4th International Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE 2015)

IGEE, Boumerdes, December 13th -15th, 2015

1

Control of Wind Turbine Driven a Permanent

Magnet Synchronous Generator Using
Backstepping-MTPA Strategy Control
Ibrahim GUENOUNE 1,2 , Alain GLUMINEAU 1 , Franck PLESTAN 1 , Ali CHERMITTI
1
LUNAM University, Ecole Centrale Nantes, IRCCyN, Nantes, France
2
LAT, University of Tlemcen, Algeria, 3 URMER, University of Tlemcen
Ibrahim.Guenoune@irccyn.ec-nantes.fr,
alain.glumineau@irccyn.ec-nantes.fr,

AbstractIn this paper a Backstepping Controller (BC) and a Maximum Torque Per Ampere
(MTPA) strategy have been designed in order to
control a permanent magnet synchronous generator
(PMSG) at below and above rated wind velocity.
At low wind speed, the wind turbine operates in
partial load (PL) and the maximum amount of
power is extracted. When the wind speed reaches
the nominal value, the wind turbine operates in full
load (FL). In this case, the pitch angle is controlled
to limit the power. The proposed method is compared to the traditional PI via Matlab/Simulink
software. The robustness tests show that the system
has a faster and a more robust response.

the wind turbine power and a good performance is

obtained. However the power output is a lot aected
by the noise signal. In [3]-[4] the Maximum Power
Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm is designed to
apply respectively a Backstepping Controller and a
Sliding Mode Controller. A good performance of these
two controllers is obtained.

KeywordsBackstepping Control, Wind Turbine,

MPPT, Magnet Permanent Synchronous Machine,
Maximum Torque Per Ampere.

This paper is organized as follows: a brief description

of wind turbine and a model of the permanent magnet
synchronous generator are given in Section II. Then,
we present in Section III, the design of the control
law using the backstepping controller and the MTPA
strategy. The control of rotational speed using the PI
control is also presented in this section. A pitch angle
controller based on a classical PI controller is introduced in section IV. Finally, simulation results and
robustness tests using the Matlab/Simulink software
are presented and commented in section V.

I.

Introduction

The variable speed wind turbine (VSWT) is more

advantageous compared to the xed speed wind
turbine that enables the turbine to operate in a wide
wind speed range. The VSWT can operate in dierent
areas, below rated wind speed and above-rated wind
velocity. At below rated wind speed, the principal
goal is the extraction of maximum power available in
the wind, so the wind turbine operates at variable
rotational speed. When the wind speed exceeds the
rated speed, the main objective is to keep the power
output at rated value, for this, a pitch control is
added in order to avoid damaging the machine [1],
[2].
A simultaneous control of the rotor speed and
electrical power has been proposed in [1], but there is
no comparison with other control strategies. Variable
speed, variable pitch control is used in [2] to regulate

In this paper, a Backstepping Controller (BC) with

the Maximum Torque Per Ampere (MTPA) strategy
have been designed to control the permanent magnet
synchronous generator, at below and above rated
wind velocity.

II. CONVERSION CHAIN MODELING

A. Wind Turbine
The power extracted from the wind is expressed by (1),
where Rt is the blades radius, is the air density, S is
the area swept by the blades of the turbine (S = R2 ),
is the blade pitch angle and V is the wind velocity
in meters per second [5],
1
Paer = Cp (, )SV 3
(1)
2
Cp is the power coecient which is a function of the
tip speed ratio () and the blade pitch angle (). The

2015 IEEE

tip speed ratio (TSR) and power coecient are given

respectively by (2),(3) [6],
t R t
=
(2)
V

where fv is the viscous friction coecient, m is the

mechanical torque. The generator torque em is given
by the following equation [5]
em = p(Ld Lq )id iq + pf iq .

(7)

+ 0.1
)
III. Control Strategy
14.8 0.3( 2)
The wind turbines with variable speed, variable pitch
0.00184( 3)( 2) (3)
can operate in dierent areas. In this paper two regions
where t is the wind turbine rotational speed.
can be identied as shown in Fig 2 [9]. In the low wind
The aerodynamic torque is obtained as in [7],
speed (Region 1), the maximum power is captured

from the wind. In this region the pitch is kept at the
aer = Paer
t
optimal value, and the rotational speed is controlled
(4)
aer = 12 Ct (, ) Rt3 V 2
via the generator torque to reach the optimal speed
dened by MPPT strategy [10]. When the wind speed
Cp (, )
where : Ct (, ) =
is the torque coecient.
exceed the rated value (Region 2), it is necessary to

limit the power generator in order to avoid the damage

of the generator. For this reason, the pitch angle is
controlled. In this case, the torque generator and the
0.5
rotor speed are maintained at their nominal value. The
=2
=4
control of the pitch enables also the reduction of the
0.4
=6
forces acting on the blades [1]. The permutation of
=8
operating area (PL/FL) is ensured with the switch
=10
0.3
bloc of Matlab/Simulink.
p

Power Coefficient (C )

Cp (, ) = 0.50.0167( 2) sin(

0.2
0.1
0
0

4
6
8
TipSpeed Ratio ()

