Modeling, Steady-State and Dynamic Analysis,

Controller Design, and Simulation of a DFIG based

Wind Generator on PLECS
A Project Report
By

Nikhil Korada

1212332548

Soham Karyakarte

1211359536

Instructor
Dr. Raja Ayyanar

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL COMPUTER AND ENERGY ENGINEERING

IRA A. FULTON SCHOOLS OF ENGINEERING

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
December 2016

Acknowledgement
It gives us a great pleasure to express our deep sense of gratitude to our guide Dr. Raja Ayyanar for his valuable
guidance, suggestions and co-operation in this project. We are thankful for his coherent encouragement and for
providing the needed resources.

Nikhil Korada

1212332458

Soham Karyakarte

1211359536

Introduction
Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) is most commonly used in Wind Power Systems. The rotor of this
machine is fed with a three-phase supply from the grid through a converter. This enables higher control over the
power injected over a wide range of wind velocities.

In this project a standard DFIG is considered. Initially the machine model is built which runs on a manual
torque input. In the next stage a standard wind turbine with certain parameters is modelled. This wind turbine model is
interfaced with the DFIG model using rotor current controllers and rotor speed controller. The DC link is considered
to be a DC source. Operation is analysed for different wind speeds. Later a grid connected converter (AC-DC) is
designed which provides power to rotor through another DC-AC stage. Controller is designed to maintain DC link
voltage. Grid side current controller is also designed.

The model is simulated and results are compared with analytical calculations to verify the correctness of the
simulation. The discrepancies between analytical and simulation values and their probable reasons are discussed.

All the simulations are done in PLECS with a RADAU (stiff) solver, maximum step size 10-5 and Relative
Tolerances 10-5.

Part A: Design of Steady State DFIG Model without using Wind Turbine
The machine we consider for analysis has the following parameters:
Rated MVA: 1.67 MVA
Max Active Power Pmax = 1.5 MVA
Grid Voltage (L-L rms) = Vs sqrt(3) = 575 V
DC Link Voltage = 1150 V
Stator to Rotor Turns Ratio = 1:1
Inertia J = 100 kg.sq.m
Damping Coefficient B = 0.001 Nm/(rad/sec)
Stator Resistance Rs = 0.0046 ohm
Rotor Resistance Rr = 0.0032 ohm
Stator Leakage Inductance = 0.0947 mH
Rotor Leakage Inductance = 0.0842 mH
Magnetizing Inductance = 1.526 mH
Number of Poles = 6
DC Link Capacitance Cdc = 0.01 F
In this analysis, we manually give load torque as input and analyse the response of the DFIG model. The circuit as
simulated in PLECS is shown below. The system is model based on the differential equations relating to DFIG. For
working of this model, hence, initial conditions are required to be given to integrators. The process to find these initial
conditions is described in Appendix A.

The simulation contains the following initializations. (Apart from L, R values, all other values are computed as
explained above.)

Case (i): With Rotor Voltages Set to Zero and with Stator Voltages as given above, a load torque of 6000 Nm is
applied. The following Results are obtained

Stator Currents obtained are as follows:

Rotor Currents obtained are as follows:

Analytical Calculations for Case (i):

The calculations are performed in MathCAD, the wr_mech (124.574) obtained from the simulation is used to calculate
the stator and rotor currents

Case (ii): A load torque of 6000 Nm is given and changed to -6000 Nm after steady state is attained. The following
results are obtained:

Stator Currents obtained are as follows:

Rotor Currents are as follows:

Analytical Calculations for Case (ii):

The calculations are performed in MathCAD, the wr_mech (126.706) obtained from the simulation is used to calculate
the stator and rotor currents

Summary Table:
Load Torque = 6000 Nm wr_mech = 124.574 rad/sec
Current
Isd
Isq
Ird
Irq
Tem

Simulation Value (PLECS) (A)

1336.23
-1153.46
-1409.93
236.229
6000.12

Analytical Value (MathCAD) (A)

1336
-1153
-1410
236.21
6000

Load Torque = -6000 Nm wr_mech = 126.706 rad/sec

Current

Simulation Value (PLECS) (A)

Isd
Isq
Ird
Irq
Tem

-1286.81
-1182.81
1376.12
246.422
-5999.87

Analytical Value (MathCAD)

(A)
-1287
-1183
1376
246.381
-5999

We infer that the simulation and analytical values match closely with each other. This model is used later for DFIG
with wind turbine model and respective current and speed controllers are designed.

