I2MTC 2008 - IEEE International Instrumentation and
Measurement Technology Conference
Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada, May 12-15, 2008
Modeling and Design of a Grid Connection Control Mode
for a Small Variable-Speed Wind Turbine System
L. Mihet-Popal, V. Groza2, 0. Prostean' and I. Szeidert'
'Department of Electrical Machines and Drives, POLITEHNICA University of Timisoara, Romania
Bvd. V. Parvan, No.2, Timisoara, 300223, Romania, Phone: +40-256-403464, E-mail: mihetz@yahoo.com
2 School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE), University of Ottawa,
800 King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, KIN 6N5, Canada, Email: GrozawSITE.uOttawa.ca
Abstract - In this paper, a variable-speed wind turbine generator
system with a vector controlled back-to-back P WM-VSI on the stator
side has been modeled, designed and simulated to study its steady
state and dynamic behavior. The grid connection control mode of a
wind turbine based on a flexible dSPACE digital signal processor
system that allows user-friendly code development, monitoring and
online tuning is used. The design of an LCL-filter, current controller
and DC-link voltage controller are described in detail. The PI-
controllers are designed using pole-zero placement technique and
the gain of the regulators are found using root locus method.
Keywords - back-to-back PWM-VSI, LCL-filter, induction
generator, variable-speed wind turbine.
I. INTRODUCTION
The use of cage rotor induction generators (CRIG) with a
back-to-back pulse width modulation (PWM) voltage source
converter (VSC), for direct grid connection wind energy
conversion systems, has become a quite attractive in the last
ten years, in both low power and very high power level [1, 3,
5]. Small efficient wind turbines can be used to supply
private houses or farms in remote locations in developing
countries where low-cost access to the electrical power grid is
impractical [1, 5].
Due to the latest developments in power and digital
electronics, the market for small distributed power generation
systems connected to the domestic grid is increasing rapidly.
Increased energy production at low wind speed (6-8 m/s),
elimination of the capacitor bank necessary for
magnetization, and the possibility for grid-connected and
stand-alone operation modes can thus be achieved at the
expense of a back-to-back converter with a flexible control
[2-3].
The trend is that these systems should be able to work in
stand-alone mode but also connected to isolated local grid in
parallel with others generators, such as other wind turbines,
photovoltaic or diesel generators [1].
The variable speed wind turbines represent a new
technology within wind power for large-scale applications
and their models have to be set up for making power stability
investigations. Therefore, this concept will be analyzed as
follows. Also, the design of the current and voltage
controllers and of an LCL-filter are presented.
1-4244-1541-1/08/$25.00 C 2008 IEEE
II. SISTEM DESCRIPTION AND MODELING
The power configuration of the developed system is
depicted in Fig. 1. It consists of a three-phase cage-rotor
induction generator, the generator converter to control the
speed, a DC-link, and a full-bridge grid converter connected
to the grid through an LCL-filter.
Three commercial frequency converters (Danfoss-VLT
5022) rated 18.5 kVA/400 V are used [3]. The first one uses a
scalar open-loop torque control and is feeding a 15 kW
induction motor in order to emulate the wind turbine. The
second converter is used as generator converter and uses
vector flux control to regulate the speed of the generator and
to provide the magnetizing flux for the machine. The last
converter is used as grid converter for controlling the active
and reactive power independently and is connected to the grid
through an LCL-filter. The LCL filter is used because it
achieves better current ripple attenuation than L or RL-filters
[8].
A. Wind Turbine Emulator
The wind turbine rotor is emulated using a standard 6-
poles 15 kW/400 V cage-rotor induction machine controlled
by a commercial frequency converter operated in open-loop
torque control mode. The induction motor is mechanically
coupled with the induction generator.
The wind speed, which is the input of the wind turbine
emulator, is calculated as an average value of the fixed-point
wind speed over the whole rotor, and it is implemented via
dSPACE digital controller. It takes the tower shadow and the
rotational turbulences into account [4, 5].
The aerodynamic model of the wind turbine rotor is based
on the power coefficient (Cp), which represents the rotor
efficiency of the turbine (aerodynamic efficiency of the
blades), also taken from a look-up table. The aerodynamic
torque is given by:
TrTrot =Paero 1 2*R3
p ;TR u 2 C . (1)
=
22
2
-
.eq pc......0
Crot
 7 1103 7tle
LCL

