IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO.
1, MARCH 2010
Harmonic Analysis of a DFIG for a Wind Energy
Conversion System
Lingling Fan, Senior Member, IEEE, Subbaraya Yuvarajan, Senior Member, IEEE,
and Rajesh Kavasseri, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper develops a framework for analysis of har-
monics in a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) caused by non-
sinusoidal conditions in rotor and unbalance in stator. Nonsinu-
soidal rotor voltages are decomposed into harmonic components
and their corresponding sequences are identified. Induced harmon-
ics in stator are analyzed and computed, from which the torques
produced by these interactions between stator and rotor harmonic
components can be found. During unbalanced stator conditions,
symmetric component theory is applied to the stator voltage to get
positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components of stator and
rotor currents. The steady-state negative-sequence equivalent cir-
cuit for a DFIG is derived based on the reference frame theory.
Harmonic currents in the rotor are computed based on the se-
quence circuits. In both scenarios, the harmonic components of the
electromagnetic torque are calculated from the interactions of the
harmonic components of the stator and rotor currents. Three case
studies are considered, namely: 1) nonsinusoidal rotor injection;
2) an isolated unbalanced stator load scenario; and 3) unbalanced
grid-connected operation. The analysis is verified with results from
numerical simulations in MATLAB/Simulink. For illustration, the
second case is verified using experiments. The simulation results
and experimental results agree well with the results from analysis.
Index Terms—Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), harmon-
ics, inverter, unbalance, wind generation.
NOMENCLATURE
iq s , ids q-Axis and d-axis stator currents.
i
q r , i
dr q-Axis and d-axis rotor currents referring to
the stator side.
I¯s , I¯r Stator and rotor current vectors.
s, r Stator and rotor.
q, d Rotating reference frame.
ωe Nominal angular speed.
ωs , ωr , ωm Stator, rotor, and rotating angular speed.
+, − Positive and negative components.
I. INTRODUCTION
OUBLY fed induction generators (DFIGs) are widely used
D in wind generation. The possibility of getting a constant-
frequency ac output from a DFIG while driven by a variable-
speed prime mover improves the efficacy of energy harvest from
Manuscript received December 3, 2008; revised April 8, 2009. First pub-
lished November 24, 2009; current version published February 17, 2010.
Paper no. TEC-00470-2008.
L. Fan is with the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33617 USA
(e-mail: linglingfan@eng.usf.edu).
S. Yuvarajan and R. Kavasseri are with the Department of Elec-
trical and Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University,
Fargo, ND 58105 USA (e-mail: subbaraya.yuvarajan@ndsu.edu; rajesh.
kavasseri@ndsu.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2009.2032594
0885-8969/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE
181
wind [1]. Unlike a squirrel-cage induction generator, which has
its rotor short-circuited, a DFIG has its rotor terminals accessi-
ble. The rotor of a DFIG is fed with a variable-frequency (ωr )
and variable-magnitude three-phase voltage. This ac voltage in-
jected into the rotor circuit will generate a flux and a stator
voltage/current with a frequency ωr if the rotor is standing still.
When the rotor is rotating at a speed ωm , the net flux linkage and
the stator voltage/current will have a frequency ωs = ωr + ωm .
When the wind speed changes, the rotor speed ωm will change,
and in order to have the net flux linkage at a frequency 60 Hz,
the rotor injection frequency should also be adjusted. A key
requirement of a DFIG is to have its three-phase rotor circuit in-
jected with a voltage at a controllable frequency and controllable
magnitude.
The three-phase ac voltage can be synthesized using var-
ious switching techniques, including six-step switching [2],
pulsewidth modulation (PWM) [1], and space vector PWM [3].
To reduce the switching losses while having a simple control
circuit, a six-step switching technique is widely used in thyristor-
based inverters. The high-power capability of thyristor attracts
the implementation of thyristor-based converters in wind energy
systems and six-step switching has kindled a new interest in
wind energy systems [4], [5]. The six-step switching technique
generates quasi-sine ac voltages, which possess 6n ± 1 harmon-
ics. Under such conditions, the rotor currents contain harmonic
components, which, in turn, induce corresponding harmonics in
the stator. This leads to pulsating torques.
Harmonics can also be introduced by unbalanced stator condi-
tions. Unbalanced stator voltages can be resolved into positive-,
negative-, and zero-sequence voltages. Negative-sequence com-
ponents in the stator cause high-frequency components in rotor
currents and torque pulsations, which lead to several undesir-
able conditions such as overheating. Mitigating the effects of
unbalanced stator conditions on a DFIG by appropriate control
has been the focus of the works in [6]–[16]. The focus in these
works is to develop control schemes to minimize overcurrents
and pulsating torques.
Harmonic analysis of induction motor drives has been well
documented in textbooks [2] and [17] . Slip-energy recovery in-
duction motor drives have a topology similar to that of DFIGs,
with a unidirectional power electronic interface. Harmonic anal-
ysis of these kinds of drives can be found in [18]–[20]. Harmonic
analysis of a DFIG has also been seen in [21]–[23]. The work
in [21] focuses on harmonic components from a machine design
perspective such as: 1) nonsinusoidal distribution of the stator
and rotor windings, referred to as MMF space harmonics, and
2) variations in reluctance due to slots, referred to as slot har-
monics. The work in [22] calculates the distortion components
182 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2010

