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Pitch angle control in wind turbines above the rated wind speed by multi-
layer perceptron and radial basis function neural networks

Article  in  Expert Systems with Applications · August 2009

DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2009.02.014 · Source: DBLP

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 Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Expert Systems with Applications

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

Pitch angle control in wind turbines above the rated wind speed by multi-layer
perceptron and radial basis function neural networks
Ahmet Serdar Yilmaz a,*, Zafer Özer b
a _
Kahramanmarasß Sütçü Imam University, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Avsar Campus, 46050-9 Kahramanmarasß, Turkey
b
Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: In wind energy conversion systems, one of the operational problems is the changeability and discontinu-
Variable-speed wind turbine ity of wind. In most cases, wind speed can fluctuate rapidly. Hence, quality of produced energy becomes
Pitch control an important problem in wind energy conversion plants. Several control techniques have been applied to
Neural network-based controller improve the quality of power generated from wind turbines. Pitch control is the most efficient and pop-
Wind energy conversion systems
ular power control method, especially for variable-speed wind turbines. It is a useful method for power
regulation above the rated wind speed. This paper proposes an artificial neural network-based pitch angle
controller for wind turbines. In the simulations, a variable-speed wind turbine is modeled, and its oper-
ation is observed by using two types of artificial neural network controllers. These are multi-layer per-
ceptrons with back propagation learning algorithm and radial basis function network. It is shown that
the power output was successfully regulated during high wind speed, and as a result overloading or out-
age of the wind turbine was prevented.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction greenhouse effect), interest in renewable energy sources has been

Wind turbine is one of the oldest energy conversion devices.
Especially humankind had been benefited from wind energy to
provide required forces. For example, windmills were the typical
and basic energy conversion plants. They had been used by
humankind in order to obtain mechanical energy required to mill
the corns for a long time. Nowadays, wind turbines are being in-
stalled in many countries to produce electrical energy. In those
applications, wind power plants have been installed as distributed
power plants.
Today, distributed power plants are the alternative to conven-
tional power generation techniques. Some disadvantages of con-
ventional generation schemes such as cost, pollution and control
problems can be reduced through distributed power plants. Many
countries wish to produce electric energy by using natural and
renewable sources such as wind, sun, geothermal and biomass
due to economical and ecological limitations. For instance, installa-
tion of large central power plants is so expensive and difficult. Also,
produced energy has to be transmitted long distance by overhead
lines in conventional power generation. Furthermore, many coun-
tries do not have enough natural sources like fossil fuels and rivers.
Due to the limited supply of fossil fuels and their harmful im-
pact on the environment (such as air pollution, acid rain and the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 344 2191254.
E-mail address: asyilmaz@ksu.edu.tr (A.S. Yilmaz).
increasing all over the world. In this context, many countries have
been planning to meet 10% of their electricity demand from wind
energy until 2020. In terms of electricity production, wind energy
is the most promising renewable energy source among others such
as solar, geothermal, and biogas (Ozer, 2004). It is anticipated that
in the near future, the power rating of wind turbines will increase
further, especially in offshore and communal applications (Heier,
1998; Muller, Deicke, & De Doncker, 2002). As a result of wind en-
ergy conversion systems (WECSs) being considered as an alterna-
tive energy source to conventional power plants by many
countries, wind turbine technology has been developed increas-
ingly. New control methods have been proposed to reduce the
problems caused by the wind.
In WECSs, output power and torque regulation depend on the
changes in wind speed. When the wind speed reaches and passes
the rated value, output power must be limited by reducing the
aerodynamic efficiency of the wind turbine to avoid the turbine
overloading. Hence, pitch angle and blade position are controlled
in variable wind conditions. Nowadays, pitch-controlled WECSs
are increasingly used for the above rated wind speed (Bianchi,
Mantz, & Christiansen, 2004). The control of blade pitch is a prac-
tical and useful method to reduce the overloading of WECSs when
higher wind speeds occur. A suitable pitch angle for stable oper-
ation can be generated by using torque or power error. This signal
can also be produced by using the error between actual shaft
speed and desired shaft speed. In this paper, the error between

