Short Circuit Analysis of DFIG

WIND ENERGY
Wind Energ. (2011)

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/we.524
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Short-circuit analysis of a doubly fed induction

generator wind turbine with direct current
chopper protection
F. Sulla, J. Svensson and O. Samuelsson
IEA, Lund University, PO Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
ABSTRACT
Modern doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines can ride through a symmetrical fault in the network by using
a chopper protection on the direct current (DC) link without triggering a crowbar protection. A novel method to model the
DC link system of such wind turbines as an equivalent resistance during symmetrical faults is presented in this paper. The
method allows looking at the DFIG with chopper protection as to one with an equivalent crowbar protection and, hence,
to apply to the former type of DFIG short-circuit calculation methods developed for a DFIG with crowbar protection. This
may be a valid help in short-circuit calculations, for example, for protection settings. It also allows simulating for short-
circuit studies a DFIG with chopper protection, often not available in a standard power system simulation software, by using
an equivalent DFIG with crowbar protection, which is a standard model in power system simulation software. The results
for the short-circuit current obtained through the proposed method are compared with simulations of a detailed model of a
DFIG with chopper protection under different conditions, which showed good agreement. It is also shown that the DFIG
with chopper protection delivers lower short-circuit current than a DFIG with standard crowbar protection, especially for
low initial loading. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEYWORDS
DFIG; short-circuit current; grid fault ride through; chopper; crowbar
Correspondence
F. Sulla, IEA, Lund University, PO Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
E-mail: Francesco.Sulla@iea.lth.se
Received 10 March 2011; Revised 1 July 2011; Accepted 3 September 2011
1. INTRODUCTION
Doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) are widely used in wind turbines along with induction or permanent-magnet syn-
chronous generators interfaced to the network through power electronic converters. The rotor circuit of the DFIG in wind
power applications is connected to the network through a back-to-back converter, made up of a rotor side converter (RSC)
and a grid side converter (GSC). A drawback with DFIG wind turbines is that they are sensible to short circuits in the net-
work because of the high currents induced in the rotor circuit. The DFIG wind turbine is commonly protected by blocking
the RSC and connecting an external resistance, called crowbar, to the rotor circuit to avoid damage to the semiconductor
devices of the RSC. During the blocking period of the RSC, the DFIG current is uncontrolled. The short-circuit contribu-
tion of DFIG wind turbines with crowbar protection has been the subject of various papers.1–5 However, modern DFIG
wind turbines may be protected by the simultaneous blocking of the RSC and the switching of a chopper resistance on the
direct current (DC) link,6,7 without activating any crowbar protection. The two solutions with crowbar and DC chopper are
shown in Figure 1.
The fault current delivered by a DFIG wind turbine with DC chopper protection is seldom analyzed in the literature.
Measurements under network faults are shown in Engelhardt and Geniusz,6 but a method to calculate the fault currents is
not provided in that reference. In Martínez et al.,7 a theoretical analysis of the behavior of a DFIG with chopper protection
during symmetrical faults was proposed. The analysis resulted in the parameterization of a synchronous generator to rep-
resent a DFIG with chopper protection. The analysis proposed in Martínez et al.7 was based on the assumption that during
a symmetrical fault, the DC link capacitor and chopper can be represented simply as a resistance whose value is chosen to
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Short-circuit analysis of a DFIG wind turbine with chopper F. Sulla, J. Svensson and O. Samuelsson
Figure 1. DFIG with crowbar (left) and chopper (right) protection.
be the resistance value of the chopper. This assumption means that the whole rotor current rectified by the diode bridge of
the RSC goes into the DC chopper resistance, i.e., no current goes into the DC link capacitor. This may be correct just after
a solid three-phase fault close to the DFIG terminals when the DFIG is at full power, depending on the chopper resistance
value. Some time after the fault, for less severe faults or if the DFIG is not at full power, the DC chopper will, however, not
be continuously switched on after the fault, but it will be switched according to a modulation index calculated to control
the DC link voltage within a tolerance band. Under these conditions, using the DC chopper nominal resistance value does
not result in an accurate modeling.
A closer analysis of the system made up of the rotor circuit, the diode bridge of the RSC, the DC link capacitor
and chopper is performed in this paper. The basic idea behind the analysis is the same as in reference Martínez et al.,7
i.e., to model the DC link capacitor and chopper as an equivalent resistance seen from the DFIG rotor circuit. However,
it is shown that an accurate modeling requires a different value of the equivalent resistance for each different symmetrical
fault and initial loading of the DFIG.
Detailed models of a DFIG with chopper protection are not commonly available in power systems simulation packages.
Before simulating, modeling of the DFIG with chopper protection should be performed, with explicit detailed represen-
tation of the switched chopper resistance with its control logic and of the free-wheeling diodes of the RSC. This would
also result in an increase of the required simulation time. The approach proposed in this paper allows disregarding all these
issues and allows using the standard model of a DFIG with crowbar protection also to represent a DFIG with chopper
protection during short circuits.
The proposed equivalence between DFIG with chopper and crowbar protection also allows to use short-circuit calcula-
tion methods developed for a DFIG with crowbar protection, for example, the methods exposed in Morren and de Haan1
and Sulla et al.5 In particular, the maximum short-circuit current delivered to the grid can be calculated.
Because of the difficulty in performing short-circuit test connected to a strong network in a laboratory environment,
the proposed theoretical analysis has been validated through simulations in MatLAB SimPowerSystems (MathWorks,
Natick, MA).
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the commonly employed crowbar and the DC chopper protection
schemes for a DFIG in wind power application are briefly presented. In Section 3, the concept of looking at the DC link
capacitance and chopper as an equivalent resistance is introduced. A theoretical analysis of an alternating current (AC)
voltage source feeding a DC source through a diode bridge rectifier is presented in Section 4. This analysis is extended to
the DFIG with chopper protection in Section 6. Description of the performed simulations is given in Section 7. Finally,
some main conclusions are reported in Section 8.
2. CROWBAR AND DC CHOPPER PROTECTION SCHEMES

