Dynamic Modeling and Control Design of Microturbine Distributed Generation Systems

Xunwei Yu, Zhenhua Jiang, and Atideh Abbasi Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Miami Coral Gables, FL 33146 USA
Abstract - Distributed generation draws increasing attention because of the energy shortage and environmental protection considerations. Furthermore, distribution power generation can improve the power system stability and reliability, providing the local power supply economically. Microturbine based power generation has many applications in distributed generation. In this paper, a mathematical model of a microturbine distributed generation system connected to the utility grid is presented. Two back-to-back power converters are connecting the synchronous generator to the grid. The models of microturbine, synchronous generator, and back-to-back power converters are presented and the corresponding control methods are analyzed and designed. The model is developed in MATLAB and simulation results are shown to verify the system performance. Keywords: microturbines, synchronous generator, distributed generation, power converters

testify that the microturbine distributed generation system can operate well with these control methods.

II. MODELING OF MICROTURBINE DISTRIBUTED GENERATION SYSTEMS

In Fig. 1, the microturbine is connected to the synchronous generator through a mechanical shaft system. The synchronous generator will transform the mechanical power into the electrical power. The stator of generator is connected to the grid through two back-to-back PWM power converters connected by a capacitor. The power flows between the stator and the grid can be controlled both in magnitude and in direction so that it is possible to generate electric power at a constant voltage and frequency at the stator and inject it into the grid. The distributed generation system is regulated by a control system, which consists of two parts: the electrical control of the synchronous generator and power electronics, and the mechanical control of the microturbine. A. Modeling of Burner and Microturbine In Fig. 1, the fuel and the air are mixed and burned in the burner, producing a high-temperature, high pressure gas to drive the turbine. By controlling the fuel valve and the air valve, the rotational speed of the shaft can be controlled. The mass balance theory indicates the relationship between input and output mass flow rate is as follows. (1) m3 = m1 + m2 The mathematical model of the burner is denoted as a firstorder equation based on energy balance. (2) dT3 1
dt = C b mb ( m1 * LHV f b + m1C p (T3 T1 ) m 2C p (T3 T2 ))

I. INTRODUCTION
Distributed power generation is gaining more and more attention because of the numerous benefits to the customers, utilities and the environment [1]-[5]. Furthermore, distributed power generation systems can better address the increasing concerns about fault tolerance and improved system stability and reliability without adding significant costs. In addition, distributed generation will enable the utilities to expand their services, such as providing base load power, thermal energy, and/or value-added energy services to existing and new customers [6]-[7]. This approach will enable significant improvement in the design and manufacturing process and enhance system performance and reliability. Microturbine powered generators rating from 25kW to 250kW will provide a variety of opportunities to meet the applications of distributed power systems [8]-[12]. They demand low initial costs, and are highly efficient, multi-fueled, reliable and lightweight. Fig. 1 shows a typical application of microturbines in distributed generation systems. This paper presents a complete model of a microturbine based distributed generation system connected to the grid and the associated control system. Two back-to-back power converters are used to connect the synchronous generator to the grid, where the rectifier will convert the generators highfrequency AC power to DC power and the inverter will transform the DC power to line-frequency AC power that can be connected to the grid. The control algorithms are developed for the microturbine, synchronous generator, rectifier and inverter. The control strategies are tested on a simulation model developed in MATLAB. Simulation results

where Cb is the average heat capacity of the burner, mb is the mass of the burner, LHVf is the lower heating value, b is the burner efficiency and Cp is specific heat of air. The gas temperatures of the input and output of the turbine are related to the pressure drop during expanding the air, as shown in (3) [13].

T3 (3) = ( PRT ) T1 where PRT is turbine pressure ratio and is the specific heat ratio of the air. The thermal power produced by the turbine can be calculated based on the following algebraic equation.

978-1-4244-4252-2/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

1239

Fig. 1. Illustration of a microturbine driven generator connected to a utility grid via power converters.

