204
1, MARCH 2011
Analytical and Experimental Evaluation of a WECS
Based on a Cage Induction Generator Fed by a
Matrix Converter
Roberto Cardenas, Senior Member, IEEE, Ruben Pena, Member, IEEE, Jon Clare, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Patrick Wheeler, Member, IEEE
AbstractIn this paper, the control of a grid-connected wind en-
ergy conversion system (WECS), based on an induction machine
fed by a matrix converter (MC), is presented. The MC is controlled
using a space vector modulation algorithm with zero displacement
factor at the input. Stability issues related to the operation of the
WECS for the whole power and speed range are fully analyzed in
this paper, using a simplified small-signal model. The implemen-
tation of a model reference adaptive system (MRAS) observer, for
sensorless control of the proposed WECS, is also presented in this
paper. The MRAS observer is implemented using the output volt-
age demand, avoiding the use of voltage transducers to measure
the machine voltage. From the speed estimated by the MRAS ob-
server, the electrical torque of the induction generator is regulated
in order to drive the WECS to the operating point where the aero-
dynamic efficiency is maximized. Experimental results obtained
with a 2.5-kW prototype are presented and fully discussed in this
paper.
Index TermsInduction generators (IGs), power generation
control, wind power generation.
NOMENCLATURE
General
Lo , Ls , Lr Magnetizing, stator, rotor inductance.
Rr , Rs Rotor, stator resistance.
Te Electrical torque.
f Frequency in hertz.
q MC voltage transfer ratio.
vi , ii Matrix Converter (MC) input currents and
voltages.
vo , io MC output currents and voltages.
Induction machine leakage coefficient.
Flux.
e Electrical frequency (rad/s).
r Induction machine rotational speed.
Manuscript received August 10, 2008; revised June 7, 2009, January 26,
2010; accepted September 13, 2010. Date of publication December 10, 2010;
date of current version February 18, 2011. This work was supported by Fondecyt
Chile under Contract 1085289 and The University of Santiago, Chile. Paper no.
TEC-00309-2008
R. Cardenas is with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of
Santiago de Chile, Ecuador 3519, Santiago, Chile (e-mail: rcd@ieee.org).
R. Pena is with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Con-
cepcion, 4074580 Concepcion, Chile (e-mail: rupena@udec.cl).
J. Clare and P. Wheeler are with the Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7, 2RD, U.K. (e-mail:
jon.clare@nottingham.ac.uk, jon.clare@nottingham.ac.uk).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2010.2083666
0885-8969/$26.00 2010 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO.
Superscripts
Estimated value.
Reference value.
- Rotating vector.
c Complex conjugate.
Subscripts
(d,q) Synchronous rotating coordinates.
g Grid quantities.
(r,s) Rotor or stator quantities.
I. INTRODUCTION
ATRIX converters (MCs) have many advantages, which
M are well documented in the literature [1][4]. MCs pro-
vide bidirectional power flow, sinusoidal input/output currents,
and controllable input power factor [1]. When compared to con-
ventional back-to-back converters, the MC has some significant
advantages. For instance, due to the absence of components with
significant wear out characteristics (such as electrolytic capac-
itors), the MC can potentially be very robust and reliable. The
amount of space saved by an MC, when compared to a conven-
tional back-to-back converter, has been estimated as a factor of
three [3]. Therefore, due to its small size, in some applications,
the MC can be embedded in the machine itself [4]. Furthermore,
there is not an intrinsic limitation to the power of an MC. An
MC of 150 kVA has already been fabricated and tested [3] for
military applications. MCs in the megawatt range have not been
fabricated yet, but the devices required for building them are
commercially available.
The advantages of cage induction machines, for wind energy
applications, are also well known [5][7]. These machines are
relatively inexpensive, robust, and require little maintenance.
When induction machines are operated using vector control
techniques, fast dynamic response, and accurate torque control is
obtained. In this paper a variable speed wind energy conversion
system (WECS) based on a grid-connected induction generator
(IG) fed by a MC is proposed. A space vector modulation (SVM)
algorithm [2] is used to control the MC, regulating the torque,
and the magnetizing current in the generator. The proposed
WECS is shown in Fig. 1. A rotor flux oriented sensorless vector
control scheme is used for the IG.
In the MC, a second-order input filter is required in order
to reduce the input voltage distortion and to improve the in-
put current waveform [1], [3], [4]. The interaction between the
input filter, the MC, and the IG may produce oscillations and

