196
1, MARCH 2004
Sensorless Vector Control of Induction Machines for
Variable-Speed Wind Energy Applications
Roberto Cárdenas, Member, IEEE, and Rubén Peña, Member, IEEE
Abstract—A sensorless vector-control strategy for an induction
generator in a grid-connected wind energy conversion system is
presented. The sensorless control system is based on a model refer-
ence adaptive system (MRAS) observer to estimate the rotational
speed. In order to tune the MRAS observer and compensate for
the parameter variation and uncertainties, a separate estimation
of the speed is obtained from the rotor slot harmonics using an
algorithm for spectral analysis. This algorithm can track fast
dynamic changes in the rotational speed, with high accuracy.
Two back-to-back pulse-width-modulated (PWM) inverters are
used to interface the induction generator with the grid. The
front-end converter is also vector controlled. The dc link voltage
is regulated using a PI fuzzy controller. The proposed sensorless
control strategy has been experimentally verified on a 2.5-kW
experimental set up with an induction generator driven by a wind
turbine emulator. The emulation of the wind turbine is performed
using a novel strategy that allows the emulation of high-order wind
turbine models, preserving all of the dynamic characteristics. The
experimental results show the high level of performance obtained
with the proposed sensorless vector-control method.
Index Terms—Fuzzy logic, induction generator, induction motor
drives, spectral analysis, wind energy.
NOMENCLATURE
A. General
Air density.
Pitch angle.
Wind turbine blade radius.
Electrical torque.
Inertia and viscous friction.
Wind velocity.
, , Magnetizing, rotor, stator inductance.
, Rotor, stator resistance.
Induction machine leakage coefficient.
DC link voltage.
Rotor flux.
Number of pole pairs.
Induction machine rotational speed.
Turbine rotational speed.
Electrical frequency (in radians per second).
Electrical frequency (in Hertz).
Rotor time constant.
Number of rotor slots.
Forgetting factor.
Manuscript received September 12, 2002. This work was supported in part
by the Chilean Research Council Conicyt under Grant 1000979 and in part by
internal grants from the University of Magallanes.
The authors are with the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department,
University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile (e-mail: rcd@ieee.org).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2003.821863
0885-8969/04$20.00 © 2004 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 19, NO.
Shaft compliance.
Shaft viscous fiction.
B. Superscripts
Estimated value.
Reference value.
C. Subscripts
Stator fixed coordinates.
Synchronous rotating coordinates.
Rotor or stator quantities.
Turbine or generator quantities.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE advantages of cage induction machines are well
known. These machines are relatively inexpensive, ro-
bust, and require low maintenance. When induction machines
are operated using vector-control techniques, fast dynamic
response and accurate torque control are obtained [1]. All
of these characteristics are advantageous in variable-speed
wind energy conversion systems (WECS). The control sys-
tems for the operation of indirect rotor flux-oriented (IRFO)
vector-controlled induction machines for variable-speed wind
energy applications have already been discussed in [1]–[3]. In
[1], the number of transducers, rating of the power converters
and control schemes suitable to operate cage and doubly fed
induction machines are discussed. In [2] and [3], cage induction
machines are considered and a fuzzy control system is used to
drive the WECS to the point of maximum energy capture for a
