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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS 1

Implementing Virtual Inertia in DFIG-Based

Wind Power Generation
Mohammadreza Fakhari Moghaddam Arani, Student Member, IEEE, and Ehab F. El-Saadany, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractAlthough wind power as a renewable energy is Pitch Compensation integral gain.

assumed to be an advantageous source of energy, its intermit-
tent nature causes difficulties especially in the islanding mode Phased Lock Loop (PLL) integral gain.
of operation. Conventional synchronous generators can help
to compensate for wind fluctuations, but the slow behavior of Droop Factor.
such systems may result in stability concerns. Here, the virtual Pitch Control proportional gain.
inertia method, which imitates the kinetic inertia of synchronous
generator, is used to improve the system dynamic behavior. Pitch Compensation proportional gain.
Since the proposed method focuses on short-term oscillations and
incorporates no long-term power regulation, it needs no mass PLL Proportional gain.
storage device. Thus, the method is economical. To prevent any Optimal Power coefficient.
additional cost, the rotating mass connected to the DFIG shaft
or a super-capacitor connected to the DC-link of a back-to-back Diesel inertia constant.
inverter of a wind power generator could be used. The concept and
the proposed control methods are discussed in detail. Eigen-value Virtual inertia constant.
analysis is used to study how the proposed method improves
Electrical output power of generator.
system stability. The advantages and disadvantages of using DFIG
rotating mass or super-capacitor as the virtual inertia source are Mechanical input power of generator.
compared. The proposed approach also shows that while virtual
inertia is not incorporated directly in long-term frequency and Electrical output power of DG1.
power regulation, it may enhance the system steady-state behavior
indirectly. A time domain simulation is used to verify the results Power absorbed by Super-Capacitor.
of the analytical studies. Power absorbed by virtual inertia source.
Index TermsDFIG, DG, islanding, microgrid, rotating mass,
Output power of GSC.
super-capacitor, virtual inertia, wind power.
Power consumed by loads.

NOMENCLATURE Power extracted from the rotor terminals of DFIG.

Maximum available wind power.
Effective area covered by the turbine blades.
s Complex Frequency.
DC-Link Capacitance.
Electro-magnetic Torque.
Optimal power coefficient of the wind turbine.
Desired Electro-magnetic Torque.
Super-Capacitor Capacitance.
Mechanical Torque.
Damping factor of Diesel rotational mass.
DFIG maximum allowed torque.
ESS Energy Storage System (Super-Capacitor).
Steam Chest and inlet piping time constant.
Inertia constant.
Governor time constant.
DG1 inertia constant.
Turbine pitch mechanical time constant.
Transfer function of virtual inertia.
Wind speed.
Moment of inertia of the rotating mass.
q-axis component of voltage.
Pitch Control integral gain.
Peak voltage of .
3-phase (abc) balanced voltage.
Manuscript received February 23, 2012; revised May 29, 2012; accepted June
26, 2012. Paper no. TPWRS-00133-2012. Super-Capacitor Voltage.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada (e-mail: DC-link Voltage.
mfakhari@uwaterloo.ca; ehab@uwaterloo.ca).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online Wind Turbine Pitch Angle.
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Optimal tip ratio.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2012.2207972

