Sci.Int.

(Lahore),25(4),769-775,2013 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 769

A NOVEL CONTROL APPROACH OF ISOLATED POWER

SYSTEM TO REDUCE THD
Atrin Tavakoli1, Behrooz Vahidi1*, Mohammad Javad Sanjari1, Hossein Karami1, Gevorg
Babamalek Gharepetian1
1-
Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology
Tehran 1591634311, Iran
* Corresponding author email: vahidi@aut.ac.ir
ABSTRACT: As well known, recent activity and progress in renewable energy and their application has
been done. Among renewable energy wind energy is more noteworthy. But some of disadvantage (like
output fluctuation) of this source of energy cause some bad effect on network (such as frequency variation
and decrease power quality that this two problem cause restricted using them power system) therefore, use
of this source has been decreased in isolated power system, even in grid that connected to external grid. So
many solutions are present to solve this problem. In this paper a novel method has introduced that
decreased Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in addition to control a Flywheel Energy Storage System
(FESS). This FESS cause less fluctuation power system and decreased its consequences. Result that
represented in paper prove validity of this process.

Key Words: distribution generation, microgrid, wind power, total harmonic distortion

1. INTRODUCTION needed for these technologies to become the an important

Wind energy has the attractive attribute that the fuel is free
and this will remain the case for the project lifespan. The
efficiency of a project is in deep relation with wind power in
the site that wind turbine is used. Wind energy is one of the
recent expansions of renewable energy applications [1]. So
many large wind farms have been used to supply electrical
power. Recently offshore wind farm has been widely
installed. But the main problem of wind farm is fluctuation
of output power that causes variation in frequency in power
system. So if application of wind farm has been increased,
and proportion of power of wind farm increased, frequency
control of power system may be difficult. This phenomenon
has more impact on frequency in isolated power system with
weak capacity of power regulation. Because Small changes
in wind speed produce greater changes in the commercial
value of a wind farm. For comparison, if wind speed is
changed about 1%, output power of wind turbine changes
more than 1.5%.
It is at this stage that commercial rating of a wind farm is
required, and powerful estimates must be provided to
support investment and fi nuancing decisions. By estimating
wind speed in the site, power that produced by wind turbine
is can be estimated, so this estimating must be precise. For
solve this problem, modeling of wind farm and study of
environmental and its constraints are also required.
Nevertheless introduction of this source of power utilization
is much effective in an isolated power system, since diesel
generator (main source of power in small islanded) has bad
effect on environment. So control strategy is necessary to
improve the stability of output power of wind farm.
According to such situation importance of Energy Storage
Systems (ESS) become clear. Some of ESS is like batteries
[2], electrochemical capacitors [3] and flywheels [4]. Over
the last year solar and wind have been the fastest growing
resources that used in the U.S. and European energy
markets. In spite of the fact that using of solar and wind in
the U.S. can increase in higher level than current levels
without the need of adding storage, finally, storage will be
component of our energy assortment. Furthermore,
combining storage in the system improves the flexibility of
the grid to combining PV and wind generated power. Energy
storage systems are high price, either in high investment or
in energy losses incurred while storing and retrieving
energy. For example battery and flywheel are both ESS.
Battery is good for power compensation with relatively long
period like load leveling, but charging and discharging of
battery is not fast enough (because of its chemical process),
so this ESS is not good for stability of power system because
rapid y response is necessary to compensate power variation
especially in isolated grid. Convertor of battery is very high
in rating, so this high rating cause high cost. Also battery life
time is short, so needs to replace. But Flywheel Energy
Storage System (FESS) has good characteristic like, large
capacity for storage, long life and the most important point,
rapid response of power control. A flywheel is a rotating
mechanical device that is used to save rotational energy.
Flywheels have a large moment of inertia, and thus can
control fast changes in speed of rotor. The amount of energy
saved in this system is related to the square of its speed.
Energy is delivered to a flywheel by putting torque on its
shaft, and causing its rotational speed, and therefore saved
energy, to increase. Otherwise, a flywheel discharges saved
energy by putting torque on generator shaft, which results in
decreased its speed. Figure 1 shows flywheel components.
Generator that connected to flywheel is almost adjustable
speed generator with second AC excitation. Because active
and reactive power could be controlled independently and
fast, this generator is chosen. This system also can improve
stability of power system, and this advantage is consequence
of its rapid response. Also because of small rating of
converter in such system, costs can decreased. So FESS can
improve fluctuation of output power, and consequently
improve frequency stabilization in power system.
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Model of wind farm that used in this paper is shown in

