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Static Power Converters for a Wind Turbine Emulator Driving a Self-Excited

Induction Generator

Conference Paper · April 2020

DOI: 10.1109/IRASET48871.2020.9092319

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 Static Power Converters for a Wind Turbine
Emulator Driving a Self-Excited Induction
Generator
Yahya Aljarhizi*, El Mehdi Al Ibrahmi
Laboratory of Environment and Renewable Energies
Ibn Tofaïl University, Faculty of Sciences, Kénitra, Morocco.
aljarhizi.yahya@gmail.com
alibrahmielmehdi@yahoo.fr
Abstract—This work presents a performance study of static
power converters (SPC) for a self-excited induction generator
(SEIG) driven by a wind turbine emulator (WTE). The WTE
consists of an induction motor (IM) tied to an electrical grid via
a variable speed drive (VSD) controlled by a wind turbine model
block. The SPC control is based on regulation of the inductance
current and the output voltage. However, the overall control
design is modeled on Matlab/Simulink through block diagrams
in which power and control stages are designed separately. A
given wind profile scenario is proposed in order to evaluate the
performance of the control strategies of the SPC with the WTE.
Keywords- Wind Power Conversion System; Self-Excited
Induction Generator (SEIG); Boost converter; Voltage
Controller;
I. INTRODUCTION
Technological advances in electronics have contributed in
static power converters (SPC) that are currently used in power
production systems. They are characterized by a low power
consumption, an ease of use, and a high efficiency. In
addition to environmental problems related to fossil energy
sources, the SPC are one of the most important factors that
have diverted the world's attention to the use of renewable
energies as inexhaustible and environmentally friendly energy
sources [1].
The electrical power production systems based on
renewable energies sources are played an important role in
improving the efficiency and the performance of these
systems. The wind energy is commonly used among these
renewable energy sources, the turbine and generator are the
most known components of this energy source, but the power
converters and controls systems have more impact in order to
improve the efficiency of production in these systems [2]. In
the wind energy system, the SPC and PI-based control
systems are vital in maintaining the DC bus voltage and
making it suitable for different applications [3]. However,
various factors are involved in the energy production yield as
the wind turbine size, the installation place and the year's
period. Whatever, a wind speed stills the main factor.
978-1-7281-4979-0/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE
Abdelouahed Mesbahi, Abdelilah Hassoune, Mohamed Khafallah
Laboratory of Energy & Electrical Systems
Hassan II University, ENSEM, Casablanca, Morocco
Abdelouahed.mesbahi@gmail.com
a.hassoune@IEEE.org
m.khafallah@gmail.com
Several reasons lead researchers to suggest an emulator-
based electrical system instead of using high power systems,
e.g., the high cost and effort to install a wind turbine in
addition to the unpredictable variations in wind speed. It is
therefore difficult to create an appropriate environment to test
the performance of a real wind turbine and determine its
characteristics for a given wind speed. In order to implement
it in laboratories, several researches are used an emulator to
produce a wind speed scenario similar to the real one.
Recent studies had listed multiple electrical generators
that could be used as a power source such as a self-excited
induction generator (SEIG) [4] or the permanent magnet
synchronous generator (PMSG) [5]. The SEIG is currently
used to produce the electrical energy in isolated areas (e.g.,
islands, mountains) that have some difficulties geographically
or economically. All these factors are affecting directly on the
cost or the complexity of integrating it into the grid.
Some emulators are suggested in the literature review;
among these emulators, which are based on a permanent
magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) [5,6]. Either based on
a DC motor [7,8] or an AC motor that offers a flexibility of
control and a robustness of drive [9,10], despite the
complexity of its control compared to the DC motor.
The SEIG used in this work requires an external reactive
power to build magnetizing current, it is based only on
capacitors which is considered a favorable choice for the
wind energy system researchers and developers. Various
advantages are listed such as a simple construction, a low
maintenance, a self-start quality, and a low cost of SEIG
compared to other current generators available as the wound
rotor induction generator [11].
Additional to the wind velocity, a SEIG performance is
also depend on the induction machine parameters. Some of
these parameters have a direct impact such as the load
parameters and the controlled capacitor bank which is
necessary in a standalone operation [12]. A lot of control
strategies are used to get the steady-state characteristics as
voltage and frequency in a constant pitch angle of wind
turbine. In [13], a proposed topology controls a variable
reactive power source to obtain the desired voltage and II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
regulating the mechanical speed of the main generator in
order to achieve the frequency desired. The block diagram in Fig. 1 summarizes all the
components of the wind turbine emulator and its energy
This work is presented as follows: A description of the
conversion chain. It consists of two main blocks i.e., a wind
proposed system components is described in section II,
turbine emulator (WTE) and a SPC block. Furthermore, the
section III will depict the simulation results of the proposed
control strategies are also depicted in the used approach.
wind turbine emulator and the static power converters.
Finally, conclusions are provided in section IV.

