978-1-4244-2800-7/09/$25.

00 2009 IEEE ICIEA 2009

Implementation of MPPT for
PMSG-Based Small-Scale Wind Turbine

He XU, Jing HUI, Dinghui WU, Wenxu YAN
Institute of Electrical Automation
Jiangnan University
Wuxi,P.R.China
jingh@126.com
He XU
WIPO Wind Energy Department
Wuxi Zhongxiu Elevator Automation CO.,LTD
Wuxi, P.R.China
xuhe1206@163.com


AbstractUsing a Boost chopper to implement the Maximum
Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for a PMSG-based small-scale
wind turbine is described in this paper. By analyzing the
characteristics of the Boost chopper, the optimal duty ratio was
theoretically determined by the equivalent resistance of the load.
Then the duty ratio was used as a reference instruction to control
the output power of the Permanent Magnet Synchronous
Generator(PMSG). As a result, when the reference wind speed
increases linearly from 80 to 120 r/min or other given speed is
selected, the generator rotational speed could follow the reference
speed accurately and rapidly, also when the duty ratio was
changed from 0 to about 0.9, the maximum power point could be
always tracked.
Index TermsMPPT, PMSG, wind power, Boost chopper
I. INTRODUCTION
In order to capture the maximum power point with variable
wind speed, the wind turbine needs to keep the tip-ratio on its
optimal value in a variable speed generating system[1,2]. Many
types of variable speed wind generating systems have been
presented before to achieve this goal, but the most of them need
testing or estimating wind speed so that it is usually difficult to
do in high variable wind condition[3].A comparative study
between control strategies and circuit topologies for MPPT
were proposed in [4,5],but the wind turbine system were more
complicated rather than the proposed system due to wind
turbine structures as well as speed sensors.
In the control system, the current variables of id and iq are
transformed from the 3-phase AC currents from the generator,
and then the vector control strategy is applied to efficiently
control the torque and the rotational speed of the PMSG. By
analyzing the characteristics of the Boost chopper which is
included in the generating system, the optimal duty ratio is
theoretically determined by the resistance of the load. Using the
duty ratio to control Boost chopper, the output power of the
PMSG can be controlled during a large range of variable speed,
and the power supplied from the generator depends on the
condition of the loads which corresponds with the maximum
power points.
II. WIND TURBINE MODEL
The power P
m
produced by a wind turbine is given by

3
0.5
m p
P c AV = (1)
where is the air density, A the cross sectional area of the
turbine, V the wind velocity, and cp the power coefficient of
the turbine. Therefore, if the air density , swept area A, and
wind speed V are constant, the output power P
m
will be
proportion to the power coefficient cp. In addition, the wind
turbine is normally characterized by its cp ( ) curve, where the
tip-speed ratio is given by

R
V

= (2)
Where R is the radius of the turbine and is the angular
speed.
A typical relationship between c
p
and is shown in Fig. 1.
It is clear from Fig.1 that there is a determinate value of
corresponding to the maximized c
p
, so is the maximized
power for a given wind speed.

2 4
6
8
10 12
0
0.05
0. 1
0.15
0. 2
0.25
0. 3
0.35
0. 4
0.45
p
c

Figure 1. Power coefficient as a function of tip speed ratio
According to the relationship between c
p
and in Fig.1, as
the turbine speed changes for a given wind velocity there will
be a certain turbine speed that gives a maximum output power.
This is shown in Fig. 2 with various wind speeds. As seen in
the Fig., the peak power for each wind speed occurs at the point
where c
p
is maximized. To maximize the generated power, it is
therefore desirable for the generator to have a power
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characteristic that will follow the maximum c
p
curve given in
Fig. 2.
opt
p
1
v
2
v
3
v
4
v
1 2 3 4
v v v v > > >

m
P

Figure 2. Output power and optimal power curve
As above study, a three-phase PMSG is chosen as the wind
generator, and then its mechanical torque T
m
and electrical
torque Te are expressed respectively as

m
m
m
P
T

= (3)

2
e e
e
e m
P P
T
p
= = (4)
Where
e
,
m
,
e
P , and p are the electrical angular
frequency, mechanical angular frequency, the power generated
from the PMSG, and the number of poles respectively. The
generator speed of the proposed MPPT scheme can be easily
obtained without a position encoder but detecting the AC
voltage frequency from PMSG. In general, the mechanical
dynamic equation of PMSG is given by
( / 2)
m
m e m
d
T p T J B
dt

= + (5)
Where J is the moment inertia and B is the friction
coefficient of the PMSG. Because the generator speed rises or
falls due to the difference between the mechanical and
electrical torques, the controlled electrical torque by adjusting
the reference output voltage can be correspondingly regulated
to get an optimal power coefficient.
III. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND CONTROL STRATEGY
A. System Configuration
Fig.3 shows the system configuration. This system is
constituted by a permanent magnet synchronous generator
(PMSG), a three-phase diode rectifier, a Boost chopper and a
inverter. The PMSG has the good features such as smaller in
size and less in weight in comparison to other types of
generators, so it is selected to improve the generating efficiency
and simplify the control system. The AC power generated by
PMSG is rectified by the rectifier into DC power. Only one
power switching device, resulting in low cost and simple
control, is introduced in the Boost chopper so that the MPPT is
realized. Rectified DC power is boosted by the chopper circuit,
and it is regenerated to the electric power system through the
inverter with a high power factor. The inverter that input DC
voltage is controlled by the high power factor Boost chopper
could be replaced by an equivalent resistance load.
Rectifier
system control
PMSG
Inverter
Grid
Boost-chopper

