COURSE

ELEETRICAL ENGINEERING

SUBJECT:
Wind and Solar Energy Systems
Wind Generator Topologies
 Wind Energy and Its Application
• Air is an important natural resource
• Moving air is known as wind which produces energy.
• Like solar energy, wind energy is a very important non-
conventional source of energy
• In India, the wind power is of great significance as there are
large coastal, hill, and desert where wind energy can be
carefully exploited for generation of electricity and water
pumping.
• Wind energy may be converted into mechanical and electrical
energies.
• Wind energy in India is generally utilized in wind pumps, wind
battery charges, wind electricity generators etc.
 Review of modern wind turbine
technologies
• Wind technology converts the energy available in wind to
electricity or mechanical power through the use of wind
turbines.
• A wind turbine is a machine for converting the mechanical
energy in wind into electrical energy.
• Wind turbines capture the power from the wind by means of
aerodynamically designed blades and convert it into rotating
mechanical power.
• Wind turbine designs being increasingly efficient, cost
effective, and reliable.
 Wind Energy System Components

• the tower.
• the wind turbine with two or three blades.
• the yaw mechanism such as the tail vane.
• the mechanical gear.
• the electrical generator.
• the speed sensors and control.
 The modern system often has the following additional
components:

• the power electronics.

• the control electronics, usually incorporating a
comp
• the battery for improving the load availability
in stand-alone mode.
• the transmission link connecting to the area
grid.
 Challenges
• Because of the large moment of inertia of the rotor, the
design challenges include the starting, the speed control
during the power producing operation, and stopping the
turbine when required.
• The eddy current or other type of brake is used to halt the
turbine when needed for emergency or for routine
maintenance. In the multiple tower wind farm, each turbine
must have its own control system for operational and safety
functions from a remote location
 Turbine Blades
• The turbine blades are made of high-density wood or glass
fibre and epoxy composites.
• Modern wind turbines have two or three blades.
• The steady mechanical stress due to centrifugal forces and
fatigue under continuous vibrations make the blade design
the weakest mechanical link in the system.
• The mechanical stress in the blade under gusty wind is kept
under the allowable limit. This is achieved by controlling the
rotor speed below the set limit. This not only protects the
blades, but also protects the electrical generator from
overloading and overheating.
 Wind Turbine Design for Wind Power