In the event of a short circuit, the RSC of a DFIG is blocked and the rotor current deviated through a crowbar resistance.
Until some years ago, the crowbar resistance was inserted through a thyristor switch, which made it impossible to discon-
nect the crowbar resistance before the rotor current had decayed to zero. This configuration of crowbar protection is named
‘passive crowbar’,8 and it would require disconnection of the wind turbine after the fault, therefore not complying with the
most recent requirements on Grid Fault Ride Through. By replacing the thyristor with a fully controllable switch, as for
example an IGBT, the crowbar resistance can be disconnected before the rotor current has decayed to zero and even when
the fault is still present. This configuration is called ‘active crowbar’.8 When the rotor current has decayed below a certain
value, the active crowbar may be disconnected, and the RSC may be re-started. In this way, the DFIG does not need to be
disconnected from the network but can ride through the fault contributing to active and reactive power injection after the
crowbar has been disconnected. It is noted that when the active crowbar is inserted, the DFIG behaves as a short-circuited
induction generator.
However, the active crowbar alone may not be sufficient to achieve GFRT. A chopper on the DC link may be necessary
to keep the DC link capacitor voltage within an acceptable range. The next step taken in modern DFIG wind turbines is
Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/we
F. Sulla, J. Svensson and O. Samuelsson Short-circuit analysis of a DFIG wind turbine with chopper
to remove the crowbar and protect the unit with only the DC chopper.7 At the event of a short circuit, the RSC switches
are blocked, and the rotor current is led into the DC link capacitor through the free-wheeling diodes of the RSC. The DC
chopper is inserted to regulate the DC capacitor voltage. In this way, the rotor circuit is rapidly demagnetized,9 and as in
the case of the active crowbar protection, the RSC can be re-started when the rotor current decreases below a certain value.
For this configuration of the DFIG wind turbine, the free-wheeling diodes of the RSC must be oversized to handle the
short-circuit currents.
The highest fault currents are delivered immediately after a fault occurrence, when the RSC is blocked. The fault current
is related only to the physical system composed by the induction generator with its rotor circuit connected to the DC link
capacitor and DC chopper resistance through a diode bridge rectifier. It is the fault current contribution during the time the
RSC is blocked that is the main subject of this paper.
3. DFIG WITH DC CHOPPER PROTECTION

