ISSN: 2277-9655

[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116

IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7

IJESRT
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES & RESEARCH
TECHNOLOGY
A LOW-COST PMSG TOPOLOGY AND CONTROL STRATEGY FOR SMALL-
SCALE WIND POWER GENERATION SYSTEMS
Dr. Ahmed Galal Abo-Khalil 1, Dr. Youcef Berrouche 2, Dr. El Manaa Barhoumi3,
Dr. M.A.BASEER3, Dr.Praveen R.P3 and Dr. Ahmed-Bilal Awan3
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Assiut University, Egypt, on leave for Almajmaah
University, KSA
2
Mondvert Inc, R&D section, 225 Churchill Ave, J4V2M5, Greenfield Park, Qc, Canada
3
Dept. of Engineering, College of Engineering, Majmaah University, KSA

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.163024

ABSTRACT
Developing a low-cost power converter for small-scale wind turbine systems using permanent magnet
synchronous generators (PMSG) is one of the hot topics in the wind power generation research. Using minimum
number of switches with high efficiency is the target of this proposal. The proposed converter consists of six-
switches in the generator and grid side. The DC-link side is divided into two capacitors with mid-point to
connect the third phase of the PMSG to this point. The topology and the control strategy is implemented and the
validity of this topology is validated by using PSIM software.
KEYWORDS: Photovoltaic, Maximum Power Point, Support Vector Regression

INTRODUCTION
The world's population is forecasted to grow by 2.5 billion by 2050, reaching a total of some 9.2 billion. In
addition, many economies are currently experiencing rapid expansion and industrialization. As population
grows and industry expands, so does the demand for energy. If governments around the world maintain their
current policies, the world's energy needs may increase by 50% or more by 2030. In the past, these needs have
been satisfied largely by finite energy sources. Satisfying the growing demand for energy with the help of fossil
fuels and nuclear power is becoming increasingly difficult.

The wind energy use has been drastically improved because of energy prices, environmental concerns, and
enhanced efficiency of composite wind turbines. The wind installation capacity has been growing at an average
rate of 35% per year [1]. On the other hand, the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC predicts that temperatures
will rise between 1.8°C and 4°C by the end of the twenty-first century. To limit global warming to no more than
two degrees – as agreed at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in 2007 – we must reduce global
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared to their 1990 level by 2050. The Stern Report estimates
that, without swift action, economic losses due to climate change could amount to 20% of global GDP each
year. The international wind energy market showed a new record in 2003 with a growth rate of 15%.
Globally, a total power of 8.3 GW was installed. The total installed wind energy power has now reached more
than 40 GW, and the average growth in the market during the past five years has been 26% per year. This
illustrates how during the past 25 to 30 years the use of wind turbines for electricity generation has grown from
a grass-root initiative to an efficient alternative energy resource. The capacity of a commercial wind turbine has
today reached the range of 2–5MW, with large plants being built world-wide on land and offshore. This status
illustrates the increasing concern in the world, and perhaps in Europe in particular, about the supply and
consumption of energy in a modern and civilized society. Over the centuries, energy has been supplied by wood,
coke, coal, oil, and natural gas, as well as by uranium (nuclear energy). The early sources were natural in the
sense that they renewed themselves over a short time period (years), while the later energy supplies were tapped
http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology
[585]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7
from sources established millions of years ago. The increasing energy demands in the world today, owing to
improved and expanded civilizations and to increasing populations, have led to concerns over the limited energy
resources in storage on the earth.

Two major technological developments have recently taken place in the field of wind power technology, the
first is a substantial scaling up has taken place to further reduce the cost of wind power. Secondly, the individual
turbine has become larger and so has the typical project scale. For modern wind turbines of the multi-MW class,
both the nacelle height and the rotor diameter are in the order of 100 m. Thus, at the vertical position, the blade
tip can reach heights of up to 150 m. The development of the scale of individual wind turbines introduced on the
market is depicted in Fig. 1

Fig. 1. Size and rating of wind turbines at market introduction [7]

The variable speed wind turbine with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) and full-scale voltage
source converters is a promising configuration, but still not used popularly [1]. The advantages of such
configuration are 1) no gear; 2) no dc excitation system [2]; and 3) robust control systems for maximum wind
power extraction and grid interface. So, the reliability and efficiency of a voltage source converters-based
PMSG wind turbine is considered to be higher than that of a doubly-fed induction generator wind turbine [3].
Due to the tough grid codes, a PMSG wind turbine with a back-to-back converter is becoming more and more
implemented by the wind power sector [1]–[3] as Figure 2 shows.

The main features of the back-to-back converter are that the converter uses active devices at both the generator
side for the converter and the grid side for the inverter (Bharanikumar R., et al. 2010).
The advantages of this converter are as follows:
- The rectifier is fully controllable, and
- Both converter and inverter bridges are built of active IGBT devices, with the current ability to flow
from either the generator side to the grid or the grid side to the generator.
The major disadvantage of back-to-back converter is:
- The controller is complex and expensive because it requires 12-channel Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) signals for the converter and the inverter. For this reason, in a practical application, the control system
requires Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to control the chips on the board.

