IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO.

1, MARCH 2007 129

Control of a Doubly Fed Induction Wind Generator

Under Unbalanced Grid Voltage Conditions
Ted K. A. Brekken, Member, IEEE, and Ned Mohan, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—Wind energy is often installed in rural, remote ar-

eas characterized by weak, unbalanced power transmission grids.
In induction wind generators, unbalanced three-phase stator volt-
ages cause a number of problems, such as overcurrent, unbalanced
currents, reactive power pulsations, and stress on the mechanical
components from torque pulsations. Therefore, beyond a certain
amount of unbalance, induction wind generators are switched out
of the network. This can further weaken the grid. In doubly fed
induction generators (DFIGs), control of the rotor currents allows
for adjustable speed operation and reactive power control. This
paper presents a DFIG control strategy that enhances the stan-
dard speed and reactive power control with controllers that can
compensate for the problems caused by an unbalanced grid by
balancing the stator currents and eliminating torque and reactive
Fig. 1. Doubly fed induction machine.
power pulsations.
Index Terms—AC generators, induction motors, power system
dynamic stability, reactive power control, torque control, variable All variables are per unit or SI units. Stator quantities are
speed drives, wind energy. referenced to the stator. Rotor quantities are referenced to the
NOMENCLATURE rotor.
vsd , vsq Stator d and q winding voltage.
isd , isq Stator d and q winding current. I. INTRODUCTION
vrd , vrq Rotor d and q winding voltage. IND energy generation equipment is most often in-
ird , irq
λsd , λsq
Rotor d and q winding current.
Stator d and q winding flux linkage.
W stalled in remote, rural areas. These remote areas
usually have weak grids, often with voltage unbalances and
λrd , λrq Rotor d and q winding flux linkage. under/overvoltage conditions [1], [2]. When the stator phase
T Generator torque. voltages supplied by the grid are unbalanced, the torque pro-
Qs Stator reactive power. duced by the induction generator is not constant. Instead, the
Lm Generator magnetizing inductance. torque has periodic pulsations at twice the grid frequency, which
Ls , Lr Stator and rotor per phase winding inductance. can result in acoustic noise at low levels and at high levels can
Lls , Llr Stator and rotor per phase leakage inductance. damage the rotor shaft, gearbox, or blade assembly [3]. Also,
R s , Rr Stator and rotor per phase winding resistance. an induction generator connected to an unbalanced voltage will
p Number of generator poles. draw unbalanced currents. These unbalanced currents tend to
n Rotor/stator turns ratio. magnify the grid voltage unbalance and cause overcurrent prob-
J System moment of inertia. lems as well [4].
B System frictional constant. A special type of induction generator, called a doubly fed
ωd dq-axes frame rotational speed with respect to the induction generator (DFIG), is used extensively for high-power
stator. wind applications (Fig. 1). DFIG’s ability to control rotor cur-
ωdA dq-axes frame rotational speed with respect to the rents allows for reactive power control and variable speed op-
rotor. eration, so it can operate at maximum efficiency over a wide
ωsyn Synchronous rotational speed (50 Hz). range of wind speeds. The research goal is to develop a control
ωmech Rotor mechanical speed. method to augment DFIG’s rotor control capabilities for unbal-
anced stator voltages. This will allow DFIGs to stay connected
Manuscript received July 12, 2006; revised October 17, 2006. This work was to the grid under conditions in which they would normally be
supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant ECS-0245550 disconnected for their own protection. Grid side converter con-
and in part by the Fulbright Program and the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology. Paper no. TEC-00238-2006. trol is not considered, but is a good topic for future research.
T. K. A. Brekken is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Com-
puter Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97330 USA (e-mail:
[email protected]).
N. Mohan is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Com- A. Definition of Unbalance
puter Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA (e-mail:
[email protected]). There are several ways to define a three-phase unbalance.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2006.889550 For this paper, voltage unbalance factor (VUF) is defined as the
0885-8969/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE
130 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

negative sequence magnitude divided by the positive sequence

magnitude [4]. The advantage of this system is that it accounts
for both magnitude and phase angle. The same unbalance factor
can be defined for three-phase current (IUF).

