Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on

Modelling, Identification and Control, Wuhan, China, June 24-26, 2012

On-Off Control of Wind Turbine for Maximum Wind Power Point

Tracking
Feng Zhang, Hongguang Lan, Feng Qiao, Xueyang Sun, and Shuang Sun

AbstractOn the basis of explaining the wind turbines

operating characteristics and analyzing the relationship
between the wind speed and the power extracted by a wind
turbine system with variable speed constant frequency, an
on-off control method is investigated for the maximum power
point tracking (MPPT) of a wind energy conversion system. In
this paper, a mathematic model of a squirrel-cage induction
generator control system is established, a decoupling method is
employed to achieve the purpose of MPPT, and simulation
studies are made with Matlab/Simulink to verify the
effectiveness of the purposed algorithm, and the simulation
results show that the efficiency of the control strategy.
Index TermsWind turbine; Maximum power point tracking;
On-Off control

I. INTRODUCTION

n today's human survival and development, energy and

environment are the pressing problems to be solved. Wind
power, as one source of inexhaustible, clean and
pollution-free power, it is prospective of large-scale
development and utilization, and is to an effective form by
harnessing the wind. At present, the main power generation
system of wind driven generator is VSCF (Variable Speed
Constant Frequency) wind power generation system for grid.
The greatest advantage of it is that the output of the power
generator can be changed with variable wind speed, the
power and wind speed are closely related to the rotor speed of
the generator, and there is an optimal speed point at certain
rotation speed to make the output power reaches a maximum.
As for wind power systems, how to control generator speed
from the wind speed variation to capture to the largest wind
power has considerable influence with the overall efficiency

Manuscript received March 10, 2012. This work was supported in part by
the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China, under Grant
2008-K2-18 and Department of Education of Liaoning Provincial
Government, China, Grant 2009A603.
Feng Zhang is with the Faculty of Information and Control Engineering,
Shenyang Jianzhu University, 9 Hunnan East Road, Hunnan New District,
Shenyang,
110168
China.
(Tel:
0086-24-2469-0672,
Fax:
0086-24-2469-0042, eMail:fzhang@sjzu.edu.cn).
Honhguang Lan is with the Faculty of Information and Control
Engineering, Shenyang Jianzhu University, 9 Hunnan East Road, Hunnan
New District, Shenyang, 110168 China.
Feng Qiao is with the Faculty of Information and Control Engineering,
Shenyang Jianzhu University, 9 Hunnan East Road, Hunnan New District,
Shenyang, 110168 China
Shuang Sun is with the Faculty of Information and Control Engineering,
Shenyang Jianzhu University, 9 Hunnan East Road, Hunnan New District,
Shenyang, 110168 China.
Xueyang Sun is with the Faculty of Information and Control Engineering,
Shenyang Jianzhu University, 9 Hunnan East Road, Hunnan New District,
Shenyang, 110168 China.

963

of wind power generation system. Thus, the maximum wind

power tracking strategy remains a hot spot of VSCF wind
power control system research field [1, 2].
At present, the maximum wind power tracking control
mainly involves the optimal tip speed ratio method, power
feedback method and hill climbing method. How to get the
optimal tip speed ratio in the wind power system was studied
in [3] with double PWM converter control algorithm, and
with the auto-tuning fuzzy PI control strategy, it proposed a
feasible control scheme for the optimal tip speed ratio control.
But the optimal tip speed ratio method need real-time
accurately measure of the wind speed, which is more difficult
in practice. Maximum wind power tracking can be achieved
with the power feedback method by adjusting the rotor of the
generator excitation amplitude and frequency to change the
generator speed. This method needs to set a wind turbines
optimal tip speed ratio according to the practical situation in
advance. Hill climbing method is to tracking maximum
output power points by measuring real-time wind turbine
speed and output power. It tracks maximum output power
points by classical mathematical optimization method. The
optimal DC current control was adopted in [4] to adjust the
input DC current to follow the optimal reference current. The
existing three algorithms were analyzed and studied in [5] to
capture maximum wind power, it points out that the mountain
climbing method avoids the problem of measuring the wind
speed, but it needs to real-time measure the output power and
the rotor speed of the wind turbine, and the measuring time
often affect control precision. So a maximum wind power
capture strategy was proposed in this paper which not only
depends on wind velocity measured but also has high control
precision. On the basis of the analysis of VSCF wind power
system structure, according to the dynamics of the wind
turbine, a model of the induction generator is established for
the induction generator power to realize the rotor current
decoupling so as to adjust generator speed. Through the
calculated electromagnetic torque, the expected electromagnetic torque of the On-Off control is compared with to
adjust the rotor current for the adjustment of the generator
speed. This method avoids the problem of real-time
measuring wind speed, and it responses quickly to the low
frequency wind speed change. It can realize capture of the
maximum power with higher accuracy.

Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on

Modelling, Identification and Control, Wuhan, China, June 24-26, 2012

maximum output power point, which corresponds to the

maximum wind energy conversion coefficient C p max .

II. DYNAMICS OF AIR WIND TURBINE

According to Betz theory, the mechanical power harvested
by a wind turbine Pa is expressed as:

Pa

1
R 2V 3 C p ( , )
2

Connecting each maximum output power points under

different wind speeds, we can get the optimal curve Pmax of
wind turbine mechanical power output [7, 8]. To make wind
power operated on this curve, it must adjust rotor speed
timely when the wind speed changes to maintain the optimal
tip ratio and wind turbine can capture the maximum wind
power. At the same time, the maximal mechanical power will
be captured. This paper starts from the stator vector formula
under the synchronization reference frame. According to the
characteristics of the stator-flux orientation, deduce the
relationship between generator speed and the rotor current.
Using On-Off control to output the reference electromagnetic
torque, compared with the actual generator torque, we can get
the reference rotor current to achieve the purpose of
controlling the generator speed.

(1)

where R is the blade radius of the wind turbine, is the air

mass density, V is the wind speed, is the tip speed ratio,

is the pitch angle, C p is the wind turbine energy

coefficient with the maximum of 59.3% Betz limit.
The tip speed ratio is defined as:

m R

(2)

where m is a wind turbine rotor speed.

In fact, C p is the efficiency of transforming the wind
power to mechanical power by the wind turbine, and it is the
function of tip speed ratio and pitch angle of blades. It
is shown in (1) that in the certain wind speed circumstances,
the captured mechanical power by the wind turbine will only
depend on wind power conversion coefficient. Adjusting
blades pitch angle to manipulate the operation of a wind
turbine belongs to mechanical regulation. Generally, for the
electrical adjustment, the pitch angle of blade is kept to a
constant. So C p is only the function of , the relation curve
between them is one of basic characteristics of a wind turbine.

Fig. 2. The power characteristics of the wind turbine

III. BUILD A WIND TURBINE CONTROL MODEL

Fig. 1. The relation graph of

A. On-Off Control System

The purpose of the MPPT (Maximum Power Point
Tracking) control strategy is to use the characteristics of static
power-speed curve to make wind power conversion system
running nearby the maximum power point. At this moment,
the wind capture rate is the optimal.
From (1), we can see that the input power Pa of the wind
turbines is decided by wind speed and conversion efficiency
as the wind speed is constantly changing. So that, the wind
energy conversion efficiency C p should be kept at its

Cp

For a given , wind turbine C p curve is as shown in

optimal to get the maximum power harvest. As C p is the

Fig. 1. It can be seen that for a certain wind turbine, when

function of both blades pitch angle and the ratio of the tip
, if is constant, there is always an optimal tip speed ratio

is certain, there is always an optimal tip speed ratio opt

corresponding to the maximal power coefficient C p max , now

opt corresponding to the maximal power coefficient C p max

the wind turbine conversion efficiency is the highest. In other

words, for a particular wind speed v , wind turbine has the
highest wind energy conversion efficiency only when it runs
on a specific speed .
From the Fig. 2, it can be seen that under different wind
speed the output power of wind turbine changes as the rotor
speed changes [6]. In different variable wind speed, there is a

and at this time the wind turbine conversion efficiency is the

highest. In other words, for a particular wind speed V , wind
turbine has the highest wind energy conversion efficiency
only when operating at a specific speed . And can be
controlled by electromagentic torque to adjust through the
practical electromagnetic torque and the expectations of the
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Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on

Modelling, Identification and Control, Wuhan, China, June 24-26, 2012

electromagnetic torque and ultimately to achieve the purpose

of the speed control. The electromagnetic torque can be
obtained by the On-Off control.
The On-Off control strategy is commonly used in wind
energy conversion system under rated wind speed, meeting
the requirements of the system to make rapid response to low
frequency wind speed changes [9]. In order to ensure the
optimal energy conversion, we should make the system
operating steadily in the optimal condition characteristics. To
achieve this goal, On-Off control is adopted to make actual
tip speed ratio to track the optimal one.
Here, the difference between the optimal tip speed ratio
and actual tip speed ratio is defined as
opt
(3)

wind speed. Then the proposed On-Off controller can be

designed with (3) to (6).