Fig. 1. Black diagram of the proposed system

The WTE is designed via an induction machine (IM) 1 2
E= mVw (3)
powered by an electrical grid, its rotation speed is controlled 2
by a proposed program implemented in a digital control
processor. The variable speed drive (VSD) is used in order to Also, E can be expressed as in Eq. (4), when this wind
produce the required shaft torque for the IM based on the interacts with the cross-sectional area of the wind turbine
pitch angle (β= 0º in this case), wind speed profile and the rotor:
velocity speed [14]. 1
E= ρvVw 2 (4)
The relationship between the electric power produced by 2
the WTE and the wind speed is linear as explained by Eq. (1) Where, m is the air mass, v is the volume of air portion
(where β= 0º). available to the rotor, is the density of air, and Vw is the
Pelec = (0.3858Vw − 1.3114) *1000 (1) wind velocity. Thus, due to the interaction of the air parcel
with the rotor, by a thickness corresponds to the wind speed
The PWM signal is generated from a calculated torque and to the transverse surface S, Eq. (5) can depict the
compared to the torque reference. This reference is generated power from a wind turbine.
determined according the wind speed calculation. Where, Ω
is sensed by the speed sensor implemented on IM output side. 1
Pw = ρSVw 3 (5)
Therefore, the reference torque can be written as follows: 2
(0.3858Vw − 1.3114) *1000 The various factors such as the air density, rotor area and
Tref = (2) wind velocity, are influencing on the wind power via the cube
Ω
of the wind velocity (Vw3). However, the captured power to
The SPC consists of an uncontrolled rectifier that is the wind turbine shaft which called the mechanical power is
directly connected to SEIG. The rectifier converts the AC presented by Eq. (6).
voltage to the DC voltage. In order to stabilize the DC output
voltage at a required voltage (VOUT-REF), this rectifier is 1 3
Pw = πρR 2 Vw Cp (λ , β ) (6)
directly linked up to a boost converter designed properly to 2
set a 400V output from a variable voltage. Where, Cp is the power coefficient, called also the
A. Wind turbine model aerodynamic efficiency, where the proposed turbine is with
fixed blades (β= 0º). The tip speed ratio (λ) between the
In a wind energy conversion system (WECS), the primary turbine speed and the wind speed as expressed in Eq. (7).
component is the wind turbine which transforms the kinetic
energy E either mechanical or electric energy, depends on its ΩR
λ= (7)
final use. This kinetic energy is expressed in Eq. (3): Vw
 Where, Ω is the turbine angular speed, and R is the radius Although the difficulty of using the induction motor as a
of the turbine blades. Thus, the kinetic energy is converted generator, it therefore requires an external reactive power
into a mechanical torque that is captured by the turbine source in order to provide the excitation. This external power
blades, it expressed by Eq. (8). source is external capacitors, which represent the main
2
component of the self-excitation operation.
1 πρR Vw C p (λ , β )
3