F d7N JEt . I
\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--- CF I

Fig. 1. Variable-speed wind generator system.

where (Paero) is the aerodynamic power developed on the

main shaft of wind turbine with the blade radius (R), at a
wind speed (ueq) and the air density (p). The blade tip speed
ratio (X) depends on the rotor speed (Wrot), blade radius and
wind speed, according to:
o
.
rot
R reference for the control strategy implemented-Space Vector
Ueq
The power coefficient (Cp) decreases when the wind speed
(ueq) increases (2 small), [5]. This fact is used in the passive
stall controlled wind turbines (our case).
B. Induction generator control
The generator control (generator converter + controller) is
working in closed-loop speed control mode where the speed
reference is chosen in order to extract the power from the
wind turbine to a certain wind speed. It is used to control
mechanical power on the generator shaft.
The generator converter (AC/DC) is a sensorless vector
controlled (VC) VLT connected to the induction generator
and produces voltage on the DC-link, as is shown in Fig. 1.
The equation of motion at the induction generator shaft is
given by:
Fig. 2. Control structure for grid connected control mode.
The output of the current controllers sets the voltage
Modulation (SVM), which controls the switches of the grid
converter (Fig. 2). The synchronization with the grid is
achieved by using a Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL), as can be
seen in Fig. 3.
The principle of PLL is that the sinus of the difference
between the grid phase (y) and the inverter phase angle (0)
can be reduced to zero using a PI-controller, and thus locking
the grid inverter phase to the grid, knowing that for small
arguments we can consider [1]:
sin(y- 0) _y- 0 = AO.(4)
The signal (AO) is used as a correction angle. The output
of the PI-controller is the inverter output frequency that is
integrated to obtain the inverter phase. In order to improve
the dynamic response at startup, the nominal frequency of the
grid (co0) is feed-forwarded to the output of the PI-controller.
D. Model of the LCL-filter

