Adaptive Nonlinear Maximum Power Point Tracker for a

WECS Based on Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator

Fed by a Matrix Converter
Majid Alireza Safaee Suzan Eren Alireza Bakhshai Praveen Jain
Pahlevaninezhad

Member, IEEE Member, IEEE Member, IEEE Senior Member, IEEE Fellow Member, IEEE
Queen’s University Queen’s University Queen’s University Queen’s University Queen’s University
Walter Light Hall, Walter Light Hall, Walter Light Hall, Walter Light Hall, Walter Light Hall,
Room 114 Room 114 Room 114 Room 114 Room 114
Queen's University Queen's University Queen's University Queen's University Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, Ontario,
Canada Canada Canada Canada Canada
K7L 3N6 K7L 3N6 K7L 3N6 K7L 3N6 K7L 3N6
7mp@queensu.ca az_safaee@ieee.org 2se1@queensu.ca bakhshai@queensu.ca jainp@queensu.ca

Abstract -- This paper presents a new control method to ρ air density

track the maximum power point for a Wind Energy λ tip speed ratio
Conversion System (WECS). This WECS is based on a Cp Power coefficient
permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) fed by
a matrix converter. Since the mechanical power generated ωT (opt ) optimal value of the shaft rotational speed
by the wind turbine is a function of its shaft speed at a ωg Generator angular speed
given wind velocity, the proposed controller provides the
desired voltage at the output of the matrix converter so as ng Gear coefficient
to control the generator speed. This controller is based on J1 , J 2 inertias of the multiplier gearings
the nonlinear adaptive backstepping approach which is
well suited for this system. This method is able to TW Wind torque
effectively accommodate the effects of system Tg Generator torque
uncertainties. Theoretical analysis and simulation results
verify the feasibility and performance of the proposed JW Wind turbine inertia
approach. η Gear efficiency
id Generator d-axis current
Index Terms-- Wind Energy, PMSG, Matrix Converter, iq Generator q-axis current
Maximum Power Point Tracking, Adaptive Integrator
Backstepping approach. p Number of poles
ud Generator d-axis voltage

I. NOMENCLATURE
B Friction coefficient
φ Generator flux
n Wind turbine speed
Γw wind torque ω Generator Angular frequency
Pw Wind Power e Speed error
β rotor blade pitch angle ωref
*
Reference value for generator speed
v wind velocity
iq* Reference value for q-axis current
ωT shaft angular speed
âi estimated parameters
CΓ torque coefficient
R blade length ed Generator d-axis voltage

