Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

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Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Modeling and enhanced control of DFIG under unbalanced grid

voltage conditions
Jiabing Hu ,1 , Yikang He 2
College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 10 August 2007
Received in revised form 30 January 2008
Accepted 23 June 2008
Available online 13 August 2008
Keywords:
Voltage unbalance
Wind turbines
Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)
Instantaneous active and reactive powers
Proportional integral plus resonant (PI + R)
controller

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents a mathematical model of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based on stator
voltage orientation (SVO) in the positive and negative synchronous reference frames under unbalanced
grid voltage conditions. The oscillations of the DFIG electromagnetic torque and the stator active and
reactive powers are fully described during grid voltage unbalance. A new rotor current controller implemented in the positive synchronous reference frame is proposed. The controller consists of a proportional
integral (PI) regulator and a harmonic resonant (R) compensator tuned at twice the grid frequency. Thus,
the positive and negative sequence components of DFIG rotor currents are directly regulated by the PI + R
controller without the need of involving positive and negative sequence decomposition, which indeed
improves the dynamic performance of DFIG-based wind power generation system during small steadystate and relatively larger transient network unbalances. The theoretical analysis and the feasibility of
the proposed unbalanced control scheme are validated by simulation studies on a 1.5-MW wind-turbine
driven DFIG system. Compared with conventional single PI current control design, the proposed control
scheme results in signicant elimination of either DFIG power or torque oscillation under unbalanced grid
voltage conditions.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Wind energy has become one of the subjects of much recent
research and development all over the world. Among the various
types of wind turbines, the variable-speed wind turbines based
on the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), which have many
advantages over the xed-speed generators, including variablespeed constant frequency (VSCF) operation, reduced icker and
independent control capabilities for active and reactive powers,
have attracted particular attention [1]. These excellent merits are
primarily achieved via the control of a rotor-connected back-toback PWM voltage source converter, which is typically rated at
around 30% of the generator rating for a given rotor speed range
of 0.751.25 pu under normal operation conditions. Thus, the converter cost becomes relatively lower than other types of wind power
generation systems.
The steady-state and transient response of DFIG-based wind
power generation system under symmetrical supply voltage have
been well understood [14]. Practically, both transmissions and dis-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 571 87951784; fax: +86 571 87951625.
E-mail addresses: emec zju@zju.edu.cn, emec zju@hotmail.com (J. Hu).
1
Student Member, IEEE.
2
Senior Member, IEEE.
0378-7796/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2008.06.017

tribution networks can experience voltage unbalance. If this is not

taken into account by the DFIG control system, the wind turbines
might have to be disconnected from the network under unbalanced
grid voltage conditions [5] due to the excessive stator current imbalances and power and torque oscillations. Whereas, the emerging
grid codes require wind turbines to withstand a maximum value
of 2% steady-state phase-voltage unbalance without disconnection
[6].
The system control and operation of wind-turbine driven DFIG
under unbalanced grid voltage conditions were studied in [5,711].
In [7,8] the focus was purely on compensating torque pulsation
during grid voltage unbalance. The compensated rotor voltage was
generated directly from the double-frequency oscillating terms of
either the torque [7] or the calculated current compensation [8]. As
a result, the PI current controller must be carefully tuned at twice
the grid frequency to provide the required system response. While
in [5,9], the grid-side converter was controlled to behave as a STATCOM. In [10], an extended vector control of doubly fed machine
under unbalanced network conditions was proposed, which was
implemented in the positive and negative synchronous reference
frames, respectively. Ref. [11] presented an investigation into the
impact of unbalanced stator voltage on the pulsations of stator and
rotor currents, electromagnetic torque, and stator active and reactive powers. Similar to [10], a dual rotor current PI controller based
on stator ux orientation (SFO) was employed, which necessitated

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J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

the decomposing of positive and negative sequence rotor currents.

