IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2008 1073

Enhanced Control and Operation of DFIG-Based

Wind Farms During Network Unbalance
Lie Xu, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—This paper investigates the control and operation of

doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind generation sys-
tems under unbalanced voltage conditions. DFIG system behaviors
under unbalanced voltage are analyzed and different control tar-
gets are discussed. A new rotor current control strategy containing
a main controller and an auxiliary controller is proposed. The main
controller is implemented in the positive (dq)+ frame without
involving positive/negative sequence decomposition, whereas the
auxiliary controller is implemented in the negative (dq)− frame
with negative sequence current extracted. The impact of provid-
ing unbalanced control on converter voltage rating is investigated. Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of a DFIG-based wind generation system.
Simulation results using EMTDC/PSCAD are presented for a
2-MW DFIG wind generation system to validate the proposed con-
trol scheme and to demonstrate the enhanced system operation
during “small” steady state and “large” transient unbalances. I. INTRODUCTION
IND TURBINES based on doubly fed induction gen-
Index Terms—Control design, converter, doubly fed induction
generator (DFIG), modeling, unbalance, wind turbine. W erators (DFIG), as schematically shown in Fig. 1, have
been widely used for large-scale wind generation systems. The
steady-state response and performance of DFIG-based wind tur-
NOMENCLATURE bines are now well understood [1]–[3]. For most of the studies
V s, V r Stator, rotor voltage vector. reported, symmetrical stator voltage supply was assumed dur-
Is, Ir Stator, rotor current vector. ing normal conditions and network disturbances. However, both
ψs , ψr Stator, rotor flux linkage vector. transmission and distribution networks can have “small” steady
ω s , ωr Stator, rotor angular frequency. state and “large” transient voltage unbalances. If DFIG con-
Ps , Qs Stator output, active and reactive power. trol systems do not take into account the voltage unbalance,
Lm Mutual inductance. the stator currents can become highly unbalanced even with the
Lσs , Lσr Stator, rotor leakage inductance. small voltage unbalance. The unbalanced currents create un-
Ls , Lr Stator, rotor self-inductance. equal heating on the stator windings, and oscillations of torque
R s , Rr Stator, rotor resistance. and output power. It has been found that wind farms connected
θ s , θr Stator flux, rotor angle. to distribution networks periodically experience higher voltage
Superscripts unbalance of greater than 2%, and this has caused a large number
+, − Positive, negative (dq) reference frame. of trips [4].
∗ Reference value for controller. System control and operation of DFIG under the unbalanced
∧ Conjugate complex. network conditions have been studied in [5]–[9]. However, in [5]
Subscripts and [6], the study was limited on controlling the grid-side con-
α, β Stationary α–β axis. verter to provide similar functions as a STATCOM [10]. Con-
αr , βr Rotor αr –βr axis. trol of DFIG for the compensating torque pulsation under un-
d, q Synchronous d–q axis. balanced supply voltage was investigated in [7] and [8]. The
s, r Stator, rotor. required rotor compensating voltage was generated either from
+, − Positive, negative components. the calculated compensating currents [7] or directly from the
torque pulsation [8], both oscillating at twice the network fre-
quency. Thus, the controllers must be carefully tuned to provide
the required system response at double the supply frequency.
Xu and Wang [9] provided a detailed investigation into the im-
pact of unbalanced stator voltage on the pulsations of stator
Manuscript received April 27, 2007. Current version published November and rotor currents, torque, and stator active and reactive pow-
21, 2008. This work was supported in part by the Engineering and Physi-
cal Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), U.K. under Grant EP/D029775/1. ers. A dual current controller based on separate loops for the
Paper no. TEC-0007-2007. positive and negative sequence components was used to control
The author is with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, the rotor positive and negative sequence currents. Due to the
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XW, U.K. (e-mail: lie.xu@eee.strath.
ac.uk). time delays introduced by decomposing the sequence compo-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2008.2001452 nents, such design can affect the overall system stability and
0885-8969/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1074 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2008

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of a DFIG in an arbitrary reference frame rotating

at a speed of ω.

Fig. 3. Relationships between the (αβ), (α r β r ), and the (dq)+ and (dq)−
reference frames.

dynamic response. Furthermore, significant modifications have

to be made to the conventional vector control scheme widely According to (2), the rotor flux and stator current can be
used in practical systems, and thus, makes it less likely to be expressed using the stator flux and rotor current as
adopted in the real systems.