Part B: Implementation of DFIG interfaced with a Wind Turbine Model

The DFIG implemented in Part A was driven by a constant load torque as input. Here we will interface the DFIG with
a wind turbine model (single mass lumped model). The torque and the rotor velocity is thus decided by the turbine
parameters and wind speed and other existing conditions. In this section, we will use a DC source instead of a grid
side converter. Rotor current controllers and speed controllers are designed as per state parameters. These controllers
are described in further sections and the design procedure is shown in Appendix B. The considered turbine is modelled
with the following parameters:

Analytical calculations are done based on the specific wind velocity by evaluating the maximum wind power using the
rotor MPPT speed reference and above mentioned parameters. These calculations are described for the different cases
of wind velocity in the next section.

The following schematic was built and simulated in PLECS.

Schematic of DFIG Model Subsystem

Wind Turbine Subsystem

Rotor Speed Controller Subsystem

Rotor Side Converter Subsystem

The model parameters are initialized as per the requirement of Part B considered system and the parameters of wind
turbine in Part A are also included.

Simulation Results:
Case(a1): Performance of the Overall System at wind velocity of 12m/s
Waveforms of Wind Speed, Rotor Speed and Electromagnetic Torque:

Instantaneous Powers of Grid, Stator and Wind in MW:

For 12 m/s wind velocity case, Pwind is 1.567 MW and the corresponding grid injected power is 1.524 MW and the
stator power is obtained to be 1.28 MW. These results are higher than the expected 1.5 MW, because of the total

losses not being considered in the simulation model. Also, this difference is due to the increase in stored energy of the
turbine along with the rising rotor speed.
Stator Voltages in dq and abc reference frame:

Rotor Voltages in dq and abc reference frame:

In these plots, it can be observed that the rotor voltages in abc frame are DC biased, it is due to the fact that the RSC is
implemented as per average converter model. Since in this simulation, we have considered isolated neutrals for RSC
and DFIG. So the voltage of VnN (575V) exists in the Pole Voltage of each phase, which is reflected in the
simulation[3].

Stator Currents in dq and abc reference frame:

From the above plots, it can be observed that the q-axis component of stator is always maintained at zero. This
symbolizes the fact that rotor currents are properly controlled to achieve unity power factor at the stator terminals.
Rotor Currents in dq and abc reference frame:

From the rotor current plots shown, it can be seen that the Ird reflects the active power and Irq reflects the reactive
power requirement of the DFIG rotor.

Case (a2): Performance of the Overall System at wind velocity of 8 m/s

Waveforms of Wind Speed, Rotor Speed and Electromagnetic Torque:

Instantaneous Powers of Grid, Stator and Wind:

Stator Voltages in dq and abc reference frame:

Rotor Voltages in dq and abc reference frame:

In these plots, it can be observed that the rotor voltages in abc frame are DC biased, it is due to the fact that the RSC is
implemented as per average converter model. Since in this simulation, we have considered isolated neutrals for RSC
and DFIG. So the voltage of VnN (575V) exists in the Pole Voltage of each phase, which is reflected in the
simulation[3].

