Coordinated Control for Active and Reactive
Power of PMSG-based Wind Turbine to
Enhance the LVRT Capability
Shuhui Dong, Yi Wang, Heming Li
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University, China
Abstract--In order to enhance the low voltage ride-
through (LVRT) and grid support capabilities of a multi-
pole permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)
using full-scale frequency converter, this paper presents a
coordinated control strategy for the active and reactive
power output of the grid-side converter. When a voltage dip
occurs in the grid, the generator-side converter of PMSG is
used to rapidly regulate the active power output of the
generator to eliminate the unbalanced power in the DC-link
side and maintain a stable DC-link voltage, while the grid-
side converter of PMSG is employed to realize a coordinated
control for active and reactive power output according to
the grid voltage change range. The simulation results
implemented in Matlab/Simulink show that the proposed
control strategy not only realizes the LVRT of PMSG but
also provides a dynamic reactive power support to recover
the grid voltage.
Index Terms--Control design, converter, permanent
magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), voltage dip, low
voltage ride-through (LVRT), wind turbine.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the multi-pole PMSG with a full-scale
frequency converter have become an attractive concept
for wind generators, and also have been commonly used
for large wind turbines operating at variable speed [1].
For maintaining continuous operation of such wind
turbines during power system disturbances, i.e., low
voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability, extensive studies
have been carried out in the last few years. However, in
those cases [2-8], the applications of the solutions
generally require to install addition devices as the energy
capacities of the ride-through system, such as a chopper,
a super capacitor, an auxiliary converter. Although the
application of addition device can facilitate and enhance
the fault ride-through capability of the multi-pole PMSG,
it translates to an increase in cost of the system and also
complicates the controller. Meanwhile, the grid-side
converter is under the limited current conditions during
grid faults in those above solutions, and it cannot provide
large amounts of reactive power to contribute to the grid
voltage recovery.
To solve those above problems, in this paper a novel
control strategy is suggested without installing any
addition devices, which will not only realize the LVRT of
PMSG-based wind generation system by using the
inertial energy storage of the generator rotor, but also
provide reactive power support to some extent for power
systems during grid voltage sags. The paper firstly
develops the model of PMSG-based wind power system.
Then a novel control strategy is proposed without
installing any addition devices. Finally, simulations
results on a 2MW PMSG-based wind generation system
are implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of the
proposed control strategy.
II. MODEL AND CONTROL OF PMSG SYSTEMS
A typical configuration of a variable speed wind
turbine based on a multi-pole PMSG and full-scale
converter is illustrated in Figure 1.
Pm Ps Pg
Vs Vc Vg
Is I g Lc C
Fig.1. Schematic diagram of a PMSG-based wind generation
system
As illustrated in Figure 1, the full-scale converter
system，which consists of a back-to-back voltage source
converter (generator-side converter and the grid-side
converter connected through a DC link), decouples the
generator from the grid, and the generator and the turbine
system are not directly subjected to grid faults. When a
grid fault occurs and the grid voltage dips, the power
balance between the generator-side and the grid-side is
disturbed, and the surplus power is induced in the DC-
link. As a result, the DC-link capacitor is charged, which
causes the overvoltage and oscillation in the DC-link.
Under this condition, the steady operation of PMSG-
based wind turbine is seriously influenced. In order to
maintain a constant DC-link voltage and realize the
LVRT of PMSG-based wind turbine, the traditional
control scheme usually installs additional device to
consume the surplus power. While, taking into account
the fact that the energy storage capacity of the generator
rotational rotor usually outclasses that of the DC-link
capacitor. Therefore, in this paper a novel coordinated
control strategy is proposed by using the inertial energy
storage of the generator rotor.
A. Generator-Side Converter Operation Fig.2 Control diagram of the generator-side converter
In the synchronous dq reference frame, the flux vector, This generator-side control scheme can efficiently
voltage vector, power and electrical torque of PMSG can suppress the oscillations of the DC-link voltage without
be expressed as installing any addition devices and controlling units.
⎧ψs = ( Ls_d I s_d + jLs_q I s_q ) + ψf B. Grid-Side Converter Operation
⎪ In the synchronous dq reference frame, voltage vector,
⎪V = R I + dψs + jω ψ
⎪ s s s e s dc side voltage and power of the grid-side converter can
⎪ dt
(1) be expressed as
⎨ 3
⎪ Ps + jQs = Vs Iˆs
⎪ 2 ⎧ dI g
⎪ 3 ˆ ⎪Vc = Rc I g + jωe Lc I g + Lc + Vg
⎪⎩Te = − 2 p Im ⎡⎣ψs I s ⎤⎦ ⎪ d t
⎪ dVdc Ps Pg
where ωe is the electrical speed. Vs and Is are the stator ⎨C = − (3)
voltage and stator current vectors respectively. ψs and ψf ⎪ dt Vdc Vdc
are the stator and rotor flux respectively. Rs is the stator ⎪ 3
resistance, and Ls_d and L s_q are the d-axis and q-axis ⎪ Pg + jQg = Vg Iˆg
stator inductances respectively. Ps and Qs are the stator ⎩ 2
output active and reactive power respectively. Te is the where Vg and Ig are the grid voltage and grid current
electrical torque, and p is the number of PMSG’s pole vectors respectively. Vc is the output voltage of the grid-
pairs. side converter. Rc and Lc are the equivalent resistance and
Using stator-flux-oriented control, ignoring stator equivalent inductance of the grid-side filter reactor
resistance and assuming constant stator flux, the electrical respectively. C and Vdc are the DC-link capacitance and
torque, total output active power and stator reactive voltage respectively. Pg 、 Qg are the output active and
power can be given by reactive power of the grid-side converter respectively.
⎧ 3 Using grid voltage oriented control, ignoring resistance
⎪ Ps = 2 Vs I sq Rc and the transient state of the inductance Lc, the
⎪ electrical torque, total output active power and stator
⎪ 3 reactive power can be given by
⎨Qs = Vs I sd (2)
⎪ 2
⎪ 3 ⎧ 3
⎪Te = 2 pnψ s I sq ⎪⎪ Pg = 2 Vg I gd
⎩ ⎨ (4)
Equation (2) indicates that the decoupled control of the ⎪Q = − 3 V I
electromagnetic power/torque and the stator reactive ⎪⎩ g 2
g gq