0885-8950/$31.00 2012 IEEE

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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS
Modes (eigen-values) of Wind power State Space
. a system with multiple DG units, dispatchable DG units share
Virtual Inertia time constant 1.
Virtual Inertia time constant 2.
DFIG rotational speed.
Angular Frequency of microgrid.
Air density.
Denoting the small signal perturbation of a
variable.
0 Subscript denoting the initial value.
I. INTRODUCTION
W IND power, as one of the most important renewable en-
ergy sources, is supposed to be used very often in micro-
grids but its intermittent behavior causes limitations in its use.
Extracting the maximum power from winds of fluctuating speed
requires different turbine speeds [1]. To cope with this require-
ment, a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is commonly
used because DFIG can be controlled to maximize the extracted
energy while using a converter with a lower rating than the full
back-to-back converter with synchronous generators.
On the other hand, in order to compensate for wind intermit-
tent nature, an additional, dispatchable source is needed [2]. In-
teraction of this source with the wind plant and its impact on
system stability and quality may be significant. [3] has proposed
using the grid side converter (GSC) of the back-to-back inverter
to regulate the active power of DFIG, while the rotor side con-
verter (RSC), connected to the rotor of DFIG, is used to max-
imize power extraction. For active power regulation, a storage
device connected to the DC link of the converters is needed.
Some drawbacks, especially cost, have prevented wide use of
this method [4].
Using a dispatchable DG to compensate for wind power vari-
ation has also considered as a solution. Some references such as
[5] and [6] prefer to use conventional generators such as diesel
instead of using storage devices to compensate for wind power
variation. Although from the reliability and economy points of
view this method is attractive, network stability may be affected
since synchronous generators are slower than electronic inter-
faced DGs [7]. Even in inverter-based DGs, due to lack of in-
ertia, some problems in the dynamic behavior of microgrids are
observed [8], [9]. Thus, several attempts are underway to ad-
dress the microgrid stability. In [10], where a diesel DG is used
for compensation, the droop and the maximum power tracking
are combined to improve and speed up the power and frequency
regulation. In this method, diesel should be controlled in such
a way as to restore the nominal frequency in islanding; other-
wise, the DFIG will become unstable. Although the proposed
control method, if applied in a system with one dispatchable
DG unit, seems to work well, it will have serious problems if
multiple dispatchable DG units are used in a microgrid. In such
their power based on droop, and consequently, frequency devi-
ation is unavoidable [11].
Using batteries is not economical and conventional DGs are
slow; adding small-capacity storage devices, which are not ex-
pensive, to the synchronous generators can compensate short
term for any limitations the dynamic behavior conflicts of the
system [7].
The concept of using a storage device short-term beside a
conventional generator, long-term, is used in various models.
[12] has tried using a storage device to compensate for the wind
power variation in short-term disturbances, while a diesel is re-
sponsible for steady state mode. The main problem in using a
storage device and inverter separate from the wind generator is
imposing additional costs. [4] has used GSC to reduce power
output variations with respect to prediction. The storage de-
vice is used to compensate DFIG in the short term, lead to the
use of lower capacity storage devices, such as super-capacitors,
which are more economic. However, the method proposed in [4]
uses GSC to mitigate the fluctuations only under grid-connected
mode and does not discuss islanding modes and frequency reg-
ulation.
Here, the proposed control method tries to imitate the
behavior of the short-term rotational energy storage of syn-
chronous generators. If a disturbance occurs in the system, a
small storage device like the rotating mass of the conventional
synchronous generator is going to provide the power in the
short term, making the system more stable.
The idea of emulating this behavior in non-inertia inverter-
based DG units is employed by several researchers. For in-
stance, [8] implemented this method by adding a derivative term
of frequency to droop equations to improve the dynamic be-
havior of systems. They have used this method only in dispatch-
able DGs. Later references such as [13] used virtual inertia ex-
plicitly. Although some researchers have employed virtual in-
ertia in undispatchable DGs, most use this control method in the
grid-connected mode [13][15].
In a wind power generator, two sources for implementing
this virtual inertia can be considered. One is the rotating mass
connected to the rotor of DFIG. In the conventional maximum
power point tracking control method of DFIG, this rotating
mass does not participate in frequency regulation [15]. Al-
though [13] and [16][18] implemented rotating-mass-based
virtual inertia, only grid-connected mode was investigated.
Some of them are not even applicable to islanding mode that
frequency deviation is permanent. In all of these references the
impact of variable speed of wind and consequently the rotating
mass is not discussed. Even WindInertia, rotating-mass-based
virtual inertia developed by GE, only responds to significant
under frequencies [19]. In [20], which investigated the islanding
mode, the maximum wind power extraction was sacrificed to
enhance the system stability. While [21] studied the islanding
mode and impact of variable wind speed was mentioned, the
detailed analyses were absent. It also did not consider the other
possible sources for inertia.
The other way to implement virtual inertia is to use a super-
capacitor connected to the DC link of the back-to-back inverter
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ARANI AND EL-SAADANY: IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL INERTIA IN DFIG-BASED WIND POWER GENERATION 3

enough, it can be assumed that the electrical output is equal to

. In the next section, the accuracy of this assumption will
be examined. Based on (2) and the relation between power and
torque, the desired value of can be obtained:

(3)

On the other hand, the relation between the input mechanical

power, , and the output electrical power, , is described by
(4), in which and J are the angular velocity of the rotor and
the moment of inertia of the rotating mass connected to the rotor,
respectively:

(4)
Fig. 1. Wind power generator.