figure 2. Figure 3 Shown that wind farm is modeled by
10MVA, 0.69kV induction generator that connected to grid
with transformers to change output voltage to grid voltage.
A 30MVA, 6.6kV Synchronous generator is the model for
main source power which driven by diesel engine.
Transmission lines are modeled by 0.04+j0.3Ω (on 30MVA
base) impedance, and 13.5 MW and 15MW loads are
connected to both end of transmission line.

Figure 1 Fly wheel Energy storage system components [5]

Other ESS also uses. Some of them are explained below.

Thermal energy storage (TES) systems shift cooling energy
use to non-peak times. They cool saved intermediate
material such as water, ice, or etc. for use later to meet air-
conditioning loads. Operating strategies are generally
regulated as either full storage or partial storage, by
considering to the amount of cooling load delivered from on-
peak to off-peak.
Just like automobiles have hybrid cars, cooling designs have Figure 2 Power system model [6]
hybrid designs that combine energy storage. Hybrid cooling
systems with thermal energy storage systems use standard
air conditioning chillers at night to create and store energy in
the form of chilled water or ice for use the next day during
peak periods of demand or high cost.
Superconductor Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) is one of
energy storage system.
SMES is a grid-enabling device that stores and discharges
large quantities of power almost instantaneously. The system
is capable of releasing high levels of power within a fraction
of a cycle to replace a sudden loss or dip in line power.
Strategic injection of brief bursts of power can play a crucial
role in maintaining grid reliability especially with today’s Figure 3 Specification of components [7]
increasingly congested power lines and the high penetration
of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. 2.2 Configuration of FESS
A typical SMES consists of two parts – cryogenically cooled Isolated power system consists of main power supply, group
superconducting coil and power conditioning system – of load, transmission line, wind farm and FESS beside wind
which are motionless and result in higher reliability than farm. FESS as said before, control frequency of system and
many other power storage devices. Ideally, once the absorb or inject active power to keep network in stable
superconducting coil is charged, the current will not decay margin. FESS also has communication with main power
and the magnetic energy can be stored indefinitely. source to keep its stored energy in appropriate level.
With mentioned point, in this paper FESS has chosen to use. Configuration of FESS is shown in figure 4.
A new control strategy proposed to reduce frequency Model of flywheel consist of adjustable speed generator [8],
variation in power grid with big wind farm. By considering a flywheel mass to store energy and secondary excitation
these points that, FESS cooperative with main source of circuit for adjustable speed control are components of FESS.
power to adjust output power depending on level of charge, This adjustable speed generator is like wounded rotor
and rapid change of wind farm output power in short time is induction machine, and secondary excitation power is
compensate with FESS but slow changes in long period supplied from the terminal of FESS that converted to DC
absorbed by other equipment. To show impact of proposed and then converted to low frequency AC and
method, computer simulation analyses are performed by being consumed by rotor. So rotor can rotate at
using MATLAB/SIMULINK. asynchronous speed. As mentioned before inverters change
2. MODELING SYSTEM power from DC to AC and can control active and reactive
2.1 Configuration of Power System power of generator. Also converters change power from AC
Sci.Int.(Lahore),25(4),769-775,2013 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 771

to DC and they can control voltage of DC link and reactive Conventional controller that use for inverter and converter is
power that flowing into secondary excitation circuit. shown in figures 6 and 7 respectively.
Figure 5 shows based configuration of these inverters and
converters. These converters and inverters based on are
sinusoidal PWM and switching signal is generated by
applying triangular carrier wave comparison.