Lm
This paper investigates enhanced control and operation of the ψr = ψ s + σLr I r
Ls
DFIG system under unbalanced supply. A new rotor current con-
trol strategy is proposed that comprises a main and an auxiliary (ψ s − Lm I r )
Is = (3)
controller. The main controller is constructed in the same way Ls
as the conventional design without involving sequence compo-
nents separation in order to guarantee system stability and high where σ = 1 − L2m/(Lr Ls ) is the leakage factor.
dynamic response, while the auxiliary controller is specially Substituting (3) into (1) yields the rotor voltage in the arbitrary
designed to control the negative sequence current taking into rotating reference frame as
account the impact of the main controller on negative sequence

Lm
components. The paper is organized as follows. Section II de- V r = Rr I r + σLr İ r + ψ̇ s
Ls
scribes the DFIG system behavior under the unbalanced supply. 
 
The principles of the proposed current controller are discussed Lm
+ j (ω − ωr ) σLr I r + ψs . (4)
in Section III, whereas the impact of stator voltage unbalance Ls
on the required converter voltage rating is investigated in
Under unbalanced conditions, a convenient way to model a
Section IV. Simulation results on a 2-MW DFIG system are
DFIG is to use a positive reference frame rotating at the speed
provided in Section V to demonstrate the feasibility of the
of ωs and a negative reference frame rotating at the speed of
proposed control strategy, and finally, Section VI draws the
−ωs [9]. The spatial relationships of various reference frames
conclusions.
are shown in Fig. 3. As shown, the d+ -axis is fixed to the positive
stator flux ψ s+ rotating at the speed of ωs , whereas the d− -axis
II. DFIG SYSTEM BEHAVIOR UNDER UNBALANCED VOLTAGE rotates at an angular speed of −ωs with the phase angle to the
α-axis being −θs .
A detailed study on the DFIG system behavior under unbal- According to Fig. 3, the transformation of vector F between
anced network supply has been provided in [9]. Thus, only a the (αβ), (αr βr ), (dq)+ , and (dq)− reference frames is given
brief description is given here. by

(dq ) = F (α β ) · e
F+ −j ω s t
, F−
(dq ) = F (α β ) · e
jωs t
(5a)
A. DFIG Model −
(dq ) = F (dq ) · e
F+ −j 2ω s t
, F−
(dq ) = F (dq ) · e
+ j 2ω s t
(5b)
Fig. 2 shows the generalized equivalent circuit of a DFIG
represented in an arbitrary reference frame rotating at an angular F (α r β r ) = F (α β ) · e−j θ r , F (α β ) = F (α r β r ) · ej θ r (5c)
speed of ω. Under the unbalanced stator voltage supply, the
stator and rotor voltages, currents, and flux may contain both where superscripts + and − refer to the positive (dq)+ and
positive and negative sequence components. According to Fig. 2, negative (dq)− frames, respectively.
the stator and rotor voltages and the flux, respectively, are given Although unbalanced, the positive and negative stator volt-
by ages can still be regarded as being constant. Thus, there are
d + d −
ψ = 0, ψ = 0. (6)
V s = Rs I s + ψ̇ s + jωψ s dt s+ dt s−
V r = Rr I r + ψ̇ r + j(ω − ωr )ψ r (1) Taking into account (6) and separating the system expressed
in (4) into positive sequence components in the (dq)+ reference
ψ s = Ls I s + Lm I r ψ r = Lr I r + Lm I s . (2)
frame and negative sequence components in the (dq)− reference

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
XU: ENHANCED CONTROL AND OPERATION OF DFIG-BASED WIND FARMS DURING NETWORK UNBALANCE 1075

frame yields a two-part DFIG model as According to Fig. 2, the electromagnetic power is given as
the sum of the active power absorbed by the equivalent voltage
+ Lm ωslip+ + 1
r+ − j
İ r + = A+ I + ψ s+ + V+ (7a) sources jωs ψ s and j(ωs − ωr )ψ r [9]
σLr Ls σLr r +
3 + +
− Lm ωslip− − 1 Pe = − Re[jωs ψ +s × Î s + j(ωs − ωr )ψ r × Î r ]
+
İ r − = A− I −
r− −j ψ s− + V− (7b) 2
σLr Ls σLr r −
3 Lm +
where ωslip+ = ωs − ωr , ωslip− = −ωs − ωr . A+ = −(Rr / = s × Î r ]
ωr Re[jψ +
2 Ls
σLr ) − jωslip+ and A− = −(Rr /σLr ) − jωslip− .
= Pe0 + Pe sin 2 · sin (2ωs t) + Pe cos 2 · cos (2ωs t) (13)
B. Active and Reactive Power Flow where
   − −