B. Second Harmonic Pulsation

Fig. 2. d-Axis control topology.
Using symmetrical components theory, stator-voltage unbal-
ance can be seen as adding a negative sequence to the stator
voltage. The negative sequence rotates at 50 Hz in the op-
posite direction of the positive sequence (assuming a 50 Hz
synchronous frequency). From the perspective of the negative
sequence, the rotor is turning in the counter direction. Therefore,
the negative sequence frame sees a very large slip, which causes
a large amount of negative sequence current to flow. This causes Fig. 3. q-Axis control topology.
unbalanced stator currents, and can also cause an overcurrent
condition. In addition, the torque and reactive power will have From a symmetrical components point of view, compensat-
a second harmonic (100 Hz) pulsation. ing for torque and reactive power pulsations is analogous to a
To understand the torque and reactive power second harmon- controller injecting a negative sequence into the rotor circuit in
ics, it is useful to use space vectors in the stationary, stator frame. such a manner as to compensate for the negative sequence in
In space vector theory, the positive sequence stator-voltage space the stator circuit. The net effect is to dramatically reduce the
vector rotates with constant amplitude in the positive direction, torque pulsations, reactive power pulsations, and stator-current
at the synchronous speed. The negative sequence stator-voltage unbalance under unbalanced grid voltage conditions.
space vector rotates at the synchronous speed with constant am- Plant transfer functions and controller gains are given in the
plitude in the negative direction. The same will also apply to the Appendix.
flux: the flux arising from the positive sequence voltage will ro-
tate synchronously in the positive direction, and the flux arising A. Design of Cird and Cirq
from the negative sequence voltage will rotate synchronously in The inner loop ird and irq current controllers, Cird and Cirq ,
the negative direction. These two flux vectors will add construc- were designed using linearized state equations. This is done by
tively and destructively twice per revolution, which gives rise substituting the generator flux linkages (1) through (3) into the
to the double synchronous frequency disturbance in the torque generator voltage equation (4) [6]. After some minor algebraic
and reactive power [4]. manipulation, the generator currents can be obtained as a state
In a synchronously rotating dq reference frame, the d and q equation relating the voltage and current in the dq frame, as
system variables will nominally be dc values in steady state. shown in (5). From this form, the transfer functions relating
However, in the presence of a stator-voltage unbalance, the current to voltage are easily obtained, assuming the mechanical
d and q variables will have a second harmonic component in dynamics are much slower than are the electrical dynamics (i.e.,
addition to the dc component. This, in turn, causes second har- ωdA is constant):
monic pulsations in the torque (active power) and reactive power.     
λsd Ls 0 n Lm 0 isd
 λsq   0 Ls 0 n Lm   isq 
II. CONTROLLER DESIGN  =   (1)
λrd n Lm 0 Lr 0 ird
For the proposed control, stator-voltage-oriented dq vector λrq 0 n Lm 0 Lr irq
control is used. This orientation can be called “grid flux ori-
Ls = Lls + Lm (2)
ented” control [5]. In this scheme, the d-axis is aligned with
2
the stator-voltage space vector (instantaneously). Therefore, Lr = Llr + n Lm (3)
vsq = 0 (steady state and transient) and ωd = ωsyn (steady state     
λsd 0 ωd 0 0 λsd
only). Since the d-axis is collinear with the stator voltage and d  λsq   −ωd 0 0 0   λsq 
the q-axis is quadrature, the d-axis is used to control torque and  =  
dt λrd 0 0 0 ωdA λrd
the q-axis is used to control reactive power. The control struc- λrq 0 0 −ωdA 0 λrq
ture is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The control topology is fairly   
standard except for the addition of the Cd,comp and Cq,comp con- −Rs 0 0 0 isd
trollers, which supplement the d- and q-axis rotor voltage. These  0 −Rs 0 0   isq 
+  
supplementary feedback controllers give the loops a very high 0 0 −Rr 0 ird
gain at the known disturbance frequency (100 Hz), allowing 0 0 0 −Rr irq
the controllers to compensate for the torque and reactive power   
1 0 0 0 vsd
pulsations that arise when the stator voltage is unbalanced. Re-  0 1 0 0   vsq 
ducing the reactive power pulsation dramatically improves the +   (4)
0 0 1 0 vrd
unbalance of the stator current. 0 0 0 1 vrq
BREKKEN AND MOHAN: CONTROL OF A DOUBLY FED INDUCTION WIND GENERATOR 131