Since the decomposing process of positive and negative sequence
components involves considerable time delay and leads to errors in
amplitude and phase with respect to the original signals, the systems cannot be fully decoupled during the transient conditions. As a
result, the system performance and stability are degraded. Furthermore, even when the grid voltage is perfectly balanced, the control
system still has to perform the decomposition process and to implement the regulation of the positive and negative sequence currents,
respectively, which unnecessarily affects the transient performance
of the whole control system.
This paper rstly presents a DFIG mathematical model, in the
positive and negative synchronous reference frames, which is based
on stator voltage orientation (SVO). To provide enhanced control
and operation of DFIG-based wind turbine systems during network
unbalance, four alternative control targets are introduced to verify
the DFIG model. A new rotor current controller, which consists of
a proportional integral (PI) regulator plus a harmonic resonant (R)
compensator tuned at twice the grid frequency is proposed. The
controller is implemented in the positive synchronously rotating
reference frame without involving the decomposition of positive
and negative sequence rotor currents. Finally, simulation studies
on a 1.5-MW DFIG system during small steady-state and relatively
larger transient network unbalance are provided to demonstrate
the feasibility and performance of the proposed control scheme.
2. Dynamic DFIG model based on SVO
An investigation on DFIG model and system behavior based on
SFO under unbalanced grid voltage conditions has been provided
in [11]. As indicated in [12], in contrast to SFO, SVO results in the
system stability and damping being independent of the rotor current. Thus in this section a modied DFIG model based on SVO is
presented.
2.1. DFIG model
Fig. 1 shows the spatial relationships between the stationary
()s reference frame, the rotor ()r reference frame rotating at
the speed of r , and the dq+ and dq reference frames rotating at the
angular speed of s and s , respectively. As shown, the d+ -axis of
the dq+ reference frame is xed to the positive sequence stator volt+
age Vsd+
. According to Fig. 1, the transformations between ()s ,
()r and dq+ and dq reference frames are given by
F+
dq

= F ()s e

js t

= F
e2js t
F+
dq
dq
F+
dq

= F ()r e

F
dq

= F ()s e

js t

(1a)

F
= F+
e2js t ,
dq
dq

j2slip+ t

F
dq

(1b)
j2slip t

= F ()r e

(1c)

Fig. 1. Relationships between ()s , ()r and dq+ and dq reference frames.

where F represents the voltage, current and ux and superscripts

+, represent the positive and negative synchronously rotating reference frames, respectively, slip+ = s r and slip = s r .
The equivalent circuit of a DFIG in the dq+ reference frame is
shown in Fig. 2.
According to Fig. 2, the stator and rotor voltages and uxes are
given, respectively, by
V+
= Rs I +
+
sdq
sdq
V+
= Rr I +
+
rdq
rdq
+
sdq

+
sdq

dt
d

+
rdq

dt

+ js

+
sdq ,

+ jslip+

= Ls I +
+ Lm I +
sdq
rdq

+
rdq

+
rdq ,

= Lm I +
+ Lr I +
,
sdq
rdq

(2)

(3)
(4)

where, Ls = Ls + Lin and Lr = Lr + Lm are the total stator and rotor

self-inductances, respectively.
According to (1) and Fig. 1, the stator and rotor current, voltage
and ux vectors can be expressed in terms of their respective positive and negative sequence components in the positive and negative
synchronous reference frames as
F+
= F+
+ F+
= F+
+ F
ej2s t ,
sdq
sdq+
sdq
sdq+
sdq

(5)

where subscripts +, represent positive and negative sequence

components.
According to (4), the rotor ux and stator current can be calculated as
+
rdq

+
sdq

Lm
Ls

+ Lr I +
,
rdq

Fig. 2. DFIG equivalent circuit in the positive synchronous reference frame rotating at s .