CARDENAS et al.: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A WECS BASED ON A CAGE IG FED BY A MC
Fig. 1. WECS proposed in this work.
even instability at high-power operation unless a compensation
method is used [8][10]. Moreover, it is shown in this paper that
the system shown in Fig. 1 can become unstable when the cage
machine is either motoring or generating to the grid. This is an
important difference between MCs and back-to-back voltage-
source inverters (VSIs). For the latter, usually the interaction
between the input filter, the inverter, and the machine produces
fewer dynamic problems when the power is negative (i.e., oper-
ation of the cage machine as generator) [11]. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first paper where a detailed analysis of
the dynamics of generators fed by MCs has been presented.
In this paper, a simplified model of the WECS and MC is
proposed. The model can be used to calculate the damping
coefficients of the system. Moreover, this model can be applied
to analyze the effects of damping resistors, time delays, filters,
etc., on the dynamics of a cage induction machine fed by a MC.
The contribution of this paper can be summarized as follows.
1) A model is presented in this paper that can be used to
analyze the stability of the proposed WECS. The model is
developed using an alternative and simplified analysis to
those presented previously [8][10] and as such provides
better insights to some of the underlying concepts and the
physical origin of the instability phenomena. This model
is presented in Section IV. A summary of the advantages
of the proposed modeling is also presented in that section.
2) To avoid the use of a position encoder in the control
system, a model reference adaptive system (MRAS) ob-
server [12][14] is used. The methodology necessary to
implement this observer, using the commanded voltages
instead of the measured values, is introduced. Therefore,
additional voltage transducers for measuring the machine
stator voltage are avoided.
3) The stability of generators fed by MCs is fully analyzed
in this paper. From the modeling, it is concluded that cage
machines fed by MCs can be unstable when operated as
generators.
4) The control systems for variable speed stable operation of
WECSs based on MCs are fully discussed in this paper.
In this paper, it is demonstrated that a WECS based on a
205
Fig. 2. Control system proposed.
MC has a good performance in all of the operating range.
Considering this performance and the advantages of MCs
in term of size, it is shown that MCs are a good alterna-
tive to the back-to-back converters, conventionally used
to connect variable speed generators to the grid. For com-
parison, the performance of a WECS composed of a cage
IG, connected to the grid using back-to-back converters,
was presented in [5].
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section
III, the control of a variable speed WECS is briefly reviewed.
Section IV discusses the stability issues of the proposed WECS.
A brief discussion of MRAS observers, for sensorless control of
cage machines, is introduced in Section V. Additionally, in this
section, the implementation of an MRAS observer, that does not
require voltage transducers to measure the MC output voltage,
is analyzed. Section VI discusses experimental results obtained
from a 2.5-kW prototype. This small prototype was used to
experimentally validate the performance of the proposed WECS
control strategy. However, the control systems and generation
topologies proposed in this paper can be used with generation
systems of higher nominal power. Finally, an appraisal of the
proposed WECS is presented in the conclusions.
II. CONTROL OF THE PROPOSED VARIABLE SPEED WECS
The control systems proposed in this paper are shown in
Fig. 2. A variable speed wind turbine drives the IG. The MC
is controlled using the SVM algorithm discussed in [2]. Unity
displacement factor at the MC input is used. However, variable
displacement factor control is also feasible [2].
In Fig. 2, an MRAS observer is used to estimate the rotational
speed r and the rotor position r . The electrical angle e is
obtained from the components of the rotor flux r . The
symbol denotes cross product (see Section V). The angle iv
is used to obtain the dq components of the input voltage vector
in a synchronous rotating frame (see Section IV). Following the
convention adopted in [3], for the analysis presented in this paper
206 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011

two rotating axes are required. On the input side, a synchronous

frame rotating at e is used. This frame is orientated along the
input voltage vector. For the output side, a conventional vector
control system, for cage machines, is required [5]. In this case,
the induction machine is controlled using a direct vector control
system orientated along r [5], [12], [13]. Because the WECS
is not required to operate at high-rotational speed, the IG is
operated at nominal flux. Therefore, the demand ido is constant
for the whole operating range.
It can be demonstrated that in steady state, when the wind
turbine is operating at the maximum aerodynamic efficiency,
the captured power Pm , and the induction machine rotational
speed are related by [15]
Fig. 3. MC topology corresponding to the block of Fig. 2.

Pm = kopt r3 (1)

where kopt depends on the blade aerodynamics, gear box ratio,

and wind turbine parameters [5], [15]. From (1) and neglect- The demanded values of m
d and m
i are calculated as follows:
ing the losses, the WECS operates at the optimal aerodynamic vo voc
efficiency point when Te is controlled to d =
m c i =
m c . (6)
3vif 3
vif
Te = kopt r2 . (2) The voltage vector vif used in (6) is usually derived from the
input voltage vector vi .
Using the state equations of a cage induction machine orien- The values of m d , m i calculated by the DSP in a given
tated along the rotor flux [5], it can be shown that for optimal sampling instant are used by the modulation algorithm at the
power capture, the torque current demand iq o is obtained from next sampling time. This introduces a sampling period delay in
(2) as follows: (4). Furthermore, in a typical digital implementation, a zero-
order hold device is used to maintain a constant value of (6) for
3 kopt Lr
iq o = kt
r2 kt = (3) the whole sampling period. When both, the time delay and the
2 P L20 ido zero-order hold are considered, the values of m d and m
i can be
calculated as follows:
where P is the pole number. Considering that sensorless opera-
tion is used in the proposed WECS shown in Fig. 2, the rotational d = m
m d Z(s) m i Z(s)
i = m (7)
speed estimated by the MRAS observer is used to regulate the
torque current demand of (3). A detailed discussion of MRAS where Z(s) can be calculated as follows [8], [9], [16]:
observers is presented in [17].
1 es s
Further information about vector control of IGs for wind Z(s) = es d (8)
energy applications is outside the scope of this paper and the ss
interested reader is referred elsewhere [5], [6]. where d is the processing delay and s is the sampling time.
Usually, d s , unless additional delays are introduced in d .
A. Modeling of the MC For instance, some of the commercially available serial AD
converters may introduce extra delays in the control system.
The electrical arrangement of the MC used in this paper is The transfer function of (8) can be represented using a Pade
shown in Fig. 3. An LC filter is used in the MC input to improve approximation [16].
the waveform quality of the current supplied to the grid. Usually,
a resistor in parallel with the input filter inductance is required
III. STABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
to improve the damping of the system.
The MC has nine bidirectional switches that are used to con- In this paper, a new approach is adopted to analyze the dy-
nect the input lines to the converter output. Assuming that the namics of the proposed generating system. The methodology
switching frequency is much greater than the input/output fun- used in this paper is simpler than that proposed in [8] and [9]
damental frequencies, then the input/output voltages can be rep- and provides better insight into the physical origin of instabil-
resented by their average values over a cycle period. The MC ity in the MC. The proposed modeling can be easily extended
input/output relationship is obtained as follows [2]: to understand the stability problems of other power converter
topologies, for example, a direct two-stage converter [18].
3 Because wind turbines have a relatively high inertia [15],
vo = [ ci + vic m
vi m d] (4)
2 changes in the operating point, produced mainly by variations
ii = 3 [io m
i + ico md]
. (5)
in the rotational speed [see (1)] are relatively slow. Therefore,
2 the approach used in this section is to analyze the dynamics of