• Wind turbine designs generally comprise of a rotor, a direct

current (DC) generator or an alternating current (AC)
alternator which is mounted on a tower high above the
ground.
How are wind turbines designed to produce electricity?
In its simplest terms, a wind turbine is the opposite to a house
or desktop fan. The fan uses electricity from the mains grid to
rotate and circulate the air, making wind. Wind turbine
designs on the other hand use the force of the wind to
generate electricity. The winds movement spins or rotates the
turbines blades, which captures the kinetic energy of the wind
and convert this energy into a rotary motion via a shaft to
drive a generator and make electricity as shown.
• A wind turbine extracts the kinetic energy from the wind by slowing the
wind down, and transferring this energy into the spinning shaft so it is
important to have a good design. The available power in the wind that is
available for harvesting depends on both the wind speed and the area
that is swept by the rotating turbine blades. So the faster the wind speed
or the larger the rotor blades the more energy can be extracted from the
wind. So we can say that wind turbine power production depends on the
interaction between the rotor blades and the wind and it is this
interaction that is important for a wind turbine design.
 To help improve this interaction and therefore
increase efficiency two . types of wind turbine
design are available:
1)The common horizontal axis
2)the vertical axis design.
The horizontal axis wind turbine design catches more wind so
the power output is higher than that of a vertical axis wind
turbine design. The disadvantage of the horizontal axis design
is that the tower required to support the wind turbine is much
higher and the design of the rotor blades has to be much
better.
• The Vertical Axis Turbine or VAWT, is easier to
design and maintain but offers lower
performance than the horizontal axis types
due to the high drag of its simple rotor blade
design. Most wind turbines generating
electricity today either commercially or
domestically are horizontal axis machines
 Blade Design
• Rotor blade designs operate on either the principle of the lift or
drag method for extracting energy from the flowing air masses.
The lift blade design employs the same principle that enables
aeroplanes, kites and birds to fly producing a lifting force which is
perpendicular to the direction of motion. The rotor blade is
essentially an aerofoil, or wing similar in shape to an aeroplane
wing. As the blade cuts through the air, a wind speed and pressure
differential is created between the upper and lower surfaces of
the blade.
• The pressure at the lower surface is greater and thus acts to “lift”
the blade upwards, so we want to make this force as big as
possible. When the blades are attached to a central rotational
axis, like a wind turbine rotor, this lift is translated into a rotational
motion.
• Opposing this lifting force is a drag force which is parallel to
the direction of motion and causes turbulence around the
trailing edge of the blade as it cuts through the air. This
turbulence has a braking effect on the blade so we want to
make this drag force as small as possible. The combination
of lift and drag causes the rotor to spin like a propeller.
• Drag designs are used more for vertical wind turbine
designs which have large cup or curved shaped blades. The
wind literally pushes the blades out of the way which are
attached to a central shaft. The advantages of drag designed
rotor blades is slower rotational speeds and high torque
capabilities making them useful for water pumping and farm
machinery power. Lift powered wind turbines having a
much higher rotational speed than drag types and therefore
are well suited for electricity generation.
 Fixed and Variable speed
wind turbines
• A variable speed wind turbine is one which is specifically
designed to operate over a wide range of rotor speeds.
• It is in direct contrast to fixed speed wind turbine where the
rotor speed is approximately constant.
• The reason to vary the rotor speed is to capture the maximum
aerodynamic power in the wind, as the wind speed varies.
• The first wind turbines used for the production of electric
energy were with fixed speed, however those of last
generation function with variable speed
• this type of functioning permit to increase the energetic
efficiency, to lower the mechanical loads, to improve the
quality of produced kinetic energy.
• Most of the existing large systems in
operation are built or planned to run at constant
speed in synchronization with a utility grid.
• Until recently, this has usually been achieved by
utilizing mechanical control means such as blade
pitch angle control, yaw control, coning etc.
• An alternative means of achieving the same
result is to couple the turbine to a cage rotor
induction generator through a gear box and the
stator of the generator is tied to the three phase
grid through a transformer.
• The slip being nominally of the order of 5%.
• If the wind speed increases above the rated wind
speed, the power coefficient inherently reduces, so
that the power produced by the turbine stays near
the rated power.
• In constant speed system the power is mostly
limited using the classic stall principle.
• There are a few variants:
• 1. Pole changing generators with two stator
windings with different numbers of pole pairs
so that turbine can operate at two constant
speeds in order to increase energy yield and
reduce audible noise and
• 2. Generators with electronically variable rotor
resistance in order to reduce mechanical loads
by making larger speed variations possible : the
semi variable speed wind turbine.
• A cage rotor induction generator when connected to the
grid draws the magnetizing current from the line thereby
reducing stator power factor. Under low wind conditions,
when the active power generation is low, the machine
mainly draws reactive power from the grid and the stator
power factor is extremely poor. The lagging reactive
power is compensated by connecting capacitor banks
across the line. Depending on the active power
generation, these capacitors are either cutin or cut-out to
regulate the average power factor of the generator
between 0.95 and 1. But the random switching of the
capacitor banks gives rise to undesirable transients in the
line currents and voltages. In a grid, where hundreds of
such machines are installed, these capacitive switchings
can cause severe over voltage problems
Variable speed wind energy conversion system
Wind turbine characteristics
• A wind turbine is characterized by its power-speed
characteristics.
• The amount of power Pt that a turbine is capable of
producing depends upon its dimensions, blade geometry, air
density and the wind velocity.
• For a horizontal axis wind turbine it is given by
• Synchronous generator can be a salient pole field winding machine
(FW) or permanent magnet machine(PM).
• A power rectifier connected with a power inverter through a DC link,
composes the power converter.
• The power rectifier is placed between the stator winding of generater
and the DC link and the power inverter is connected to the network.
• This convertor may be formed both, by a diode rectifier with a boost
chopper converter connected to a PWM power inverter, or by two
bidirectional PWM-VSI connected back to back.
• Normally, the control system of the rectifier regulates the
electromagnetic torque of the machine, and the control system of the
inverter regulates the real and reactive power delivered from the
system to the network.
• Synchronous generator has some advantages because this
electromagnetic machine provides its own magnetization energy. It is a
self excited machine. - The efficiency of this machine can be high,
because it may employ the whole stator current in the electromagnetic
torque production.
 Comparison of constant speed and variable
speed wind energy conversion systems
• Characteristics, static operation, advantages and
disadvantages of constant speed and variable speed wind
energy conversion systems are compared.