+
In the (dq) frame, the stator and rotor currents, voltages, and Pe0 −ψsq
+ +
ψsd −ψsq −
ψsd −
 − + 
+ +
 Pe sin 2  = 3Lm −
flux vectors F can be expressed using their respective positive ωr  ψsd −
ψsq −
−ψsd
+
−ψsq + 
and negative sequence components as 2Ls − −
+
Pe cos 2 −ψsq −
ψsd −
−ψsq
+
+
+
ψsd +
F+ = F+ + + −
+ + F− = F+ + F− · e
−j 2ω s t
. (8)  
Ir+d +
 Ir+q 
Taking into account the constant stator positive and negative ×  + . (14)
sequence voltages and neglecting the stator resistance, the stator  I− 
r d−
voltage and current given in (1) and (3) can be expressed in the Ir−q −
positive (dq)+ reference frame by considering (8) as [9]
The electromagnetic torque of the DFIG is calculated as
 + − −j 2ω s t

s = jωs ψ s + ψ̇ s = jωs ψ s+ − ψ s− · e
+
V+ +
(9) Pe
Te = (15)
1  +  Lm  +  (ωr /n)
I+
s = ψ s+ + ψ −
s− · e
−j 2ω s t
− I r + +I −
r− · e
−j 2ω s t
.
Ls Ls where n is the number of pole pairs.
(10) The active power input to the rotor windings can also be
calculated based on the stator active and electromagnetic powers
Under the unbalanced conditions, the active power and the as
capacitive reactive power generated by the DFIG stator are cal-
culated as Pr = Ps −Pe = (Ps0 −Pe0 ) + (Ps sin 2 − Pe sin 2 ) sin (2ωs t)
3 + + (Ps sin 2 − Pe sin 2 ) cos (2ωs t) . (16)
Ps + jQs = − · V +
s × Î s . (11)
2
Substituting (9) and (10) into (11) and separating the active III. SYSTEM CONTROL
and reactive powers into different oscillating components yield A. Alternative Control Targets
[9]
Under the unbalanced network conditions, both the positive
Ps = Ps0 + Ps sin 2 · sin (2ωs t) + Ps cos 2 · cos (2ωs t) and negative currents need to be controlled. Apart from con-
trolling the average stator active and reactive powers, i.e., Ps0
Qs = Qs0 + Qs sin 2 · sin (2ωs t) + Qs cos 2 · cos (2ωs t) (12a) and Qs0 , shown in (12), two more parameters can be controlled.
where For instance, the system can be designed to operate according
   − −
 to one of the following control targets:
Ps0 −ψsq
+ +
ψsd ψsq −
−ψsd −
 + 
+ +
 Qs sin 2  = 3L ω − − Target 1. Balanced stator current.
m s
 ψsq − −ψsd +
ψsq + −ψsd + 
2Ls −
− Target 2. Constant stator active power, i.e., Ps sin 2 = 0 and
−
Qs cos 2 −ψsd −
−ψsq −
+
ψsd +
+
ψsq + Ps cos 2 = 0.
 +  Target 3. Constant electromagnetic torque, i.e., Pe sin 2 = 0 and
Ir d +
 Ir+q  Pe cos 2 = 0.
× I− 
+ 
(12b) Target 4. No rotor current oscillation, i.e., no rotor negative
r d− sequence current.
Ir−q − As the d+ -axis is fixed to the positive stator flux, i.e., ψsq
+
=
   − −
 +

Qs0 −ψsd
+
−ψsq
+
ψsd −
ψsq −
0, the reference values for the negative sequence d–q currents
s  
+ +
 Ps sin 2  = 3ω − − + + for the four different targets can be simplified and they are
 ψsd − ψsq −
ψ sd + ψ sq 
2Ls − −
+
synthesized in Table I [9].
Ps cos 2 −ψsq −
ψsd −
ψsq +
+
−ψsd+
+ Apart from the four targets listed earlier, other targets are also
 +   +  possible such as contributing to the rebalancing of the network
ψsd + Ir d +
 ψsq
+   Ir+q  voltage, or simultaneous attenuations of both power and torque
×  +   + 
 ψ −  − Lm  I −  . (12c) oscillations. For instance, the rotor negative currents are given as
sd − r d− the average of these for Targets 2–3 to reduce the oscillations of
−
ψsq −
Ir−q −

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1076 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2008

TABLE I where V + +
r 1 and V r 2 refer to the rotor control voltages produced
ROTOR NEGATIVE SEQUENCE CURRENT REFERENCES [9]
by the main and auxiliary controllers, respectively.
Using conventional decoupling control and without involving
any positive and negative sequence decomposition, V + r 1 of the
main controller is designed as
Lm ωslip+ +
r 1 = σLr U r 1 − σLr A+ I r + j
V+ + +
ψs (19)
Ls
where