0957-4174/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2009.02.014
9768 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775
the actual and desired power has been used to regulate the pitch
angle to produce a constant power output (Sharma, Pryor, & Is-
lam, 2001). In the literature, several methods have been proposed
to control wind turbines in variable wind speeds. Generalized
predictive control (Sakamoto et al., 2005) and PID control (Horiu-
chi & Kawahito, 2001) were applied to pitch angle control. Power
limitation without pitch angle control, but depending upon the
changes in the speed of the machine in order to change the cap-
tured power, has also been proposed (Cardenas, Asher, Ray, &
Pena, 1996).
In this paper, a satisfactory controller, incorporated in the sys-
tem, is developed by using an artificial neural network. Multi-layer
perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) are used and
compared as pitch angle controllers. The output power and rota-
tional speed are successfully limited at the rated values during
the over-speed wind conditions. The main advantages of the pro-
posed controllers are that it is easily adaptable for different condi-
tions and that it has fast reply capability.
2. Characteristics of wind turbines
Wind power is converted to mechanical rotational force by
blades. Rotated blades transmit the power to turbine rotor. Turbine
rotor rotates the generator rotor due to coupling between rotors.
Due to uncontrollability and discontinuity of wind, producing the
electrical energy under suitable conditions may not be possible
during the variable wind speeds. One of the problems of wind tur-
bines operation is to avoid the over generation and over speed
when wind exceeds the rated value. Generator real power output
has to be limited above the rated wind speeds. Hence, blade posi-
tion is set up by pitch angle control. In this study, proposed pitch
angle controller limits the produced output power above the rated
wind speeds. Increased pitch angle behaves as an aerodynamic
brake during the over wind speeds, and makes the turbine rotation
speed to decelerate. So, overproduction above the rated power can
be prevented.
A typical wind energy conversion system capable of changing
rotational speed and blade pitch angle is given as a block diagram
in Fig. 1 (Bialasiewicz, Muljadi, Drouilhet, & Nix, 1998; Bianchi
et al., 2004).
Output power of a wind turbine is expressed by the following
formula, which determines the power-speed characteristic of a
wind turbine
1 1994; Luo & Unbehaben, 1998; Oysal, Yilmaz, & Köklükaya, 2005;
PW ¼ C p ðk; hÞ  q  A  v 3 ;
2 Öztopal, 2006; Subasi, 2005; Subasi & Ercelebi, 2005). There are
where Cp is the performance coefficient determined by the aerody-
namic laws, q the air density, A the swept area of the turbine blades
and v the wind speed (m/s).
The performance coefficient depends on both the pitch angle (h)
and the tip speed ratio (k). The tip speed ratio is calculated by using
blade tip speed and wind speed upstream of the rotor, as in the fol-
lowing formula:
P,Q
Aerodynamic
Turbine Gear V,I
Wind Induction
Model box GRID
Generator
PW
Reference
Pitch Blade Pitch
angle Controller Wind
Fig. 1. Block diagram of a WECS configuration.
xt R
k¼ ; ð2Þ
v
where r is the blade radius, wt is the rotational speed and k is the tip
speed ratio.
The relationship between performance coefficient (Cp), pitch
angle (h) and tip speed ratio (k) is established by the Cp  k approx-
imation (3) for different blade pitch angles (Abdin & Xu, 2000; He-
ier, 1998; Ozer, 2004)
 
