Dc-link Voltage Control of Full Power Converter for Wind Generator Operating in Weak Grid Systems

Xibo Yuan1-2, Fred Wang1, Rolando Burgos1,Yongdong Li2, and Dushan Boroyevich1
Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA
Abstract- In this paper, permanent magnet wind generator with full power converter is investigated in weak grid systems, where the dc-link voltage needs to be controlled from the generator side instead of grid side. When wind power takes a large portion of grid power, it needs to help grid to regulate the voltage and frequency. To achieve this, a variable step search algorithm based on the derivation of the electro-mechanical dynamic model describing the wind turbine is proposed, which enables the wind generator output power to match the load power, thus keeping the dc-link voltage regulated. Based on the non-linearity and different slopes of wind power curve, the controller is designed specifically for different sectors. A backEMF observer based sensor-less generator control is adopted here to regulate the generator speed. Simulation is built up with a 10kW wind power generator system and a reduced-scale 1.5kW system experiment is also carried out in the condition of load power step change and wind speed change. Both simulation and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme, where the dc-link voltage can be kept stable by adjusting the wind generator speed.
1 2

Department of Electrical Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing, 100084 China

Rectifier DC link Inverter Load Grid

Pg P load
Udc
PMG +

Fig.1. Power stage configuration of the PMG system.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Today, while most wind power is transferred to the grid via doubly-fed induction generators, the permanent magnet generator (PMG) interfaced to the grid through a full power converter is being increasingly adopted due to its higher power density and better controllability, especially so during grid faults [1]. Fig.1 shows a typical full power converter based on back-to-back voltage source converters. In normal grid-connected operation, when wind power is relatively a small portion of a strong grid, the grid side converter is used to regulate the dc-link voltage while the generator side converter regulates the PMG speed to achieve the desired power transfer for a given wind condition [2][4]. This is normally done following the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) scheme. On the other hand, in the case of operating in a weak grid, when wind power becomes a significant portion of the power system, the wind power generator and its converter are expected to help maintain the grid voltage and frequency. This applies as well to the stand-alone operating mode. In such case, the grid-side converter operates as an inverter regulating the grid-side voltage and frequency, while the dc link voltage is controlled from the generator side. Given the
This work made use of ERC Shared Facilities supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Number EEC-9731677.

variable speed and the nonlinear power characteristics of the wind turbine, the dc-link control is a significant challenge under this condition. In low power wind generator systems for instance, a resistor with chopping control is used to burn the excess energy on the dc-link during strong transients [5][6], a solution not acceptable nonetheless for high power applications. As the transition from grid-connected mode to standalone or weak grid mode has been studied in several papers as well as the detection of grid faults [6][7], this paper will focus on the control of PM generators in weak grid mode for wind applications interfaced through PWM back-to-back three-phase converters. Specifically, this paper proposes a new method to regulate the dc-link voltage of the converter using the generator speed as control lever. For this, a search algorithm based on the system electro-mechanical dynamic model is developed, which enables the generator output power to track the load power demand keeping the dc-link voltage constant. The operating range of the proposed control system is divided into two regions according to the wind turbine output power characteristics, and the controller is designed separately to optimize the response in each case. Matlab simulations are used to investigate the circuit topology and control method for a 10 kW system. A DSP/FPGA controlled 1.5 kW reduced scaled prototype PMG testbed is also set up for further verification of the proposed method and experimental results obtained with it are presented to verify the theoretical findings of this work. The paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the control concept and model of the wind turbine system, the algorithm for controlling the dc-link voltage, and theoretical analysis backing up the control approach. Section III presents