(6)

J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

I+
=
sdq

+
sdq

Lm I +
)
rdq
Ls

(7)

2 /(L L ) is the leakage factor.

where  = 1 Lm
s r
Substituting (6) into (3) yields the rotor voltage in the dq+ reference frame as

Vr+ = Rr I +
r +

d
dt

L 

+
s

L 

+ Lr I +
r ) + jslip+

( s + Lr I +
r )
Ls
Ls


+
+
d
Lm
dIr
Lm +
s
+ Lr I +
.
+
+ jslip+
= Rr I +
r + Lr
r
Ls dt
Ls s
dt
(8)
m

The equivalent DFIG model in the dq reference frame is similar

to that in the dq+ reference frame, except for replacing the superscript + in (2)(4) and (6)(8) with , and slip+ in (3) and (8) with
slip .
2.2. Instantaneous active and reactive power ow
By neglecting the stator resistance voltage drop and considering
(2) and (5), the stator voltage can be represented in the positive dq+
reference frame as

V+
sdq

+
sdq

dt

+
sdq

+ js

+
sdq+

= js (

sdq

ej2s t ).

(9)

According to (9), the stator ux in the positive dq+ reference

frame can be expressed clearly as
+
sdq

= j

1
(V + V
ej2s t ).
sdq
s sdq+

(10)

Under unbalanced grid voltage conditions, the instantaneous

active and reactive power outputs from DFIG stator can be
expressed as
+
3
Ps + jQs = V +
Isdq .
2 sdq

(11)

Substituting (7), (9) and (10) into (11) and separating the
instantaneous active and reactive powers into different pulsating
components yield
Ps = Ps0 + Ps sin 2 sin (2s t) + Ps cos 2 (cos 2s t)
Qs = Qs0 + Qs sin 2 sin (2s t) + Qs cos 2 (cos 2s t),

(12)

Ps0

Qs0

Ps sin 2 3s

Ps cos 2 2Ls

Qs sin 2
Qs cos 2

sd+
sq+
sd
sq

+
sd+

sd

sq

+
sq+

sq

sd

0
0
+
+

+
Vsd+
+
Vsq+

V
sq

Vsd
V
sd

Vsq

0
0

0
sd
sd+
sq+

0
0

+
+

+
sd+

sq
sq+

0
0

3 Lm
+ 2 L

Vsd

Vsq
+
Vsq+
+
Vsd+
+
Vsd+
+
Vsq+

Vsq
+

Vsd
Ird+
+
+
Vsd+ Irq+
I .
+
Vsq+
rd
+
I
Vsq+
rq
+
Vsd+

+
+
3
+
+
Re [js sdq Isdq + j(s r ) rdq Irdq ]
2
= Pe0 + Pe sin 2 sin (2s t) + Pe cos 2 cos(2s t),

Pe =

where

Pe0
Pe sin 2
Pe cos 2

+
Vsd+
3 Lm r

Vsq
=
2 Ls s

Vsd

+
Vsq+

Vsd

Vsq

Vsd
+
Vsq+
+
Vsd+

(14)

I+

rd+
Vsq
+
+ Irq+
Vsd+
I .
+
rd
Vsq+

Irq
(15)

It is worth noting from (13) and (15) that the term Pe sin 2 has
the same magnitude as that of Qs cos 2 , and so as Pe cos 2 and Qs sin 2 .
Therefore, eliminating the pulsations in the instantaneous reactive
power also removes the pulsations of DFIG electromagnetic power
and torque.
Since the d+ -axis is aligned with the positive sequence stator
+
= 0,
voltage vector in the SVO, as shown in Fig. 1, which means Vsq+
(13) and (15) can then be simplied by using SVO model.
3. Control strategy under unbalanced grid voltage
conditions
In this section, rstly, with four selectable control targets
introduced, the associated rotor current references are obtained
accordingly based on the obtained SVO model. Then, a novel
rotor current controller implemented in the dq+ reference frame
is proposed and designed without involving the decomposition of
positive and negative sequence components. Finally, an enhanced
unbalanced control scheme for a DFIG-based wind power generation system is to be constructed.
3.1. Rotor current references calculation
Under unbalanced grid voltage conditions, both the positive and
negative rotor currents need to be controlled. Apart from controlling the average stator output active and reactive powers, i.e., Ps0
and Qs0 , two more parameters can be controlled. For this purpose,
four selectable control targets have been identied in [11], i.e.,