given wind velocity. The induction machine is connected to the
utility using back-to-back converters.
In [1]–[3], speed encoders are used to implement the vector-
control strategies. The use of this encoder implies additional
wiring, extra cost, extra space, and careful mounting which de-
tracts from the inherent robustness of cage induction machines
[4]–[6].
In this paper, a sensorless control structure based on a direct
rotor flux-oriented (DRFO) vector-control system, for variable-
speed wind energy applications, is discussed. A speed estima-
tion, obtained from a model reference adaptive system (MRAS)
[4], is used to control the electrical torque of the induction ma-
chine. A V/F control strategy is used in the low-speed region
for starting and driving the WECS set into the speed operating
range. In order to tune the MRAS system and compensate for the
variation of the machine parameters, an estimation of the rota-
tional speed is obtained from the rotor slot harmonics (RSH) [7],
[8]. The spectral analysis method used in this publication can
track the rotational speed not only in steady state but also when
CÁRDENAS AND PEÑA: SENSORLESS VECTOR CONTROL OF INDUCTION MACHINES
Fig. 1. Control system proposed.
the WECS is subjected to fast dynamic changes. To the best of
our knowledge, this is the first publication discussing a sensor-
less vector-control method, including tuning of the MRAS ob-
server, for a WECS.
The system proposed in this paper is shown in Fig. 1. An
induction generator is driven from an emulated variable-speed
wind turbine. A microprocessor-based system is used to imple-
ment the DRFO algorithms, the V/F control strategy, the MRAS
rotational speed observer, the spectral estimation algorithm, the
control of the front-end converter, and the emulation of the wind
turbine. The front-end converter supplies the electrical energy
into the grid. This converter controls the dc link voltage of the
back-to-back configuration using a fuzzy PI controller.
The currents and voltages of the induction machine are
referred to a reference frame aligned to the rotor flux. These
currents take dc values in steady state. The rotor flux is calcu-
lated from the machine voltages and currents (“Voltage model”
in Fig. 1). The – components of the flux are used to calculate
the electrical angle for the vector rotators.
In Sections II–VII, the control system shown in Fig. 1 is dis-
cussed. Experimental results obtained from a 2.5-kW prototype
will be presented and fully analyzed.
II. WIND TURBINE MODELING
There are several models appropriate for wind turbines de-
pending on the size, blade radius, nominal power, shaft stiffness,
losses, gear box ratio, etc. [9]–[11]. The mechanical torque pro-
duced by the blades is given by
(1)
197
where is the torque coefficient and is the tip-speed
ratio defined as
(2)
The power captured from the wind turbine is obtained as
(3)
where is the power coefficient. The value, which
maximizes the power coefficient, is the optimal tip-speed ratio
. For the experimental work of this paper, the
curve reported in [12] has been used. This curve is shown in
Fig. 2 for . The model of a typical variable-speed wind
turbine [11] is shown in Fig. 3.
A. Torque Control of the Induction Generator
In the experimental work presented in this paper, the elec-
trical torque is controlled according to the well-known control
strategy for below rated wind speed (BRWS) operation which,
in steady state, drives the WECS to the point of maximum en-
ergy capture [13]
(4)
In (4), the losses have been neglected and depends on
the blade aerodynamics and wind turbine parameters. The elec-
trical torque of the DRFO induction machine is calculated as
(5)
198 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 19, NO. 1, MARCH 2004

