Control of doubly fed induction generators under balanced and unbalanced voltage conditions

The present chapter presents a control technique to deal with the control of doubly fed induction generators under different voltage disturbances. Certain current reference values are chosen in the positive and negative sequences so that the torque and theDCvoltage are kept stable during balanced and unbalanced conditions. Both rotor-side and grid-side converters are considered, detailing the control scheme of each converter while considering the effect of the crow-bar protection. The control strategy is validated by means of simulations.Postprint (published version

Investigations and Real-Time Testing of Variable Speed Wind Turbine Control during Grid Faults

The amount of wind turbines connected to electricity grid has increased significantly in recent years due to the increased awareness of the environmental impacts of fossil energy sources. The penetration of wind generation has increased in many areas significantly and the power system is becoming more dependent on the operation of wind turbines. The stable operation of the power system must not be endangered due to the connection of wind turbines. Therefore, the power system operators have created grid codes, which determine how the wind turbines should operate during the grid disturbances. For example, the wind turbines should be able to remain in operation during the disturbances in order to prevent cascade tripping of large number of wind turbines. In addition, the wind turbines should be designed to inject reactive power to the grid to support the decreased network voltage.In this thesis, the operation of variable-speed wind turbines during the grid disturbances is studied. The main focus is on the low voltage ride-through (LVRT) of the full-power converter and doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbine concepts. Real-time simulators are utilized extensively in the research. The main research areas of this thesis are the operation of wind turbine synchronization during the grid disturbances, the operation of DFIG during symmetrical voltage dips and the feasibility of the constructed real-time simulation environment as well as real-time-simulator-based laboratory test environment for LVRT studies.It is revealed that the synchronization of the control system has significant impact on the wind turbine performance under the grid disturbances. It is also shown that the incorrect synchronization design may cause the wind turbine to generate DC currents to the AC network during the symmetrical grid voltage dip. The real-time simulation environment, which consists of RTDS and dSPACE real-time simulators, is constructed and its operation is verified against respective simulations carried out with Matlab/Simulink. The environment is used to represent how the reactive power injection of DFIG during the symmetrical voltage dip can be enhanced by using a transient flux compensation control. In addition, it is pointed out that the voltage recovery after the grid fault may be significantly delayed due to the connection of a low-resistance crowbar protection device. Finally, the laboratory test setup consisting of a small-scale wind turbine prototype and RTDS-controlled grid emulator is constructed. The performance of the laboratory setup is analyzed in time and frequency domains and the main performance limitations are revealed

Control System Design, Analysis, and Simulation of a Photovoltaic Inverter for Unbalanced Load Compensation in a Microgrid

This thesis presents a control scheme for a single-stage three-phase Photovoltaic (PV) converter with negative sequence load current compensation. In this thesis a dual virtual impedance active damping technique for an LCL filter is proposed to address the issue of LCL filter resonance. Both inverter-side current and the capacitor current are used in the feedback loop. Using both signals provides higher DC rejection than using capacitor current alone. The proposed active damping scheme results in a faster transient response and higher damping ratio than can be obtained using inverter-side current alone. The feedback gains can be calculated to achieve a specified damping level. A method of determining the gains of the Proportional and Resonant current controller based on frequency response characteristics is presented. For a specified set of gain and phase margins, the controller gains can be calculated explicitly. Furthermore, a modification is proposed to prevent windup in the resonator. A numerically compensated Half-Cycle Discrete Fourier Transform (HCDFT) method is developed to calculate the negative sequence component of the load current. The numerical compensation allows the HCDFT to accurately estimate the fundamental component of the load current under off-nominal frequency conditions. The proposed HCDFT method is shown to have a quick settling time that is comparable to that obtained with conventional sequence compensation techniques as well as immunity to harmonics in the input signal. The effect of unbalance compensation on the PV power output depending on the irradiance and the operational region on the power-voltage curve is examined. Analysis of the DC link voltage ripple shows the region of operation on the P-V curve affects the amplitude of the DC link voltage ripple during negative sequence compensation. The proposed control scheme is validated by simulation in the Matlab/Simulink® environment. The proposed control scheme is tested in the presence of excessive current imbalance, unbalanced feeder impedances, and non-linear loads. The results have shown that the proposed control scheme can improve power quality in a hybrid PV-diesel microgrid by reducing both voltage and current imbalance while simultaneously converting real power from a PV array

Development of a system for testing grid-connected permanent magnet wind generators

Renewable energy will be included in the South African Energy Mix over the next two decades. The introduction of renewable energy will reduce South Africa's carbon emissions and also stimulate the economy through job creation as well as creating a local manufacturing sector. South Africa has a large coastal region which is ideal for wind energy deployment. The integration of wind power into the grid needs to be understood as well as the possible problems associated with it. The objective this thesis is to develop a laboratory-based system which can serve as a tool for studying non-ideal conditions associated with the integration of grid-connected Permanent Magnet (PM) wind generators

Control strategy for a grid-connected inverter under unbalanced network conditions—a disturbance observer-based decoupled current approach