In a conventional generator in which the input mechanical

controlling the DFIG. This method removes the cost of new in- power, instead of the electrical output power, is controlled by a
verter. Most of the references such as [14] which used super-ca- governor, (4) can be represented as in (5). In these generators, a
pacitor as the source, grid connected mode is investigated. Even derivative term which introduces the rotating mass inertia and
in [15], which discusses the islanding mode, the virtual inertia is depends on the system frequency, is also incorporated directly
implemented in a separate inverter; moreover the energy storage in the generator output power. In a wind power generator where
device connected to this inverter is assumed to have no limit. is undispatchable and is not dependent on the system
In this paper, both sources will be utilized. The needed mod- frequency, is controlled directly, so the rotating mass has no
ifications in controllers are considered and islanding mode of impacts on the frequency regulation:
operation is investigated. Small signal analysis is used to study
the impacts of wind speed variations and compare these sources (5)
in different aspects. Finally, simulations are employed to verify
the analysis. The Matlab/Simulink package is used for this pur- To involve the DFIG rotating mass in the frequency regulation,
pose. the controller should try to mimic (5), so (2) should be modified
In the Section II, the implementation of virtual inertia to (6). represents the virtual inertia. It should be men-
is discussed. Section III is devoted to system analysis, and tioned here that, since in reality, implementing a derivative is
in Section IV simulation results are presented. Finally, in avoided, a transfer function emulating the derivate operator of
Section V conclusions are drawn. low frequencies is used. This will be discussed more in the next
parts:
II. IMPLEMENTATION OF VIRTUAL INERTIA
(6)
A wind power generator is shown in Fig. 1. In conventional
configurations, the ESS and the switches connecting it to the The rest of the controller is similar to those of conventional wind
DC-link are absent. The RSC is used to extract the maximum generators. This method is based on [22] and [10] and can be
available wind power and regulate the stator voltage, while the found in detail in [24].
GSC is just responsible for regulating the DC-link voltage.
The following section discusses the controller and modifica- B. Super-Capacitor
tions needed to incorporate each of these two short-term sources
of energy. GSC should maintain a constant DC link voltage. In (7), the
relation between , the DC-link capacitor voltage; ,
A. Rotating Mass GSC output power; and , RSC needed power is presented
DFIG, in general and particularly its rotating mass are con- [3]. In lack of mass storage device in the DC link, GSC should
trolled by RSC. As mentioned, it is used to maximize the power provide the needed energy of the RSC as fast as possible:
extraction of wind. This optimum power can be described by
(7)
(1)
By adding a super-capacitor and its convertor to the DC-link,
This equation can be represented as (7) should be rephrased as (8). is the power absorbed by
the super-capacitor:
(2)

where is associated with blade angle and can be consid- (8)

ered constant if the pitch angle is kept unchanged [22].
The RSC controller tries to track this value as quickly and If the GSC controller is set to be fast and accurate enough,
accurately as possible. In other words, if the controller is fast can be assumed to be constant [24]. In other word, by
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS

Fig. 2. System under study.

TABLE I
DG1 COMPLETE MODEL EIGEN-VALUES
(12)

To generate , the phase locked loop (PLL) technique is

used. Based on what [23] has done, (13) can be derived:

(13)

This new equation is very similar to (12). By choosing the

proper and , as illustrated in [23], , which is already
generated and needed for the other parts of the DG controller,
can be used to produce :

appropriate control parameter tuning, the right side of (8) will
be zero. This equation can be represented by (9):
(9)
On the other hand, the inertia relation in machines, introduced
by (4), can be simplified as (10). This simplification seems to be
reasonable, since the frequency always remains very close to its
nominal value. The derivative term will be zero in steady-state,
while the frequency is constant but not necessarily at its nominal
value:
(10)
To implement virtual inertia in the GSC controller, , which
is the output power of the machine, should be replaced by ,
which is the output power of GSC. Further, , which is the
input power of the machine, should be replaced by , which
is the power extracted from the rotor terminals of DFIG. The
super-capacitor will be responsible for mimicking the rotating
mass behavior. This new relation is shown in (11). , as in
(6), is an emulation of a derivative:
(11)
It should be mentioned here that the GSC is utilized to work
always at the unity power factor. The rest of GSC controller
which is based on [7] is discussed in detail in [24].
C. Implementing
As mentioned, due to practical concerns about producing
simple derivative, is represented as in (12). At low
frequencies, behaves similar to the derivative, but at
high frequencies it performs differently:
(14)
III. STABILITY ANALYSIS
To prove that virtual inertia can improve system stability, fur-
ther analysis is needed. Due to relatively short time frame of sta-
bility analyses, small signal analysis seems suitable. Thus, the
typical rural distribution system shown in Fig. 2 is considered.
The segment after the circuit breaker B2 has the ability to work
in islanding mode and constitutes the microgrid. The overall
load of this section is 3.77 MW plus 1.24 MVAR. It contains two
DG units: DG1, is a variable-speed wind turbine connected to
a 2.5 MVA DFIG with its rotor interfaced by back-to-back con-
verter; and DG2, representing a 2.5 MVA conventional gas-tur-
bine generator equipped with droop and excitation control sys-
tems.
A. Rotating Mass as the Source of Virtual Inertia
1) Deriving a Simplified Model: Table I shows the
eigen-values of the complete DG1 model, wind power gener-
ator without virtual inertia. It consists of 15 states. Obviously,
the detailed model of the microgrid including two DG units,
6 loads and several lines is much more complicated. In the
simplified form, DG1 has one dominant pole which is far from
the other modes. This situation may lead to simplifying DG1 as
a first order system, but before this we need to know the state
to which this mode belongs.
Participation factor analysis shows that the modes to
are impacted by the DC-link, GSC and its controller, while
the rest of the modes are more related to DFIG, RSC and its
controller. Particularly, is influenced by , the rotational
speed of DFIG. The sensitivity analysis reveals that the effect of
, the moment of inertia of the DFIG rotating mass on this
mode is significant [24]. On the other hand, the only equation
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ARANI AND EL-SAADANY: IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL INERTIA IN DFIG-BASED WIND POWER GENERATION 5