Figure 4 FESS circuit configuration [7]

I 2D
s + 50 s + 10
PT
8s + 20
s s + 1000 s
V 2D
ωFESS
F
I 2Q
V T ( ref )
8s + 80 s + 50
s + 1000
s + 10 V 2Q
s s
VT
Figure 6 Controller of inverter

I CD
EDC (ref ) 2s + 20 s + 50 6s + 25 V CQ
s s + 1000 5s

EDC
I CQ
Q L ( ref ) 2s + 20 s + 50 6s + 25 V CQ
s s + 1000 5s

QL
Figure 7 Controller of converter

2.3 Wind Farm Model

Wind farm as shown in figure 8 modeled by an induction
machine and a turbine. Equations of turbine blade that
express aerodynamic characteristic [11] (performance factor
( C p (λ ) ) of
Figure 5 FESS inverters and converters circuit [9]
2 −0.17Γ
C p (λ ) = 0.5(Γ − 0.02 β − 5.6).e
(1)
772 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 Sci.Int.(Lahore),25(4),769-775,2013

wind turbine) and the mechanical output power are shown in

(1)-(4): TABLE II
R 3600 PARAMETERS OF DIESEL ENGINE GOVERNOR.
Γ= . (2)
λ 1609
Proportional Gain of KP 8.0
Protor = C p (λ ). pWind
(3)
Integral Gain KI 2.0
1 2 3
PM = .ρ .C p ( λ ).π .R .VW (4) Pilot servo time constant
2 0.2 s
TA
Given the synchronous generator almost operates in about
synchronous speed (that synchronous speed is constant) the Dead time of engine T 0.25 s
output power has direct relationship with wind speed. A
pitch controller installed on wind turbine that maintains 3. FREQUENCY CONTROL BY USING FESS
output power of generator in rated power when wind speed
is varied. Pitch angle controller shown in figure 9. As said before FESS can stabilize the frequency of network
Parameters of wind generator are shown in table I. by reduction in frequency variation. In this part is described
TABLE I how this process has been done. Control system of
frequency stabilizer is shown in figure 11.
PARAMETERS OF INDUCTION MACHINES. KP

IG FESS ω KI 1
s 1 +T A s e −sT
Stator
0.01 0.02 ωref ωex
resistance (pu)
Stator leakage Figure 10 Block diagram of governor
0.07 0.08
reactance (pu)
Magnetizing
4.1 3.5
reactance (pu)
Rotor
0.007 0.02 50
150s
resistance (pu) s + 10
Rotor leakage
0.07 0.08
reactance (pu) 2 PT ( prim )
F
s +2 20

1.044 2.0
1
ωFESS
0
0.0 PT ( ref )

Figure 11 Reference signal controller for frequency

stabilization

PT ( ref ) , is reference of active power output of FESS that

Figure 8 Wind farm configuration [7]
s + 50
s +1
1.0
0.01s s + 1000
Figure 9 Pitch angle controller of wind turbine
2.4 Synchronous Generator Model
In this paper main power source of grid is synchronous
generator. As mentioned before that diesel engine driven
power plant. Parameters of diesel engine and governor
system in [11] are considered. Governor maintain engine in
synchronous speed with controlling in the input fuel of
engine, and its block diagram is shown in figure 10 and its
parameters are shown in table II.
determined according to the deviation of network frequency
that detected by PLL (PLL installed at the terminal of
FESS)[12]. As said before when frequency of system has
been dropped FESS must supply active power to the network
to keep frequency in desire margin. When frequency is
above the desire range FESS must absorb surplus power to
keep frequency in desire range. This process has done by
controller that shown in figure 11. At the same time
PT ( ref ) changes to prevent shortage or surplus of stored
energy of FESS. Rotor speed has direct relevance with
power storage in FESS, so rotor speed must has range to
keep power storage in safety margin. In this paper, this range
is defined between 130% and 70% of rated speed
( 0.7 pu ≤ ω ≤ 1.3 pu ) by considering these margin
Sci.Int.(Lahore),25(4),769-775,2013 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 773

