Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

Pitch Angle Control for Variable Speed Wind Turbines

Mouna BEN SMIDA, Anis.SAKLY
Research Unit: Industrial systems study and renewable energy (ESIER),
Key the National Engineering School of Monastir (ENIM),
University of Monastir, Av. Ibn El Jazzar Skanes (5019), TUNISIA.

Abstract - Pitch control is a practical technique for reality with the increase of the installed power all over
power regulation above the rated wind speed it is the world a significant proportion of this type of
considered as the most efficient and popular power energy is available in windy areas.
control method. As conventional pitch control usually
use PI controller, the mathematical model of the Recently, pitch-adjusting variable-speed wind
system should be known well.This paper deals with turbines have become the dominating type of
the operation and the control of the direct driven installed wind turbines.Pitch angle control method is a
permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). basic approach to improve the performance of the
power generation system including different types of
Different conventional strategies of pitch angle control wind turbines. Although a wind turbine can be built in
are described and validated through simulation results either a vertical-axis or horizontal-axis configuration,
under Matlab\Simulink. we focus on horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs)
because they dominate the utility-scale wind turbine
Keywords - variable-speed wind turbine; MPPT; market. At the utility scale, HAWTs have
pitch control; PMSG. aerodynamic and practical advantages [6]. Smaller
vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are more likely to
Nomenclature – use passive rather than active control strategies. In
fact, generally for vertical axis wind turbine, which
PMSG Permanent magnet synchronous generator consists of several blades rotating about axis in
HAWT Horizontal-axis wind turbines
parallel direction, the cycloid blade system and the
VAWT Vertical axis wind turbines
TSR Tip speed ratio individual active blade control system are adopted.
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracking
PWM Pulse width modulation Both methods are variable pitch system. For cycloid
PI Proportional integral
wind turbine, aerodynamic analysis is carried out
I. INTRODUCTION by changing pitch angle and phase angle based on
the cycloid motion according to the change of wind
Traditional energy resources, especially from fossil speed and wind direction. And for more efficient wind
origins, will break off in the following few decades, turbine, individual pitch angle control of each blade is
which predict an energy shortage in the world. In obtained by maximizing the tangential force in each
addition, the energy consumption, in its various rotating blade at the specific rotating position,
forms, increased in an exponential way. To satisfy optimal.
these needs, it was necessary to solve this problem.
Actually, there was a simple way to do so, since there Therefore, generally for the variable-speed wind
were inexhaustible renewable energy resources, turbines two controllers are used. Below rated value,
which can be easily and properly exploited [1-3]. in low wind speed, the speed controller can
Nevertheless, being neglected for a long time, power continuously adjust the rotor speed to maintain the tip
extraction techniques of these resources requires speed ratio constant at the level which gives the
more researches and developments aiming to make maximum power coefficient, so the efficiency of the
the manufacturing costs reliable and lower and to turbine will be significantly increased. Pitch angle
increase the energy efficiency [4-5]. regulation is necessary in conditions above the rated
wind speed when the rotational speed is kept
In this general context, this study was interested in constant which can have a dramatic effect on the
the wind energy which seems to be one of the most power output. The purpose of the pitch angle
promising energies with a very high rate growth in control might be expressed as follows [7-8]:
the world. Today, the wind power has become a
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 Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

 Optimizing the wind turbine power output. Below Pw

rated wind speed, the pitch setting should be at Tm = (5)
W
its optimum value to give maximum power.
The mechanical speed of the turbine is determined
 Preventing the mechanical power input to beat from the fundamental equation of the dynamics as:
the design limits. Above rated wind speed, pitch
angle control provides an effective method of dW
regulating the aerodynamic power and loads J = Tm - Tem - f W (6)
dt
produced by the rotor.
The wind turbine speed is controlled in order to
 Minimizing fatigue loads of the turbine extract the maximum power from the wind. According
mechanical component. It is clear that the action to the Betz theory, the maximum power extractable
of the control system can have a major impact on from a wind turbine is 59.3% of the available wind
the loads experienced by the turbine. The design power, which corresponds to the Betz limit with a
of the controller must take into account the effect power coefficient of 0.593 [12].
on loads, and the controller should ensure that
excessive loads will not result from the control For the wind turbine modeled in this study, the curve
action. It is possible to go further than this, and
of Cp versus  with b =0, represented in Fig. 1,
explicitly design the controller with the reduction
l = 8
of certain fatigue loads as an additional objective. shows an optimum value of the TSR ( opt )
corresponding to a maximum value of the power
In this paper, conventional pitch angle control coefficient (Cpmax =0.473).
strategy in which various controlling variables may be
used is discussed.