in the rotor and stator currents due to a six-pulse rotor-side con-

verter. An equivalent circuit is also presented to calculate stator
currents, but the resulting variations in torque are not calculated.
The work in [23] focuses on the effects of speed ripples due to
rotor-side harmonic injection, which is an important considera-
tion. However, this phenomenon is sensitive (see [23, Fig. 8]) to
the moment of inertia of the rotor. Their experiments are carried
out on a small test machine (1/3 hp) with a very small moment
of inertia (0.0035 kg·m2 ) where the effects of the ripple can be Fig. 1. Steady-state induction machine circuit representation.
quite pronounced.
In [7] and [9]–[13], expressions for torque under unbalanced
stator conditions have been derived in terms of the complex II. STEADY-STATE EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT OF A DFIG
power and speed. The expressions for complex power are de- For analysis, the per-phase steady-state equivalent circuit of
rived using space vector concept or instantaneous reactive power a DFIG based on [24] and [25] is shown in Fig. 1. Here, N ,
theory. ωs , and slip are defined based on sequence and harmonic con-
Our study will focus on harmonic components resulting from ditions. For example, when N = 1, ωs = ωe , and slip = s, the
operating conditions due to: 1) nonsinusoidal rotor injection and circuit corresponds to the well-known positive-sequence equiva-
2) unbalanced stator conditions. These two conditions are often lent circuit of an induction machine. For harmonic and negative-
encountered in wind energy systems, and are thus, important sequence conditions, the parameters are modified, and details
to analyze. Overall, the aim of this paper is to present a gener- are presented in Sections III and IV, respectively.
alized platform for harmonic analysis in DFIG systems under Remarks:
such conditions. The objective of the analysis is to estimate the 1) Positive-sequence circuit:
magnitudes of the frequency components in the stator and rotor 
currents, and therefore, in the torque. The currents are computed N = 1
from the steady-state equivalent machine circuit and the torque ω s = ωe

is calculated from the interactions of the harmonic components slip = s.
of the stator and the rotor currents. 2) Negative-sequence circuit:
Some basic assumptions are made in this paper: 1) the speed 
is assumed to be constant and ripple-free to simplify our analysis  N = −1
and 2) the winding distribution is sinusoidal, and hence, there ω = −ωe
 s
are no MMF space harmonics and slot harmonics. slip = 2 − s.
In the first scenario, nonsinusoidal rotor voltages are decom- 3) 6n − 1 harmonic rotor injection:
posed into harmonic components and their corresponding se- 
quences are identified. Then, the induced harmonics in the rotor  N = −1

and stator of a DFIG are analyzed and computed, from which ωs = (6n − 1)ωr − ωm
the torques produced by these interactions between stator and 
 slip = (6n − 1)ωr
.
rotor harmonic components are found. (6n − 1)ωr − ωm
In the second scenario, for unbalanced stator conditions, sym- 4) 6n + 1 harmonic rotor injection:
metric component theory is applied to the stator voltage to get 
the positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components of stator  N =1