978-1-4244-2893-9/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE 2578

 eq Generator q-axis voltage
V2 Lyapanov function
μi Coefficients of the adaptation laws
a~i Parameters estimated errors
V Lyapunov function
II. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, renewable energies are becoming increasingly
important as alternative energy sources. Many factors such as
diminishing fossil-fuel resources, energy security concerns,
and increased global warming increase the need for
renewable energy sources. Wind is one of the most abundant
renewable energy sources and it can be harnessed by wind
turbines. This energy is transformed into mechanical energy
by wind turbines and then converted to electrical energy by
generators. Thus, WECSs consist of a wind turbine, an
electric generator and a power converter [1-2].
Different types of components can be used to realize a
WECS. Many different configurations of WECSs have been
reported in the literature [3]. The common candidates for the
generator are Doubly-Fed Induction Generators (DFIG),
Squirrel Cage Induction Generators (SCIG), and Permanent
Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSG). The conventional
back-to-back voltage source converter is usually used to
connect the generator to the grid. In this converter, the DC-
link capacitor provides the decoupling between the generator
and grid; however, it is bulky and has a pretty short life time.
The matrix converter realizes a direct AC/AC conversion,
and it is a good candidate for this application. This converter
can control the magnitude, frequency and phase angle of the
output voltage as well as the input power factor. Despite the
attractive features of the matrix converter, it suffers from
some problems such as low voltage gain, complex control, bi-
directional switches and lack of ride-through capability [4-7].
However, there are also many papers that are reporting
solutions to mitigate these difficulties. Thus, the matrix
converter seems to be a promising approach for AC/AC
conversion [8].
WECSs have so many uncertainties due to the erratic nature
of wind-based systems. Therefore, the controller should
accommodate the effects of uncertainties and keep the system
stable against a large variation of system parameters. The
conventional PI-based controllers cannot fully satisfy stability
and performance requirements. On the other hand, the system
is highly nonlinear and has a large range of operating points.
Thus, linearization around one operating point cannot be
employed to design the controller. Nonlinear control methods
2579
can be used to effectively solve this problem. The integrator
backstepping approach is a nonlinear method which is
perfectly suited for PMSG-based systems. In this paper, an
adaptive integrator backstepping approach is used to suppress
the effects of uncertainties and keep the system stable for a
large variation of parameters.
III. PROPOSED WIND ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEM
Fig. 1 illustrates the proposed scheme for the WECS. The
wind blades rotate the shaft which is connected to the
generator through a gear box. The mechanical energy is
converted to electrical energy by the generator and the matrix
converter is the interface between the generator and grid. The
nonlinear controller provides proper switching signals for the
matrix converter so as to extract maximum power from the
wind turbine. It also accommodates the system uncertainties
through an adaptive algorithm. To design the nonlinear
controller the WECS model should be derived. Fig.2
illustrates the WECS block diagram. First of all, the wind
turbine model needs to be derived. The wind speed is the
main input signal of the wind turbine system. The speed,
obviously, depends on the given site and atmospheric
conditions. Therefore, its variation is absolutely erratic and
difficult to model. The wind turbine model given in [9] is
Pw 1
Γw = = .π .ρ .v 2 .R 3 .CΓ (λ ) ,
ωT 2
−c5
c2 1 1 0.035
C p (λ ,θ ) = c1 ( − c3 β − c4 )e λi + c6 λ , = − 3
λi λi λ + 0.08β β + 1
(1)
where β is the rotor blade pitch angle, v is the wind
velocity, ωT is the shaft angular speed, CΓ = C p / λ is the
torque coefficient, R is the blade length of the wind turbine,
ρ is the air density and λ = RωT / v is the tip speed ratio of
the wind turbine, and C p is a function of the tip speed ratio
and blade pith angle.
 d iq
= − a1iq + pω id − a3ω g + a2u q
dt
d ωg
= a6 − a5ω + a4iq (3)
dt
R 1 Pφ 3Pφ B
where a1 = , a 2 = , a3 = , a4 = , a5 = and,
L L L 2J h Jh
nΓ
a6 = .
Fig. 1 WECS block diagram J h ng

IV. MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING (MPPT)

Optimal operation of the WECS is to extract the maximum

power from wind. At a fixed wind velocity, the maximum
achievable power occurs at a specific shaft speed. Thus,
optimal control of the WECS means that it has to track the
optimal value of the shaft rotational speed, namely,
Fig. 2 WECS block diagram v.λopt
ωT (opt ) = .
R
The drive train model is given by [10]
Due to the erratic nature of wind, nonlinear variant behavior
dω g η
ω g = n g ωT , Jh = ⋅ TW − T g , of the WECS, poor reliability of the measured information
dt ng and unknown parameters, the control method used to track
η the optimal speed should be robust enough against these
J h = (J1 + J W ) ⋅ + J2 + Jg (2)
ng issues. Fig. 4 shows the proposed maximum power point
where J1 and J 2 are the inertias of the multiplier gearings. tracker for the WECS.
The approach is basically based on the calculation of the
Fig. 3 illustrates the wind turbine model.
power gradient. Since the power curve is a convex curve,
there is no local maximum. Thus, the algorithm can easily
find the maximum point based on the power gradient.
ωr
vw λ C (λ , β )
p P w
T w
Tw Eventually, the search algorithm provides the reference value
ρ
for the shaft rotational speed. This reference value is the
β R
command signal for the adaptive integrator backstepping
controller. This controller produces the desired voltage vector
Fig. 3 Wind turbine model for the matrix converter so as to track the speed reference and
hence track the maximum power point for the wind turbine.
This controller is robust against system uncertainties.

