INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH PUBLICATION & SEMINAR

ISSN: 2278-6848 | Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | July-September 2015

Review of Future on Power electronics for Wind Turbine

Systems
*Nipun Aggarwal, Iiet Kinana ** Sumer Singh. Hod In Ee Deptt. In Ggscmt Kharar.
nipun.aggarwal1985@gmail.com
Abstract: The electrical energy consumption continues to grow
and more applications will be based on electricity in the next
decades. We can expect that more 60% of all energy consumption
will be converted and used as electricity. It is a demand that
production, distribution and use of electrical energy are done as
efficient as possible. Further, emerging climate changes argues to find future solutions which also are sustainable.
Two major technologies will play important roles to solve parts of those future problems. One is the change the
electrical power production from conventional, fossil (and short term) based energy sources to renewable energy
sources. Another is to use high efficient power electronics in power generation, power transmission/distribution and
end-user application.This research discuss trends of the most emerging renewable energy sources, wind energy,
which by means of power electronics is changing the future electrical infrastructure but also contributes steadily
more to non-carbon based electricity production. Most focus is on the power electronics technologies used in wind
turbine systems.
Keywords: Wind Turbine, Power Electronics

[I] INTRODUCTION
A wind turbine is a popular name for a device that
converts kinetic energy from the wind into electrical
power. Technically, there is no turbine used in the
design, but the term appears to have migrated from
parallel hydroelectric technology (rotary propeller). The
correct description for this type of machine would be
aerofoil-powered generator. The result of over a
millennium of windmill development and modern
engineering, today's wind turbines are manufactured in
a wide range of vertical and horizontal axis types. The
smallest turbines are used for applications such as
battery charging for auxiliary power for boats or
caravans or to power traffic warning signs. Slightly
larger turbines can be used for making contributions to
a domestic power supply while selling unused power
back to the utility supplier via the electrical grid. Arrays
of large turbines, known as wind farms, are becoming
an increasingly important source of renewable energy
and are used by many countries as part of a strategy to
reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
1.2 Resources
A quantitative measure of the wind energy available at
any location is called the Wind Power Density (WPD).
It is a calculation of the mean annual power available
per square meter of swept area of a turbine, and is
tabulated for different heights above ground.

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Calculation of wind power density includes the effect of

wind velocity and air density. Color-coded maps are
prepared for a particular area described, for example, as
"Mean Annual Power Density at 50 Metres". In the
United States, the results of the above calculation are
included in an index developed by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory and referred to as
"NREL CLASS". The larger the WPD calculation, the
higher it is rated by class. Classes range from Class 1
(200 watts per square meter or less at 50 m altitude) to
Class 7 (800 to 2000 watts per square m). Commercial
wind farms generally are sited in Class 3 or higher
areas, although isolated points in an otherwise Class 1
area may be practical to exploit.
1.3 Classification of Wind Turbines
Wind turbines are classified by the wind speed they are
designed for, from class I to class IV, with A or B
referring to the turbulence.
Class Avg Wind Speed (m/s) Turbulence
IA

10

18%

IB

10

16%

IIA

8.5

18%

 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH PUBLICATION & SEMINAR

ISSN: 2278-6848 | Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | July-September 2015

IIB

8.5

16%

IIIA

7.5

18%

IIIB

7.5

16%

IVA

18%

IVB

16%

1.4 Efficiency
Not all the energy of blowing wind can be used, since
conservation of mass requires that as much mass of air
exits the turbine as enters it. Betz's law gives the
maximal achievable extraction of wind power by a
wind turbine as 59% of the total kinetic energy of the
air flowing through the turbine.

windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine delta.

Advanced wind mills were described by Venetian
inventor Fausto Veranzio. In his book Machinae Novae
(1595) he described vertical axis wind turbines with
curved or V-shaped blades.
The first electricity-generating wind turbine was a
battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by
Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday
home in Marykirk, Scotland. Some months later
American inventor Charles F. Brush built the first
automatically operated wind turbine for electricity
production in Cleveland, Ohio. Although Blyth's
turbine was considered uneconomical in the United
Kingdom electricity generation by wind turbines was
more cost effective in countries with widely scattered
populations.