and rotor currents. The steady-state negative-sequence equiva- ωs = (6n + 1)ωr + ωm
lent circuit for a DFIG is derived based on the reference frame 
 slip = (6n + 1)ωr
.
theory. Harmonic currents in the rotor are obtained based on (6n − 1)ωr + ωm
the positive- and negative-sequence circuits. Harmonic compo-
nents in the torque due to the interactions between stator and III. HARMONIC ANALYSIS WITH QUASI-SINE
rotor sequence components are found. ROTOR VOLTAGE INJECTION
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II In this section, harmonic analysis in the stator circuits with
gives the steady-state equivalent circuit of the DFIG under quasi-sine rotor voltage injection will be investigated. The ac
positive-sequence, negative-sequence, and harmonic scenarios. voltage injected to the rotor usually comes from a dc/ac bridge
Section III presents the harmonic analysis of a DFIG with non- converter shown in Fig. 2. While PWM technique is widely
sinusoidal rotor circuit injection. Section IV presents the har- used for rotor injection [1], a six-step switching technique is
monic analysis of a DFIG under unbalanced stator condition. another possibility to simplify the control circuit and reduce the
Three case studies are given in Section V, namely: 1) nonsi- switching losses. Six-step switching introduces 6n ± 1 harmon-
nusoidal rotor injection; 2) an isolated unbalanced load; and 3) ics in the voltages and the resultant output is called a quasi-sine
unbalance in grid-connected operation. The analysis, along with waveform. Unlike PWM, this does not need sine and triangu-
experimental results and numerical simulations, in MATLAB/ lar waves. It is easy to adjust the rotor injection frequency by
Simulink is also given. Section VI concludes the paper. simply varying a control voltage. The output line voltage of the
FAN et al.: HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF A DFIG FOR A WIND ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEM 183

Thus, the set of (6n − 1) harmonics can be considered as a

negative-sequence set. The frequency of the waveform is equiv-
alent to −(6n − 1)ω. Throughout the paper, a negative sign for
the frequency implies a negative sequence for the corresponding
quantity.
Using the same analogy, for the 7th or any (6n + 1)th har-
monic, the three-phase set is considered as a positive-sequence
Fig. 2. Power circuit of a three-phase bridge inverter. set and the frequency of the waveform is (6n + 1)ω.
Therefore, the following harmonic components can be ob-
served in the stator current: ωr + ωm , −5ωr + ωm , 7ωr + ωm ,
−11ωr + ωm , 13ωr + ωm , etc. The lowest order harmonic
(LOH) observed has a frequency of |5ωr − ωm |.
The magnitudes of the harmonics in the stator current can
be computed based on the steady-state equivalent circuit in
Fig. 1.

B. Harmonic Components and Magnitudes of Electromagnetic

Torque
Fig. 3. Quasi-sine waveforms of line and phase voltages applied to the rotor. The harmonic analysis of a DFIG is similar to the harmonic
analysis of an induction machine presented in [2]. For an in-
inverter is a quasi-sine wave with levels 0, VB , and −VB , and duction motor with a quasi-sine ac power supply, the harmon-
one of the three line voltages and a phase voltage are shown in ics present in stator currents and electromagnetic torque are at
Fig. 3. n × 60 Hz, while in a DFIG with quasi-sine rotor injection, the
harmonics in stator currents and electromagnetic torque are de-
A. Harmonic Components in Stator and Rotor Currents pendent on the injected frequencies, which will be discussed in
the following paragraphs.
For the quasi-sine waveforms of Fig. 3, triple-n harmonics
The constant or steady torques are developed by the reac-
(3, 6, 9, 15, . . .) are absent. The voltage waveform in phase A
tion of harmonic air gap fluxes with harmonic rotor MMFs, or
can be expressed in the mathematical form as [2]
currents, of the same order. Since the 6n − 1 harmonics are
∞
 1 negative-sequence harmonics, the induced torques oppose the
vr a (t) = VS sin(kωt), k = 1, 5, 7, . . . (1) torques produced by the fundamental MMFs and 6n + 1 har-
k
k
monics [2].
where VS = (2/π)VB . Besides the steady torques, there are also pulsating torque
The 120◦ phase displacements among the three phase voltages components, which are produced by the reaction of harmonic
can be conveniently represented as rotor MMFs with harmonic rotating fluxes of different order.
 ∞