+  +∗   
r 1 = İ r = kp1 I r + − I r + ki1
U+ r + − I r dt (20)
I +∗
+ +

and kp1 and ki1 are the proportional and integral gains of the
both active power and torque. According to Table I, the required main controller.
negative sequence currents are then given as Substituting (8) and (19) into (18) and splitting into positive
sequence and negative sequence subsystems yield
−
ψsd −
ψsq 
Ir−d − = −
, Ir−q − = −
. (17)  +∗   +∗ 
Lm Lm İ +
r+ = kp1 I r+ − I +
r+ + ki1 Ir+ − I+ r + dt (21a)

Equation (17) is identical to that for Target 1, shown in Table I. d  − 

This indicates that Target 1 not only removes any stator current I r − · e−j 2ω s t
dt
unbalance but also gives good attenuations of both power and 
   − 
torque oscillations. = −kp1 I − r− · e−j 2ω s t
− ki1 I r − · e−j 2ω s t dt

1  − −j 2ω s t  2ωs Lm  − 
B. Proposed Control Design + V r2 · e +j ψ s− · e−j 2ω s t .
σLr σLr Ls
The main requirement for the control system is to regulate
(21b)
the Ir+d + , Ir+q + , Ir−d − , and Ir−q − to follow their respective varying
reference points. Typical control design would use two current Equation (21a) represents the dynamics of the positive se-
controllers based on (7a) and (7b), i.e., a positive sequence quence currents and appropriate selection of kp1 and ki1 can
controller in the (dq)+ frame and a negative sequence controller provide the required control. Alternatively, (21b) gives the dy-
in the (dq)− frame [9]. Both positive and negative sequence namics of the negative sequence currents with the auxiliary
components have to be decomposed from the voltages, flux, controller. Without causing significant impact on the system dy-
and currents. As the process of extracting positive and negative namics (21b) can be simplified by neglecting the integral term
sequence components involves considerable time delay and adds as
amplitude and phase errors to the signals, the system cannot be
− 1 2ωs Lm −
decoupled under the transient conditions. Therefore, the system İ −
r − = A2 I r − + V− +j ψ (22)
performance and stability are degraded. Furthermore, even when σLr r 2 σLr Ls s−
the network is perfectly balanced, the control system still has where A2 = −kp1 + j2ωs .
to decompose the current and flux and perform positive and Based on (22), the control system for the auxiliary controller
negative sequence currents control. This unnecessarily affects can then be designed using decoupling control in the similar
the dynamic performance of the overall system. way as for the main controller. Thus, in the (dq)− reference
In order to overcome the problems highlighted, a new DFIG frame, extracting the negative sequence components and Vr−2 is
control strategy is adopted in this paper. The control system then given by
contains a main controller and an auxiliary controller. The main
2ωs Lm −
controller is implemented in the (dq)+ frame without involving V− − −
r 2 = σLr U r 2 − σLr A2 I r − − j ψ s− (23)
positive and negative sequence separation, i.e., it is designed Ls
in the same way as the conventional method without consid- where
ering network unbalance. The auxiliary controller is specially 
−    
designed for controlling the negative sequence current and is U−
r2 = İ r − = kp2 I −∗
r− − I−
r− + ki2 I −∗ −
r − − I r − dt
implemented in the (dq)− frame with negative sequence com- (24)
ponents extracted. and kp2 and ki2 are the proportional and integral gains of the
Based on (4), under the unbalanced conditions, a DFIG sys- auxiliary controller.
tem can be represented in the (dq)+ frame as The overall rotor control voltage is the combination of the
Lm ωslip+ + 1 Lm outputs from the main and the auxiliary controllers. According
r = A+ I r −j (V +
+ +
İ + ψs + r 1 +V r 2 )+ ψ̇ + to Fig. (3) and (5), in the rotor frame, it is given as
σLr Ls σLr σLr Ls s
(18) j (θ s −θ r )
+V− j (−θ s −θ r )
r1 · e
V r (α r β r ) = V + r2 · e . (25)

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
XU: ENHANCED CONTROL AND OPERATION OF DFIG-BASED WIND FARMS DURING NETWORK UNBALANCE 1077

voltage limit (RVL) block is used to scale the output from the
auxiliary controller if the voltage limit is exceeded. Under such
a condition, the RVL scales the voltage output from the auxiliary
controller according to the converter voltage capability and the
main controller output, such that the voltage requirement from
the main controller is always met. Space vector modulation
(SVM) [11] is then used to produce the switching patterns for
the rotor-side converter to control the DFIG.

