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1, MARCH 2003

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A Method of Tracking the Peak Power Points for a Variable Speed Wind Energy Conversion System
Rajib Datta and V. T. Ranganathan, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractIn this paper, a method of tracking the peak power in a wind energy conversion system (WECS) is proposed, which is independent of the turbine parameters and air density. The algorithm searches for the peak power by varying the speed in the desired direction. The generator is operated in the speed control mode with the speed reference being dynamically modified in accordance with the magnitude and direction of change of active power. The peak power points in the curve correspond to = 0. This fact is made use of in the optimum point search algorithm. The generator considered is a wound rotor induction machine whose stator is connected directly to the grid and the rotor is fed through back-to-back pulse-width-modulation (PWM) converters. Stator flux-oriented vector control is applied to control the active and reactive current loops independently. The turbine characteristics are generated by a dc motor fed from a commercial dc drive. All of the control loops are executed by a single-chip digital signal processor (DSP) controller TMS320F240. Experimental results show that the performance of the control algorithm compares well with the conventional torque control method. Index TermsPeak power point tracking, rotor side control, speed control mode, turbine characteristics, wind energy conversion system, wind turbine, wound rotor induction machine.

I. INTRODUCTION N RECENT YEARS, there has been a growing interest in wind energy as it is a potential source for electricity generation with minimal environmental impact. With the advancement of aerodynamic designs, wind turbines, which can capture hundreds of kilowatts of power, are readily available. When such wind energy conversion systems (WECS) are integrated to the grid, they produce a substantial amount of power, which can supplement the base power generated by thermal, nuclear, or hydropower plants. The cage rotor induction machine is the most frequently used generator for grid-connected WECS. When connected to the constant frequency network, the induction generator runs at near-synchronous speed, drawing the magnetizing current from the mains, thereby resulting in constant speed constant frequency (CSCF) operation. However, if there is flexibility in varying the shaft speed, the energy capture due to fluctuating wind velocities can be substantially improved [1][3]. The requirement for variable-speed constant frequency (VSCF) operation led to several developments in the generator control
Manuscript received July 25, 2000; revised December 4, 2001. R. Datta is with ABB Corporate Research Centre, Ladenburg 68526, Germany (e-mail: rajib.datta@de.abb.com). V. T. Ranganathan is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India (e-mail: vtran@ee.iisc.ernet.in). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2002.808346

of WECS. By using back-to-back PWM inverters between the grid and the machine and employing vector control or direct torque control (DTC) techniques, the active and reactive powers handled by the machine can be controlled independently [4][8]. Even though the mechanical time-constant of a WECS is very high (due to the high inertia of the turbine blades) and fast change of shaft speed is neither desirable nor possible, use of vector control or DTC algorithms allow direct control over the generator torque and flux, and therefore, more optimized utilization of the machine. Rotor side control of grid-connected wound rotor induction machine is an attractive option for VSCF operation with limited speed range [4][8]. By suitable integrated approach toward design of a WECS, use of a slip-ring induction generator is found economically competitive, when compared to a cage rotor induction machine [8]. The power rating of the converters can be considerably reduced (about 0.3 to 0.5 p.u.) when used in the rotor circuit. Since the stator is directly connected to the grid, the stator flux is constant over the entire operating region. Therefore, the torque can be maintained at its rated value even above the synchronous speed. This results in higher power output above the synchronous speed (i.e., at high wind velocities) when compared to a cage rotor induction generator of the same frame size. Thus, the machine utilization is substantially improved. Irrespective of the generator used for a variable-speed WECS, the output energy depends on the method of tracking the peak power points on the turbine characteristics due to fluctuating wind conditions. The conventional method is to generate a conas a square trol law for the target generator torque function of the angular velocity of the turbine shaft. (1) The generator torque is controlled accordingly through field-oriented or direct torque control methods. The parameter is given by the following equation: (2) where is the air density; is the swept area (cross-sectional area) of the turbine; and is the radius of the turbine (blade is called the power coefficient of the turbine and is length). dependent on the ratio between the linear velocity of the blade ) and the wind velocity ( ). This ratio, known as the tip ( tip-speed ratio, is defined as (3)

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Fig. 1. Rotor side control scheme with back-to-back PWM converters with capacitive dc link.