+
Using SVO approach, i.e., Vq+
= 0, the associated rotor current
references can then be calculated with different control targets.
For Target I, there are Ps sin 2 = 0 and Ps cos 2 = 0. According to (13),
the references of the positive and negative sequence rotor currents
are calculated as

+
Vsq+
+
Vsd+

Vsd

Vsq

Vsq

Vsd

According to Fig. 2, the electromagnetic power is expressed by

the sum of the power outputs generated by the equivalent voltages
+
+
js sdq and j(s r ) rdq as [11]

Target I. Eliminating the double-frequency pulsations of stator

output active power to make constant the instantaneous stator
output active power.
Target II. No rotor current pulsation, i.e., no negative rotor current
existing.
Target III. Balanced stator current to ensure balanced heating in
the three-phase stator windings.
Target IV. Constant electromagnetic torque to reduce the mechanical stress on the turbine system.

where

275

+
Ird+
=

(13)

+
Ls Vsd+

Lm D3

Ps0

Vsd
Vsq
4Vsd+

D3 Lm

+
Ls Vsd+
(Qs0 + (D3 /Ls ))

Lm D2

+
Irq+

+
2Vsd+

D2 Lm

2
2
(Vsd
Vsq
),

(16a)

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J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

Ird
=

2Vsq
+
Lm kdd Ird+

+
kqd Irq+
,

Irq
=

2Vsd

+
Lm kqd Ird+

+
+ kdd Irq+
.

(16b)

where,
+2
2
2
D2 = Vsd+
+ Vsd
+ Vsq
,

kdd =

Vsd

kqd =

+ ,
Vsd+

Vsq
+
Vsd+

+2
2
2
D3 = Vsd+
(Vsd
+ Vsq
),

While for Target II, there are Ird

= 0 and Irq
= 0. According
to (13), the references of the positive and negative sequence rotor
currents are determined by
+
Ird+

Ls Ps0
=
+ ,
Lm Vsd+

+
Irq+

Ls (Qs0 + (D3 /Ls ))

=
.
+
Lm Vsd+

As to Target III, the balanced stator current means

= 0 and

Isq
= 0. According to (7), the references of the negative sequence
rotor currents can be expressed as

sd

Lm

Irq
=

sq

Lm

(18)

Hence, the references of the positive sequence rotor currents,

according to (13), can be calculated by
+
Ird+
=

Ls Ps0
+ ,
Lm Vsd+

+
Irq+
=

Ls (Qs0 + D3 /Ls )
+
Lm Vsd+

(19)

As for Target IV, the pulsating terms of the electromagnetic

power shown in (15) have to be zero, i.e., Pe sin 2 = 0 and Pe cos 2 = 0. As
a result, the references of the positive and negative sequence rotor
currents can be deduced as
+
=
Ird+

+
Ls Vsd+

Lm D2

Ps0 ,

+
Irq+
=

+
+
Ird
= kdd Ird+
+ kqd Irq+
,

+
Ls Vsd+
(Qs0 + (D3 /Ls ))

Lm D3

+
+
Irq
= kqd Ird+
kdd Irq+

1 +
1
1
d +
+
V
Rr Ird

I =
Lr rd Lr
Lr
dt rd

L

Ls

+
+
(Vsd
Rs Isd
+ s

+
sq ) slip+

+
rq

+
) + slip+
sd

+
rd


,

(21a)

(21b)

(17)

Isd

=
Ird

frame. Similar to the dc components being regulated well by PI controller without steady-state errors, the ac signal at the frequency of
2s can be sufciently regulated using a resonant regulator tuned
at 2s . Therefore, a PI plus R (PI + R) rotor current controller in the
dq+ reference frame can be developed for directly regulating both
positive and negative sequence components, as shown in Fig. 3.
Based on (2) and (8), a DFIG system during network voltage
unbalance can be represented in the dq+ reference frame, respectively, as