Further inefficiencies, such as rotor blade friction and

drag, gearbox losses, generator and converter losses,
reduce the power delivered by a wind turbine.
Commercial utility-connected turbines deliver 75% to
80% of the Betz limit of power extractable from the
wind, at rated operating speed. Efficiency can decrease
slightly over time due to wear. Analysis of 3128 wind
turbines older than 10 years in Denmark showed that
half of the turbines had no decrease, while the other
half saw a production decrease of 1.2% per year.

[II] LITERATURE REVIEW

Windmills were used in Persia (present-day Iran) as
early as 200 B.C. The windwheel of Hero of Alexandria
marks one of the first known instances of wind
powering a machine in history. However, the first
known practical windmills were built in Sistan, an
Eastern province of Iran, from the 7th century. These
"Panemone" were vertical axle windmills, which had
long vertical drive shafts with rectangular blades. Made
of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth
material, these windmills were used to grind grain or
draw up water, and were used in the gristmilling and
sugarcane industries.
Windmills first appeared in Europe during the Middle
Ages. The first historical records of their use in England
date to the 11th or 12th centuries and there are reports
of German crusaders taking their windmill-making
skills to Syria around 1190. By the 14th century, Dutch

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Fig 1. Windmill
The first automatically operated wind turbine, built in
Cleveland in 1887 by Charles F. Brush. It was 60 feet
(18 m) tall, weighed 4 tons (3.6 metric tonnes) and
powered a 12 kW generator.
In Denmark by 1900, there were about 2500 windmills
for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills,
producing an estimated combined peak power of about
30 MW. The largest machines were on 24-meter (79 ft)
towers with four-bladed 23-meter (75 ft) diameter
rotors.
By 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generators
operating in the United States from 5 kW to 25 kW.
Around the time of World War I, American windmill
makers were producing 100,000 farm windmills each
year, mostly for water-pumping.

 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH PUBLICATION & SEMINAR

ISSN: 2278-6848 | Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | July-September 2015

By the 1930s, wind generators for electricity were

common on farms, mostly in the United States where
distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this
period, high-tensile steel was cheap, and the generators
were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers.
A forerunner of modern horizontal-axis wind generators
was in service at Yalta, USSR in 1931. This was a
100 kW generator on a 30-meter (98 ft) tower,
connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system. It
was reported to have an annual capacity factor of 32
percent, not much different from current wind
machines.
In the autumn of 1941, the first megawatt-class wind
turbine was synchronized to a utility grid in Vermont.
The Smith-Putnam wind turbine only ran for 1,100
hours before suffering a critical failure. The unit was
not repaired, because of shortage of materials during
the war.
The first utility grid-connected wind turbine to operate
in the UK was built by John Brown & Company in
1951 in the Orkney Islands.
Despite these diverse developments, developments in
fossil fuel systems almost entirely eliminated any wind
turbine systems larger than supermicro size. In the early
1970s, however, anti-nuclear protests in Denmark
spurred artisan mechanics to develop microturbines of
22 kW. Organizing owners into associations and cooperatives lead to the lobbying of the government and
utilities and provided incentives for larger turbines
throughout the 1980s and later. Local activists in
Germany, nascent turbine manufacturers in Spain, and
large investors in the United States in the early 1990s
then lobbied for policies that stimulated the industry in
those countries. Later companies formed in India and
China. As of 2012, Danish company Vestas is the
world's biggest wind-turbine manufacturer.