Pth ,T = th.T m1C p (T3 T1 )

(4)

where Pth.T is the turbine thermal power and th.T is the turbine efficiency. Converting the thermal power to the mechanical power can be defined by the following first-order equation [14]: dPm.T (5) =P P
T

dt

th.T

m.T

where T is the time constant and Pm.T is the mechanical power of turbine. B. Modeling of Synchronous Generator The synchronous generator is represented by a secondorder generator model based on the d-q axis [15]. deq 1 (6) = ( EFD eq ( xd x )idg ) d dt Td d 1 (7) = (Tm Te D )
dt J

dt L L dvdc 1 (14) = d d 1.id 1 + d q1 iq1 i2 dt C where i2 is the equivalent current from the DC link to the inverter.

power factor. The mathematical model for this converter can be defined by three first-order equation as follows. did 1 1 1 (12) = vd 1 + iq1 d d 1vdc dt L L diq1 1 (13) 1 = vq1 id 1 d q1vdc

Inverter Model The voltage equations in the d-q frame rotating at the angular frequency of 2 are as follows. di (15) vd 2 = d d 2vdc + 2 L2iq 2 L2 d 2 dt diq 2 (16) v = d v L i L
q2 q 2 dc 2 2 d2 2

2)

where is the generator synchronous speed, xd is the d-axis inductance, xd is the d-axis transient inductance, D is the damping coefficient, J is the rotational inertia and the eq is the internal voltage. vqg, vdg are the d-q axis voltage of the generator which can be obtained from equations (9) and (10): (8) vqg = eq xqidg

dt

where 2 = s is the angular frequency of the inverter output voltage.

III. DESIGN OF CONTROL SYSTEM

The objective of the active rectifier is to keep the capacitors voltage to be constant, while the control objective of the inverter is to have the output power track the reference in grid-connected mode or to maintain the output voltage constant in the islanding mode. For this purpose, the output mechanical power from the gas turbine should follow the output power. The design procedure is discussed below. Control of Microturbine When the load demand power is changed, the gas turbine will change its output power by controlling the fuel valve and air valve of the burner, where the air flow rate has a linear relationship with the fuel flow rate. As the angular speed of the synchronous generator changes, these flow rates will change correspondingly. This is the reason why the angular speed of the generator is used to control the burners valve. Fig. 2 is the control block diagram of burner. A.

vdg = xqiqg

(9)

where xq is the q-axis inductance. To calculate the output real power Psyn and terminal voltage Vt the following algebraic equation can be explained: (10) Vt = vqg 2 + vdg 2
Psyn = idg vdg + iqg vqg

(11)

C.

Modeling of Power Converters Average models are developed for the back-to-back voltage source converters in the rotating d-q frames. 1) Rectifier model An active rectifier is used to convert the AC voltage produced by synchronous generator to a DC voltage. The advantage of using active rectifier is to increase the rectifying

1240

vsq = 0. Following the same procedure as active rectifier, the references for vd2 and vq2 can be obtained by the following feedback loops and PI controllers. k * (20) * vd 2 = k gdp + gdi (id 2 id 2 ) s L2iq 2 + vs
Fig. 2. Gas turbine control block diagram

Control of Synchronous Generator Based on the synchronous model mentioned before, the key point of controlling the synchronous generator is its output voltage. It is easy to get the synchronous generators control block diagram, a shown in Fig. 3.

B.

* vq 2

Fig. 3. Synchronous generator control block diagram

Control of Active Rectifier The goal of the active rectifier is to control the power factor while keeping the DC voltage constant. Under this condition, the q-axis current reference is determinate by the power factor. The d-axis control scheme consists of two cascaded control loops. The inner current control loop regulates the d-axis current and the outer control loop regulates the DC voltage. Inner Current Control Loops In (12) and (13), id and iq are cross-coupling terms for vd and vq respectively. If these terms are regarded as disturbances and the ddvdc, dqvdc are considered as the feedforward items, this system is a first-order dynamic system. If a proportional-integral (PI) control scheme is adopted to produce the reference for vd and vq based on current feedback control, then the following control laws can be derived. k * (17) * vd 1 = kdp + di (id 1 id 1 ) Liq1 + d d 1vdc s k * (18) * vq1 = kqp + qi (iq1 iq1 ) + Lid 1 + d q1vdc s 1)

C.

where id2* and iq2* are the reference values of the converter output current obtained from the outer control loops. Outer Loop Design 2) There are two cases for the inverter where the first case is the inverter connects to the grid, while the other case is the inverter operates in island mode. In these two cases, the outer loop design is different. When the inverter connects to the grid, ignoring the power losses in the inverter, the active and reactive powers from the gird-side converter are given by (22) Pg = 1.5 vd 2id 2 + vq 2iq 2 = 1.5 vd 2id 2
Qg

s k * = k gqp + gqi (iq 2 iq 2 ) + s L2id 2 s

(21)