uN

u eq

WECS

VS

B. Mathematical Model of SCIG

The rotor of the squirrel-cage asynchronous generator is
short circuit. So in the rotor field-oriented conditions, udr 0 ,
uqr 0 , dr r , qr 0 [10-15]. So in the d-q rotation

where ueq is equivalent control which is a smooth component,

corresponding to the optimal operating point (at opt ) defined
as:
(5)

C ( )
1
R 3 p opt , N is the gear box ratio; and u N
Nopt
2

is a high-frequency switching component, varying between

two values defined as:
u N sgn( )

In order to gets the actual electromagnetic torque, a

mathematical model of a Squirrel-Cage Induction Generator
(SCIG) in d-q rotating coordinate system is established.

The control objective is to design the On-Off control

algorithm to regulate the rotor speed according to the wind
speed to make the tracking error as small as possible.
The output of the design On-Off controller u is [16]:
u ueq u N
(4)

here K

[v]

Fig. 3. The On-off controller structure

maximum power can be captured with C p C p max .

C p (opt )
1
2
R 3Vs 2
KVs
Nopt
2

vs

*
e

1
TG s 1

where opt is the optimal tip speed ratio under which the

u eq

opt

coordinate system, the voltage equation of the squirrel-cage

asynchronous generator is as follows:
Lm p 1 Lm ids
u ds Rs Ls p 1 Ls


Rs Ls p 1 Lm Lm p iqs
u qs 1 Ls
(7)
0 Lm p
0
Rr Lr p 0 idr


0
s Lr
Rr iqr
0 s Lm
The flux equations of stator are as follows:
ds Ls 0 Lm 0
ids


qs 0 Ls 0 Lm iqs
(8)
L 0 L 0 i
dr
r

dr m

qr 0 Lm 0 Lr iqr
The torque equations of vector controlling are as follows:
L
Te n p m isq r
(9)
Lr

(6)

here is a constant, u N switching between and .

( sgn( ) is a sign function of : when 0 ,
sgn( ) 1 , when 0 , sgn( ) 1 .) The equivalent

control ueq makes the system operated in the optimal point,

and the switching control u N makes the system worked

stably nearby the optimal operating point. Fig. 3 shows the
structure of the On-Off controller. In the figure, the function
of the Zero-Order Holder is to limit switch frequency TG is
the time constant of generator.
In Fig. 3, the wind energy conversion system (WECS)
converts wind power into electrical power, the wind acts on
the blades of the wind turbine to drive the rotor, the wind
speed is measured as well as the speed of the rotor. Then, the
actual tip speed ratio can be obtained according to (2), and
the optimal tip speed ratio opt can be obtained with the

Lm
isd
Tr p 1

(10)

Lm
isq
Tr r

(11)

where r is the rotor flux, 1 the stator electricity angular

velocity, s is the slip angular velocity, Ls is stator
inductance, Lr is the rotor inductance, Lm is the excitation
circuit reactance. In the expression of components and rotor
flux, Tr Lr / Rr . In (10), the rotor flux r only has a
relationship with isd which is the excitation component of
stator current, and has nothing to do with isq which is the
stator current torque component. When the rotor flux r is
constant, the generator torque Te is only for the stator current

maximum conversion coefficient C p max and the measured

torque component to decide. So through the control of isq , we

can control the electromagnetic torque of the generator. The
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Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on

Modelling, Identification and Control, Wuhan, China, June 24-26, 2012

key to decoupling the stator current is the observation of the

position of the rotor flux, the turning slip frequency s and

torque Te is controlled by isq , realizing decoupling of the

magnetic flux and torque. The expected electromagnetic
torque Te* is generated by the output of reference
electromagnetic torque of the On-Off control, according to
the torque and flux, we can get the given torque current of
q-axis, according to the given magnetic flux value of the field
current in d-axis. The output of torque current loop and
exciter current loop regulator, which achieves the aim of
controlling the generator by control procedures by coordinate
transformation (2r/3s) and Space Vector Pulse Width
Modulation (SVPWM) control converter working, and
realize wind energy extraction and maximum power tracing.
In Fig. 4, the function of the slip calculation is to get the slip
angular velocity s , and the rotor flux calculations function

the measured angular velocity r adding together can get

stator frequency 1 , then we can get the needed rotor flux
angle after integral, finally use the current tracking control
methods to control inverter. In a word, because the
decoupling between two components of the stator current, isd
and isq only decided by r , isq only affect the torque, they
correspond to the exciter current and armature current of DC
generator, so this greatly simplifies the multi variably strong
coupling problem of asynchronous generator.
The converter adopts the rotor flux oriented vector control
as shown in Fig. 4, which consists of electric circuit and speed
outer ring. The direction of the stator current in d-axis, isd

is to get the rotor flux r .