A simple topology for wind turbine generation was propose by (Ahmed T., et al. 2004) and is illustrated in
Figure 3, which consists of a diode bridge rectifier, with a DC link to an active IGBT inverter. Nowadays,

commercial PMSG technology mainly uses this topology for its low cost and simplicity [4]–[7].

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[586]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7

Multipole Permanent
Magnet Generator

DF
IG
Grid

Back-to-back
Converter

Fig. 2. Conventional Back-to-Back System

Multipole Permanent
Magnet Generator
DF
IG

Grid

Back-to-back
Converter

Fig. 3. PMSG Wind Power System with diode rectifier.

In this paper, a low-cost power converter for small-scale wind turbine systems using permanent magnet
synchronous generators (PMSG) is proposed. Using minimum number of switches with high efficiency is the
target of this proposal. The proposed converter consists of six-switches in the generator and grid side. The DC-
link side is divided into two capacitors with mid-point to connect the third phase of the PMSG to this point. The
topology and the control strategy will be implemented by using PSIM software.

CHARACTERISTICS OF WIND TURBINES

In practice, the wind turbine can be characterized by its curve, where the tip-speed ratio is defined as the ratio
between the linear speed of the tip of the blade to the wind speed and is the power coefficient.
The tip-speed ratio is defined as [8]
ωt R
λ=
υ (1)
where
ωt : turbine speed;
υ : wind speed [m/s];
R : radius of the turbine blade[m];

Figure 4(a) shows the variation of

Cp versus λ . It shows that
Cp has a maximum value at the
λ
particular opt .
The power extracted from the wind can be expressed as the following equation
1
Pt = ρπ R 2 υ3 C p ( β , λ )
2 (2)
where,
ρ : specific density of air [kg/m3];
Cp : coefficient of power conversion;

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[587]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7
β : blade pitch angle [degree].

Figure 4(b) shows that the power captured in turbine blade is a function of the rotational speed, while the pitch
angle is constant, and that it is maximum at the particular rotational speed. Hence, to fully utilize the wind
energy, should be maintained at , which is determined from the blade design. From (1),
2 3
Pmax =0 . 5 ρπ R C p max υ (3)

pmax
C P max

pm v3
v2 CP
v1

t opt 
(a) (b)

Fig. 4 Characteristic curves of wind blades

(a) Output power versus rotational speed

(b) Power conversion coefficient versus tip-speed ratio

Wind turbine
L
Wind Grid

r
PMSG
System Management
Control
Wind u r ids iqs Vdc
speed

Fig. 5 Basic configuration of the proposed system.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
In this proposal, a converter of two-leg PWM converter and the single-phase half-bridge inverter can be used for
the three-phase PMSG to be connected to the single-phase utility grid as shown in Fig. 5. The vector control of
the PMSG is possible and the dynamic control performance becomes fast.

Single-phase half-bridge inverter

A half bridge inverter of a three wire dc source in which Vdc/2 voltage is obtained across the C+ capacitor
terminals as shown in Fig. 6. When T1 is turned on T2 is turned off, the instantaneous voltage across the load is
Vdc/2 as seen in Fig.6. On the other contrary, if T2 is turned on and T1 is turned off, the instantaneous voltage
across the load is – Vdc/2.

The power topology of a half-bridge VSI, where two large capacitors are required to provide a neutral point N,
such that each capacitor maintains a constant voltage = Vdc/2. Because the current harmonics injected by the
operation of the inverter are low-order harmonics, a set of large capacitors is required. It is clear that both
switches T1 and T2 cannot be on simultaneously because short circuit across the dc link voltage source VI

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[588]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7
would be produced. There are two defined (states 1 and 2) and one undefined (state 3) switch state as shown. In
order to avoid the short circuit across the dc bus and the undefined ac output voltage condition, the modulating
technique should always ensure that at any instant either the top or the bottom switch of the inverter leg is on.
Turbine
Wind
Wind
speed Vdc/2
PMSG Three-phase two-
leg Converter
r Vdc/2

Encoder ia ib v 
r
˺ sl +
Slip + 1  j e
Tr Calculation e s e PWM

e e
vqs v ds
r i qse
r +- Speed
-
q-Current axis
Controller e* + Controller
i qs
e
i ds
e*
i ds - d-Current axis
+
Controller
idse = 0

Fig. 7 Control block diagram of PMSG

Fig. 8 System configuration

PMSG Model
Figure 7 shows the d-q equivalent circuits of the PMSG. The voltage equation of the PMSG is expressed at
synchronous reference frame [9]:
di q
v =−Ri +L −ω L i +ω λ
q q q dt r d d r m (4)
di
v =−Ri +L d +ω L i
d d d dt r qq (5)

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[589]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7
Where, R and L are the per phase machine resistance and inductance; vd and vq are the dq-axis machine
voltages; id and iq are the dq-axis machine currents; m is the amplitude of the flux linkages established by the
permanent magnet and r is the angular frequency of the stator voltage. The expression for the electromagnetic
torque in the rotor is written as:

T =
e ( 32)( P2 )[ ( L −L ) i i −λ i ]
d q q d m q
(6)

The relationship between r and m may be expressed as:

p
ω r= ω
2 m (7)

The q-axis current component can be used for the speed control of the generator, and the d-axis current is
controlled to be zero.
¿
For a particular wind speed υ , the generator speed reference ωr for maximum power is obtained from (2)
as [10]

λ opt
ω¿r = υ
R (8)
Once the generator speed reference is given by (8), the other control structure is the same as that in Figure 7.