After the short-circuit occurrence, the RSC is blocked and the rotor current flows into the DC link. Under this period, the
rotor circuit of the DFIG is thus connected to the DC link capacitor through the diode bridge made up by the antiparallel
diodes of the RSC. The chopper resistance will be switched to keep the DC capacitor voltage within acceptable values. The
GSC will also strive to control the DC link capacitor voltage, but under serious faults, its capability for DC link voltage
control is highly reduced. The rotor circuit demagnetizes feeding current into the DC link capacitor, whose voltage is con-
trolled through the chopper. As explained in Lopez et al.,10 it is mainly the voltage caused in the rotor circuit by the natural
stator flux that causes high rotor currents. The natural stator flux arises to assure the continuity of the stator flux before and
after the fault, according to the flux linkage theorem.11 This voltage decays with the stator transient time constant10 and
has a frequency equal to .1 slip/ times the network frequency. During this period, the rotor circuit of the DFIG can be
considered as a three-phase decaying voltage source, induced in the rotor by the stator natural flux, connected through a
diode bridge rectifier, the antiparallel diodes of the blocked RSC, to a constant DC voltage source; see Figure 2.
When the rotor current has decayed sufficiently, the RSC may be re-started while the fault is still present. During this
stage, the RSC is able to control the rotor current and, hence, the stator current. The problem addressed here is to estimate
the fault current delivered during the period the RSC is blocked.
The described system is highly non-linear due to the presence of the diode bridge and due to the action of the chopper.
Some simplifications must be done to allow for an analytical study to be carried out.
In this paper, the main idea is to look upon the DC link system composed of the DC link capacitor and the chopper as
of a fixed DC voltage source. This is of course an approximation since the DC link voltage will actually vary during the
transient, but if the chopper is properly sized and controlled, the DC link voltage variation will not exceed a predefined
value, e.g., ˙10% of its nominal value. In turn, the DC link voltage source is seen from the rotor circuit side of the diode
bridge rectifier as a variable resistance, whose value is equal to the ratio between the DC link voltage and the rectified rotor
current. The value of this resistance will change with time, because of the decaying transient rotor current. The equivalent
resistance seen from the rotor circuit is much higher than the rotor winding resistance, and it increases with time, since
the rotor current decreases with time. In effect, it is therefore possible to look at this configuration of the DFIG as a short-
circuited induction generator with an equivalent high rotor resistance, with the only difference that the equivalent rotor
resistance is now changing with time. However, to simplify the analysis, the value of the equivalent resistance seen from
the rotor circuit is assumed to be constant and equal to the ratio between the nominal DC link voltage and the rectified rotor
current at the instant of the short circuit.
Figure 2. Equivalent circuit of a DFIG rotor circuit connected to the DC link through the antiparallel diodes of the RSC during a
three-phase short circuit. The AC voltage is induced by the natural stator flux. L is the per-phase inductance on the AC side. The
resistance on the AC side is neglected.

DOI: 10.1002/we
The equivalent resistance will act as a crowbar resistance implying a very fast demagnetization of the rotor natural flux,
i.e., a fast decay of the AC stator current component induced by the rotor natural flux. Once the value of the equivalent
resistance seen by the rotor circuit is known, it can be used to calculate the maximum short-circuit current of the DFIG as
if this had a crowbar protection, using, for example, the methods proposed in Morren and de Haan1 or Sulla et al.5 The key
issue is therefore to estimate the equivalent resistance seen by the rotor circuit during the period the RSC is blocked. To do
this, we first analyze the circuit shown in Figure 2.
4. DIODE BRIDGE RECTIFIER WITH DC VOLTAGE SOURCE