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the simulation and experimental results, and Section IV summarizes the advantages of the overall system giving as well some final remarks. II. PROPOSED CONTROL METHOD A. The Control Principle and System Modeling The basic control concept is shown in Fig.2. As seen, in order to maintain the dc-link voltage constant, the generator output power should track the load power demand, which can be achieved through regulation of the generator speed taking into consideration the power-speed characteristics of the wind turbine. As wind speed measurements add to the system cost and present difficulties for their practical implementation, both the wind speed and wind power curve are assumed to be unknown in the proposed method. The wind power curve as known has its own characteristics as shown in Fig.3, with positive and negative slopes in sectors I and II. Therefore, theoretical analysis is needed to develop a robust control method. The amount of mechanical power captured from wind by a wind turbine could be formulated as [8], 1 (1) Pwind = C p ( )v 3 2 where Pwind is the captured wind power by the wind turbine, is the air density (Kg/m3), A is the wind turbine swept area (m2), Cp is the power coefficient of the wind turbine (related to the generator speed), and v is the wind speed (m/s). Neglecting the power converter losses, the dynamic equation of the dc-link voltage can be described as, du (2) Pg Pload = udc idc = udc C dc dt where Pg is the generator output power, Pload is the load power, and udc and idc are the voltage and current of the dclink capacitor respectively. From (2), it is clear that one option to control the dc-link voltage is to change the generator output power Pg by adjusting the generator speed. In order to obtain the relationship between the dc-link voltage udc and the generator speed , (1) and (2) can be combined as shown below using the mechanical dynamic equation of the PMG.

Dc link voltage control

Power searching al gorithm

PMG power demand
Pg

Plo a d

Pg

Speed sensor less vector control

* Speed reference ref

PMG speed control

Fig.2. Dc-link voltage control diagram

7000 Wind turbine output power (W) 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 0

windspeed = 15m / s

B1

100 200 PMG speed (r/min)

300

Fig.3.Wind turbine output power characteristic at windspeed =15 m/s

du 1 d C p ( )v3 Pload udcC dc = J + B 2 2 dt dt

(3)

As illustrated in Fig.3, if the generator is operating in sector II then k < 0, and the above closed-loop transfer function has a pole in the left-half plane in the s-domain, which implies that the dc-link voltage can be regulated by changing the generator speed. For sector I on the other hand k > 0, so the system may have a pole in the right-half plane, requiring a differential feedback to stabilize the system in this case. It should be noticed that as shown in Fig.3, for a given load power, say Pload = 4 kW, the generator could operate at either point B or B1 transferring the same amount of power to control the dc-link voltage. A proper choice of operating area is then also an available control lever for the regulation of the dc-link voltage. B. Control Algorithm Design and Description Based on the previous analysis, a search method may be a better choice in the absence of wind speed measurement given the system inherent nonlinearity. The proposed algorithm can be described with the following steps as illustrated in Fig.4: 1) Choose an initial generator speed reference and measure the output power of the generator; 2) Increase or decrease the reference rotor speed by one step step and measure the output power again;

In (3) J is the system inertia and B the frictional coefficient. This expression shows that the dc-link voltage has a nonlinear relationship with the generator speed due to Cp(). Considering Pload as the disturbance, (3) can be linearized at point (Udc0, 0) and Cp() = k, where k is the slope of the curve in Fig.3. The transfer function of the dc-link voltage Udc(s) and generator speed (s) is then described by 1 3 U dc ( s ) 2 Av k J 0 s . (4) = 2U dc 0 (s) U dc 0Cs + Rload

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udcom = Lsisq

sign(P )isign( )

* isdref

uqcom = Lsisd

ud
uq

U dcref

step
Sector

* ref

* ref

udcom

Rectifier

dq
isq

SVM

isd
1+ ks s +1

isq

uqcom

Z 1

isd

U dc

Observer back EMF

u sd
usq

dq

ia ib ua ub

Sector

PMG

Fig. 4. Variable step searching diagram. Fig.5. Control diagram of the PMG side rectifier