Abstract: This paper proposes a new approach on the novel current control strategy for grid-tied voltage-source inverters (VSIs) with circumstances of asymmetrical voltage conditions. A standard grid-connected inverter (GCI) allows the degree of freedom to integrate the renewable energy system to enhance the penetration of total utility power. However, restrictive grid codes require that renewable sources connected to the grid must support stability of the grid under grid faults. Conventional synchronously rotating frame dq current controllers are insufficient under grid faults due to the low bandwidth of proportional-integral (PI) controllers. Hence, this work proposes a proportional current controller with a first-order low-pass filter disturbance observer (DOb). The proposed controller establishes independent control on positive, as well as negative, sequence current components under asymmetrical grid voltage conditions. The approach is independent of parametric component values, as it estimates nonlinear feed-forward terms with the low-pass filter DOb. A numerical simulation model of the overall power system was implemented in aMATLAB/Simulink (2014B, MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA). Further, particular results show that double-frequency active power oscillations are suppressed by injecting appropriate negative-sequence currents. Moreover, a set of simulation results provided in the article matches the developed theoretical background for its feasibility

Grid fault ride through for wind turbine doubly-fed induction generators

EngD ThesisWind farms must contribute to the stability and reliability of the transmission grid, if they are to form a robust component of the electrical network. This includes providing grid support during grid faults, or voltage dips. Transmission system grid codes require wind farms to remain connected during specified voltage dips, and to supply active and reactive power into the network. Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) technology is presently dominant in the growing global market for wind power generation, due to the combination of variable-speed operation and a cost-effective partially-rated power converter. However, the DFIG is sensitive to dips in supply voltage. Without specific protection to 'ride through' grid faults a DFIG risks damage to its power converter due to over-current and/or overvoltage. Conventional converter protection via a sustained period of rotor-crowbar closed-circuit leads to poor power output and sustained suppression of the stator voltages. This thesis presents a detailed understanding of wind turbine DFIG grid fault response, including flux linkage behaviour and magnetic drag effects. A flexible 7.5kW test facility is used to validate the description of fault response and evaluate techniques for improving fault ride-through performance. A minimum threshold rotor crowbar method is presented, successfully diverting transient over-currents and restoring good power control within 45ms of both fault initiation and clearance. Crowbar application periods were reduced to 11-16ms. A study of the maximum crowbar resistance suggests that this method can be used with high-power DFIG turbines. Alternatively, a DC-link brake method is shown to protect the power converter and quench the transient rotor currents, allowing control to be resumed; albeit requiring 100ms to restore good control. A VAr-support control scheme reveals a 14% stator voltage increase in fault tests: reducing the step-voltage impact at fault clearance and potentially assisting the fault response of other local equipment.EPSR

Performance comparisons of doubly-fed machines

This research project aims at evaluating a conversion system based on the emerging Brushless Doubly Fed Reluctance Machine (BDFRM) through a comparative experimental study with a traditional and well established slip-ring counterpart, the Doubly Fed Induction Machine (DFIM). One of the main objectives is to establish whether this alternative machine is worthy of industrial consideration in variable speed applications with limited speed ranges (e.g. wind turbines, pump-like drives etc.) in terms of control, reliability, efficiency and power factor performance as major criteria. Such kind of work has not been reported in the open-literature to date and represents the main contribution of the project being undertaken. A conventional and widely used parameter-independent vector control (VC) scheme has been selected for the operation of both the machines using a shaft-position sensor. The VC algorithm has been simulated and implemented in real-time on state-of-the-art eZdsp development platform based on the TMS320F28335 Digital Signal Controller (DSC). The control code has been derived from a programme written in C++ using the corresponding compiler, the Code Composer Studio (CCS). Comprehensive computer simulations have been done in Matlab/Simulink using the parameters obtained by off-line testing of the DFIM and BDFRM prototypes, which have been built in the same stator frame for comparison purposes. The simulation results have been experimentally verified on two identical test rigs where a commercial 4-quadrant cage induction machine V/f drive has been used as a prime mover or load for either the DFIM or the BDFRM subject to their operating mode. The preliminary experimental results on two small-scale prototypes have shown that the BDFRM can achieve competitive performance to the similarly rated DFIM and as such should warrant further investigation and increasing interests of both academic and industrial communities as a potential large-scale wind generator or a pump drive

Grid fault ride through for wind turbine doubly-fed induction generators

Wind farms must contribute to the stability and reliability of the transmission grid, if they are to form a robust component of the electrical network. This includes providing grid support during grid faults, or voltage dips. Transmission system grid codes require wind farms to remain connected during specified voltage dips, and to supply active and reactive power into the network. Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) technology is presently dominant in the growing global market for wind power generation, due to the combination of variable-speed operation and a cost-effective partially-rated power converter. However, the DFIG is sensitive to dips in supply voltage. Without specific protection to 'ride through' grid faults a DFIG risks damage to its power converter due to over-current and/or overvoltage. Conventional converter protection via a sustained period of rotor-crowbar closed-circuit leads to poor power output and sustained suppression of the stator voltages. This thesis presents a detailed understanding of wind turbine DFIG grid fault response, including flux linkage behaviour and magnetic drag effects. A flexible 7.5kW test facility is used to validate the description of fault response and evaluate techniques for improving fault ride-through performance. A minimum threshold rotor crowbar method is presented, successfully diverting transient over-currents and restoring good power control within 45ms of both fault initiation and clearance. Crowbar application periods were reduced to 11-16ms. A study of the maximum crowbar resistance suggests that this method can be used with high-power DFIG turbines. Alternatively, a DC-link brake method is shown to protect the power converter and quench the transient rotor currents, allowing control to be resumed; albeit requiring 100ms to restore good control. A VAr-support control scheme reveals a 14% stator voltage increase in fault tests: reducing the step-voltage impact at fault clearance and potentially assisting the fault response of other local equipment.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEPSRCGBUnited Kingdo