Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy

application

E.Ben Sedrine*and***, L.Vido**, I.Slama-Belkhodja***, M.Gabsi*

* SATIE, ENS Cachan, CNRS, UniverSud, 61, av President Wilson, F-94230 Cachan, France

** SATIE, Univ Cergy Pontoise, ENS Cachan, CNRS, Université de Cergy-Pontoise, rue d’Eragny,
Neuville sur Oise, 95031 Cergy Pontoise, France

*** Laboratory of Electrical Systems (LSE), ENIT, PB 37, 1002 Belvedere, Tunis, Tunisia

Tel: +33/ 630226106

E-Mail: bensedrine.emna@gmail.com

Keywords
“Wind turbine”, “M.P.P.T”, “Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Machine”, “Speed control”.
Abstract
The paper’s aim consists on achieving the control of a HESG for a wind turbine application. This
machine has an auxiliary power source that offers the possibility to control the excitation flux and thus
the machine’s rotation speed. It makes it possible to achieve a variable speed wind turbine that
properly operates according to a MPPT algorithm.

Introduction
Numerous paper present the use of Induction Generator (IG) [2][3], Doubly Fed Induction Generator
(DFIG) [4]-[11] or Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PSMG) [12]-[22] as a function of
electromechanical converter in wind energy conversion applications.

The choice of a structure is based on several criteria that include cost, size and weight, reliability and
maintenance, audible noise, power quality, behavior under shortcomings network, components needed
to complete the system and operating areas.

IG operates on a very limited speed range: the shift is of the order of few %. So the rotation speed of
the machine’ shaft is constant regardless of wind speed.

The DFIG is controlled by a network side converter, either by a control vector or by a direct power
control (DPC) and a rotor side converter by a direct torque control (DTC).

Bauer [23] concluded that IG are the best on the cost and size, DFIG are the best for the power quality
but have a problem for the shortcomings networks and SG are the best for performance energy and
maintenance. The latter also allow us to reduce the size since it can operate without gear. The PMSG
allows us, compared to other machines, to avoid a power converter used to supply rotor windings.

The presented paper focuses on a special permanent magnet synchronous machine called Hybrid
Excitation Synchronous Machine (HESM) used as a generator (Hybrid Excitation Synchronous
Generator e.g. HESG). It can be likened to a combination of synchronous machine with wound rotor
and permanent magnet machine since it has rotor magnets and coils located in the stator. Its control is
simply achieved by a PI controller acting on the machine excitation voltage. Thus, considering a
resistive load in this study, the control is simple and robust [1].

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

The following parts show the specificities and interests

interest of this machine for wind energy applications.
HESM concept is not new [24] but its usefulness for electric and hybrid vehicle application has been
recently described [25][26]. Considering generator operation especially for the present application,
application the
goal is to exploit the auxiliary wounded excitation to control the turbine’s
t rotation speed in order to
extract the wind generator maximum power.
power In the first part of this paper, the generator structure and
the modeling of different basic blocks are described. Then, the control of the HESG HES for the wind
turbine application that has been developed is detailed.
detailed Finally, some simulation results
result are presented.

Wind Energy system presentation and modeling

Fig. 1. Wind Turbine Architecture

Fig. 1 shows the studied wind turbine architecture including the pitch, the gear, the HESG, the fictive
POR, the rectifier, the isolated load and the machine’s control unit.

Fig. 2. Shaft output power versus wind speed specification sheet

Fig. 2 shows the classical characteristic shaft
shaf output power versus wind speed. In this graph, four areas
are defined:

• Area I: output power is maintained to zero, so the turbine is stopped before acquiring the
startup speed Vd,
• Area II: power supplied to the shaft depends on wind speed in order to obtain the maximum
power (Maximum
Maximum Power Point Tracking -MPPT- zone), ), until the wind speed reaches the
nominal speed Vn,

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

• Area III: the turbine’s rotation speed is kept constant and the power provided equals Pn,
• Area IV: security system stops the energy transfer operation if the wind speed exceeds the
maximum speed Vm.

