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A new structure based on cascaded multilevel converter for variable speed

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Article · November 2010

DOI: 10.1109/IECON.2010.5674975

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 A New Structure Based on Cascaded Multilevel
Converter for Variable Speed Wind Turbine

Fujin Deng, Zhe Chen, Senior Member, IEEE

Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, 9220, Denmark
E-mail: fde@iet.aau.dk zch@iet.aau.dk

Abstract-An alternative structure for variable speed wind

turbine, using multiple permanent magnet synchronous
generators (PMSGs) drive-train configuration and cascaded
multilevel converter is proposed in this paper. This study
presents a power electronic solution for the wind turbine. A
transformer-less cascaded multilevel converter interface based
on PMSGs is developed to synthesize a desired high ac
sinusoidal output voltage. The benefits of high power and high (a)
ac voltage make this structure possible to be applied in the wind
power generation. In addition, the bulky transformer could be
omitted. A simulation model of 10 MW variable speed wind
turbine based on PMSGs developed in PSCAD/EMTDC is
presented. The dynamic performance of grid-connected wind
turbine is analyzed. Simulation results shows that the proposed
structure may be attractive in wind power generation.

(b)

I. INTRODUCTION
Among the renewable energy technologies being
vigorously developed, wind turbine technology has being
undergoing a dramatic development and now is the world’s
fastest growing energy [1]. With large-scale exploration and
integration of wind sources, GWEC is predicting the global
wind market to grow by over 155% from the current size
reaching 240 GW of total installed capacity until 2012. This
means a 146 GW increase in just five years [2].
With large-scale exploration and integration of wind
sources, variable speed wind turbine generator system
(WTGS) is becoming more popular than that of fixed speed
[3]. As to the permanent magnet synchronous generator
(PMSG) characterized as having large air gaps, which reduce
flux linkage even in machines with multi magnetic poles [4],
its excitation is provided by permanent magnets instead of
field winding. In recent years, with the performance of PMs
is improving and cost of PM is decreasing, the use of PMSG
is more attractive than before. Besides, the gearbox can be
omitted due to low rotational speed in multi-poles PMSG
wind generators, resulting in low cost. The trends make PM
machines with a full-scale power converter more attractive
for wind turbines [5]. Variable speed wind turbines with full-
scale power converters present the distinct advantage that the
converter totally decouples the generator from the grid shown
in Fig. 1(a) [6]. Hence grid disturbances have no direct effect
on the generator.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of (a) a variable speed wind turbine based on a direct-
drive PMSG and a full-scale power converter and (b) the proposed wind
turbine structure.
In this paper, an alternative structure shown in Fig. 1(b) for
variable speed wind turbine is proposed. Compared with Fig.
1(a), the distinct superiority of the proposed structure is that a
cascaded multilevel converter is adopted in the wind turbine
with multiple generators configuration, which could generate
an almost sinusoidal and high ac three-phase voltage [7]. As a
result, it is possible for the output side of the multilevel
converter to be directly connected into the high voltage ac
grid. As a result, the bulky transformer normally placed
between the wind turbine and the grid could be omitted in the
proposed wind turbine structure. In addition, the multilevel
structure leads to an improved output voltage spectrum due to
having a greater availability of voltage levels. Hence, the total
harmonic distortion (THD) could be easily limited to satisfied
harmonic power quality standard [8].
II. PROPOSED WIND TURBINE STRUCTURE
A. Proposed Wind Turbine Configuration
The proposed variable speed wind turbine structure is
shown in Fig. 2. The multiple-generator drive train
configuration is adopted here, where a few six-phase PMSGs
are placed in one nacelle. These six-phase PMSGs are driven
by the same wind turbine, and controlled by cascaded

978-1-4244-5226-2/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 3167

 Converter unit
PMSG_j iL p
C L
LA A Vdc
s11 s13
1
1
+ +
+ sw +
uc
- -
ua
C
Cr Cb 2 Va_j
s12 s14
LC O
- 2
ub LB
n
+