PT ( ref ) is modified to lower or higher value when rotor

TABLE. IV. PARAMETERS OF SYCHRONOUS GENERATOR
speed is under or over 1.044 pu respectively, at which stored
energy becomes a half of the maximum stored energy. Also Armature
0.0025
in table III shown that FESS controller avoid operating resistance (pu)
under 0.7 pu or over 1.3 pu rotor speed. Stator leakage
0.14
reactance (pu)
TABLE III Field resistance
RULE OF FESS CONTROL 0.0004
(pu)
F> 50 F< 50 Field leakage
Hz Hz 0.2
reactance (pu)
ωFESS ≤ 0.7 pu 1 0 D-axis Q-axis
0.7 pu ≤ ωFESS ≤ 1.3 pu 1 1 Magnetizing
1.66 0.91
reactance (pu)
ωFESS ≥ 1.3 pu 0 1 Damper
0.005 0.0084
resistance (pu)
If FESS can regulate frequency of network by injecting or Damper
absorbing power, so output power of SG may not change, leakage 0.044 0.0106
consequently, FESS can perform network frequency control reactance
instead of SG. But if stored energy in FESS becomes full or
empty, FESS cannot control frequency, thus network 4. CONVENTIONAL CONTROL METHOD
frequency deviate may be more than desire range. So in this As mentioned before FESS is playing an important role in
situation SG can help FESS to maintain frequency in desire this system to keep frequency in desire margin, so its size
range. So output power of SG needs to be regulated also is important. In this paper FESS is designed with
according to the stored energy of FESS. So a controller is considering this point that it must keep frequency in range,
used to achieve this purpose. This controller increases so it must be big enough to control frequency by store
(decreases) the output power of SG when rotor speed of enough energy, but because of economic aspects it become
FESS is below (over) of 1.044 pu which corresponds to a smaller as possible. By considering these point FESS is
half of the maximum storage energy of FESS. But if this designed as 70% of the wind farm, because output power of
command changes fast output power will also vary widely, wind farm can hardly reach its nominal value.
so it Impose mechanical stress on generator, and system has Two controllers have been proposed before. One of them
to prevent this situation. To keep generator away from this control frequency (shown in Table III and Fig.7) and another
risk that may harm it, control gain set to change command control output power of wind farm and make it smooth
slowly (as shown in figure 10). Governor in SG only control (shown in Table V and Fig.12). In conventional power
the speed of engine consequently it control output of SG. smoothing method, an energy storage system only smoothies
Parameters of SG are shown in table IV. In figure 13 a wind farm output fluctuations, and slow change of wind
simple AVR model is present. farm output is absorbed by several thermal and hydraulic
power plants installed as main generators in large power
1.044 0.03 ωex
system. However, since the total power rating and the
number of main power generators are limited in the case of
an isolated power system, power regulation may become
ωFESS 1.2s
30s + 1 difficult even when wind farm output fluctuation is small.
Moreover, the output of\ main power generators should be
Figure 12 Additional controller that adjusted output of the adjusted also to maintain the amount of residual energy of
diesel engine storage system. If the stored energy is not regulated suitably,
power balance of the isolated power system cannot be kept
when the stored energy reaches full or empty level.
Therefore, it can be said that the frequency stabilization in
10 100
the case of an isolated power system cannot be achieved
E fd
s + 10 s + 10 only by the conventional power smoothing scheme.
Table. V. RULE OF FESS CONTROL FOR POWER
VT 0 E fd 0
SMOOTHING

Figure 13 AVR model of the synchronous generator Pref ≥ 0 Pref ≤ 0

ωFESS ≤ 0.7 pu 1 0
0.7 pu ≤ ωFESS ≤ 1.3 pu 1 1
ωFESS ≥ 1.3pu 0 1
774 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8 Sci.Int.(Lahore),25(4),769-775,2013

NTCn = max(TCi)-TCn
1
(12)
PT ( prim )
1 +T D s

NTC n
Ppn = N imp
(13)
Fig.13. Reference signal regulator of the FESS for power
smoothing control
∑ NTC
i =1
i