pðk  3Þ
C p ¼ ð0:44  0:167hÞ  sin  0:00184ðk  3Þh: ð3Þ
15  0:3k
A flux linkage model for an induction generator driven by the wind
turbine can be given as the following equations refereed to the sta-
tor side (Luo & Unbehaben, 1998):
u_ ds ¼ wb ðV ds þ Rs ids þ uqs Þ; ð4Þ
u_ qs ¼ wb ðV qs þ Rs iqs  uds Þ; ð5Þ
u_ dr ¼ wb ðV dr  Rr idr Þ þ ðwb  wm Þuqr ; ð6Þ
u_ qr ¼ wb ðV qr  Rr iqr Þ  ðwb  wm Þudr : ð7Þ
The formula for electromagnetic torque per unit can be written as
T e ¼ uds iqs  uqs ids : ð8Þ
3. MLP and RBF neural networks
Neural networks (NNs) are computing and information process-
ing systems made up of large numbers of simple, highly intercon-
nected processing elements that emulate the structure and
operation of the biological nervous system. Neural networks are
relatively crude electronic models based on the neural structure
of the brain. However, a typical artificial neuron has a simpler
architecture than biological neurons. NNs are typically organized
in layers such as input, hidden and output layers. The input layer
communicates to one or more hidden layers, where the actual pro-
cessing is done via weighted connections. Every neuron in the hid-
den layers connects to all neurons in the output layer. The results
of the processing are obtained from the output layer. Learning in
NNs is accomplished through special training algorithms that are
developed based on the learning rules, presumed to mimic the
learning mechanisms of biological systems. NNs have been applied
to many engineering problems such as classification, recognition,
estimation and control (Chaudhuri & Bhattacharya, 2000; Fausett,
ð1Þ
many different types and architectures of neural networks varying
fundamentally in the way they learn, the details of which are well
documented in the literature. In this study, the multi-layer percep-
tron and radial basis function are used as a blade pitch angle con-
troller by using Neural Network Toolbox of Matlab/Simulink
(Demuth & Beale, 2001).
3.1. Multi-layer perceptron networks
Multi-layer perceptrons cover a large group of feed-forward
neural networks with one or more layers of neuron. In most appli-
cations, MLP networks having three layers in addition to input and
output layers have been used. Neurons in input layer have a pure
linear activation function, but some nonlinear activation functions
such as logarithmic and tangent sigmoid functions are used in the
neurons in hidden and output layers. An architectural scheme for
an MLP network having only one hidden layer is illustrated in
Fig. 2.
Training process and calculations in the neurons and layers oc-
cur by using input–output equation given in (9)
 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775 9769

weights

. .
. hypothetical weighted
. .
. connections connections
. .
. . Fig. 3. Structure of a typical RBF neural network.
.

Input Hidden Output

Layer Layer Layer 3.2. Radial basis function networks

Fig. 2. Structure of an MLP neural network with one hidden layer.

RBF networks have been proposed and used as an alternative to
the MLP network for many engineering problems. Architecture of
an RBF networks is similar to MLP networks. RBF networks have
"N # three layers called input, hidden and output layers like MLP net-
X k1
ðk1Þ ðk1Þ ðkÞ
yðkÞ ðkÞ works. The neurons within each layer are fully connected to the
p ¼ sgmp W ip  yi  bi ;
i¼1 previous layer neuron. However, input variables directly transfer
ðp ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; N k ; k ¼ 1; 2; . . . MÞ; ð9Þ to the hidden layers. The connections between input and hidden
layers do not have any weight coefficient. So, neurons in the hid-
ðk1Þ
where W ip
is the connection weight between the ith neuron in den layer receive the incoming input variables unchanged (Arbib,
ðkÞ
the (k  1)th layer and pth neuron in the kth layer, yp the output 2003; Luo & Unbehaben, 1998). A typical RBF structure is illus-
ðkÞ
of the pth neuron in the kth layer, sgmp the sigmoid activation trated in Fig. 3.
function of the pth neuron in the kth layer and bðkÞ
p the threshold Several functions are used as transfer function such as Gaussian,
of the pth neuron in the kth layer. multi-quadratic, thin-plate-spline, and cubic approximation (Luo &
Sigmoid activation function is given as Unbehaben, 1998). Radial basis Gaussian function (14) is consid-
ered as transfer function in this study
1   
sgmðxÞ ¼ : ð10Þ u  c 2
1 þ expðxÞ Fðu; c; rÞ ¼ exp  ; ð14Þ
r
The MLP neural networks have been applied to solve several scien-
tific and engineering problems since learning algorithms such as er-
ror back-propagation algorithm were developed (Rumelhart, Hinton, 690 V
& Willams, 1986; Werbos, 1990). In this study, generalized delta 25/0.69 kV 2 MW
rule was used as a learning rule, and weights were updated accord- Grid
ing to the errors between network output and desired output. IG WT
Hence, this algorithm was called as a back propagation algorithm.
Training process of the back propagation algorithm runs according
to the following steps (Kasabov, 1998; Luo & Unbehaben, 1998).

Step 1: Initialize all weights at random.

