Power Smoothing of Doubly Fed Induction Generator

Wind Turbines
T. Luu, A. Abedini, and A. Nasiri
Power Electronics and Motor Drive Laboratory
Electrical Engineering Department
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53211
Email: nasiri@uwm.edu

Abstract-The output power of wind turbines fluctuates due to The model of DFIG wind turbine is developed using PSCAD
wind speed variations. These power fluctuations make the wind and simulation results verified the control method that is
power undispatchable, causing frequency deviations and power
outage when wind power penetration is significant. Energy proposed in this paper.
storage devices such as batteries, ultracapacitors, super inductors
and flywheels can be utilized in a hybrid system to solve this II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
problem. Although these methods are effective but adding a
significant additional cost to the system. This paper presents a DFIG for wind turbine in this paper is modeled using
selective control method to mitigate the power fluctuations using PSCAD simulation. This design employs a series voltage
rotor inertia as an energy storage component. Therefore, the
additional energy storage system is not required. Simulation source converter to feed the wound rotor of the machine. By
results are performed on doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) operating the rotor circuit at a variable AC frequency one is
using PSCAD software. able to control the mechanical speed of the machine. The net
Index Terms-Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), wind power out of the machine is a combination of the power
turbine, rotor inertia, power smoothing, PSCAD. coming out of the machine’s stator and that from the rotor and
through the converter into the system. The configuration of a
variable speed wind turbine DFIG is shown in Fig. 1 and per-
I. INTRODUCTION phase equivalent circuit of DFIG is shown in Fig. 2.
The variable speed wind turbines with doubly fed induction A. Advantage of DFIG for wind turbine
generator (DFIG) are becoming the most common type of
wind turbine. Due to low power converter rating and ability to
supply power at constant voltage and frequency while the
rotor speed is varies [1, 2], the number of DFIGs connected to
the networks are increasing compared with other types
machine. The DFIG also provides a possibility to control the
overall system power factor.
With the penetration of wind energy is increasing, the
integrating of wind turbines into the grid causes a new concern
about security and reliability of the power system. One of the
problems associated with wind energy is power oscillation due
to wind turbulence. Power fluctuations cause frequency
deviations in the grid. If the frequency deviation exceeds a Fig. 1. Doubly fed induction generator wind turbine.
limit, the protection relays will trip and that may cause a
power outage for a part of the power system [3-5].
There are several methods to smooth the power oscillation
in the power system. Most of the studies investigated the
energy storage system such as batteries, ultra capacitors, super
inductors and fly wheels. However, the rotor inertia can be
used to replace an additional energy storage device with an
appropriate control method.
This paper introduces a new method to smooth the output
power of the wind turbine using rotor inertia. A speed control
technique is developed and applied to a DFIG wind turbine. Fig. 2. Doubly fed induction generator model.

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 The advantages of DFIG are due to low power converter derivative of the stator flux linkage λa as in (1) which is
rating, ability to supply power at constant voltage and written for single phase a.
frequency while the rotor speed varies. For a variable speed
wind turbine with doubly fed induction machine, it is possible dλ a
to control the load torque at the generator directly, so that the va − ia Ra = (1)
speed of the turbine rotor can be varied within certain limits.
dt
The 3-phase stator voltages are converted into the Clarke
An advantage of variable speed wind turbine is that the rotor
components. The control shown in Fig. 3 can be used to
speed can be adjusted in proportion to the wind speed in low
determine the location of the rotating flux vector. The
to moderate wind speeds so that the optimal tip speed ratio is
difference between the angle position of stator and rotor is
maintained. At this tip speed ratio the aerodynamic efficiency,
Cp, is a maximum, which means that the energy conversion is
maximized [6]. In general, variable speed wind turbines may
have two different control goals, depending on the wind
speed. In low to moderate wind speeds, the control goal is
maintaining a constant optimum tip speed ratio for maximum
aerodynamic efficiency. In the high wind speeds, the control
goal is the maintenance of the rated output power.
B. Operation of doubly fed induction generator wind turbine
Assuming that the positive power flow means the power
flows from the grid to the rotor converter and from the stator
to the grid. Generally, the absolute value of slip is very small
therefore the rotor power is very small compared with the
stator power. Since mechanical torque is positive for power
generation and since synchronous speed is positive and
constant for a constant frequency grid voltage, the sign of
rotor power is a function of the slip sign. Rotor power is
positive for negative slip (speed greater than synchronous
speed) and it is negative for positive slip (speed lower than
synchronous speed). For super-synchronous speed mode, the
rotor power is transmitted to DC bus capacitor and tends to Fig. 3. Block diagram for calculation of rotating magnetic flux vector location.
raise the DC voltage. For sub-synchronous speed mode, the
rotor power is taken out of DC bus capacitor and tends to
decrease the DC voltage. The grid side converter is used to called slip angle and this is the stator magnetic filed vector at
generate or absorbed the power in order to keep the DC this position.
voltage constant. The instantaneous values for the desired rotor currents can be
calculated using the inverse dq transformation, with respect to
the slip angle as shown in Fig. 4. Once the reference currents
III. ROTOR SIDE CONVERTER CONTROL are determined, they can be generated using a voltage sourced
The rotor currents of doubly fed induction generator can be converter operated with a technique such as current reference
resolved into direct and quadrature components id and iq. The pulse width modulation (CRPWM).
component id produces flux in the air gap, which is aligned
with the rotating flux vector linking to the stator, whereas the
component iq produces flux at the right angles to this vector.
The torque in this machine is the vector cross product of these
two vectors, and hence only the component iq is contributed to
the machine torque and to the power. The component id then
controls the reactive power entering the machine. If id and iq
can be controlled precisely, then so can the real and reactive
powers. For ensuring the correct value of id and iq flow in the
rotor, the rotor reference currents are generated and then using
a voltage sourced converter based current source to force these
Fig. 4. Block simulation for the generation of rotor phase reference currents.
currents into the rotor. The next step is how to obtain the
position of the rotating flux vector in space in order to get the
rotating reference frame. This can be done by taking the