3) Calculate the sign of the power change, sign (P) and the sign of the speed change, sign (), which determines the location of the generator speed. If sign (P)sign()=1, the generator operating point is in Sector I, otherwise in Sector II; 4) Based on the measured dc-link voltage and the dc-link voltage reference, calculate the sign of Udc, where, Udc=Udcref - Udc; 5) Set the speed reference as ref(n)= ref(n-1)+ sign (P)sign ()sign(Udc)step; 6) Repeat from step 3 until the dc-link voltage reaches the reference. A proportional controller with saturation is then introduced to achieve a relatively fast response, which can also be considered a variable step size searching method. In Fig.4, the speed reference output *ref is set to be the speed reference in the detailed picture shown in Fig.5 for the vector controller of the PMG. The whole system control flow chart is shown in Fig.6. C. Model and Control of the PMG-Side Rectifier A three-phase full-bridge rectifier is used to control the PMG. The dynamic model of the surface-mounted permanentmagnet generator in the synchronous rotating frame is given by

u sd = Rs isd + Ls

disd Lsisq dt

(5) (6)

sign( P) sign( ) > 0

u sq = Rs isq + Ls

disq dt

+ Lsisd

where Ls and Rs are the generator inductance and resistance respectively, is the generator speed and its magnet flux. As shown in Fig.5, the PMG torque is controlled by the q-axis current component, while the d-axis current component reference is set to achieve unity power factor; thus minimizing power losses [9]. A speed observer based on the PMG back-EMF is used to achieve speed sensor-less control [10]. As there is no low speed operation for wind power application [11], the back-EMF based observer can estimate the actual speed without problems. The converter output power can be expressed as:

Fig.6 Flow chart of dc-link voltage control

Pg =

3 ( vsd isd + vsqisq ) 2

(7)

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p
Pload

250

Pg
Dc-link voltage drop (V) 200 150 100 50 0 0

C=1000uF C=2000uF C=3000uF C=4000uF

trise
Fig.7 Power response during load step increase

D. Capacitor Value Discussion For most large wind turbines, the speed response is relatively slow because of the large system inertia and the generator current limits. Therefore, the capacitance value of the three-phase converter dc-link capacitor is what ultimately determines the magnitude of the voltage variation seen on the dc bus during fast load transients. To simplify the analysis in what follows, the load power is assumed to vary as step changes and the change of the generator output power is assumed to be linear, which is illustrated in Fig.7. When the load power increases by Pload at time t = 0, the generator output power Pg will increase accordingly. If the slope of the curve Pg is k, the generator output power can reach the load power in trise = Pload /k seconds. The voltage drop of the dclink capacitor is consequence of the energy difference between generator and load (shaded area in Fig. 7), which can be expressed as 1 1 Pload 2 . (8) Ec = Pload trise = 2 2 k When combined with the capacitor voltage it follows that 1 1 1 Pload 2 . 2 2 (9) CU dc (0) CU dc (trise ) = 2 2 2 k In (9), the voltage drop of the dc-link capacitor is Udc(0)Udc(trise). The chosen value of capacitance depends then on the rate of power change and the tolerable voltage drop, which is expressed in (10). Pload 2 (10) C= 2 2 k (U dc (0) U dc (trise )) Fig.8 illustrates how the capacitor value and the PMG power response affect the dc-link voltage drop in the condition of Pload = 100 W and Udc(0) = 250 V. As observed, the larger the capacitor value and the quicker power response is, the smaller dc-link voltage drop will be. The same conclusion can be applied to the load decrease case.

50 100 150 PMG power response k (w/s)

Fig. 8 Dc-link voltage drop relation to capacitor and power response

speed reference

Dc link

Fig.9. Simulation functional blocks

III. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A. Simulation Setup and Results