Fig. 3. Microgrid schematic block diagram.

which contains this factor is (15), which is a representation of

(4) in per-unit scale:

(15)

Since the controller is designed to maximize wind power ex-

traction, it can easily be shown that is zero. In addi-
tion, can be replaced by in (2). After these replacements
and the linearization needed for small signal analysis, (15) can
be rephrased as (16):

(16)

Obviously the mode derived from this equation depends on

, which is the DFIG basis rotational speed. Fig. 4 shows the
dominant pole of the detailed model and the derived pole of
(16) versus , plus their high coincidence. In other words, the
Fig. 4. Dominant pole of the Dtailed Model and the Simplified Model Pole
controllers are fast enough to assume that equals and to versus DFIG Rotational Speed.
use (16) as a representation of the whole wind power generator.
Now a simplified model can be derived and studied. Based
on (6), , which is a linearized form of the electrical output
virtual inertia improves system stability, but this impact is mea-
of DG1, can be represented as (17). The term in
sured on a specific , while in wind power generators this
(16) should be replaced by this relation. Based on this new re-
value is always changing and unpredictable. This will be dis-
lation, can be found as a function of and (19).
cussed more later.
It should be mentioned here that DG1 representation without
virtual inertia can be easily obtained by setting and conse-
B. Super-Capacitor as the Source of Virtual Inertia
quently to zero:
1) Deriving the Simplified Model: Based on the aforemen-
(17) tioned discussion, the GSC controller is fast enough to be as-
sumed ideal. Thus, the assumptions made to conclude (9) were
reasonable. Moreover, in similar procedures, it can be shown
that a DC/DC converter connected to the super-capacitor and its
(18)
controller can be set such that (11) is sufficiently accurate [24].
After these simplifications, can be represented as (20):