P ∂ ∂P V
V. ADAPTIVE BACKSTEPPING CONTROLLER DESIGN FOR
ref

ω T ∂t ∂ω
WECS
T

Fig. 4 MPPT block diagram The proposed controller in this paper is based on a
nonlinear approach called integrator backstepping. The
The matrix converter does not have any storage element, concept of the integrator backstepping approach is fully
and thus has no dynamics. Thus the WECS is modeled as a explained in [10]. The control objective is that the generator
third order system defined by: rotational speed tracks the reference value derived by the
d id MPPT algorithm. Therefore, the error is defined using the
= − a1id + pω iq + a2u d
dt

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rotational speed e = ωref − ω and the first Lyapanov ⎛ aˆ k ⎞
a&ˆ5 = μ5 ⎜⎜ eω − 5 ω eq + 1 ω eq ⎟⎟ ,
⎛ aˆ k ⎞
aˆ& 6 = μ 6 ⎜⎜ e − 5 eq + 1 eq ⎟⎟
⎝ ˆ
a4 ˆ
a4 ⎠ ⎝ ˆ
a4 ˆ
a4 ⎠
function is defined as
1 2 (11)
V1 = e (4)
2
The time derivative of V1 is given by The Lyapanov function derivative is given by
(
V&1 = e e& = e ω& ref − a6 + a5ω + a4iq ) (5) V&2 = −k1e 2 − k 2 eq2 − k3ed2 (12)

iq is considered to be the virtual control input. Thus, its The controller is implemented by Eq. (10) and (11) which is
simulated by using a C-script in PSIM.
reference is obtained as
iq* = α (t ) =
1
a4
[
− k1 − ω ref + a6 − a5ω ] (6)
VI. STABILITY ANALYSIS
Because the parameters are unknown the virtual control is
given by According to (12), the Lyapunov function derivative is not
iq* = α (t ) =
1
aˆ 4
[
− k1 − ω ref + aˆ 6 − aˆ5ω ] (7) negative definite and is just negative semidefinite. Thus the
adaptive backstepping lemma only guarantees global
where âi are the estimated parameters. boundedness of and regulation of e , ed , eq but not the
On the other hand, the reference value for id is zero, because regulation of a~i . Therefore, the estimated parameters do not
the maximum power can be extracted from the PMSG if the necessarily converge to the actual values. This can be proven
d-component of the current is zero . Thus, ed and eq are by Barbalet’s lemma.

∫ (1k 4e 4+4k 2e 4+4k 4e3)dt = V (t ) − V (0)

t t
defined by
∫
2 2 2
V&2 dt = V (t ) − V (0) − 1 2 q 3 d ,
0 0
ed = id* − i d = −i d , E (T )

eq = iq* − iq = α (t ) = t
∫ E (t ) dt = V (0) − V (t )
0
(13)
1
[
− k1 − ω ref + aˆ 6 − aˆ 5ω − iq ] (8)
∞
aˆ 4 Therefore, lim
t →∞ 0∫ E (τ ) dτ exists and is finite. It is just
Finally the Lyapanov function is defined as required to show that E (t ) is uniformly continuous. The time
1⎡ 1 ~ 2⎤
6
V2 = ⎢e 2 + ed 2 + eq 2 +
2⎢ ∑ μi
ai ⎥
⎥
(9) derivative of V& (t ) is V&& = −2k1e e& − 2k2e q e&q − 2k3e d e&d which
⎣ i =1 ⎦ is bounded, hence V& is uniformly continuous. Invoking
Barbaret’s lemma, the errors converges to zero lim E (t ) = 0
where a~i is the estimated error a~i = ai − aˆi . t →∞

Control laws and adaptive laws are derived by differentiating Therefore, the objective of tracking is achieved under
the Lyapanov function with respect to time. parameter uncertainties and disturbances.

ud =
1
ˆa2 1 d
(
aˆ i − pω iq + k 2 ed , ) VII. MATRIX CONVERTER

⎛ k3eq − aˆ 4 e + aˆ1iq + pω id + aˆ3ω + aˆ5iq ⎞ The matrix converter is an array of semiconductors which
1 ⎜ ⎟
uq = ⎜ ˆ5
a 2 ˆ5
a 2
k k ⎟ (10) interfaces between two multi-phase systems with different
aˆ 2 ⎜ − ω + aˆ 6 − k1iq + 1 aˆ5ω − 1 aˆ 6 ⎟
⎜ aˆ ˆ
a4 ˆ
a4 ˆ
a4 ⎠ ⎟ frequencies. Fig. 5 shows a three-phase-to-three-phase matrix
⎝ 4