III. MRAS OBSERVER

A MRAS observer is used to estimate the rotational speed of
the induction machine. This observer is based on two models,
the voltage model and the current model [4]. The voltage model
is used to obtain the rotor flux as

(8)

The rotor flux is also calculated from the stator current, speed
and machine inductances. The flux from the current model is
obtained as

(9)

Fig. 2. C versus  curve ( = 0).
where the 2/3 arises from the 2–3 axes scaling and is the
torque producing current. Using (4–5) the reference for the
torque current can be obtained as
(6)
For sensorless control, the estimated rotational speed from
the MRAS observer is used in (6).
B. Wind Turbine Emulation
From Fig. 3, the discrete state equations of the wind turbine
can be obtained as
(7)
where is the sampling time. The mechanical torque on the
blades is calculated from (1) and the electrical torque is calcu-
lated using the current [see (5)]. In (7) , , , , ,
and have been referred to the generator side of the gearbox
and the high-speed part of the shaft is considered very stiff.
A wind turbine emulation method, which preserves all of the
dynamic characteristics of a wind turbine, is obtained by im-
plementing (7) in a microprocessor board [14]. The values of
, , and are calculated by the micropro-
cessor in each sampling time. A speed control system, imple-
mented using a dc machine driving the induction machine, is
used to force the generator speed to follow the value of
calculated from (7). With this emulation technique, the induc-
tion machine rotates at the same speed as that of a generator
driven by a real wind turbine. Further information about the
wind turbine emulation strategy used in this work can be found
in [14], [15].
In the MRAS observer, the flux obtained from (8) is used as
the reference. By adjusting the rotational speed, it is possible
to reduce the error between the reference flux and the flux esti-
mated from (9). The error in – components is usually defined
as
(10)
Equations (8)–(10) are used to implement the MRAS speed
observer. The error calculated using (10) is driven to zero by a
PI controller (see Figs. 1 and 4). The output of this PI controller
is the estimated rotational speed used in (6). The implemen-
tation of the MRAS observer is shown in Fig. 4. The voltage
model is used to obtain the rotor flux using a band-pass filter
as a modified integrator to block the dc components of the mea-
sured voltages and currents. From the voltage model, the elec-
trical angle is calculated using the – components of the
rotor flux. At the bottom of Fig. 4 is the current model and the
estimated speed .
A. Detuning of the Machine Parameters
The dynamic performance of a MRAS observer has been
studied in [4]–[6] and [16]. Using a small-signal model, it can
be shown that when the machine parameters are correctly es-
timated and the MRAS speed estimator is implemented using
a relatively large close loop bandwidth, the transfer function
is a first-order low-pass filter [4]. In this case, the
effects of the MRAS observer in the control system dynamics
are negligible. However, a MRAS observer with incorrect pa-
rameters can be considered as an encoder with inherent ripple
[5], producing oscillations and even instability. Besides the dy-
namic effects, incorrect parameters in the MRAS observer lead
to an estimated speed with a steady-state error [5], [6], [16]. The
steady-state speed error may give rise to the following.
1) Reduced Power Capture for BRWS Operation: Because
of steady-state speed error, the control strategy of (6) will not
drive the WECS to the point of maximum power capture. Using
(3), the reduction on the captured power, for BRWS operation
is calculated as
(11)
CÁRDENAS AND PEÑA: SENSORLESS VECTOR CONTROL OF INDUCTION MACHINES
Fig. 3. Modeling of a typical wind turbine.
Fig. 4. MRAS observer implemented.
where is the quiescent tip-speed ratio and is the rota-
tional speed for optimal energy capture. From (11), the reduc-
tion in the power captured depends both on the steady speed
error and the variation of the power coefficient in respect to the
tip-speed ratio.
2) Incorrect Pitch Control Operation: Pitch control of the
blades is used to avoid overloading the wind turbine for ARWS
operation as reported in [9] and [10]. The pitch angle is con-
trolled using a rotational speed signal. When the rotational speed
is below a given rotational speed , the torque is controlled
according to (4) [BRWS operation]. When the rotational speed
is above , the pitch angle of the blade is controlled to re-
duce the power capture (ARWS operation).
Because the power capture is a function of the cube of the
wind velocity, incorrect switching between control strategies
may produce overloading or reduced power capture. In [9] and
[10], a hysteresis band of only 2% of the nominal speed is used
to switch between ARWS/BRWS control.
Therefore, an accurate estimation of the rotational speed is
necessary in this application.
3) Incorrect Operation for Other Control Systems: There
are other control schemes which require an accurate rotational
speed signal. For instance in [17], the speed is used to estimate
199
the wind velocity for ARWS operation. In [18], a wind speed
observer is proposed for BRWS control, and in [19], a torque
observer is presented for BRWS operation.
Therefore, it is important to have accurate speed estimation
for ARWS/BRWS operation. In Section V, a novel method for
obtaining the speed from the RSH is discussed. This method
can be used to tune the MRAS observer and compensate for
parameter variations
IV. SPEED ESTIMATION USING ROTOR SLOT HARMONICS
In a squirrel cage induction machine, the rotor slots produce
airgap permeance waves with a spatial distribution dependent
on the number of slots in the machine [7], [8]. The rotor slots
interact with the magnetizing component of the airgap MMF,
generating harmonics that are dependent on the machine rota-
tional speed. The frequencies of the rotor slot harmonics are de-
fined from the following equation:
(12)
where is the slip frequency and is an integer. In this
application, only the first-order RSH is used. In Fig. 5,
the RSH and PWM harmonics obtained experimentally for
600 r/min, 30% of full load are shown.
A. Tracking of the RSH
There are several methods which can be used to estimate the
position of the RSH. The fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) and the
interpolated FFT [20] can yield very accurate speed estimates
but rely on long record lengths and cannot be used to track fast
speed changes. There is also a high computational burden asso-
ciated with a FFT with good resolution.
In this paper, the RSH are tracked using a recursive maximum
likelihood adaptive tracking filter (RML-ATF) [8], [21]. Based
on the principle of maximum likelihood estimation [21], the
method uses an adaptive notch filter that is adaptively moved
to minimize or eliminate a particular RSH. The filter is realized
by [21]
(13)
200 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 19, NO. 1, MARCH 2004