The HESG used for the presented simulations is based on a 3kW machine constructed at SATIE
laboratory (Fig. 3) in order to lead further experimental studies.
studies In this
his machine, DC excitation coils
are located at the stator avoiding sliding contacts.

a. Stator b. Rotor
Fig. 3. HESG structure
Modeling of the HESM, the bridge rectifier diodes and the resistive load
The model of the HESM have as inputs the three-phase
three phase voltages, the excitation voltage and the
rotation speed and as outputs the three-phase
three phase currents, the excitation current and the electromagnetic
torque. This machine debits on a resistive load knowing that it can reflect heating a fluid that can
subsequently be exploited to produce electricity. Thus, the HESM M debits on diodes bridge rectifier
(non controllable) connected to a resistive load. The model of the bridge
bridge rectifier diodes has been
made from the look of the output voltage and current output of a three phase bridge rectifier diodes
having as inputs the DC current and the phase voltages.

In order to define a proper point of regulation (POR), the HESM is cascaded with capacitors and
resistances. The values of the capacitors and resistances have to be chosen carefully in order to not
influence the behavior of the whole system.
system Some simulation tests were therefore tested for different
values of system capacityty and resistance showing
show that a value of the capacitor around 10µC and a
resistance around 100kΩ are adequate to rebuild voltages in the model without affecting the system
operation (phase, voltage amplification).

Compared to equivalent structures that use

use PMSG for the same application, the presented architecture
is simpler (but HESG are more complex than PMSG. PMSG Speed control (outer loop) is obtained by
excitation current control (inner loop) where the
he excitation power branch is lower than the armature
power branch.

Modeling of the wind turbine

The
he modeling of the wind turbine is based on its operating principle. Wind
ind energy is converted into
turbine It receives as inputs the wind speed, the blade angle β
mechanical energy of rotation by the turbine.
and the turbine
bine speed deduced from the dynamic fundamental principle where the electromagnetic
torque is the torque recovered from the turbine shaft and the resistant torque represents the machine
electromagnetic torque multiplied by minus the coefficient multiplier mp. The minus is added because
the electromagnetic torque is negative due to the generator mode operation:

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

ܿ௥௧ = −݉௣ . ܿ௘௠ (1)

݀Ω‫ܾݎݑݐ‬
‫ ݐܬ‬. = ܿ‫ ܾݎݑݐ‬− ܿ‫ ݐݎ‬− ݂‫ ݐ‬. Ω‫ܾݎݑݐ‬
݀‫ݐ‬
(2)

As outputs of the block modeling the operation of the wind turbine, extracted electrical power and
torque are given by:

ܲ௘ 1 ‫ܥ‬௣ . ߩ. ܵ. ܸ௪௜௡ௗ
ଷ
ܿ௧௨௥௕ = = .
Ω௧௨௥௕ 2 Ω௧௨௥௕
(3)

Where:

• ρ is the air density,

• S = 2 π.Rpale2 the area swept by the radius propeller Rpale,
• Vwind the wind speed,
• Ωturb the turbine speed,
• cturb the turbine’s torque,
• Jt the turbine’s moment of inertia,
• ft the turbine’s viscous friction coefficient
• Cp the turbine performance coefficient defined as the ratio of power Pe collected on the drive
shaft of the sensor to the incident kinetic power.

The coefficient Cp depends on the turbine rotation speed and the blades orientation angle β. It is
usually represented as function of the Tip Speed Ratio λ, defined as the ratio of linear speed peripheral
blade tip of the propeller to the normal wind speed component. This coefficient is also called specific
speed of the blade tip:

ߗ௧௨௥௕
ߣ = ܴ௣௔௟௘ .
ܸ௪௜௡ௗ
(4)

To have a specific characteristic of the turbine performance coefficient as a function of the Tip Speed
Ratio in the model of the turbine, a Matlab program based on the method of least squares to find the
optimal coefficients of a formula that reduce the error between a curve found in [27] and from which
we have took the values point by point and the formula proposed in [28], has been implemented. This
program has converged and gave good results of the curve Cp as a function of λ for β ranging from 0 to
3°.