CARDENAS et al.: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A WECS BASED ON A CAGE IG FED BY A MC
Fig. 4. Single-phase models of the proposed WECS. (a) Modeling of the
system including grid and induction machine. (b) Equivalent model considering
a strong grid.
the MC-based WECS assuming that small changes are produced
by perturbations around a steady-state operating point.
A single-phase model of the proposed WECS is shown in
Fig. 4(a). The grid is modeled as a voltage source behind the grid
impedance. At the input of the MC, a second-order filter is used.
Some degree of passive damping is provided by a resistance
placed in parallel with the inductance. As discussed in [1], [19],
and [20], the MC input filter is designed to minimize, the reactive
power drawn from the grid, the filter volume/weight, and the
filter inductance voltage drop. To achieve these requirements,
MCs are controlled with a relatively high-switching frequency.
Therefore, when the MC is operating with unity power factor
at the input side, the reactive power supplied or absorbed from
the grid by the filter is negligible compared with the WECS
nominal power [19][21]. More information about the reactive
power exchange between the grid and an MC-based WECS is
presented elsewhere [21].
In this section, it is assumed that the MC is connected to a
strong grid (i.e., Rg = Lg 0), and therefore, that the block
diagram of Fig. 4(a) can be simplified to that of Fig. 4(b).
However, as shown by (24) in Section IV-A, the simplified
modeling presented in this paper can be applied to either the
electrical arrangement of Fig. 4(a) or (b).
Assuming that the capacitors and inductances used in the
input filter are relatively small [1], [3] and assuming that the
MC, operating at unity power factor, can be represented by
a highly resistive incremental impedance (vi /ii ), then the
cross coupling is low between the d- and q-axes for the states
describing the dynamics of the input filter. (i.e., the system is
highly resistive).
If the dq-axis dynamics are decoupled, then the MC
can be represented by the following small-signal incremental
207
Fig. 5. Phasor diagram for a MC input voltage perturbation. (a) Generator
operation. (b) Motor operation.
impedances:
vid (s)
Zeqd (s) (9)
iid (s)
viq (s)
Zeqq (s) . (10)
iiq (s)
For the analysis of this section, it is assumed that a very
high sampling frequency is used. Therefore, Z(s) 1 and the
dynamics of Z(s) [see (8)] can be neglected. A more detailed
analysis, considering Z(s) = 1, is presented in Section IV-A.
Neglecting the dynamics of Z(s) and considering vif = vi
[see (6)], then the output voltage calculated by replacing (6)
in (4) is vo = vo . Therefore, the MC outputs are not affected
by voltage perturbations at the input, because the modulation
algorithm can compensate them instantaneously.
If a voltage perturbation vid + jviq is produced in the
MC input voltage, then the power supplied to the grid (i.e.,
Pm = r Te ) remains constant because r = 0, io = 0, and
Te = 0. The assumption of constant power operation, to derive
small-signal models of power-converter-fed electrical machines,
is a well-established methodology, which has been extensively
discussed in the literature [9], [11].
If the output power is assumed constant, then
Pm o = (Vio + vid + jviq ) (Iido + iid + jiiq )
= Vio Iido (11)
where denotes dot product, and Vio and Iido are the
phase voltage and current at the quiescent point. Neglecting
the second-order terms (e.g., viq iiq 0) in (11) yields
vid V2
vid Iido = iid Vio = io (12)
id Pm o
hence, in the d-axis, the incremental impedance of (9) is equal to
the resistance Reqd = Vio2 /Pm o . In (12), the converter losses
have been neglected.
The result obtained from (12) can be further explained using
the phasor diagram of Fig. 5. For the generation case, the voltage
Vio and the current Iido are 180 out of phase. When an input
voltage perturbation is produced, the SVM algorithm changes
the direct component of the MC input current to maintain the
output power constant. Therefore, iid and vid are in phase
208 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011

and (vid /iid ) > 0 for the d-axis. However, as shown in q-axis dynamics are reduced when the power is increased. Note
Fig. 5(a), to maintain unity power factor operation at the MC that the values of (12) and (13) are not affected by the topology
input, the SVM algorithm forces the quadrature current variation of the MC input stage.
iiq to be 180 out of phase with viq (i.e., (viq /iiq ) < 0 in Assuming a strong grid, the maximum power that can be
the q-axis). Using the phasor diagram of Fig. 5(a) and assuming supplied to the grid, before reaching a negative damping factor,
that the MC is operating with unity power factor before and after is calculated from (14) and (15) as follows:
the perturbation, the q-axis incremental impedance of (10) can Vio2
be calculated as follows: Pm ax . (16)
Rf
v iq iiq viq Vio2
tan() = = . (13) In order to increase the maximum power of (16), it is nec-
Vio Iido iiq Pm o
essary to modify the q-axis equivalent impedance. This is dis-
cussed in the next section.
Using (13), the impedance of (10) is obtained as the incre-
mental resistance Req q = Vio2 /Pm o . Hence, for the generation
A. Stability Analysis Using a Simplified Model
case (i.e., Pm o < 0), the incremental resistance is positive in
the d-axis and negative in the q-axis. On the other hand, for the In the general case, when Z(s) = 1 and vif = vi , the input
operation of the cage machine as a motor (i.e., Pm o > 0), the current is obtained from (5), (7), and (8) as follows:
incremental resistance is negative in the d-axis and positive for
ii = 3 [io m
i + ico m
d ] Z(s). (17)
the q-axis. Operation as a motor is explained by the phasor dia- 2
gram of Fig. 5(b). As in the generation case, the d-axis current
Considering that the IG is a highly inductive load, it is as-
variation maintains the output power constant and the q-axis
sumed that io 0, and consequently, the variation at the out-
current is varied to maintain unity power factor operation.
put of the proportional-integral (PI) controller is vo 0. A
Note that the phasor diagrams of Fig. 5, and (12) and (13)
small-signal model of (17) is obtained as follows:
can be applied to describe the dynamic performance of other
power converters. For instance, for a direct two-stage converter 3
ii = [Io m i + Ioc m
d ] Z(s). (18)
operating with zero displacement angle at the input, a voltage 2
perturbation at the input produces the current changes iid and As the output voltage of the MC must remain constant, the
iiq described by (12) and (13). modulation reacts to changes in the input voltage by modifying
Considering (12) and (13), the MC input impedance can be the duty-cycle space vector. These variations can be calculated
represented by Reqd and Reqq . Neglecting the dq-axis cross from the small-signal model of (6) as follows:
couplings, the damping coefficients of the eigenvalues related
to the transfer function ( vi (s)/vg (s)) are calculated using i + 3Mio
3Vif o m c
vif =0 (19)
the model of Fig. 4(b), and (12) and (13) as follows: d
3Vif o m + 3Mdo c
vif = 0. (20)
 
