Wind turbines controllers design based on the super-twisting algorithm

The continuous increase in the size of wind turbines (WTs) has led to new challenges in the design of novel torque and pitch controllers. Today’s WT control design must fulfill numerous specifications to assure effective electrical energy production and to hold the tower vibrations inside acceptable levels of operation. Hence, this paper presents modern torque and pitch control developments based on the super-twisting algorithm (STA) by using feedback of the fore- aft and side-to-side acceleration signals of the WT tower. According to numerical experiments realized using FAST, these controllers mitigate vibrations in the tower without affecting the quality of electrical power production. Moreover, the proposed controllers’ performance is better than the baseline controllers used for comparison.Postprint (author's final draft

Effects of POD control on a DFIG wind turbine structural system

This paper investigates the effects power oscillation damping (POD) controller could have on a wind turbine structural system. Most of the published work in this area has been done using relatively simple aerodynamic and structural models of a wind turbine which cannot be used to investigate the detailed interactions between electrical and mechanical components of the wind turbine. Therefore, a detailed model that combines electrical, structural and aerodynamic characteristics of a grid-connected Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based wind turbine has been developed by adapting the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5MW wind turbine model within FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) code. This detailed model is used to evaluate the effects of POD controller on the wind turbine system. The results appear to indicate that the effects of POD control on the WT structural system are comparable or less significant as those caused by wind speed variations. Furthermore, the results also reveal that the effects of a transient three-phase short circuit fault on the WT structural system are much larger than those caused by the POD controller

Nonlinear Dual-Mode Control of Variable-Speed Wind Turbines with Doubly Fed Induction Generators

This paper presents a feedback/feedforward nonlinear controller for variable-speed wind turbines with doubly fed induction generators. By appropriately adjusting the rotor voltages and the blade pitch angle, the controller simultaneously enables: (a) control of the active power in both the maximum power tracking and power regulation modes, (b) seamless switching between the two modes, and (c) control of the reactive power so that a desirable power factor is maintained. Unlike many existing designs, the controller is developed based on original, nonlinear, electromechanically-coupled models of wind turbines, without attempting approximate linearization. Its development consists of three steps: (i) employ feedback linearization to exactly cancel some of the nonlinearities and perform arbitrary pole placement, (ii) design a speed controller that makes the rotor angular velocity track a desired reference whenever possible, and (iii) introduce a Lyapunov-like function and present a gradient-based approach for minimizing this function. The effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated through simulation of a wind turbine operating under several scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technolog

Super-twisting sliding mode control for brushless doubly fed reluctance generator based on wind energy conversion system

Introduction. Recently, wind power generation has grown at an alarming rate in the past decade and will continue to do so as power electronic technology continues to advance. Purpose. Super-twisting sliding mode control for brushless doubly-fed reluctance generator based on wind energy conversion system. Methods. This paper deals with the robust power control of a grid-connected brushless doubly-fed reluctance generator driven by the variable speed wind turbine using a variable structure control theory called sliding mode control. The traditional sliding mode approach produces an unpleasant chattering phenomenon that could harm the system. To eliminate chattering, it is necessary to employ a high-order sliding mode controller. The super-twisting algorithm is one type of nonlinear control presented in order to ensure the effectiveness of the control structure we tested these controllers in two different ways reference tracking, and robustness. Results. Simulation results using MATLAB/Simulink have demonstrated the effectiveness and robustness of the super-twisting sliding mode controller.Вступ. В останнє десятиліття виробництво вітрової енергії зростало загрозливими темпами і продовжуватиме зростати у міру розвитку технологій силової електроніки. Мета. Управління ковзним режимом суперскручування для реактивного безщіткового генератора з подвійним живленням на основі системи перетворення енергії вітру. Методи. У цій статті розглядається надійне керування потужністю підключеного до мережі безщіткового реактивного генератора з подвійним живленням, що приводиться в дію вітряною турбіною зі змінною швидкістю, з використанням теорії управління зі змінною структурою, яка називається керуванням в ковзному режимі. Традиційний підхід зі ковзним режимом створює неприємне явище вібрації, що може зашкодити системі. Для усунення вібрації необхідно використовувати регулятор ковзного режиму високого порядку. Алгоритм суперскручування - це один із типів нелінійного управління, представлений для забезпечення ефективності структури управління. Ми протестували ці контролери двома різними способами: відстеженням посилань та надійністю. Результати моделювання з використанням MATLAB/Simulink продемонстрували ефективність та надійність контролера ковзного режиму суперскручування

A dual-statorwinding induction generator based wind-turbine controlled via super-twisting sliding mode

The dual-stator winding induction generator (DWIG) is a promising electrical machine for wind energy conversion systems, especially in the low/mid power range. Based on previous successful results utilising feed forward control, in this article, a super-twisting (ST) sliding mode improved control set-up is developed to maximise power extraction during low wind regimes. To accomplish this objective, via constant volts/hertz implementation, a ST controller was designed to command the DWIG control winding, such that the tip-speed ratio is robustly maintained at its optimal value. The proposed super-twisting control set-up was experimentally assessed to analyse its performance and to verify its efficiency in an actual generation test bench. The results showed a fast convergence to maximum power operation, avoiding chattering and offsets due to model uncertainties.Fil: Talpone, Juan Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Electrónica, Control y Procesamiento de Señales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Electrónica, Control y Procesamiento de Señales; Argentina. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Puleston, Pablo Federico. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Electrónica, Control y Procesamiento de Señales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Electrónica, Control y Procesamiento de Señales; ArgentinaFil: Cendoya, Marcelo Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Electrónica, Control y Procesamiento de Señales. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones en Electrónica, Control y Procesamiento de Señales; ArgentinaFil: Barrado Rodrigo, José Antonio. Universitat Rovira I Virgili; Españ