dt The main goal to implement an LCL-filter is to reduce the

In which (Telm) represents the electromagnetic torque of current ripple due to the PWM-modulator. In comparison
induction machine, (Td) is the driving torque (positive in with a standard RL-filter or an L-filter, an LCL-filter is
motoring mode and negative in generating mode), (J) smaller and less expansive and has the same attenuation
represent the equivalent moment of inertia for induction levels of current ripple than RL-filter [1-2]. In a symmetrical
machine and the driving mechanism and (Qr) is the three-phase system an equivalent single-phase LCL-filter can
mechanical rotor angular speed. be represented as shown in Fig. 4 a).
Parasitic serial resistances of the inductances are ignored;
C. Grid converter control instead that resistance RD is added for reducing the filter
damping at its resonance frequency.
The control structure for grid-connected control mode is
shown in Fig. 2. Standard PI-controllers are used to regulate
the grid currents in d-q synchronous frame in the inner
control loops and the DC-voltage in outer loop.
A decoupling of the cross-coupling is implemented in
order to compensate the couplings due to the output filter.
The reference current in the q-axis of the current loop is set to
zero in order to achieve zero phase angles between voltage
and current. In this way the unity power factor can be
achieved. Fig. 3. PLL structure used to synchronize the grid converter
voltage with the grid voltage.
 E. Controlpanel
I 11 ~ L;
~ ~ ~~1.c-iG
The whole control strategy of the wind turbine emulator
a)T and control is implemented in MATLAB & Simulink using a
dSPACE - DS1103 controller. The dSPACE-DS1103 is a
mixed RISK/DSP digital controller providing a powerful 64-
a) bit floating point processor for calculations as well as
comprehensive I/0 capability.
A virtual control panel developed in Control Desk [7] that
1s controls the whole system is shown in Fig. 5. The control
layout is divided into two parts: generator control and grid
converter control. In the generator control panel, the
i
reference for the generator speed and the mechanical power
iI can be set. In the grid-converter control panel the references
b) for the active and reactive power to be transfer to the grid are
Fig. 4. An equivalent single phase LCL-filter (a), and its model in s-plane (b). given. The DC-voltage reference can also be changed in the
allowable range. A test control panel for online tuning of the
The mathematical model (s-plane) of the single-phase controllers has also been done. It proved to be a very
LCL-filter can be written as follows: convenient method to fine-tune the PI-controllers in the
whole system.
iI-ic-C i= 0
uI(s) =ii LI s+uC III. CONTROL DESIGN
UG (S) =-iG *LI S + UC (5) Design of the grid connection control mode is based on the
mathematical model of the system. Complete controller
UC (s) i= RD + design (Fig. 2) contains 3 main parts: current controller
design, DC-link voltage controller design and LCL-filter
From (5) we can get the grid current (G) and the inverter design as will be described in the following.
current (ij):
A. LCL-filter Design
I, (S) = L (UI -UC )
The LCL-filter gives a better attenuation of the switching
(6)
s*L1
...............................

ripple compared to a classic L-filter as it is a third-order filter

iG(S)= L .(UC -UG) (6), and therefore it can be designed using smaller
components [1, 8].
where LI represents the inverter-side inductance, LG is the The parameters of the controller will be obtained based on
grid-side inductance and CF is the filter capacitance. the transfer functions of the system modeled in paragraph 2
From Fig. 4 a) can also be written the next equations: D. The PI current controller with de-coupling is designed
using pole-zero placement technique.
(7) When designing an LCL-filter the limits on the parameter
UG (S) Z21 "i + Z22 iG values should be considered [6]:
In which the capacitor value (CF) is limited by the tolerable
decrease of the power factor at rated power PN (less than 5
Z11 z =S.L+SRCf
* Sl
CF ;Z12 S - CFI X(8
the total value of the inductance should be lower than 10
00 of the grid impedance (Zb) to limit the DC-link voltage
(8)
(voltage drops during operation);
Z G+S+ C
Z21z=RD) + C ;'Z22 =2RD+s.LG the resonance frequency should be included in a range
between 10 times the line frequency and one half of the
The transfer function in the s-plane of a single-phase LCL- switching frequency in order not to create resonance
filter with passive damping can be written as: problems in the lower and higher parts of the harmonic
spectrum;
H(s) i1 (s)
= Z22
the passive resistors should be chosen as a compromise
UI(S) Z11*Z22-Z12*Z21 between the necessary damping and the losses in the system.
2 ~~~~~~~(9) The passive damping cannot be to low in order to avoid
+RDCFs+l
LGCFS (
oscillations and the losses cannot be too high to not reduce
LILGCFS 3+RDCF (LI +LG) S +(LI +LG)Ys efficiency.
 The solution of the damping resistance (RD) is based on
the impedance of the capacitor at the resonance frequency.
Neglecting losses we get:

co
re
=LI LGL+L*CF =14.7103j[rad/s]
G
(7
1 G F (17)
fres = I1T * Cres = 2.33[kHz]
The damping is a compromise between power losses and
stability requirements:
RD =-* = 3.79-4[Q] ................ (18)
3 (toeres CF
Bode Diagram of the transfer function (9) of the
Fig. 5. Control desk panel for testing the wind turbine control strategy.
undamped and damped LCL-filter and of the L-filter is
presented in Fig. 6.
Base values are calculated based on line-to-line voltage
(EN), nominal power (PN) and grid frequency (WG): B. Current Controller Design
Zb N)_ = 14.550Q;Cb= = 218.8pF (10) In order to design the PI current controllers, the transfer
PN )G Zb function of the LCL-filter (19) is considered as the system
Total voltage drop on the filter should be less than 10 00,