When a three-phase fixed magnitude voltage source with a series AC inductance is connected to a DC voltage source
through a diode bridge rectifier, as in Figure 2, it will supply a current whose magnitude decreases with increasing DC
voltage. If the ratio between the peak AC and DC voltages is sufficiently high, the AC side current is close to a sinusoidal
curve, and it flows continuously. In the following, it is assumed that this condition holds, when not otherwise stated. Sim-
ulated voltages and currents for such a system are shown in Figure 3. The DC current will consist of six pulses during one
period. To calculate the AC current as a function of the AC and DC voltages, we can notice that the diode D1 in Figure 2
must start conducting when the current in phase a becomes positive, i.e., at !t D ; see Figure 3. Meanwhile, diode D3
will still conduct until the current in phase c becomes negative. Therefore, under this period, the DC rectified current is the
sum of the currents in phase a and phase c. Diode D5 is also conducting during this period. After the current in phase c has
become negative, diode D3 will cease to conduct, and diode D6 takes over the current in phase c. At this stage, the rectified
current is equal to phase a current, flowing through diode D1.
The AC voltages and currents can be expressed as
van D V sin .!t/

vbn D V sin !t 23 (1)

vcn D V sin !t 43
ia D I sin .!t
/
ib D I sin !t 23 (2)

ic D I sin !t 43
In the period in which diodes D1, D5 and D6 are conducting, the circuit shown in Figure 2 is equivalent to the one shown
in Figure 4.
Figure 3. Simulated phase a (solid), phase b (dashed), phase c (dashed-dotted) and DC (o) voltages (above) and currents (below) for
the system shown in Figure 2. The peak AC voltage is higher than the DC voltage.

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During this period, one can write, with reference to Figure 4,
vbn L dib dic

dt C L dt vcn D 0 (3)
van vbn L dt C L di
dia b
dt D Vd
The above equations are valid in particular for !t D C =2, i.e., when phase a current is at its maximum. By solving
the above equations at !t D C =2 for and I using the definition of voltages and currents given in (1) and (2), after
some manipulations, one gets

D cos1 2V 3V
d
(4)
I D V !L
sin./
The above expressions are valid under the assumption that the AC current is sinusoidal. Simulations of the system shown
in Figure 2 show that this requires that the ratio between V and Vd should be greater than 1.
Seen from the AC side, the DC voltage source is equivalent in steady state to a resistance whose value is the ratio
between the DC voltage and the average rectified current, reported to the AC side of the diode rectifier:
Vd Vd
Rd D Id D 3 I
(5)
2
Req D 3 Rd
The term 3= is used to get the average value of the rectified current, made up of six pulses, given the peak value of the
AC current. The term 2/3 is due to the fact that the resistance on the DC side is referred to the AC side. Here, the condi-
tion that the maximum instantaneous power on the DC side should be equal to the power delivered to the equivalent AC
resistance has been used along with the condition of same peak current in both cases. These conditions can be expressed as
p 2
PDC;max D Rd I 2 D PAC D 3Req I = 2 (6)
Figure 4. Equivalent circuit for the system shown in Figure 2, when diodes D1, D5 and D6 are conducting.
Figure 5. Simulated phase a (solid), phase b (dashed), phase c (dashed-dotted) and DC (o) voltages (above) and currents (below) for
the system shown in Figure 2. The peak AC voltage is almost equal to the DC voltage.