Lf /Cf Lf /Cf At the quiescent point, it is assumed that Vio = Vif o = Vioc =
d = + lter q = + lter (14)
2Reqd 2Reqq Vifc o , Mio
= Mdo = q/3, and Vo = qVio , where Vo is the output
voltage. Substituting these values in (18)(20), the small-signal
where lter is the damping coefficient, considering no-load
model of (18) is obtained as follows:
operation (i.e., Req ). From Fig. 4(b), lter is calculated
as follows: q2
 ii = [Io + Ioc ] Z(s)c
vif . (21)
 2Vo
Lf /Cf 1
lter = re = (15) The stability can be improved by filtering the voltage used in
2Rf Lf Cf
the SVM algorithm [8], [9]. In this case, the filtered voltage is
where re is the resonant frequency of the input filter. For gener- as follows:
ator operation, the eigenvalues associated with the q-axis trans- vid viq
vif d = vif q = . (22)
fer function viq (s)/vg q (s) have damping coefficients that sf + 1 sf + 1
are driven to a negative value, (i.e., unstable operation) when
Neglecting the losses and using (Io + Ioc )/V0 = 2Pm o /Vo2 ,
the power supplied to the grid is increased beyond a threshold
the input current can be obtained from (21) and (22) as follows:
[see (13)]. This is quite different to the case of IGs fed by con-
ventional converters. As reported in [11], [22], and [23], when Pm o vid Z(s)
iid =
a generator is fed by a pulsewidth modulation (PWM) VSI, the Vio2 sf + 1
system is mostly stable, even when a relatively large power is
Pm o viq Z(s)
being supplied to the grid. iiq = . (23)
In a practical implementation, the grid impedance is likely Vio2 sf + 1
to be low, but not equal to zero. Hence, (14) and (15) are not The stabilizing effects of (22) can be explained, assuming
completely valid. However, the conclusions obtained from this that a low pass filter with a very low cut-off frequency is used.
section are still applicable. If the cage machine is generating, If f , it can be shown from (23) that iid = iiq = 0
the damping coefficients of the eigenvalues associated with the for any voltage perturbation (vid + jviq ). Therefore, in

