Wind Turbine Systems Grid Converter Structures and Topologies

Mandal Nitu, Maharjan Mamta, Shrestha Tusuju Namrata Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway E-mail: nitum@stud.ntnu.no, mamtam@stud.ntnu.no, namratas@stud.ntnu.no

Abstract- The utilization of wind energy is the area which is growing rapidly. The increasing share of wind power in the electric power system makes it necessary to have grid friendly interfaces between the wind turbine system and the grid in order to maintain power quality. This paper discusses the basic working principle of power electronic components on grid side. A short overview on the interconnection requirements is given. Different topologies for power converters in a wind turbine system are described. Finally, a general technology status of the wind power system is presented demonstrating more efficient and attractive power generation system.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Fig. 1. Power electronic system with grid, renewable sources, power converter and control.[1]

The demand for the electrical power production is increasing globally. A large number of distributed generation (DG) units, including both renewable and non-renewable sources such as wind turbines, wave generators, photovoltaic (PV) generators, small hydro, and fuel cells are utilized for power production. The production, distribution and the use of the energy should be technically efficient. Wind turbine technology is one of the most emerging renewable technologies. Wind power production in the beginning did not have any impact on the power system control but now due to their increasing size they have to play an active part in the grid. On the other hand, the increased use of power electronics, especially on the grid side, in connection with the control of the pitch angle of the blades can partially relieve the problem of power control, allowing the wind turbine power plant to behave similarly to a conventional power plant. In this sense, it should be noticed that the introduction of power converters in a variable-speed wind turbine has been mainly associated with the possibility of controlling the generator and as a consequence of controlling the active power in order to maximize the power extraction. Then the active power control has been viewed as a means to exercise the wind turbine system in a similar way to a traditional power plant. However, it is the use of a grid converter that gives to the modern wind turbine system (WTS) the capability of managing the reactive power exchange and allowing its participation in the voltage regulation. [1]

II.

WIND TURBINE SYSTEM:

The basic power configuration of a wind turbine system is made of two parts: a mechanical part and an electrical as shown in Figure 2. The first sub-system extracts the energy from the wind and makes the kinetic energy of the wind available to a rotating shaft; the second sub-system is responsible for the transformation of the electrical energy, making it suitable for the electric grid. The two subsystems are connected via the electric generator, which is an electromechanical system and hence transforms the mechanical energy into electrical energy.

Fig. 2.Basic power conversion wind turbine system [2]

Wind turbines capture the power from the wind by means of aerodynamically designed blade and convert it to rotating mechanical power. The most weight efficient way to convert the low-speed, high-torque power to electrical power is using

a gear-box but it is optional. Power converter is inserted between the grid and the generator.

Fig. 3. Scenario of the power conversion structures for variable speed wind turbine systems[1]

due to island conditions. New wind turbine technologies also allow its participation in frequency regulation. Frequency in the power system is an indicator of the balance between production and consumption of active power. For normal power system operation, frequency is stable and close to its nominal value . 2. Frequency control: In systems with relatively high wind penetration, there is often a requirement for frequency response or frequency control. This can take many forms, but the basic principle is that, when instructed, the wind farm reduces its output power by a few percent, and then adjusts it in response to the system frequency. By increasing power when frequency is low, or decreasing power when frequency is high, the wind farm can contribute to controlling the system frequency. The active power is typically controlled based on the system frequency so that the power delivered to the grid is decreased when the grid frequency rise above 50 Hz. 3. Reactive power control and voltage stability: Reactive power production and consumption by generators allows the network operator to control voltages throughout their system. The control of reactive power at the generators is used in order to keep the voltage within the required limits and avoid voltage stability problems. Wind generation should also contribute to voltage regulation in the system; the requirements either concern a certain voltage range that should be maintained at the point of connection or certain reactive power compensation that should be provided. IV. WTS CONTROL: The two subsystems (electrical and mechanical) are characterized by different control goals but interact in view of the main aim: the control of the power injected into the grid. The electrical control is in charge of the interconnection with the grid and active/reactive power control. The mechanical subsystem is responsible for the power limitation (with pitch adjustment), maximum energy capture, speed limitation and reduction of the acoustical noise. But they are controlled independently. Here the focus is on the electrical control. For electrical control we use power electronics converter. There are two types of converter mainly generator side converter and the grid side converter. The control of the generator-side converter is in charge of extracting the maximum power from the wind. The control of the grid-side converter is simply just keeping the DC link voltage fixed. [1]

The flowchart shown in the Fig.3 indicates how the electrical energy is efficiently generated from wind energy. Among these entire stages grid side converter and its various topologies are elaborated here. In order to change the mechanical power obtained from wind to electrical power, two types of generators can be used namely synchronous generator and induction generator. Apart from these two types, the third kind of generator is the most popular in wind sector. It is called Permanent Magnet Generator (PMG). But PMG is synchronous generator with rotor windings replaced by permanent magnets. It needs no separate excitation so rotor excitation losses about 30% of total generator losses are eliminated. This results in high power density and small size with the highest efficiency at all speeds, offering the maximum annual production of energy with the lowest lifetime cost. [1]

Fig. 4. Permanent magnet generator

III.

