Power Electronics For Wind Turbine Systems

Sidhant Pani

Department of Electrical and Electronics,

Manipal Institute of Technology,
Manipal, Karnataka, India

AbstractOn the verge of exhausting the current stockpile

of non-renewable resources, mankind has taken a stride
towards employing renewable resources to meet the power
demands; Wind power being one of them. Today the wind
farms generate tremendous amount of power; the largest
being the Gansu wind farm in China with a capacity of
over 6000MW. Wind turbines today have power ratings in
a range of 250W to 7MW. The widespread uses of Wind
turbines generators in transmission and distribution networks have affected the power grid system significantly.
We need more advanced generators, power electronic systems and control solutions to improve the wind power
characteristics to make it more congruous whilst integrating it into the grid system. In this session some developing
trends in technologies used for wind power systems will be
discussed and the challenges posed by the emerging technologies will be addressed. The wind turbine concepts
along with the corresponding power electronic converters
and control structures will be reviewed in this context.

I. INTRODUCTION
Wind Power being one of the significant renewable resources has made impacts in the energy sector. The Wind
Turbine System has seen dramatic changes in the power
electronic technologies to harvest its potential.
The soft starters were used in 1980s to connect the squirrel cage induction generator to the power grid. Simple
SCRs were used which didnt need to carry the power
continuously.They helped to keep the inrush current in
check and ensured the gradual rise of current . In 1990s
the rotor resistance controlled wound induction motor
was used with the help of diode bridges and choppers.
They helped in reducing the mechanical stress and excess loading. Since 2000, advanced back to back converters were introduced which regulated the generated
power from wind turbine systems. Adjustable speed
generators (ASG) came into being with different topologies. One being the direct-in-the-line ASG system and
the other Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). The
DFIG was first used with Partial Scale Power Electronic
Converters (PECs)[1]. Later Full Scale Converters were
incorporated for better performance and utilisation of the
total capacity.
This report will throw light into the current technological trends of PECs and market developments for wind
power application. Finally the challenges for future utilisation of wind power will be discussed with some conclusions.

II. PROGRESS IN WIND POWER GENERATION

In Fig (1) the global wind power capacity from 1997 to
2014 has been shown. It can be seen that the net installed wind capacity as of year 2014 is 369.5 GW i.e. ~
51 GW from the previous year. This number is expected
to touch the 700 GW around the year 2020. The wind
power is becoming a very valuable player amongst the
renewable energy sources. It is relatively cheaper and
reliable[2]. Denmarks more than 30 percent of electric
power consumption is covered by wind.
China is the largest market for wind power with the total
installed capacity of 128 GW and US the second largest
with 65 GW of installed power[3]. Fig (2) elucidates the
current largest players in the wind sector globally[3].
Owing to the advancements in the technology the capacity of the individual wind turbine is increasing dramatically to reduce the price per generated KW. Currently
the manufacturers are developing these machines in the
range of 3-7.5 MW. It is a possibility that they might be
able to produce them of 10 MW capacity by the year
2020[5].

III. CURRENT POWER ELECTRONIC CONFIGURATIONS FOR THE WIND TURBINE SYSTEM

The progress in wind turbines has made strides since the

1980s. There are many categories in which different type
of wind turbine systems fall into. Power Electronics
have a major role in these. Currently the DFIG configuration paired with Partial Scale Converter is dominating
the market. However due to certain limitations the future
will opt for Full scale converters with the Asynchronous/
Synchronous Generator (A/SG) configuration for better
utilisation of the wind capacity. Partial Scale Converters
offer around 30 percent of the total wind capacity. The
two configurations are discussed here with simplicity.
A. DFIG PAIRED WITH PARTIAL CONVERTER
The schematic diagram of this configuration is shown in
fig(3). The stator windings of the generator are connected to the grid and the rotor windings are connected to the
grid via a converter. Flexible regulations in current and
frequency are one the key features. Hence the variation
in speed range can be extended. The low capacity of the
converter ensures low cost. The major demerits are the
incorporation of slip rings and power control in case of
grid faults. This serves as a hindrance to satisfy the future grid requirements. The most popular converter
topology used here is the 2 Level PWM converter. In a
single structure two of these converters are connected in
a Back to Back configuration(BTB) as seen in fig(4). 2
Level Back to Back solution ensures full power controllability due to the four quadrant operation. The structure
is simple and has a few components thus making it cost
effective[1]-[6].