CARDENAS et al.: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A WECS BASED ON A CAGE IG FED BY A MC
Fig. 6. Decoupled block diagrams for the proposed system. (a) d-axis block
diagram. (b) q-axis block diagram.
this case, Zeqd , Zeqq , and the damping coeffi-
cients of the eigenvalues associated with the transfer function
vi (s)/v(s) lter at any operating point [see (14)]. How-
ever, a very large value of f cannot be used in (22), because
the voltage perturbations cannot be completely neglected by the
SVM algorithm [8], [9]. Note that in (23), some additional im-
provement in the damping coefficient of (14) may be provided
by the transfer function Z(s). This transfer function introduces
a phase shift between the voltage perturbation vi , and the cor-
responding current variation ii similar to that produced by
filtering action.
The effects of the filter of (22) and Z(s) can also be predicted
using the phasor diagram of Fig. 5(a) and (13). When a voltage
perturbation is produced in the MC input voltage, the q-axis
voltage used in the SVM algorithm is vif q Z(s). Therefore,
replacing viq by vif q Z(s) in (13), the q-axis current iiq
of (23) is obtained.
Using (21)(23), the model shown in Fig. 6 is proposed to
analyze the stability and dynamic behavior of the MC-based
WECS of Figs. 1 and 2. In Fig. 6, ZT can be calculated from
Fig. 4(a) as follows:
sLf Rf
ZT (s) = Rg + sLg + . (24)
sLf + Rf
Note that in Fig. 6, the dq-axis cross coupling for the states
describing the dynamics of the input filter are neglected. In (22),
the filter is realized using a synchronous dq-axis rotating at e .
This avoids a phase shift between the fundamental components
of vif and vi [8]. The synchronous filter is shown in the top
right of Fig. 2. In this paper, the cutoff frequency of the filter is
defined as fbw = 1/(2f ).
Fig. 5(b) shows that for the generation case, the damping
coefficient could be improved also by regulating the quadrature
current, or by reducing or eliminating the negative conductance
in the q-axis. This is similar to the active damping methods
proposed in [11] for conventional PWM VSIs. Some preliminary
studies related to active damping in MC-based systems have
been published in [24] and [25]. However, further research in
the subject is required.
209
Fig. 7. Minimum damping coefficients of the system for the exact and simpli-
fied model versus cutoff frequency of the rotating filter. For this test, R f = 54 ,
L f = 0.8 mH, and R e q = 15 .
Considering (14), (15), (22)(24), and the block diagram of
Fig. 6, the following issues have to be considered when design-
ing the WECS proposed in Fig. 1.
Even if a large value of f is used, the damping coefficients of
the eigenvalues associated with the q-axis (d-axis for the motor-
ing case) are approximately lter [see (14)]. The filter of (22)
avoids the rapid degradation of the q-axis damping coefficients,
but does not increase their values much above lter . Therefore,
the input filter has to be designed with an appropriate damping
coefficient.
The minimum damping coefficient (of the transfer function
vi (s)/vg (s)) obtained from a simplified model and that from
an exact model (implemented using the state equations of the
proposed WECS) are shown in Fig. 7 as a function of the fre-
quency fbw . For this graph, the delays in Z(s) (see (8) and
Fig. 6) are approximated using high-order Pade functions with
d = s = 80 s.
When the cut-off frequency of the synchronous filter is very
low, the damping coefficient is lter . When the cutoff fre-
quency is increased, the damping coefficient is reduced until a
negative value is produced at a cutoff frequency fbw 700 Hz.
The minimum damping, for a given fbw , is produced when
the system is operating with maximum power generation. There-
fore, the time constant f has to be designed for maximum power
capture. Alternatively, because in a WECS, the generated power
is related to the rotational speed [see (1)], it is relatively simple
to implement (22) with a frequency fbw that changes with the
rotational speed.
The maximum frequency fbw = fc for a stable system (see
Fig. 7) is highly sensitive to the variation in the input parameters.
For the system conditions used in Fig. 7, fbw / evaluated at
fbw = fc is about 9000. Because of this high sensitivity, small
changes in the input filter parameters or grid impedance (see
Fig. 4) can change lter , producing a relatively large variation
in fbw . For the system of Fig. 7, a change Lg = 0, 1 mH
produces a variation fc 190 Hz.
B. Simplified Model Versus Eigenvalue Analysis
In the simplified model of Fig. 6, the cross coupling between
the dq-axis is neglected, the MC output current is assumed
constant and the induction machine dynamics are not consid-
ered. Therefore, in order to verify the results obtained from the
210 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011

simplified model discussed earlier, a full-order model, which quency response of the BPF and that of an ideal integrator is
considers the state equations of the whole system has been im- insignificant.
plemented in a numerical simulation. In this full-order model, The rotor flux can also be calculated from the machine current
the dq representation of a vector controlled IG, with a control and rotational speed as follows:
system orientated along r is used [26]. In the IG modeling,  
dq stator current controllers with a bandwidth of 60 Hz are dr 1 Lo
= j r r + io (26)
considered. dt r r
The MC is modeled using the small signal equations of (4)
where r is the estimated flux obtained from the block labeled
and (5) without assuming a constant output current. The trans-
current model in Fig. 2. In the MRAS observer, the flux ob-
fer function, Z(s) of (8), is represented using high-order Pade
tained from (25) is used as the reference model. By adjusting
approximations [16] and the rotating filter of (22) is also con-
the rotational speed, it is possible to reduce the error between
sidered. The dynamics of the input filter and grid impedances
the reference rotor flux and the rotor flux estimated from (26).
are modeled without neglecting the dq cross-coupling terms.
The error between the voltage model and the estimated voltage
In Fig. 7, the minimum damping coefficient of the transfer
is defined as follows:
function vi (s)/vif (s) obtained from the full-order model is

shown along with the minimum damping coefficient obtained = r r r r (27)
from the simplified model [see (14)]. For low values of fbw ,
the error between the exact model and (14) is bigger. This is the error is the input of a PI controller used to adjust the
because the incremental impedance of (23) is high (i.e., Zeq rotational speed, changing the estimated flux of (26), and driving
) and the MC may be considered as an open circuit (see Fig. 4). the error of (27) to zero.
Therefore, the system is not highly resistive and the dq cross- In (27), r and r are the components of the rotor flux
coupling terms, produced by the small reactive components of refereed to the stationary axis. Note that (27) is the cross product
the input filter, are important. However, the performance of the between r and r (This is represented by the block labeled
system when Zeq is not considered important in this paper, in Fig. 2). As discussed in [17], the use of the cross product,
because in this case, the minimum damping coefficient is close for the calculation of the error , has some advantages when
to lter and the dynamic performance is almost completely compared to other methodologies.
dependant on the input filter design. In order to avoid voltage transducers at the MC output, the
As shown in Fig. 7, in most of the operating range, the value output voltage used in (25) is calculated from (4). Using the
obtained from the simplified model has a relatively low error. In demanded values of (6) in (4) yields
particular, this model is accurate enough to predict the maximum  
3 vo v

value of fbw that can be used in (22) without producing negative vo = vi + vic oc (28)
damping coefficients in the system (see Fig. 7). 2 3vif 3
vif
Using the full-state equations, the performance of the sim- (28) can be written as follows:
plified model has been assessed considering different values  
of input filter parameters, grid impedance, input voltage, and 3 vo vif
c
o vif
c v
power captured by the WECS. If the filter parameters are rela- vo = vi c +v
i c . (29)
2 3vif vif 3
vif vif
tively small and the MC is not operating with a very low power
output, the most important eigenvalues, related to the dynamic Using (29) with some manipulation yields
of the MC input stage, are obtained from the simplified modeling vi vif
with low error. vo = vo . (30)
vif |2
|