IV. CONVERTER VOLTAGE REQUIREMENT

Under the unbalanced voltage conditions, the rotor-side con-
verter needs to generate adequate positive and negative sequence
voltages to control the positive and negative sequence currents.
Consequently, the maximum rotor voltage required will increase
compared with the system under the balanced supply.
Under the steady state conditions, the d–q currents can be
regarded as being constant. Thus, according to (7), the required
rotor voltages are given as


Lm
V r + = −σLr A+ I r + + j
+ +
ωslip+ ψ +s+ (26)
Ls


Lm
V−r− = −σL A I
r − r−
−
+ j ωslip− ψ −
s− . (27)
Ls
For the positive components, since the d+ -axis is fixed to
ψ+
s+ , neglecting the rotor-resistive voltage drop and considering
the relationship between the stator flux and voltage, (26) can be
simplified as
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the proposed control system. (a) Overall system
control structure. (b) Proposed current controller.
Vr+d + ≈ −ωslip+ σLr Ir+q +
Lm ωslip+ +
Vr+q + ≈ ωslip+ σLr Ir+d + + Vs+ . (28)
C. System Implementation Ls ωs
Fig. 4(a) shows the schematic diagram of the overall control Due to the small value of σ, there is |Vr+q + |  |Vr+d + |. Thus,
system while Fig. 4(b) illustrates the proposed current controller. the amplitude of the required rotor positive voltage can be ap-
As shown in Fig. 4(a), a voltage unbalance detector (VUD) proximated as
detects the network unbalance and determines whether to switch    
 +   Lm ωslip+ + 
on the auxiliary controller. The VUD constantly monitors the Vr + ≈ Vr q +  = ωslip+ σLr Ir d + +
+ +
Vs+  . (29)
amplitudes of the negative and positive sequence components of Ls ωs
the source voltage. If the ratio between the negative and positive Similarly, according to (27), the amplitude of the negative
sequence voltage components exceeds a predefined threshold, sequence rotor voltages is given by
say 1%, the VUD switches on the auxiliary controller. Thus,  2  2
under the normal conditions with very small voltage unbalance, −
Vr − = Vr−d − + Vr−q − (30a)
the auxiliary controller is disabled and the system is controlled
in the same way as with conventional design. When voltage Lm ωslip− −
unbalanced is detected, the auxiliary controller is immediately Vr−d − ≈ −ωslip− σLr Ir−q − + V
Ls ωs sd −
switched ON and the positive and negative sequence current
Lm ωslip− −
references are generated according to the active power/torque, Vr−q − ≈ ωslip− σLr Ir−d − + V . (30b)
reactive power, and the preselected control target. Ls ωs sq −
As shown in Fig. 4(b), the generated current references are Equations (29) and (30) show that the required rotor voltage
passed to the main and the auxiliary controllers to generate the is mainly dependent on the stator voltage and the rotor operating
required rotor control voltage. Due to the limited voltage rating slip. However, different load conditions and control targets that
of the rotor-side converter, the overall voltage requirement from result in different positive and negative sequence currents can
the main and auxiliary controllers may exceed the converter’s also affect the required rotor voltage rating. As |ωslip− /ωs | > 1
capability. In order not to interfere with the normal operation and |ωslip+ /ωs | < 1, compensating the stator negative sequence
of the DFIG system, as shown in Fig. 4(a) and (b), a rotor voltage requires a higher rotor voltage.