Fig. 5. RSH obtained from the experimental rig.

where is the filter input, is the filter output, and ,

are parameters updated recursively. The notch frequency is ob-
tained as Fig. 6. Control system proposed for the tracking of the RSH.

cos (14) where and determine the rate at which the forgetting factor
and the notch width converge toward the final values , .A
The bandwidth of the notch filter is related to as computer model is used to select the initial values of the forget-
ting factor, as well as , , using experimental line current
(15) data. This model also tests the performance of the RML-ATF al-
gorithm for fast dynamic transients and steady-state operation.
Therefore, if the bandwidth is infinitely narrow. If The adaptive RML-AT notch filter is fully explained in [8]
is reduced, the bandwidth is increased. The adaptive notch and [21]. This filter is computationally efficient because 13 mul-
is tuned to eliminate the largest sinusoidal component in the tiplications, 14 additions, and 1 division are required for iter-
input signal. To achieve this, the parameter is adapted by a ation. The implementation of the RML-ATF algorithm takes
recursive maximum likelihood (RML) algorithm through which 30 in the experimental rig described in Section VI. The con-
vergence of the filter is also fast because the notch frequency
is established in few iterations, provided the RSH is clearly the
(16) largest signal.
In Fig. 6, the implementation of the proposed RSH tracking
is minimized. The parameter is the forgetting factor. The full scheme, for the sensorless control system of Fig. 1, is shown.
algorithm implemented in the microprocessor is From the voltage model, the electrical angle and the electrical
frequency is obtained. A second-order filter, not shown in
(17) Fig. 6, is used to eliminate the noise from A fourth-order
high-pass filter eliminates the fundamental and the low-order
The residual prediction error is given by harmonics from the current.
Because the induction machine used in the experimental pro-
(18) totype has 14 rotor slots per pole pair, from (12), the upper
limit for the position of the first-order RSH is (consid-
The error covariance is
ering ). The lower limit is obtained assuming opera-
tion at nominal slip and considering that it is unlikely to operate
(19)
the machine below 250 r/min (because of the BRWS operating
range of a typical wind turbine, for example, [17]).
The parameter estimate is Considering the lower limit for the position of the first-order
RSH, the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter is set to .
(20)
With this cutoff frequency, the fundamental and low-order har-
the prediction error update is obtained solving the difference monics are eliminated from the current without attenuating the
equation of (13) RSH tracked by the RML-ATF algorithm.
After the high-pass filter, a band-pass filter is used to isolate
(21) the first-order RSH. The center frequency of this filter is calcu-
lated considering the electrical frequency and an estimation of
the forgetting factor and the notch width are updated ac- the slip frequency derived from . The band-pass area of this
cording to filter must be narrow to avoid harmonics produced by the PWM
but wide enough to avoid filtering the tracked RSH when, be-
cause of parameter variations, the slip frequency is incorrectly
(22) estimated. Finally, in Fig. 6, the RML-ATF is used to obtain the
CÁRDENAS AND PEÑA: SENSORLESS VECTOR CONTROL OF INDUCTION MACHINES 201

frequency of the RSH through a lookup table implementation of

(14). The speed estimation is obtained from (12).
To obtain a speed estimation with high accuracy and low-
noise contents, the forgetting factor and the notch width
must converge to near unity values. However, because of the
narrow bandwidth and reduced weighting given to past values,
the dynamic response of the RML-ATF is rather poor when
and are close to unity values. In order to improve the dynamic
response of the RML-ATF, a slope detector has been included in
the RSH tracking control system. When a transient is detected,
the parameters and are reduced, increasing the notch filter
bandwidth and reducing the weight given to past samples. A
simple algorithm is implemented to reset the forgetting factor
and the notch bandwidth to their initial values when is
above a given threshold.

