Maximum Power Point Tracking in Variable Speed Wind Turbine Based on Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator Using Maximum Torque Sliding Mode Control Strategy

The present study was carried out in order to track the maximum power point in a variable speed turbine by minimizing electromechanical torque changes using a sliding mode control strategy. In this strategy, first, the rotor speed is set at an optimal point for different wind speeds. As a result of which, the tip speed ratio reaches an optimal point, mechanical power coefficient is maximized, and wind turbine produces its maximum power and mechanical torque. Then, the maximum mechanical torque is tracked using electromechanical torque. In this technique, tracking error integral of maximum mechanical torque, the error, and the derivative of error are used as state variables. During changes in wind speed, sliding mode control is designed to absorb the maximum energy from the wind and minimize the response time of maximum power point tracking(MPPT). In this method, the actual control input signal is formed from a second order integral operation of the original sliding mode control input signal. The result of the second order integral in this model includes control signal integrity, full chattering attenuation, and prevention from large fluctuations in the power generator output. The simulation results, calculated by using MATLAB/m-file software, have shown the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy for wind energy systems based on the permanent magnet synchronous generator(PMSG).

Comparative Performance of Fixed-Speed and Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Generator Systems

In the early development of the wind energy, the majority of the wind turbines have been operated at constant speed. Subsequently, the number of variable-speed wind turbines installed in wind farms has increased. In this paper, a comparative performance of fixed and variable speed wind generators with Pitch angle control has been presented. The first is based on a squirrel cage Induction Generator （IG） of 315 kW rated power, connected directly to the grid. The second incorporated a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator （PMSG） of 750 kW rated power. The performances of each studied wind generator are evaluated by simulation works and variable speed operation is highlighted as preferred mode of operation.

Direct Power Control of Variable Wind Speed Based on the Doubly Fed Asynchronous Machine

In this work, the authors propose the study of a wind speed variable based on the DFAM （double fed asynchronous machine）. The model of the turbine is drawn from the classical equations describing the operation of a variable wind speed. The torque generated by the turbine is applied to the DFAM directly connected on the network side and the stator via a bidirectional converter side rotor. This configuration allows velocity variations of ±30% around the synchronous speed and the converter is then sized to one third of the rated power of the machine. The DFAM is controlled by a control vector ensuring operation of the wind turbine power coefficient maximum.

Intelligent control for large-scale variable speed variable pitch wind turbines

Large-scale wind turbine generator systems have strong nonlinear multivariable characteristics with many uncertain factors and disturbances. Automatic control is crucial for the efficiency and reliability of wind turbines. On the basis of simplified and proper model of variable speed variable pitch wind turbines, the effective wind speed is estimated using extended Kaiman filter. Intelligent control schemes proposed in the paper include two loops which operate in synchronism with each other. At below-rated wind speed, the inner loop adopts adaptive fuzzy control based on variable universe for generator torque regulation to realize maximum wind energy capture. At above-rated wind speed, a controller based on least square support vector machine is proposed to adjust pitch angle and keep rated output power. The simulation shows the effectiveness of the intelligent control.

Asymptotic Tracking Control for Wind Turbines in Variable Speed Mode

This paper presents a variable speed control strategy for wind turbines in order to capture maximum wind power.Wind turbines are modeled as a two-mass drive-train system with generator torque control.Based on the obtained wind turbine model,variable speed control schemes are developed.Nonlinear tracking controllers are designed to achieve asymptotic tracking for a prescribed rotor speed reference signal so as to yield maximum wind power capture.Due to the difficulty of torsional angle measurement,an observer-based control scheme that uses only rotor speed information is further developed for global asymptotic output tracking.The effectiveness of the proposed control methods is illustrated by simulation results.

Switched Reluctance Generator for Variable Speed Wind Energy Applications

The aim of this paper is to analyze the potential of switched reluctance generator (SRG) in wind energy application. The machine comprises of switched reluctance generator, power converter and controller. In this paper the main ele-ments that form the generator system is discussed. It also highlights the common type of converter and structure used for SRG in wind energy application and types of control strategy available. Using power converter for switching the generator can operate over a wide speed range. Its applications in high speed area such as starter/generator for air-craft and gas turbine has been established, however the low/medium speed operation is still at an early stage of re-search. In order to subject the machine to various parameters, offline modeling is being investigated to produce the best optimum design.

A novel technology for control of variable speed pumped storage power plant

Variable speed pumped storage machines are used extensively in wind power plant and pumped storage power plant. This paper presents direct torque and flux control(DTFC) of a variable speed pumped storage power plant(VSPSP). By this method both torque and flux have been applied to control the VSPSP. The comparison between VSPSP's control strategies is studied. At the first, a wind turbine with the capacity 2.2 k W and DTFC control strategies simulated then a 250 MW VSPSP is simulated with all of its parts(including electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and its control system) by MATLAB software. In all of simulations, both converters including two-level voltage source converter(2LVSC) and three-level voltage source converter(3LVSC) are applied. The results of applying 2LVSC and 3LVSC are the rapid dynamic responses with better efficiency, reducing the total harmonic distortion(THD) and ripple of rotor torque and flux.