(19)
(20)
The rest of the system, consisting of a synchronous machine, its
prime mover, governor and the system loads, will be modeled This new relation for can be replaced in Fig. 3 to obtain
as a simplified model, discussed in [27]. The block diagram of the new system block diagram.
the whole system is shown in Fig. 3. 2) Impact on Frequency Regulation: Fig. 6 shows the root
2) Studying the Behavior: Fig. 5 shows the microgrid dom- locus of the microgrid dominant poles while is increasing.
inant poles root-locus by increasing from zero. Obviously, The system without virtual inertia is introduced by .
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS
Fig. 5. Microgrid dominant poles Root-Locus when DFIG Rotating mass is
the source of virtual inertia.
Fig. 6. Microgrid dominant poles Root-Locus when super-capacitor mass is
the source of virtual inertia.
It seems to be more effective than virtual inertia using a DFIG
rotating mass.
The better performance of this method is obvious in Fig. 7
in which frequency response overshoots in the presence of vir-
tual inertia in both sources versus are depicted, while a step
per-unit change occurs at loads. This step change can be inter-
preted as a mismatch between loads and generation which takes
place at the moment of intentional islanding. In addition, the
behavior of super-capacitor-based virtual inertia is not depen-
dent on the DFIG initial rotating speed. This independence, es-
pecially that is related to unpredictable wind speed and in-
dependent of system frequency, can be assumed as an important
advantage of using a super-capacitor instead of a DFIG rotating
mass. This impact becomes more significant when is zero.
In this condition, virtual inertia cannot be implemented in the
rotating-mass, because of no stored energy, while super-capac-
itor is available. This condition occurs when the wind speed is
Fig. 7. Frequency response overshoot to step change in the load versus DFIG
rotor initial speed. is constant and equals 14 sec for both cases.
beyond its cut-in or cut-off speeds and it is very common in most
systems.
3) Sizing of Super-Capacitor: The super-capacitor needs
to be sized accurately to prevent any conflicts. By ignoring
the super-capacitor ESR, switching losses and consequently
assuming that the whole generated power is supplied by
super-capacitor, (21) can be concluded:
(21)
On the other hand, can be replaced by ac-
cording to (11). As explained, is a practical form of a
derivative, so it seems reasonable to revert to the derivative form
as (22) to estimate the virtual inertia power. After some calcu-
lations, (21) can be rephrased as (23):
(22)
(23)
So the maximum change in the super-capacitor voltage, which
must be controlled to prevent any over- or under-voltage, is
dependent on the super-capacitor capacitance, and the
maximum frequency deviation. Meanwhile, this maximum
frequency deviation is impacted by the maximum frequency
overshoot, which is also a function of . Fig. 8 shows this
relation.
The DC/DC convertor connected to the super-capacitor
should also be appropriately sized. Fig. 8 also depicts the peak
power generated by the super-capacitor when a step change in
load takes place. As mentioned, this step change can be caused
by an intentional islanding. This peak output power should be
used in the design of the DC/DC convertor.
The situation is actually more complicated since this power
passes through the GSC. In other words, we also need to resize
this part. In practice, the maximum instantaneous mismatch that
could occur, usually by islanding or load disconnection, should
be considered to find the final frequency. can be chosen
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ARANI AND EL-SAADANY: IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL INERTIA IN DFIG-BASED WIND POWER GENERATION
Fig. 8. Frequency overshoot and the maximum power generated by super-ca-
pacitor when 1 p.u. change occurs in load versus virtual inertia when super-ca-
pacitor is the source.
based on this final frequency and Fig. 8 to assure the designer
that the frequency always remains in the allowed range. Based
on Pinertia versus virtual inertia curve in Fig. 8, the selected
and the maximum power mismatch, the maximum power
generated by the super-capacitor can be calculated. This value
may be added to the rating of the conventional GSC, but this
method is very conservative. It has been assumed that when the
mismatch happens, the GSC works at its rating and also in the
same direction with maximum virtual inertia power.
The super-capacitor capacitance can be chosen based on (23),
the calculated maximum frequency deviation and the allowed
voltage range of the capacitor.
C. Diesel Droop Factor
The governor shown in Fig. 3 is responsible for regulating
the active power and the frequency in convenient thermal gen-
erators. The basic relation, for describing its functionality, is in-
troduced in (24) and is known as the droop equation. As can be
seen, the frequency deviation is used to regulate the power. To
decrease the undesirable frequency deviation, lower should
be used. This lower value becomes more interesting in micro-