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By solving (6), one finds that the equivalent resistance seen from the AC side is Req D 2=3 Rd . Applying this relation
results in the same peak current in both cases.
The result in (5) has been verified by comparing simulations of the system in Figure 2 with the same system but with the
diode bridge and Vd replaced by a resistance, whose value is given by (5). The above analysis is valid under the assumption
that the peak AC voltage is higher than the DC voltage.
The currents in a case when the peak AC voltage is almost equal to the DC voltage are shown in Figure 5. It is observed
that they can no longer be considered as sinusoids. Even in these cases, it is possible to replace the DC voltage with a
resistance Rd behind the diode bridge. However, the resistance Rd increases as compared with the one calculated in (5).
The increase is non-linear and depends on the ratio between the AC RMS voltage and the DC voltage according to Figure 6,
which has been obtained by simulations. Simulations also show that these results are independent of the value of the induc-
tance on the AC side, at least for a wide range of inductance values. Even in this case, the equivalence between the system
in Figure 2 and the same system in which Vd is replaced by a properly chosen resistance has been checked through simu-
lations. When the currents are no longer sinusoidal, the second of (5) is no longer exact, since replacing the diode rectifier
and the DC voltage source with an equivalent resistance on the AC side, obviously, cannot reproduce the non-sinusoidal
AC currents. However, choosing Req , as in (5) and according to Figure 6, still gives a reasonable approximation of the AC
current for the system shown in Figure 2. A case is reported in Figure 7 where the non-sinusoidal current of the system with
DC voltage source and diode rectifier is shown along with the current in the same system but with an equivalent resistance
on the AC side.
5. DFIG WITH DC CHOPPER PROTECTION

The results obtained above for a diode bridge rectifier and a DC voltage source can be directly translated to the rotor circuit
of a DFIG with chopper protection during a three-phase fault when the RSC is blocked. All DFIG AC voltages and currents
in this section are expressed in a stator reference frame and are observed from the stator.
Figure 6. Ratio between the effective resistance on the DC side (found by simulations) and the resistance calculated with the first
of (5) as a function of the ratio between the RMS AC voltage and the DC voltage.
Figure 7. Simulated AC phase currents for the system shown in Figure 2 (solid) and for the same system but with the DC voltage
source and diode rectifier replaced by an equivalent resistance on the AC side (dashed). The ratio between the RMS AC voltage and
the DC voltage was chosen to be equal to 0.8.

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The DC link voltage seen from the stator is

0 Nstat
Vd D Vd;nom (7)
Nrot
where Nstat and Nrot indicate the number of turns of stator and rotor windings. The apex is used in (7) to indicate that
the DC quantity is referred to the stator side. A typical value of the rotor to stator winding turns ratio for a DFIG in wind
power application may be around 3. This is to get low currents in the rotor circuit during normal operation, thus reducing
the current rating for the RSC.
As explained in Lopez et al.,10 it is the voltage caused in the rotor by the stator natural flux that is the highest component
in the transient rotor voltage during symmetrical faults. Its frequency is equal to the electrical rotor speed, and its peak
value seen from the stator at the moment of fault occurrence is given as
RMS RMS
!
p Lm Vpre;LL Vpost;LL
Vr;nat D .1 s/ 2 p p (8)
Ls 3 3
RMS and V RMS are the
Vr;nat is the peak value of the AC voltage in the rotor circuit, i.e., it must substitute V in (4). Vpre;LL post;LL
line-to-line steady-state voltages before and after the fault. To find the peak value of the rotor current after fault occurrence,
one must take into account that the angular frequency of the induced AC rotor voltage is equal to the rotor angular speed
!r . The equivalent inductance on the AC side of the rectifier, i.e., the rotor circuit, is equal to the series connection of the
rotor leakage inductance and the parallel between the magnetizing and the stator leakage inductance. This is the transient
0
rotor inductance Lr , defined, for example, in Morren and de Haan.1 The resulting equations for a DFIG, corresponding to
(4) and (5), are thus
0 !
1 2Vd
D cos
3Vd;nat
(9)
Vr;nat sin . /
Ir D 0
!r Lr
0 0
2 Vd 2 V
Req D D 3d (10)
3 Id0 3 Ir
For the DFIG model considered in the simulations, the following values apply:
RMS
p Vpre;LL
2 p D 469 V
3 (11)
0
Vd D 335 V
The ratio between the induced peak AC rotor voltage and the DC link voltage, both of them referred to the stator side,
depends on the initial slip and on the magnitude of the voltage dip during the fault.
The following values are obtained in case of a solid short circuit for three different slips:
Vr;nat
0 1:8 ; for s D 0:3;
Vd
Vr;nat
0 1:4 ; for s D 0;
Vd
Vr;nat
0 1; for s D C0:3
Vd
(12)
As it can be seen for high positive slip values, the ratio between the induced rotor voltage and the DC link voltage
approaches 1. This means that the equivalent resistance calculated in (5) must be increased as shown in Figure 6. For neg-
ative slip values, the analysis resulting in (5) should give acceptable results. Negative slip values are also those resulting in
higher short-circuit currents.
The ratios in (12) are actually valid only at the moment of fault occurrence. They decrease with time as the induced rotor
voltage decreases. As a consequence, a variable equivalent resistance should be considered, and it would increase with
time. However, this is not practical for use in a simulation tool, and the use of a fixed resistance is proposed here instead,
whose value is obtained just after fault occurrence as in (10).