method are the steep price of the power electronic converters and the high power losses.
The 2 Level BTB configuration cannot be used here as
the whole of generated power by wind turbines( for ratings above 2 MW) is used and there will be large switching losses and many devices have to be connected in
parallel incase of low voltage level which can be quite
challenging. Other disadvantages include: higher harmonics in output voltage and current and high rate of
change in voltage (dv/dt).Hence 2 level BTB cannot be
used for this even though it has cost advantage.
To tackle with the above problem the Multi-Level converter topology was introduced. The 3 level Neutral
Point Clamped (NPC) converter is such an example as
shown in fig(6) . The more the levels the more the voltage waveform approaches the shape of a sine wave. This
also ensures low voltage change rate (dv/dt), low switching losses, lesser harmonics and lower leakage current.
The main drawback in this case is of need to incorporate
more number of switching components, which means
high cost and the complexity in the design [1]-[7].
IV. CONTROL STRUCTURE OF A WIND TURBINE

GENERATOR

B. A/SG PAIRED WITH FULL SCALE POWER CONVERTER

The schematic diagram of this configuration is shown in
fig(5). This is a new and upcoming concept and is better
in terms of productivity when compared with the former.
The full scale power converter interconnects the stator
windings and the grid thus ensuring the regulation of the
all the generated power from the wind turbine. The
Asynchronous generator, Wound rotor and Permanent
Magnet Synchronous Generators can be paired up with
this converter topology. The merits include: no slip rings
in the design, full controllability of power and speed and
better grid support. The major disadvantages of this

Fig(7) displays the general control structure of a WTS

which includes generator, turbine, filter and a converter.
A wind turbine requires fast and slow control dynamics.
The input and output powers have to managed carefully.
The mechanical parts control the generated power of the
turbine and the DSO (Distribution System Operator) and
the TSO (Transmission System Operator) give the power
production commands[1]. The current in a variable
speed turbine generator is controlled altering the generator side converter. This enables to control the speed of
the turbine for a maximised output. The generator/ grid
side converters, pitch angle controller and braking chopper/crowbar are required for proper coordination during
the grid fault. The regulation of current, dc bus stabilisation and synchronisation with the grid are performed by
the wind power converter, where the Proportional Integral/ Resonant Converters are generally used.
V. INTEGRATING THE POWER GRID AND WTS

PECs. For more capacity and full scale conversion, the

cost of installing the power electronic components increases. Space available is also a limitation. Dense power circuits are therefore employed and the cost of insulation also increases. As mentioned earlier the A/SG with
full scale converter requires more cost to install, citing
the number of components to be installed. Introducing
more voltage levels requires more efficient and complicated circuits which also increase the cost. The location
also is a factor in determining the cost of installation and
the maintenance.
B. RELIABILITY

Wind energy systems are bound to have fluctuations as

the speed of the blowing wind is never constant. The
unpredictable features of wind energy system pose a
problem when trying to integrate to a power grid. Many
countries have a grid code to keep a check on the behaviour of the wind turbines. The main intention is make
the WTS act as a conventional power plant from a utility
point of view. The WTS should function as an active
generation unit whilst injecting power to the grid. At the
point of common coupling the wind turbine should be
able to control the active power. The active power has to
be kept in synchronisation with the grid frequency. For
ex- According to the Danish grid code the active power
is to be decreased if the frequency crosses 48.7 Hz depending on their power reserving strategy[8]. In addition
to keeping the active power in check the TSO will also
specify the range of reactive power which helps in maintaining the net MVA capacity.
TSOs of different countries have laid down the specifications to meet the grid requirements during the fault.
The need of grid is also felt for contributing reactive
power to recover voltage at the time of voltage sag. This
challenge is met with the wind turbine concepts as mentioned earlier along with the power quality equipments
such as STATCOMS.
The grid requirements have played a role in increasing
the cost per kilowatt hour but has also made wind power
more viable to integrate with the grid. The grid codes
pose new targets for the WTS. With the help of full scale
converters the wind power outputs are similar to the
conventional power plants.
VI. TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES REGARDING
POWER ELECTRONICS FOR WTS
The discussion made under this heading will focus on
the technical issues of power electronics w.r.t. cost, reliability, grid integration and new power electronic
equipments.
A. Lower Cost of Energy
The cost factor determines the economic feasibility of a
particular technology. However wind power is available
at lower cost than most of the other renewable sources of
energy[3]. This is the reason for its significant growth in
the last 35 years. With introduction of more power electronics; their cost determine the feasibility. Due to the
specific design of a particular wind turbine there are
specific costs associated with designing and selecting

