Optimizing the Dynamic Performance of a Wind Driven Standalone DFIG Using an Advanced Control Algorithm

The article seeks to improve the dynamic performance of a standalone doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) which driven by a wind turbine, with the help of an effective control approach. The superiority of the designed predictive controller can be confirmed through evaluating the performance of the DFIG under other control algorithm, which is the model predictive direct torque control (MPDTC), model predictive current control (MPCC) as classic types of control. Firstly, the operating principles of the two controllers are described in details. After that, a comprehensive comparison is performed among the dynamic performances of the designed MPDTC, MPCC techniques and the predictive control strategy, so we can easily present the merits and deficiencies of each control scheme to be able to easily select the most appropriate algorithm to be utilized with the DFIG. The comparison is carried out in terms of system simplicity, dynamic response, ripples’ content, number of performed commutations and total harmonic distortion (THD). The results of the comparison prove the effectiveness and validation of our proposed predictive controller; as it achieves the system simplicity, its dynamic response is faster than that of MPDTC and MPCC, it presents a lower content of ripples compared to MPDTC and MPCC. Moreover, it can minimize the computational burden, remarkably. Furthermore, the numerical results are showing a marked reduction in the THD with a percentage of 2.23 % compared to MPDTC and 1.8 % compared to MPCC. For these reasons, it can be said that the formulated controller is the most convenient to be used with the DFIG to achieve the best dynamic performance

PV/Wind Hybrid Energy System, Modeling and Simulation at variable weather conditions

This paper presents a modeling and simulation of a grid-connected wind / PV hybrid power system under variable weather conditions. This system includes a wind turbine system, a PV system that shares a DC bus, and no battery. The paper contains an overview of the hybrid system and some previous studies; it presents a brief overview of each component used for this system. Signal distortion remains the great obstacle when connecting to the grid, so the system architecture and its proposed control are also introduced to reduce the distortion of electrical signals to an acceptable value. A simulation of the system’s operation with specific weather conditions in three different modes was performed using the MATLAB Simulink to describe the effect of these weather conditions on the production of electrical energy. Simulation results show how these weather conditions affect the operation of this hybrid system. An acceptable distortion value of the produced current signals has also been reached. These results present an evaluation of the dynamic performance of this system under the proposed working conditions. It also shows the energy exchange with the grid

Contribution to the Control of Doubly Fed Induction Machine DFIM

-IIAbstract Currently, doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs) are widely used for wind turbines. Compared to other variable-speed generators; the main advantage of the DFIG is that the power electronic devices must deal with only about a third of the generator power, compared to full power converters used in synchronous generators . This difference reduces the costs and losses in the power electronic components, rather than other solutions, such as fully converting systems; finally, the overall efficiency is improved. Furthermore, among all the induction generator configurations for generation systems the use of (DFIG) configuration with back to back pulse width modulated voltage source converters (VSC) is one of the best topologies available and it is suitable for both grid connected systems as well as standalone systems. Here only stand-alone application of DFIG is considered. In this thesis, mathematical modelling of doubly fed induction machine is presented. Two control approaches are proposed to improve the control of the rotor side converter which give the best solution to overcome the drawbacks of the recent control methods and provide a high performance stator- voltage magnitude and frequency regulation for all possible operation scenarios (voltage magnitude, load, and rotor speed variations). Various aspects of standalone DFIG generation system such as stator-voltage magnitude and frequency regulation, computational requirement minimization, sensors number reduction, from rotor side converter control is carried out. All proposed control methods have been verified in both simulation and 3 kW DFIG laboratory experimental bench

Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines with Doubly Fed Asynchronous Generators for Stand-Alone Applications

This paper addresses the design and implementation of a novel control of a variable speed wind turbine with doubly fed induction generator for stand-alone applications. In opposition to grid-tied applications, in stand-alone systems the voltage and frequency must be generated by the doubly fed induction generator. Therefore, a voltage and frequency controller is required for supplying the load at constant voltage and frequency. This controller is implemented by orientation of the generator stator flux vector along a synchronous reference axis. In this way, constant voltage and frequency is obtained and the generator will supply the active and reactive power demanded by the load, while the wind turbine will be responsible for achieving power balance in the system. Then, power control is assumed by the pitch actuator controlling the rotational speed of the wind turbine for power balancing. A load shedding mechanism is needed if the load power exceeds the maximum available wind power. Detailed simulation results are presented and discussed to demonstrate the capabilities and contributions of the proposed control scheme.This work has been supported by the I+D program for Research Groups of the Autonomous Community of Madrid under ref. S2013/ICE-2933.PublicadoPublicad