( = 1.5 ( v

q 2id 2

vd 2iq 2

) ) = 1.5 v

d 2iq 2

(23)

Since the d-axis voltage is maintained constant, the active power is proportional to id2 and the reactive power is proportional to -iq2. The following control laws can be used for the inverter to regulate the power. k (24) * id 2 = k Pgp + Pgi ( Pg* Pg ) s
k * (25) * iq 2 = kQgp + Qgi (Qg Qg ) s When the inverter operates in the islanding mode, its output voltage can be controlled by the d-q axis voltage. Furthermore, the d-axis voltage is proportional to id2 and the q-axis voltage is proportional to iq2. The following control schemes can be concluded. k * * (26) id 2 = kvdp + vdi (vd 2 vd 2 ) s kiqi * (27) *
iq 2 = kiqp + (vq 2 vq 2 ) s

D-axis Outer Control Loops Since the power factor is kept constant, basing on the (13), vdc is proportional to id. The following control law can be used to regulate the active power. k * (19) * id 1 = kdcp + dci (vdc vdc ) s Control of Inverter The inverter control scheme consists of two cascaded control loops. The inner current control loops regulate independently the d-axis and q-axis components of the inverter AC output current, id2 and iq2, in the synchronously rotating reference frame. The outer control loops regulate the active power and reactive power exchanged between the inverter and the grid. Inner Current Control Loops 1) The d-axis aligned to the grid voltage vector vs, then vsd = vs, D.

2)

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

To verify the control strategies designed above, a microturbine generation system, as shown in Fig. 1, is used for simulation studies in MATLAB. A 200kVA gas turbine system is connected to the stiff grid through transmission lines. The parameters of the gas turbine and transmission lines are given in the Appendix. Two scenarios are studied where the inverter connects to the grid and operates in island mode. Case I: Inverter Connected to Grid The reference output power of the inverter is set as Pg,ref = 50kW and Qg,ref = 50kVar, respectively. The reference active power is changed to 100kW at 2s, while the reference reactive power is changed to 100kVar at 1s. The DC voltage reference A.

1241

is 600V and the iq1ref=-10A. This case can simulate the operation condition that there is a change in the load while the microturbine generator power tracks the reference. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 4. As shown in Fig. 4-a, the synchronous generator output power is dependent on the inverter output power; beside the mechanical loss, their output power is uniform (Fig. 4-a). When the generator produces more power, the gas turbine absorbs more fuel. That the reason when the generator output power increased at 2s the fuel flowed to the gas turbine step changed (Fig. 4-b). According to the control methods mentioned before, the rectifiers d-q axis current can be controlled by DC voltage and q-axis current reference (Fig. 4c). In the same way the inverters d-q axis current can be controlled by the inverter output real power and reactive power, which agrees with equations (22) and (23). and the inverters output power changes, the inverters output d-q current will correspondingly changed (Fig. 4-c). Basing on the inverters average model, when the inverters output power increase, its equivalent current i2 should rise (Fig. 4-d). According the equation (14), if the i2 increases, vdc will decrease. While vdc is controlled by the rectifier outer loop, so the DC voltage will back to the reference after a small resonance (Fig.4-d).

c) rectifier d-q axis currents & inverter d-q axis currents

d) DC voltage & the inverter equivalent current Fig. 4. Simulation results when the inverter is connected to the grid.

a) synchronous generator output power & inverter output power

Case I: Inverter Operated in Island Mode The voltage reference of d-axis is vd2ref=550V, while the voltage reference of q-axis is vq2ref=0. The output voltage frequency is 60Hz. Initially, the load is the resistive load where R=6 and at 2.5s the load changes to R=3. Fig. 5 is the simulation results of the inverter operating in island mode. As shown in Fig.5-a, when the load changes, the inverters output power will increase. According to the power balance discussed before, the synchronous generator output power and the fuel absorbed by the gas turbine will increase correspondingly (Fig. 5-b). Based on the control method in the island mode, the output voltage is controlled to be constant; when the load changes, the inverter equivalent current will increase. Because the load is the resistive load, the d-axis current increases while the q-axis current is nearly to zero and keeping constant. The control of the DC voltage is the same as that of the active rectifier, so when the load changes, the capacitor voltage has a small sag and then recovery to the reference in a few milliseconds (Fig. 5-c). Fig. 5-d is the inverters output voltage and current in three phases.

