International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences

2015 Available online at www.irjabs.com

ISSN 2251-838X / Vol, 9 (8): 1421-1430
Science Explorer Publications

Statcom With Grey Wolf Optimizer Algorithm Based

Pi Controller For A Grid Connected Wind Energy
System
Majid Naderizadeh, Seyyed Javad Mohammadi Baygi*
Department of Electrical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Damghan Branch, Damghan, Iran
Corresponding Author email: mohammadi.s.j@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: One of the principal tasks of transmission system operators is to balance reactive power
within a grid connected to an energy resource. By developing technologies in the wind power storage,
wind turbines have to participate in the reactive power production during steady state as well as during
transient conditions. This paper presents the impact of STATCOM Compensator on the stability of power
systems connected with wind energy conversion systems. To enhance the performance of STATCOM on
the stability of wind energy grid connected system, the parameter tuning of STATCOM controllers which
is a significant problem in the stabilizing is optimized. In this paper, at first, DFIG system is described
summarized. After that, STATCOM system and its applications in electric power systems and wind farms
are shown. Then, the gray wolf optimizer algorithm is explained for controlling the STATCOM system.
Finally, control strategies for reactive power are shown. The result of the implementation of each control
strategy is shown by simulation. Simulation studies are carried out in Matlab/Simulink and the results
demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed controller
Key words: Grey Wolf Optimizer Algorithm, STATCOM, Wind farm, reactive power control, DFIG.
INTRODUCTION
Renewable energies are developing as efficient, sustainable and clean electric power systems which make
them as a critical research topic worldwide (U.S. Department of Energy, 2008; A.Ipakchi,F et al., 2009; IEEE Smart
Grid Initiative, 2015; European Commission, 2006). Wind power is the most rapidly growing source among various
renewable energy sources on the world. Whenever the wind is random and alternating, the problem in developing
such energy has been the lack of efficient control. Lately, there is a capacity of 34 giga watts for installing the wind
farms in the European Union. This statistic demonstrates more than 5 times development for the installed power
from the 20 years ago. The technology has evolved importantly while the cost of generated power has decreased.
The goal of the EEC in 2020 is to reach 12% of all generated energy from the wind power. This promotion rises
from a global requirement for cleaner energy and for move away from fossil fuels.
The emitted greenhouse gases ratio by a wind farm, both onshore and offshore, are about 1030kgCO2/MWh of energy while in fossil fuels it is about 400-500kgCO2/MWh of energy (Chaudhary, S. et al.,
2008). The growing significance of wind power in the current energy system depends on structural and valid
changes in the energy sector, increased environmental awareness, and technical improvement of wind power
production systems and their integration into the electricity grid (Chaudhary, S. et al., 2008). Generally, there are
three main kinds of wind power generators: permanent magnet synchronous generator squirrel-cage induction
generator, and doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). DFIG, because of its Transcendent over other two types, is
widely utilized in the wind power system (A. Grauers, 1996).
Among DFIG advantages, their high efficiency, flexible control and low investment are the most important
characteristics. In DFIG, the stator is directly connected to the power grid whereas the rotor is connected to the
power grid through a back-to-back converter.
The partnership of DFIG generators in wind turbines, improves frequency and stability of the voltage through
their decoupled control of active and reactive power. Although, the generated power by the wind farm to the
electricity network gives many defects, like:

Intl. Res. J. Appl. Basic. Sci. Vol., 9 (8), 1421-1430, 2015

Flicker phenomenon: it can be described as the sensation which is recognized by humans when subjected to
changes in illumination intensity. Maximum sensitivity frequency to illumination changes in human is a range
between 5Hz to 15Hz (Grunbaum, R., 2005). The undulating illumination is made by amplitude modulation of the
feeding alternating voltage. It is especially significant in weaker grids. Wind variations make use power variations
(Grunbaum, R., 2005; Singh, B. et al., 2009).
Fluctuations in frequency because of power fluctuations.
Harmonic radiation because of the presence of electronic power converters in wind turbines.
Fluctuations in voltage because of the aerodynamic aspects of wind turbines (Fadaeinedjad, et al. 2008).
To eliminate these problems, FACTS devices are utilized efficacious. Jowder studied transient stability
analysis of wind plants by using Static Series Synchronous Compensators in the infinite bus connected to the
network. In this study, wind power plants may arise in the terminal and the output voltage oscillations were omitted
(Jowder, 2007).
Joshi and Mohan examined induction generator of voltage, torque and current features at the breakdown
time in their study by using TCSC which is connected to the transmission lines as series in wind plant that
connected to grid (Joshi et al., 2006). Qi et al., in their study examined the influence of voltage and reactive power
features in fixed speed wind plants by using STATCOM (Qi et al., 2008). Suul and Undeland considered slide
moment characteristic in low power wind plant which has induction generator by using SVC and STATCOM (Suul
and Undeland, 2008).
In this research, for reforming the integration of wind farms into the electrical network, FACTS STATCOM is used.
DFIG Wind Turbine
In the studied system, the wind turbine is connected to the DFIG through a drive train system, which
includes a low and a high speed shaft with a gearbox in between. The integrated wind turbine with DFIG system is
a type of induction generator in which the stator windings are directly connected to the three-phase grid while the
rotor windings are fed into the three-phase back-to-back insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) based pulse width
modulation (PWM) converters.
The back-to-back PWM converter consists of three parts: a grid side converter (GSC), a rotor side converter
(RSC), and a DC Link capacitor placed between the two converters. Their controller also contains three parts: grid
side converter controller, rotor side converter controller and wind turbine controller. These controllers generate
smooth electrical power with constant voltage and frequency to the power grid while the wind system is working at
sub-synchronous speed or super-synchronous speed, depending on the velocity of the wind. Compared to directin-line systems, DFIG offers the following advantages:
Decreases inverter cost, because inverter rating is basically 25% of total system power, while the speed range of
the ASG is 33% around the synchronous speed.
Decreases cost of the inverter filters and EMI filters, because filters are rated for 0.25 p.u. total system power, and
inverter harmonics represent a smaller fraction of total system harmonics.
Improves system efficiency
Power-factor control can be implemented at lower cost, because the DFIG system (four-quadrant converter and
induction machine) typically operates similar to a synchronous generator.
The principle configuration of a DFIG wind turbine is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1. Doubly fed induction generator wind turbine system.

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Dynamic Model of Doubly Fed Induction Generator

To improve decoupled control of active and reactive power, a DFIG dynamic model is required. The
construction of a DFIG is like to a wound rotor induction machine (IM) and includes a three-phase stator winding
and a three-phase rotor winding. The latter is fed by slip rings. In a stationary reference frame, we can achieve the
voltage and torque equations for the DFIG as below:
(1)
sj
v sj rs .isj
j {1,2,3}
t
(2)

Rj
'
'
v Rj
rR' .i Rj

j {1,2,3}
t
3
(3)
d j
p
Tel . i j .
2 j 1
d

Transforming the above equations from three-phase to two-phase components and then rotating all
variables into a synchronous reference frame (dq) based on the equations below:
(4)
2
2
2

v d .v1 . cos v 2 . cos

v3 . cos

3
3
3

vd

2
2
2

. v1 . sin v 2 . sin
v3 . sin

3
3
3

v vd j.vq
v s rs .is

(5)

(6)

sj
t

j. s . s

(7)

'R
v R' rR' .i R'
j. R . 'R
t

(8)

s Ls .i s Lm .i 'R

(9)

R Lm .i s LR .i 'R

(10)

(11)
3
Tel . p. Im{ s , i s * }
2
Where R s mech is the rotor slip frequency. The synchronous reference frame can be connected to
the rotor or stator flux of the machine. However, a reference frame connected to the stator voltage space vector vS
is a straightforward alternative due to the fact that DFIG operates as a generator protecting or being fed with
constant stator voltage (T. Jahns and R.W.DeDoncker, 1996).
Hence, the voltage and the current in the stator are either given or controlled variables. Two interpretations
of the DFIG dynamic equations are possible. Asynchronous machine model is achieved when selecting the flux
connected to the rotor currents as a state variable. Choosing the air-gap flux as a state variable constantly leads to
an induction machine type model. This can be illustrated easily for steady state. In steady-state and by withdrawing
the stator resistance, the stator voltage can be reduced to the equation below:

vs j.s .Ls .I s V b

(12)

vb j. s .Lm .I 'R

(13)

In (13), voltage vector vb describes the back-EMF voltage induced in the stator by rotor current I 'R . This
rotor current is defined as the field current of the DFIG. The associated DFIG steady-state equivalent circuit and
vector diagram are shown in Fig. 2. Choosing the flux current as a state variable, the steady-state equivalent circuit
and vector diagram can be shown as Fig. 3. In the considered induction machine-type equivalent circuit, a slip s
can be introduced, according to:
(14)
mech R
s s

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By neglecting the rotor resistance and its leakage inductance, we have:

(15)
VR s d SR VS
where d SR is the voltage-transformation ratio between rotor and stator.