Load
Step 2: Calculate the output vector. 2.5 MW
Step 3: Calculate the error propagation terms.
Step 4: Update the weights by using Eq. (11). Fig. 4. Single line diagram of test system.
Step 5: Calculate the total error ‘‘e” by using Eq. (13).
Step 5: Iterate the calculation by returning to Step 2 until the total
error is less than the desired error. Parameter update
LEARNING signal
ðk1Þ ðk1Þ
X
I
ðk1Þ ALGORITHM
W ip ðt þ 1Þ ¼ W ip ðtÞ þ a dðkÞ
np yni ; ð11Þ
n¼1
Observed
where t is the iteration number and a is the learning rate and Desired signal

"N #
Signal xn(t)
X kþ1 Σ PITCH
ðkþ1Þ ðkÞ xd(t) PLANT
dðkÞ ðkÞ
np ¼ sgmnp ðÞ  dnl W p‘ ðtÞ ; ð12Þ + e(t) CONTROLLER
u (t)
‘¼1 -
X
I X
NM
e¼ ðMÞ
^n;j Þ2 :
ðyn;j  y
ðMÞ
ð13Þ
n¼1 j¼1
Fig. 5. Proposed neural network controller.
9770 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775

Fig. 6. Block diagram of proposed MLP-NNC.

Table 1
Structure of trained neuro-controllers.

Multi-layer perceptron Radial basis function

Hidden layer 1 1
Input neurons 2 3
Hidden neurons 5 10
Output neurons 1 1
Learning rate 0.15 0.10

where c is the center, r is the variance and u is the input variable.

The output of the ith neuron in the output layer at time n is
X
H
yi ðnÞ ¼ W ij F j ðu; c; rÞ: ð15Þ
j¼1

Fig. 8. Applied wind speed change data.

Training process of the radial basis function neural network runs
according to the following steps (Luo & Unbehaben, 1998; Luo &
Unbehaben, 1998).
Step 5: Calculate the total error ‘‘eT” according to (18).
Step 1: Initialize all weights at random.
Step 6: Iterate the calculation by returning to Step 2 until the total
Step 2: Calculate each element of the output vector by Eq. (15).
error is less than the desired error.
Step 3: Calculate the error term ‘‘e” of each neuron in the output
layer according to (16) W ij ðn þ 1Þ ¼ W ij ðnÞ þ aei ðnÞF j ðc; u; rÞ; ði
ei ðnÞ ¼ yi ðnÞ  y^i ðnÞ ði ¼ 1; 2; . . . LÞ; ð16Þ ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; L; j ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; HÞ; ð17Þ

where y^i ðnÞ is the desired output vector of the ith neuron in where n is the iteration and a the learning rate
the output layer and yi(n) the calculated output vector of the I X
X NM
ith neuron in the output layer by using (15). eT ¼ ^n;j Þ2 :
ðyn;j  y ð18Þ
Step 4: Update the weights by using Eq. (17). n¼1 j¼1

Fig. 7. Block diagram for proposed RBF-NNC.

 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775 9771

Produced Real Power in MW

4
RBF

P (MW)
3
2
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)
4
MLP
P (MW)
3
2
1
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)
4
uncontrolled
3
P (MW)

2
1
0
-1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)

Fig. 9. Output power curves of generator for different situations.

Generator Speed in RPM

1530
1520
r (rpm)

1510
1500 RBF

1490
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)
1530
w (rpm)

1520
1510
1500 MLP

1490
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)
5000
4000
r (rpm)

3000
2000 uncontrolled

1000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)

Fig. 10. Output speed curves of generator for three different situations.