IV. MRAS OBSERVER In steady state, when Vif o Vio , the MC output voltage vo
vo . However, during dynamic operation the voltage vif used by
In this paper, an MRAS observer is used to estimate the the SVM is not equal to the MC input voltage vi , especially
rotational speed of the induction machine. This observer is based when fbw is relatively small. Therefore, the voltage of (30) is
on two models, the voltage model and the current model [5], used in (25) to calculate the reference rotor flux r .
[12][14], [17]. The voltage model (see Fig. 2) is used to obtain Note that in (30), the influence of Z(s) has been neglected,
the rotor flux as follows [5]: because the bandwidth of the current controllers is much smaller
  than the sampling frequency. Hence, the effects produced by the
Lr
r = vo Rs io ) dt Ls io
( (25) time delay and zero-order hold are negligible for the calculation
L0
of the fundamental output voltages of (30).
where Rs is the stator resistance and is the leakage coeffi- In (30), the voltage drop produced in the devices is not consid-
cient. In the experimental implementation of (25), a bandpass ered. For a WECS, the IG does not operate at very low speeds,
filter (BPF) is used as a modified integrator to block the dc where according to (1), the captured power is low. Therefore,
component of the measured voltages and currents [5], [12]. in the typical operating range of a WECS, the voltage drop in
The BPF is designed with cutoff frequencies of 0.1 and 1 Hz. the devices is small compared to the induction machine stator
For frequencies above 3 Hz, the difference between the fre- voltage.

CARDENAS et al.: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A WECS BASED ON A CAGE IG FED BY A MC
Fig. 8. Experimental system.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The control system of Fig. 2 has been implemented in an ex-
perimental prototype configured, as shown in Fig. 8. The MC is
assembled using SEMIKRON SK60GM123 insulated gate bipo-
lar transistor (IGBT) modules (dual-IGBT bidirectional switch).
A high performance TI C6713 DSP is used to control the ex-
perimental system. For data acquisition, an external board with
ten ADC channels of 14 bits, 1 s conversion time each, is in-
terfaced to the DSP. This board also has four digital to analog
(DAC) channels available.
Hall effect transducers are used to measure the input currents,
input voltages, and output currents. Using an additional univer-
sal serial bus board, the data acquired in each sampling time can
be sent to the host computer, where it is processed by MATLAB-
based software. For data acquisition of steady-state waveforms,
a 500-MHz four-channel digital oscilloscope is preferred. The
data stored in the scope is also processed using MATLAB-based
software.
As shown in Fig. 8, the prime mover used in the experimental
rig is a cage motor with the rotational speed controlled from
a commercial inverter. The speed reference signal is sent from
the DSP board to the inverter, using one of the DAC channels.
For the experimental results presented in this section, the IG
is driven at both fixed and variable speeds. For the variable
speed results, the cage motor is used to emulate a wind turbine.
Variable speed wind turbine emulation is implemented using
a mathematical model, which is discretized and programmed
in the digital processor [27][29]. This model considers the
turbine and generator inertias, the viscous friction coefficient of
the system, the gearbox, and the nonlinearities of the WECS,
etc. The power coefficient curve Cp (TSR, ), (with TSR as the
Tip-Speed Ratio) of a typical blade [30] has been discretized
and stored in a look-up table. Linear interpolation is used to
obtain the power coefficient from the look-up table.
During operation, a wind speed profile is sent from the host
PC to the second-order model of the WECS implemented in
the DSP. From this second order model the generator speed r
211
TABLE I
SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF FIG. 5 VERSUS EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
is calculated in each sampling interval and sent as a reference
signal to the commercial inverter. Therefore, the driving cage
motor forces the IG rotational speed to this value [28]. With this
emulation technique, the IG rotates at the same speed as that
of a generator driven by the modeled wind turbine. A complete
discussion of the emulation technique can be found in [5] and
[28].
For the experimental work presented in this section, the MC is
controlled using the SVM algorithm presented in [2]. A switch-
ing frequency of 12.5 kHz is used to control the bidirectional
switches. The commutation is controlled using the four-step
method implemented in a field-programmable gate array [31].
The MC is connected to a three-phase variable transformer at
the input and to a delta connected IG at the output. A speed
encoder of 10, 000 pulses per revolution is used for the vector
control system. This encoder is used for comparison purposes