A 10 kW wind power system model was built using Matlab-Simulink to assess the capabilities of the proposed method, comprised of three main function blocks as shown in Fig.9. The output power curve used in the simulation is based on the profile shown in Fig.3.The PMG is a 16-pole generator with rated speed of 375 rpm and the value of dc-link capacitor used is 2,200 F. The system inertia is 4 kgm2 and the dc-link voltage reference used 540 V (the PMG voltage rating is 380V). The dc-link voltage control algorithm is tested under two conditions, namely load steps and wind speed changes. The PMG is operating in Sector II. The simulation results obtained are shown in Fig.10. Figure (a) shows the dc-link voltage transient observed after applying a load step from 3.2 kW to 4 kW at time t = 6 s, showing the bus voltage is effectively controlled at 540 V. Fig.10 (b) shows the current of the generator during this transient with figure (c) showing a zoomed-in view where its correct operation is easily observed. Fig.10 (d) depicts the generator output power change in response to the increased load power demand, while figure (e) shows its speed reference illustrating how it is reduced due to the operation in Sector II (negative slope region). Finally, fig.10 (f) depicts the dc-link voltage regulation during a wind speed change from 15 m/s to 12 m/s at t = 2 s. As seen the dc bus voltage is regulated to 540 V without problems verifying the correct operation of the proposed algorithm. Only a short voltage dip is observed while the PMG adjusted its speed in order to match the load power demand.

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560

4500 PMG output power (W)

550 Dc-link voltage (V) 540 530 520 510 500 490 480 0 10 20 30

4000

3500

Time (s) (a)

3000 0

10

Time (s)
(d)

20

30

PMG speed (r / min) Speed reference(r / min)

30 20 PMG current (A) 10 0 -10 -20 -30 0

300 295 290 285 280 275 270 265 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

305 300 295 290 285 280 275 0 5 10 15 Time (s) 20 25 30

10

15 Time (s)

20

25

30

(b)

(e)

30 20

545 540 Dc-link voltage (V)

2.62 2.64 Time (s)
(c)

P MG current (A)

10 0 -10 -20 -30 2.6 2.66 2.68

535 530 525 520 515 510 0 2 4 6 Time (s) 8 10

(f)
Fig.10. Simulation results. (a) Dc-link voltage response with load change (b) PMG stator current (c)PMG stator current between 2.62s and 2.68s (d) Generator output power (e) Generator speed reference and real speed (f) Dc-link voltage response under wind speed change

B. Experimental Results

A 1.5 kW prototype PMG testbed was built in the laboratory as shown in Fig.11. It consists of a three-phase PMG, a generator side converter to control the speed of the shaft, a three-phase induction motor driven by a commercial inverter and a dc-link load resistor. The commercial inverter

with torque control mode is used to emulate the wind power characteristics. The control board is based on a SHARC DSP AD21160M and Xilinx XCV-400 FPGA. The experimental parameters are: 230 V, 60 Hz, 1.5 kW, 4 pole PMG, 2,460 F dc-link capacitor and 250 V dc-bus.

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350 PMG Output Power (W )

300

250

200

150 0
PMG Speed R e fe re n c e (r/m in )

40

80 120 Time(s)
(b)

160

Fig.11 Experiment setup

1500 1000 500 0

PMG Speed (r/min)

1500

40

80

120

160

1000

500 0

40

Time (s) (c)

80

120

160

400 350 300 250 200 150 0

Fig.12 Experimental results for steady state. (1)Rotor position estimation (2) PMG current (5A/div) (3) Dc-link voltage (125V/div) (4) PMG line voltage Vbc (500V/div)

300 Dc-link Voltage (V)

250

Dc-link voltage (V)

20

40

60 80 Time (s)

100

120

200

(d) Fig.13. Experimental results. (a) Dc-link voltage response with load change (b) PMG output power (c)PMG speed reference and real speed (d) Dc-link voltage response with wind speed change

150 0 40 80 120 Time (s)

(a)

160

The control method is tested under load steps and wind speed changes just as the simulations conducted. The PMG in this case operates in Sector I in order to reduce the power loss and also given that some wind turbines do not have complete