Clearly, depends on the turbine characteristics and air density. The turbine dimensions and the optimal values for and (namely and ) are available with turbine manufacturers. The term , on the other hand, depends on the climatic conditions prevalent at a particular site. The air density may vary considerably over various seasons. As a result, the computed on the basis of some nominal air-denvalue of sity value will not result in optimal tracking of the peak power point under all conditions. With the reduction in air-density, the turbine output itself reduces; at the same time, the tracking trajectory being incorrect, there is considerable loss in output energy. In this paper, a method of tracking the peak power is proposed which is independent of the turbine parameters and air density. The algorithm searches for the peak power by varying the speed in the desired direction. In [9], a fuzzy-logic-based controller is proposed to track the optimum operating point locus. This system has been designed with a cage rotor induction machine and can possibly be extended to a doubly-fed machine. However, similar performance can be obtained even without the complication of implementing a fuzzy controller. In the algorithm presented here, the generator is operated in the speed control mode with the speed reference being dynamically modified in accordance with the magnitude and direction of change of active power. The peak power points in the curve correspond . This fact is made use of in the optimum point to search algorithm. The algorithm is experimentally verified in a small-scale laboratory setup. The generator considered is a wound rotor induction machine whose stator is connected directly to the grid and the rotor is fed through back-to-back PWM converters (Fig. 1). Stator flux-oriented vector control is applied to control the active and reactive current loops independently [4][6]. The operating region of the system in the power-speed plane is indicated in Fig. 2. In the experimental setup, the turbine characteristics, taken from a commercial model Vestas V27 (Appendix A), are generated by a dc motor fed from a commercial dc drive. All of the control loops are executed by a single-chip DSP controller TMS320F240. II. PEAK POWER TRACKING ALGORITHM The proposed algorithm is explained with the help of Fig. 3, where the curves corresponding to three wind velocities are shown. Let the present wind velocity be . The generator is run in the speed control mode with a speed reference of (which corresponds to the optimum operating point for ).

Fig. 2. Operating region of WECS with wound rotor induction machine in the P ! plane.

Fig. 3. Shift of operating points in the proposed peak power tracking algorithm.

The generator output power and speed are sampled at regular intervals of time. If the wind velocity is steady at , the difference ) will be between successive samples of active power (i.e., very small and no action is taken. Now, let there be a step jump to . Since the turbine shaft speed in wind velocity from cannot change instantaneously (the reference for the speed controller is not yet changed and the inertia of the system is extremely high), this would result in a change of operating point to . Therefore, would be large and positive. from , a positive change in speed Corresponding to this change in is reference is commanded. The change in speed reference

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Fig. 4. Block diagram of the controller.

made proportional to . This shifts the operating point from to , resulting in a smaller positive change in . Since is due to a positive change in , it implies this change in that the peak power point is further to the right-hand side on the is commanded curve. Thus, a further positive change in . In this process, when becomes very in proportion to small (within some defined band), no further change in speed . Now, command is given and the system keeps operating at to , the operating if the wind velocity again changes from , resulting in a large negative change in . point shifts to Thus, a negative change in speed reference in proportion to is applied. However, this results in a positive change in as the operating point shifts to . Since the positive change is due to a negative change in speed command, the peak power point . Therefore, the speed reference is further is to the left of is within the prereduced. The algorithm continues until defined band and the operating point again slides back close to . The algorithm is implemented in the following manner. The active power is sampled at a particular rate and the incremental change is computed as (4) The magnitude of is given by (5) is the proportional constant and needs to be selected where judiciously. This is discussed later. However, the sign of has to be properly assigned. If is zero (i.e., the speed reference was not changed in the previous sample), then the sign alone decides the sign of . If is of and denonzero, the product of the signs of . This can be formulated as follows: termines the sign of