and for controlling the driving machine. The parameters of the
experimental system are presented in the Appendix.
A. Experimental Results Obtained for Fixed-Speed Operation
To validate the simplified model proposed in this paper, the
machine is operated at fixed speed, typically at 750 r/min. In
steady-state operation, the stability of the system is investigated
by imposing slow variations in the cutoff frequency fbw and also
by varying the input filter damping. The experimental results
corresponding to these investigations are shown in Figs. 913
and Table I.
For the experimental test of Fig. 9, the machine controlled
by the MC operates as a generator with iq o = 8.7 A, ido =
3.12 A, r = 715 r/min, and Vio = 145 V. In this test, a ramp
variation in fbw [see (22)] is used, with fbw changing from
20 to 1200 Hz [see Fig. 9(a)], while the value of Vio2 /Pm is
18.8 .
Fig. 9(b) shows the voltage transfer ratio. When fbw is in-
creased, the damping coefficient decreases. Therefore, the
ripple in the voltage transfer ratio increases to compensate the
oscillation in the MC input voltage. Finally, when fbw reaches
680 Hz, the system becomes unstable and current control is
lost as a result of the voltage transfer ratio hitting the maximum
value of q = 0.85. When t 4.25 s, the overcurrent protection
trips.
Fig 9(c) shows the d-component of the input current. When
fbw is increased, the ripple in the MC input current is large.
When t > 4.2 s, the damping coefficient is very small and the
212
Fig. 9. Experimental results corresponding to a ramp variation in the cutoff
frequency of the rotating filter. (a) Cutoff frequency. (b) Voltage transfer ratio.
(c) MC input current.
Fig. 10. Output currents corresponding to the test of Fig. 9.
input currents have superimposed oscillations with components
close to the resonant frequency of the no-load input filter. This
is shown in the dashed box of Fig. 9(c). (The oscillations are
more clearly shown in Fig. 13.)
In Fig. 10, the machine stator currents, corresponding to the
test of Fig. 9, are shown. Despite the variation in fbw , the output
currents are relatively well regulated with a small increase in
the ripple.
Using ramp variations in the frequency fbw , the simplified
model proposed in this paper has been tested. The cutoff fre-
quency of the synchronous filter is slowly increased until in-
stability is produced. The results are shown in Table I. In this
table, M indicates motoring operation and G stands for
generating operation.
The cutoff frequency fbw for unstable operation, obtained
from the modeling, is always lower than that obtained experi-
mentally. However, in the modeling, some nonlinear effects such
as losses in the inductor and autotransformer, variation of the
resistances produced by heating, etc., are not considered These
effects increase the damping coefficient of the input impedance.
Nevertheless, the modeling results are good considering the high
sensitivity of the system to the parameters of the input filter and
grid.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011
Fig. 11. Response of the system considering variation in the damping coeffi-
cient lte r . (a) Response for lte r = 0.1. (b) Response for lte r = 0.138.
(c) Cutoff frequency ramp variation.
Fig. 12. Input currents for operation with a good damping coefficient.
The sensitivity of the system considering variations in the
damping coefficient of the input filter (lter ) are shown in
Fig. 11. For Fig. 11(a), a ramp fbw variation is applied to the sys-
tem, which is designed with a lter 0.1. The system becomes
unstable when fbw 675 Hz. Solely for the purpose of further
validating the analysis, the damping factor was artificially in-
creased by adding a 1 series resistance for convenience
[increasing Rg of Fig. 4(a)], although it is recognized that this
is not a viable approach in practice. In this case, the damping
coefficient is increased to lter 0.138. With this damping
coefficient, the system becomes unstable for a filter cutoff fre-
quency of 870 Hz. Therefore, the variation in lter increases
fbw by almost 200 Hz before instability is reached. For the
test of Fig. 11, Req = 18 with the cage machine rotating at
705 r/min. The ramp variation in fbw is similar to that shown in
Fig. 9(a).
When the cutoff frequency of (22) is set to an appropriate
value, the oscillations in the input current and voltages are elim-
inated. This is shown in Fig. 12, where a frequency of 50 Hz
is used in the control system. For this test, the currents have
little distortion. The distortion in the input voltage (not shown
in Fig. 12) is also low.
When the frequency fbw is increased and the system is close
to instability, the MC input currents and voltages are severely
distorted. This is shown in Fig. 13 for the generation case.
The system is operating with a cutoff frequency fbw 980 Hz
and r 700 r/min. When the frequency fbw is increased, the
damping coefficient of the input impedance becomes close to