Figure 3. Configuration of the system
B. Vector Control Method o f PMSG
From each phase equivalent circuit of the PMSG, the
following voltage equations are expressed as

2 2
s q
s q q q e q d e m
q d
Vi
Ri L si Li
i i
= +
+
(6)

2 2
s d
s d d d e d q
q d
V i
R i L si L i
i i
=
+
(7)
where V
s
is the magnitude of any phase voltage. The
generator is connected with rectifier as shown in Fig.4. It is
assumed that the power generated from the generator is
converted into DC power through diode bridge rectifier
followed by a unity power factor, and that the load current is
continuous. So the DC side current
dc
I and voltage
dc
V are
shown as

2 2
2 3
dc q d
I i i

= + (8)

3 3
dc s
V V

= (9)
By substituting
dc
V deduced in (6) and (7),
d
i and
q
i are
calculated as following

2 2
3 3( )
dc q
e m
q q e d
q d
V i
R
i i i
L L
L i i

= +
+
(10)

2 2
3 3( )
e m dc d
d d e q
q d
V i R
i i i
L L
L i i

= +
+
(11)
Assumed the zero sequence component is equal to zero, the
variables in abc system can be transformed to a rotational d-q
reference frame, and the electromagnetic torque of the PMSG
is given in
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3
4
e m q
T p i = (12)
Where p is the number of poles, and
m
is the magnetic
flux.
From the equation (8) ~ (12), when the currents i
d
and i
q
are
known, the torque and rotational speed of the PMSG are
efficiently controlled respectively.
C. Boost Chopper
The circuit configuration of the boost chopper is shown in
Fig.4. In this chapter, the operation of the boost chopper circuit
is theoretically analyzed. Generator and rectifier circuits which
supplied the boost chopper circuit with electric power were
replaced in a DC voltage source in order to facilitate the
analysis. And, the equivalent circuit of the inverter which is
connected to an ac grid can be repressed as a battery charger E
L

with series a resistor R
L
, as shown in Fig.4, where the three-
phase ac current come from inverter is controlled to keep its
phase exactly in phase with that phase of three-phase ac voltage
of the grid. Because the cycle time T
c
of the PWM switch far
less than T
L
of the AC grid, and the E
L
can be considered to be
fixed value during transient response, so the battery charger E
L

can be ignored here.
Seeking the optimal operation can be here achieved by
controlling the load current. The idea is to obtain an optimal
load characteristic versus the DC voltage. Indeed, the DC line
voltage V
dc
directly relates with the generator output voltage,
which depends on its rotor speed.
dc
V
L
R
0
D
ch
L
Grid
L
V
dc
E
L
I
dc
I
C
Battery
PMSG
L
E

Figure 4. Boost chopper structure
From actual tests, the PMSG is controlled to obtain the
optimal rotor speed at maximum wind energy. Notice that the
optimal efficiency of the captured wind energy not only
involves the turbine efficiency, but also the losses in the whole
system(i.e. diodes converter and chopper). The relationship
between maximum power and DC line voltage V
dc
with
selecting an optimal duty ratio for the chopper is expressed as

max 3
( )
L dc
P aV b = + (13)
By measuring the DC voltage V
dc
and the load voltage V
L
,
the current
L
i can be calculated as the following equation

3
( )
dc
L
L
aV b
i
V
+
= (14)
So as shown in Fig.5, comparing the referent input power
P
L
*
with the output power P
L
, the reference current

q
i can be
obtained from the power regulator, and taken as the control
instruction of the current regulator which is involved in the
wind control system.
The generated output power P
L
is shown by a function of
duty ratio and angular velocity
g
, as it is shown in the
following equation [6]

2
2
2
2
2
2 2
( )
(1 )
6
(1 )
18
m g
L L
L a g
k
P R
R R X

=

+ +


(15)
where
a
R is the winding resistance,
L
R is the equivalent
resistance load of the inverter connected with grid, and
g
X is
the synchronous reactance.
To capture the wind peak point, the rotational speed of the
generator should always follow from the wind velocity. Duty
ratio

of the Boost chopper must be controlled to achieve the

optimal electric power, while the maximum power point is
pursued. Based on (15), duty ratio
max
in which the electric
power becomes maximum value is deduced by differentiating
the characteristic equation of generating power with respect to
duty ratio of the Boost chopper. And duty ratio
max
in the
maximum power point is shown in the following equation

max
2 2
3 2
L
L a g
R
R R X

=
+ +
(16)
From (16), it is known that the optimal duty ratio is only
relation with the resistance R
L
of the load. By measuring the
resistance load voltage V
L
and current i
L
, the resistance R
L
as
well as optimal duty ratio
*
are obtained.
As shown in Fig.5, the optimal reference value of the duty
ratio
*
is input to the PWM regulator, and controls the output
power from the PMSG during a great range of variable rotor
speed in the condition of the maximum power point.