(2K-1)1
(2K-1)2
(2K-1)3
(2K-1)4
(2K-1)5
(2K-1)6
L
B
11
12
13
14
15
16

31
32
33
34
35
36

41
42
43
44
45
46
21
22
23
24
25
26

2K1
2K2
2K3
2K4
2K5
2K6
s21 s23 3
+ +
C Cr Cb
Vb_j
s22 s24
4

L
s31 s33 5
+ +
C Cr Cb
Vc_j
s32 s34
6

Converter Generator side Grid side

module converter converter

Fig. 2. Block diagram of the proposed structure with the internal interface.
multilevel converter so as to capture the optimal energy from
the wind. The cascaded multilevel converter is competent to
transfer the low ac voltage to a high ac level.
The six-phase PMSG is adopted here, which consists of
two sets of the three-phase stator windings without direct
connection. Since two sets of three-phase stator windings are
spatially shifted by 30 electrical degrees, the system can
cancel out some dominant harmonics produced by the diode
rectifiers [9], [10]. The model of the six-phase electrical
machine refers to [11], which is not detailed described here.
In this structure wind turbine, the three-phase windings of
PMSG are separated with each other without connection,
which is used to isolate the electrical interface among
converter modules in the cascaded converter shown in Fig. 3.
The converter unit is shown in Fig. 3, where the power
output of the generator is restricted by the inductance of the
coils. Herein, a capacitor is connected in parallel with the coil
so as to cancel part of the inductance [12], [13]. In each
converter module, the ac output from the generator is
converted to dc through diode rectifier. The boost converter
with the characteristics referring to [14] is adopted here to
stabilize the dc-links, which provides a stable dc voltage for
the single-phase H-bridge converter.
The configuration to electrically stack K numbers of
PMSGs is depicted by Fig. 2, where a particular phase of
each set of three-phase stator windings is stacked to the same
phase of the other sets of stator windings through the
converter modules which are connected in series at the output
sides. Since each series connected H-bridge converter unit is
electrically isolated, this cascaded multilevel converter
configuration provides that the load voltage is the sum of
each H-bridge outputs. It effectively increases the ac output
voltage of this structure wind turbine. It is possible for the
variable speed wind turbine with this structure to be directly
connected into a ac grid. Hence, the bulky transformer could
be omitted in this structure.
B. Phase-shifted Unipolar SPWM
A phase-shifted unipolar sinusoidal PWM (SPWM)
switching scheme referring to [15], [16] is used for the
cascaded multi-level converter including K numbers of H-
Fig. 3. Circuit configuration of single PMSG with a detailed, three-phase
windings converter unit.
Fig. 4. Block diagram of the generator side controller.
bridge converters. The phase shift time Tps for jth H-bridge
converter could be calculated with the following equation.
TPS = ( j − 1)Ts 2 K (1)
where Ts is the triangle carrier signal cycle.
One of the main advantages of this switching scheme is
that the harmonics of the resultant cascaded multilevel
converter output voltage only appear as sidebands centered
around the frequency of 2kfs and its multiples, provided that
the voltage across the dc capacitor of each inverter is the
same (fs = 1/Ts, is the frequency of triangle carrier signal).
III. CONTROL OF THE WIND TURBINE
The collected power of all PMSGs is directly feed into the
ac grid by the cascaded multilevel converter, which could be
divided into generator side converter and grid side converter
shown in Fig. 3.
A. Generator Side Converter (Diode Rectifier & Boost Converter)
The generator side converter (diode rectifier and boost
converter) connected to the stator of the PMSG effectively
decouples the generator from the network. Hence, the
generator rotor and the wind turbine rotor can rotate freely
depending on the wind condition.
The control block for generator side converter is shown in
Fig. 4, which is used to keep the dc-link voltage constant in
each converter module with the switch frequency for boost
converter as 1 kHz. It adopts double control loops. The dc-
link voltage Vdc is controlled in the outside loop by a voltage
controller, and produces corresponding current command iL*.
In inside loop, a current controller is adopted to regulate the
inductance current iL to track the command value.