[III] DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

Wind turbines are designed to exploit the wind energy
that exists at a location. Aerodynamic modeling is used
to determine the optimum tower height, control
systems, number of blades and blade shape.Wind
turbines convert wind energy to electricity for
distribution. Conventional horizontal axis turbines can
be divided into three components:

The rotor component, which is approximately

20% of the wind turbine cost, includes the

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blades for converting wind energy to low

speed rotational energy.
The generator component, which is
approximately 34% of the wind turbine cost,
includes the electrical generator, the control
electronics, and most likely a gearbox (e.g.
planetary gearbox), adjustable-speed drive or
continuously variable transmission component
for converting the low speed incoming rotation
to high speed rotation suitable for generating
electricity.
The structural support component, which is
approximately 15% of the wind turbine cost,
includes the tower and rotor yaw mechanism.

Fig 2. Components of a horizontal-axis wind turbine

A 1.5 MW wind turbine of a type frequently seen in the
United States has a tower 80 meters (260 ft) high. The
rotor assembly (blades and hub) weighs 22,000
kilograms (48,000 lb). The nacelle, which contains the
generator component, weighs 52,000 kilograms
(115,000 lb). The concrete base for the tower is
constructed using 26,000 kilograms (58,000 lb) of
reinforcing steel and contains 190 cubic meters
(250 cu yd) of concrete. The base is 15 meters (50 ft) in
diameter and 2.4 meters (8 ft) thick near the center.
Among all renewable energy systems wind turbines
have the highest effective intensity of power-harvesting
surface because turbine blades not only harvest wind
power, but also concentrate it.

Fig 3. Inside view of a wind turbine tower, showing the

tendon cables.

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ISSN: 2278-6848 | Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | July-September 2015

B) Power Electronics for Variable-Speed Wind

Turbines

[IV] TECHNOLOGY USED

MATLAB is a high-performance language for
technical computing. It integrates computation,
visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use
environment where problems and solutions are
expressed in familiar mathematical notation. Typical
uses include: Math and computation.
MATLAB (matrix laboratory) is a multi-paradigm
numerical computing environment and fourthgeneration programming language. Developed by
MathWorks, MATLAB allows matrix manipulations,
plotting of functions and data, implementation of
algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing
with programs written in other languages, including C,
C++, Java, Fortran and Python.

[V] AREA OF APPLICATION

POWER ELECTRONICS FOR INTEGRATION
AND CONTROL OF WIND TURBINES
Many possible technical solutions of wind turbine
electrical systems are related to power electronics, since
they can improve dynamic and steady-state
performances, help to control the wind turbine
generator, and decouple the generator from the
electrical grid. Some major power electronic
applications are described in this section.
A) Soft-Starter
for
Fixed-Speed
Wind
Turbines
The Danish concept of directly connecting a wind
turbine to the grid is widely used in early wind turbine
systems. The scheme consists of an SCIG, connected
via a transformer to the grid and operating at an almost
fixed speed. The power can be limited aerodynamically
either by stall control, active stall, or pitch control.
The advantages of wind turbines with induction
generators are the simple and cheap onstruction, in
addition that no synchronization device is required.
These solutions are attractive due to cost and reliability.
Drawbacks are:
1) the wind turbine has to operate at constant speed;
2) it requires a stiff power grid to enable stable
operation; and
3) it may require a more expensive mechanical
construction in order to absorb high mechanical stress,
since wind gusts may cause torque pulsations on the
drive train.

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Variable-speed operation of a wind turbine system has

many advantages. For instance, the wind turbine can
increase or decrease its speed if the wind speed and
torque vary. This means less wear and tear on the
tower, gearbox, and other components in the drive train.
Also, variable-speed systems can increase the
production of the energy and reduce the fluctuation of
the power injected into the grid. In variable-speed
systems, the generator is normally connected to the grid
through a power electronic system.