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1078
TABLE II
PARAMETERS OF THE DFIG CONSIDERED
Fig. 5. Variations of rotor voltage requirement for different √ rotor slip and
stator voltage unbalances: (It is assumed V s−d − = V s−q − = V s−− / 2).
According to (25), the positive rotor voltage appears at the
rotor terminals as the fundamental component with a frequency
of (ωr − ωs ), while for the negative sequence rotor voltage,
it superimposes on to the fundamental component with a fre-
quency of (ωr + ωs ). Thus, the maximum required rotor voltage
amplitude is given as
Vr (m ax) = Vr++ + Vr−− .
For a 2-MW DFIG system whose parameters are shown in
Table II, Fig. 5 illustrates the impact of the stator voltage un-
balance on the rotor voltage requirements for different rotor
operating slips. It is assumed that the positive stator voltage
is 1 per unit (p.u.) and the stator active and reactive powers
are 1 and 0.3 p.u. (leading power factor of 0.95), respectively.
The negative sequence currents were calculated according to
the requirement of Target 2. Fig. 5 clearly shows that under the
unbalanced supply, the voltage rating of the rotor-side converter
needs to be increased in order to perform the negative sequence
current control. The higher the rotor slip and voltage unbalance,
the bigger the converter rating required. For other control tar-
gets that result in different rotor negative currents, the required
rotor voltages were found to be similar to those shown in Fig. 5.
This is due to the factor that the rotor current contributions in-
dicated by the first terms on the right-hand side of (30b) are
much smaller than the stator voltage contributions indicated by
the second terms.
If SVM is used, the maximum modulation index is 1.15 before
overmodulation [11]. Thus, the maximum amplitude of the rotor
phase voltage that can be generated is 0.575 Vdc , where Vdc
is the converter dc voltage. As indicated in Section III, if the
required rotor control voltage exceeds this limit, the RVL would
limit the output voltage from the auxiliary control, and thus, the
converter will not be able to provide full control of the negative
sequence currents.
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2008
Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of the simulated system.
V. SIMULATION STUDIES
Simulations of the proposed control strategy with different
control targets for a 2-MW DFIG system, whose parameters
are given in Table II, were carried out using Power Systems
Computer-Aided Design (PSCAD)/EMTDC. Fig. 6 shows the
schematic diagram of the implemented system. The nominal
converter dc voltage Vdc is 1200 V and SVM is used for both
converters with the switching frequencies being 2 kHz. The
main objective of the grid-side converter is to control the dc link
voltage and it is controlled using the same method as for the dc
voltage controller in a VSC transmission system [12]. As shown
in Fig. 6, a single-phase resistive load is used to generate the
voltage unbalance.
At the first instance, the DFIG’s rotor speed was fixed, as the
large inertia of wind turbines resulted in slow changes of rotor
speed. Fig. 7 compares the simulated results with the conven-
tional and the proposed control method. The stator voltage had
(31) a steady state unbalance of around 4% and the rotor speed was
1.1 p.u. with the synchronous speed defined as 1 unit. The av-
erage stator active and reactive powers were set at 2 MW and
0 MVar, respectively. During 0–0.2 s, the conventional con-
trol without considering network unbalance was used, i.e., the
auxiliary controller was disabled. The auxiliary controller was
switched ON at 0.2 s with Target 1 being selected. The control
target was then changed to Target 2 at 0.4 s, Target 3 at 0.6 s,
and Target 4 at 0.8 s, respectively. As shown in Fig. 7, with con-
ventional control during 0–0.2 s, the stator currents were highly
unbalanced. Similarly, the stator active and reactive powers,
and the electromagnetic torque all contained significant 100 Hz
oscillations. The three-phase rotor currents had both the 5-Hz
fundamental component (positive slip, i.e., 55 Hz – 50 Hz) and
the 105-Hz harmonic component (negative slip, i.e., 55 Hz +
50 Hz). Once the auxiliary controller was enabled, as can be seen
from Fig. 7(c)–(e), both the positive and negative sequence cur-
rents were controlled precisely by the proposed control design
and the interactions between them were minimum. The tracking
of the negative sequence currents was satisfactory during the
switching of various control targets that resulted in the varia-
tions of their respective reference values. Fig. 7(i) also shows
that controlling the negative sequence current required a large
negative sequence voltage that appeared as the 21st harmonic.
For different control targets, the measured stator current un-
balance, the rotor current ratio between the 105 Hz (21st)
harmonic and the 5 Hz fundamental component, the 100 Hz
pulsations of the stator active and reactive powers, the torque,
XU: ENHANCED CONTROL AND OPERATION OF DFIG-BASED WIND FARMS DURING NETWORK UNBALANCE
Fig. 7. Simulated results with different control targets. (a) Stator current (in
kiloampere). (b) Rotor current (in kiloampere). (c) Rotor positive d–q axis
current (in kiloampere). (d) Rotor negative d-axis current (in kiloampere).
(e) Rotor negative q-axis current (in kiloampere). (f) Stator active and reac-
tive powers (in megavolt ampere). (g) DFIG electromagnetic torque (in per