3168

θu θu
θu
ωL
ωL
ω λi
Fig. 5. Block diagram of grid side controller
B. Grid Side Converter (Cascaded Multilevel Converter)
The aim of the grid side converter is to regulate the active
power and reactive power fed to the grid. Vector control
technique has been developed for the grid side cascaded
multilevel converter with the switch frequency as 1 kHz. The
block diagram of the control system for the grid converter is
illustrated in Fig. 5, where the subscripts d and q refer to the
d, q-axis quantities. The grid side converter is controlled in a
synchronously rotating d, q-axis frame with the d-axis
oriented along the grid voltage vector position, which ensures
decoupling control of grid-side active and reactive powers fed
to the grid.
The grid side converter adopts double control loops as well.
Based on the measured generator speed ω, the MPPT method
calculates the optimal power command P* using the rotor
speed versus power characteristic [6], [17]. In the outside
loop, the wind turbine is controlled by the power controller
Gp(s) to track the power command P* and Q*, and generates
corresponding current command id* and iq*. The inside loop is
controlled by the current controller Gi(s) to follow the current
command.
IV. WIND TURBINE MODELING
A. Aerodynamic Model
The mechanical power extracted from the wind can be
expressed as follows [6],
1 B.
Pw = ρπR 2 v 3C p (θ , λ ) (2)
2 According to [22], it has been shown that the two-mass
where Pw is the extracted power from the wind, ρ is the air
density (kg/m3), R is the blade radius (m), v is the wind speed
(m/s) and CP is the power coefficient which is a function of
the pitch angle of rotor blades θ (deg) and of the tip speed
ratio λ. The term λ is defined as λ= ωwR/v, with ωw the wind
turbine speed.
The power coefficient may be calculated as [18]
3169
C D
1
B
0.09
A
0
0 0.42 0.47 1 1.1
Rotor speed [p.u.]
Fig. 6. Optimal rotor speed versus power characteristic.
151
C p = 0.73( − 0.58θ − 0.002θ 2.14 − 13.2)e −18.4 / λi (3)
with
1 1 0.003
= − (4)
λi (λ − 0.02θ ) (θ 3 + 1)
The wind turbine power coefficient is maximized
Cp_max=0.44 for the optimal tip-speed ratio value λopt = 6.9
when the blades pitch angle is θ = 0o.
For each wind speed, there exists a specific point in the
wind turbine output power versus rotating-speed
characteristic where the output power is maximized. The
control of the wind turbine results in a variable-speed wind
turbine operation, such that maximum power is extracted
continuously from the wind below the rated wind speed. In
addition, the wind turbine operates at the rated power during
the period of high wind speed by the variable-pitch regulation
[19], [20]. In this paper, the pitch angle control system is
modeled referring to [21], which is not described here.
Based on (2) ~ (4), the relation between the optimal power
and the wind turbine speed below the rated wind speed can be
obtained below.
1 C p_ max 3
Pw _ max = ρπR 5 3
⋅ ωw (5)
2 λopt
Combing the wind turbine characteristic in Appendix and
the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method [17], the
rotor speed versus power characteristic that leads to optimal
energy capture is developed as Fig. 6.
In order to avoid large power fluctuations when rotor speed
changes near the minimum rotor speed, a control
characteristic similar to that leads to optimal energy capture
are adopted [18]. The control characteristic is depicted by the
curves AB in Fig. 6.
Mechanical Drive Train
drive-train model is suitable for transient stability analysis.
Fig. 7 shows the drive train model for the multiple-generator
configuration wind turbine. Owing the mass of wind turbine
is much bigger than that of generator, the interface among
generators could be considered as rigid connection. Referring
to [21] and [22], the drive-train mode for Fig. 7 could be
obtained below.
 Wind turbine

K G1 G2 GK
Tw ωw ωg Tg1 Tg 2 TgK

D J g1 J g2 JgK

Jw
Fig. 7. Block diagram of the drive train model.