SIMULATION RESULTS
To demonstrate the performance of the proposed topology, the simulation work was carried out. Figure 8 shows
the simulation configuration of the proposed system. The wind turbine was simulated to provide the real
characteristics of wind turbine at different conditions. The PMSG is connected to low-cost converter, DC-link
capacitor, inverter and utility-grid.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 9 Inverter performance: (a) grid voltage, (b) Grid current

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[590]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7

(a)

(b)

Fig. 10 (a) Generator current (b) DC-link voltage

(a)

(b)

Fig. 11 (a) Wind speed, (b) Generator speed

(a)

(b)

Fig. 12 (a) Generator Power, (b) Turbine torque

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[591]
 ISSN: 2277-9655
[Khalil* et al., 5(10): October, 2016] Impact Factor: 4.116
IC™ Value: 3.00 CODEN: IJESS7
Figure 9 (a) and (b) show the inverter performance in steady state condition. It is clear that the output current is
out of phase with the grid voltage. The generator current is shown in Fig 10 (a). The dc-link control is shown in
Fig. 10(b). The dc-link voltage fluctuates around the reference value due to the fluctuation in the two capacitors.
The generator speed changes with changing the wind speed as seen in Fig. 11 (a) and (b). Fig. 12 shows the
turbine and generator performance at a variable wind speed. The generator power and torque change
continuously when the wind speed changes as seen in Fig. 13 (a) and (b).

CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a simple topology and controller for small-scale PMSG power generation system has been
presented. The system consists of two-leg three-phase PWM converter and a half-bridge single-phase inverter.
With this proposal, the PMSG has been controlled to extract the maximum power point by controlling the d-axis
current component during the constant or variable wind speeds. The simulation results have shown that the
advantage of this system is fast response and good transient performance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is fully supported by the scientific research deanship of Majmaah University..

REFERENCES
[1] S. J¨ockel, “High energy production plus built in reliability—The new Vensys 70/77 gearless wind
turbines in the 1.5 MW class,” presented at the 2006 Eur.Wind Energy Conf., Athens, Greece, Feb. 27–
Mar. 2, 2006.
[2] H. Polinder, S.W. H. de Haan,M. R. Dubois, and J. Slootweg, “Basic operation principles and electrical
conversion systems of wind turbines,”presented at the Nordic Workshop Power Ind. Electron.,
Trondheim, Norway, Jun. 14–16, 2004.
[3] A. Grauers, “Efficiency of three wind energy generator systems,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol.
11, no. 3, pp. 650–657, Sep. 1996.
[4] K. Tan and S. Islam, “Optimum control strategies in energy conversion of PMSG wind turbine system
without mechanical sensors,” IEEE Trans.Energy Convers., vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 392–399, Jun. 2004.
[5] F. Velenciaga and P. F. Puleston, “High-order sliding control for a wind energy conversion system
based on a permanent magnet synchronous generator,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 23, no. 3,
pp. 860–867, Sep. 2008.
[6] North American Electric Reliability Corporation. (2009 Apr.) Accommodating High Levels of Variable
Generation [Online]. Available: http://www.nerc.com/files/IVGTF_Report_041609.pdf
[7] Clipper Windpower, The Liberty 2.5 MW Wind Turbine: Clipper Design. (Dec. 2011). [Online].
Available: http://www.clipperwind.com/productline.html
[8] J. Belhadj and X. Roboam, “Investigation of different methods to control a small variable-speed wind
turbine with PMSM drives,” J. Energy Resources Technol., vol. 129, pp. 200–213, Sep. 2007.
[9] M. Chinchilla, S. Arnaltes, and J. C. Burgos, “Control of permanent - magnet generators applied to
variable-speed wind-energy systems connected to the grid”, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion, Vol.
21, No. 1, pp. 130-135, March 2006.
[10] [F. F. M. El-Sousy, M. Orabi, and H. Godah, “Maximum power point tracking control scheme
for grid connected variable speed wind driven self-excited induction generator,” , KIPE Journal of
Power Electron., Vol. 6, No. 1, pp.45-51, Jan. 2006.G. J. Yu, Y. S. Jung, J. Y. Choi, I. Choy, J. H.
Song, and G. S. Kim, “A novel two-mode MPPT control algorithm based on comparative study of
existing algorithms,” in Proc. Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, pp. 1531–1534, 2002. No. 1, Jan.
2012, pp53-58

http: // www.ijesrt.com © International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Research Technology

[592]