 1 jkωt The reaction between the fundamental rotor MMF and the fifth
vr a (t) = Im VS e (2) harmonic component in the stator current will cause a pulsat-
k
k ing torque with frequency of ωr 1 + ωm − ωs5 = 6ωr . Simi-
 ∞
 larly, the reaction between the fifth harmonic rotor MMF and
 1 j k ω (t−τ )
vr b (t) = Im VS e (3) the fundamental component in the stator current will produce a
k pulsating torque with frequency of ωr 5 + ωm − ωs1 = −6ωr .
k
 ∞
 The reactions between the fundamental rotor MMF and the sev-
 1 j k ω (t−2τ )
vr c (t) = Im VS e (4) enth harmonic component in the stator current, and the seventh
k harmonic rotor MMF and the fundamental component in the
k
where k = 1, 5, 7, 11, . . ., and ωτ = 2π/3. stator current will also produce pulsating torques of the same
For the 5th and any (6n − 1)th (n > 0) harmonic, the wave- frequency 6ωr .
forms of the rotor voltages are given by Similarly, the interactions between the fundamental rotor
 MMF and the 11th (13th) harmonic component in the stator
1
vr a (t) = Im VS ej (6n −1)ω t current will produce a pulsating torque with frequency of 12ωr .
6n − 1 In general, the pulsating torque contains harmonics of frequency
 6nωr (n > 0).
1 j (6n −1)ω t j (2π /3)
vr b (t) = Im VS e e The torque can be expressed in terms of stator and rotor
6n − 1
 currents in the same reference frame [25] or current space vector
1 j (6n −1)ω t −j (2π /3) [2]. The torque in terms of the q–d currents and the current space
vr c (t) = Im VS e e .
6n − 1
184 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2010

vector can be written as

 
3 P
Te = M (iq s i
dr − ids i
q r ) (5)
2 2

P
=3 M Im[I¯s I¯r∗ ] (6)
2
√ √
where I¯s = (iq s − jids )/ 2 and I¯r = (i
q r − ji
dr )/ 2.
The steady torque can be expressed in current space vector as
 
P
Te0 = 3 M Im [I¯sk I¯r∗k ] (7)
2
k
√
where k = 1, 5, 7, 9, 11, . . ., I¯k = (iq k − jidk )/ 2. The q–d
variables are referred to the rotating reference frame with the
same speed as the frequency of the stator harmonic component.
The pulsating torque of frequency 6ωr can be expressed as

P Fig. 4. Two reference frames: synchronous and negative synchronous.
Te6 = 3 M Im[I¯s1 I¯r∗5 ej 6ω r ]
2

P There are two steps in the analysis. The first step is to identify
+3 M Im[I¯s1 I¯r∗7 e−j 6ω r ]
2 the harmonic components in the rotor currents and the electro-
 magnetic torque, and the second step is to estimate the magni-
P
+3 M Im[I¯s5 I¯r∗1 e−j 6ω r ] tude of each harmonic component.
2

P
+3 M Im[I¯s7 I¯r∗1 ej 6ω r ]. A. Harmonic Components in Stator and Rotor Currents
2
The stator frequency is assumed to be 60 Hz. During stator
The currents iq s1 and ids1 are in the reference frame with a unbalance, the magnitudes of the three phase voltages will not
rotating speed of ωs1 , iq r 5 and idr 5 are in the reference frame be the same. Also, the phase angle displacements of the three
with a rotating speed of ωs5 , and iq r 7 and idr 7 are in the reference voltages will not be 120◦ . Using symmetric component theory, a
frame with a rotating speed of ωs7 . set of three-phase voltages can be decomposed into a positive-,
The pulsating torque of Te6 can be expressed in real variables a negative-, and a zero-sequence component. The stator cur-
as rents will, in turn, have positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence
Te6 = Te cos 6 cos(6ωr t) + Te sin 6 sin(6ωr t) (8) components.
For an induction machine, the sum of the rotor injection fre-
where Te cos 6 and Te sin 6 can be expressed by currents in quency and the rotor frequency is equal to the stator frequency or

 ωr + ωm = ωs . For the positive-sequence voltage set with fre-

Te6 cos 3P
= M quency ωs applied to the stator side, the resulting rotor currents
Te6 sin 22 or flux linkage have a frequency ωr = ωs − ωm = sωs .


−(ids5 +ids7 ) (iq s5 + iq s7 ) −ids1 iq s1 −ids1 iq s1 The negative-sequence voltage set can be seen as a three-
× phase balanced set with a negative frequency −ωs . Thus, the
−iq s5 +iq s7 (ids5 +ids7 ) iq s1 ids1 −iq s1 −ids1
  induced flux linkage in rotor circuit and the rotor currents have
iq r 1 a frequency of −ωs − ωm = −(2 − s)ωs .
 idr 1  Observed from the synchronous reference frame qd+ with a
 
i 
×  qr5  . (9) rotating speed ωe = ωs , the first component (positive sequence)
 idr 5  has a frequency of sωs − (ωe − ωm ) = 0, or a dc component,
 