⎧ dω w
⎪ J w dt = Tw − D(ω w − ω g ) − Kθ wg
⎪
⎨ i =1 i =1 (6)
dω g
∑
⎪ J gi
⎪⎩ K dt
= D (ω w − ω g ) + Kθ wg − ∑ K
Tgi Fig. 8(a). Wind speed

where Jw and Jg are the equivalent wind turbine inertia and

generator inertia respectively. Torque Tw and Tg represent the
aerodynamic torque of the wind turbine and the generator
loading torque, respectively. ωw and ωg are the wind turbine
and generator rotor speed respectively. θwg is the angle
between the turbine rotor and the generator rotor. K is the
elastic characteristic of the shaft. D is the mutual damping.

V. SYSTEM SIMULATION
A 10 MW variable speed wind turbine with the proposed
configuration shown in Fig. 2 is modeled. The wind turbine is
Fig. 8(b). Wind turbine speed
composed with five 2 MW six-phase PMSGs. Here, the 10
converter modules are connected in series with each other to
make up one 21-level cascaded multilevel converter. There
are three cascaded multilevel converters in the wind turbine
to construct three phases to be interfaced with the ac grid. The
wind model is the standard component model from the
PSCAD library referring to [23].
As to the converter module unit, the reference command
for the dc-link voltage Vdc is set as 1.2 kV. The RMS value of
the line-to-line voltage in the grid is given as 11 kV. In this
case study the transmission distance is assumed to be 5 km.
Here, the transmission cable with a cross section area of
800mm2 is adopted. The resistance and the inductance of this
cable are approximately 0.0221 Ω/km and 0.00031 H/km
respectively. Fig. 8(c). Pitch angle
A variable wind speed in average as rated value shown in
Fig. 8(a) is used to evaluate the performance of this structure
wind turbine. The wind turbine speed is around the rated
speed shown in Fig. 8(b). At 22s, the generator speed is over
the rated value, which results in the action of the pitch angle
control system shown in Fig. 8 (c). The sum of the generator
torque is shown in Fig.10(d), which regulate the wind turbine
speed so as to capture the optimal wind energy. Besides, the
wind turbine torque is given in Fig. 8(d).
Here, only the 6 numbers of dc-link voltage Vdc for six-
phase PMSG 1 is given in Fig. 8(e). All of them are kept
constant as 1.2 kV by the corresponding boost converter. The
other 24 dc-link voltage for the other four PMSGs is also
Fig. 8(d). Wind turbine torque and the sum of generator torque
stabilized as 1.2 kV, which are not plot.

3170
Fig. 8(e). Vdc11, Vdc12, Vdc13, Vdc14, Vdc15 and Vdc16
Fig. 8(g). Reference power and grid power
Fig. 8(i). Windings 1 current Iabc
The 10 numbers of windings power is shown in Fig. 8(f). It
can be seen that, the power share for each converter module
in the cascaded multilevel converter is equalized. Fig. 8(g)
shows the power sent into the grid by this structure wind
turbine. It is easy to recognize that this variable speed wind
turbine could track the power command and capture the
optimal power. Besides, the windings 1 voltage Uabc and
current Iabc is shown in Fig. 8(h) and (i). Both of them are
nearly symmetrical three-phase voltage and current. Fig. 8(j)
shows that the two sets of three-phase stator windings in
PMSG 1 are spatially shifted by 30 electrical degrees
VI. CONCLUSION
3171
Fig. 8(f). Windings power
Fig. 8(h). Windings 1 voltage Uabc
Fig. 8(j). Windings 1 and windings 2 voltage Ua and Ux
This paper illustrates a new structure based on cascaded
multilevel converter for variable speed wind turbine. The
multiple-generator driven train configuration is adopted here.
A few permanent magnet synchronous generators are placed
in one nacelle and driven by the same wind turbine, which
increases the wind turbine capacity. The cascaded multilevel
converter technology is applied in the wind turbine, which
could step up the output ac voltage. Hence, this structure
wind turbine could be directly connected into the high voltage
ac grid. In addition, the bulky transformer could be omitted.
A 10 MW variable speed wind turbine with this structure is
modeled, and the simulation results show the proposed
structure has good potential for wind generation.
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