Stator Currents in dq and abc reference frame:

From the above plots, it can be observed that the q-axis component of stator is always maintained at zero. This
symbolizes the fact that rotor currents are properly controlled to achieve unity power factor at the stator terminals.
Rotor Currents in dq and abc reference frame:

Comparison of Simulation and Analytical Results

Case (a1) Wind Velocity: 12 m/s
Parameter
Isd (A)
Isq (A)
Ird (A)
Irq (A)
wr_mech (rad/s)
Tem (Nm)
Pgrid (MW)
Vrd (V)
Vrq (V)

Simulation
-2229.37
-16.78
2367
-999.49
150.925
-10383
1.523
-116.327
-34.32

Analysis
-2131
0
2264
-1017
149.319
-9918
1.44
-108.918
-31.10

Simulation
-993.196
-7.476
1056.39
-999.49
106.911
-4559.69
0.476
94.53
7.05

Analysis
-947.08
0
1006
-1007
99.539
-4366
0.424
130.31
10.44

Case (a2) Wind Velocity: 8 m/s

Parameter
Isd (A)
Isq (A)
Ird (A)
Irq (A)
Wr_mech (rad/s)
Tem (Nm)
Pgrid (MW)
Vrd (V)
Vrq (V)

It can be observed that the simulation results are in agreement with the analytical results for most of the parameters.
For the rotor currents the q-axis component represents the reactive power requirement of the DFIG rotor, whereas in
case of stator, the q-axis component is maintained to be 0, to achieve the unity power factor operation. These
requirements are reflected in analytical results and it is also followed in simulation.
However, the variations in some parameters between simulation and analysis accounts for the assumptions (such as
DFIG efficiency of 93%) considered while doing the analytical calculation. Also, it is to be mentioned that the
simulation is conducted without many additional losses being considered (such as core losses in the magnetizing
inductance, mechanical losses etc.).

Case (b): Performance under increased the wind velocity from 6 m/s to 12 m/s with a slope of 1.
Wind Velocity, Rotor Speed, Electromagnetic Torque (6 m/s to 12 m/s)

Grid Power Stator Power and Wind Power (6 m/s to 12 m/s)

In this scenario, it can be observed that the differential power between wind and grid accounts for the overall losses in
the system not being considered while simulating. Also, this difference exists due to the increase in stored energy of
the turbine along with the rising rotor speed. It can be seen that the rotor power changes from -0.11 MW to 0.2 MW, it
is due to the changeover in the operating condition from sub-synchronous mode to super-synchronous mode.
This stored inertial energy can be estimated to be as follows [3]:

1
Estored = Jeq wr 2
2

Stator and Rotor Currents (6 m/s to 12 m/s)

The rotor and stator d-axis currents clearly validate that the DFIG is acting like a rotating transformer with 1:1 turns
ratio and hence both the currents are equal and opposite.
Stator and Rotor Current of A phase, Rotor Voltage of A phase (6 m/s to 12 m/s)

From the above plots it can be inferred that during the changeover from sub-synchronous to super-synchronous mode
the frequency of the rotor side quantities changes from positive slip to zero to negative slip. These changes are clearly
examined in the rotor current and voltage waveforms above. The rotor voltage is DC biased because of isolated
neutrals (VnN exists) considered for RSC and DFIG [3].

Case (c): Performance under step change in wind velocity from 9 m/s to 12 m/s at t =12 sec.
Wind velocity, Rotor Speed, Electromagnetic Torque (from 9 m/s to 12 m/s with a step change)

The speed controller acts as per the changes in wref input and the new steady state in velocity is reached in approx. 2s
and it is seen that the corresponding electromagnetic torque changes accordingly.
Grid Power, Stator Power, Wind Power (from 9 m/s to 12 m/s with a step change)

Similarly, in this case also the rotor power varies as power from grid at 9 m/s to power injected to grid at 12 m/s.

Stator and Rotor Currents in dq frame of reference (from 9 m/s to 12 m/s with a step change)

Stator and Rotor A phase currents, Rotor A phase voltage (from 9 m/s to 12 m/s with a step change)

In this case, wind velocity is started at 9 m/s, where the rotor speed is nearly equal to synchronous speed (125.66
rad/s) and hence the frequency of rotor side quantities is very low at 9 m/s, which further reduces to 0 and finally
reaches to a new steady state. The stator current magnitude increases with the increase in wind speed relating to the
higher power output at a frequency of 60 Hz. Similar behaviour is observed in the case of rotor current but with a
frequency of slip times 60 Hz. The rotor voltage is DC biased because of isolated neutrals (VnN exists) considered for
RSC and DFIG [3].