The growth of wind turbines have posed another challenge: their reliability. The individual capacity increases
the damage cost of failures. Stability of the power grid
will be a problem when all of a sudden a large amount of
power capacity goes missing. As a result it can be concluded that the reliability performance is critical to the
designed configuration. It has been found that the control and power electronic components have a failure rate
2 to 4 times when compared to other sub systems. Thus
improvement in the quality of the circuits under these
can reduce the cost of wind power. In automotive industry various tests are performed to determine the the cost
and reliability of the machine. some of them are stress
analysis, profile mapping and online monitoring of the
converter.
C. SOME ADVANCED GRID INTEGRATION FEATURES
1.1 Protection and Islanding Operation: To lessen the
impact of sudden changes in the speed of wind and ensure stability the wind turbines/farms are supposed to be
a distributed generation network consisting of many
small power stations connected to the medium voltage
grid. Their power flows and other electrical features are
different than the traditional systems which are generally
connected to the high voltage grid. This will change the
current protection scheme and the security will be ensured at the distribution level and allowing the islanding
operation on the wind turbines and the local loads.
With the advancement in wind technologies it is also
expected from the WTS to start by itself after the faults
are cleared i.e. without taking any power from the grid.
1.2 Configuring the Wind Power Plants/Farm: With the
growth of the wind power capacity, large wind farms
have been developed which house many wind turbines.
They have significant impact on the grid in terms of
power quality and controlling the grid systems. Power
Electronic Technologies play an important role in ensuring this. As seen earlier the DFIG with partial scale converter has no control on the reactive power, hence a
STATCOM is used as a reactive power compensator to
meet the grid requirements. However the full scale converter offers control on the reactive power which renders
the removal of reactive power compensators from the
grid system.
For Long Transmission HVDC is also a good option
which essentially doesn't need any voltage compensators
and can provide better efficiency with less
fluctuation[1].

VII. CONCLUSION
The increase in demand for power and the depletion of
non renewable resources forced mankind to look for
renewable energy solutions. This led to development of
wind power along with other solutions. The main purpose of the renewable energy solutions is to reduce the
cost of energy and secure a safer future.
Current configurations in wind turbine systems suggest
many possible improvements that can be made to make
the wind farms function like the conventional power
plants. Recent improvements have ensured its better
integration to the grid. The advancements in power electronics are expected to make revolutionary changes in
the wind power systems, the main concern being grid
integration and compatibility with the power system.
It is expected that the wind power systems will grow at a
higher rate with every year coming by.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to thank Mr. Adarsh S for his
guidance in completing the report.

REFERENCES
[1] Frede Blaabjerg and and Ke Ma,Future on Power
Electronics for wind turbine systems,IEEE Power Electronics, sept 2013.
[2] David Juri Freeman and Lisa A. Skumatz, Comparing Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, and Generation,ACEEE Energy Efficiency as a Resource, sept
2011.
[3] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (aug 2015), Wind
power by country. Available: en.wikipedia.org
[4] Business spectator, Australia (Mar 2015). Global
Wind Installations. Available: businessspectator.com/au
[5] Recharge News (may 2014), Siemens Plans 10 MW
by 2020.
[6] S. Muller,M. Deicker,Rik W.,DE Doncker, Doubly
Fed Induction Generator Systems for Wind Turbines,
IEEE Industry Application Magazine, May-June 2002.
[7] Long Pham, A Review of Full Scale Converter for
Wind Turbines. Available: academia.edu
[8] Wikipedia ,the free encyclopedia(aug 2015),Wind
Power in Denmark. Available: en.wikipedia.org