Emerging Multiport Electrical Machines and Systems: Past Developments, Current Challenges, and Future Prospects

Distinct from the conventional machines with only one electrical and one mechanical port, electrical machines featuring multiple electrical/mechanical ports (the so-called multiport electrical machines) provide a compact, flexible, and highly efficient manner to convert and/or transfer energies among different ports. This paper attempts to make a comprehensive overview of the existing multiport topologies, from fundamental characteristics to advanced modeling, analysis, and control, with particular emphasis on the extensively investigated brushless doubly fed machines for highly reliable wind turbines and power split devices for hybrid electric vehicles. A qualitative review approach is mainly adopted, but strong efforts are also made to quantitatively highlight the electromagnetic and control performance. Research challenges are identified, and future trends are discussed

An improved rotor speed observer for standalone brushless doubly-fed induction generator under unbalanced and nonlinear loads

The conventional control methods for brushless doubly-fed induction generator (BDFIG) normally employ mechanical sensors to acquire the information of rotor speed, which brings many disadvantages in the cost, complexity, reliability, and so on. This paper presents an improved rotor speed observer (RSO) for the sensorless operation of a standalone BDFIG, which is based on the power winding (PW) voltage and control winding (CW) current. In order to eliminate the impact of unbalanced and nonlinear loads on the RSO, second-order generalized integrators (SOGIs) and low-pass filters (LPFs) are introduced to pre-filter the PW voltage and CW current, respectively. Through comprehensive parameter design, the response speed of the improved RSO will be not lower than that of the basic RSO with ensuring the filtering effect of these additional filters. In addition, the proposed RSO is independent to machine parameters except the pole pairs. Comprehensive experiments are conducted and results verify the proposed improved RSO applied to the standalone BDFIG. Also, the applicability of the proposed RSO on another dual-electrical-port machine, DFIG, is confirmed by simulation results

Fractional kVA Rating PWM Converter Doubly Fed Variable Speed Electric Generator Systems:An Overview in 2020

Variable speed generator systems (VSGs) are at work in the now 600 GW installed wind power plants (parks). Also, they are used as vehicular and on ground stand-alone generators. VSGs imply full kVA rating PWM converters in permanent magnet (PM) or in electrically excited synchronous or in cage rotor inductance generators. But, to reduce cost in absence of PMs at a reasonable initial cost (weight) and efficiency, the fractional kVA PWM converter doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) cover now about 50% of all installed power in wind generators. The present paper reviews recent progress in DFIG and various forms of brushless DFGs (doubly fed generators) characterized in terms of topology, design, performance and advanced control for healthy and faulty load conditions in the hope of inspiring new, hopefully ground breakings, progress for wind and hydro energy conversion and in vehicular and on the ground stand-alone generator applications

An MRAS Speed Observer Based on dq-axis Power Winding Flux for Sensorless Control of Standalone BDFIGs

This paper addresses a new mechanical rotor speed observer for sensorless control of standalone Brushless Doubly-Fed Induction Generators (BDFIGs) based on the dq axis power winding flux model reference adaptive system (MRAS) observer. The observer is integrated in the control method for control the terminal frequency and voltage magnitude under various work conditions. The efficiency of the proposed observer and control strategy is proved by overall simulation results and confirmed by experiments. As illustrated without using physical rotor speed sensors, the sensorless control strategy integrating the proposed speed observer can keep effectively the frequency and amplitude of power winding voltage fixed at various rotor speeds and under various conditions of machine parameter and load changes

Developing a new SVPWM control strategy for open-winding brushless doubly fed reluctance generators

In this paper, a new open-winding control strategy is proposed for a brushless doubly fed reluctance generator (BDFRG) used for stand-alone wind turbine or ship generators. The BDFRG is characterized with two windings on the stator: a power winding and a control winding. The control winding is fed with dual two-level three-phase converters, and a vector control scheme based on space vector pulsewidth modulation is designed. Compared with traditional three-level inverter systems, the dc-link voltage and the voltage rating of power devices in the proposed system are reduced by 50% while still greatly improving the reliability, redundancy, and fault tolerance of the proposed system by increasing the switching modes. Its performance is evaluated by simulation in MATLAB/Simulink and an experimental study on a 42-kW prototype machine