B.

V. CONCLUSION
b) gas turbine output power & fuel in gas turbine

An integrated microturbine distributed generation system is discussed in this paper, which includes a microturbine, a

1242

synchronous generator, an active rectifier, an inverter, and associated controllers. A 200kVA microturbine system model is developed in Simulink and the control methods are tested. Simulation results testify that the integrated microturbine system can operate well with these control methods.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants ECCS-0652300, ECCS-0748032 and ECCS-0821126. APPENDIX
Table I. System parameters used in the simulation Parameters Values Parameters Values

Cp t LHVf b PRT th.t T

a) synchronous generator output power & inverter output real power [1]

1004 (J/Kg) 0.03 1.4 120.21 (KJ/Kg) 0.4 0.33 0.95 2000

t Vnom Pnom Td D J C Vdc_nom

0.03 575 (V) 200 (KVA) 0.06 0.01 0.12 0.005 (F) 600 (V)

REFERENCES
F. C. Lee, P. Barbosa, X. Peng, J. Zhang, B. Yang and F. Canales, Topologies and design considerations for distributed power system applications, Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 89, No. 6, pp. 939 950, June 2001. L. F. Casey and M. F. Schlecht, A high-frequency, low volume, pointof-load power supply for distributed power systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 72-82, Jan. 1988. C. Lin and S. Lin, Distributed Optimal Power Flow With Discrete Control Variables of Large Distributed Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp.1383 1392, Aug. 2008 S. Luo, A review of distributed power systems part I: DC distributed power system, IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 8, Part 2, pp. 5 16, Aug. 2005 S. Luo and I. Batarseh, A review of distributed power systems. Part II. High frequency AC distributed power systems, IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 5 14, June 2006. X. Feng, Jinjun Liu and F. C. Lee, Impedance specifications for stable DC distributed power systems, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.17, No. 2, pp.157 162, March 2002 C. M. Wildrick, F. C. Lee, B. H. Cho, and B. Choi, A method of defining the load impedance specification for a stable distributed power system, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol.10, No. 3, pp. 280 285, May 1995 C. J. Hatziadoniu, A. A. Lobo, F. Pourboghrat and M. Daneshdoost, A simplified dynamic model of grid-connected fuel-cell generators, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol.17, No. 2, pp. 467.473, Apr. 2002. M. C. Williams, Fuel cells and the world energy future, IEEE Power Engineering Society Summer Meeting, 2001, Vol. 1, pp. 725, July 2001. C. Hatziadoniu, A. Lobo, F. Pourboghrat and M. Daneshdoost, A Simplified Dynamic Model of Grid-Connected Fuel-Cell Generators, IEEE Power Engineering Review, Vol.21, No.11, pp. 6262, Nov. 2001. F. Pai and S. Huang, Design and Operation of Power Converter for Microturbine Powered Distributed Generator with Capacity Expansion Capability, IEEE Transaction on Energy Conversion, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp.110 118, March 2008 . K. Sedghisigarchi and A. Feliachi, Dynamic and transient analysis of power distribution systems with fuel Cells-part II: control and stability enhancement, IEEE Transaction on Energy Conversion, Vol.19, No. 2, pp. 429 434, June 2004. R. E. Sonntag, and G. Wylen, Introduction to Thermodynamics Classical & Statistical, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1982. P. Li, P. Degobert, B. Franvois' and B. Robyns, Modeling and Control of a as Micro Turbine Generator by Using a Causal Ordering Graph, IMACS Multiconference on "Computational Engineering in Systems Applications"(CESA), October 4-6, 2006. I. Jadric, Modeling and Control of a Synchronous Generator with Electronic Load, Master thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, January 5, 1998.

[2] [3]

[4] [5] [6] [7]

b) gas turbine output power & fuel in gas turbine

[8] [9] [10] c) inverter currents, DC voltage & the inverter equivalent current [11]

[12]

[13] [14]

d) output three-phase voltage & current Fig. 5. Simulation results in the case of islanding operation.

[15]

1243