(20a)
(20b)

3.2. Proposed control design

+
+

Once the rotor current references are obtained, Ird+

, Irq+
, Ird
and

Irq are required to be regulated to follow their varying references,

respectively. Good performance of the control strategy depends on
the accurate decoupling of the dq components and the removal
of the network voltage impact. A typical control design employs
dual-PI rotor current controllers implemented in the positive and
negative synchronous reference frames, respectively [10,11]. Thus,
both the positive and negative sequence components of rotor currents have to be decomposed from the measured values, which
involves considerable time delay and leads to errors in amplitude
and phase with respect to the original signals, the systems cannot be fully decoupled during transient conditions. As a result, the
system performance and the system stability are all degraded naturally. Furthermore, signicant modications have to be made to the
conventional vector control scheme [1,13] widely used in practical
systems, which makes it less likely to be adopted in real systems.
In order to overcome the problems highlighted, a new control
design is proposed in this section. The control scheme consists of a
PI controller and a R compensator tuned at twice the grid frequency,
which is implemented in the dq+ reference frame without the need
for sequential-component decomposition.
According to (5), it can be seen that under unbalanced grid voltage conditions the voltage, current and ux all contain both dc
values of the positive sequence components and double-frequency
ac values of the negative sequence components in the dq+ reference

d +
1 +
1
1
+
V
Rr Irq

I =
Lr rq Lr
Lr
dt rq

L

Ls

+
+
(Vsq
Rs Isq
s

+
+
where Vrd
and Vrq
refer to the rotor control voltages produced by
the PI + R controller.
+
The operation of the DFIG system requires the state variables Ird
+
+
+
and Irq
to follow their varying reference points Ird
and Irq
. Similar
+
to conventional decoupling control [13], two auxiliary inputs Urd
+
and Urq can be dened as

d +
+
+
Ird
)
I = CPI+R (s)(Ird
dt rd

+
Urd
=

sKiR
K
KiP + iI +
2
s
s + (2s )2

+
+
(Ird
Ird
),

(22a)

+
+
(Irq
Irq
).

(22b)

d +
+
+
I = CPI+R (s)(Irq
Irq
)
dt rq

+
Urq
=

K
sKiR
KiP + iI +
2
s
s + (2s )2

where KiP , KiI and KiR are the proportional, integral and resonant
parameters of the PI + R current controller, respectively, given in
Appendix C.
Substituting (22a) and (22b) into (21a) and (21b), respectively,
yields
+
+
+
= Lr Urd
+ Erd
,
Vrd

(23a)

+
+
+
= Lr Urq
+ Erq
,
Vrq

(23b)

where
+
=
Erd

+
+
Lm (Vsd
Rs Isd
+ s

+
sq )

Ls
+
+
Lm (Vsq
Rs Isq
s

+
)
sd

Ls

slip+

+
rq

+
+
+ Rr Ird
, Erq

+ slip+

+
rd

+
+ Rr Irq

are dened as the equivalent rotor back electromagnetic forces

(EMF) acting as disturbances to the dq rotor current PI + R controllers, respectively.
According to Fig. 3, the closed-loop transfer function of the rotor
current controller can be expressed as
Gci (s) =
=

+
Irdq
+
Irdq

CPI+R (s)F(s)
1 + CPI+R (s)F(s)
Nc (s)

s(s2 + (2s )2 )(sLr + Rr ) + Nc (s)

(24)

J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

277

Fig. 3. Current control diagram based on proportional integral plus resonant (PI + R) controller.

where F(s) = 1/(sLr + Rr ), Nc (s) = KiP (s3 + s(2s )2 ) + KiI (s2 +

(2s )2 ) + sKiR .
Substituting s = j2s into (24) yields
Gci (j2s ) =

I+
rdq
I +
rdq

Nc (j2s )
= 1.
j2s 0 (j2s Lr + Rr ) + Nc (j2s )