plant, and discretized using zero-order hold (zoh) method at a

therefore total inductance should be less than: sampling frequency of 5 kHz. This switching frequency was
used as a compromise between current ripple, control
LTOT = 4.6mH .................... (11)
dynamics, inverter switching losses and dead-time influences.
COG
The resonance frequency is set to half of the switching The transfer function of the plant in s-plane is:
frequency (f,=5 kHz):
69res = k cWs = 0-5*2z * fsw = 15708rad / s (12) ...
G(s) i=G(s)
The factor (k) express how far is the switching frequency uI (s) (19)

from the resonance frequency. RD CF s+1

Adopting 2.7 impedance for the converter side, a 10
current ripple can be obtained when using only an L-filter.
LILGCF S +RDCF (LI +LG) +(LI +LG).s S

With additional LC part the aim is to reduce the ripple at 2 0/ Using equivalent in z-plane:
ZL= Zb .27/O = 0.393[Q] .(13) G(z) (1 _ z-1). z
= ...................)Z{..) (20)
The inverter side inductance (LI) is then: s
we get the transfer function:
LI ZL = 1.25[mH] .(14)
COG 0.0718.Z +0.081*z+0.0209
Reactive power stored in the capacitor is 5 of the z3 +0.0932.9Z -0.7928z -0.3004
system power rating, so the maximum capacitor value is: The transfer function of the PI-regulator in z-plane is:
Q
l[puF];Q Ts
C." =
&) N
2 =I 0.05 - PN = 550[VA] (15) z(1- )
The maximum capacitance within the limits is 11 [tF], HPI (z) =kp ................. (22)
and the selected value should be nearly half of that value [1], z -1
so that the capacitance of the filter is CF=6 [ptF].
The aim is to obtain 20 ripple attenuation that can be In Fig. 7 is presented the Simulink model of the current
expressed by following equation [1]: control loop in z-domain and Fig. 8 a) shows zero-pole
placements of open-loop without PI-regulator and Fig. 8 b) of
G(h) =
0.2 ................... (16)
closed-loop systems. Figure 8 c) shows the frequency
i1(h,w,) 1|+r(1- a x)l response of the optimize current-loop of the system.
where a = LJCboWs 2 X = CFICb= 0.0274, r = LG/LI > 1.1.
Considering the reduction of the effectiveness caused by
damping resistor chosen value is 1.2 and then grid side
inductance is: LG= rLI= 1.5 [mH].
 As can be seen in Fig. 8 a) there are two complex-
conjugated poles and one real-pole. Because of complex-
u+aFe conjugated poles compensation technique can't be used.
Instead a pole-zero
placement technique is used. An
pda dLC integrator time-constant Ts=8 ms is selected as a compromise
between good dynamics and still a good noise rejection.
The gain kp is selected as dominant pole using root locus

method, having a damping of 0.7. In Fig. 8 b) the zero-pole

placement for optimized closed loop is shown. The dominant
---Ir hz
poles have now a damping of 0.7 at a frequency of 580 Hz.
The gain regulator is found to be kp=4.8.
of the
The bandwidth is a frequency where the gain of the closed

loop is reduced to -3 dB (Fig. 8c) and the phase delay

becomes larger than 450 assuming that closed loop behavior

Fig. 6. Bode plot of the damped and undamped LCL-filter and of L-filter
can be approximated by a first-order delay element. An

(L=2.75 mH). approximation of the closed-loop can be done using a tirst-

order transfer function with the bandwidth of 208 Hz, as can

also be seen in Fig. 8 c):