grids with wind, in that the generated power and consequently
the frequency are always changing:
(24)
Although lower will result in better frequency regulation
in steady-state, the dynamic behavior of a generator will become
worse. As mentioned, this finding was also observed in inverter-
based DGs, which share their power by the droop method.
This simplified model is used here to investigate the impact
of virtual inertia on droop dynamic behavior. Fig. 9 depicts the
root locus of the system dominant poles when is decreased.
The red ones, representing the system without virtual inertia,
move towards the RHP. That is, the systems dynamic behavior
7
Fig. 9. Microgrid Dominant Poles Root Locus when is decreasing. Red
ones describe the system without virtual inertia while the blue ones are for the
system with virtual inertia.
worsens as is decreased, a finding that verifies above discus-
sion. After some points the dominant poles pass the imaginary
axis and the system becomes unstable.
The situation is much different when virtual inertia is im-
plemented. Although decreasing too much also leads to the
system instability, it occurs much later than in the former case.
In addition, decreasing somewhat even improves the system
behavior. It should be mentioned that in Fig. 9, a super-capac-
itor is used as the source of virtual inertia.
Implementing virtual inertia lets us choose more freely to
provide a better steady-state performance; in other words, such
inertia decouples the steady and transient control parameters.
As a result, it improves the systems steady-state behavior but
is not incorporated directly in this mode.
D. Pitch Angle Controller, a Specific Case
In high wind speeds, pitch angle controller is used to limit the
wind power output and the DFIG rotating speed to their rated
amounts [25]. Since this controller tries to control the DFIG
rotational speed may affect the performance of rotating-mass-
based virtual inertia which wants to control the same parameter.
When pitch angle controller is employed, the RSC controller
is also changed to extract the rated power instead of maximum
available wind power. These changes necessitate building a new
model. Based on the pervious discussion, electrical parts of con-
troller which are much faster could be assumed prefect. Fig. 10
shows the wind power generator model when wind speed is
high. The pitch angle controller model is derived from [25].
The model provided for wind turbine in [26] is nonlinear.
After linearizing this model as (25), the wind power output in
high wind speed and in presence of rotating-mass-based virtual
inertia could be represented as (26). In microgrid study, DG1
block in Fig. 3 should be replaced by this equation:
(25)
(26)
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8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS
Fig. 10. Wind Power Generator (DG1) Schematic Block Diagram at high wind speeds (enabled Pitch Angle Controller).
Fig. 11. Frequency overshoots to a step change in the load, without virtual
inertia versus initial wind speed.
(27)
(28)
(29)
Fig. 11. depicts the overshoot in frequency if a step change in
load occurs. This figure reveals that in presence of pitch angle
controller, in contrast to normal situation discussed in part B,
the initial wind speed has on significant impact on virtual in-
ertia performance. It can be illustrated by considering the elec-
trical control part which is persuading the constant rated power
instead of the maximum available wind power at each speed. In
pervious mode, impact of increasing the virtual inertia was neu-
tralized by the other part of controller (extracting the maximum
available wind power). Besides, the mechanical pitch angle con-
troller is too slow to oppose the virtual inertia.
While these analyses show no conflicts between pitch angle
controller and rotating-mass-based virtual inertia in high speeds,
what limits application of this method is thermal limits. In high
wind speed, the generator is set to work at its rated power, imple-
menting the virtual inertia especially with high rates may result
in injecting additional power and consequently thermal viola-
tion. This thermal limit is also discussed in [20].
On the other hand, super-capacitor-based virtual inertia is not
affected by pitch angle controller. The pitch angle controller
tries to control the DFIG rotating speed and wind turbine pitch
angle while super-capacitor-based virtual inertia is independent
of them [(20) and Fig. 7]. In addition, in high speeds, DFIG
works at very low slip that means a very small fraction of wind
power goes through the RSC and consequently GSC. In other
words, super-capacitor-based virtual inertia has no thermal limit
at high wind speeds.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
Time domain simulation is used to verify the situations dis-
cussed in the previous section. Two different scenarios are in-
vestigated. The first deals with constant wind speed, while the
second uses a real wind speed pattern. Each scenario consists of
different cases.
The system shown in Fig. 2 is also used for the simulation.
DG2 is modeled based on details discussed in [27]. The droop