Each empire that has higher value of power can take more
5. IMPERIALISTIC COMPETITIVE ALGORITHM colonies. So matrix like (14) is created. Another matrix with
Imperialistic Competitive Algorithm (ICA) is one of the size P by random value among 0, 1 is created in (15).
methods that used in optimization and many other fields.
This method starts with initial population called countries. P = [Pp1, Pp2 ,Pp3,…, Ppn ] (14)
Some country that has some advantage chosen to be
imperialist and the rest of them called colonies of these R = [r1, r2, r3,…, rn] (15)
countries. Countries are array that dimension of them are Referring to vector D the colonies of weakest empire are
related to the dimension of optimization. belonged to the empires. The number of colonies that are
Country = [P1, P2, P3…, PN] (5) taken from weak empire in each iteration is determined by
And cost function is also defined by: user. We can give all colonies of weakest empire to the
Ci = f(countryi) = f(P1, P2, P3…, PN) (6) empire whose relevant index in D is maximum value or
The initial colonies belong to imperialists in convenience distribute colonies to some empires based on matrix D.
with their power. Normalize cost of an imperialists in 6. PROPOSED CONTROLER
defined as (7), and colonies are distributed among In this paper new controller has introduce to reduce
imperialists proportionally. harmonics, this controller obtained by uses ICA method to
Cn = max(Ci) - cn (7) minimum the harmonic (objective function of ICA is
Cn, cn are respectively normalized cost and cost of nth harmonic). Proposed controller is shown in figure 14.
imperialists. Power of each imperialist is compute as (8). I 2D
s + 50
PT
8s + 20
s s + 1000
s 2 + 10s + 1
s2
V 2D
Cn (8)
Pn = N im p ωFESS
∑C i F
i =1
I 2Q
So, initial number colonies that belong to imperialists
V T ( ref )
8s + 80 s + 50
s + 1000
s 2 + 10s + 1 V 2Q
s2
derived from (9). s

NCn = rand (Pn.(Ncol)) (9) VT

In above equation, NCn is initial number of colonies belong Figure 14 New controller
to nth imperialists and Ncol is total number of colonies. Figures 15 and 16 are showing THD (Total Harmonic
After this process absorbing process is starting. The colony Distortion) in old method and proposed method. As seen in
moves towards the imperialist by x unit. The direction of these Figures, proposed controller reduces THD.
movement is the vector from colony to imperialist, as shown
in Fig.1, in this figure, the distance between the imperialist
and colony shown by d and x is a random variable with
uniform distribution. x can be calculated as (10).
x = U(0,β×d) (10)
When a colony move toward the imperialist, the objective
function of new colony sometimes become lower than
imperialist. Therefore in this stage, the new colony take a
role as imperialist and algorithm will continue by new
imperialist. Therefore, the rest of colonies in the empire start
moving toward new imperialist.
Next step is competition of empires. By considering their
power that compute before, each empire that has lower Figure 15 THD in old control
power lose its colonies and other empires take them.
The power of each imperialists is calculate as (11).
Tcn = cost(imperialistn)+
λ.mean[cost(colonies of nth empire)] (11)
that λ is number between 0,1. Then normalize power of
empire defined like normalized power of imperialists.
Sci.Int.(Lahore),25(4),769-775,2013 ISSN 1013-5316; CODEN: SINTE 8
Figure 16 THD in proposed control
This controller has some advantage too. If speed or less
fluctuation in system is needed, by change in coefficients,
these goals can be achieved, so flexibility in new controller
is an important advantage of this controller in comparison to
an old controller. Other excellence of controller is Simplicity
in perform and use, there is no complexity in it, so it can use
and perform as easiest as an old controller.
7. CONCLUSION
In this paper new controller for inverter of wind turbine has
been introduced. This system is designed to frequency
control in system that contains wind turbine and flywheel
energy storage and etc. but by change in controller of
inverter, THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) is reduce. So this
controller, control frequency of system in addition to reduce
THD in output voltage of wind turbine. Other advantage of
this new controller is simplicity of it, so by using this
controller system won’t become complex.
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