( q q )
2 2 d d(
&aˆ = μ e i + e i , a&ˆ = μ − e u − e u , aˆ& = μ ω e ,
1 1 d d q q 3 3 q ) ( ) converter with 9 bi-directional switches. The operation
principles of the matrix converter and its modulation schemes
⎛ aˆ k ⎞ are comprehensively explained in [25]. In this paper, a space
a&ˆ 4 = μ 4 ⎜⎜ − eiq + 5 eq iq − 1 eq iq ⎟⎟
⎝ aˆ 4 aˆ 4 ⎠ vector modulation technique is employed as the modulation
scheme for the matrix converter. According to Fig. 5, the
output voltage reference vector and input current reference
vector are applied by the MPPT to the matrix converter

2581
coontroller. The matrix
m convertter produces a set of voltagess to parametters are given in Table I. Fiig. 8-1 and 8--2, illustrate
coontrol the PMSSG angular speeed so that the maximum pow wer the outpput phase and line voltages and
a Fig. 9 shoows the line
is extracted from
m the wind turb
bine. voltage frequency speectrum. Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 illlustrate the
shaft sppeed tracking for
f a step changge in the windd speed with
A the prooposed controller and the coonventional PI controller
respectiively. The propposed controller is much fasster than the
a
conventtional PI one. The
T MPPT is shown
s in Fig. 12 and Fig.
P
PMSG b
Grid
13 for step
s and sinusooidal changes in the wind sppeed profile
B c

respectiively.
C
Matrix
Converter
Gate Signals

MPPT T
V o , ref Matrix Table I: Systeem Parameterss
Controlller Converteer
I in , ref Modulatoor
Fig. 5 Matrrix Converter Rs=1.93Ω Ld=8mH Lq=8mH
P
P=2 J=
=2m B
B=0.0002
Po=1KW

AC/AC
Gear Converter G
Grid
Box PMSG
Matrix Converter

Grrid
Wind

S ij VAB
ω MPPT
Vref
IAB
Controller SVPWM

F 6 SVM for matrix converrter

Fig. Fig. 7:
7 System Blockk diagram

Thhe matrix convverter is controolled by selectinng an appropriiate

seet of switchingg functions. Thhere are two geeneral approachhes
too derive switchhing functions: direct and inddirect modulattion
[55-6]. In this paper, the direcct method hass been chosenn to
coontrol the matrrix converter. In
I this method,, the input currrent
veector and thee output voltaage vector arre given as the
reeference vectoors to the modulator
m andd the switchhing
fuunctions are determined
d so as to get thhe desired outtput
vooltage and inpput current. Fig.
F 6 illustrattes the simulaated
diirect space vector modulation n in PSIM. Fig.88-1 Line and Phhase Voltages

V
VIII. PERFORM
MANCE ANALY
YSIS

Fiig. 7 shows thee simulated WEECS. The perfformance analyysis

is carried out foor a low powerr prototype. However,
H they can
c
eaasily be applieed to the highh power systeems. The PMSG

2582

Fig.8-2 Line Voltages
Fig. 10 Shaft speed response with the proposed controller
Fig. 11 Shaft speed response with PI controller
Fig. 12 Shaft speed response to the wind speed step change
2583
Fig. 13 Shaft speed response to the wind speed sinusoidal change
IX. CONCLUSION
This paper presented an adaptive nonlinear approach for
maximum power point tracking of a WECS. The proposed
approach is also robust against system parameter
uncertainties. In addition, the closed loop stability has been
analyzed for the proposed controller through a nonlinear
analysis. A matrix converter is utilized as an interface
between the wind turbine and the load. Direct space vector
modulation is used to control the matrix converter switches.
Theoretical analysis and simulation results are given to verify
the feasibility and performance of the proposed approach.
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