Static operation
For constant speed turbines with grid connected squirrel cage
induction generator the static operation is automatically
reached, while for variable speed turbines active control of
the torque is needed.
 Advantages of the variable speed WECS with respect to the constant
speed WECS

• 1. For the same turbine WECS variable speed allows higher power capture, thereby
increasing the annual energy output significantly.

• 2. The variable speed WECS is capable of providing the required reactive power of
the induction generator from the dc bus capacitance. The front end converter is
controlled to operate at unity power factor at the grid interface irrespective of the
active power generation. With the converter switching at high frequency the
currents injected in to the line are sinusoidal without any undesirable transients.

• 3. Variable speed operation also allows a standard single winding machine to be

used over the entire operating range of the turbine. Hence the machine cost is 64
reduced and the complexities associated with winding-switchovers are eliminated.

• 4. In variable speed WECS since torque of the machine is controlled (either by field-
orientation or direct torque control) the generator cannot be overloaded at any
point of time beyond the prescribed limits.
 Disadvantages of variable speed WECS with respect
to the constant speed WECS

• 1. The power rating of the generator in the variable

speed scheme should be five times greater than that
of the optimal version of the constant speed case.
• 2. Operating the generator over a wide speed range
may result in a considerable reduction in the overall
efficiency of the energy conversion process.
 Induction Generators
Construction
• In the electromagnetic structure of the induction generator,
the stator is made of numerous coils with three groups
(phases), and is supplied with three-phase current.
• The three coils are physically spread around the stator
periphery and carry currents which are out of time-phase.
• This combination produces a rotating magnetic field, which is
a key feature of the working of the induction machine.
• The angular speed of the rotating magnetic field is called the
synchronous speed. It is denoted by Ns and is given by the
following: N = 60f/P revolutions per minute (rpm)
where f = frequency of the stator excitation
p = number of magnetic pole pairs.
Squirrel cage rotor of the induction machine under rotating
magnetic field
• The stator coils are embedded in slots of high-
permeability magnetic core to produce the
required magnetic field intensity with low
exciting current.
• The rotor, however, has a completely different
structure. It is made of solid conducting bars
embedded in the slots of a magnetic core.
• The bars are connected together at both ends
by the conducting end rings in fig.
• Because of its resemblance, the rotor is called
the squirrel cage rotor, or the cage rotor in
short.
 Working Principle
• The stator magnetic field is rotating at the synchronous
speed determined by Equation.
• This field is conceptually represented by the rotating
magnets in Figure.
• The relative speed between the rotating field and the
rotor induces the voltage in each rotor turn linking the
stator flux φ.
• The magnitude of the induced voltage is given by
Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction,
• namely: e = - dΦ/dt
• Where Φ = the magnetic flux linking the rotor turn.
• This voltage in turn sets up the circulating
current in the rotor.
• The electromagnetic interaction of the rotor
current and the stator flux produces the torque.
• The amplitude of this torque is given by the
following: T = K ⋅ Φ ⋅ I2 .cosφ2
where K = constant of proportionality
Φ = amplitude of the stator flux wave
I2 = amplitude of induced current in the rotor bars
Φ2 = phase angle by which the rotor current lags
the rotor voltage.
• The rotor will accelerate under this torque. If
the rotor was on frictionless bearings with no
mechanical load attached, it is completely free
to rotate with zero resistance. Under this
condition, the rotor will attain the same speed