iq r 7 and the second component (negative sequence) has a frequency
idr 7 of −(2 − s)ωs − (ωe − ωr ) = −2ωe , i.e., 120 Hz. Observed
from the negative synchronous reference frame qd− , which ro-
IV. HARMONIC ANALYSIS FOR THE UNBALANCED
tates clockwise with the synchronous speed ωe , the positive-
STATOR CONDITION sequence component has a frequency of sωs − (−ωe − ωm ) =
The purpose of the analysis is to investigate the DFIG opera- 2ωe , and the negative-sequence component has a frequency of
tion at unbalanced stator conditions and study the waveforms of −(2 − s)ωs − (−ωe − ωm ) = 0. The two reference frames are
the rotor currents and the electromagnetic torque. It is assumed shown in Fig. 4, and Table I shows the components of the rotor
that sinusoidal voltages are injected into the rotor and that the currents in abc and the two reference frames.
rotor injection voltage magnitude is constant during the system The rotor currents in both reference frames will have a dc
disturbance. component and a high-frequency component. To extract the
FAN et al.: HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF A DFIG FOR A WIND ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEM 185

TABLE I The rotor relationship can be further expressed as

ROTOR CURRENT COMPONENTS OBSERVED IN VARIOUS REFERENCE FRAMES

−e
Ṽar r
−e −e
= r I˜
ar − jωe λ̃ar . (17)
2−s 2−s
The equivalent circuit in Fig. 1 now has N = −1, ωs = ωe ,
and slip = 2 − s. If the rotor voltage injection is assumed to be a
balanced sinusoidal three-phase set, then the negative-sequence

−e
component Ṽar = 0.
Thus, the stator and rotor currents are induced by both the
positive-sequence voltages and negative-sequence voltages. The
rotor currents have two components: one at the low frequency
sωe having an rms magnitude of Ias+ and the other at the high
frequency (2 − s)ωe with a magnitude of Ias− .

Fig. 5. Scheme for extracting dc components.

C. Harmonic Components and Magnitudes of Electromagnetic

harmonic components in the rotor currents, both a synchronous Torque
reference frame qd+ and a negative synchronous rotating refer- The zero-sequence stator currents will not induce a torque
ence frame qd− (see Fig. 4) will be used. A low-pass filter with [25]. Meanwhile, the zero-sequence stator circuit and the zero-
a suitable cutoff frequency can be used to extract the dc compo- sequence rotor circuit are completely decoupled. Hence, the
nents, which correspond to the magnitudes of the two harmonic zero-sequence variables presented at the stator side will not
components. The scheme for extracting the dc components is induce any voltage at the rotor side. In machines where wye
shown in Fig. 5. connection is used, even the stator side does not have zero-
sequence currents.
B. Magnitudes of the Harmonic Components in Stator Under the unbalanced stator condition, the stator cur-
and Rotor Currents rent has two components: positive-sequence components I¯s+
In this section, the derivation of the steady-state circuit for the and negative-sequence components I¯s− . The rotor current
negative-sequence components is given. The equivalent circuit also has two components: positive-sequence components I¯r +
is derived by establishing the relationship of the voltages and and negative-sequence components I¯r − . The electromagnetic
currents in qd variables and further in phasors. torque is produced by the interactions between the stator
For the negative sequence, the q-axis, d-axis, and 0-axis vari- and rotor currents. The torque can be decomposed into four
ables become dc variables at steady state when the reference components
frame rotates at a frequency of −ωe . The derivatives of the flux
Te = Te1 + Te2 + Te3 + Te4 (18)
linkages are zero at steady state. Hence, the voltage and current
relationship is expressed in qd0 as where Te1 is due to the interaction of I¯s+ and I¯r + , Te2 is due to
vq−e = rs i−e − ωe λ−e (10) the interaction of I¯s− and I¯r − , Te3 is due to the interaction of
s qs ds
I¯s+ and I¯r − , and Te4 is due to the interaction of I¯s− and I¯r + .
−e
vds = rs i−e −e
ds + ωe λq s (11) It will be convenient to use both the synchronous reference
frame and the negative synchronous reference frame to compute
vq
−e

−e
−e
r = rr iq r + (−ωe − ωr )λdr (12)
Te . For example, Te1 can be identified as a dc variable in the