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 IV. GRID SIDE PWM CONVERTER CONTROL The currents i1d and i1q are needed for the coupling control
block of Fig. 5. Using three-phase current from the low
The main purpose of the vector control for the grid side PWM
voltage side of the transformer, converts it into alpha and beta
converter is to keep the DC link voltage constant while
form. Using angle phi from Fig. 6 converts alpha beta to D
controlling reactive power flow into the grid. The reference
and Q. The outputs of Fig. 7 are the current i1d and i1q.
frame used here is oriented along the grid voltage vector
position, enabling decoupling control of the DC link voltage
and the reactive power flow between the grid and the grid side
converter. The DC link voltage can be expressed in (2) [7]. Fig. 6. Block diagram for detection of system voltage.

dvdc 3
C = migdc − irdc (2)
dt 4

Where i gdc is the d-axis current flowing between the grid and Fig. 6. Block diagram for detection of system voltage.

the grid side converter , irdc is the rotor side DC current, C is

the DC link capacitance, m is the PWM modulation index of
the grid side converter. The reactive power flow into the grid
Qg is calculated in (3).
3
Qg = v g i gq (3)
2

Where v g is the magnitude of the grid phase voltage, igq is Fig. 7. Generation of currents required for the controller in Fig. 5.
the q-axis current flowing between the grid and the grid side
converter. From (1) and (2), the DC link voltage and the
reactive power flow into the grid can be controlled via igq
and igq . The decoupled vector control is shown in Fig. 5. In
this control method a request to change id change id and not
iq; and vice-versa. The detection of ac grid voltage reference
angle and the generation of d and q components of current are
done using a d-q transformation block diagram as in Fig. 6.
Fig. 8. Voltage controller

difference
PI control
difference The selection of idref for the grid side converter is through the
block
idref block block Vdref1 control circuit shown in Fig. 8, which attempt to keep the
capacitor voltage at its rated value by adjust the amount of real
i1d
power. If the reference voltage vdref1 and vqref1 in Fig. 6 are
applied at the secondary of the transformer, the desired
currents idref and iqref will flow in the circuit. The remaining
parts of the controls are PWM controls.

V. WIND ENERGY VARIATION

i1q
In order to smooth the wind power fluctuation, it is required
to know the amount of wind energy variation. The relationship
between power and wind speed is given as (4).

ρ
iqref
difference
PI control
difference
Pw = C p (λ , β ) Av w3 (4)
block
block
block Vqref1
2
116
c p (λ ,θ ) = 0.22( − 0.4 β − 5)e −12.5 / λi (5)
Fig. 5. Block diagram for decoupled vector control.
λi

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 1 1 0.035 maximum and minimum output power variations correspond
= − 3 (6) when c p is max and min respectively as described in (10).
λi λ + 0.08β β + 1
T /2 T /2
ρ ρ (10)
∫ ( Acp minv03 − Pwave)dt ≤ ΔEm ≤ ∫ ( 2 Ac
3
v − Pwave)dt
Rω t
p max 0
2
λ= (7)
0 0

vw
It is assumed that wind speed variations follow (8)
K=0.9
vw = v0 + Δvw sin(2πft ) (8) K=1

(N.m)
Where ρ = 1.229 kg / m 3 is the air density, A is the Wind turbine torque
area swept by the turbine blades, λ is the Tip-Speed-Ratio
(TSR) that is given by (7), β is the pitch angle, and R is and
R is the radius of the turbine blades. In this application, β is
assumed to be zero. v 0 and Δv w are the average and the
ωo
amplitude of the wind speed variations. ω t is the rotor speed.
ω min ω max
ωr (rad/s)

Due to wind speed variation, wind energy varies. The wind Fig. 9. Wind turbine torque with different average output power.
energy variation is shown in (9).