as the stator field, namely, the synchronous
speed.
• At this speed, the current induced in the rotor
speed is zero, no torque is produced and none
is required.
• The rotor finds equilibrium at this speed and
will continue to run at the synchronous speed.
• If the rotor is now attached to a mechanical load
such as a fan, it will slow down.
• The stator flux, which always rotates at the
constant, synchronous speed, will have relative
speed with respect to the rotor.
• As a result, the electromagnetically induced
voltage, current, and torque are produced in
• the rotor.
• The torque produced must equal that needed to
drive the load at that speed.
• The machine works as the motor in this condition.
• If we attach the rotor to a wind turbine and drive it
faster than the synchronous speed, the induced current
and the torque in the rotor reverse the direction.
• The machine now works as the generator, converting
the mechanical power of the turbine into electrical
power delivered to the load connected to the stator
terminals.
• If the machine was connected to a grid, it would feed
power into the grid.
• Thus, the induction machine can work as the electrical
generator only at speeds higher than the synchronous
speed.
• The generator operation, for that reason, is often called
the super-synchronous speed operation of the
induction machine.
Rotor Speed and Slip
S = (Ns-Nr)/Ns
where s = slip of the rotor
Ns = synchronous speed = 60·f/p
Nr = rotor speed
• The slip is generally considered positive in the motoring operation.
• In the generator mode, the slip would therefore be negative.
• In both the motoring mode and the generating mode, higher rotor
slips induce higher current in the rotor and higher
electromechanical power conversion.
• In both modes, the value of the slip is generally a few to several
percent.
• Higher slips result in greater electrical loss, which must be
effectively dissipated from the rotor to keep the operating
temperature below the allowable limit.
• The slip is generally considered positive in the
motoring operation.
• In the generator mode, the slip would therefore be
negative.
• In both the motoring mode and the generating mode,
higher rotor slips induce higher current in
the rotor and higher electromechanical power
conversion.
• In both modes, the value of the slip is generally a few
to several percent.
• Higher slips result in greater electrical loss, which
must be effectively dissipated from the rotor to keep
the operating temperature below the allowable limit.
 Self-Excitation Capacitance
• As the generator, the induction machine has one
drawback of requiring reactive power for excitation.
• The exciting power can be provided by an external
capacitor connected to the generator terminals
(Figure).
• No separate AC supply is needed in this case. In the
grid-connected generator, the reactive power is
supplied from the synchronous generators working at
the other end of the grid.
• Where the grid capacity of supplying the reactive
power is limited, local capacitors can be used to partly
supply the needed reactive power.
 Self-excited induction generator with
external capacitor
• The induction generator will self-excite using the external
capacitor only if the rotor has an adequate remnant magnetic
field. In the self-excited mode,
• The generator output frequency and voltage are affected by
the speed, the load, and the capacitance value in farads. The
operating voltage and frequency are determined below in
terms of the approximate equivalent circuit of Figure.
Torque-Speed Characteristic
• If we vary the slip over a wide range in the equivalent circuit, we get the torque-
speed characteristic as shown in Figure back.

• In the region of negative slip, the machine works as the generator powering the
electrical load connected to its terminals.

• In the region of positive slip, it works as the motor turning the mechanical load
connected to its shaft.

• In addition to the motoring and the generating regions, the induction machine has
yet a third operating mode, and that is the braking mode.

