March 26-29

Isolated Wind-Diesel Hybrid Variable Speed

Power Generation System
Grzegorz Iwanski, Wlodzimierz Koczara
Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics
Warsaw University of Technology, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland
E-mail: iwanskig@isep.pw.edu.pl

Copyright © 2009 MC2D & MITI

Abstract: A wind-diesel power generation system supplying the isolated load is presented. The doubly
fed induction generator driven by variable speed wind turbine is proposed to obtain reduction of the
fuel consumption in cooperated diesel genset, with the short time energy storage increasing the
voltage quality of hybrid wind-diesel power system, in case of rapid load change. Four wire microgrid
is established to obtain the system, able to supply of unbalance and single phase load. Control system
of the output voltage is described. Results of laboratory tests are presented.

Keywords: wind energy, diesel driven gensets, variable speed power generation, permanent magnet
generator, double fed induction generator, energy storage.

1. Introduction Recently, hybrid wind-diesel island power

The diesel engine based generation systems
are mainly used as emergency supply sets in
telecommunication, public buildings,
hospitals, etc., and as standalone military and
marine power plants, as well as the reliable
isolated power source for islands or remote
villages placed far from the power network.
Classic gensets based on internal combustion
engines are equipped with synchronous
generators, therefore fixed speed operation is
required. It gives low efficiency during low
load operation. It is not critical in emergency
case operated sets, but very important in
continuously operated systems, where fuel
consumption is significant economic and
logistic aspect. Moreover, low load operation
of diesel genset at synchronous speed reduces
the engine lifetime, by incomplete combustion
of the hydrocarbons, therefore an additional
dump load is required to improve the
combustion process. The efficiency and fuel
combustion at low load conditions can be
improved by use of load adaptive adjustable
speed operation of the genset [1].
systems are being installed. Utilization of wind
energy provide reduction of fuel consumption,
whereas the diesel genset assures the reliability
of power supply. The diesel genset cannot be
completely eliminated, because the wind
turbine is not reliable power source and
requires very large energy storage to assure the
power at low wind conditions.
Utilization of wind energy and division of the
load in respect of priority, provide significant
reduction of the engine size, and amount of
electrical power delivered from the diesel
engine, what is the next contribution to
reduction of the fuel consumption.
Overview of typical wind-diesel installations
can be found in [2]. In the most cases, the
power of installed diesel gensets is much
higher than the power of wind turbines. In
peak, the wind turbines can cover even more
than 90% of demanded power, but in long term
the fuel saving is 10-15%. The same level of
fuel saving can be obtained by gensets based
on power electronics, load adaptive, adjustable
speed diesel without use of wind turbines. It is
used in light mobile power gensets [3].
The paper presents a hybrid wind-diesel
system with high penetration of wind energy,
in which both, diesel engine and wind turbine,
operate at variable speed. The proposed hybrid
system is equipped with a doubly fed induction
generator driven from the wind turbine and
diesel driven system with permanent magnet
generator PMG (Fig. 1).
Cf1
N SW
isolated
load Cf2
RC Cdc FEC
wind
driven
DFIG
REC DC/DC
DE PMG
Figure 1: Topology of wind-diesel isolated power
generation system with wind driven DFIG and
diesel driven PMSG.
Both sources are equipped with power
electronics converters, coupled by common DC
link. It allows for variable speed operation of
both sources in a hybrid system. Additionally,
the energy storage ESt with DC-DC converter
improves the power quality during transients
caused by rapid load change. It is recommended
because of limited acceleration of diesel genset,
what may cause instantaneous voltage dips.
To obtain significant reduction of fuel
consumption the rated power of wind turbine is
higher, than the power of diesel genset. Typical
DFIG based wind generation system consists of
slip-ring induction machine of 75% of the
system total power and rotor connected power
electronics converter of 25% of the system total
power. The power from diesel engine is
delivered by the same electronic converter,
therefore total power of hybrid system is not
increased over the maximum power of wind