Tw = (8) C. Self-excited asynchronous generator

2 λ
In a stand-alone mode, the SEIG consists of a capacitor
The aerodynamic design of a wind turbine determines the
extracted power from the wind, which is theoretically cannot bank that is connected with the generator terminals, it
exceed 59.3% of the total wind power [15]. The generic generates a reactive power which is withdrawn by the IM.
This process is depended on the parameters of the capacitors,
equations (9) and (10) are based on the modelling turbine
they are keep operating until reaching the nominal voltage of
characteristics used to model the power coefficient [16].
the generator [17]. Therefore, the IG will be self-excited by
Cp (λ , β ) = C1 (C2λi − C3 β − C4 )eC λi + C6λ
5
(9) the exposed process. The electrical equivalent circuit of SEIG
is shown in Fig. 3, it is used to analyze the steady-state
1 0.0035 performance [14].
λi = − 3 (10)
λ + 0.08β β + 1
Where, the power coefficients C1 to C6 are depend on the
aerodynamic design. In case of a constant pitch angle, the
parameters of these coefficients are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. Power coefficients of a wind turbine
Power coefficient C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6

Value 0.5109 116 0.4 5 21 0.0068 Fig. 3. Electrical equivalent circuit of SEIG
The equations (11-14) depict the dynamic model of SEIG
It is known that the wind turbine cannot convert all the in synchronous rotational frame, it is shown in Fig. 4 [18].
power of incident wind, because of the CP that characterizes
the wind turbine, it varies according to β and λ .
B. Induction motor model
In electric power production systems, 3-phase induction
machines are used as generators to produce electric power
when the synchronous speed of the rotating magnetic field is
lower than the rotational speed of the rotor. Therefore, the
Fig. 2 shows the equivalent circuit model of the IM.

Fig. 4. Dynamic model of the SEIG frames (a) d-axis (b) q-axis

 di di 1 di ds 
Vcd = − R s .i ds + Ls ds + L m dr +  (11)
 dt dt C dt 
Fig. 2. Steady state equivalent circuit IM model
Where, the reactance of stator and rotor are respectively  di qs di qr 1 di qs 
Vcq = − R s .i qs + L s + Lm +  (12)
X1, X2. The magnetizing inductor is Xm, the stator resistance
 dt dt C dt 
is RS and the velocity slip is S.
The IM is composed by two main parts; the stator as a di dr di 1 di dr
0 = R r .i dr + L r + L m ds + + ω r .ψ qr (13)
fixed part that produces the rotating magnetic field (magnetic dt dt C dt
flux) and the rotor as a moved part that responsible of the
di qr di qs 1 di qr
mechanical moving called torque. This mechanical torque can 0 = R r .i qr + L r + Lm + − ω r .ψ dr (14)
be controlled by regulating the voltage and the frequency of dt dt C dt
the IM terminal. There are two types of rotors either a wound Where, the stator windings resistance and inductance are
or a squirrel cage that used in this work [11]. Rs and Ls, respectively. The rotor windings resistance and
inductance are Rr and Lr. The stator rotor mutual inductance
is Lm, ψ dr and ψ qr are the rotor flux component and the rotor
angular frequency is ω r .
The essential parameter to stabilize the SEIG operation
and to adapt its characteristics to the load requirements is the
magnetizing inductance. Moreover, the used values of the
magnetizing current Im is gotten via the Eq. (15).
Im = (i ds + i dr )2 + (i qs + i qr )2 (15)
The developed electromagnetic torque that is computed as
a function of (q, d) axes stator and rotor currents is given in
Eq. (16).
Te =
3
2
(
n p L m i dr .i qs − i qr .i ds ) (16)
Where, np is number of the pole pairs.
D. Boost converter
In general, the variation of the voltage at the output of the
boost converter is depend on the output variation of the SEIG
which is directly influenced by the fluctuation of the wind
velocity. In this case, the boost converter is used to stabilize
the output voltage of rectifier by controlling the operating
cycle of the transistor switch D [19-21].
Fig. 5. dc/dc boost converter scheme
As can be seen in Fig. 5, the output voltage of the dc/dc
boost converter is determined by the Eq. (17).
VIN
VOUT = (17)
1− D
Based on nature of the load and its characteristics, the
inductance and the output capacitor are calculated through
Eq. (18) and (19), respectively.
D.VIN
L= (18)
ΔI .FS
D.VOUT
C OUT = (19)
ΔV .FS .R
The transistor state is defining the operation mode of
boost converter. When the SEIG charges the inductor in OFF
state, the inversed polarizing of the diode is prevented the
passage of current to the load, meanwhile, the capacitor will
charge load. While the ON state, a discharging phase in
inductor is occurred due to the forward biased in the diode,
thus, the load would be charged at a required voltage via the
inductor and the SEIG [22].
E. Proposed control strategies
According to the above descriptions, the fluctuation of the
wind velocity would directly affect the extracted power from
wind turbine emulator. Moreover, all changes in the SEIG
voltage is also related to the load change, e.g., the increase in
load impedance causes a decrease in the generator voltage.
The design of the excitation capacitors is depending on
various parameters such as the load impedance value, the
magnetization characteristic of the SEIG and the rotor speed
[23,24]. Besides, the increase in load has a proportional
relationship with the slip of the IG which effects on the
frequency.
The voltage controller is based on measuring the output
voltage and current value provided by the sensor
measurements. These values are compared to the desired
voltage values in order to identify the error rate [25-26]. The
error will be adjusted and reduced by using calculated
variables for the controller. The aim is to drive the switching
device of the converter according to the applied control by the
PI controller as shown in the Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. The closed-loop constant voltage control diagram
The PI control diagram proposed in this work is
constructed by two integrated loops, i.e., for current (inner
loop) and for voltage (external loop). In order to tune these
loops of control we used the transfer functions GI(s) and
GV(s) given in Eq. (20) and Eq. (21).
I REC ( s ) VOUT
G I ( s) = = (20)
D( s ) Ls
L
1− s
VOUT R L (1 − D ) R L (1 − D) 2
G V ( s) = = (21)
I REC 2 R C
1+ L s
2
The controller parameters rely on the measured voltage,
means the output of the boost converter and the desired value
of load voltage (VOUT-REF)
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
The proposed control strategies are applied on the adopted
topology of a dc/dc boost converter and a SEIG of 1.5 kW.
They are designed and analyzed on MATLAB/Simulink
software. In order to get an approximate real behavior, the
used parameters are calculated via the modeling section of
this work. However, the designed block diagram is illustrated
in Fig. 7.
 Fig. 7. Block diagram of the proposed topology modeled on Simulink