PI-MPC Frequency Control of Power System in the Presence of DFIG Wind Turbines

For the recent expansion of renewable energy applications, Wind Energy System (WES) is receiving much interest all over the world. However, area load change and abnormal conditions lead to mismatches in frequency and scheduled power interchanges between areas. These mismatches have to be corrected by the LFC system. This paper, therefore, proposes a new robust frequency control technique involving the combination of conventional Proportional-Integral (PI) and Model Predictive Control (MPC) controllers in the presence of wind turbines (WT). The PI-MPC technique has been designed such that the effect of the uncertainty due to governor and turbine parameters variation and load disturbance is reduced. A frequency response dynamic model of a single-area power system with an aggregated generator unit is introduced, and physical constraints of the governors and turbines are considered. The proposed technique is tested on the single-area power system, for enhancement of the network frequency quality. The validity of the proposed method is evaluated by computer simulation analyses using Matlab Simulink. The results show that, with the proposed PI-MPC combination technique, the overall closed loop system performance demonstrated robustness regardless of the presence of uncertainties due to variations of the parameters of governors and turbines, and loads disturbances. A performance comparison between the proposed control scheme, the classical PI control scheme and the MPC is carried out confirming the superiority of the proposed technique in presence of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) WT.

PID-Type Fuzzy Controller for Grid-Supporting Inverter of Battery in Embedded Small Variable Speed Wind Turbine

Frequency and voltage of embedded variable speed wind turbine (VSWT) driving a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is strongly affected by wind speed fluctuations. In practice, power imbalance between supply and demand is also common, especially when VSWT-PMSG is connected to a weak micro grid (MG). If load demand fluctuations become high, isolated MG may be unable to stabilize the frequency and voltage so that battery storage needs to be installed into the MG to adjust energy supply and demand. To allow flexible control of active and reactive power flow from/to battery storage, grid-supporting inverters are used. For a system that contains highly nonlinear components, the use of conventional linear proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers may cause system performance deterioration. Additionally, these controllers show slow, oscillating responses, and complex equations are required to obtain optimum responses in other controllers. To cope with these limitations, this paper proposes PID-type fuzzy controller (PIDfc) design to control grid-supporting inverter of battery. To ensure safe battery operating limits, we also propose a new controller scheme called intelligent battery protection (IBP). This IBP is integrated into PIDfc. Several simulation tests are performed to verify the scheme’s effectiveness. The results show that the proposed PIDfc controller exhibits improved performance and acceptable responses, and can be used instead of conventional controllers.

A Control Strategy for Smoothing Active Power Fluctuation of Wind Farm with Flywheel Energy Storage System Based on Improved Wind Power Prediction Algorithm

The fluctuation of active power output of wind farm has many negative impacts on large-scale wind power integration into power grid. In this paper, flywheel energy storage system (FESS) was connected to AC side of the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind farm to realize smooth control of wind power output. Based on improved wind power prediction algorithm and wind speed-power curve modeling, a new smooth control strategy with the FESS was proposed. The requirement of power system dispatch for wind power prediction and flywheel rotor speed limit were taken into consideration during the process. While smoothing the wind power fluctuation, FESS can track short-term planned output of wind farm. It was demonstrated by quantitative analysis of simulation results that the proposed control strategy can smooth the active power fluctuation of wind farm effectively and thereby improve power quality of the power grid.

Frequency Control of Power System with Solar and Wind Power Stations by Using Frequency Band Control and Deadband Control of HVDC Interconnection Line

In recent years, environmental problems are becoming serious and renewable energy has attracted attention as their solutions. However, the electricity generation using the renewable energy has a demerit that the output becomes unstable because of intermittent characteristics, such as variations of wind speed or solar radiation intensity. Frequency fluctuations due to the installation of large scale wind farm (WF) and photovoltaics (PV) into the power system is a major concern. In order to solve the problem, this paper proposes two control methods using High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) interconnection line to suppress the frequency fluctuations due to large scale of WF and PV. Comparative analysis between these two control methods is presented in this paper. One proposed method is a frequency control using a notch filter, and the other is using a deadband. Validity of the proposed methods is verified through simulation analyses, which is performed on a multi-machine power system model.

Distributed Model Predictive Load Frequency Control of Multi-area Power System with DFIGs

Reliable load frequency control LFC is crucial to the operation and design of modern electric power systems. Considering the LFC problem of a four-Area interconnected power system with wind turbines, this paper presents a distributed model predictive control DMPC based on coordination scheme. The proposed algorithm solves a series of local optimization problems to minimize a performance objective for each control area. The generation rate constraints GRCs, load disturbance changes, and the wind speed constraints are considered. Furthermore, the DMPC algorithm may reduce the impact of the randomness and intermittence of wind turbine effectively. A performance comparison between the proposed controller with and without the participation of the wind turbines is carried out. Analysis and simulation results show possible improvements on closed-loop performance, and computational burden with the physical constraints. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

A Long-Range Generalized Predictive Control Algorithm for a DFIG Based Wind Energy System