power can be achieved by regulating the d- and q-axis

It can be seen from (4) that the decoupled control of the
stator currents respectively.
electromagnetic power and the reactive power can be
Fig. 2 shows the overall vector control scheme of the
achieved by regulating the d-axis current Igd and q-axis
generator-side converter. The outer-loop control regulates
current Igq, respectively.
the DC-link voltage Vdc and the generator stator voltage
In this paper, the grid-side converter is employed to
Vs independently and generates the reference signals Isq*
implement the coordinated control for the active power Pg
and Isd* for the inner-loop current regulation.
and the reactive power Qg according to the level of grid
voltage change. Fig. 3a shows the overall vector control
scheme of the grid-side converter, while Fig. 3b shows
the Outer-loop coordinated power control scheme. When
grid voltage Vg is in the domain of 0.9 ＜ Vg＜ 1.1, the
θs
task of the grid-side converter is to implement the
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control.
Depending on this control scheme, the maximum wind
power captured by the wind turbine is directly transmitted
to the grid. On contrast, once grid disturbance occurs and
the grid voltage Vg is in the domain of Vg＜0.9, according
to the grid requirements for the reactive power support of
wind farm during grid voltage dips, the task of the grid-
side converter is transferred to provide reactive power for
the grid voltage recovery. Therefore, the grid-side
converter is switched from the MPPT control to the fault
recovery control in this paper.
 output power of PMSG to match the grid-side fluctuant
output power, the power imbalance of the DC-link side is
transformed into another power imbalance between the
mechanical power and electromagnetic power of PMSG,
θs
and the power surplus is translated into rotational energy
of the generator rotor. As the large inertia of the wind
turbine results in slow change of the rotor speed. From
Fig. 5, it is seen that which the rotor speed increases by
3% of the rated value. The grid-side converter is
controlled to realize the fault recovery control during
voltage dips, which mainly supplies the reactive power
output to assist grid system to recover the voltage. There
is a grid voltage rise of 10% as can be seen from Fig. 9.

Fig.3a Control diagram of the grid-side converter

3
Pg = − Vg I gd
2

0.9 < Vg < 1.1

≤ I g2_ max − I g*2_ q2

Vg < 0.9
Fig.3b Outer-loop power control diagram of the grid-side
converter

III. SIMULATION STUDIES

Simulations were performed using Matlab/Simulink’s
SimPower System Blockset to verify the proposed
control scheme. The wind farm is simulated as a lumped
20MW PMSG model containing 10 PMSGs, each rated at
2MW. The nominal converter DC-link voltage was set at
1200 V, and the switching frequency for both converters
is 2 kHz. The control strategies illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3
were implemented. The simulation system shown in Fig.4
is used. The grid voltage drops down to 20% of the rated
value at 2s, and the duration is 0.625s.

ΔPdc Fig.9 Simulation results of PMSG-based wind generation

system in the novel control scheme

Fig. 4 Structure diagram of the grid-connected PMSG-
based wind generation system
Fig. 5 shows the simulated results using the proposed
control strategy without installing any additional devices.
The high frequency switching harmonic components, i.e.,
frequencies above 2 kHz, have been removed from the
waveforms for clarity. When the grid voltage sags down
to 20% of the rated value at 2s, as seen in Fig. 5, in order
to maintain the constant DC-link voltage, the generator-
side converter is controlled to immediately adjust the
IV. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented a novel control strategy based
on the mechanical rotor storing energy, which not only
achieves the low voltage ride-through of PMSG-based
wind turbine and provides a dynamic reactive power
supply to power system during grid faults.
The main achievements that will be obtained in this
paper are as follows:
1. The effective application of the generator rotor
energy storage reduces the losses of the active power
during the process of the LVRT.
2. The DC-link voltage fluctuation can be obviously
decreased by controlling the generator-side
converter.

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