GRID CONNECTION REQUIREMENT FOR WIND TURBINE:

1. Active power control: Active power control is required in order to limit overproduction of wind power that can lead to instabilities
Fig. 5. Wind turbine control structure.[1]

V.

GRID CONVERTER TOPOLOGY:

Grid power converter needs to perform AC/AC conversion. The AC/AC conversion can be direct or indirect. In the indirect case there is a DC link that connects two converters performing AC/DC and DC/AC conversions, while in the direct case the DC link is not present. The grid converter topologies can be classified into two types -voltage-stiff (voltage-fed or voltage-source) and current-stiff (current-fed or current-source) respectively, indicated with the acronyms VSC and CSC. Grid Converter Structures for Wind Turbine Systems depending on the main power flow direction they are named rectifiers or inverters, or in case they can work with both power flows they are bidirectional. Then they can be classified as phase-controlled (typically using thyristors and natural commutation synchronized with the grid voltage) or PWM using forced commutated devices. Grid converters for distributed power generation need to work as inverters. Here indirect conversion using VSC topologies will be discussed furthermore [1]. In the case of the VSC a relatively large capacitor feeds the main converter circuit. Switches are used in the main circuit, each composed traditionally of a power transistor and a freewheeling diode to provide bidirectional current flow and a unidirectional voltage blocking capability. The VSC needs both AC and DC passive elements. An AC output voltage cannot exceed the DC voltage. Therefore, the VSC is a buck (stepdown) inverter for DC/AC power conversion and is a boost (step-up) rectifier (or boost converter) for AC/DC power conversion. In case the available DC voltage is limited/excited, an additional DC/DC boost/buck converter is needed to obtain the proper DC voltage that allows the VSC to operate properly with the grid. Focusing on the topologies of the grid converter, below two types of topologies namely two level converter and Neutral point clamped (NPC) three level converters are discussed in detail. A. Two level back to back grid converter:
Fig. 7. Output voltage waveform of two level inverter[4]

A basic three-phase inverter consists of three single-phase inverter switches each connected to one of the three load terminals. For the most basic control scheme, the operation of the three switches is coordinated so that one switch operates at each 60 degree point of the fundamental output waveform. This creates a line-to-line output waveform that has six steps. The six-step waveform has a zero-voltage step between the positive and negative sections of the square-wave such that the harmonics that are multiples of three are eliminated [3]. Three level back to back PWM VSI

Fig. 7. Three-level back-to-back PWM VSI[1]

Fig.6. Two-level back-to-back PWM-VSI[3] Fig. 8. output voltage waveform of 3 level inverter[4]

In three level ac conveter each leg has four switches ( mostly IGBT) connected in series. In NPC(neutral point clamped) inverter, The applied voltage on the IGBT is one-half that of the conventional two level inverter. The bus voltage is split in two by the connection of equal series connected bus capacitors. Each leg is completed by the addition of two clamp diodes. The NPC inverter can produce three voltage levels on the output: the DC bus plus voltage, zero voltage and DC bus negative voltage. The two level inverter can only connect the output to either the plus bus or the negative bus. The three level inverter offers several advantages over the more common two level inverter. As compared to two level inverters, three level inverters have smaller output voltage steps and output waveform provides an effective switching frequency twice that of the actual switching frequency. And the most important advantage is the output from three level inverter has less harmonic components. In economic point of view three level inverters are less costly because the components will be smaller and less costly than for an equivalent rated two level inverter. Most often the NPC inverter is used for higher voltage inverters. Because the IGBTs are only subjected to half of the bus voltage, lower voltage IGBT modules can be used.[4]

Fig. 9. Different power transfers achieved by the grid converter in the different operating conditions (VL is the voltage drop across the grid filter)[1]

The power transfer between two sections of a short line can be studied using complex phasors, for a mainly X >> R, showing that the voltage drop VL is perpendicular to the exchanged current.[1] In the figure 9, E, Ig refers to the grid voltage and current respectively, VL represents the grid converter loss and V represents the voltage output of VSC. In Figure 9(a) the case is reported when there is no power produced by the WTS and a small power is absorbed to keep the DC link voltage at its rated value. The VSC is working as a rectifier and the absorbed active power compensates the losses in the overall converter. Figure 9(b) the case is reported when the WTS injects only active power, while in Figure 9(c) and (d)the cases in which the grid converter is working as a STATCOM (STATIC SYNCHRONOUS COMPENSATOR). A STATCOM is an electronic generator of reactive power. A STATCOM is a shunt-connected reactive power compensation device that is capable of generating and/or absorbing reactive power. Figure 9(e) and (f) reports the working conditions in which the WTS injects both active and reactive power. If also the power angle is small, then sin is nearly equal to and cos nearly equal 1: P Q