and excitation system models are also included. Lines are mod-
eled as lumped R-L and the loads as parallel R-L loads. Details
of the loads are given in the Appendix. The Matlab/Simulink
software package was used for this part of the study.
A. Constant Wind Speed
First, wind speed is set as a constant to avoid any confusion.
Since the analysis in the last section shows some dependency
on wind speed, this part is divided to three different cases.
1) High Wind Speed (Less Than Rated Speed): In this part,
the wind speed is set constant at 11 m/sec. While all loads are
connected, DG1 works at 1.52 MW/0 MVAR and DG2 operates
at 1.74 MW and very close to the unity power factor. The rest
of the loads are supplied by the grid. An intentional islanding
takes place at sec.
The frequency is shown in Fig. 12. As expected, virtual in-
ertia improves the frequency overshoot and settling time signif-
icantly. It also verifies the pervious analysis which claims that
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ARANI AND EL-SAADANY: IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL INERTIA IN DFIG-BASED WIND POWER GENERATION
Fig. 12. Frequency versus time when wind speed is constantly 11 m/sec
for rotating mass and super-capacitor-based virtual inertia is the same.
Fig. 13. Frequency versus time when wind speed is constantly 6 m/sec.
for rotating mass and super-capacitor-based virtual inertia is the same.
a super-capacitor as the source of virtual inertia could be more
influential.
2) Low Wind Speed: In this case, the wind speed is 6 m/sec.
All microgrid loads except LP2 are disconnected. While DG2
works as in the previous case, DG1 output is 250 KW/0 MVAR
before islanding. An intentional islanding takes place at
sec.
Fig. 13 shows the frequency behavior. As before, virtual in-
ertia greatly improves the stability. It also shows that a super-ca-
pacitor as the source can impact the system more significantly.
The amazing point that can be concluded from the compar-
ison between Figs. 12 and 13 is the dependence of the rotating-
mass-based inertia on the DFIG initial rotating speed. Although
the frequency overshoot in the high wind speed case is 42%, it
reaches 60% in the low speed case. In contrast, in both super-ca-
pacitor-based virtual inertia cases, the overshoot is limited to
18%. This result verifies the previous analyses and also shows
that when a constant virtual inertia is utilized with a rotating-
mass source, all wind speed probabilities should be considered
in the design process.
3) Zero Wind Speed: When wind speed is lower than cut-in
or higher than cut-out speed, wind power generator output de-
creases to zero. These situations are equivalent to and modeled
9
Fig. 14. Frequency versus time when wind speed is constantly 0 m/sec. Imple-
menting virtual inertia by the DFIG rotating mass in this condition is impossible.
as zero wind speed. Similar to the pervious case, all microgrid
loads except LP2 are disconnected, and DG2 works at 1.74 MW
and very close to unity power factor. DG1 output is 0 MW/0
MVAR. Fig. 14 shows the microgrid frequency behavior when
an intentional islanding occurs at sec.
While implementing virtual inertia by the DFIG rotating mass
is impossible due to zero rotating speed, the super-capacitor still
can provide power to enhance the systems behavior. This fea-
ture seems very important since this condition happens often in
most wind power sites.
The output of DG1 when virtual inertia is implemented is
shown in Fig. 15. Although the wind speed is zero, it is used
to regulate the reactive power and frequency. A small amount
of power is consumed by DG1 after islanding in steady-state
because of losses in DFIG, which is used to generate reactive
power. Ignoring this amount, DG1s active power output occurs
because of the virtual inertia power generated by the super-ca-
pacitor connected to the DC-link. The maximum power gener-
ated because of virtual inertia is almost 0.28 p.u. This amount is
very close to 0.30 p.u., which can be found based on Fig. 8.
The power mismatch at the moment of islanding is equal to
the power, supplied by the grid beforehand (0.39 p.u. in this
case). This amount should be multiplied by 0.78, the maximum
per-unit power generated for the 1 p.u. mismatch at
sec depicted in Fig. 8. Obviously the analytical method result is
not far away from the practical ones.
4) Enabled Pitch Angle Control (Over the Rated Speed):
This part examines the virtual inertia performance when wind
speed is higher than rated wind speed but it is still lower than
cut-off speed. In this situation pitch angle controller is enabled.
Similar to High wind speed, all loads are connected; DG2
works at 1.74 MW and very close to the unity power factor and
islanding occurs at sec. In this scenario, DG1 operates at
2 MW at unity power factors.
Fig. 16 shows the system frequency in the different cases.
Similar to the pervious case, implementing the virtual inertia im-
proves the system frequency significantly. As it was discussed,
initial wind speed has no significant impact on virtual inertia
performance when pitch control is enabled.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