• If the machine is operated at slips >1 by turning it backward, it absorbs power

without putting anything out. That is, it works as a brake. The power in this case is
converted into I2R loss in the rotor conductors, which must be dissipated as heat.
• The eddy current brake works on this principle. As such, in case of emergencies,
the grid-connected induction generator can be used as brake by reversing the
three-phase voltage sequence at the stator terminals. This reverses the direction of
rotation of the magnetic flux wave with respect to the rotor.
• The torsional stress on the turbine blades and the hub, however, may limit the
braking torque.
• The torque-slip characteristic in the generating mode is separately
shown in Figure 6-10. If the generator is loaded at constant load
torque TL, it has two possible points of operation, P1 and P2. Only
one of these two pints, P1, is stable.
• Any perturbation in speed around point P1 will produce stabilizing
torque to bring it back to P1. The figure also shows the limit to
which the generator can be loaded. The maximum torque it can
support is called the breakdown torque, which is shown as Tmax.
• If the generator is loaded under a constant torque above Tmax, it
will become unstable and stall, draw excessive current, and destroy
itself thermally if not properly protected.
 Doubly-Fed Induction Generators
• Doubly fed electrical generators are similar to AC
electrical generators, but have additional features which allow
them to run at speeds slightly above or below their natural
synchronous speed.
• This is useful for large variable speed wind turbines, because
wind speed can change suddenly.
• When a gust of wind hits a wind turbine, the blades
try to speed up, but a synchronous generator is
locked to the speed of the power grid and cannot
speed up. So large forces are developed in the hub,
gearbox, and generator as the power grid pushes
back. This causes wear and damage to the
mechanism.

• If the turbine is allowed to speed up immediately

when hit by a wind gust, the stresses are lower with
the power from the wind gust still being converted to
useful electricity.
• One approach to allowing wind turbine speed to vary is
to accept whatever frequency the generator produces,
convert it to DC, and then convert it to AC at the desired
output frequency using an inverter. This is common for
small house and farm wind turbines. But the inverters
required for megawatt-scale wind turbines are large and
expensive.

• Doubly fed generators are another solution to this

problem. Instead of the usual field winding fed with DC,
and an armature winding where the generated electricity
comes out, there are two three-phase windings, one
stationary and one rotating, both separately connected
to equipment outside the generator. Thus, the
term doubly fed is used for this kind of machines.
• One winding is directly connected to the output, and
produces 3-phase AC power at the desired grid
frequency. The other winding (traditionally called the
field, but here both windings can be outputs) is
connected to 3-phase AC power at variable frequency.
• This input power is adjusted in frequency and phase to
compensate for changes in speed of the turbine.
• Adjusting the frequency and phase requires an AC to DC
to AC converter.
• This is usually constructed from very large IGBT
semiconductors.
• The converter is bidirectional, and can pass power in
either direction. Power can flow from this winding as
well as from the output winding.
 Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Generators
• A permanent magnet synchronous generator is
a generator where the excitation field is provided
by a permanent magnet instead of a coil.
• The term synchronous refers here to the fact that
the rotor and magnetic field rotate with the
same speed, because the magnetic field is
generated through a shaft mounted permanent
magnet mechanism and current is induced into
the stationary armature.
Description

• Synchronous generators are the majority source of

commercial electrical energy. They are commonly
used to convert the mechanical power output of
steam turbines, gas turbines, reciprocating engines
and hydro turbines into electrical power for the
grid.
• Some designs of Wind turbines also use this
generator type.
• In the majority of designs the rotating assembly in
the center of the generator—the "rotor"—contains
the magnet, and the "stator" is the stationary
armature that is electrically connected to a load.
• As shown in the diagram, the perpendicular
component of the stator field affects the torque
while the parallel component affects the voltage.
• The load supplied by the generator determines the
voltage. If the load is inductive, then the angle
between the rotor and stator fields will be greater
than 90 degrees which corresponds to an increased
generator voltage. This is known as an overexcited
generator.
• The opposite is true for a generator supplying a
capacitive load which is known as an under excited
generator.
• A set of three conductors make up the armature
winding in standard utility equipment, constituting
three phases of a power circuit—that correspond to
the three wires we are accustomed to see on
transmission lines.
• The phases are wound such that they are 120 degrees
apart spatially on the stator, providing for a uniform
force or torque on the generator rotor.
• The uniformity of the torque arises because the
magnetic fields resulting from the induced currents in
the three conductors of the armature winding combine
spatially in such a way as to resemble the magnetic field
of a single, rotating magnet.
• This stator magnetic field or "stator field" appears as a
steady rotating field and spins at the same frequency as
the rotor when the rotor contains a single dipole
magnetic field. The two fields move in "synchronicity"
and maintain a fixed position relative to each other as
they spin.
 Power electronics converters
The power electronic circuits in wind and photovoltaic power systems
basically perform the following functions:
• convert AC into DC.
• convert DC into AC.
• control voltage.
• control frequency.
• convert DC into DC.