     
isd isd vsd
d  isq   isq   vsq 
  = [A(ωd , ωdA )]   + [B(ωd , ωdA )]  .
dt ird ird vrd
irq irq vrq
(5)
From the linearized state equations (5), ird /vrd (s) and
Fig. 4. ird loop with disturbance rejection controller.
irq /vrq (s) are determined. Cird and Cirq are simple PI con-
trollers each designed for a 100-Hz loop gain crossover fre-
quency and 90◦ of phase margin. Doubly fed machines, natu- the power into the grid to change rapidly, mirroring the wind
rally, have a pair of poorly damped poles near the grid frequency. gusts. However, a slow speed loop will allow the generator
Fast inner current loops have a fast response time, but also tend to accelerate or decelerate as the wind changes, thus using the
to push the poorly damped system poles toward the right half rotational energy of the machine as a buffer to smooth the power
plane [5]. Slow loops are more stable, but the controllers must be into the grid [8].
fast enough to handle the rotor converter blanking time harmon-
ics, which occur at the slip frequency sixth harmonic [7]. A loop C. Design of CQs
gain bandwidth of 100 Hz is found to be a good compromise.
The reactive power outer loop is designed by relating stator
B. Design of Cωmech reactive power Qs to irq . It is, again, helpful to use the magne-
tizing current
The outer speed and reactive power loops were designed
in the standard cascade manner, having loop gain crossover Qs = vsq isd − vsd isq = −vsd (imq − nirq ). (12)
frequencies well below that of the inner current loops.
To design the speed controller, the ωmech /ird (s) transfer As explained earlier, the magnetizing current imq can be ap-
function must be determined. For this, it becomes useful to use proximated to be constant. Equation (13), then, follows:
the concept of magnetizing current to simplify the derivation of Qs
the plant transfer function (s) = nvsd . (13)
irq
isq + nirq = imq (6) A PI controller is used, and the loop gain bandwidth is designed
isd + nird = imd (7) for 1 Hz.
p
T = Lm n(isq ird − isd irq ) D. Design of Unbalance Compensation Controllers Cd,comp
2
p and Cq,comp
= Lm n(imq ird − imd irq ). (8)
2 The Cd,comp and Cq,comp controllers shown in Figs. 2 and 3,
The significant advantage of this form of the torque equation respectively, come into effect only in the presence of a stator-
is that the magnetizing currents imd and imq are predominantly voltage unbalance. They supplement the output of the nominal
determined by the stator side voltage, and therefore, can be ap- operation controllers Cird and Cirq to remove the 100 Hz dis-
proximated to be constant. The magnetizing current space vector turbance from the torque and reactive power. It is not enough to
will lag the stator-voltage space vector by nearly 90◦ . Since the simply increase the gain of Cird and Cirq . Removing the sec-
d-axis is chosen to be aligned with the stator-voltage space vec- ond harmonic from ird and irq will not completely remove the
tor, the majority of the magnetizing current space vector will second harmonic from the torque and reactive power, although
be reflected along the negative q-axis. Therefore, imq is large it can reduce it.
negative and imd is very small. Therefore, the torque can be The Cd,comp and Cq,comp controllers are designed to have a
approximated as having a proportional dependence on ird as large gain at the known disturbance frequency (twice the syn-
p chronous frequency, 100 Hz) but also to have a negligible effect
T ≈ Lm nimq ird (9) at all other frequencies. This is done by using a high-Q, second-
2
order resonant filter. The compensating controllers can be rep-
T p resented as having two components: a bandpass filter followed
(s) = Lm nimq . (10)
ird 2 by a lead-lag controller.
Therefore The natural frequency of the filter is the second harmonic
p (100 Hz) and the filter Q is set to some high value (e.g., 100).
ωmech Lm nimq
(s) = 2 . (11) Fig. 4 shows the inner loop of the d-axis with the Cd,comp
ird sJ + B controller. Fig. 5 shows the Cd,comp bode plot. Fig. 5 illustrates
A lead-lag controller is used, and the loop gain bandwidth that the function of the lead-lag filter is to push the phase up
is designed for 1 Hz. A fast speed loop will respond more such that the 180◦ of negative phase shift caused by the resonant
quickly to changes in the load, such as gusts of wind. This will filter does not push the loop gain phase margin below 0, and thus,
cause the generator torque to respond quickly, thereby causing cause instability.
132 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

Fig. 7. 15-kW doubly fed test setup.

Fig. 5. Cd,comp bode plot.