In order to test the validity of the proposed topology and

its control strategies. Fig. 8 shows the proposed profile for
different rotation speeds for the SEIG.

Fig. 10. Input & output voltage of the rectifier tied to SEIG

As can be seen in Fig. 10, the ac/dc converter preserves

the same characteristics of the SEIG voltage after
rectification. Fig. 11 illustrates the power transfer from the
Fig. 8. Speed scenario for the WTE applied on the SEIG AC side into the DC side of dc/dc boost converter.
The speed scenario is started with 1700 rpm, at t=5s, it is
decrease to 1500 rpm and continues to t=7.5s. it then
increases until it reaches 1600 rpm.
Based on the adopted scenario, Fig. 9 shows the stator
voltage of the SEIG without and with electrical load. The
excitation of IG is started without load at t=1.7s where the
reactive power is delivered to the SEIG from the used
capacitors.

Fig. 11. Variation of SEIG Power versus the changes of IG speed

Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 show the boost converter voltage and

power, respectively. The converter is controlled by PI block
used to maintain a constant output voltage of the emulator.
This result confirms the achieving goals of the SPC.

Fig. 9. Excitation voltage of the SEIG versus time

The rectifier input voltage, and the rectified voltage are
illustrated in Fig. 10. They are changed proportionally with
the proposed speed. The results demonstrate the satisfied
performance and the efficiency of the WTE. Fig. 12. Variation of SEIG Power versus the changes of IG speed

Fig. 13. Variation of SEIG Power versus the changes of IG speed
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a proposed topology of a wind turbine
emulator tied to static power converter is presented in full
detail in order to test various control strategies, a taking into
account the turbine with fixed pitch angle. The control aimed
to regulate the output voltage of the SEIG in stand-alone wind
system. The emulator system consists of an induction motor
connected directly to the SEIG to reproduce the same
dynamic behaviors as a torque, mechanical power, and
rotating speed that is changing according to the wind climatic
conditions.
Based on simulation results of the proposed structure
modeled in MATLAB/Simulink software, the control
strategies achieved a rapid response when there is a variation
of the wind speed, they confirmed the good performance and
reliability of the proposed wind turbine emulator. An
experimental implementation can be treated as the future
scope of this work.
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