turbine. However, the wind turbine does not
operate continuously with full power, therefore
diesel genset can support the isolated system,
when power from wind turbine is not enough.
The load has to be divided in respect of supply
priority, because diesel genset can cover only
25% of the total power during lack of wind
energy.
If the wind energy is enough to load supply, the
diesel genset is stopped and the rectifier REC is
switched off. Assuming that the short time
energy storage is used, the long term surplus of
available energy is not utilized, and the
rotational speed of the turbine is reduced by
pitch control. During individual operation of
wind turbine, FEC is current controlled and
maintains the reference DC voltage on Cdc
capacitors. The same role the FEC fulfills
during diesel engine supporting operation, when
the genset compensates shortage of power
MT produced by wind turbine. Some management
on the DC voltage is needed, but the AC voltage
is still controlled on the DFIG stator by the rotor
converter RC similarly to the case of sole DFIG
operation. The wind speed beyond the turbine
operation range results in DFIG disconnection
from established grid by controlled switch SW.
The wind turbine is stopped and the diesel
ESt
genset operates individually. The rotor
converter RC is switched off and the engine
power is delivered to the load by FEC
converter, which in this operation mode controls
the AC voltage on Cf2 capacitors (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Sole operation of the diesel genset in
hybrid wind diesel generation system.
After restart of wind turbine and before closing
of switch SW the stator voltage has to be
synchronized with the voltage produced by FEC
on Cf2. Synchronization of DFIG stator voltage
can be identical to the method presented in [4],
which allows for short transient equal to a small
number of periods of the generated voltage.
Such fast inverse synchronization (voltage
produced by FEC with DFIG stator voltage)
may not be possible due to the fact, that some
sort of the load (e.g. induction motors) can be
sensitive to the rapid change of the supplied
voltage phase. Hybrid system during transient
states, caused by dead time in diesel engine,
restart or rapid change of the load power, can be
supported by energy storage system.
Four wire micro grid is proposed to supply the
unbalanced and single phase load.
 2. Fixed frequency symmetrical
voltage for unbalance load supply.
The positive and negative sequence based
control method of standalone four wire DFIG
is presented in Fig. 3. The most important task
for the control method is the determination of
the rotor current frequency to obtain fixed
frequency of the stator voltage. It is done by
Rα controller operated like PLL structure.
Actual voltage vector is synchronized with the
reference by increasing or decreasing of the
angular speed of the rotor current vector. This
angular speed is related to the rotor and its
integration provide the rotor current phase
related to the rotor. Second controller RU is
responsible for the stator voltage amplitude
and its output signal is responsible for the
magnitude of the rotor current |ir|*, because
similarly to the synchronous generator, the
stator voltage amplitude is proportional to the
rotor current magnitude. Details of the output
amplitude and frequency sensorless control in
standalone DFIG system are described in [4].
s* usdn*
usdn
dq(n) LPF
Four wire interface is known from typical
power distribution system. The last step down
transformer has four wire system on the
secondary side, while medium voltage side is
supplied from three wire system (Fig. 4a).
Neutral point of the secondary side is
grounded and it provides more or less
symmetrical voltage despite of the unbalance
load, what is impossible in three wire system.
Asymmetry of the load current is transformed
into the primary medium voltage side, but
there is only a small voltage asymmetry caused
by different voltage drops on the leakage
inductances and winding resistances in each
phase, depending on the load asymmetry.
Similar configuration of transformer windings
is applied in some three phase UPS systems
[5] dedicated to supply single phase and
unbalanced load after the mains outage. The
primary side of the transformer is supplied
from the PWM inverter (Fig. 4b) and applied
current control used for better stability cause
that the voltage may be much stronger
unbalanced, than during the open loop VSI
operation. Therefore, the systems with inner
s* current control loop require additional part of
irdn* dq(n) control to improve the voltage symmetry
Rudn during unbalance load supply.

