LVRT Control Strategy of CSC-PMSG-WGS
Based on PIR Controller
Liuchen Chang Wenhan Wu
Hefei University of Technology Hefei University of Technology
Hefei 230009, China Hefei 230009, China
Ichang@unb.ca wuwenhan11@foxmail.com
Abstract—A novel low voltage ride-through (LVRT) control
strategy for Current-Source-Converter-Based PMSG wind
generation system based on proportional-integral-resonant (PIR)
controller is presented in this paper. when grid voltage fault
happens, the generator-side converter decreases the generator
output power according to the dip depth of grid voltage to
balance generator-side and grid-side power, meanwhile, the gird-
side converter controls the positive and negative sequence
currents by PIR controller in the positive-sequence synchronous
rotating frame, to eliminate the fluctuation of DC current, and
thus achieve LVRT of wind generation system. The design of PIR
controller is validated by Matlab/Simulink model for back-to–
back Current-Source-Converter-Based PMSG wind generation
system under various cases, such as three-phase grid voltage
unbalanced dip fault, single-phase-to-ground fault and three-
phase grid voltage balanced dip fault.
Keywords—wind generation, current source converter, resonant
controller, fluctuation of DC current, low voltage ridethrough
I. INTRODUCTION
With the development of renewable energy, the proportion
of wind generation in the grid is growing rapidly. Hence, the
stable and secure operation of wind generation system (WGS)
is getting recognized. Low voltage ride-through (LVRT)
requirements have become one of grid-connected operation
codes for WGS in many countries, for it could keep the wind
turbines operating, and supply reactive power to the grid if
necessary, during the period of grid voltage dips[1].
Nowadays, the LVRT control methods can be categorized
into two types: one is the method based on external devices
and the other is based on modified controllers. According to
the types of devices, the method based on external devices can
be further divided into unloading resistance based, super
capacitor-based and flywheel energy storage based method,
etc. However, the methods mentioned above may increase
system cost, and make the circuit complex. As for the
modified controller methods, some papers focus on the
modified controllers of pitch angle and back-to-back
converters with less cost [2]. Pitch angle control (PAC) is used
This work was supported by NSFC (51577047); Scientific and
Technological Research Project of Anhui Province (1501021049); Foreign
Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Anhui Province
(1604b0602015); Project Supported by Specialized Research Fund for the
Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20130111110005); Guangdong
Province Introduced Innovation Talent Project (2011N015).
978-1-4673-8617-3/16/$31.00 (c) 2016 IEEE
Meiqin Mao
Hefei University of Technology
Hefei 230009, China
mmqmail@163.com
to limit the captured power of turbines by changing the pitch
angle. While the modified controllers of back-to-back
converters are based on stable control, with considering the
unbalance state of PMSG when grid voltage dips, and
modifying the control loop. Reference [3] introduces a LVRT
method by which excess power is stored as kinetic energy by
increasing the rotor speed. In reference [4], the author
proposed a new control structure, in which dc-link voltage is
controlled by generator-side converter based on feedback
linearization theory. As for unbalanced faults, Reference [5]
adopts a vector-oriented control strategy which oriented on
positive and negative voltage sequence vector-oriented,
respectively for eliminating the fluctuation in power
transmission. However, the methods above are applied in
voltage-source-converter-based (VSC) PMSG, which is not
suitable for current-source-converter-based (CSC) PMSG.
Compared with Voltage-Source-Converter-Based
PMSG(VSC-PMSG), CSC-PMSG has advantages, including
more simple topologies and superior interconnection
performance, such as sinusoidal current of grid-side and power
factor controllable. At present, CSC-PMSG is rarely studied in
LVRT. Most of researches on CSC-PMSG are focus on
converter topologies, modulation methods, and control
strategies in CSC-DPMSG-WGSs. In reference [6], a dual
current-loop control strategy which is oriented on positive and
negative current respectively is proposed to stabilize DC-link
current and coordinate power of grid-side and generator-side.
Meanwhile, the notch filter is introduced to the control
strategy of phase-locked loop. However, the complex control
strategy increases the calculation time burden.
This paper proposes a novel LVRT strategy based on
proportional-integral-resonant (PIR) controller. With the
proposed strategy, once unbalanced grid fault happens, the
generator-side converter decreases the output power rapidly,
meanwhile grid-side converter controls positive and negative
sequence currents in positive sequence synchronous rotating
frame by combining the resonant controller with the
conventional PI controller, to eliminate power ripples in dc-
link current and achieve LVRT control.
II. MECHANISM OF DC-LINK CURRENT FLUCTUATION
The considered direct-drive PMSG-WGS with back-to-
back converters is shown in Fig.1. The generator-side
converter control output power of turbine, while the gird-side Therefore, putting equation (3) into equation (1), then it
converter control DC-link current. yields:

PL  Ps  Pg   Ps  P0   Pc2 cos 2t   Ps2 sin 2t  (5)

It can be seen that, when the unbalanced fault happens, the

power fluctuation at twice fundamental frequency appears in
DC-link according to equation (5). If there are no suitable
Fig.1. Structure of direct-drive PMSG wind generation system based on three- measures, the DC-link current will raise, which might damage
phase current source back to back converter converters.
According circuit theory, the power flowing through the
III. THEORY OF PIR CONTROLLER
DC-link is:
Conventional PI controller can realize zero steady-state
di error control for DC signal, but not for AC signal, while the
PL  id c L d c  Ps  Pg (1)
dt resonant controller can track the AC signal at specific-
frequency. The transfer functions of typical resonant
Where Ps is generator’s output power, Pg is output power controllers are as follow:
fed to grid-side converter through DC-link, and idc is the DC- 2Krs
G1  (6)
link current. s 2 +02
When CSC-PMSG-WGS is running normally, the power 2 K rc s
G2 = 2 (7)
of DC-link is kept in balance, and the DC-link current remains s +2cs+02
stable at a certain level. But as the grid unbalanced fault
happens, there will be three phase unbalanced voltage and The equation (6) is the transfer function of an ideal resonant
current, and after the coordinate transformation, they can be controller. Because its gain is infinity at the resonant
transformed to positive and negative sequence components frequency, it can realize zero steady-state error control for the
respectively: specific-frequency AC signal. However, because attenuation
of ideal resonant controller’s gain is great beyond the designed

   U +     frequency and the frequency bandwidth of high gain is small,
U
 =  dq  e j t
+ U dq  e  j t which will make the system sensitive to the input signal
(2)
  +     frequency. So, it is common to adopt quasi-resonant controller,
I  I
   dq    I dq 
whose transfer function is shown in equation (7), where 0 is
   
+
Where U dq , I dq and U dq , I dq are positive and negative resonant frequency, and c is bandwidth frequency. As
sequence complex vectors of voltage and current ， shown in Fig.2, bandwidth of quasi-resonant controller
respectively. Based on equation (2), the active and reactive increases along with the increase of c . By setting suitable
powers are:
value of c , the proper bandwidth of controller can be
 Pg   P0   Pc 2   Ps 2  obtained, which can decrease the sensitivity to frequency
Q  =   + 
Q Q  cos(2 t )  Q  sin(2 t ) (3)
fluctuation and improve the stabilization of the system.
   0   c2 
g  s2 
Therefore, quasi-resonant controller is adopted in this paper.
Among these:
 3
 P0  2 U d I d  U q I q  U d I d  U q I q 
       


 P  3 U  I   U  I   U  I   U  I  
 c2 2
d d q q d d q q


 Ps 2  3 U q I d  U d I q  U q I d  U d I q 
 2
 (4)
 Q  3 U  I   U  I   U  I   U  I  
 0 2
q d d q q d d q

 3
 Q c 2  U q I d  U d I q  U q I d  U d I q 
 2
 3
 Q s 2  U d I d  U q I q  U d I q  U q I q 
       

 2

       
Where U d , U q , U d , U q ; I d , I q , I d , I q are positive and
negative sequence d-component and q-component of voltage Fig 2. Bode graph of Quasi-Resonant controller with different values of c
and current, respectively.
 1 When grid voltage dips, the given value of power in
Ki2 2K ωs
Kp2 + + 2 r c 2 K pwm 2
Lf Cf s +Rf Cf s+1
Ig control loop will be decreased, realizing the power balance at
I *g s s +2ωs+ω
c 0 both sides of DC-link.

