Control and Operation of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Typically, the levels of wind turbine control systems are divided up hierarchically,
with each level having a different set of duties and responsibilities:

 SCADA systems for wind farms

are in charge of controlling the operation of many units and transferring power
between the wind farm and the electrical grid. These systems typically have the
ability to start and stop individual turbines and coordinate operations amongst
them.
 Supervisory controllers
monitor wind data, switch between operating states, and respond to changes in the
environment and operational circumstances while supervising the operation of a
single turbine by delivering command signals to the lower-level dynamic control
layers;

 Dynamic controllers
control the various wind turbine subsystems and continuously modify the actuators
and parts in response to the operating circumstances. Typically, separate dynamic
controllers handle distinct subsystems, and the supervisory controller manages the
coordination between them. These are employed for activities like power converter
power flow management, actuator system operation, and blade pitch adjustment.
To increase energy yield, a variety of control techniques could be used. It is
feasible to manage the power electronics converter to produce a specified amount
of electric power in situations where the power-rotor speed curve of the wind
turbine is known, hence maximizing power extraction. However, this control
approach needs thorough understanding of the electrical machine parameters and
the turbine's Cp curve.
Since there is no reliable information regarding the wind turbine's operation curves
or electrical generator characteristics, a different strategy is required to generate
the most electricity possible. In order to maximize the amount of power extracted
from the wind, a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) method aims to keep
the wind turbine's tip-speed ratio as close as possible to the ideal tip-speed ratio.
The Hill-Climb Seek method uses solely measured data to continually search for
the wind turbine's peak power. There is no requirement for knowledge of the Cp
curve, ideal tip-speed ratio (λop), or wind speed for this tracking algorithm. This
technique establishes relationships between variations in power output and rotor
speed to determine whether the rotor speed should be raised, lowered, or
maintained to push the system to the point of maximum power. It also confirms the
location of the operating point.
This method's execution entails directing the system to reach the top of the curve,
which stands for the point at which the most power may be extracted, by either
increasing (Δω>0) or decreasing (Δω<0) the generator speed in small stages
depending on the sign of the ΔP/Δω ratio.

Figure 2 - Flow chart of the HCS control method (ΔP: variation in power; Δω: variation in rotor
speed; i*step: current reference step between iterations)
The operating point is situated on an upward slope if (ΔP/Δω>0). By lowering the
module of the generator's current reference ISG, the rotor speed should be
increased (Δω >0) to get closer to the ideal operating point. Reduced
electromagnetic torque on the generator due to a reduction in load current ISG will
speed up the wind turbine rotor.
If ΔP/Δω<0, the operating point is situated on a downhill slope, then the rotor
speed should be decreased (Δω<0) by increasing the synchronous generator current
reference ISG in module, which increases the electromagnetic torque demand and
subsequently slows down the wind turbine rotor to capture more energy from the
mechanical rotation. The signal for the shaft speed variation must be reversed if
increasing the shaft speed results in ΔP/Δω<0 and decreasing the shaft speed
results in ΔP/Δω>0. Iteratively repeating this perturbation and observation
procedure results in maximum power extraction when ΔP/Δω=0 is obtained.
Rather than maintaining a stable maximum efficiency point in practice, rotor speed
is changed in small increments around the optimum operating point.

LTH Wind Power unit

The Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation (IEA) department has its
own experimental wind turbine configuration that it can utilize to test various
experimental hardware and software, such as generators or data acquisition and
control systems. Its purpose is to investigate how the wind turbine behaves. The
implementation's precise objectives are
 Ensure the setup's safety as well as the safety of the area around the
university by continuously monitoring the rotor speed to prevent dangerous
situations in the event of strong winds.
 Inform the operator of any irregular situations related to the power
converters, generator voltage, current, or the DC connection and react
accordingly.
 Give the operator the option of stopping the wind turbine through a
mechanical brake in case of emergency.
  In the event of a power outage, automatically apply the brake to stop the
turbine from revolving in "freewheel," which could cause the rotor to
accelerate to unsafe speeds for which the construction is not designed and
thus raise the risk of accidents.
 A control algorithm should be used to extract the most energy possible from
the wind, and the turbine should be automatically stopped if the wind speed
exceeds a preset limit (cut-out wind speed).
 The preferred mode of operation should be selectable by the operator.

Figure 3 - Wind turbine setup and control structure

The set-up includes a vertical axis wind turbine with a permanent magnet
synchronous generator and a mechanical drum brake, a meteorological mast for
measuring wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, and temperature, a camera for
checking on the wind turbine's performance, and two cabinets with power
converters and microcontrollers below the WT setup (Figure 3)

Figure 4 - LTH Vertical wind turbine

The control system was designed in a similar configuration and inspired in what is
procedure in commercial large-scale wind turbines, e.g. Vestas Wind (Dvorak,
Keep the control hardware but make the algorithms easy to change, 2013).
The control architecture used in this system is represented in Figure 5.

Figure 5 - Wind turbine setup and control scheme Both microcontrollers are
connected to the department's network via an Ethernet connection from the real
time part. The communication with the operator's PC, where the Human Machine
Interface is displayed, which also requires an attributed IP address, is achieved via
IP communication.
Constant speed mode
A speed reference is provided to the control system and is kept regardless of the
wind conditions. This means that for high wind speeds the system will produce
power, but for low or inexistent winds the PMSG will behave as a motor and
consume power instead, in order to keep the speed defined for the rotor to work at.
Keeping a constant speed also implies that the wind turbine will be operating
outside its maximum efficiency point most of the time except for a narrow range of
wind speeds, attending to the fact that the rotor speed is constant and thus the tip
speed ratio λ varies only with the wind speed, according to equation .

Maximum Power Point Tracking

The method used for tracking the optimal operating point is illustrated on Figure 6.
On the location of the setup, it was not so often to register wind speeds high
enough to induce rotation in the wind turbine rotor capable to start production by
itself, so this method is implemented with the option of providing an initial
acceleration of the rotor using the PMSG as a motor by setting a positive current
reference. After spinning the rotor up to the necessary speed to overcome the
inertial forces and sustain the negative electromagnetic torque that comes with
power extraction, a negative current reference (i*<0) is set in order to start
requesting power from the PMSG shaft. The resultant variation in the rotor speed
will dictate if the step in current reference will be positive or negative, i.e. increase
or decrease the rotor speed. The iterative repetition of this process is expected to
reach the maximum power point of the P vs ω curve, hen ωopt of a certain wind is
reached. The rotor speed will then \alternate around the maximum power point,
depending on the size of the reference current step.