[VI] PROPOSED WORK

Enhancing Wind Turbine Systems with Full Rated
Power Electronic Converters:
Cage induction generators and synchronous generators
may be integrated into power systems with full rated
power electronic converters. The wind turbines with a
full scale power converter between the generator and
grid give the added technical performance. Usually, a
back-to-back voltage source converter (VSC) is used in
order to achieve full control of the active and reactive
power, though with synchronous generators, diode
rectifiers may be used, but in this case, it would be
more difficult to fully control the whole system. Since
the generator is decoupled from the grid in this system,
the generator can operate at a wide variable frequency
range for optimal operation while the generated active
power will be sent to the grid through the grid-side
converter that can be used for controlling the active and
reactive power independently and the dynamic response
may be improved.
Reactive Power and Voltage Control
The induction-generator-based wind turbines are the
consumer of reactive power. To minimize the power
losses and increase voltage stability, these wind
turbines are compensated to a level depending on the
requirements of the power system operators. For wind
turbines with PWM converter systems, the reactive
power can be controlled by the converter. Thus, these
wind turbines have the possibility to control voltage by
controlling the generation or consumption of reactive
power.
The reactive power control can be conducted by
following the power system requirement to contribute

 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH PUBLICATION & SEMINAR

ISSN: 2278-6848 | Volume: 06 Issue: 04 | July-September 2015

to the power system voltage control; it can also be

performed to minimize the possible voltage fluctuations
caused by wind power fluctuations.

[VII] SCOPE OF RESEARCH

Wind energy offers many advantages, which explains
why it's one of the fastest-growing energy sources in
the world. Research efforts are aimed at addressing the
challenges to greater use of wind energy. Read on to
learn more about the benefits of wind power and some
of the challenges it is working to overcome.

It's a clean fuel source. Wind energy doesn't

pollute the air like power plants that rely on
combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or
natural gas. Wind turbines don't produce
atmospheric emissions that cause acid rain or
greenhouse gasses.
Wind energy is a domestic source of
energy. The nation's wind supply is abundant:
over the past 10 years, cumulative wind power
capacity in the United States increased an
average of 30% per year, outpacing the 28%
growth rate in worldwide capacity.
It's sustainable. Wind is actually a form of
solar energy; winds are caused by the heating
of the atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of
the earth, and the earth's surface irregularities.
For as long as the sun shines and the wind
blows, the energy produced can be harnessed
to send power across the grid.
Wind power is cost effective. It is one of the
lowest-priced renewable energy technologies
available today, costing between four and six
cents per kilowatt-hour, depending upon the
wind resource and project financing of the
particular project.
Wind turbines can be built on existing
farms or ranches. This greatly benefits the
economy in rural areas, where most of the best
wind sites are found. Farmers and ranchers can
continue to work the land because the wind
turbines use only a fraction of the land. Wind
power plant owners make rent payments to the
farmer or rancher for the use of the land
providing landowners with additional income.

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Advantages of Wind Power

[VIII] CHALLENGES OF WIND POWER

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Wind power must still compete with

conventional generation sources on a cost
basis.
Good wind sites are often located in remote
locations, far from cities where the electricity
is needed.
Wind resource development may not be the
most profitable use of the land.
Turbines may cause noise and aesthetic
pollution.
The turbine blades may damage local wildlife.

REFERENCES
Tony Burton, David Sharpe, Nick Jenkins,
Ervin Bossanyi: Wind Energy Handbook, John
Wiley & Sons, 2nd edition (2011), ISBN 9780-470-69975-1
Darrell, Dodge, Early History Through 1875,
TeloNet Web Development, Copyright 1996
2001
Ersen Erdem, Wind Turbine Industrial
Applications
Robert Gasch, Jochen Twele (ed.), Wind
power
plants.
Fundamentals,
design,
construction and operation, Springer 2012
ISBN 978-3-642-22937-4.
Erich Hau, Wind turbines: fundamentals,
technologies, application, economics Springer,
2013 ISBN 978-3-642-27150-2 (preview on
Google Books)
Siegfried Heier, Grid integration of wind
energy conversion systems John Wiley &
Sons, 3rd edition (2014), ISBN 978-1-11996294-6
Peter Jamieson, Innovation in Wind Turbine
Design. Wiley & Sons 2011, ISBN 978-0-47069981-2

Guide : Sumer Singh. Hod ,EE Deptt. In

GGSCMT Kharar. Experience 17 Years .

Author : Nipun Aggarwal, IIET Kinana

Experience 7 Years