II. WIND TURBINE MODELING

In order to simulate the behavior of the wind turbine, it

is necessary to determine the torque exerted on its
shaft.The mechanical power extracted from the
wind turbine is expressed by [9-10]:

1
r p R Vw3C p (l , b )
2
Pw = (1)
2

The power coefficient Cp depends on the pitch angle

of rotor blades  and the tip speed ratio (TSR) , Fig .1. Cp versus l curve
with [11]:
A. Control of the Wind Generator
(2)
The control of the generator power is obtained by the
Where: control of the PMSG electromagnetic torque Tem. The
1 (3) role of the pitch control system is to limit the rotational
li=
1 0.003 speed of the shaft, the reference electromagnetic
-
l - 0.02b b 3 + 1 torque Tem-ref, can be developed in this method [13]:
The strategy of an operating at maximum power,
RW goals to develop the turbine aerodynamic output,
l = (4)
Vw aiming to extract the maximum of wind power derived
when the turbine operates at maximum power
The turbine torque is then defined as the ratio of the coefficient.
mechanical power to the rotational speed:

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 Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

Equation 7 gives the expression of the maximum vcut-in and vrated. The main objective of the control
power obtained using the Maximum Power Point in this region is maximizing power generated by the
Tracking (MPPT) strategy which adjust automatically wind turbine. The principle control objective in the full
the ratio speed at its optimum value , l opt , in order to load region, region III, is maintaining the generator

attain the maximum power coefficient Cpmax, the power Pg around the rated generator power Pg ,rated .
equation below indicates the relationship between
turbine power and turbine speed at maximum power. In fact, in the case of high wind, it is necessary to limit
When regulating the system under the specification of the rotational speed to avoid the damage of the
maximum power, it must be considered that turbine turbine and the electric machine. This limitation is
power must never be upper than generator rated obtained by the control of the pitch angle b .In region
power. The output power must be limited when
IV where the wind speed is upper than vcut-out, the
generator rated power is attained at rated wind speed.
wind turbine must be shut down in order to protect
wind turbine against the stresses and fatigue
PMPPT  Kopt 3 (7) damages. In this case, the pitch angle usually is set to
90° and power generation is stopped. The focus of
5 this paper is on full load region (region III) to design
1 r p R C p max
K opt = 3
(8) an optimal pitch controller.
2 l opt
4000

3 600

In the case of high wind, it is necessary to limit the 3 000

rotational speed to avoid the damage of the turbine

Power (w)

and the electric machine. This limitation is obtained by 2 000

the control of the pitch angle  .

1 000

Vcut-in V rated Vcut-out

0
0 5 10 15

Wind speed (m/s)

Fig .3. Wind Turbine operating regions

III. PITCH ANGLE CONTROL

The pitch control method is a basic approach for

controlling the rotational speed of wind turbine. The
conventional blade pitch angle control strategies are
developed in this part. The pitch angle reference b ref ,
is controlled by the input values, which may be as
follows:

Fig .2. Turbine model  Wind speed, as shown in Fig. 5(a). Perfectly, the
pitch angle reference can be illustrated from the
B. Wind Turbine Operating Regions curve of the pitch angle versus wind speed, as
shown in Fig.3. The direct measure of the wind
The Typical power control regions of wind turbine are
speed makes this control strategy simple;
shown in Figure 3. Three wind speeds are considered
however this is not a pertinent procedure,
as limits of this division, the cut-in wind speed vcut-in,
because it is difficult to measure the wind speed
the rated wind speed vrated and the cut-out wind
precisely.In fact, when the rotor speed exceeds
speed vcut-out. For the wind turbine model
the maximum rotor speed of turbine Ωtn, the pitch
considered in this study the values of vcut-in, vrated
angle is increased to reduce the turbine torque Ct.
and vcut-out respectively are 6m/s, 10m/sand 13m/s.
In region I, the wind turbine is at stop state and the
pitch angle usually is set to90°. In the partial load
region, region II, the wind speed is limited between

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 Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

12

10
Reference pitch angle(°)

4
(a)
2

-2
0 2 4 6 8 10
wind speed(m/s)

Fig .4. Reference Pitch angle

(b)
 Generator rotor speed, as shown in Fig. 5(b). The
controlling rotor speed is compared with its
reference. The error signal is then sent to the PI
controller and produces the reference value of the
pitch angle.

 Generator power, as shown in Fig. 5(c). The error

signal of the generator power is sent to a PI (c)
controller. The PI controller produces the
reference pitch angle b ref . Fig .5. Pitch control strategy.(a) Wind speed; (b) generator
rotor speed; (c) generator power

For variable-speed wind turbines, a mechanical IV. PERMANENT- MAGNETIC SYNCHRONOUS

actuator is generally used to adjust the pitch angle of GENERATOR AND RECTIFIER
the blades in order to decrease the power coefficient
Cp and maintain the power at its rated value. By A. Modeling of the PMSG
linearization of the model to order 1 [14-16], the
torque has been considered proportional to rotational In this study a PMSG Park model is used, only the
speed of the turbine. The control strategy fundamental harmonic of the flux distribution in the air-
implemented is as follows: gap of the machine is considered and the homopolar
component is neglected, so the theory of the space
vector gives the dynamic equations of the stator
currents as follows:

(9)

With is the initial pitch angle (optimal value) and

(rad/s) is the nominal mechanical turbine speed.
Taking into account the blades orientation system
(11)
which can be hydraulic or electric type, a transfer
function of the first order is introduced in order to
Where the phase resistance of the stator winding (Ω),
control the position of the blades according to a
reference. the stator cyclic inductance (H), φ is is the flux of the
permanent magnetic (Wb), vsd and vsq are the d-q
1 components of the stator voltages respectively (V),
b= b ref (10)
1+ t b s isd and isq are the d-q components of the stator
currents respectively (A), and finally p is the number

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 Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

of pairs of poles The electromagnetic torque is given dU Dc

by: C = Saia + Sbib + Scic (18)
dt

Cem = pφisq (12)

B. Modeling of the Rectifier

For the dynamic model of the system, we will divide

the study of the converter to three parts: the
alternative part, the discontinuous part which is
composed by switches and the DC side. In this
context, the function of switches is to establish a Fig .6. Diagram of MSAP- PWM Rectifier
connection between the AC side and the DC bus;
these switches are complementary, their state is C. Control
defined by the following function:

For variable-speed wind turbine, the maximum power

for S=a,b,c (13)
is a cubic function of rotational speed. the
development of the generator torque is based on the
Then, the input phase voltages and the output current stator q-axis current component, but a freedom
may be written in function of Sj, Udc and input degree remains to set direct current. In order to
currents ia, ib, ic. minimize current for a given torque, and therefore,
minimize resistive losses the direct-axis current
ia + ib + ic = 0 (14) component can be set at zero [17]. Thus, the control
of the generator torque depends directly of the
The phase between the input PWM rectifier voltages quadrature current component. The schematic
can be described by: diagram of the control loops of the permanent-magnet
generator-side converter is illustrated on Fig. 7.The
required d–q components of the rectifier voltage
U Sab = ( Sa - Sb ).U DC
(15) vector are determinate from two proportional plus
U Sbc = ( Sb - Sc ).U DC
integral (PI) current controllers: the first one is
U Sca = ( Sc - Sa ).U DC controlling the d-axis component of the current and
the other one is controlling the q-axis component. In
The voltage equations of the system can be written as order to improve the dynamic response,
follows: compensation terms are added.The control requires
the measurement of the stator currents, dc voltage,
and rotor position.

(16)

Avec:

2 S a - Sb - S c
U Sa = .U DC
3
(17)
2 Sb - S a - S c
U Sb = .U DC
3
2 S c - S a - Sb
U Sc = .U DC
3
Finally, we deduce the equation coupling between AC
and DC sides by: Fig .7. PMSG and converter control

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 Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

D. Simulation Results and Discussion 8

power regulator
rotor speed regulator
Pitch angle control systems of the wind turbine were 6 wind curve method

simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK tool to test the

Pitch angle (°)

4
control strategy and evaluate the performance of the
system. The wind model is necessary to obtain 2

realistic simulations of the power control of the wind

0
turbines [18]. During 300 s, we have applied to the
wind turbine model a variable wind profile between 6 -2
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
and 12 m/s with an average value of 10 m/s. This Time (seconds)

sequence is obtained by adding a turbulent

component to a slowly varying signal represented in Fig .11. Pitch angle curve
Fig.8. 0.5
12
0.45

power coefficient
11
0.4
Wind (m/s)

10
0.35
9

0.3
8

0.25
7 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (seconds) Time (seconds)
Fig .12. Power Coefficient
Fig .8. Wind speed
25
4000
Electromagnetic Torques (N.m)

3500 20

3000
15
2500
Power (w)

2000 10
Tem
1500 3600 Tem ref
3595 5
1000
Power regulator
rotor speedregulator 0
100 200 300 curvemethod 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
0 Time (seconds)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time(seconds)
Fig .13. Electromagnetic Torque
Fig .9. Output power
The wind turbine is dimensioned to provide a nominal
160
power at a nominal speed of 10 ms-1. Beyond this
150 wind, it is necessary to protect the wind turbine
140 against mechanical failures; therefore, we must limit
Speed(rad/s)

130 its speed. This limitation will be obtained by a pitch

120
control. The mechanical speed of the turbine
represented in Fig. 10 is obtained next to the variation
110
of the pitch angle illustrated in Fig. 11. The more the
100
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 pitch angle increases, the more the power coefficient
Time (seconds)
decreases (Fig. 12). The comparisons of different
strategies illustrated in the simulation results show
Fig .10. Mechanical speed
that pitch angle control strategy where the generator
power is used as the controlling variable has a rapid
pitch angle respond to the wind speed variation and
minimum power ripples.

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 Journal of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development (RESD) June 2015 - ISSN 2356-8569

The response of the second strategy where rotor Mussetta, M., and Ogliari, E. (2014) Pitch Angle
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