These functions are performed by solid state semiconductor devices

periodically switched on and off at desired frequency. In terms of
applications, no other technology has brought greater change in power
engineering, or holds greater potential of bringing improvements in the
future, than the power electronic devices and circuits. In this chapter, we
review the power electronic circuits used in modern wind and photovoltaic
power systems.
 Basic Switching Devices
A great variety of solid state devices is
available in the market. Some of the more
commonly used devices are as follow
• bipolar junction transistor (BJT).
• metal-oxide semi conducting field effect
transistor (MOSFET).
• insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT).
• silicon controlled rectifier (SCR), also known as
the thyristor.
• gate turn off thyristor (GTO).
• For specific application, the choice depends on the
power, voltage, current, and the frequency
requirement of the system. A common feature
among these devices is that all are three-terminal
devices as shown in their generally used circuit
symbols
• In wind power system operating at variable
speed for maximum annual energy
production, the output frequency and voltage
of the induction generator vary with the wind
speed.
• The variable-frequency, variable-voltage
output is converted into fixed voltage 60 Hz or
50 Hz terminal output to match with utility
requirement. In modern plants, this is
accomplished by power electronics scheme
shown in Figure :
• The variable frequency is first rectified into DC, and the
DC is then inverted back into the fixed frequency AC.
• The increase in the energy production from the
variable speed wind turbine over the plant life more
than offsets the added cost of the power electronics.
• In photovoltaic power systems, the DC power
produced by the pv modules is inverted into 60 or 50
Hz AC power using the inverter.
• The inverter circuit in the pv system is essentially the
same that is used in the variable speed wind power
system.
• The main power electronic components of the wind
and pv power systems are, therefore, the rectifier and
the inverter.
 AC to DC Rectifier
Three-phase full bridge AC to DC silicon-
controlled rectifier circuit
 The power switch generally used in the
rectifier is the silicon-controlled rectifier. The
average DC output voltage in this circuit is
given by the following:
 DC to AC Inverter
• The power electronic circuit used to convert DC into
AC is known as the inverter.
• The term “converter” is often used to mean either
the rectifier or the inverter. The DC input to the
inverter can be from any of the following sources:

 Rectified DC output of the variable speed wind power system.

 DC output of the photovoltaic power modules.
 DC output of the battery used in the wind or photovoltaic
power system.
• Figure below shows the DC to three-phase AC
inverter circuit diagram.
• The DC source current is switched successively in a
50 Hz three-phase time sequence such as to power
the three-phase load. The AC current contains
significant harmonics.
• The fundamental frequency (60 or 50 Hz) phase-to-neutral
voltage is as follows:

• Unlike in BJT, MOSFET, and IGBT, the thyristor current, once

switched on, must be forcefully switched off (commutated) to
cease conduction. If the thyristor is used as the switching
device, the circuit must incorporate additional commutating
circuit to perform this function.
• The commutating circuit is a significant part of the inverter
circuit.
• There are two main types of inverters, the line commutated
and the forced commutated.
• The line-commutated inverter must be
connected to the AC system into which they
feed power.
• The design method is matured and has been
extensively used in the high-voltage DC
transmission line inverters. Such inverters are
simple and inexpensive and can be designed in
any size.
• The disadvantage is that they act as a sink of
reactive power and generate high content of
harmonics.
• Poor power factor and high harmonic content in
line commutated inverters significantly degrade the
quality of power at the utility interface. This
problem has been recently addressed by a series of
design changes in the inverters. Among them is the
12-pulse inverter circuit and increased harmonic
filtering.
• These new design features have resulted in today’s
inverters operating at near unity power factor and
less than 3 to 5 percent total harmonic distortion.
The quality of power at the utility interface at many
modern wind power plants exceeds that of the grid
they interface.
• The force-commutated inverter does not have
to be supplying load and can be free-running
as an independent voltage source.
• The design is relatively complex and
expensive.
• The advantage is that they can be a source of
reactive power and the harmonics content is
low.
 Generator-Converter configurations
• At the utility interface, the power flow direction and
magnitude depend on the voltage magnitude and the
phase relation of the site voltage with respect to the
grid voltage.
• The grid voltage being fixed, the site voltage must be
controlled both in magnitude and in phase in order to
feed power to the grid when available, and to draw
from the grid when needed.
• If the inverter is already included in the system for
frequency conversion, the magnitude and phase control
of the site voltage is done with the same inverter with
no additional hardware cost.
The controls are accomplished as follows:
Voltage Control
• For interfacing with the utility grid lines, the renewable
power system output voltage at the inverter terminals
must be adjustable. The voltage is controlled by using
one of the following two methods: 1.
• By controlling the alternating voltage output of the
inverter using tap-changing autotransformer at the
inverter output as in Figure.
• The tap changing is automatically obtained in a closed-
loop control system. If the transformer has a phase-
changing winding also, a complete control on the
magnitude and phase of the site voltage can be
achieved.
• The advantages of this scheme are that the site output voltage wave
shape does not vary over a wide range, and high input power factor is
achieved by using uncontrolled diode rectifiers for the DC link voltage. The
added cost of the transformer, however, can be avoided by using the
method discussed below.

• Since the magnitude of the alternating voltage output from the static
inverter is proportional to the direct voltage input from the rectifier, the
voltage control can be achieved by operating the inverter with the variable
DC link voltage. Such a system also maintains the same output voltage,
frequency and wave shape over a wide range. However, in circuits deriving
the load current from the commutating capacitor voltage from the DC link,
the commutating capability decreases when the output voltage is
reduced. This could lead to an operational difficulty when the DC link
voltage varies over a wide range, such as in motor drives controlling
FIGURE Voltage control by means of uncontrolled rectifier and variable
ratio tap-changing transformer. the speed in ratio exceeding four to one.
In renewable power applications, such commutation difficulty is unlikely
as the speed varies over a narrow range.
 The variable DC link voltage is obtained two ways:
• one way is to connect a variable ratio
transformer on the input side of the rectifier.
• The secondary tap changing is automatically
obtained in a closed-loop control system.
• The other way is to use the phase-controlled
rectifier in place of the uncontrolled rectifier in
Figure.
• At reduced output voltage, this method gives
poor power factor and high harmonic content,
and requires filtering the DC voltage before
feeding to the inverter.
Frequency Control
• The output frequency of the inverter solely depends on the rate at
which the switching thyristors or transistors are triggered into
conduction. The triggering rate is determined by the reference
oscillator producing a continuous train of timing pulses, which are
directed by logic circuits to the thyristor gating circuits. The timing
pulse train is also used to control the turnoff circuits. The frequency
stability and accuracy requirements of the inverter dictate the
selection of the reference oscillator. A simple temperature
compensated R-C relaxation oscillator gives the frequency stability
within 0.02 percent. When better stability is needed, a crystal-
controlled oscillator and digital counters may be used, which can
provide stability of .001 percent or better. The frequency control in
a stand-alone power system is an openloop system. The steady state
or transient load changes do not affect the frequency. This is one of
the major advantages of the power electronics inverter over the old
electromechanical means of frequency controls .