CARDENAS et al.: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A WECS BASED ON A CAGE IG FED BY A MC 213

Fig. 13. Input voltages and currents for operation with a small damping and
generating operation. (a) Input voltage. (b) Input current.

zero. Therefore, the input voltages and currents have super-

imposed oscillations with high-frequency components close to
1.94 kHz, which is approximately the resonant frequency of the
input filter and supply impedance combined.
Fig. 14. Experimental test considering the emulation of a wind turbine. (a)
B. Operation of the Sensorless WECS Wind profile. (b) Input and output currents. (c) Power output.

In the experimental results presented in Figs. 913, it has been

demonstrated that the dynamic performance of the system can
be analyzed using the simplified model proposed in Section IV.
It has also been shown that the proposed generation system has
a good dynamic performance if the input filter is designed with
an appropriate damping coefficient and the cutoff frequency of
the synchronous filter of (22) is properly adjusted.
In this section, it is shown that the performance of the MC-
based sensorless controlled WECS is appropriate for wind en-
ergy applications. For the experimental tests, the driving ma-
chine is controlled to emulate a variable speed wind turbine
using the methodology discussed in [5] and [28]. The wind pro-
file shown in Fig. 14(a) is used in the experimental tests shown
in Figs. 14 and 15. For these tests, the synchronous filter cut-
off frequency is adjusted to 50 Hz and the IG torque current is
regulated using (3). The rotational speed is estimated from the Fig. 15. Sensorless tracking corresponding to the test of Fig. 14. (a) Real and
MRAS observer discussed in Section V and the speed obtained estimated rotational speed. (b) Percentage of speed error.
from the encoder is used only for comparison purposes. To test
the performance of the proposed sensorless control system, the
system inertia is reduced to approximately one-third of the value shows the real and the rotational speeds estimated from the
of a wind turbine of this size. MRAS observer. The tracking of the observer is good with a
Fig. 14(b) shows the IG magnetizing current, the IG torque small error. The tracking error is given as a percentage of the
current, and the MC input current. The magnetizing current is real speed, as shown in Fig 15(b). For this test, the error is below
well regulated to a value of 3.12 A for all the wind profile. In 1% for the whole wind profile.
order to drive the wind turbine to the point of maximum aero- The dynamic effects produced, when the power supplied to
dynamic efficiency, the torque current is regulated according to the grid by the WECS increases and the cutoff frequency fbw is
(3). The d-component of the MC input current is also shown in not properly adjusted, have also been tested in this paper. This
Fig. 14(b). This current is also well regulated and proportional is shown in Fig. 16. Fig. 16(a) shows the power supplied to the
to the cube of the rotational speed [see (1)]. grid using a wind profile similar to that shown in Fig. 14(a).
Fig. 14(c) shows the power supplied to the grid by the gen- For this test fbw 50 Hz and the IG torque current is regulated
eration system. Because of the reduced inertia, the power has using (3). Fig. 16(b) shows the output admittance, referred to
relatively fast variations with a peak value of about 2.7 kW. the MC input side, and the input admittance measured using the
The tracking performance of the proposed system (corre- current and voltage transducers. Because of the losses, the input
sponding to the test of Fig. 14) is shown in Fig. 15. Fig. 15(a) admittance is lower than the referred output admittance.
214
Fig. 16. Step change in the filter cutoff frequency at the middle of a wind
profile. (a) Rotational speed. (b) Input admittances. (c) MC input current.
Fig. 16(c) shows the performance of the WECS when the
cutoff frequency of the rotating synchronous filter is changed
from 50 to 600 Hz in t 24 s. Because the frequency step is
applied when the rotational speed is low and the power delivered
to the grid is small, the system does not become immediately
unstable, but the current ripple is more noticeable. When the
power supplied to the grid increases, in response to a wind
gust, the input current begins to oscillate until the overcurrent
protection trips when t 30 s, where the generated power
reaches its maximum value for this wind profile. This result
demonstrates that the system has to be designed for maximum
power operation or using a variable cutoff frequency fbw , which
is adjusted as a function of the rotational speed.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the performance of a WECS based on a MC
converter feeding an IG has been analytically and experimen-
tally evaluated. It has been shown in this paper that MCs are
good alternatives to the back-to-back converters conventionally
used in this sort of applications.
It has been demonstrated that induction motors and IGs have
similar stability problems when fed by MCs. The stability prob-
lems are produced because of the damping coefficient reduction
associated with a negative incremental resistance. When Z(s)
1 and the system operates as a generator, this negative resistance
effect is created when the input currents and voltages are forced
to unity power operation. However, for motoring operation, this
negative resistance effect is created because the output power is
approximately constant during a voltage perturbation.
It has been shown in this paper that the system dynamic
performance can be studied using the simplified model proposed
in this work. The results obtained from this simplified model
agree with the results obtained from the experimental tests and
with the results obtained from a complex full-order model. The
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011
importance of designing the MC input filter with a good damping
coefficient and the importance of designing a rotating filter, with
a suitable cutoff frequency f bw , have also been addressed in this
paper.
It has been shown in this paper that an MRAS observer can
be implemented, using a estimation of the stator voltage derived
from the input and output voltages used by the SVM algo-
rithm. Experimental results have been presented in this paper,
considering the emulation of a wind turbine of low inertia and
considering steady state fixed-speed operation. For all the ex-
perimental results it has been shown that the performance of
the proposed sensorless WECS is as good as that of a speed
sensored system.
APPENDIX
PARAMETERS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL RIG
Induction machine: r (rated) = 1450 r/min, ids (rated) =
3.12 A, Rs = 2.1 , Rr = 1.7 , Ls = 0.4186 H, Lo =
0.4058 H, Lr = 0.4186 H, and = 0.06022 delta connected.
Control loops for the magnetizing and torque current imple-
mented with a natural frequency n = 60 Hz and = 0.8.
Wind turbine emulation: TSRopt = 10, wind turbine emu-
lated using an induction motor of 5.5 hp.
Matrix converter: Input filter Lf = 0.85 mH, Cf = 2 F,
(delta-connected capacitors), Rf = 56 , Lg 0.15 mH, Rg
0.3 ), and four-step commutation method implemented with a
1 s for each step. Nominal current of the MC for 3.5 kW, 380 V
is 6 A.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Dr. L. Empringham and Dr.
L. de Lillo, Power Electronics Machines and Control Group,
University of Nottingham, for all their technical advice during
the implementation of the experimental rig used in this paper.
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215
Roberto Cardenas (S95M97SM07) was born
in Punta Arenas, Chile. He received the B.S. degree
from the University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, in
1988, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Uni-
versity of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., in 1992
and 1996, respectively.
From 1989 to 1991 and 1996 to 2008, he was a
Lecturer in the University of Magallanes. From 1991
to 1996, he was with the Power Electronics Machines
and Control Group, University of Nottingham. He
is currently with the Electrical Engineering Depart-
ment, University of Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile. His research interests
include the control of electrical machines, variable speed drives, and renewable
energy systems.
Ruben Pena (S94M96) was born in Coronel,
Chile. He received the B.S. degree in electrical en-
gineering from the University of Concepcion, Con-
cepcion, Chile, in 1984, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Nottingham, Notting-
ham, U.K., in 1992 and 1996, respectively.
From 1985 to 2008, he was a Lecturer at the
University of Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile. He
is currently with the Electrical Engineering Depart-
ment, University of Concepcion. His research inter-
ests include control of power electronics converters,
ac drives, and renewable energy systems.
Jon Clare (M90SM04) was born in Bristol, Eng-
land. He received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from the University of Bristol,
Bristol, U.K.
From 1984 to 1990, he was a Research Assistant
and a Lecturer at the University of Bristol, where
he was involved in teaching and research in power
electronic systems. Since 1990, he has been with
the Power Electronics, Machines, and Control Group,
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., where
he is currently a Professor in power electronics. His
research interests include power electronic converters and modulation strate-
gies, variable-speed drive systems, and electromagnetic compatibility.
Prof. Clare is a member of the Institution of Engineering Technology.
Patrick Wheeler (M00) received the degree in elec-
trical engineering and the Ph.D. degree for work
on matrix converters from the University of Bristol,
Bristol, U.K., in 1990 and 1994, respectively.
In 1993, he was a Research Assistant in the Depart-
ment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Uni-
versity of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K. In 1996, he
was a Lecturer with the Power Electronics, Machines
and Control Group, University of Nottingham, where
he became a Senior Lecturer in 2002 and a Profes-
sor in power electronic systems in 2007. His research
interests include variable speed ac motor drives, particularly different circuit
topologies, power converters for power systems and semiconductor switch use.
Prof. Wheeler is a member of the Institution of Engineering Technology.