According to the fig 5, the DC link voltage is made almost constant within the given range. There is reference voltage given which is compared with the output voltage of the rectifier. And according to the need, Pulse width modulation can be used to switch the chopper in order to step up or step down the rectifier output voltage to maintain the voltage of the DC link nearly constant. With the assistance of chopper the DC link would not rise above or fall below the certain range.

Pulse width modulation is also used in 3 phase inverter to generate sinusoidal voltage. For removing higher frequency harmonics which may result in loss, Low pass filter is used before connecting to the gird. There is feedback control in order to continuously maintain the amplitude and phase of sinusoidal voltage. Converter structures employ a grid converter, which in most cases is a VSC. Basically the VSC controls the active and reactive power transfers acting on the amplitude and phase of the produced voltage.

where E, P, Q denote respectively the voltage, the active power and the reactive power of the grid and V is the voltage output of the VSC, above equations show that the active

( )

power injection depends predominantly on the power angle, whereas the reactive power injection depends on the voltage difference E V.[1] Hence active power can be used to regulate the angle or the frequency of the grid voltage, whereas the reactive power can be used to control the amplitude of the grid voltage. Thus by adjusting the active power and the reactive power, frequency, and amplitude of the grid voltage can be influenced. Moreover VSC controls the active and reactive power transfers acting on the amplitude and phase of the produced voltage V. So now the challenge is to control the amplitude and phase of the produced voltage V in order to inject the required active and reactive demand of the grid. The waveforms shown in figure 10 can be used to explain how to control Van in magnitude as well as in phase with a given (fixed) dc voltage Vd. It is obvious that by controlling the amplitude of the sinusoidal reference waveform Vcontrol a, Van can be adjusted. Similarly by shifting the phase of Vcontrol a with respect to Ea the phase angle of Van can be varied. For balanced operation, the control voltage for phase B and C are equal in magnitude but 120 degree out of phase with respect to phase A.[3]

wind power so that variable voltage and frequency output from wind generating system can be connected to the grid of constant voltage and frequency. With proper system design, wind turbine driven induction generator can be directly connected to the grid as shown in Figure 11.

Fig. 11. Commonly Practice WTS structure.

This scheme has following advantages: - Induction generator is cheaper than Permanent magnet generator - Easy to Synchronize with grid - IG is more robust generator In this scheme, STATCOM is a current controlled PMW STATCOM. The reference current is evalaued by measuring the active power injected by IG and STATCOM current is control to track the reference current so that the STATCOM generates variable amount of reactive power in a fixed proportion of varuable active power injected by the induction generator. The beauty of this scheme is that the IG is bound to obey the grid frequency. Hence, even at variable speed of wind, the speed of IG remains fairly constant injecting variable amount of active power at different values of slip of IG. VII. CONCLUSION:

Fig. 10. Output waveform of two level back to back converter[3]

VI.

EXISTING SYSTEM

IN LARGE

WTS:

The topology for wind turbine generator connected to the grid (shown in Figure 5) involves lots of power electronic converter and hence it is expenssive topology. The converters are mainly introduced to acts as an interface between grid and

Wind turbine system, having active and reactive power control to have maximum power extraction and voltage regulation respectively, can be connected to grid with the help of power electronics in generator as well as grid side. Different types of converters can be used as grid side (and/or generator side ) converter eg; two level back to back converter, three level back to back converter, thyrister based phase controlled CSI etc. Converter higher than three level eg, four level, five level, seven level can also be used. Higher the level of the converter, more sinusoidal will be the voltage output, meaning the output will contain less harmonic contents. Also relatively lesser voltage will appear across

power electronic switches in converter with increasing level of converter decreasing switching loss and device cost. REFERENCES:
[1] Remus Teodorescu, Marco Liserre and Pedro Rodrguez Grid Converters for Photovoltaic and Wind Power Systems 978-0-470-05751-3, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2011,pp.123-142. [2] Heier, S., Grid Integration of Wind Energy Conversion Systems, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 1998 [3]Mohan, Undeland, Robbins ,Power Electronics Converters, Applications and Design , John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ,2003,pp.200-289 [4] Akira Nabae,A New Neutral-Point-Clamped PWM Inverter IEEE transactions on industry applications, vol. ia-17, no. 5. september/october 1981 [5] Michael P. Bahrman, Jan G. Johansson, Bo A. Nilsson, voltage source converter transmission technologies- the right fit for the application.