B. Tuning of the Parameters Using RSH Tracking

In WECS, the generator is not required to operate at very low
rotational speeds. Therefore, most of the problems related with
the use of a MRAS observer in the low-speed range are avoided
because the fundamental voltage applied to the machine is rela-
tively large and the small voltage drop produced in the stator re-
sistance is negligible. Unless the stator resistance is really over-
estimated, the stability of the system is not compromised [6].
Therefore, tuning of the stator resistance is not considered in
this work. Also because the induction machine is operating at
fixed flux, tuning of the machine inductances is not necessary.
For this application, the parameter (or ) is the most
important factor to determine the accuracy of the speed esti-
mate. In order to implement a tuning algorithm, the following
relationship between the real and estimated slip frequencies
is used:
(23)
Assuming that , and are measured or estimated
without error, the following equation is obtained:
(24)
From (24), using and yield
(25)
Therefore, it is possible to reduce the speed error to zero by
correcting the rotor time constant and forcing to zero
[6], [20]. Fig. 1 shows the control system for parameter tuning
with the speed obtained from the RSH (i.e., ).
A PI controller is used to regulate the time constant . This
controller processes the error between the speed estimated from
the MRAS observer and . The output is which is added
to to drive the estimation of the rotor time constant to the
correct value.
The tuning algorithm is switched off for fast speed changes
to avoid the relatively large speed errors produced at the output
Fig. 7. Supply-side converter control schematic.
of the RML-AT filter (in practice, this does not take place very
often because of the large inertia of WECS). Due to the reduced
slip at light load, small errors in the estimated speed may pro-
duce a large variation in the estimated rotor time constant [see
(25)]. To avoid this, the tuning algorithm is also switched off
when the current is small.
V. CONTROL OF THE FRONT-END CONVERTER
The aim of the boost-type PWM converter is to regulate
the dc link voltage supplying the energy generated from
the WECS into the grid. Furthermore, the use of vector-con-
trol techniques allows to control the ac currents with high
bandwidth. In this application, the reference frame is oriented
along the supply voltage rotating vector. Therefore, the power
supplied into the grid is controlled using the direct current. The
reactive power is controlled using the quadrature current.
For this application, the system shown in Fig. 7 is proposed
[22] for the control of the front-end converter. A fuzzy logic
controller is used because the transfer function between the dc
link voltage and the current is nonlinear and because the gen-
erating condition is unknown and varies with the wind speed in
a wide range.
The fuzzy controller is augmented by a feedforward compen-
sation term that relates the current with the current sup-
plied from the WECS or from other generation sources or loads
connected to the dc link capacitors. The feedforward compen-
sation term is calculated from the power balance between the
dc link side and the front-end converter output. The relationship
between and is
(26)
where is the grid voltage and arises from the 2–3 axes
scaling. To further discuss the control of the front-end converter
is beyond the scope of this paper and more information can be
found in [22].
202 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 19, NO. 1, MARCH 2004

Fig. 8. Experimental system.

VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A 2.5-kW, 380-V, 50-Hz, four-pole cage induction machine
is utilized in the experimental prototype. The machine parame-
ters are given in the Appendix. Two 5-kW commercial inverters
with a 1-kHz switching frequency are used. The supply-side
converter is connected to the grid via three 12-mH single-phase
inductors. The dc link voltage is regulated to 550 V. A speed en-
coder of 10 000 ppr is used to calculate the system speed. This
speed is not used in the control algorithms and it is only used
for comparison purposes and the emulation of the wind turbine.
In the machine side, two line currents and two line voltages are Fig. 9. Wind profile used in the experimental rig.
measured. Also, in the front-end converter, two line currents and
two line voltages are measured together with the dc link voltage
and the current . The experimental rig is shown in Fig. 8.
The generator is driven by a speed-controlled dc motor drive
that emulates a wind turbine. The speed is calculated
in each sampling time from (7) and sent to the dc machine con-
trol system which regulates the shaft speed. A lookup table is
used to store the characteristic in the microprocessor.
Additional lookup tables are used to implement (14), the abc
to transformations, the calculation of the electrical angle ,
etc.
The control strategies proposed in this paper have been tested Fig. 10. System response to a wind step between 6 to 9 m/s.
with several wind profiles (obtained from [23]) and similar re-
sults have been achieved. Fig. 9 shows a typical wind profile bine of kgm is emulated. A wind step
with a 0.1-s sampling time for the wind velocity. The results in is not very realistic but it is the most drastic change from the
this section have been obtained using this profile. The perfor- control system point of view. In Fig. 10, the rotor time constant
mance of the RML-ATF algorithm has been investigated emu- is correctly estimated and the estimated speeds from the MRAS
lating wind turbines of different inertia, friction coefficient, and observer and RML-ATF algorithm are very good with a negli-
compliance. The most challenging test for the RML-ATF algo- gible tracking e
rithm is the emulation of wind turbines with stiff shaft because Fig. 11 shows the performance of the MRAS and RML-ATF
in this case the shaft is not absorbing part of the speed fluctua- algorithm when a wind turbine of kgm is emulated. In
tions. For this reason, only the emulation of wind turbines with this test, the rotor time constant is underestimated by 50% and
stiff shafts is considered in this paper. The torque current is the tuning algorithm is off.
controlled according to (6). The top graphic in Fig. 11 shows the speed obtained from the
The response of the MRAS observer and RML-ATF is shown encoder, MRAS and RML-ATF for the whole wind profile. The
in Fig. 10 for a wind step between 6 to 9 m/s when a wind tur- speed is tracked by the RML-ATF with a negligible error during
CÁRDENAS AND PEÑA: SENSORLESS VECTOR CONTROL OF INDUCTION MACHINES
Fig. 11. Sensorless control using an untuned MRAS observer.
Fig. 12. Sensorless control using the tuning control system.
the whole wind profile. The MRAS observer tracks the real
speed with a relatively large error. The bottom graphic in Fig. 11
shows the speeds during 40 s ( to 60 s). Note that the
real speed is closely tracked by the estimation obtained from
the RSH.
Fig. 12 shows the performance of the control system when the
tuning algorithm is on. In this case, the MRAS observer and the
RML-ATF are tracking the real speed during the whole wind
profile with very small error. The error between the estimated
speed from the MRAS observer and the real speed from the
encoder is almost negligible.
Fig. 13 shows the speed tracking error corresponding to
Fig. 12. The top graphic in Fig. 13 shows the tracking error
of the RML-ATF algorithm and the bottom graphic shows the
tracking error of the MRAS observer when the tuning of the
rotor time constant is on.
Fig. 13 shows that the error of the RML-ATF algorithm is
approximately r/min with some peaks of up to 7 r/min.
The corresponding tracking error of the MRAS observer is
203
Fig. 13. Speed estimation errors.
Fig. 14. Control system response of the parameter-tuning algorithm.
r/min. The tracking error of the MRAS is smaller than the error
from the RML-ATF because the tuning algorithm has a reduced
bandwidth, which eliminates the fast and noisy variations at the
output of the RML-ATF, and also because the tuning algorithm
is switched off when fast dynamic changes are detected.
Fig. 14 shows the performance of the parameter-tuning algo-
rithm. In , the algorithm is activated and the speed from
the MRAS observer is driven to the real speed. After 2 s, the
speed error is negligible. The system is operating with a wind
speed of m/s.
The performance of the RML-ATF algorithm and MRAS ob-
server for wind turbines of different inertia is shown in Table I.
Using the wind profile of Fig. 9, wind turbines of ,
1.75, and 3 kgm are emulated and the error of the MRAS and
RML-ATF estimations are obtained. Table I shows the average
value of the error and the standard deviation of the error .
204 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 19, NO. 1, MARCH 2004

Fig. 15. Control system response of the RML-ATF for several inertia values.

TABLE I
SPEED ERRORS FOR MRAS AND RML-ATF

Fig. 16. Front-end converter i current and dc link voltage.