With this reference, the machine is operated in the speed control mode. The controller block diagram is given in Fig. 4. and are the active and reactive components of the rotor curis directly prorent in the stator field-oriented coordinates. is responsible for the portional to the machine torque and stator power factor. A PI controller is employed for the speed loop. The output of the speed controller is saturated at the rated torque of the machine. Therefore, beyond the rated operating point, the operation is similar to that in the torque control mode. denote the rated This is explained with the help of Fig. 3. Let operating point. Now, if the wind velocity increases to , the speed controller will try to increase to generator torque so that . However, the rated torque is the operating point shifts to ; hence, the prime-mover accelerates the already applied at is reached. Hence, system until a stable operating point at the control naturally ensures that the operating region remains the same as indicated earlier in Fig. 2. A. Selection of Sampling Frequency The choice of sampling frequency is critical for the algorithm to work properly. This is related to the speed-loop response time. Let it be assumed that the system was initially operating at point (Fig. 3) for a wind velocity . If the wind velocity changes to , the higher motive power tends to accelerate the system. The speed controller comes into operation and holds back the system by increasing the generator torque. Hence, the active . power generated increases, shifting the operating point to The peak power tracking logic now gives an increment in the speed command. In order to accelerate the system, the generator torque is instantaneously reduced. The driving torque being more, the system accelerates. Finally, as the reference speed is approached, the generator torque gradually increases and becomes equal to the turbine torque. If the generator power is computed during the period when the speed controller is active, it . A sample would provide misleading information about taken immediately after the increment of the speed command would show that the generator power actually reduces. On this basis, the peak power tracking algorithm will command a decrement in speed. Therefore, the system will tend to oscillate about the initial operating point with a fluctuating machine torque. The correct execution of the algorithm depends on the correct detection of the operating points on the characteristics of the turbine. Hence, the sampling period for this algorithm should be more than the response time of the speed loop. It may be assumed that the speed loop settles down within four times the designed loop time constant. Therefore, the sampling period is taken as four times the speed loop time constant of the system. The inertia of the system being high, the speed loop time constant cannot be made very small; this will require a machine of very high torque capability. It is also noted that a fast speed controller will give rise to large transients in the machine torque, which will be reflected in the generated power. Hence, the dynamics of the speed controller are made slower so that the fluctuations in the machine torque are reduced. This also helps in reducing the mechanical stresses on the turbine shaft and the gearbox. In a wind-farm where many such systems are connected to the grid, there will be some averaging effect in the

if ( else

. The reference speed is sampled at the same frequency as the is within some small active power. If the magnitude of , then the reference speed is not changed, defined band otherwise it is changed by

if ( else

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Fig. 5. P ! characteristics in the region of operation of peak power tracking algorithm.

overall power generated and the small power fluctuations of the individual machines will not be directly reflected on the grid. B. Selection of determines the change in speed reference for a given change in . Therefore, it depends on the slope of the characteristics. To choose a value of , an approximate idea of the turbine characteristics is needed. The characteristics in the region of operation of the peak power tracking algorithm are considered. This is shown in the V27 power curves of Fig. 5. The wind velocities over this region vary between 6 for successive and 12 m/s. The approximate changes in are also shown. It changes in wind velocities, and hence, is more for lower wind velocities is obvious that the is set to the maximum value of and vice-versa. If in the operating range then, for changes in wind velocities during high wind conditions, the increment in speed reference would be more than desired. This would result in overshooting of the optimum operating point. The system would oscillate about the peak power point before it settles down. Therefore, is limited by the lowest value of the maximum value of . A large value of will also result in a large transient in generator torque which is not desirable. Hence, the value of selected is substantially lower than the limit imposed by the . minimum value of From Fig. 5, it can be seen that the curves are flat-topped for near the peak power points. Therefore, the change in an increment in speed would be very small in this region. The may be set at 5% of the nominal power rating of the generator. So, the final operating point may not move exactly to the peak power point, but may settle down close to it. III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The proposed algorithm is verified on a small-scale laboratory prototype, where the principle and implementation remain