I+
rdq

F(s)
s(s2 +(2s )2 )
=
+ =1 C
2
E rdq
PI+R (s)F(s) s(s2 +(2s ) )(sLr +Rr )Nc (s)

Gei (j2s ) =

I+
rdq
E+
rdq

j2s 0
= 0.
j2s 0 (j2s Lr + Rr ) Nc (j2s )
(27)

(25)

This implies that the proposed PI + R controller can provide zero

steady-state error for the ac signal at 2s regardless of the system
parameters Lr and Rr .
+
The transfer function of the Erdq
to the rotor current can be
derived as
Gei (s)=

Substituting s = j2s into (26) yields

.
(26)

This indicates that the introduction of the resonant compensator has little impact on the positive sequence current control and
+
the proposed PI + R controller gets rid of the effect of Erdq
upon the
current control loop and the characteristic has little to do with the
system parameters Lr and Rr .
From the results represented in (25) and (27), the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control method have been
conrmed theoretically.

Fig. 4. Diagram of the proposed unbalanced control design under unbalanced grid voltage conditions.

278

J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

Fig. 5. Scheme of the tested system.

3.3. System implementation

Based on the proposed control rotor current design, an unbalanced control scheme for a DFIG system under unbalanced grid
voltage conditions is shown in Fig. 4. As can be seen, a phase-locked
loop (PLL) is used to detect the phase and frequency of positive
sequence stator voltage.
The measured three-phase ac rotor currents are directly transformed into the dq+ reference frame, which results in an ac

component of the negative sequence at 2s sup-imposed on a dc

component of the positive sequence. The four current references
+
+

Ird+
, Irq+
, Ird
, and Irq
, are all dc signals separated in the respective
positive and negative synchronous reference frames. Thus, the negative sequence current references have to be transformed into the
dq+ reference frame and this process is marked as Reference Frame
Transformation block in Fig. 4.
The main objective of the grid-side converter is to maintain
a constant dc-link voltage and the converter is controlled by the

Fig. 6. Simulated results under transient stator voltage unbalance of 10% during 0.40.8 s, (a) three-phase stator current (pu), (b) three-phase rotor current (pu), (c) converter
dc-link voltage (V), (d) stator output active power (pu), (e) stator output reactive power (pu), (f) DFIG electromagnetic torque (pu), (g) rotor positive sequence d, q-axis
currents (pu), (h) rotor negative sequence d-axis current (pu) and (i) rotor negative sequence q-axis current (pu).

J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

method presented in [14], which focuses on the modeling and

control of grid-connected voltage source converters (VSC) during voltage unbalance. In [14], a unied mathematical model
of a VSC based on positive and negative synchronously rotating frames under both unbalanced grid supply and imbalanced
input impedances was deduced, and a control scheme based on
multi-frequency proportional-resonant (MFPR) controller in the
stationary frame was proposed to avoid the use of band-trap
lter for decomposing the positive and negative sequence components of current. As a result, the grid-side converter is capable
of atting dc-link voltage to provide dependency for rotor current
regulation in the rotor-side converter.
4. Simulation results
Simulation studies with the proposed control design and different control targets for a DFIG system are carried out by using
Matlab/Simulink. The DFIG is rated at 1.5 MW and its parameters are
listed in Appendix B. Fig. 5 shows the scheme of the tested system.
A single-phase load at the primary side of the coupling transformer
is used to generate the voltage unbalance. The nominal dc-link voltage is set at 1200 V and the switching frequencies for both grid-side
and rotor-side converters are 3 kHz.