Fig. 8. DFIG torque with 5% VUF.

Fig. 6. ird loop gain.

In Fig. 4, T2 refers to the second torque harmonic (100 Hz).

Stability of the augmented ird loop can be determined by using
the Nyquist stability criterion for the augmented loop gain. Fig. 6
shows the ird loop gain with and without Cd,comp . The design
of Cq,comp follows the same procedure.

III. 15 KW SIMULATION AND HARDWARE RESULTS

The proposed control was tested on a 15 kW DFIG controlled
with the rapid prototyping DSP package dSpace, as shown in
Fig. 9. DFIG stator reactive power with 5% VUF.
Fig. 7. The stator-voltage unbalance was created by placing a
high-power variable resistance in series with the stator A-phase.
they are activated. Results shown are from hardware unless
specifically labeled as simulation results. Simulation results
were obtained using Matlab/Simulink. The DFIG parameters
A. Transient Activation of Compensation Controllers
are included in the appendix.
Figs. 8–12 show the system operating with a 5% stator-voltage Fig. 11 shows the stator and rotor active power. Because the
unbalance. Before t = 0, Cd,comp and Cq,comp are off. At t = 0, torque pulsations are eliminated, the active power is smoothed.
BREKKEN AND MOHAN: CONTROL OF A DOUBLY FED INDUCTION WIND GENERATOR 133

Fig. 10. DFIG stator current with 5% VUF. Fig. 12. DFIG rotor d- and q-axis voltage.

Fig. 13. DFIG torque second harmonic (100 Hz) magnitude as a function of
Fig. 11. DFIG stator, rotor, and total active power. stator-voltage unbalance.

The tradeoff is the extra power requirement of the rotor con- lated unbalance factors. In addition, unmodeled nonlinearities
verter. This is also shown in Fig. 12 as an increase in the rotor such as saturation, slot effects, and winding harmonics may play
voltage. a role [9].
The results show that the compensating controllers greatly
reduce the second harmonic torque pulsations, reactive power
B. Steady-State Analysis
pulsations, and stator-current unbalance.
The hardware results closely match the simulation results, In addition to transient analysis, a series of steady-state anal-
except in a few cases. The actual 100 Hz torque magnitude is yses with a swept stator-voltage unbalance are shown later. In
larger than that predicted by simulation. The torque shown for Figs. 13 and 14, the second harmonic magnitude of torque and
hardware results is calculated from measured currents. There- stator reactive power per unit is plotted versus stator-voltage
fore, noise and offset errors in the current measurements will unbalance. In Fig. 15, the stator-current unbalance is plotted
be present in the calculated torque. Also, the measured stator- versus stator-voltage unbalance. Both hardware and simulation
current unbalance is greater than that predicted by the simula- results are shown. By comparing the slope of the trend lines,
tion. Some of this error is likely due to offset errors in the current the effectiveness of the compensation controllers over a range
measurement. The unbalance calculation is sensitive, and even of stator-voltage unbalances can be determined, as shown in
small offset errors of 1% can have a large impact on the calcu- Table I.
134 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 22, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

testing have shown that the control is simple to implement and

very effective at compensating for the torque pulsations, reactive
power pulsations, and unbalanced stator current that normally
occur when stator voltage is unbalanced. This greatly reduces
the wear on the mechanical components, such as the shaft, gear
box, and blade assembly, and also improves the quality of the
power fed into the grid. The presented control topology allows
the generator to tolerate a much larger stator-voltage unbalance
than is acceptable with standard controllers.