B. Control strategy of grid-side conveter

Fig 3. Control block of Current loop of grid-side inverter
As for grid-side converter, the main control objectives are
stabilizing DC-link current, realizing sine wave of output
As shown in Fig.3, this quasi-resonant controller is
current and power factor controllable. However, once the
incorporated in inner current loop to form a PIR controller
unbalanced grid fault occurs, power ripple at twice
along with a PI controller. In this way, the DC signal and
fundamental frequency will occur. However, using
specific frequency AC signal can be controlled at the same
conventional PI controller in synchronous rotating d-q frame,
time.
the AC signal at twice fundamental frequency transformed
from the negative sequence current component cannot be
controlled. In addition, after coordinate transformation,
positive sequence current with angular frequency of  is
converted into AC signal with angular frequency of 2 ,
Hence, this paper introduces the PIR controller in grid-side
control loop, which can realize no steady-state error regulation
for both positive and negative sequence currents only in
positive-sequence synchronous rotating frame.
Based on equation (4), the relationship between power
command and current command can be written as:
Fig. 4. Bode graph of PI controller and PIR controller
 P0*  Ud+ Uq Ud Uq  Id* 
 *  +     * 
It can be seen that in Fig.4, conventional PI controller’s  Q0   3 Uq Ud Uq Ud  Iq  (9)
gain is almost 0 at the point of 0  628rad / s , while PIR  Ps*2  2 Uq Ud Uq Ud  Id* 
controller’s gain is 40dB. Therefore, with proper parameters,  *     
 
  * 
PIR controller can realize the goal of controlling AC signals  Pc2  Uq Uq Ud Uq  Iq 
under synchronous rotating d-q frame, whose angular * * *
Then, setting Q0 , Ps 2 , Pc 2 as 0, the power fluctuation
frequency is 628rad / s .
can be eliminated. The current commands can thus be written
as:
IV. PROPOSED LVRT STRATEGY
Id*  Ud
1 2 *
This paper proposes a LVRT strategy based on PIR Uq Ud Uq   3 P0   Ud 
controller for CSC-PMSG-WGS, as shown in Fig.5, where,  *      
generator-side converter uses power loop to stabilize Iq  Uq Ud Uq Ud    2P0*  Uq 
Id*  Uq  0     (10)
generator-side power, meanwhile grid-side converter uses PIR Ud Uq Ud   0  3D Ud 
controller to regulate positive and negative sequence currents.  *      
Based on these, the proposed strategy can eliminate the
I  U Uq Ud Uq  U 
q  q 0
   q
fluctuation of DC-link current and achieve the LVRT for
CSC-PMSG-WGS. In order to regulate positive and negative sequence currents
simultaneously in positive-sequence synchronous rotating
A. Control strategy of generator-side conveter frame, it is necessary to transform negative sequence current
The generator-side converter uses the model based on rotor commands into positive sequence frame. The transformed
field-oriented and zero d-axis current control. As shown in commands can be obtained as:
Fig.5, the generator-side converter uses active power close
*
loop, whose PI regulation output is set as stator current  I dtran  I d* cos(2 *  )  I q* sin(2 *  )
command, and the output power of generator-side is regarded  * * * (11)
as the output power command of grid-side converter.  I qtran   I d sin(2 *  )  I q cos(2 *  )
*
P*  Popt * (8) I dsum  I d*  I dtran
*

 * * *
(12)
Where
*
P is power command of generator-side,  is depth of I qsum  I q  I qtran
* *
grid voltage, and Popt is initial power command of generator- Where I dtran , I qtran are references transformed from the
side, which depends on operating parameters of the generator. negative sequence current commands I d
*
and I q* into
positive sequence synchronous rotating d-q frame.
 *
I dsum *
, I qsum are the total commands of positive and The proposed LVRT strategy can coordinate the grid-side
and generator-side power effectively and quickly, which can
negative sequence currents respectively. achieve the LVRT control goals under both balanced and
For stabilizing DC-link current, a DC current external loop unbalanced grid faults.
is introduced, and its PI output is set as the feed-forward of
positive power.

P P N N
I gd I gq I gd I gq

us is

UPM UNM PN UPM UNM

d / dt
 Idc +
I gq
 Iq+ref Iq+*
* *
Iq*
iqwr *
idwr Iqtran
P* = Popt *
Idtran
=  kwind
3
-p Id*
iqcr * Idc +
Igd
Idc + Id+*
Idref
idcr P0 Q0

Fig. 5. Control block of system

V. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In order to verify the proposed LVRT strategy, simulation
has been performed for 10 KW CSC-PMSG-WGS under the
MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation parameters are shown in
Table I, the detailed performances at balanced and unbalanced
scenarios will be discussed in following sections.

