken. The presented wind turbine model will be the basis for more complex simulations within the power network. Therefore, it will be combined with a more complex generator model.

6 [1]

References E. Hau, "Windkraftanlagen", Springer 1996

[2] S. Heier, "Windkraftanlagen. Systemauslegung, Integration und Regelung", Teubner 2003. [3] Z. Lubosny, "Wind Turbine Operation in Electric Power System. Advanced Modeling", Springer 2003. [4] "Modeling New Forms Of Generation And Storage", CIGRE Task Force 38.01.10 April 2001. [5] H. Vihril, "Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines", 29 October 2002. [6] V. Akhmatov, "Analysis of Dynamic Behaviour of Electric Power System with Large Amount of Wind Power", April 2003. [7] R. Hoffmann, "A comparison of control concepts for wind turbines in terms of energy capture", Darmstadt 2002. [8] T. Burton, D. Sharpe, N. Jenkins, E. Bossanyi, "Handbook of Wind Energy", 2001.

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[9] R. Leidhold, G. Garcia, M.I. Valla, "Maximum efficiency control for variable speed wind driven generators with speed and power limits", IEEE 2002. [10] A.D. Hansen, F. Iov, P. Sorensen, F. Blaabjerg, "Overall control strategy of variable speed doubly-fed induction generator wind turbine". [11] A. Mullane, G. Lightbody, R. Yacamini, "Adaptive Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines". [12] E.Muljadi, C.P. Butterfield, "Pitch-Controlled Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Generation", February 2000. [13] K.E. Johnson, L.J. Fingersh, "Methods For Increasing Region 2 Power Capture On a Variable Speed Hawt".

Figure 7 Simulation results 5 Conclusions

In this paper the method of wind turbine rotor modelling and controller design was presented. The control method is a basic method, which can serve as a starting point for the further development of new control schemes. Summarizing, the control technique of wind turbines would be ideal if the extracted energy for each wind speed is maximal. This is difficult to achieve, especially when the wind speed is lower than rated. The control method proposed in this

Biographies

Dipl.-Ing. Krzysztof Rudion studied electrical engineering at the Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland and the Rostock University of Technology. He graduated in 2003 at the Wroclaw University of Technology with a Dip.-Ing. degree and joined the Chair of Electric Power Networks and Renewable Energy Sources at the Otto-von-GuerickeUniversity Magdeburg, Germany - where he is as research engineer. His special field of interest is wind energy. Dr.-Ing. Antje Orths studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Berlin where she graduated in 1998 with a Dipl.-Ing. degree. Then she joined the University of Applied Sciences in Magdeburg, Germany, as a research engineer. In 1999, she joined the Chair of Electric Power Networks and Renewable Energy Sources at the Ottovon-Guericke-University Magdeburg, where she received her Ph.D. in 2003. At present, she is the head of the group of Power Network Planning and Electricity Economics in the above mentioned chair. Her special field of interest includes electric power networks and systems, modelling of dispersed energy resources and optimization problems. She is member of the IEEE and the VDE. Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Zbigniew A. Styczynski studied at the Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland and received his Ph.D. there in 1977. He finished his professorial dissertation in 1985 at the Wroclaw University of Technology for which he received a special award from the Polish Ministry of Higher Education. From 1991 until 1999 he worked at the Technical University of Stuttgart, Germany. In 1999 he became the Head of the Chair of Electric Power Networks and Renewable Energy Sources of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. His special field of interest includes electric power networks and systems, expert systems and optimization problems. e-mail: sty@e-technik.uni-magdeburg.de www.uni-magdeburg.de/fet/iesy/lena