−e
vdr = rr
i
−e
−e
dr − (−ωe − ωr )λq r . (13) synchronous reference frame. Te2 can be identified as a dc vari-
able in the negative synchronous reference frame. Te3 and Te4
The relationship between a phasor F̃as at a given frequency are pulsating torques with a frequency 2ωe . The expressions for
and the corresponding qd variables in the reference frame rotat- the torque components are as follows:
ing at the same frequency can be expressed as
√ 
P e ¯∗e
2F̃a = Fq − jFd (14) Te1 = 3 M Im[I¯s+ Ir + ] (19)
2
where F can be voltages, currents, or flux linkages in the stator 
P −e ¯∗−e
or rotor circuits. Te2 = 3 M Im[I¯s− Ir − ] (20)
2
Therefore, the stator and rotor voltage, current, and flux link- 
age relationship can be expressed in phasor form as P e ¯∗e
Te3 = 3 M Im[I¯s+ Ir − ] (21)
−e 2
−e −e
Ṽas = rs I˜as − jωe λ̃as (15) 
P e ¯∗−e j 2ω e t

−e −e −e =3 M Im[I¯s+ Ir − e ] (22)
Ṽar = rr
I˜
ar − j(ωe + ωr )λ̃ar . (16) 2
186 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2010

TABLE II
ANALYZED FREQUENCY COMPONENTS IN THE ROTOR AND STATOR CURRENTS
DUE TO NONSINUSOIDAL ROTOR INJECTION

Fig. 6. Stand-alone wind energy system configuration.


P e ¯∗e
Te4 = 3 M Im[I¯s− Ir + ] (23)
2

P −e ¯∗e −j 2ω e t
=3 M Im[I¯s− Ir + e ] (24)
2
√ √
where I¯s = (iq s − jids )/ 2 and I¯
r = (i
q r − ji
dr )/ 2, and
F+e denotes the qd variables of the positive-sequence compo-
nent in the synchronous reference frame, F−e denotes the qd vari-
ables of the negative-sequence component in the synchronous
reference frame, F+−e denotes the qd variables of the positive-
component in the negative synchronous reference frame, and
F−−e denotes the qd variables of the positive-sequence compo-
nent in the negative synchronous reference frame.
The torque expression under unbalanced stator condition Fig. 7. DFIG with quasi-sine rotor injection. (a) Phase A rotor voltage.
is Te = Te0 + Te sin 2 sin(2ωs t) + Te cos 2 cos(2ωs t), where the (b) Phase-to-phase rotor voltage. (c) Phase A rotor current. (d) Phase A sta-
tor current. (e) Electromagnetic torque.
expressions for Te0 , Te sin 2 , and Te cos 2 can be found in

e  steady-state dc value and a pulsating component of 144 (6 × 24)
 e idr +
  −e −e  Hz. The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of the simulated elec-
i −i e
i −i  
Te0 q s+ ds+ q s− ds−
 i
e
qr+  tromagnetic torque, and stator and rotor current waveforms are
 Te sin 2  = 3P M   ids− iq s− −ids+ −iq s+  
−e 
−e −e e e 
4  shown in Fig. 8. The DFT results show that the torque has a 144
Te cos 2  idr − 
i−e −e
q s− −ids− iq s+ −ids+
e e Hz harmonic, the stator current has a fundamental component
i
−e
qr− at 60 Hz and a harmonic at about 84 Hz, and the rotor current
(25) has a fundamental component at 24 Hz and harmonics at 120
The harmonic components in the torque can be computed (5 × 24) and 168 (7 × 24) Hz. The DFT results agree well with
from positive- and negative-sequence stator/rotor currents. In the analytical results in Table II.
the following sections, case studies will be performed. The 144 Hz pulsating torque component is produced by the
reaction of harmonic rotor MMFs with harmonic rotating stator
V. CASE STUDIES—ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION MMFs of a different order. In this case study, the fifth har-
monic component produces an 84 Hz component with negative
A. Case Study 1—-Nonsinusoidal Rotor Injection sequence in the stator current. The reaction between the funda-
A four-pole 5 hp DFIG with parameters in Table VII (see mental rotor MMF (24 Hz) and the fifth harmonic component
the Appendix) is considered. The stator is connected to a wye- in the stator current (−84 Hz) will cause a pulsating torque at
connected resistive load with 22 Ω in each phase. The configura- fr 1 + fm − fs5 = 144 Hz. Similarly, the reaction between the
tion of the system is shown in Fig. 6. The injected rotor voltages fifth rotor MMF (120 Hz negative sequence) and the funda-
are quasi-sine. mental component in the stator current (60 Hz) will produce a
The fundamental frequency of the rotor injection is 24 Hz. pulsating torque at fr 5 + fm − fs1 = −144 Hz. The reactions
The rotating speed is 1080 r/min for the four-pole 5 hp DFIG between the fundamental rotor MMF and the seventh harmonic
and the corresponding electrical frequency is 36 Hz. The har- component in the stator current, and the seventh rotor MMF
monic orders of the rotor and stator currents are computed and and the fundamental component in the stator current will also
listed in Table II. The simulation (MATLAB/Simulink) results produce pulsating torques of ∓144 Hz. The dc component and
are shown in Fig. 7. The fifth harmonic in the injected rotor the pulsating component of the torque can be computed from
voltage causes a low harmonic in stator current at 84 Hz of neg- (7) and (9) and are shown in Table III. The analytical results
ative sequence (24 × 5 − 36). Hence, distortions are observed agree with the simulation results in Fig. 7 and the DFT results
in the stator current waveforms. The torque is shown to have a in Fig. 8.
FAN et al.: HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF A DFIG FOR A WIND ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEM 187