10 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS

Fig. 17. Real wind speed pattern.

Fig. 15. DG1 active and reactive power output at zero wind speed when super-
capacitor is the source of virtual inertia.

Fig. 18. Intentional islanding with variable wind speed % .

Fig. 16. Frequency versus time when wind speed is over the rated speed and
consequently the pitch angle controller is enabled. Different wind speeds (with
m/sec unit) are examined.

B. Variable Wind Speed

To make the system more practical a real wind speed pat-
tern, Fig. 17, derived from a real measured wind speed [28] is
used. Islanding occurs at sec, when the overall output
of DFIG and back-to-back converter is 1.53 MW at the unity
power factor. The synchronous generator works at 1.74 MW,
very close to the unity power factor, while the rest of the loads
are supplied by the main grid. Fig. 19. Super-capacitor voltage when virtual inertia uses this source.
1) Implementing Virtual Inertia: The impact of using virtual
inertia from different sources in a more realistic system is inves-
tigated here, with results shown in Fig. 18. The governor of the It is observed that for similar amount of virtual inertia, a super-
diesel turbine has the same setting in all the cases, but the fre- capacitor is more effective.
quency regulation differences are related to the virtual inertia. Another interesting point which should be mentioned here
The fluctuating wind speed results in variable DG1 output. As is the super-capacitor voltage. A comparison between the fre-
a result, the DG2 output and consequently the frequency should quency and the super-capacitor voltage behavior in Figs. 18 and
always change. While these changes are unavoidable, since a 19 reveals the high similarity between them, thus verifying the
droop-based DG is used to compensate for wind, comparison relation derived in (23).
between curves shows that virtual inertia, either from a rotating- 2) Lower Diesel Droop Factor: While virtual inertia en-
mass or a super-capacitor, could enhance frequency regulation. hances the frequency behavior in transient mode, the steady-
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
ARANI AND EL-SAADANY: IMPLEMENTING VIRTUAL INERTIA IN DFIG-BASED WIND POWER GENERATION
Fig. 20. Intentional islanding with and without virtual inertia.
Fig. 21. Microgrid frequency during the islanding mode when wind speed
change from 16 m/sec to 18 m/sec at sec.
state response of the system, which is controlled by droop-based
governor, still fluctuates widely, which is undesirable. As dis-
cussed, for better long-term performance, should be de-
creased, but lowering the in the system without virtual in-
ertia makes the system unstable. For instance, in this case, the
system without virtual inertia with % becomes un-
stable in the case of an intentional islanding. The presence of
virtual inertia can change the situation and result in further de-
crease of . Fig. 20 shows the system with virtual inertia in
which is as low as 0.33%. Clearly, not only is the system
stable, but the frequency fluctuation is much less.
The maximum frequency deviation in the system with
% after sec is less than Hz, while with
% for a similar time period is more than 0.36 Hz. In other
words, it proves the previous claim that virtual inertia can be
used for a better steady-state performance in addition to its main
functionality of system stabilization.
3) Pitch Angle Controller: Changing the wind speed, when it
still remains higher than rated speed after changes, is expected
to have no impact on wind generator output power and speed
11
in steady-state. However, because of slow nature of mechan-
ical pitch angle controller system may face some transients tem-
porarily. Employing the virtual inertia, both rotating-mass and
super-capacitor-based virtual inertia could improve the system
performance.
In this part, the system is in islanding mode while wind speed
changes in a step shape from 16 m/s to 18 m/s. Fig. 21 depicts
the system frequency with or without virtual inertia. Obviously,
frequency behavior is improved by employing the virtual in-
ertia.
V. CONCLUSION
Since virtual inertia does not participate in power sharing,
no mass energy storage device is needed. This finding leads to
economic advantages: either the rotating mass connected to the
DFIG shaft or a super-capacitor connected via a DC/DC con-
vertor to a back-to-back inverter DC-link could be used. Both
these sources are discussed in detail.
The modification needed in a conventional wind power to in-
corporate each of the sources was explained. Eigen-value anal-
ysis was used to introduce a simplified model for a microgrid.
This model shows the advantages and disadvantages of each in-
ertia source.
Although virtual inertia based on any of these sources im-
proves the system stability, their impacts are different. It was
shown that while rotating-mass-based virtual inertia does not
need any new part or de-rating, its performance is highly depen-
dent on DFIG rotating speed at the disturbance moment. This ro-
tating speed is a function of wind speed which is unpredictable.
On the other hand, super-capacitor-based virtual inertia
which can improve system behavior much more and is inde-
pendent of wind speed, needs an additional super-capacitor,
DC/DC convertor and rerating of GSC. Some formulas and
diagram for showing the relation of virtual inertia and size of
these elements were introduced.
It was also discussed that while virtual inertia does not partici-
pate directly in long-term power and frequency regulation, it can
influence the steady-state performance of the system by decou-
pling the steady-state and transient control parameters. Theo-
retical analyses and time domain simulation were used to verify
the papers claims.
APPENDIX
A. Loads
LP1:47 KW j15.61 KVAR, LP2:2565 KW j843.06 KVAR,
LP3:289.75 KW j95.24 KVAR, LP4: 152 KW j49.96 KVAR,
LP5: 517.8 KW j170.18 KVAR, LP6:194.8 KW j64.01
KVAR.
B. Generators
1) DG1: 2.5 MVA DFIG,
.
2) DG2: 2.5 MVA Synchronous Generator, AVR Parame-
ters: Non-reheat Thermal Turbine [27],
[29]: ms, s.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
12
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19041915, 1973.
Mohammadreza Fakhari Moghaddam Arani
(S12) was born in Kashan, Iran, in 1987. He
received the B.Sc. degree from Sharif University of
Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2009, and the M.Sc.
degree from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo,
ON, Canada, in 2012, both in electrical engineering.
Currently, he is a research associate in the De-
partment of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Waterloo. His research interests in-
clude microgrid dynamic and control, renewable and
distributed generation, power stability, and power
electronics.
Ehab F. El-Saadany (SM05) was born in Cairo,
Egypt, in 1964. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. de-
grees in electrical engineering from Ain Shams Uni-
versity, Cairo, Egypt, in 1986 and 1990, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada,
in 1998.
Currently, he is a Professor in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
Waterloo. His research interests are smart grids oper-
ation and control, power quality, distributed genera-
tion, power electronics, digital signal processing applications to power systems,
and mechatronics.