4. Proposed pitch angle controller
4.1. Simulated system
A single line diagram for the simulated test system is shown in
Fig. 4. A simulated wind energy conversion system (WECS) is con-
nected to a distribution system. Rated power and voltage are 2 MW
and 690 V, respectively. The generator used in the simulated sys-
tem is a squirrel cage induction generator connected directly to
the grid.
The reference model is set according to the rounded values
established for the wind turbine based on aerodynamic calcula-
tions. The main turbine controller aims at controlling the speed
using pitch control. The pitch control is not active at wind speeds
up to 14 m/s because maximum power is not reached. So, wind
speeds below 14 m/s are not considered in this paper. Above
14 m/s, the neural network controller limits the torque at 1.0 pu
according to the reference model. The actual output power deliv-
ered to the grid matches the command value satisfactory.
4.2. Proposed blade pitch angle controllers
In industrial processes, there are many systems having nonlin-
ear properties. Moreover, these properties are often unknown and
vary with time. The commonly used Proportional-Integral-Deriva-
tive (PID) controllers are simple to be realized, but suffer from poor
performance if there are uncertainties and nonlinearities. Neural
network controllers have emerged as a tool for difficult control
9772 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775

Performance Coefficient (RBF) Tip Speed Ratio (RBF)

0.4 12

0.3 11

TSR
Cp
0.2 10

0.1 9

0 8
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Performance Coefficient (MLP) Tip Speed Ratio (MLP)

0.5 12
0.4 11

TSR
0.3
Cp

10
0.2
0.1 9

0 8
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
time (s) time (s)

Fig. 11. Cp and TSR variations for both neural network types.

Pitch Angle Variations in RBFNN Controller

12

10
pitch angle (deg)

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Pitch Angle Variations in MLPNN Controller

12

10
pitch angle (deg)

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (sec)

Fig. 12. Pitch angle variations for both neural network types.

problems of unknown nonlinear systems. Neural networks (NNs)
have been used for modeling and control of complex physical sys-
tems because of their ability to handle complex input–output map-
ping without detailed analytical models of the systems. Since
multi-layer neural networks can approximate arbitrary nonlinear
mapping through a learning mechanism, they can compensate
for the nonlinearities.
The proposed training structure is shown in Fig. 5. In the pro-
posed methods, we used an adaptive controller. The controller is
referred to as ‘‘adaptive” because the learning process continues.
The objective is to train the neural network in such a way that
the controller will enable the plant to produce the desired out-
come. To achieve this, the neural network should be trained in such
a way that the input of error e(t) produces the proper control
parameter u(t) to be applied to the plant to produce y(t) (Ozer,
2004).
The MLP neural network controller (MLP-NNC) has two inputs
and one output as illustrated in Fig. 6. The MLP-NNC is trained on-
line, and produces an appropriate pitch angle in order to catch the
reference signal. There are five neurons in the hidden layer. The
hidden layer has nonlinear activation functions, and the output
layer has a linear activation function. Network architecture is given
in Table 1. For every input, the function produces an output. The
parameters of the ANN are updated by using the error between
the ANN output and the reference model.
The RBF neural network controller (RBF-NNC) is designed as a
second controller, which has three inputs and one output as illus-
trated in Fig. 7. The RBF-NNC is trained online, and produces an
appropriate pitch angle in order to catch the reference signal like
the first controller. There are 10 neurons in the hidden layer. The
hidden layer has nonlinear activation functions, and the output
layer has a linear activation function. Parameters given in Table 1
 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775 9773

Pitch Angle Variations in RBFNN Controller

12

pitch angle (deg)

11

10
9

8
7

6
16.8 17 17.2 17.4 17.6 17.8 18 18.2
time (s)
Pitch Angle Variations in MLPNN Controller
12
pitch angle (deg)

11

10
9

8
7

6
16.8 17 17.2 17.4 17.6 17.8 18 18.2
time (sec)

Fig. 13. Zooming of pitch angle variations between t = 16.8 and 18.2 s.

RBF Network Output

1.5

1
Pu

0.5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

MLP Network Output

1.5

1
Pu

0.5

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)

Fig. 14. Trained neural network outputs.

are used in the training processes. The parameters of the ANN are
updated by using the error between the ANN output and the refer-
ence model like the first one.
5. Simulation results
In both neural network controllers, variable wind speed data gi-
ven in Fig. 8 are applied to test the system. Wind speeds varied
considerably in short periods of time. Power generation is below
the rated power due to the wind speed being low. Applied wind
speed set starts at 14 m/s, and reaches 19 m/s. So, operating condi-
tions below the rated wind speed were not considered in the sim-
ulations because providing the fixed output power at 2 MW above
the 14 m/s is aimed in the simulations.
Wind turbine outputs such as active power and generator
speed are limited when the rated speed is exceeded. The pitch
controller prevented the turbine from overloading, and did not
allow power generation above the system’s rated power.
Output power and speed curves of generator are illustrated in
Figs. 9 and 10 for three different situations: uncontrolled,
MLP and RBF network controlled conditions. It can be seen
clearly from Figs. 9 and 10 that generator cannot produce
power in an uncontrolled case. Since there is no control mecha-
nism to prevent the over speed, the generator will switch off
fatally. Hence, it is necessary to control the blade pitch angle.
In this study, intelligent pitch angle controllers are used to
realize the braking of turbine blades during the over wind
speeds.
9774 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775