Fig. 9. Experimental setup for case study 2.

Fig. 8. DFT of the electromagnetic torque, and stator and rotor current wave-
forms in Fig. 7.

TABLE III
HARMONIC COMPONENTS IN THE ELECTROMAGNETIC TORQUE FROM
ANALYSIS

Experimental results of the stator and rotor currents can be

found in [26].
Fig. 10. Stator voltages, rotor current, and stator current under unbalanced
load condition. Rotor injection frequency = 20 Hz.
B. Case Study 2—A Stand-Alone DFIG System
In the second case study, the setup used is same as in Fig. 6
except that the resistance in phase A is varied to create an
unbalanced stator condition. The rotor injection is assumed to
be balanced sinusoidal. Two scenarios will be considered. In
scenario 1, the frequency of the injected rotor voltages is 20
Hz. In scenario 2, the frequency of the injector rotor voltages is
15 Hz.
In the experiment, the wind turbine is replaced by a dc motor
and a 5 hp wound rotor induction generator is used as a DFIG.
A sine-wave power source provides the injection voltage at any
desired frequency. The speed of the dc motor is adjusted to
have a 60 Hz stator voltage. The experimental setup is shown in
Fig. 9.
Figs. 10 and 11 show the waveforms of phase A and phase B
stator voltages, and phase A rotor current and stator current. The
experiment was conducted for two injection frequencies: 20 and Fig. 11. Stator voltages, rotor current, and stator current under unbalanced
15 Hz. In both cases, the rotor current contains high-frequency load condition. Rotor injection frequency = 15 Hz.
harmonics. The results of DFT analysis of the waveforms are
given in Fig. 12 and Table IV.
The unbalanced load condition is created by short-circuiting connected, there is no zero-sequence current. The equivalent
a portion of the load resistance in phase A, and hence, the circuit is shown in Fig. 13.
equivalent circuit under single phase to ground fault can be An analysis of the circuit in Fig. 13 gives the harmonic com-
used to obtain the stator current and rotor current phasors of ponents in the rotor currents. The phasors and the corresponding
positive sequence and negative sequence. Since the load is wye- harmonic components are shown in Table IV. The experimental
188 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2010

Fig. 14. Grid-interconnected DFIG system configuration.

Fig. 12. DFT of the rotor currents. (a) Rotor injection frequency = 20 Hz.
(b) Rotor injection frequency = 15 Hz.

TABLE IV
COMPONENTS OF ROTOR CURRENTS FROM EXPERIMENTS AND ANALYSIS OF
FIG. 13 DURING UNBALANCED STATOR CONDITION

Fig. 15. Dynamic responses of rotor speed, electromagnetic torque, phase A

stator current, and phase A rotor current.

Fig. 13. Equivalent circuit for the DFIG under unbalanced stator load condi-
tion.