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operation in Sector II. Fig.12 shows steady state waveforms of the experimental setup, including the PMG line-to-line voltage, the dc-link voltage, PMG line current and rotor position estimation, validating the effectiveness of the sensorless PMG control and the dc-link voltage regulation in steady state. A load step is then applied with the load power changing from 180 W to 250 W at t = 40 s. Fig.13 (a) shows the dc-link voltage transient illustrating how it recovers to 250 V after a brief voltage dip, confirming the effectiveness of the control scheme. Fig. 13 (b) shows the PMG output power as it increases to match the load power demand. As observed, the PMG output power has a short decrease at the beginning of the transient due to the right half plane zero in Eq.(4). The speed reference and real speed is given in Fig.13 (c) showing the good match between them. The response of the system to changes in wind speed is shown in figure (d). Specifically, at time t = 25 s the wind speed increases instantaneously generating an additional 200 W of wind power, to which the control system responds reducing the PMG speed and regulating the dc bus back to 250 V. The wind speed naturally cannot change instantaneously; hence the voltage overshoot observed would be of much lower magnitude. As the variable step search method can be perceived as an integration control, there will be the tradeoff between system stability and a faster response. If the searching step is larger, the system will respond quicker, but oscillation will be observed to some level. And the too large searching step will cause instability to the system. Meanwhile, from the simulation and experimental results, the dc-link voltage regulation will have faster response in sector II than in sector I, which is caused by the low frequency right half plane zero in sector I representing the mechanical energy changing in the system. If the system parameters are available however, a better controller can be designed based on the linear control theory, which will further improve the system response. IV. CONCLUSION This paper has presented a dc-link voltage control strategy for PMG wind power systems operating in a weak grid. The proposed scheme is fully independent of the PMG wind power curve characteristics and does not require wind speed measurement. To achieve this it employed a search algorithm based on the derivation of the electro-mechanical model describing the wind turbine, PMG and power converter dynamics. Simulation results obtained with a 10 kW system using a vector controlled PMG showed the correct operation of the proposed method. Experimental results further validated the effectiveness of the proposed method. Some performance improvement methods are also discussed in the paper. REFERENCES
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systems. IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.19, no.5, pp.1242-1249, Sep. 2004. [2] Monica Chinchilla, Santiago Arnaltes and Juan Carlos Burgos, Controlof permanent-magnet generators applied to variable-speed wind-energy systems connected to the grid, IEEE Trans. Energy Conv., vol.21, no.1, pp.130-135, Mar.2006. [3] J.A Baroudi, V.Dinavahi and A.M. Knight,A review of power converter topologies for wind generators, in Proc. IEEE electric machines and drives international conf., pp.458-465, May. 2005. [4] Ramon C. Portillo. MaAngeles Martin Prats etc, Modeling strategy for back-to-back three-level converters applied to high-power wind turbines, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol.53, no.5,pp.1483-1491, Oct.2006. [5] R.Esmaili, L,Xu and D,K, Nichols, A new control method of permanent magnet generator for maximum power tracking in wind power tracking in wind turbine application, in Proc. PES05 General Meeting, vol.3, pp.2090-2095, Jun. 2005. [6] Rohit Tirumala, Ned Mohan and Chris Henze, Seamless transfer of gridconnected pwm inverters between utility-interactive and Standalone modes, in Proc. APEC02 Conf., vol.2, pp.1081-1086,Mar. 2002. [7] Remus Teodorescu and Frede Blaabjerg, Flexible control of small wind turbines with grid failure detection operating in stand-alone and gridconnected mode, IEEE Trans. Power Electron. vol.19, no. 5, pp.1323-1332,Sep.2004. [8] E. Muljadi, S. Drouilhet, R. Holz, and V.Gevorgian, Analysis of permanent magnet generator for wind power battery charging, in Proc.IAS96,vol.1, pp541-548,Oct. 1996. [9] Shigeo Morimoto, Yoji Taked and Takao, hirasa, Current phase control method for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors, IEEE Tran. Power Electron.,vol.5, no.2,pp.133-139, Apr. 1990. [10] Rolando P.Burgos, Parag Kshirsagar and Alessandro Lidozzi, Design and evaluation of a PLL-based position controller for sensorless vector control of permanent-magnet synchronous machines, in Proc. IECON06 Conf., vol. 2006,pp.5081-5086. [11] S.Bolognani, M.Tomasini, and L.Tubiana, Start-up strategy for a sensorless direct drive PM generator for wind turbines, in Proc. ISIE05 Conf.,vol. 2005,pp. 1081-1086

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