The final formula found was included in the model of the turbine:

‫ݔ‬ଶ ‫ݔ‬ହ
‫ݔ = ݕ‬ଵ . ൭൬ ൰ − ‫ݔ‬ଷ . ß − ‫ݔ‬ସ ൱ . ݁‫(݌ݔ‬− ) + (‫ ଺ݔ‬. ߣ)
ߣ௜ ߣ௜
(5)

Where:

1 1 ‫଼ݔ‬
= −൬ ଷ ൰
ߣ௜ ß. ‫ ଻ݔ‬+ ߣ (ß ) + 1
(6)

And such that xi (i = [1;8]∩N) are the variables that have been optimized (Table 1) in order to best fit
the given curves (Fig. 4):

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

Fig. 4.Curves Cp= f(λ) for different values of ß

Table 1. Optimized variables

i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
xi 0.992 37.4 0.595 3.16 12.6 0.0134 0.142 0.0043
The curves obtained, that characterize the turbine performance coefficient as a function of the tip
speed ratio for different values of the pitch, are given by the Fig. 4 where curve obtained by the new
formula (calculation) and the ones found in [27] (bibliography) are both plotted.

Control of the Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Machine

The control of the turbine speed by the excitation current is performed. The excitation voltage is a
reference to complete the speed control and this point represents the major contribution of the hybrid
excitation for this application. Indeed, thanks to the excitation voltage, this degree of freedom makes it
possible to control the speed and regulate it so that it can be adapted to the changes in wind speed and
allows the extraction of a maximum power from the turbine. Fig. 5 shows the architecture of the
H.E.S.M control. Current and speed control were insured by PI regulators. The turbine speed is
scheduled through the M.P.P.T to extract the maximum of power for the wind speed belonging to a
given interval (Vd ≤ Vwind ≤ Vn, see Fig. 2). The optimal speed Ωturb_opt, that gives a maximum
performance coefficient and thus extract the maximum power, from the classical curve Cp as a
function of λ for a given ß [12][29][30], can be deduced. The turbine’s speed is then, multiplied by the
multiplier’s coefficient (gear, Fig. 1) and imposed to the machine.

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

Fig. 5.HESG Control Architecture

Simulation results
This section presents some simulation results of the global model (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Global
lobal model implemented in Matlab-Simulink
Matlab environment
Fig. 7 shows the good control of inner (excitation current) loop while Fig. 8 shows the good outer loop
control. Fig. 9 shows the outer loop for a sinusoidal wind profile in varying level of 5 m/s to 9 m/s
which corresponds
responds to the second area of operation in the power diagram.
diagram Because of the rectifier, one
can observe ripple on excitation current (Fig.
( 7) and turbine rotation speed (Fig. 8 and Fig. 9). Fig. 10
shows the armature voltages and currents (because of motor convention adopted to model HESG, one
can notice the phase opposition
osition between voltages and currents).
current Fig. 11 finally presents
present the regulation
robustness for a hundred percent load variation (at time equals 25 s).

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

Fig. 7. Inner Loop Excitation Current Control

Fig. 8. Outer Loop Rotation Speed Control

Fig. 9. Outer Loop Rotation Speed Control for a varying wind speed

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

Fig. 10. Armature Voltages and Current against time

Fig. 11. Speed Regulation under load change

Conclusion
In this paper, a wind generator using a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator (HESG) connected a
bridge rectifier debiting on a resistive load, is presented and modeled thanks to Matlab-Simulink
environment. Also, the machine’s control with a variable speed according to the MPPT algorithm was
set and simulated. In fact, it was developed with the appropriate regulators to ensure the proper
functioning of the whole and to take advantage of the major advantage of HESM, which is the ability
to vary the flow of excitation through the presence of the excitation coils.

The operating principle at a variable speed is based on the MPPT algorithm whose goal is to extract
the maximum power from the turbine for different wind speeds.

Thus, the speed set point of the turbine which allows the extraction of the maximum performance was
at first calculated according to the wind speed. Then, the turbine speed was regulated by the excitation
current which represents the reference for the machine current regulation which in turn is provided by
the excitation voltage of the HESM.

The control of a wind turbine with variable speed was proved well with a rather simple control
compared to induction generator (IG) or Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG).

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Control of a Hybrid Excitation Synchronous Generator for a wind energy application BEN SEDRINE Emna

Experimental measurements are left for a future study where they will be compared to the presented
simulation results.
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