APPENDIX
15 kW Generator Parameters and Controller Gains

Rs = 0.19Ω, Rr = 0.08Ω
n = 0.74
p=4
Fig. 14. DFIG stator reactive power second harmonic (100 Hz) magnitude as
a function of stator-voltage unbalance. Lm = 71.2 mH
Lls = 1.2 mH, Llr = 1.0 mH
Ls = 72.4 mH, Lr = 39.9 mH
VLL,rated = 230 V (rms)
B = 0.02 Nm/(rad s)
J = 0.2 Nm/(rad s2 )
ird 594.7(s + 46.65)(s2 + 63.7s + 9.61 × 104 )
(s)= 2
vrd (s + 89.86s + 2097)(s2 + 125.6s + 9.716 × 104 )
irq 594.7(s + 46.65)(s2 + 63.7s + 9.61 × 104 )
(s)= 2
vrq (s + 89.86s + 2097)(s2 + 125.6s + 9.716 × 104 )
ωmech −5.6638
(s) =
ird (s + 1)
Qs
(s) = 173.8
irq
(s + 41.2)
Cird = Cirq = 1.1
Fig. 15. DFIG stator-current unbalance as a function of stator-voltage s
unbalance.
(s + 0.5)
Cωmech = −83.8
TABLE I s(s + 92)
SECOND HARMONIC (100 HZ) PULSATION REDUCTION FACTORS
0.04
CQs =
s
471.24s(s + 125.7)
Cd,comp =
(s + 3142)(s2 + 6.283s + 3.948 × 105 )
−4.71s(s + 125.7)
The table shows that, in hardware, the torque pulsations are Cq,comp = .
(s + 3142)(s2 + 6.283s + 3.948 × 105 )
reduced by a factor of 29, the stator reactive power pulsations
are reduced by 23, and the stator-current unbalance (IUF) is
reduced by 5.5.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
IV. CONCLUSION
The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Dr.
A control methodology for the operation of DFIGs with un- T. Undeland and the faculty, staff, and students of the Norwegian
balanced stator voltages is presented. Simulation and hardware University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
BREKKEN AND MOHAN: CONTROL OF A DOUBLY FED INDUCTION WIND GENERATOR 135

REFERENCES Ned Mohan (S’68–M’73–SM’91–F’96) received the

B.Tech. (Honors) degree in electrical engineering
[1] L. M. Craig, M. Davidson, N. Jenkins, and A. Vaudin, “Integration of wind from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur,
turbines on weak rural networks,” in Proc. 1996 Opportunities Adv. Int. India, in 1967, the M.S. degree in electrical engineer-
Power Gen., no. 419, pp. 419–164. ing from the University of New Brunswick, St. John,
[2] R. Allan, N. Jenkins, F. Castro, Z. Saad-Saoud, J. Roman, M. A. Rodrigues, Canada, in 1969, and the second M.S. degree in nu-
P. Gardner, M. Birks, J. Coneybeare, and A. Ferguson, “Large wind tur- clear engineering and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
bines and weak rural electricity systems,” presented at the 1994 BWEA engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madi-
Conf., Stirling, Scotland. son, in 1972 and 1973, respectively.
[3] E. Muljadi, T. Batan, D. Yildirim, and C. P. Butterfield, “Understanding the He is the Oscar A. Schott Professor of power elec-
unbalanced-voltage problem in wind turbine generation,” in Proc. 1999 tronics at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
Ind. Appl. Conf., vol. 2, pp. 1359–1365. where he has been teaching since 1976. He has numerous patents and publica-
[4] F. Jiang, Z. Q. Bo, and Li Roumei, “Performance of induction genera- tions in the field of power electronics, electric drives, and power systems. He is
tor in parallel with an unbalanced three phase system,” in Proc. 1998 the author of five textbooks.
POWERCON, vol. 2, pp. 1193–1197. Dr. Mohan is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award presented
[5] A. Petersson, “Analysis, modeling and control of doubly fed induction gen- by the Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota.
erators for wind turbines,” Ph.D. dissertation, Chalmers Univ. of Technol.,
Gothenburg, Sweden, 2005.
[6] N. Mohan, Advanced Electric Drives: Analysis, Control and Modeling
using Simulink. Minneapolis, MN: MNPERE, 2001.
[7] N. Mohan, T. Undeland, and W. Robbins, Power Electronics: Converters,
Applications, and Design. New York: Wiley, 1989.
[8] S. Müller, M. Deicke, and R. W. De Doncker, “Doubly fed induction
generator systems,” IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 26–33,
May/Jun. 2002.
[9] S. Bolik, “Modelling and analysis of variable speed wind turbines with
induction generator during grid faults,” Ph.D. dissertation, Aalborg Univ.,
Aalborg, Denmark, 2004.

Ted K. A. Brekken (M’06) received the B.S., M.S.,

and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, in 1999, 2002, and 2005, respectively.
During 1999, he was with Postech, Pohang, South
Korea. During 2004–2005, he was on a Fulbright
scholarship at the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. He is currently
an Assistant Professor of energy systems at Oregon
State University, Corvallis. His current research inter-
ests include control, power electronics, and electric
drives, specifically, digital control techniques applied
to renewable energy systems.