0
H (s) I +s 27r.fbW
t .76[ms] (23)

-~~~~~~~~
F7I
M

zi
C. DC-Link Voltage Controller Design

Voltage controller design uses the mathematical model of

DC-link and can be designed in s-plane because time
Fig. 7. The model of current control loop developed in Simulink. constants of the plant are much bigger than the sampling time

(Ts). Cascade connected DC-link voltage controller will be

designed using symmetric optimum in order to reject

disturbances on the DC-link voltage.
The current of DC-link (iDC) can be calculated using power
balance between DC and AC side as follows:

3
UDC 'IDC 2(Udlcjd+ Uq ')............ (24)

Wvhen the grid converter (active rectifier) operated with

unity power factor (iq=0), thereforei'DC is expressed as:

'DC DC
2 u DC

Selecting the operating point of controller ud=326 V and

a) b uDc=700 V, we obtain:
BoJd Diagran
KDC
2
DC

V ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ystemrf N The transfer function (tf) of DC-link is:

1z; F~~~~~~requency (Hz)-7
Kbagnitude (dB)- 30f 11
U DC (S)

HDC (s) SCC(27)

If the transfer function of current loop is approximated by
Frequency~Hz 208 a first order tf ( HCL(s) =lI/(Il+sTl)),i we can get the
FtIs e(d -455
transfer function of the plant:

H. (s) =H ()H, (s) =K

DC(S)
(8
Freqency (Hz) s-CDc .(I+s.
c)

Fig. 8. The pole-zero placements of open-loop (a) and closed-loop (b) of the

system, and Bode Diagram of the optimize current-loop (c).

where lo the sampling delay time
represents IV. CONCLUSIONS
(r0 = KDc (1I f) = 0.7 ) and time constant Tet= 4.8 ms was

obtained in last paragraph. In this paper a variable-speed wind turbine concept using
The transfer function of PI-regulator in s-plane is: cage rotor induction generator connected to the grid through
an LCL-filter has been modeled and simulated in MATLAB
HPI(s) =kP,. KI+sT . .................. (29) & Simulink. The paper has also analyzed the design of an
LCL-filter, current and voltage controllers based on the
When CDC>>(co+Tet), optimal symmetry criterion to mathematical model of the system.
design parameters of the PI-controller can be used [8]: The main aim was to provide a design procedure for the
filter and the controllers to study the stability and the
= 4.(T + )
= 0. 02;k= CDC (30) dynamic response of the overall system. The design
2.kDc (zr0 +7t1) procedure has been tested in simulation and the desired
The gain of voltage controller is verified using root locus current ripple attenuation has been achieved for the test
of open-loop transfer function (tf) in s-plane, where delay is system parameters.
replaced by a tf with the time delay lo. In this way the open- The cage rotor induction generator was connected to the
loop transfer function becomes: grid through a vector controlled back-to-back PWM-VSI
inverter and an LCL-filter. Using this configuration is
Ho_ - =.*_ _*(
_s _T ( (31) possible to increase the energy production especially in the
low wind range, up to 1 MW per unit, eliminate the capacitor
Block diagram of the DC-link voltage control loop bank for reactive power compensation and allow both grid-
implemented in MATLAB & Simulink is depicted in Fig. 9 connection and stand-alone operation modes.
and root locus and Bode Diagram are presented in Fig. 10. A flexible development platform with DS1103 dSPACE
As can be seen in Fig. 10 optimal gain selected by using was used to implement and test a control strategy for 11 kW
root locus method is kp=0.35 and the bandwidth of the closed variable-speed wind turbines. The most relevant feature of
loop is 13 Hz. The parameters obtained for DC-link voltage the system is the ability to develop the control strategy
controller are: kp=0.35 and T,=20 ms. entirely in MATLAB & Simulink and test it using dSPACE
platform in a short time.
A further research topic in the field of design of a LCL-
filter is the development of a more embedded design
procedure taking into account EMI disturbances.

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