10

12

Figure 1. Power coecient curve versus TSR for dierent pitch

From Fig 1, it can be shown that the maximum value

of Cp is obtained for opt = 2 and opt = 9.1.
B. Generator Model
The electrical model of the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator according to a rotation reference
frame (d q) is presented by [5], [8]:
R
pLq iq
1
i d =
id +
+
vd
Ld
Ld
Ld
R
pLd id pf
1
i q =
iq

+
vq
(5)
Lq
Lq
Lq
Lq
where R, Ld and Lq are respectively the stator resistance and inductances according to the (dq) axis, id ,
iq are the stator currents, p is the pole pairs number,
f is the rotor magnetic eld and J is the total inertia.
The mechanical equation is given by
1
= (m em fv )
(6)
J

Figure 2. Operating area of variable speed variable pitch wind

turbine

So, in the low wind speed, the wind turbine operates

with xed pitch and variable speed. Opposite to that,
at above rated wind speed it can be operated with
xed speed and variable pitch.
The control diagram designed in this work is shown in
Fig 3.

A. MPPT Control (Partial Load)

The main objective of this technique is to extract the
maximum power from the wind [2]. By adjustment the
generator torque, the rotational speed is regulated in

But this method consists on the choice of suitable

operation points.
The wind speed can be not measured accurately [14],
it is considered as a perturbation for the wind turbine.
To overcome the measurement errors of the wind
velocity, a robust control is designed in this paper.
B. Control law design using a Backstepping strategy

Figure 3.

The idea of the Backstepping controller (BC) is to

transform an original system and make it equivalent
to a rst order cascade subsystems. The BC uses
a specic candidate Lyapunov function to check the
overall system to track a given reference [3].
Rotational speed control: The tracking error is
dened as follows:

Wind generation and control system

order to follow the reference speed [10].

The reference speed is given by the following equation
[11]
opt V
ref = opt =
G
(8)
Rt
where G is the gearbox gain, opt is the optimal value
of the tip speed ratio for which the maximum of power
coecient is obtained.
Rotor speed control using PI
The rotational speed is controlled in closed loop to
reach the optimal speed dened in (8). The error signal
(e = ) is the input of the PI controller. The
gains of this controller are obtained using pole placement method [12]. The control scheme of rotational
speed is represented in Fig 4.

z = ref .

The Lyapunov candidate function is taken as

V = 12 z2 . From the time derivative of V , a virtual
control input is chosen as
iq =

J
fv
1
[K z + ref + + m ].
p(f + (Ld Lq )id )
J
J
(11)

To assure the stability of the subsystem, K is taken

positive.
Current Loop (iq , id ): a current error is dened
as:
zq = iq iq .
(12)
The Lyapunov candidate function is taken as
Vq = V + 12 zq2 . From the time derivative of Vq , a control
law is given by
vq = Lq [Kq zq +

Figure 4.

iq
pLd id pf
R
+
]. (13)
+ iq +
dt Lq
Lq
Lq

For the stability of the subsystem, we take, Kq > 0.

Rotor speed control using PI

The controller gains are computed as;



Kp = 2 n J
Ki = n2 J

(10)

(9)

5.8
, ( = 0.7, Ts = 0.02).
Ts
n , Ts present respectively the system dynamic and
the desired closed loop time constant [12].

Similarly, to compute the control law vd , the reference

of current (id ) is determined by the Maximum Torque
Per Ampere (MTPA) strategy.

where; n =

C. Maximum Torque Per Ampere (MTPA) algorithm

The wind turbine torque is a non linear function

that can aect the rotor speed. This function can be
linearized by a Taylor equation as designed in [13].

The maximum power is directly related to the Maximum Torque per Ampere control strategy. This strategy is used to optimize the eciency of the synchronous generator [15]. To maximize the eciency
and minimize the losses the authors in [16], had
expressed the d-axis current to reduce the stator ux.

Is2

i2d

i2q

i2q

By substituting iq in (7);

Is2

i2d .

em = [p (Ld Lq ) id + p f ] Is2 + i2d

The maximum of torque corresponds to
The expression of id is given by
id =

f
2(Ld Lq )






(14)

(15)

em
=0.
id

2f
+ i2q .
4(Ld Lq )2

(16)

For more details see [15]. The current tracking error

is dened as
(17)
zd = id id .
The Lyapunov candidate function is given by,
Vd = 12 zd2 . After deriving the candidate function, the
command vd is chosen as,
id
pLq iq
Rs
id
]. (18)
+
dt
Ld
Ld
The stability of the tracking current loop id , can be
satised with Kd > 0.
Finally, the design of the control inputs vq and vq
force respectively the currents iq and id to track their
references.
vd

= Ld [Kd zd +

IV. Pitch Angle Control

When the wind speed exceeds the rated value (Full
Load), the limit of the power generated is necessary
to avoid the damage of the machine. In this region, the
torque generator is set at the maximum value, and the
rotor speed is kept at the nominal value via the pitch
angle action, as the power is maintained in the rated
value. This control allows the reduction of the fatigue
loads on the drive shaft [1]. The control diagram of
the pitch is given in Fig 5. The servo pitch is given
by the rst order transfer function which describes its
dynamic [7].