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6. SIMULATIONS
Because of the practical difficulties in performing short-circuit tests of a DFIG connected to a strong network in the lab-
oratory, the above analysis has been checked against simulations. The aim of this section is to check how accurately the
DC link system of a DC chopper protected DFIG can be represented as an equivalent resistance, according to the the-
oretical analysis performed above. The short-circuit current delivered by a DFIG wind turbine with chopper protection
has been therefore compared with the one delivered by the same DFIG wind turbine but equipped with a crowbar pro-
tection, whose resistance has been appropriately chosen. Simulations have been performed in MatLAB SimPowerSystems
(MatLAB R2009b, SimPowerSystems Version 5.2), and a DFIG model available in the standard library has been used. The
DFIG wind turbine is connected to an external power system as shown in Figure 8, without a step-up transformer. The
voltage dip during the fault can be varied by changing the value of the parameter p, with p D 1 corresponding to a solid
short circuit at the DFIG terminals.
The DFIG control in steady state is described in Miller et al.12 The RSC controls the d and q rotor currents to track
the torque command and the reactive power command. The GSC controls the DC link voltage. The model has been mod-
ified to represent a DFIG with crowbar protection or with chopper protection. The crowbar is inserted at the moment of
fault occurrence. The chopper is connected through a controllable switch when the DC link capacitor voltage exceeds a
predefined value and disconnected when it reaches a second lower value.
The RSC is kept blocked in both cases for 100 ms, i.e., for the total duration of the fault. Only one model at a time is
connected. The parameters for the induction generator used to model the DFIG are reported in Table I.
The crowbar resistance for the model with crowbar protection is chosen according to (10) and, when necessary, modified
according to the results in Figure 6. The value of the crowbar resistance depends, therefore, on the voltage dip during the
fault and on the initial slip of the DFIG. Therefore, for each different simulation, the value of the crowbar resistance has
been adjusted.
In commercial wind turbines, the RSC is re-started when the rotor current decreases below a threshold value, and there-
fore, the time the RSC is blocked will depend upon the kind of fault, voltage dip magnitude and the DFIG pre-fault slip.
However, not knowing in detail how the conditions to restart the RSC are implemented in a commercial wind turbine, it is
here assumed that the RSC remains blocked for 100 ms. Only the DFIG fault currents during the time the RSC is blocked
are reported here. This implies that the short-circuit current shown in the next figures must be interpreted as the one that
the DFIG would deliver if the RSC is not re-started.
The current contribution of the GSC is not included either. In the worst case, the GSC current may be up to about 30% of
the rated wind turbine power, depending on the GSC rating, and can be considered to be known. This current contribution
could be accounted for if needed, by adding it to the fault current delivered by the DFIG. A study on the influence of the
GSC current contribution on the total wind turbine fault current is performed in Sulla et al.5
Figure 8. Single-line diagram of the power system used in the simulations. The parameter Xth has been fixed to one hundredth of
the generator base impedance to simulate a strong network. The ratio Xth =Rth is equal to 10.
Table I. Induction generator parameters.