waveforms and the DFT analysis results agree well with the
analytical results.
C. Case Study 3—-A DFIG Connected to Grid
A 3 hp DFIG is used for analysis and simulation. The machine
parameters are shown in the Appendix. The initial condition of
the machine is the stalling state. A balanced three-phase voltage
to the stator and a mechanical torque 10 N·m are applied at
t = 0 s. The rms value of the rotor voltage is kept at 10 V. The
−e
Fig. 16. Dynamic response of ieq r , ied r , i−e
q r , and id r .
system configuration is shown in Fig. 14. At t = 1 s, the voltage
of phase A drops to zero. The fault is cleared at t = 1.5 s. The
simulation is performed in MATLAB/Simulink, and the results
are shown in Figs. 15–17.
Fig. 15 shows the dynamic responses of the rotor speed, elec-
tromagnetic torque, and stator and rotor currents in phase A.
FAN et al.: HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF A DFIG FOR A WIND ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEM
Fig. 17. Harmonic components after extracting strategy from Fig. 5.
(a) ieq r + —dc component of iq r observed in the synchronously rotating ref-
erence frame. (b) ied r + —dc component of id r observed in the synchronously
rotating reference frame. (c) i−e
q r − —dc component of iq r observed in the nega-
tively synchronously rotating reference frame. (d) i−e —dc component of id r
dr −
observed in the synchronously rotating reference frame.
TABLE V
CALCULATED SEQUENCE COMPONENTS IN STATOR VOLTAGES, STATOR
CURRENTS, AND ROTOR CURRENTS ASSUMING SLIP = 4.5/60
TABLE VI
HARMONIC COMPONENTS IN THE ROTOR CURRENTS AND THE
ELECTROMAGNETIC TORQUE FROM SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS DURING
UNBALANCED CONDITION (SLIP = 4.5/60)
Fig. 16 shows the dynamic responses of the rotor currents in
the synchronous reference frame and the negative synchronous
reference frame. At the steady-state balanced stator condition,
the rotor speed is equivalent to 57.2 Hz, while the slip frequency
of the rotor currents is 2.8 Hz. The two add up to 60 Hz. During
unbalance, it is found that the torque has a 120 Hz pulsating com-
ponent. It is seen from the simulation plots that the rotor current
consists of two components: a low-frequency component and a
high-frequency component. According to the analysis, the two
frequencies are the slip frequency and a frequency close to 120
Hz [(2 − s)ωe ]. The rotor currents observed in the synchronous
reference frame have a dc component and a 120 Hz component.
189
The magnitudes of the harmonic components can be com-
puted from the equivalent phasor circuits in Fig. 1.
The sequence components of the stator voltage, the stator cur-
rents, and the rotor currents are listed in Table V. A comparison
of the analysis results from the circuit in Fig. 1 and simulation
results shows that the rotor current and torque components from
the analysis agree with the simulation results in Table VI.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented a systematic method to analyze the
harmonics caused by nonsinusoidal rotor injection and unbal-
anced stator conditions in a DFIG. The key contributions of
the paper are: 1) a generalized steady-state equivalent circuit
for DFIGs suitable for analysis under harmonic and unbalanced
conditions; 2) a systematic method to calculate electromagnetic
torque by computing the interactions of harmonic stator and
rotor currents, derived from the equivalent circuit (see Fig. 1);
and Fig. 3) the development of positive- and negative-sequence
equivalent circuits, which enables one to analyze unbalanced
conditions on the stator side by a suitable interconnection of the
sequence circuits. The three case studies and experimental ver-
ifications demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method
in analyzing the harmonics and unbalanced operation of DFIGs.
APPENDIX
The 3 hp induction machine parameters, taken from [25], are
listed in Table VII. The 5 hp wound rotor induction machine
parameters are measured from experiments and are also listed
in the table.
TABLE VII
MACHINE PARAMETERS FOR 3 HP AND 5 HP DFIGS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank the reviewers for their constructive
comments and suggestions, which have helped in improving the
quality of the manuscript.
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Lingling Fan (S’98–M’02–SM’08) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from
Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 1994 and 1997, respectively, and the
Ph.D. degree from West Virginia University, Morgantown, in 2001, all in elec-
trical engineering.
She was with Midwest ISO, St. Paul, MN (2001–2007) and North Dakota
State University, Fargo, ND (2007–2009). She is currently an Assistant Profes-
sor at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. Her research interests include
modeling and control of renewable energy systems, power system reliability,
and economics.
Subbaraya Yuvarajan (SM’84) received the B.E. (Hons.) degree from the
University of Madras, Chennai, India, in 1966, and the M.Tech. degree and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology,
Chennai, in 1969 and 1981, respectively.
Since 1995, he has been a Professor in the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo. His current re-
search interests include electronics, power electronics, and electrical machines.
Rajesh Kavasseri (SM’07) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering
from Washington State University, Pullman, in 2002.
He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo. His research
interests include power system dynamics and control, nonlinear systems, and
algebraic geometry application in power system analysis.