identical to that of a practical WECS. Depending on the size of the WECS, the converter topology and the generator employed may change. The inner current control loops need to be modified accordingly. However, the proposed algorithm deals with the setting of the speed reference for the generator, which is the outermost loop in the control structure and will always remain the same irrespective of the size of the turbine. The experimental setup (Fig. 6) consists of a 3-kW wound rotor induction machine (Appendix B) with its stator connected to the 415-V, 50Hz, 3- power grid, and the rotor being fed by two back-to-back IGBT-based PWM converters. The setup is organized for generation operation where the torque-speed characteristics of the wind turbine is generated by a 5-hp dc motor driven by a commercial four-quadrant thyristor drive. A TMS320F240 DSP-based digital control platform is designed and employed for implementing the direct power algorithm. The processor runs at a clock frequency of 36 MHz and the sampling frequency used is 56 s. The software is assembly coded for fast real-time execution. The V27, characteristics corresponding to four wind (10, 11, 12, and 13 m/s) are exvelocities , , , and pressed in per unit and are shown in Fig. 7. These characteristics are then stored in the form of lookup tables in the external memory of the DSP as 32 word arrays. The generator shaft speed is computed, scaled to the resolution of the table, and the corresponding turbine power is then read from memory. The turbine torque is subsequently calculated. This is given as a reference to the dc drive. The dc drive is a stand-alone unit with an independent analog controller. It can be operated in either current control mode or speed control mode with external analog references. In the present case, the torque reference for the dc drive, suitably scaled, is output via the DAC in the processor board. It is then routed to the reference input of the torque controller. The dc motor is thus made to emulate the characteristics of the chosen wind turbine. The system is started in the following manner. Initially, a small constant torque reference is given to the dc drive. Since the rotor side control is not yet released, the generator torque is zero. The dc motor speed ramps up. When the speed crosses a threshold (1200 r/min in the present case) the software switches in the turbine characteristics. This further accelerates the motor. In the absence of any generating torque, the torque controller for the dc drive saturates and the machine speed settles at the maximum value depending on the input voltage and the field current (nominally at 1875 r/min). The reference for the generator torque at this speed saturates at the rated value (since the rated speed is exceeded). So when the rotor side current control is enabled, the system decelerates and eventually settles down to a steady-state operating point where the generator torque equals the prime mover torque. The speed loop time constant is designed to be 250 ms, and the sampling period for the active power is taken to be 1 s. From (in Fig. 6, it is observed that the minimum value of this case between and ) is approximately 0.1/0.2 (i.e., 0.5). (Beyond , the system operates in the constant torque mode, so this region is not taken into consideration for deciding the value has to be of .) Hence, according to the design procedure, much lower than 0.5 for the generator speed to settle close to

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Fig. 6. Schematic block diagram of the experimental setup.

(a)

Fig. 7. Turbine characteristics for experimental verification and operating points.

the maximum power point without any overshoot. The selected is 0.25. With these parameters, the algorithm is run value for for the different wind velocities. The resulting operating points for the generator are plotted in Fig. 7 along with the optimum power curve of the turbine. Due to the flat-topped nature of the curves of the turbine, the error in the settling speed does not result in appreciable reduction in the generated power. (which is a direct The transient response of speed and measure of the generator torque in per unit) for transitions beand are shown in Fig. 8(a). At instant A, there is tween to . The torque ina step change in wind velocity from stantaneously falls with a small drop in speed. This is because of the time constant associated with the speed controller. At the subsequent sample (at instant B), this change in active power is detected and a decrement in speed reference is commanded. The (in the positive direction) is due to the action of transient in the speed controller. The subsequent samples show insignificant

(b) Fig. 8. (a) Experimental result for transients in ! and i due to change in wind velocity between v6 and v 8 (5 V represents 1-p.u. speed and 1.5-p.u. rotor current). (b) Experimental result for transients in ! and i due to change in wind velocity between v7 and v 9 (5 V represents 1-p.u. speed and 1.5-p.u. rotor current).

change in active power, and therefore, almost constant operating speed. The reverse operation is observed when the wind velocity changes from to . In Fig. 8(b), similar waveforms of speed are presented for changes in wind velocity between and and . The saturation of the torque beyond the rated speed is clearly observed from the plot of .