Quantity Value
Nominal voltage Vn 575 V

Nominal power P 1.5 MW
Stator leakage inductance Lsl 0.1766 pu
Stator resistance Rs 0.0073 pu
Rotor leakage inductance Lrl 0.1610 pu
Rotor resistance Rr 0.0052 pu
Magnetizing inductance Lm 3 pu

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Different cases have been considered with different initial loading for the DFIG and/or different voltage dip magnitude
during the short circuit. In each case, two simulations have been performed, one with the DFIG with crowbar and one with
the DFIG with chopper protection. The two DFIG are at the same operating point before the short-circuit occurrence.
The time step used in all the simulations is 10 s.
7. SIMULATION RESULTS
Three different initial loadings for the DFIG have been considered. For each of these cases, three-phase short circuits
resulting in a voltage dip of 100% and 80% at the generator terminals have been simulated. The initial DFIG slip, the
active and reactive power corresponding to these initial conditions and the equivalent resistance used in the simulations
are summarized in the text of Figure 9 to Figure 14, where the instantaneous phase currents for the chopper and crowbar
protected DFIG are reported.
It is seen how the proposed method gives good results for all the considered initial loading and fault cases. The accuracy
of the results would decrease for subsynchronous operation and for faults causing low voltage dips if the correction reported
in Figure 6 would not be applied to the equivalent crowbar resistance calculated with (10).
In all cases, the accuracy of the results obtained with the equivalent crowbar resistance decreases with time. This is,
however, expected since the actual equivalent resistance increases with time while a fixed resistance has been used in the
simulations. The time divergence between the results from the two models seems, however, not critical, and the use of a
fixed equivalent resistance is therefore justified, especially in the first cycles after the fault.
The effects of the diode bridge rectifier are visible in the pulse-shaped phase currents for the DFIG with chopper protec-
tion. These pulses are not present in the DFIG with crowbar protection case since the crowbar resistance has been directly
connected to the rotor.
It is interesting to note how the short-circuit current magnitude of the DFIG with chopper protection decreases not only
with decreasing voltage dip magnitude caused by the fault but also with decreasing initial loading of the DFIG. In the cases
with maximum positive slip, corresponding to a low initial loading, the DFIG with chopper protection delivers a current
below 2 pu even in the case of a solid short circuit at its terminals; see Figure 13. With this initial loading, the delivered
short-circuit current is below 1 pu if the three-phase short circuit causes a voltage dip of 80% at the DFIG terminals; see
Figure 14. This means that in these cases, it is possible that the RSC would block for a time shorter than 100 ms. Therefore,
when the short-circuit currents obtained with the proposed method are low, as, for example, in Figures 12, 13 and 14, they
are to be interpreted as the currents that would be delivered by the DFIG if the RSC would be blocked. The proposed
method is therefore also helpful in investigating what is the minimum time the RSC will remain blocked under different
initial conditions and fault severity.
Another interesting issue emerging from the analysis is that the DFIG with chopper protection presents an equivalent
crowbar resistance increasing with decreasing severity of the fault and with lighter loading conditions. Therefore, the DFIG
with chopper protection delivers lower current the less severe the voltage dip caused by the fault and the lower its initial
Figure 9. Three-phase currents of DFIG with DC chopper (solid) and equivalent crowbar (dashed) protection during a three-phase
fault with parameter p D 1. Crowbar equivalent resistance is 0:0345 . Initial apparent power S D 0:85 C j 0 pu, !r D 1:22 pu.