unit). (h) Converter dc voltage. (i) Rotor voltage modulation signal.
and the dc voltage are compared in Table III. As can be seen
from Fig. 7 and Table III, the defined objectives of the various
control targets have been fully achieved. Target 1 not only min-
imized the stator negative sequence current but also gave good
attenuations of both power and torque oscillations. Similar tests
for different rotor speeds have also been carried out and the
system performances were found to be similar to those shown
in Fig. 7. Due to the space limitation, they are not shown here.
Since the active power exchange between the DFIG and the
rotor-side converter contained 100 Hz oscillation, the common
dc voltage had also 100 Hz oscillation. The impact of such
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1079
TABLE III
COMPARISONS OF DIFFERENCE CONTROL TARGETS WITH
CONVENTIONAL DESIGN
Fig. 8. Simulation results with single-phase voltage dip applied between 0.1
and 0.3 s, voltage unbalance 9.5%. (A) Conventional control. (B) Proposed
control (Target 3).
an oscillation on system control was found to be negligible as
precise control of both the rotor currents and the currents for
the grid-side converter (not shown due to space limitation) had
been obtained. For practical systems, the selection of the control
target will be highly dependent on the design of the wind turbines
and the operation of the network. Nevertheless, by adopting one
of the control targets and the proposed current control scheme,
the overall system operation can be greatly enhanced during
network unbalance.
Tests on system control and operation during transient net-
work unbalance were also carried out and the results are shown
in Figs. 8 and 9 for voltage unbalances of 9.5% and 17.5%,
1080
Fig. 9. Simulation results with single-phase voltage dip applied between 0.1
and 0.3 s, voltage unbalance 17.5%. (A) Conventional control. (B) Proposed
control (Target 3).
respectively. Again, the rotor speed was fixed at 1.1 p.u. The
voltage unbalances were induced by switching in a single-phase
load between 0.1 and 0.3 s. As shown, Fig. 8(A) and (B) com-
pares the system responses between the conventional control
and the proposed method with Target 3. With the proposed con-
trol, when the unbalance occurred at 0.1 s, it was immediately
detected by the VUD. Consequently, the auxiliary controller was
automatically switched ON. Thus, the negative sequence currents
were quickly regulated according to the Target 3 requirements.
Comparing Fig. 8(A) and (B), it can be seen that with the pro-
posed control system, the operation of the system during such a
transient network unbalance was much smoother with reduced
torque and current oscillations. After the removal of the voltage
unbalance, the negative sequence controller was automatically
switched OFF and the system was back to the normal control
mode.
As shown in Section IV, for larger voltage unbalance, the
required rotor voltage may exceed the capability of the rotor-
side converter. Consequently, it is not possible to fully control
the negative sequence currents. Fig. 9(A) and (B) compares the
system response with the conventional control and the proposed
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 23, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2008
TABLE IV
COMPARISON OF CONVENTIONAL AND PROPOSED METHOD (VOLTAGE
UNBALANCE 17.5%)
Fig. 10. Simulated results with torque variation. (a) Rotor current (in kilo-
ampere). (b) Stator active and reactive power (in megavolt ampere). (c) Rotor
voltage modulation signal. (d) Electromagnetic torque (in per unit). (e) Rotor
mechanical speed (in per unit).
control during a relatively large voltage unbalance of 17.5%.
As can be seen from Fig. 9(B), due to the limited converter
voltage rating, it was unable to control the negative sequence
currents precisely. Nevertheless, with the proposed control, the
oscillations of the torque, power, and stator and rotor currents
were significantly reduced compared to that under conventional
control and this can be further observed in Table IV. Tests with
larger voltage unbalance and other control targets have been
found to give similar trends as these shown in Figs. 8 and 9.
However, the larger the voltage unbalance is, the less significant
the proposed control becomes due to the converter voltage limit.
Similarly, a larger rotor slip also reduces the ability of the con-
verter to provide negative sequence current control. During se-
vere voltage unbalance, the rotor-side converter may experience
overcurrent/overvoltage and conventional protective measures
such as rotor crowbar can be used to meet the fault ride through
requirement [13].
System responses of the proposed control strategy during
variations of DFIG speed and torque were also studied and the
results are shown in Fig. 10. The input mechanical torque and
XU: ENHANCED CONTROL AND OPERATION OF DFIG-BASED WIND FARMS DURING NETWORK UNBALANCE
reactive power reference were step changed from 0.3 to 1 p.u.
at 0.2 s and from −0.5 MVar (lagging) to +0.5 MVar (lead-
ing) at 0.5 s, respectively. The stator voltage initially had 4%
unbalance but the unbalance was removed at 1.2 s. Target 3
was initially chosen but switched to Target 2 at 0.8 s. The ref-
erence of the DFIG active power output was calculated from
the optimal power-speed curve [1]. The lumped inertia con-
stant of the system was set to a relatively small value of 0.5 s
in the study for a better illustration. From Fig. 10, it can be