Robust control techniques for DFIG driven WECS with improved efficiency

Wind energy has emerged as one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources since mid-80‘s due to its low cost and environmentally friendly nature compared to conventional fossil fuel based power generation. Current technologies for the design and implementation of wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) include induction generator and synchronous generator based units. The doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is chosen in this thesis because of its economic operation, ability to regulate in sub-synchronous or super-synchronous speed and decoupled control of active and reactive powers. Among the major challenges of wind energy conversion system, extraction of maximum power from intermittent generation and supervision on nonlinear system dynamics of DFIG-WECS are of critical importance. Maximization of the power produced by wind turbine is possible by optimizing tip-speed ratio (TSR), turbine rotor speed or torque and blade angle. The literature reports that a vast number of investigations have been conducted on the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of wind turbines. Among the reported MPPT control algorithms, the hill climb search (HCS) method is typically preferred because of its simple implementation and turbine parameter-independent scheme. Since the conventional HCS algorithm has few drawbacks such as power fluctuation and speed-efficiency trade-off, a new adaptive step size based HCS controller is developed in this thesis to mitigate its deficiencies by incorporating wind speed measurement in the controller. In addition, a common practice of using linear state-feedback controllers is prevalent in speed and current control of DFIG-based WECS. Traditional feedback linearization controllers are sensitive to system parameter variations and disturbances on grid-connected WECS, which demands advanced control techniques for stable and efficient performance considering the nonlinear system dynamics. An adaptive backstepping based nonlinear control (ABNC) scheme with iron-loss minimization algorithm for RSC control of DFIG is developed in this research work to obtain improved dynamic performance and reduced power loss. The performance of the proposed controller is tested and compared with the benchmark tuned proportional-integral (PI) controller under different operating conditions including variable wind speed, grid voltage disturbance and parameter uncertainties. Test results demonstrate that the proposed method exhibits excellent performance on the rotor side and grid side converter control. In addition, the compliance with the modern grid-code requirements is achieved by featuring a novel controller with disturbance rejection mechanism. In order to reduce the dependency on system‘s mathematical model, a low computational adaptive network fuzzy interference system (ANFIS) based neuro-fuzzy logic controller (NFC) scheme is developed for DFIG based WECS. The performance of the proposed NFC based DFIG-WECS is tested in simulation to regulate both grid and rotor side converters under normal and voltage dip conditions. Furthermore, a new optimization technique known as grey wolf optimization (GWO) is also designed to regulate the battery power for DFIG driven wind energy system operating in standalone mode. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes, simulation models are designed using Matlab/Simulink. The proposed model for MPPT and nonlinear control of grid-connected mode and GWO based power control of standalone DFIG-WECS has been successfully implemented in the real-time environment using DSP controller board DS1104 for a laboratory 480 VA DFIG. The comparison among different controllers suggests that each control technique has its own specialty in wind power control application with specific merits and shortcomings. However, the PI controller provides fast convergence, the ANFIS based NFC controller has better adaptability under grid disturbances and ABNC has moderate performance. Overall, the thesis provides a detailed overview of different robust control techniques for DFIG driven WECS in grid-connected and standalone operation mode with practical implementation

A new configuration of dual stator induction generator employing series and shunt capacitors

Doubly-fed induction generators are suitable for systems having limited speed range as the overall control can be carried out by fractionally-rated converters. However, brushes and slip-rings used in these generators reduce system reliability and demand greater maintenance. Dual stator winding induction generator(DSWIG), being brushless, removes this limitation. Two distributed windings are embedded in the stator and the rotor is squirrel-cage. One of the windings is interfaced to an uncontrolled rectifier and the other to a fractionally rated PWM converter. Uncontrolled rectifier degrades the power quality within the generation system. At the same time, reactive power demand in induction generators increases with loading. This work deals with design and control of a standalone dc system based on DSWIG where a combination of passive tuned filter and series capacitor is utilised to address the voltage regulation and power quality issue. Simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink and experimental results (obtained from a laboratory prototype) have been presented, compared and discussed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed alternative