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fault with parameter p D 0:8. Crowbar equivalent resistance is 0:0455 . Initial apparent power S D 0:85 C j 0 pu, !r D 1:22 pu.
loading. A comparison between the short-circuit current of a DFIG with chopper protection and a DFIG with crowbar
protection is shown in Figure 15. The crowbar resistance is chosen to be equal to the case presented in Figure 9, i.e., about
34 times the rotor resistance. The reason why this value has been chosen is that it results in the same short-circuit current
magnitude as the one delivered by a DFIG with chopper protection for a short circuit at the DFIG terminals, while this is
close to full load, as shown in Figure 9. This may actually be a too high value for a crowbar resistance. In Akhmatov,9 a
crowbar resistance equal to 20 times the rotor resistance is suggested. Despite this fact, it is seen in Figure 15 that the DFIG
with chopper protection would deliver a lower short-circuit current compared with the crowbar protected DFIG, for a fault
at the DFIG terminals with light initial loading corresponding to the same conditions as in Figure 13.
8. CONCLUSIONS
A DFIG using only chopper protection on the DC link along with RSC blocking has been analyzed under fault conditions.
It has been shown that the DC link system, made up of the DC link capacitor and chopper protection, during three-phase

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fault with parameter p D 0:8. Crowbar equivalent resistance is 0:0509 . Initial apparent power S D 0:39 C j 0 pu, !r D 0:99 pu.
fault conditions is equivalent to an external resistance added to the rotor circuit. Therefore, the symmetrical fault behavior
of a DFIG with chopper protection is equivalent to the behavior of a DFIG with crowbar protection.
A method for calculating the equivalent resistance has been proposed. Even if in theory, a time varying equivalent resis-
tance should be considered; it has been shown that the use of a fixed equivalent resistance leads to good fault current
prediction under different fault and initial loading conditions. The equivalent resistance value increases with decreasing
DFIG initial loading and decreasing fault severity. Therefore, accurate fault current prediction requires the use of a different
equivalent resistance for each different fault and initial loading.
An important consequence is that the DFIG with chopper protection delivers less fault current than a DFIG with crowbar
protection. The lower the DFIG initial loading and fault severity, the lower the short-circuit current delivered by the DFIG
with chopper protection.
The theoretical analysis has been confirmed by simulation results. Results from different fault cases and operating con-
ditions are reported, showing that the DFIG with chopper protection delivers a short-circuit current with a predominant DC
component and with a very fast decaying transient AC short-circuit current component.

DOI: 10.1002/we
fault with parameter p D 0:8. Crowbar equivalent resistance is 0.0679 . Initial apparent power S D 0:19 C j 0 pu, !r D 0:76 pu.
Figure 15. Three-phase currents of DFIG with DC chopper (solid) and crowbar (dashed) protection during a three-phase fault with
parameter p D 1. Crowbar resistance is 0:0345 , i.e., about 34 times the rotor resistance. Initial apparent power S D 0:19 C j 0 pu,
!r D 0:76 pu.
The proposed method allows representing a DFIG with chopper protection with an equivalent model of a DFIG with
crowbar protection both for short-circuit current calculations and for short-circuit simulation studies. The advantage in
using a model of a DFIG with crowbar protection, when simulating, is that it is a standard model usually available in
power systems simulation packages, unlike the DFIG with chopper protection. Moreover, short-circuit current calculation
methods for the DFIG with crowbar protection are common in the literature.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by Elforsk AB, Elektra project 36078.

DOI: 10.1002/we
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unsymmetrical network disturbance. IEEE Transactions on Power System 2006; 21: 1782–1790.
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DOI: 10.1002/we

Short Circuit Analysis of DFIG

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WIND ENERGY

Wind Energ. (2011)

Short-circuit analysis of a doubly fed induction

Received 10 March 2011; Revised 1 July 2011; Accepted 3 September 2011

Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Figure 1. DFIG with crowbar (left) and chopper (right) protection.

2. CROWBAR AND DC CHOPPER PROTECTION SCHEMES

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

3. DFIG WITH DC CHOPPER PROTECTION

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

4. DIODE BRIDGE RECTIFIER WITH DC VOLTAGE SOURCE

van D V sin .!t/

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

During this period, one can write, with reference to Figure 4,

vbn L dib dic

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

5. DFIG WITH DC CHOPPER PROTECTION

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The DC link voltage seen from the stator is

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Table I. Induction generator parameters.

Nominal voltage Vn 575 V

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This work was supported by Elforsk AB, Elektra project 36078.

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wind Energ. (2011) © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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