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IV. CONCLUSION An algorithm for searching the optimum operating point for a WECS in speed control mode is proposed. This technique makes peak power tracking independent of the turbine characteristics and the air density. The criteria for selecting the critical control parameters are described. The algorithm is implemented on a laboratory setup using a grid-connected wound rotor induction generator controlled from the rotor side. Experimental results show that the performance of the control algorithm compares well with the conventional torque control method. APPENDIX A WIND TURBINE AND GENERATOR DATA FOR VESTAS V27 TURBINE 1) Rotor Diameter: 27 m; Swept area: 573 m ; Rotational speed, generator 1: 43 r/min; Rotational speed, generator 1: 33 r/min; Number of blades: 3; Cut-in speed: 3.5 m/s; Rated wind speed (225 kW): 14 m/s; Cut-off wind speed: 25 m/s; Survival wind speed: 56 m/s; 2) Gearbox Nominal power: 433 kW; Ratio: 1:23.4; 3) Generator main winding 225 kW, 400 V, 396 A, 50 Hz, 1008 r/min, 163 kVAR; 4) Generator low-power winding 50 kW, 400 V, 101 A, 50 Hz, 760 r/min, 48 kVAR; APPENDIX B WOUND ROTOR INDUCTION MACHINE USED IN LABORATORY PROTOTYPE 3 kW, 415 V, 50 Hz, four pole, three phase; Stator : 415 V, connected, 7.2 A; Rotor : 415 V, Y connected, 6.6 A. REFERENCES
[1] A. Miller, E. Muljadi, and D. S. Zinger, A variable speed wind turbine power control, IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol. 12, pp. 181187, June 1997. [2] D. S. Zinger and E. Muljadi, Annualized energy improvement using variable speeds, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 33, pp. 14441447, Nov./Dec. 1997.

[3] L. J. Fingersh and P. W. Carlin, Results from the NREL variable-speed test bed, Proc. Conf. Rec. AIAA Wind Energy Symp., pp. 233237, 1998. [4] Y. Tang and L. Xu, A flexible active and reactive power control strategy for a variable speed constant frequency generating system, Proc. Conf. Rec. IEEE/IAS Annu. Meeting, pp. 568573, 1993. [5] R. Pena, J. C. Clare, and G. M. Asher, Doubly fed induction generator using back-to-back PWM converters and its application to variable-speed wind-energy generation, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., pt. B, vol. 143, no. 3, pp. 231241, May 1996. [6] R. Datta and V. T. Ranganathan, A simple position sensorless algorithm for rotor side field oriented control of wound rotor induction machine, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron. Soc., vol. 48, pp. 786793, Aug. 2001. , Direct power control of grid-connected wound rotor induction [7] machine without rotor position sensors, IEEE Trans. Power Electron. Soc., vol. 16, pp. 390399, May 2001. [8] R. Datta, Rotor Side Control of Grid-Connected Wound Rotor Induction Machine and its Application to Wind Power Generation, Ph.D., Indian Inst. of Science, Dept. of Elect. Eng., Bangalore, India, 2000. [9] M. G. Simoes, B. K. Bose, and R. J. Spiegel, Design and performance evaluation of a fuzzy-logic-based variable-speed wind generation system, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 33, pp. 956965, July/Aug. 1997.

Rajib Datta received the B.E. and M.Tech degrees in electrical engineering from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India, and from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1992 and 1994, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Institute of Science (I.I.Sc.), Bangalore, India. Currently, he is with GE Global Research Center in the Electronic Power Conversion Lab, Schenectady, NY. From 2000 to 2001, he worked on converter topologies for large-scale wind parks at ABB Corporate Research Center, Ladenburg, Germany. From 1995 to 2000, he was a Research Scholar in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the I.I.Sc. His research interests include design, modeling, and control of power-electronic systems, particularly related to alternative energy and distributed energy resources.

V. T. Ranganathan (SM92) received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (I.I.Sc.) and the Ph.D. degree from Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. Currently, he is a Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at I.I.Sc., where he has been since 1984. He is also a consultant to industry in the areas mentioned before and has participated in many research-and-development projects. His research interests are in the area of power electronics and motor drives. He has published several papers in the areas of vector control of ac drives, pwm techniques, split-phase induction motor drives, and rotor side control of slip ring induction motors. He has been a recipient of the prize paper award of the IEEE-IAS Static Power Converter Committee; the Tata Rao Prize of the Institution of Engineers, India; the VASVIK Award in electrical sciences and technology; and the Bimal Bose Award of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, India. He is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and fellow of the Institution of Engineers of India.