abc(s) LPF usqn Ruqn dq(p)

irqn*
usqn*
irdn2p*
s* irqn2p*
usa
us*
usb usd
dq(p) dq
usc us
usq R
abc(s) A

load |us| ir*

|us|*
Cf1 RU

DFIG |ir|* ir*

Figure 3: Control method of four wire standalone
A
DFIG based power generation system.
(r)

abc(r) DFIG is a rotating transformer with different

ira irb irc
frequencies on the primary and secondary side.
irap* In DFIG system, the rotor current control is
irbp*
PWM required to obtain stability, and it needs
ircp*
RI additional part of the system in case of
RC dq(p) unbalance load supply to improve the voltage
DC iran* symmetry. The negative sequence components
irbn* of the stator voltage vector are extracted by
ircn* abc(r)
low pass filters LPF from the voltage vector
Figure 3: Control method of four wire standalone components transformed to the frame dq(n)
DFIG based power generation system. rotated in opposite direction.
Two controllers Rudn and Ruqn produces the The operation mode of front-end converter
reference negative sequence components irdn* FEC is adopted to the system operation mode.
irqn* of the rotor current, which are transformed If the standalone DFIG system maintains the
to the frame dq(p) rotated in positive direction output voltage, the FEC converter treats the
and next to the three phase rotor connected stator voltage as the reference and operates as
coordinates abc(r). The reference negative a current controlled voltage source converter.
sequence components usdn*, usqn* of the vector In case of unbalance voltage there can be used
us are equal to zero to obtain symmetrical special control method for front-end converter.
output voltage. The FEC can support the RC operation and
The proportional rotor current controllers are decrease the DFIG torque pulsations.
applied and integration part is neglected. The Standalone operation of the genset without
current control loop is the inner one and it is DFIG, requires output voltage control by front-
not necessary to eliminate the steady state end converter FEC on Cf2. Matching
error in the rotor current control loop. The PI transformer MT and has the same windings
controllers are dedicated to fixed reference configurations like DFIG. The system with
signals, and used in the superior control of transformer is simpler to DFIG due to the
voltage positive and negative components in same frequency on the primary and secondary
adequate coordinates systems. The rotor side. However, unbalanced load supply also
current contains a slip frequency component require correction of the voltage asymmetry
and the component of the frequency equals and the control method may be adopted from
double synchronous minus the slip. To obtain DFIG system. The difference is in the loop of
fixed reference signals of the rotor current, the voltage angle controller, where Rα calculates
decomposition of the rotor current to positive only the phase of the current and not a total
and negative sequence components is needed angle. It is presented on Fig. 5
and a use of four independent PI rotor current
controllers. The control system is then very s* udn* s*
complicated and does not provide significant dq(n) udn idn* dq(n)
LPF Rudn
improvements in system dynamics, in
comparison to simple and robust proportional LPF uqn Ruqn
controller applied in abc coordinates connected abc iqn* dq(p)
with a rotor. uqn*
idn2p*
Fig. 4 presents the initial elliptical hodograph s* iqn2p*
during start-up of the standalone DFIG system ua
u*
supplying the unbalanced load and the steady ub
dq(p)
ud
dq
state (“final”) hodograph resulted from the uc u

operation of asymmetry correction part of the uq R

abc A s*
control system.

initial load |us|

final |u|*
Cf2 RU

|i|* i*
usunb MT
A
abc
usbal ia ib ic
iap*
ibp*
PWM icp*
RI
FEC dq(p)
DC ian*
ibn*
icn* abc
Figure 4: Initial and steady state (final) hodograph
of the stator voltage vector after start of the DFIG Figure 5: Control method of four wire system with
system supplied the unbalanced load. transformer supplied from power converter.
 3. Advantages of adjustable speed Slight modification of the speed control unit in
operation of diesel based gensets the existing diesel engines and equipping with
the power electronics converter provides their
The advantage of variable speed operated simple and cheap adaptation to cooperate with
diesel engine can be easily explained using wind turbine in proposed topology. However
mechanical characteristics of the engine power full decoupling and independency between
presented in Fig. 6. The best efficiency area output voltage frequency and the rotational
for fixed speed genset covers relatively small speed of the genset, when full power series
range of load. Simultaneously, the artificial converter is applied, allows to increase of the
load (“dummy load”) used for low load genset speed and use the multipolar ultra-light
operation can be eliminated. The fuel can be permanent magnet generator. Fig. 7 shows the
saved by adjusting the genset speed to 40kVA, 3000rpm axial flux PMG designed for
operation with the best efficiency in wider adjustable speed genset presented on Fig. 8.
range of load. Other important issue is the
genset size. Fixed speed genset can deliver
maximum power Pdmaxsynch at synchronous
speed ωsynch. The same genset can deliver more
power Pdmax at higher speed, but variable speed
operation is needed. Other point of view is,
that for the same maximum load power,
smaller engine can be used, than the one
operating at fixed synchronous speed, what
additionally provide significant reduction of
fuel consumption. Introduction of adjustable Figure 7: Ultra-light axial flux PMG
speed operation of existing systems provides
reduction of fuel consumption and increases
the maximum available power. Better fuel
combustion at low load operation is obtained
and the engine lifetime is increased.
Pd
a) Pdmax Pdmaxinst