RBF Network Error

0.5

-0.5

-1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

MLP Network Error

0.5

-0.5

-1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time (s)

Fig. 15. Trained neural network error variations.

RBF Network Error

0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
16.8 17 17.2 17.4 17.6 17.8 18 18.2
time (s)

MLP Network Error

0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1
16.8 17 17.2 17.4 17.6 17.8 18 18.2
time (s)

Fig. 16. Zooming of network errors between t = 16.8 and 18.2 s.

In RBF-based control, output power and rotor speed reach the
rated value quickly as compared to MLP-based control. After the
first peak, RBF neural network controller returns to the previous
value smoothly.
When wind speeds are increased above the rated speed, the
pitch controller prevents the turbine from overloading, and does
not allow power generation above the system’s rated power. This
situation continues when the wind speed is increased again at
14th second. Performance coefficient (Cp) and tip speed ratio
(TSR) also change as shown in Fig. 11.
The blade pitch angle is increased so that turbine blades are
braked and slowed down as seen in Figs. 11 and 12. The perfor-
mance coefficient, tip speed ratio and pitch angle were changed
according to the trained neural network controller outputs. Train-
ing level was realized online, and responses of both neuro-control-
lers to wind speed changes were observed. Even if temporary
errors would not make to be zero, the proposed controllers tried
to adapt the wind speed changes continuously. Also, pitch angle
variation between t = 16.8 s and t = 18.2 s is zoomed in to see the
differences between RBF and MLP networks as shown in Fig. 13.
It can be seen from Fig. 13 that smoothness is more in RBF-based
controller than in MLP-based controller.
In order to make comparison, output and error variations re-
lated to the proposed controllers were also investigated. These
variations are illustrated in Figs. 14 and 15. Error curves are ob-
tained according to the reference signal which is 1 per unit.
It is seen from Figs. 14 and 15 that for MLP network controller,
small oscillations occurred in 8th and 17th seconds. This controller
 A.S. Yilmaz, Z. Özer / Expert Systems with Applications 36 (2009) 9767–9775
caught the reference signal with a small delay. But both the con-
trollers managed to catch the reference signal successfully. This sit-
uation can be seen in Fig. 16 obviously.
6. Conclusion
Speed (frequency) and power control in large wind power
plants have a great importance due to variable and uncontrollable
wind speeds. In this study, adaptation of pitch controllers to vari-
able conditions and their suitability for controlling the over wind
speeds are investigated. Proposed controllers are trained using
multi-layer perceptron and radial basis function neural networks.
As seen from the results of computer simulations, pitch angle of
turbine blades can be changed to obtain most suitable performance
coefficient (Cp) and tip speed ratio (TSR). Hence, the required lim-
itation during the above rated wind speeds was provided by the
proposed neural network controllers. Proposed controllers tracked
the reference signal successfully even though the applied wind
speeds were so changeable.
As two neuro-controllers are compared to each other, although
there is no considerable difference between the number of errors,
RBF NN Controller has a smaller settling time than MLP-NNC. Also
for MLP-NNC, small magnitude oscillations are noticed in the low
frequencies after wind speed has changed (can be clearly seen in
Figs. 13 and 16.). These oscillations caused the controller to delay
in catching the reference signal (1.0 pu).
Two intelligent controllers are proposed to blade pitch position
control above the rated wind speed in this paper. Actually, both the
controllers gave sufficient results. But RBF-based controller gave
better results than the other type. Simulated wind turbine param-
eters are obtained from a real turbine and generating system.
Hence, proposed controllers can be easily adapted to real time
applications and operated with real wind turbines.
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