Fault tolerant control design of floating offshore wind turbines

This work is concerned with active vibration mitigation in wind turbines (WT) but not through the use of specifically tailored devices. Instead, a general control scheme is designed for torque and pitch controllers based on a super-twisting algorithm, which uses additional feedback of the fore-aft and side-to-side acceleration signals at the top of the WT tower to mitigate the vibrational behavior. In general, proposed methods to improve damping through pitch and torque control suffer from increased blade pitch actuator usage. However, in this work the blade pitch angle is smoothed leading to a decrease of the pitch actuator effort, among other benefits evidenced through numerical experiments. The most frequent faults induce vibrations in the corresponding WT subsystems. In fact, vibration monitoring has been recently used for fault diagnosis Thus, by means of vibration mitigation, different faulty conditions can be alleviated leading to a passive fault tolerant control. In this work, coupled non-linear aero-hydro- servo-elastic simulations of a floating offshore wind turbine are carried out for one of the most common pitch actuator faults.Postprint (published version

Dc Line-Interactive Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with Load Leveling for Constant Power and Pulse Loads

Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) systems are usually considered as a backup power for electrical systems, providing emergency power when the main power source fails. UPS systems ensure an uninterruptible, reliable and high quality electrical power for systems with critical loads in which a continuous and reliable power supply is a vital requirement. A novel UPS system topology, DC line-interactive UPS, has been introduced. The new proposed UPS system is based on the DC concept where the power flow in the system has DC characteristic. The new DC UPS system has several advantageous with respect to the on-line 3-phase UPS which is extensively used in industry, such as lower size, cost and weight due to replacing the three-phase dual converter in the on-line UPS system with a single stage single phase DC/DC converter and thus higher efficiency is expected. The proposed system will also provide load leveling feature for the main AC/DC rectifier which has not been offered by conventional AC UPS systems. It applies load power smoothing to reduce the rating of the incoming AC line and consequently reduce the installation cost and time. Moreover, the new UPS technology improves the medical imaging system up-time, reliability, efficiency, and cost, and is applicable to several imaging modalities such as CT, MR and X-ray as well. A comprehensive investigation on different energy storage systems was conducted and couple of most promising Li-ion cell chemistries, LFP and NCA types, were chosen for further aggressive tests. A battery pack based on the LFP cells with monitoring system was developed to be used with the DC UPS testbed. The performance of the DC UPS has also been investigated. The mathematical models of the system are extracted while loaded with constant power load (CPL) and constant voltage load (CVL) during all four modes of operation. Transfer functions of required outputs versus inputs were extracted and their related stability region based on the Routh-Hurwitz stability criteria were found. The AC/DC rectifier was controlled independently due to the system configuration. Two different control techniques were proposed to control the DC/DC converter. A linear dual-loop control (DLC) scheme and a nonlinear robust control, a constant frequency sliding mode control (CFSMC) were investigated. The DLC performance was convincing, however the controller has a limited stability region due to the linearization process and negative incremental impedance characteristics of the CPL which challenges the stability of the system. A constant switching frequency SMC was also developed based on the DC UPS system and the performance of the system were presented during different operational modes. Transients during mode transfers were simulated and results were depicted. The controller performances met the control goals of the system. The voltage drop during mode transitions, was less than 2% of the rated output voltage. Finally, the experimental results were presented. The high current discharge tests on each selected Li-ion cell were performed and results presented. A testbed was developed to verify the DC UPS system concept. The test results were presented and verified the proposed concept

A Robust Control Approach for Frequency Support Capability of Grid-Tie Photovoltaic Systems

© 2022 by ASME. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4055099Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is growing rapidly around the world. However, unlike conventional synchronous generators, PV systems do not have any rotating masses to deliver inertia to support the grid frequency. The paper presents a detailed modeling of a new converter configuration and control scheme to enable PV systems to adjust the real power output and contribute to the grid frequency regulation. The proposed topology consists of a two-stage converter without an energy storage system. A DC–DC buck converter is used instead of a DC–DC boost converter, and this simplifies the control scheme which aims to keep the PV generator power in the right side of the P–V characteristic and can be varied in the range from near-zero to the maximum power. The proposed control scheme combines robust and nonlinear sliding mode theory with fuzzy logic. The PV system is connected to a low inertia microgrid and its ability to contribute to frequency regulation is assessed for different controls. The proposed converter and its control are validated experimentally on a 3-kW PV system using OPAL-RT real-time simulator and tested under varying temperature, solar irradiance, and partial shading conditions. The results show that with the proposed circuit, the operating point is always on the right side of the P–V characteristic irrespective of the operating mode. Furthermore, the proposed control scheme provides PV generators with a fast and effective inertial response to support the grid and enhance its stability during contingencies.Peer reviewe