determines the direction of r , that is to say, the generator

On-off
control
torque
Calculation

Te*

Te

isq

PI

i sq

i sd

Torque
Calcula
tion

PI

2r/3s

Rotor flux
Calculation

isq

isB

isC

SVPWM

isA

isd
Slip
Calculation

isA

isB

3s/2r

isC

Fig. 4. Diagram of vector control of SCIG

The simulation results are shown in Figs. 5-9.

I. SIMULATION STUDIES

Cp
0.5

In order to verify effectiveness of the On-Off control

designed for a WECS with squirrel-cage asynchronous
generator, simulation studies were carried out with
Matlab/Simulink.
The parameters of the wind turbine are selected as: the air
density 1.29kg /m 3 , the blade radius of the wind turbine
R 2.5m ,the maximum wind power conversion coefficient
C p max 0.45 , the optimal tip speed ratio opt 8 , the

0.45
0.4
0.35

cp

0.3

0.2
0.15
0.1

generator parameters: the gearbox speed ratio N 4 , the

rated voltage 220V, the rated frequency 50Hz, the stator
winding resistance R s 1.160 , the rotor winding resistance
R r 1.233

the

stator

winding

0.25

0.05
0

self-inductance

10

15

20

25
t/s

30

35

40

45

50

Fig. 5. The power coefficient C p

Lr 0.1352mH , the transformer between the stator winding

The simulation of the wind speed is stochastic wind, with

the maximum wind speed 8m/s, the minimum wind speed
5m/s. Fig. 5 is the rotor power coefficient C p . In Fig. 5, it can

and equivalent rotor winding L m 0.1292mH , the rotor

inertia J 3kgm 2 .
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Proceedings of 2012 International Conference on

Modelling, Identification and Control, Wuhan, China, June 24-26, 2012

Fig. 9 shows the generator speed, from this figure, it can be

seen that the generator speed is more stable through
continuous adjusting the electromagnetic torque, making the
speed under the control of the tip speed ratio to achieve the
optimal ratio.

be seen that when the system is stable, C p is stable down, it is

located basically in 0.45. The value is steady.
Tip speed ratio
12

10

Generator speed
250

lam

200

6
150
Omgh

100

10

15

20

25
t/s

30

35

40

45

50

50

Fig. 6. Actual tip speed ratio

Fig. 6 is the actual tip speed ratio . From Fig. 6, it can be

seen that the tip speed ratio controlled by the On-Off
control algorithm is closed to its optimal value opt 8 .

10

15

20

25
t/s

30

35

40

45

50

Fig. 9. Generator speed

II. CONCLUSIONS

Reference electromagnetic torque

5

Based on the analysis of the maximum power point

tracking (MPPT) principle in wind turbine systems, a
mathematical model is established, in this paper, for a wind
energy conversion system with SCIG, and an On-Off
controller is designed to tackle the problem of MPPT for wind
power extraction in WECS.
In this paper, in order to verify the effectiveness of the
proposed On-Off control strategy, the simulation studies were
made with Matlab/Simulink, and the simulation results show
the desirable MPPT under rated wind speed.

emTref

-5

-10

-15

-20

10

15

20

25
t/s

30

35

40

45

50

REFERENCES

Fig. 7. Reference electromagnetic torque

[1]

Electromagnetic torque
5

[2]
0

[3]

emT

-5

-10

[4]

-15

[5]

-20

10

15

20

25
t/s

30

35

40

45

[6]

50

Fig. 8. Actual electromagnetic torque

[7]

Fig. 7 is the reference electromagnetic torque and Fig. 8 is

the actual electromagnetic torque Te . From Figs. 7-8, it can
be seen that the electromagnetic torque can kept up with
reference value quickly by the vector control mainly, so as to
achieve the speed control.

[8]

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