Pdmaxsynch
gfmin
gf1
gf2
gf3
Figure 8: Integrated diesel engine based genset.

forbidden
Pload area 4. Laboratory test of the standalone
ωd
ωdmin ωsynch ωdmax wind-diesel system components.

Pd The wind-diesel system components and their

Pdmaxinst operation modes are tested in the laboratory
b) Pdmax
system. Fig. 9 presents the variable speed
Pdmaxsynch operation of standalone DFIG with output
gfmin voltage control. The voltage amplitude and
Pload gf1 frequency is maintained in spite of the rotor
gf2 speed by adequate adjusting of the rotor
gf3 current frequency (Fig. 9a). Nearly sinusoidal
voltage was obtained even during supply of
forbidden
area
strongly nonlinear load (Fig. 9b). Fig. 10
ωd
ωdmin ωgmin ωsynch ωgmax ωdmax
presents the output voltage during unbalanced
load operation. Symmetrical voltage is
Figure 6: Mechanical characteristics and operation achieved in spite of asymmetrical load current.
areas of fixed speed (a) and adjustable speed (b) Standalone operation of axial flux PMG
diesel engines based gensets. generation system is presented in Fig. 11.
 Figure 12: Oscillograms presenting load currents
and output voltages from power electronics based
diesel genset during unbalanced load supply.
Figure 9: Oscillograms presenting a) rotor current
ira, b) rotor current ira, stator voltage usa, load
current ilda during variable speed operation of 5. Conclusion
standalone DFIG.
Hybrid wind-diesel power generation system
was presented. DFIG wind turbine and PMG
based adjustable speed diesel genset are
equipped with DC coupled power electronics
converters. Four wire grid is established by
delta/star configuration of DFIG and matching
transformer on the front end converter side to
supply unbalanced and single phase load.
Control for standalone operation of both DFIG
and PMG based four wire systems with voltage
asymmetry correction are proposed.
Figure 10: Oscillograms presenting stator voltage
usa, usb, load current ilda, ildb, in two phases during References
unbalanced load supply from standalone DFIG.
[1] L. Grzesiak, W. Koczara, M. da Ponte,
High frequency generator voltage results from „Power Quality of the Hygen Autonomous
16 poles of the machine, whereas the output Load – Adaptive Adjustable Speed
voltage controlled by power electronics Generating System”, Proc. of Applied
converter has fixed frequency and amplitude Power Electronics Conf. APEC’99. Dallas,
independently of the PMG voltage frequency. USA, March 1999, pp. 398 - 400
Unbalanced load operation of standalone power [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind-
electronics conversion system with PMG is Diesel_Hybrid_Power_Systems
presented in Fig. 12. Symmetrical voltage is [3] W. Koczara, Z. Chlodnicki, E. Ernest,
obtained despite of strongly unbalanced load. N. Brown: „Hybrid Adjustable Speed
Generation System”, proceedings on 3rd
International Conference on Ecological
Vehicles and Renewable Energies, Monaco
2008, March 27 -30
[4] G. Iwański, W. Koczara: “DFIG based
Power Generation System with UPS
Function for Variable Speed Applications”
IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics. Vol.
55, Issue 8, pp. 3047 – 3054, Aug. 2008GI
principles.
[5] Burup U., Enjeti P.N., Blaabjerg F., A new
space-vector-based control method for UPS
Figure 11: Oscillograms presenting PMG stator systems powering nonlinear and unbalanced
voltages and output voltages from power electronics loads, IEEE Transactions on Industry
based adjustable speed standalone diesel genset. Applications, Vol. 37, Issue 6, Nov/Dec
2001, pp. 1864-1870.