TABLE I. SIMULATION PARAMETERS

Rated Power 10 KW Rated Voltage 220V
D-axis Synchronous Fig. 6. Grid voltage waveform
Pair of Roles 8 10mH
Inductances
Generator Rotor Q-axis Synchronous
2.15Wb 10mH
Magnetic Flux Inductances
DC-Link Generator-Side Filter
60mH 28μF
Inductance Capacitor
Grid-Side Filter Grid-Side Filter
20μF 5mH
Capacitor Inductance
Damping Given value of DC-
0.1Ω 25A
Resistor Link
Rated wind
10m/s
speed

A. Grid voltage unbalanced fault Fig. 7. Generator-side and grid-side power waveforms
Fig.6 shows that A, B, C-phase voltage drops to 80%, 90%
and 20% from 100% , respectively at time 0.15s .The fault
lasts for 0.15s, and then, the voltage recovers gradually.
Fig.8. DC-link current waveform
Fig.9. Grid voltage and current waveforms
Fig.8 indicates that when the grid fault happens at time
0.15s, the DC-link current has a fluctuation of 6% rated value,
and it becomes stable in 0.05s.When the grid voltage gradually
recovers after 0.2s, the variation of DC-link current is within
1.5%. Fig.7 shows that before the voltage dips, generator-side
and grid-side powers are balanced and stable. Once grid fault
occurs at 0.15s, the grid side power begins to decrease, then
control strategy makes the generator-side output power
decrease rapidly in order to keep the system stable. Grid
voltage and grid current waveforms are shown in Fig.9. The
simulation results demonstrate that CSC-DPMSG-WGS can
achieve LVRT.
B. Single phase to ground fault
In Fig.10, it can be seen that A-phase voltage dips to zero
at the time 0.15s because of phase to ground fault, and then,
during the period of 0.3s to 0.4s, the voltage recover gradually.
Fig.10. Grid voltage waveform
Fig.11. Generator-side and grid-side power waveforms
Fig.12. DC-link current waveform
Fig.13. Grid voltage and current waveforms
Fig.12 shows that DC-link current fluctuates slightly at the
fault happening time, but it can recover to the given value 25A
within 0.05s. In addition, generator-side and grid-side powers
are kept balanced and stable before single phase to ground
fault happens and even if the fault happens. In order to
guarantee the power balance of the system, once the grid fault
happens, the generator-side power decreases depend on the
depth of reduction of grid-side power. The transient of grid-
side current is shown in Fig.13, because three-phase active
power is almost equal, when the grid voltage drops to zero,
the corresponding grid current increases. However,
considering the capacity of inverter and limiting effect of
controller, the grid current is no more than twice rated value.
Simulation results prove that the proposed control method is
suitable for the case that single phase to ground fault happens.
C. Grid votage balanced fault
As can be seen from Fig.14, three-phase voltage of the grid
drops from 100% to 50% symmetrically at the time 0.15s, and
then, it recovers from the time 0.3s gradually.

Fig.14. Grid voltage waveform
Fig.15. Generator-side and grid-side power waveforms
Fig.16. DC-link current waveform
Fig.17. Grid voltage and current waveforms
It is shown in Fig.16 that DC-link current reaches a steady
value before the fault. When grid voltage balanced fault
happens, the controller reduce fluctuation of DC-link current,
which is limited within 9%. It can be observed that generator-
side and grid-side power are both stable no matter whether the
grid is normal or faulty, as shown in Fig.15. Due to the power
reduction of grid-side caused by grid fault, output power from
generator-side should be limited to keep the power balanced
for the whole system according to the drop depth of grid
voltage. As shown in Fig.17, because three-phase voltage keep
balance before and after fault, grid current remain roughly
stable. The simulation results prove the correctness of the
proposed strategy.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a novel LVRT control strategy based on PIR
controller is proposed, without adding external devices. When
the grid fault happens, output power of the generator-side
converter is decreased rapidly and grid-side converter is
controlled to stabilize the DC-link current. Specifically, once
unbalanced grid fault occurs, the proposed control strategy can
eliminate power ripples at twice fundamental frequency by
adopting a PIR control method with a dc current closed loop in
the positive sequence coordinate system. The introduction of
the resonant controller makes this control method more simple,
which reduces the calculation time burden, because only the
controller in positive sequence d-q frame is needed. The
simulation results show that the proposed LVRT strategy is of
small overshoot, fast response and good controlling
performance for negative sequence components of currents.
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