seen that for the period of 0–0.8 s, although the stator volt-
age had 4% unbalance the stator reactive power and torque
had no 100 Hz pulsation. When the controller was switched
to Target 2 at 0.8 s, the stator active power oscillation quickly
diminished. After the voltage unbalance was removed at 1.2 s,
the auxiliary controller was automatically switched OFF thus
to remove any possible interactions between the main and
the auxiliary controllers. Fig. 10 clearly shows that the oper-
ation of the system during torque and speed variations is quite
satisfactory.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented methods for providing enhanced
system control and operation of DFIG-based wind turbines dur-
ing network unbalance. A new rotor current control strategy
based on a main controller and an auxiliary controller has been
proposed. The main controller is designed in the same way
as for the conventional control without involving into positive
and negative sequence decomposition. On the other hand, for
the auxiliary controller, it is designed specifically for the neg-
ative sequence components. To perform the required negative
sequence current control under the unbalanced voltage, the re-
quired converter voltage rating is discussed in detail. It was
found that the converter rating needs to be increased with the
most critical condition being at high-voltage unbalance and high
rotor speed. Simulation results during both “small” steady state
and “large” transient unbalance conditions confirmed the effec-
tiveness of the proposed control system. This is in contrast to
a conventional DFIG control system that results in excessive
oscillations of the stator active and reactive powers, electro-
magnetic torque, and stator/rotor currents under the unbalanced
supply voltage.
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on March 3, 2009 at 03:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1081
REFERENCES
[1] S. Muller, M. Deicke, and R. W. De Doncker, “Doubly fed induction
generator systems for wind turbines,” IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol. 8, no. 3,
pp. 26–33, May/Jun. 2002.
[2] H. Akagi and H. Sato, “Control and performance of a doubly-fed induction
machine intended for a flywheel energy storage system,” IEEE Trans.
Power Electron., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 109–116, Jan. 2002.
[3] M. Yamamoto and O. Motoyoshi, “Active and reactive power control
for doubly-fed wound rotor induction generator,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 624–629, Oct. 1991.
[4] I. Codd, “Windfarm power quality monitoring and output comparison with
EN50160,” in Proc. 4th Int. Workshop Large-Scale Integr. Wind Power
Transmiss. Netw. Offshore Wind Farm, Sweden, Oct. 2003, pp. 20–21.
[5] B. I. Nass, T. M. Undeland, and T. Gjengedal, “Methods for reduction
of voltage unbalance in weak grids connected to wind plants,” presented
at the Workshop Wind Power Impacts Power Syst., Oslo, Norway, Jun.
2002.
[6] M. R. Rathi, P. P. Jose, and N. Mohan, “A novel H∞ based controller for
wind turbine applications operating under unbalanced voltage conditions,”
in Proc. 13th Int. Conf. Intell. Syst. Appl. Power Syst., 2005, pp. 355–360.
[7] T. Brekken and N. Mohan, “A novel doubly-fed induction wind generator
control scheme for reactive power control and torque pulsation compen-
sation under unbalanced grid voltage conditions,” in Proc. PESC 2003,
vol. 2, pp. 760–764.
[8] T. A. Brekken and N. Mohan, “Control of a doubly fed induction wind
generator under unbalanced grid voltage conditions,” IEEE Trans. Energy
Conversion, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 129–135, Mar. 2007.
[9] L. Xu and Y. Wang, “Dynamic modeling and control of DFIG based wind
turbines under unbalanced network conditions,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst.,
vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 314–323, Feb. 2007.
[10] C. Hochgraf and R. H. Lasseter, “STATCOM controls for operation with
unbalanced voltage,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 538–544,
Apr. 1998.
[11] H. W. Van De Broeck, H. C. Skudelny, and G. V. Stanke, “Analysis and
realization of a pulsewidth modulator based on voltage space vectors,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 142–150, Jan./Feb. 1988.
[12] L. Xu, B. R. Andersen, and P. Cartwright, “VSC transmission system
operating under unbalanced network conditions—Analysis and control
design,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 427–434, Jan. 2005.
[13] J. Niiranen, “Voltage dip ride through of a doubly-fed generator equipped
with an active crowbar,” presented at the Nordic Wind Power Conf.,
Gothenburg, Sweden, Mar. 2004.
Lie Xu (M’03–SM’06) received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical and electronic engineering from Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou, China, in 1993, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical and electronic engineering from
the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K., in 1999.
He is currently with the Department of Electronic
and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde,
Glasgow, U.K. From 2004 to 2007, he was with
Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, U.K., and also
with ALSTOM T&D, Stafford, U.K., from 2001 to
2003. His current research interests include power
electronics, wind energy generation and grid integration, and application of
power electronics to power systems.