279

Table 1
Comparisons of different control targets with conventional control design

Is unbalance (%)
Ir unbalance (%)
Vdc pulsation (%)
Te pulsation (%)
Ps pulsation
Qs pulsation

II

III

IV

Conventional

3.82
3.95
1.98
6.6
1.1
10.7

2.55
0.33
1.78
4.4
4.9
5.8

1.12
2.26
1.92
4.5
4.8
5.9

4.06
3.67
1.86
1.2
9.2
2.1

11.14
8.61
1.63
11.6
9
15

Since the large inertia of wind turbines results in a slow change

in rotor speed, the DFIG speed is assumed to be xed at 1.2 pu for
the initial tests. Tests on the conventional control design [13] and
the proposed control design for different control targets are carried
out, respectively, under a steady-state stator voltage unbalance of
around 4%. In the conventional control design, a single PI rotor current controller in the synchronous reference frame was used and
stator voltage unbalance was not taken into account by the control system. The measured stator current unbalance, rotor current
ratio of 110 Hz harmonic with respect to the 10-Hz fundamental
component, 100 Hz peak-to-peak pulsations of the stator output
active and reactive powers, DFIG electromagnetic torque and converter dc-link voltage are summarized and compared in Table 1.

Fig. 7. Simulated results with rotor speed and torque variations during stator voltage unbalance of 5%.

280

J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

As shown in Table 1, with the conventional single PI rotor current controller, the stator current becomes highly unbalanced in
the presence of stator voltage unbalance. The three-phase rotor
currents, whose frequency equals to rotor mechanical frequency
minus stator frequency, are made up of both the fundamental component of 10 Hz (60 50 Hz) and the harmonic component of 110 Hz
(60 + 50 Hz). The measured stator current unbalance is about 11.14%
and the amplitude of the 110-Hz harmonic in the rotor current is
about 8.61% of that of the 10-Hz fundamental component. Since the
exchange of active power between the DFIG rotor and the rotor-side
converter contains 100 Hz oscillation, the dc-link voltage also oscillates at 100 Hz with peak-to-peak amplitude of 19.6 V. Similarly, the
stator active and reactive powers and the electromagnetic torque
all contain signicant 100 Hz pulsations. For comparison, using the
proposed PI + R control design, various control targets have been
fully achieved, respectively, with reduced stator active power pulsation (Target I), rotor current harmonic (Target II), stator current
unbalance (Target III) and torque uctuation (Target IV), as shown
in Table 1. It is worth noting from Table 1 that the pulsation of stator
output reactive power is also diminished with Target IV.
For the practical systems, the selection of control target will
highly depend on the design of wind turbines and the operational
requirement of network. While, by adopting one of the control
targets aforementioned and the proposed current control scheme,
system operation and performance can be improved during grid
voltage unbalance. Generally, the oscillations of generator torque
might be the main concern during grid voltage unbalance. Thus,
Target IV is selected for the following tests.
Further tests on system control and operation during a relatively larger transient network unbalance of 10% are carried out
with the unbalance appearing at 0.4 s and removed at 0.8 s. The
system responses for the conventional single PI current control
design, the dual-PI current control design [11] and the proposed
PI + R control design are shown and compared in Fig. 6AC, respectively. Target IV is set for the latter two current control schemes. To
make the comparisons reasonable, the same PI control parameters
given in Appendix C are used for the three different rotor current
controllers. As shown in Fig. 6A (h) and (i), the conventional single PI control design fails to regulate the negative sequence rotor
currents during 0.40.8 s, which results in signicant pulsations
of electro-magnetic torque, stator output active and reactive powers and dc-link voltage during voltage unbalance. For comparison,
Fig. 6B shows the results with dual-PI current controllers, which are
implemented in the positive and negative synchronously rotating
reference frames, respectively. Since the pre-requisite decomposing process of the positive and negative sequence rotor currents
involves considerable time delay and leads to some errors in the
amplitude and phase with respect to the original signals, the
negative sequence currents cannot be regulated eetly during transients, as shown in Fig. 6B (h) and (i). As a result, the whole dynamic
system performance is deteriorated. In contrast, with the proposed
PI + R rotor current control design, once the voltage unbalance
occurs, the negative sequence rotor currents are immediately regulated according to the requirement of Target IV, as shown in Fig. 6C
(h) and (i). When the unbalance is cleared at 0.8, the system goes
back to the normal operation mode more smoothly. It can also be
seen from Fig. 6C that the proposed PI + R current control design
with Target IV can improve the DFIG generation system during voltage unbalance, by eliminating the double-frequency pulsations of
electro-magnetic torque, stator output reactive power and dc-link
voltage.
For a 5% voltage unbalance, the conventional single PI control design and the proposed PI + R control design are investigated
during DFIG speed and power variations. The results are shown
in Fig. 7A and B, respectively. The DFIG is operated in maximal