V.

Simulations Results and Analysis

The proposed method control is simulated using Matlab/Simulink. The parameters of the machine are
taken from the IRCCyN Lab Test bed [17]. The gains
K , Kd , Kq represents respectively the closed loop
responses of mechanical and electrical dynamic. The
principal simulation results are shown in Fig 7 to Fig
9. A good rotor speed tracking is obtained (Fig 7).
The maximum of power coecient is obtained at the
optimal pitch angle (Fig 9). The change in the operating area results an overshooting of the rotational
speed, especially when the wind turbine is controlled
by the PI. A comparison is given in Fig 10 between
the proposed method and the PI controller. It can be
shown that the control with backstepping has faster
and more robust response.
The objective of the robustness tests is to check the
eciency of the proposed control strategy. In the
rst time, the d, q-axis stator inductance (Ld , Lq ) are
changed by +20% (Fig 11-a) and 20% (Fig 11-b) of
their initial values. The results are similar to those
obtained with nominal parameters. In the second,
Ld , Lq are maintained at initial values, and the stator
resistance is changed by +50% (Fig 11-c). The similar
results to those obtained when the d, q-axis stator
inductance are changed. A good tracking of the rotor
speed is obtained with all the tests. This conrms
the robustness of the Backstepping controller. Another
test on total inertia J by the variation of +50% (Fig
11-d) shows that the rotor speed is not aected with
BC, which displays the robustness of the proposed
method.
14
Wind Speed (rad/s)

The MTPA strategy used in [15] is considered in this

paper.

13

12

11

10
0

6
Time (s)

Figure 6.

Figure 5.

Diagram of the pitch control

The transfer function of the PI controller is given by,

1
G(s) = Kp (1 +
).
T s

Wind speed

10

250

200
Rotor speed
tracking (rad/s)

Generator power (W)

2000
1500
1000
500

150

ref
BC
PI

100
50

0
0

10

Time (s)

0
0

4 Time (s) 6

10

Full Load

200

0
0

5
c

10

250

10

200

5
Speed error
tracking (rad/s)

Speed tracking
error (rad/s)

Figure 10. Rotor speed by proposed method and PI controller

ref

Partial
Load

100

Rotor speed
tracking (rad/s)

Rotational
speed (rad/s)

300

150

5
0

Time (s)

10

ref

100

BC
PI

0
0

dref

10

id

Speed tracking
error (rad/s)

Rotor speed
tracking (rad/s)

iq

100

0
0

10

10
0

10

10

10

c
250

10
2.21

2.22
2.23
Time (s)

2.24

2.25

200
5

Currents of machine : a- Current id,q . b- Stator

Figure 8.
current

10

Speed tracking
error (rad/s)

2.2

150

100

0
0

0.5

10

10
0

d
10

10

Speed tracking
error (rad/s)

Rotor speed
tracking (rad/s)

200

150
100

50

4
2
0

250

0.4
0.35
0

300

Partial
Load

Full
Load

0.45

50

Pitch
Angle ( )

10

50

10

10

Power
Coefficient

10

150

Rotor speed
tracking (rad/s)

id,q Current (A)

Generator
Current (A)

qref

10
0

10

200

10

20
0

6
b

250

BC
PI

50

Figure 7. Simulation results of MTPA-Backstepping strategy:

a) Generator power. b) Rotor speed. c) Speed tracking error

0
0

4
6
Time (s)

10

10
0

4
6
Time (s)

10

Time (s)

Figure 9.

a- Power coecient. b- Pitch angle

Figure 11.
Rotor speed and speed tracking error with
the robustness tests: a) +20% on Ld,q . b) 20% on Ld,q . c)
+50% on Rs . d) +50% on J

VI. Conclusion
A Backstepping Controller with a Maximum Torque
Per Ampere (MTPA) strategy is designed in this
paper to control the Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Generator in partial load and full load. In the framework of wind turbine control, it allows the maximum
extraction of the wind power by applying the MPPT
strategy. The pitch angle is controlled when the wind
speed exceeds the rated speed in order to limit the
power output at a rated value. The eectiveness and
robustness of the proposed method is checked by a
comparison with PI controller.
In future work, we plan to establish a model of Twin
Wind Turbine to track the maximum power by following the wind direction variation, thanks to the special
structure.

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

Appendix
Machine Parameters
Rated Power Pn
2 kW
Rated Rotor Speed n
2100 rpm
Stator resistance R
1.2
Pole pairs number p
5
Rotor magnetic eld f
0.17 W b
d-axis stator inductance Ld
5.7 mH
q-axis stator inductance Lq
9.2 mH
Viscous friction coecient fv
0.0034 Kg.m2 .s1
Turbine Parameters
Rated wind speed
11 m/s
opt
2
opt
9.1
Blade radius Rt
2m
Air density
1.225 Kg.m3
Gear ratio G
3.9
Total inertia J
0.036 Kg.m2
Control Parameters
K
20
Kd
1000
Kq
1000

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

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