T /2 T /2
ρ
∫ ( Pw − Pwave )dt = ∫ ( 2 Ac v
3
ΔE w = − Pwave )dt (9)
Energy storage capacitor (Jole)

p w
0 0

Where Pwave is the average wind power. To smooth the

output power, kinetic energy must compensate the wind
energy variations. It means when the wind power is more than
average, wind turbine speed increases; therefore the extra
energy is store in the rotor inertia, and when wind power is
less than average, the wind turbine speed decreases to release
the kinetic energy and keep the output power constant. Since
the wind turbine is no longer working at the speed Average Power/Maximum power

corresponding to the maximum power, the average output Fig. 10. Energy capacity of the wind turbine with different average power
power decreases when the wind turbine works in constant
power. It is assumed that the output power is obtained
from Pout = kp wave , where k is the efficiency of the system.
Fig.9 shows wind turbine torque-speed characteristics and Kinetic energy
constant power torque-speed diagram for two different values
of k. When k is 1, there is only one operating point which is
the speed corresponding to maximum power. Therefore, there
Energy (Jole)

is no kinetic energy to compensate the wind power variation.

When k is 0.9, there are two operating points at constant
Maximum wind energy variations
power with the speed of ω min and ω max . In this case, the
Minimum wind energy variations
amount of kinetic energy that can be used for power
1
smoothing as J (ω max
2
− ω min
2
) . Fig. 10 shows the kinetic
2
energy versus k. In order to find the value of k, kinetic energy k min k max
must be equal to output power variations. Since output power Average power/Maximum Power
variations depend on operating point, output power variations
is also changing. Fig. 11 shows the output power variations Fig. 11. Stored kinetic energy and extreme wind energy variations versus
and kinetic energy for different values of k. In Fig. 11, energy capture efficiency

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 VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
The case study, in this paper, is a 500 kW wind farm
connected to a transmission system that exports the power to a
13.8 kV grid.
Fig. 12 shows the wind speed curve that is used for all
This converter power is measured at the stator side converter.
The amount of power consumed by converter is very small as
expected. The stator power plot is followed the q-axis current
from Fig. 13 and that is expected from the control algorithm.
Fig.15 shows the reactive power follows the d-axis current
from Fig. 13

Wsped Qs
12.0 0

11.0

-20
10.0

y
y

9.0
-40
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
8.0

7.0
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 Fig. 15. Reactive power.

The speed and capacitor voltage are shown in Fig. 16 and

Fig. 17. Both are controlled and the simulation result agreed
Fig. 12. Wind speed plot with the method.
simulations in this paper.
First take a look at the dq-axis currents where the output Wpu
power was controlled in Fig. 13. q-axis current controls the
1.100
real power where d-axis current controls the reactive power. 1.050
1.000
0.950
Ird Irq 0.900
70
y

0.850
60 0.800
0.750
50
0.700
40 0.650
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
kA

30

20

10

0 Fig. 16. Speed of the machine

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0

Ecap
10.0

Fig. 13. Generator d and q-axis currents. 9.0

Fig. 14 shows the real power from stator side (Ps), the power 8.0

exports to the grid (PG) and converter power (Psc) before

y

7.0
using smoothing method.
6.0

Ps PG Psc
500 5.0
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
400

300

Fig. 17. DC link of capacitor voltage

200
kW

Now when the smoothing method is applied for the system,

100
Fig. 18 shows the power after smoothing and the power before
0 using smoothing method from the stator power. Fig. 19 shows
the power exports to the grid with smoothing method. Fig. 20
-100
shows the amplitude of the grid voltage before and after using
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
smoothing method.

Fig. 14. Stator power, export power and converter power.

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 VII. CONCLUSION
Ps_smooth Ps
500 This paper presents a smoothing method for the output
power of a wind turbine system. From the simulation result
400
point of view, the control methods work well for the system
300 from the power control to the speed control and DC voltage
control. Before using the smoothing method, the power curve
200 is fluctuated due to the wind speed. After using the smoothing
kW

method, the output power curve is smoother. The fluctuation

100 of the power is almost eliminated.
0
One concern in the simulation results is that the output
electrical power is delayed after smoothing, due to an
-100 additional control function. This paper does not carry out the
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 method to improve this delay from the output power but it
does take the calculation for the loss of the power after using
the smoothing method.
It is interesting to know that the average power loss is very
Fig. 18. Stator power before and after using smoothing method small around 3% to 5% of the total power. The future study
will focus on how to reduce the power loss and how the power
loss effect to different types of machine or different sizes of
machine. There is a lot benefit in studying different sizes of
500
PG_smooth Pg machines and see how well the technique work for each of
them.
400 Overall with the advantage of PSCAD simulation for the
power electronics, machines, and control models and ability to
300
link with Matlab/Simulink, the study of this complex system
200 has been easier and faster compared with using only
kW

Matlab/Simulink.
100

0
Acknowledgement:

-100 The authors gratefully acknowledge support provided for

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 the work on this project by the We Energies.
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Fig. 20. Amplitude of the grid voltage before and after smoothing

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