This paper presents a new Long-range generalized predictive controller in the synchronous reference frame for a wind energy system doubly-fed induction generator based. This controller uses the state space equations that consider the rotor current and voltage as state and control variables, to execute the predictive control action. Therefore, the model of the plant must be transformed into two discrete transference functions, by means of an auto-regressive moving average model, in order to attain a discrete and decoupled controller, which makes it possible to treat it as two independent single-input single-output systems instead of a magnetic coupled multiple-input multiple-output system. For achieving that, a direct power control strategy is used, based on the past and future rotor currents and voltages estimation. The algorithm evaluates the rotor current predictors for a defined prediction horizon and computes the new rotor voltages that must be injected to controlling the stator active and reactive powers. To evaluate the controller performance, some simulations were made using Matlab/Simulink. Experimental tests were carried out with a small-scale prototype assuming normal operating conditions with constant and variable wind speed profiles. Finally, some conclusions respect to the dynamic performance of this new controller are summarized.

Dynamic modeling and direct power control of wind turbine driven DFIG under unbalanced network voltage conditions

This paper proposes an analysis and a direct power control (DPC) design of a wind turbine driven doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) under unbalanced network voltage conditions. A DFIG model described in the positive and negative synchronous reference frames is presented. Variations of the stator output active and reactive powers are fully deduced in the presence of negative sequence supply voltage and rotor flux. An enhanced DPC scheme is proposed to eliminate stator active power oscillation during network unbalance. The proposed control scheme removes rotor current regulators and the decomposition processing of positive and negative sequence rotor currents. Simulation results using PSCAD/EMTDC are presented on a 2-MW DFIG wind power generation system to validate the feasibility of the proposed control scheme under balanced and unbalanced network conditions.

PMSG Wind Energy Conversion System: Modeling and Control

In this paper, a model of a variable speed wind turbine using a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is presented and the control schemes are proposed. The model presents the aerodynamic part of the wind turbine, the mechanic and the electric parts. Simulations have been conducted with Matlab/Simulink to validate the model and the proposed control schemes.

A Fuzzy Logical MPPT Control Strategy for PMSG Wind Generation Systems

Making full use of wind power is one of the main purposes of the wind turbine generator control. Conventional hill climbing search （HCS） method can realize the maximum power point tracking （MPPT）. However, the step size of HCS method is constant so that it cannot consider both steady-state response and dynamic response. A fuzzy logical control （FLC） algorithm is proposed to solve this problem in this paper, which can track the maximum power point （MPP） quickly and smoothly. To evaluate MPPT algorithms, four performance indices are also proposed in this paper. They are the energy captured by wind turbine, the maximum power-point tracking time when wind speed changes slowly, the fluctuation magnitude of real power during steady state, and the energy captured by wind turbine when wind speed changes fast. Three cases are designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink respectively. The comparison of the three MPPT strategies concludes that the proposed fuzzy logical control algorithm is more superior to the conventional HCS algorithms.

Stability Enhancement of Small-Scale Power Grid with Renewable Power Sources by Variable Speed Diesel Power Plant

This paper proposes a power control method to improve a stability of a small-scale power grid with renewable energy sources. In an isolated small- scale power grid such as an island, diesel power plant is main power source which has an environmental burden and expensive running cost due to high priced fossil fuel. Thus, expanding installation of the renewable energy sources such as a wind power is strongly desirable. Such fluctuating energy sources, however, harm power quality of the small-scale power grid, and in addition, conventional power plant in the small-scale power grid cannot, in general, stabilize the grid system with such fluctuating power sources. In this study, Variable Speed Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (VS-DFIG) is proposed to be in-stalled at a diesel power plant instead of a conventional Fixed Speed Synchronous Generator (FS-SG), because quick control of a power balance in the small-scale power grid can be achieved by using the inertial energy of VS-DFIG. In addition, utilization of a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is also considered to assist cooperatively the VS-DFIG control. As a result of the simulation analysis by using the proposed method, it is verified that frequency fluctuations due to renewable energy source can be effectively reduced by quick power control of the VS-DFIG compared to the conventional FS-SG, and further control ability can be obtained by utilizing BESS. Moreover, the transient stability of a small-scale power grid during a grid fault can also be enhanced.

Enhancement of DC-Link Protection of PMSG Based Wind Turbine under Network Disturbance by Using New Buck Controller System

Protection system for DC-link circuit of back-to-back converter of PMSG （Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator） based wind turbine is essential part for the system to ride through a network fault in grid system. Voltage on the DC-link circuit can be increased significantly due to power unbalance between stator side converter and grid side converter. Increase of DC-link circuit voltage can lead to a damage of IGBT of the converter and control system failure. In this paper performance enhancement of DC-link protection of PMSG based Wind turbine by using new control system of buck converter is proposed. The buck converter is used to control supplied voltage of a breaking resistor to dissipate energy from the wind generator during network disturbance. In order to investigate effectiveness of the proposed DC-link protection system, fault analysis is performed in the simulation study by using PSCAD/EMTDC software program. In addition, comparative analysis between the proposed protection system and the conventional protection system using DC chopper is also performed.