+
*
q
i
p
*

q
i
*
P

a
i
b
i
c
i
dq
abc
d
i
*
d
0 i =

-
-
-
+
+
+
-
P

opt

Figure 5. Scheme of the control system
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IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig.6 and Fig.7 give the results obtained from a dynamic
simulation model with the help of MATLAB / SIMULINK
when the turbine speed was varied with the wind speed. Table I
shows the parameters of the PMSG used in simulation model.
Based on equations of the various parts involved in the small-
scale wind turbine system, the dynamic model is built by
Matlab/Simulink for simulating the behavior of the entire
system for several wind speed variations as Fig.6

TABLE1. 1.. PARAMETERSof PMSG
Rated Power Output 20kW
Rated Speed 211r/min
Stator Connection winding Star
Number of Rotor poles 36
Stator Phase Resistor 0.1764
Synchronous Inductance 4.24mH
Rated Phase Current 35A
Rated Phase Voltage 205V
PI Current Regulator
saturation
battery
v
+
-
Voltage Measurement1
v
+
-
Voltage Measurement
Terminator
Scope1
Scope
Tm
m
A
B
C
Permanent Magnet
Synchronous Machine
Signal(s) Pulses
PWM Generator
m
is_qd
wm
Machines
Measurement
1
s
g m
C E
IGBT
Kp
Ki
f(u)
Fcn2
f(u)
Fcn1
f(u)
Fcn
Divide
A
B
C
+
-
Diode Bridge
i
+
-
Current Measurement1
90

Figure 6. Block diagram of the small-scale wind turbine in Matlab/Simulink
A. Turbine Speed Tracking.
2
m

Figure 7. Turbine speed tracking.
In this case of Fig.6, the reference turbine speed of the
generator is as the command signal to decide the switching
duty for the DC-DC Boost converter.Fig.7-a shows the speed-
tracking feature of the generator when the reference rotational
speed increases linearly from 80 to 120 r/min and again from
120 to 200 r/min, and finally decreases linearly from 200 to
160 r/min, while the wind speed is correspondingly changing.
Also it is shown from Fig. 7-b, when using the referent current
to act on the control variable of the Boost converter, the
output voltage of generator-rectifier system could be controlled
so that generators shaft follows the speed command.
B. Maximum Power Point Tracking
As the mentioned above, the output voltage from the
rectifier and the generated output power were observed, when
duty of the Boost chopper changes from 0 to about 0.9. The
results from simulation were evaluated in comparison with
simulated experiment and calculated results from theoretical
equations. How to capture the maximum generated output
power are shown in Fig. 8.Though the experimental value is
slightly lower than theoretical value as well as characteristics of
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DC voltage, duty ratio in the maximum power point is almost
equal. According to the results, it was confirmed that the
maximum power point could be effectively pursued by
controlling duty ratio of the Boost chopper.
The maximum power point is achieved by forcing the
derivative of the function P
L
( ) which shown in (15), then set
it equal to zero under power feedback control. In this way,
there is the advantage of not requiring the wind turbine speed.
The method needs only monitoring the output power, so that it
results in the reduction of hardware and cost compared to
conventional wind turbine systems in which wind speed
sensors are usually required.

Figure 8. Characteristics of the generated output power
.CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a PMSG-based wind energy
conversion system in which a Boost chopper is applied to
implement the maximum power tracking while the wind speed
varies rapidly and greatly. The proposed system occupied a
related simple speed control model and no mechanical sensors
are needed. The generated output power was shown as a
function of rotational speed of the generator and duty ratio of
Boost chopper. Also, the control method which pursued the
maximum power point is analyzed in detail. Simulation results
show that the control strategy can track the maximum power
in the condition of different wind speeds. As a result, when the
reference wind speed increases linearly from 80 to 120 r/min or
other given speed is selected, the generator rotational speed
could follow the reference speed accurately and rapidly, also
when the duty ratio was changed from 0 to about 0.9, the
maximum power point could be always tracked.
REFERENCES

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Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator Based Stand-alone Wind
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[2] Quincy Wang, Liuchen Chang, An Independent Maximum Power
Extraction Strategy for Wind Energy Conversion Systems,Proceeding
of the 1999 IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer
Engineering Shaw Conference Center, Edmonton, Alberta,Canada,
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[3] Andrew Miller, Edward Muljadi, Donald S.Zinger, A Variable Speed
Wind Turbine Power Control,IEEE Transactions on Energy
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[5] G.D.Moor, H.J.Beukes, Maximum Power Point Trackers For Wind
Turbines, 35
th
Annual IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference,
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control of Wind Generator System Using a Permanent Magnet
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