Figure 2. Equivalent circuit and vector diagram for the DFIG.

Figure 3. Equivalent circuit and vector diagram of an induction type DFIG.

The mechanical power delivered to the shaft of the generator and the active power delivered to the rotor by
the four-quadrant converter can be achieved by the well-known IM equations:
(16)
PR S PS
(17)
Pmech (1 S ) PS
The power flow in the DFIG for over-synchronous and under-synchronous operation is clearly described in
the eq. 14 and eq.15.

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Figure 4. Maximum output power as a function of slip s (left) or speed ratio n/n0 (right).

STATCOM Description and Modeling

A STATCOM is a voltage source converter based device, with the voltage source behind a reactor. The
voltage source is created from a DC capacitor and therefore a STATCOM has very little active power capability.
The frequency of the described voltages is the AC system frequency. Since, PWM techniques are utilized to control
The AC/DC power converter, the output voltages obtained are practically sinusoidal.
These controllers are conceivable by the high switching frequency of the IGBT, GTO, IGCT or IEGT
transistors of the power converter (Yu, Q. et al., 2004).
The system connects to the grid is described by a fast response time and its capability to utilize a control
voltage to the connection point through reactive power compensation which can be used to filter harmonics,
improve transient and dynamic stability, voltage collapse, dynamic over voltages and under voltages, steady state
voltage, excess reactive power flow and undesirable power flow (Hingorani, N., 2007).
The operating principle of STATCOM is as follows:
v vs ( per units)
R
L
If
, no current flows through tr and tr .
If v vs ( per units) , current flows through Rtr and Ltr . The current phasor is perpendicular to v s and v voltages
where the impedance is essentially inductive. The reactive current will be injected to the grid by the STATCOM.
If v vs ( per units) , current flows through Rtr and Ltr . In this case, the current flow is contrary to the previous,
which means that reactive power from the grid will absorbed by the STATCOM.
A summary of the operating principle exposed is shown in Fig.5. Inductive or capacitive currents appear
due to the module of v and v s voltages.

Figure 5. STATCOM: Operating principle and operation area of

STATCOM reactive current can be achieved by the difference between grid voltage and power converter
voltage.
Reactive current is not dependent of the voltage of the connection point of STATCOM and is limited by the grid
voltage variation and capacity of the power converter.

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Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO)

Grey wolf optimization (GWO) is a new meta-heuristic algorithm which is presented in 2014 by Mirjalili et al
(Mirjalili,et al, 2014). GWO algorithm is derived by grey wolves. The method which inspired from the social
hierarchy and hunting behavior of grey wolves.
For simulating the leadership steps in GWO algorithm, four groups are considered: alpha, beta, delta, and
omega. Furthermore, the three main steps of hunting, encircling prey, searching for prey, and attacking prey, are
simulated.
In this algorithm, a number of parameters are required to be set: initialize alpha, beta, and delta, maximum
number of iterations, number of search agents, and number of sites selected for neighborhood search (out of n
visited sites) and the stopping criterion.
The summarized steps of grey wolf hunting are described in the below:
Tracking, chasing, and reaching the target.
Pursuing, encircling, and harassing the target until it stops moving.
Attack towards the victim.
The fittest solution is considered as the alpha ( ) for modeling the social hierarchy of wolves until
designing GWO. Since, the second and third best solutions are described by beta ( ) and delta ( ) respectively.
The rest of the candidate solutions are described as omega ( ). The x wolves follow these three wolves. After
that, encircling behavior is modeled as below:
(18)
D C. X P (t ) X (t )
(19)

X (t 1) X P (t ) A.D
where t is the current iteration, A and

C are coefficient vectors, X P (t ) represents the position vector of

the victim. The vectors A and C can be calculated as below:

(20)
X 2a.r a
1

(21)