For all of the wind turbines emulated in this work, the value of
is smaller for the MRAS error than that from the RML-ATF.
As mentioned previously, this is mainly because the small
bandwidth of the parameter-tuning algorithm eliminates the
high-frequency components of the RML-ATF. When the turbine
inertia is increased, the speed tracking errors from the MRAS
observer and RML-ATF algorithm are reduced. For inertia
values higher than 3 kgm the improvement in performance
is negligible. Fig. 15 shows the real speed and the speed
obtained from the RML-ATF algorithm, when the wind profile
is used. Curves a,b,c correspond to inertia values of 0.9 kgm ,
1.75 kgm , and 3 kgm , respectively. The tracking of the
RML-ATF algorithm is very good even for a small inertia of Fig. 17. Voltage and current waveforms for the supply side.
0.9 kgm .
The top graphic in Fig. 16 shows the current of
using a MRAS observer to estimate the rotational speed of the
the front-end converter when the wind profile is used
induction generator. In the sensorless system, the application
kgm . The bottom graphic of Fig. 16 shows the cor-
of a novel RML adaptive tracking filter for the estimation of
responding dc link voltage. Despite the large and relatively fast
the RSH has been discussed. The dynamic performance of
variations in the wind speed with its corresponding variation in
this adaptive filter is very good and can be used to obtain an
the generated power, the dc link voltage varies less than V
accurate estimation of the rotational speed not only in steady
for the whole wind profile.
state but also when fast input changes as wind steps are applied
Finally, Fig. 17 shows the waveform for the line current ,
to the WECS.
the equivalent phase voltage and the dc link voltage for
Using the speed estimated from the RML-ATF algorithm, a
the supply side of the front-end converter when the WECS is
parameter tuning control system has been implemented to im-
in steady state. The system operates at the optimum tip-speed
prove the accuracy of the MRAS observer. When the tuning
ratio with a wind velocity of 8 m/s with the front-end converter
of the rotor time constant is enabled, the MRAS observer can
current set to zero for close-to-unity power factor operation.
track the speed of the wind turbine with an error of less than
r/min for the whole speed range. The experimental results
VII. CONCLUSION show that the RML-ATF algorithm could be used to tune the
This paper has presented a new sensorless vector-control rotor time constant not only during steady state but also during
strategy for an induction generator in a variable-speed WECS speed transients.
CÁRDENAS AND PEÑA: SENSORLESS VECTOR CONTROL OF INDUCTION MACHINES
Experimental results have been obtained using a wind turbine
emulator and an induction machine of 2.5 kW. A novel method
for the emulation of high-order wind turbine models has been
implemented. This emulation strategy has been used to emulate
wind turbines with inertias between 0.9 kgm and 3 kgm . Even
with inertias as low as 0.9 kgm , the performance of the pro-
posed sensorless control scheme is very good and the tracking
of the RML-ATF is accurate.
For the control of the front-end converter, an improved con-
trol structure is used. An improvement in regulation is achieved
using feedforward mapping of the net dc-link disturbance
current with the direct axis (real power) current component
of the power converter. The experimental results have also
shown the excellent performance achieved with the proposed
front-end converter control strategy.
APPENDIX
1) Induction Machine: (rated) 1450 r/min, (rated)
1.8 A, , , , of variable speed wind turbines operating below rated wind speed,” Wind
, , . Eng., vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 258–285, 1996.
2) Wind Turbine Emulation: m, , [20] R. Blasco-Giménez, G. M. Asher, M. Sumner, and K. J. Bradley, “Per-
Gear-box ratio 2.12, , ,
kgm , wind turbine emulated using a dc machine of
1500 r/min, 6.5 kW.
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Roberto Cárdenas (S’95–M’97) was born in Punta Arenas, Chile. He received
the electrical engineering degree from the University of Magallanes, Punta
Arenas, Chile, in 1988, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University
of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., in 1992 and 1996, respectively.
Currently, he is with the Electrical Engineering Department at the University
of Magallanes. From 1989 to 1991, he was a Lecturer at the University of Ma-
gallanes. His research interests include control of electrical machines for wind
energy applications and variable-speed drives.
Rubén Peña (S’95–M’97) was born in Coronel, Chile. He received the electrical
engineering degree from the University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile, in
1984, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Nottingham, Not-
tingham, U.K., in 1992 and 1996, respectively.
Currently, he is with the Electrical Engineering Department at the University
of Magallanes, Chile, where he was a Lecturer from 1985 to 1991. His main
research interests are in control of power electronics converters, ac drives, and
renewable energy systems.