power tracking mode where its active power/torque is controlled

according to the optimal speedtorque curve. The reactive power
reference is stepped from 0 pu to 0.1 pu at 0.8 s and then to
0.1 pu at 1.2 s. The wind speed is step changed from 11 m/s to
8 m/s at 0.6 s. In this test the lumped inertia constant of the system is set to a relatively smaller value of 0.504 s for a better
illustration. Compared to the results with single PI current controller shown in Fig. 7A, via using the proposed PI + R control
design, the DFIG generation system operates satisfactorily during speed and power variations without any oscillations of the
electro-magnetic torque and stator output reactive power, as shown
in Fig. 7B.
5. Conclusions
This paper has presented an enhanced control and operation
of a DFIG-based wind power generation system during both small
steady-state and relatively larger transient unbalances. The following important conclusions can be drawn:
(i) The modied DFIG mathematical model based on SVO in the
positive and negative synchronous reference frames provides
a useful tool for improving the control and operation of DFIGbased wind turbine under unbalanced grid voltage conditions.
(ii) A new rotor current control design consisting of a PI controller and a resonant compensator tuned at twice the grid
frequency has been proposed in the positive synchronous reference frame. Similar to the dc components being regulated
well by PI controller without any steady-state errors, the AC
signal at double grid frequency can be sufciently regulated
using a resonant compensator tuned at 2s in the current controller. The proposed PI + R rotor current controller is capable
of directly regulating the negative sequence components as
well as the positive sequence without the need for sequentialcomponent decomposition.
(iii) The four control targets introduced are fully achieved based on
the SVO model. System control and operation of DFIG-based
wind farm can be signicantly enhanced during both small
steady-state and relatively larger transient grid voltage unbalance.
Acknowledgement
The authors want to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China for the nancial support (Project No. 50577056).
Appendix A. List of symbols

Vs , Vr
Is , Ir
s,
r
s , r
Ps , Qs
Lm
Ls , Lr
Ls , Lr
Rs , Rs
s , r

stator, rotor voltage vector

stator, rotor current vector
stator, rotor ux linkage vector
stator, rotor angular frequency
stator output active and reactive power
mutual inductance
stator, rotor self-inductance
stator, rotor leakage inductance
stator, rotor resistance
stator ux, rotor angle

Subscripts
s , s
stationary s , s axis
rotor r , r axis
r , r
d, q
synchronous dq axis

J. Hu, Y. He / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 273281

s, r
+,

stator, rotor
positive, negative components

Superscripts
+,
positive, negative (dq) reference frame
*
reference value for controller

conjugate complex
Appendix B. Parameters of the simulated DFIG
Rated power

1.5 MW

Stator/rotor turns ratio

Rr
Lr
Lumped inertia const

0.38
0.005 pu
0.156 pu
5.04 s

Stator voltage/
frequency
Rs
Ls
Lm

575 V/50 Hz
0.00706 pu
0.171 pu
2.9 pu

Appendix C. Control parameters of PI + R controller

Kip = 0.3, KiI = 8, KiR = 500 and, PI + R controller
CPI+R (s) = KiP +

KiI
sKiR
+
2
s
s + (2s )2

0.3s(s2 + 394784.176) + 8(s2 + 394784.176) + 500s2

s(s2 + 394784.176)

0.300s3 + 508.000s2 + 118435.253s + 2918273.408

s(s2 + 394784.176)

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