A Maximum Power Point Tracking Control Algorithms for a PMSG‐based WECS for Isolated Applications: Critical Review

This chapter deals with a comprehensive overview study of the direct‐driven (DD) permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) for wind‐energy generation system for stand‐alone applications. The dynamic model of PMSG is presented, and different maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms have been realized in the aim to compare their performance. A comparison of performances of the conventional P&O MPPT and the fuzzy logic P&O (FLC P&O) MPPT is presented. Control technique for the presented system is presented and analyzed for the generator side converter. The simulation results carried out using Matlab/Simulink software show the effectiveness of the wind turbine control system

L1 Adaptive Speed Control of a Small Wind Energy Conversion System for Maximum Power Point Tracking

This paper presents the design of an L1 adaptive controller for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of a small variable speed wind energy conversion system (WECS). The proposed controller generates the optimal torque command for the vector controlled generator-side converter based on the wind speed estimation. The proposed MPPT control algorithm has a generic structure and can be used for different generator types. In order to verify the efficacy of the proposed L1 adaptive controller for the MPPT of the WECS, a full converter wind turbine with a squirrel cage induction generator is used to carry out case studies using MATLAB/Simulink. The case study results show that the designed L1 adaptive controller has good tracking performance even with unmodelled dynamics and in the presence of parameter uncertainties and unknown disturbances

Estimation of the power electronics lifetime for a wind turbine

A comparison has been made of the converter lifetime for a 3MW horizontal axis wind turbine for different wind turbulence levels. Torque and speed of the turbine shaft were used to calculate voltage and current time series that those were used to calculate the junction temperatures of diode and IGBT in the generator-side converter by a thermal-electrical model. A rainflow counting algorithm of the junction temperature in combination with an empirical model of the lifetime estimation has been used to calculate the lifetime of the power electronic module in the turbine. The number of parallel converters for each wind condition to achieve 20 years life time also has been found. it is found greater turbulence levels will lead to less lifetime of the converter in the wind turbine

Power Quality Enhancement in Electricity Grids with Wind Energy Using Multicell Converters and Energy Storage

In recent years, the wind power industry is experiencing a rapid growth and more wind farms with larger size wind turbines are being connected to the power system. While this contributes to the overall security of electricity supply, large-scale deployment of wind energy into the grid also presents many technical challenges. Most of these challenges are one way or another, related to the variability and intermittent nature of wind and affect the power quality of the distribution grid. Power quality relates to factors that cause variations in the voltage level and frequency as well as distortion in the voltage and current waveforms due to wind variability which produces both harmonics and inter-harmonics. The main motivation behind work is to propose a new topology of the static AC/DC/AC multicell converter to improve the power quality in grid-connected wind energy conversion systems. Serial switching cells have the ability to achieve a high power with lower-size components and improve the voltage waveforms at the input and output of the converter by increasing the number of cells. Furthermore, a battery energy storage system is included and a power management strategy is designed to ensure the continuity of power supply and consequently the autonomy of the proposed system. The simulation results are presented for a 149.2 kW wind turbine induction generator system and the results obtained demonstrate the reduced harmonics, improved transient response, and reference tracking of the voltage output of the wind energy conversion system.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Affine projection algorithm based adaptive control scheme for operation of variable-speed wind generator

This study presents a novel adaptive control scheme for variable-speed wind turbine (VSWT) driven permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) to ensure its operation under different operating conditions. The adaptive control scheme is based on the affine projection algorithm (APA) which provides a faster convergence and less computational complexity than the least-mean-square algorithm. The proposed adaptive controller is used to control both the generator-side converter and the grid-side inverter without giving additional tuning efforts. Each vector control scheme for the converter/inverter has four APA-based adaptive proportional-integral (PI) controllers. Detailed modelling and the control strategies of the system under study are demonstrated. Real wind speed data extracted from Hokkaido island, Japan is used in this study. The dynamic characteristics of a grid-connected VSWT-PMSG are investigated in details to ensure the proposed controller operation under different operating conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed adaptive controller is compared with that obtained using optimised PI controllers by Taguchi method. The validity of the adaptive vector control scheme is verified by the simulation results which are performed using PSCAD/EMTDC environment

Wind turbine and grid interaction studies using integrated real-time simulation environment

Knowledge of interactions between wind turbines and network becomes essential as the number of wind turbines installed in the network increases. Thus, a simulation environment with accurate network and wind turbine models is needed. In this paper, a novel real-time simulation environment for wind turbine and grid interaction studies is presented. The network is simulated with Real-Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and the wind turbine with its power electronic equipments in dSPACE. First, the wind turbine model is introduced. Next, real-time simulation results during three-phase short-circuit and automatic reclosing are presented and compared to Simulink results in order to verify the real-time model. Discussions about the reliability and usefulness of the environment are also performed.reviewe

Intelligent approach on sensorless control of permanent magnet synchronous generator

In this paper, a standalone permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) system is designed to generate power at maximum power point (MPP). The variable speed operation of wind energy conversion system consists of PMSG, controlled rectifier and voltage source inverter co to the load. Proportional integral (PI), sliding mode (SM), and feed forward neural network (FFNN) control strategies are applied in field oriented control (FOC) at generator side converter. A comparative study on power generated at maximum power point (MPP) is done with these controllers using simulation. Hill climb search (HCS) method is applied to attain MPP. Load side inverter control strategy involves the PI and SM controllers in order to maintain the unity power factor and to control the active and reactive power for nonlinear load. The control strategies are modelled and simulated with MATLAB/Simulink. The effectiveness of proposed control method is demonstrated using simulation results

Modeling and Control of a Doubly-Fed Induction Generator for Wind Turbine-Generator Systems

Wind energy plays an increasingly important role in the world because it is friendly to the environment. During the last decades, the concept of a variable-speed wind turbine (WT) has been receiving increasing attention due to the fact that it is more controllable and efficient, and has good power quality. As the demand of controllability of variable speed WTs increases, it is therefore important and necessary to investigate the modeling for wind turbine-generator systems (WTGS) that are capable of accurately simulating the behavior of each component in the WTGS. Therefore, this thesis will provide detailed models of a grid-connected wind turbine system equipped with a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG), which includes the aerodynamic models of the wind turbine, the models of the mechanical transmission system, the DFIG models and the three-phase two-level PWM voltage source converter models. In order to obtain satisfying output power from the WTGS, control strategies are also necessary to be developed based on the previously obtained WTGS models. These control schemes include the grid-side converter control, the generator-side converter control, the maximum power point tracking control and the pitch angle control. The grid-side converter controller is used to keep the DC-link voltage constant and yield a unity power factor looking into the WTGS from the grid-side. The generator-side converter controller has the ability of regulating the torque, active power and reactive power. The maximum power point tracking control is used to provide the reference values for the active power at the stator terminals. The pitch angle control scheme is used to regulate the pitch angle and thus keep the output power at rated value even when the wind speed experiences gusts. Various studies in the literature have reported that two-level converters have several disadvantages compared with three-level converters. Among the disadvantages are high switching losses, high dv/dt, and high total harmonic distortion (THD). Hence, the models and field oriented control schemes for three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converters are also investigated and applied to a WTGS. Besides, an advanced modulation technology, namely, space vector PWM (SVPWM), is also investigated and compared to traditional sinusoidal PWM in a WTGS