Internal Model Control (IMC)-Based Active and Reactive Power Control of Brushless Double-Fed Induction Generator with Notch Filter

The increase in demand for electricity and, in particular, green energy has put renewable energy systems at the focal point of energy policy worldwide. The higher reliability of brushless doubly fed induction generators (BDFIGs) makes them suitable for offshore and remote wind energy generation (WEG) applications. Besides, controlling the active and reactive powers in an electrical power system is critical for optimal voltage regulation, reduced power losses, and enhanced utilization of installed equipment. However, the existing literature on BDFIG’s active and reactive power control highlights the poor dynamic response and high transients with harmonic generation during inductive load insertion. It is because the Ziegler technique was employed to select PI gains, and the instantaneous reactive power theory was used to mitigate harmonics. Considering that, this paper proposes a vector control (VC) method for BDFIGs in wind turbines, in which the proportional-integral (PI) gains for internal model control (IMC) are optimized to improve the dynamic response of the active and reactive power during inductive load insertion. The proposed method reduces the complexity, time consumption, and uncertainty in making the optimal choice. In addition, to reduce a double fundamental frequency component to the point-of-common-coupling (PCC) voltage, the excellent characteristics of the notch filter are utilized in the grid-side converter (GSC)-based vector control scheme. The simulation results in MATLAB/ Simulink show that the proposed IMC-based vector control scheme with a notch filter provides satisfactory results with a minimum peak value compared to existing techniques

Improved vector control methods for brushless double fed induction generator during inductive load and fault conditions

A Brushless Double-Fed Induction Generator (BDFIG) has shown tremendous success in wind turbines due to its robust brushless design, less maintenance, smooth operation, and variable speed characteristics. These generators are composed of two back-to-back voltage source converters, a Grid Side Converter (GSC) and a Rotor Side Converter (RSC). Existing control techniques use a “trial and error” method that results in a poor dynamic response in machine parameters during the absence of load. The RSC control is used for reactive current control during the inductive load insertion. However, it is more suitable for stabilizing steady-state behaviour, but it suffers from slow response and introduces a double fundamental frequency component to the Point of Common Coupling (PCC) voltage. In addition, generally, a Low Voltage Ride Through (LVRT) fault is detected using a hysteresis comparison of the power winding voltage. The LVRT capability is provided by using fixed reference values to control the winding current. This approach results in an erroneous response, sub-optimal control of voltage drops at PCC, and false alarms during transient conditions. This thesis aims to solve the mentioned issues by using an improved vector control method. Internal Model Control (IMC) based Proportional-Integral (PI) gains calculation is used for GSC and RSC. These are controlled to enhance the transient response and power quality during no-load, inductive load, and fault conditions. Firstly, a GSC-based vector control method is proposed to suppress the PCC voltage fluctuations when a large inductive load is suddenly connected. The proposed technique is based on an analytical model of the transient behaviour of the voltage drop at the PCC. To block a double fundamental frequency component as a result of reactive current compensation, a notch filter is designed. Secondly, an RSC-based vector control method is proposed using an analytical model of the voltage drop caused by a short circuit. Moreover, using a fuzzy logic controller, the proposed technique employs the voltage frequency in addition to the power winding voltage magnitude to detect LVRT conditions. The analytical model helps in reducing the power winding voltage drop while the fuzzy logic controller leads to better response and faster detection of faults. However, the reference value for reactive current compensation is analysed using an analytical model of the voltage drop at the PCC in the event of a short-circuit fault. The results obtained from MATLAB/Simulink show that the GSC-based vector control method technique can effectively reduce about 10% voltage drop at PCCs. Total Harmonics Distortion (THD) is improved to 22.3% by notch filter in comparison with an existing technique such as instantaneous reactive power theory. The RSC-based vector control method can achieve up to 11% voltage drop reduction and improve the THD by 12% compared to recent synchronous control and flux tracking methods

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