C 2.r2

where a contains linearly decreased from 2 to 0 over the course of iterations and r1 and r2 are random
vectors in the range [0, 1].
In GWO algorithm, after the first implementation, three of best achieved solutions will be saved so far and
compel the other search agents (including the omegas) to update their positions due to the position of the best
search agents. Mathematical model for this step is shown in below:
(22)
D C .X X , D C .X X , D C .X X

X 1 X A1. D , X 2 X A2 . D , X 3 X A3 . D ,

(23)

(24)
X 1 (t ) X 2 (t ) X 3 (t )
3
The final position would be in a random state within a circle which is described by the positions of alpha,
beta, and delta in the search space. In other words alpha, beta, and delta approximate the victim position and other
wolves update their positions randomly about the victim. Pseudo code of the algorithm is shown in the below:

X (t 1)

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Figure 6. Pseudo code of the GWO algorithm.

GWO-based optimal tuning of STATCOM parameters

Wind farm integration to grid may cause voltage increasing which can exceed maximum restrictions at
connection bus [3]. In this research, parameters for STATCOM controller are optimized by GWO algorithm to hold
bus voltage at the reference value for steady-state operation and to minimize the voltage deviations instantly after a
heavy loaded line loss which is connected to the wind farm. For keeping the sufficient voltage profile, objective
function, J is considered as below:
t
(25)
1
J
Vref V dt
t

Reference bus voltage value and bus voltage are described by Vref and V respectively at the connection
bus of STATCOM. Vref is set to 1.0 pu for this research. Optimization problem of the present study can be
considered as below:
Min J

(26)

K rmin K r K rmax
Trmin Tr Trmax
Fitness function which is constrained by controller parameters restrictions is minimized by using GWO
algorithm. It is implemented by using MATLAB. Time-domain simulation, which is applied by using PSAT, is run for
each particle to get optimum controller parameters. Depending on the options that are characterized by user, GWO
makes initial population, randomly. Then, time domain simulation is applied by PSAT for each population. Finally,
after the GWO steps, the minimum fitness function value is selected as STATCOM controller parameters.
GWO is employed for optimizing the fitness function and after that a comparison between GWO and PSO
algorithms is shown the high performance of the GWO.
Table 1. GWO and PSO Parameters
Parameters
Number of Search Agent
Maximum Iteration

Value
30
50

SIMULATION AND RESULTS

Simulations are implemented for the modeled system which is shown approximately in the fig.7.

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Figure 7. model of the DFIG connected to the grid by an optimized STATCOM system.

Effects of wind farm and STATCOM integrations to the systems are investigated. STATCOM controller
parameters are optimized by GWO technique. Time-domain analysis is used to solve the optimization problem.
Fitness function and controller parameters are achieved by random case for the system. The random case is
achieved as a heavy-loaded line loss which is connected to the wind farm and STATCOM. For all simulations, timedomain analysis is applied by using PSAT which is a toolbox from the MATLAB.
Table 2. Optimization results
Parameters

Optimized values by PSO

Optimized values by GWO

Kr

984.58

1000.125

Tr

1.2

2.48

After simulation the system, the final response for the GWO based optimization technique is compared by
the PSO based optimization technique. As it can be seen from fig.10, the overshoot, undershoot and also settling
time in the system with GWO based optimizer is less than the PSO based system. Optimized STATCOM
parameters values by GWO and PSO are given in Table 2. Results show that the STATCOM is successfully
improved by applying GWO technique.

Figure 8. 3phase input rotor current

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Figure 9. 3phase input stator current

Figure 10. A comparison of the system response by GWO (black-line) and PSO (purple-line) for optimizing the STATCOM in the
DFIG system.

CONCLUSION
This paper presents an optimization based technique for reactive power control in wind farms with
STATCOM. In this paper, doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) and STATCOM efficacies on voltage profile of grid
connection bus are analyzed for normal condition and random condition.
It was illustrated that using an optimization algorithm to control the STATCOM inside a wind farm,
considerable savings can be obtained. So, we recommended integrating an optimization based algorithm in the
wind farm control structure. Since, optimal parameters of STATCOM are optimized by applying gray wolf optimizer
technique.
Simulation results show that the bus voltage can be increased above maximum limits by DFIG connection.
STATCOM is used to control the voltage and reactive power; because, STATCOM can act efficient and rapid to
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control the voltage profile with optimal parameters setting at the stochastic condition. Final results also showed the
success of the proposed GWO technique.
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