Part C: DFIG based wind turbine system including Grid Side Converter and DC Link Voltage Controller.
The design of the GSC and DC Link Control loops are described in Appendix B.
In this part, along with the initializations used in Part B the transfer function values for DC link voltage controller and
Grid side current controllers are added.

Schematic of the simulated model for Part C: (RSC is coupled to GSC using the DC Links)

The model is similar to that shown in Part B. The added subsystem is the Grid Side Converter(GSC) which contains the converter along with the current controller and the DC
link voltage controller.

Simulation Results:
Case(i) Constant wind Velocity of 12 m/s
Rotor Speed and Electromagnetic Torque

Stator Voltages in dq and abc reference frame

Rotor Voltages in dq and abc reference frame

Stator Currents in dq and abc reference frame

Rotor Currents in dq and abc reference frame

Case (ii): For wind velocity of 8 m/s

Rotor Mechanical Speed and Electromagnetic Torque

Stator Voltages in dq and abc reference frame

Rotor Voltages in dq and abc reference frame

Stator Currents in dq and abc reference frame

Rotor Currents in dq and abc reference frame

The results obtained in this part closely match with those in Part B. Thus we validate the performance of DC link
voltage controller and grid side current controller.

APPENDIX A
As per the equivalent circuit of an induction machine, MATLAB code is written to draw torque speed characteristics.
MATLAB Program:
clc;
clear all;
close all;
Rs=0.0046;Rr=0.0032;ws=2*pi*60;
Xls=ws*0.0947*10^(-3);Xlr=ws*0.0842*10^(-3);Xlm=ws*1.526*10^(-3);
p=6;Vs=575/sqrt(3);Vr=[0 0.03 -0.03]*Vs;
s=0.4:-0.0001:-0.4;
Ir1=zeros(1,length(s));Te1=zeros(1,length(s));
%wr=2/p*ws;
Vth=(Xlm*1i*Vs)/(Rs+(Xls+Xlm)*1i);
Zth= ((Xlm*1i)^(-1)+(Rs+Xls*1i)^(-1))^(-1);
for k=1:length(s)
wr(k)=ws*2/p*(1-s(k));
Ir1(k)=(Vth-Vr(1)/s(k))/(Rr/s(k)+Zth+Xlr*1i);
Te1(k)=1/wr(k)*(3*(Rr/s(k))*(1-s(k))*(abs(Ir1(k)))^2+real(3*(Vr(1)/s(k))*(1s(k))*conj(Ir1(k))));
end
plot(wr,Te1,'-k','Linewidth',2.5);
grid on;xlim([75 175]);
title('Torque Speed Characteristics for a DFIG')
legend('Vr=0')
xlabel('Speed (wr in Radians per second)')
ylabel('Torque in Nm');
Graph obtained is as:
4

Torque Speed Characteristics for a DFIG

x 10

Vr=0
1.5

Torque in Nm

1
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
-1.5
-2

80

90

100
110
120
130
140
150
Speed (wr in Radians per second)

160

170

Figure 1: Torque speed characteristic obtained through MATLAB Code

Through inspection we deduce that for a torque of 6000 Nm there 2 values of wr_mech. One of those approximate
values is 124 rad/sec which we take as initial value. Using this value we find the initial fluxes by the following
MathCAD calculation.

Wr and Flux Linkage values from above calculation are used as initial values in simulation

APPENDIX B
Controller Design for Various Subsystems:
This section deals with the design of four different controllers for the various subsystems present in the DFIG based
wind turbine model. These are:
1) RSC Current Controller
2) Speed Controller for MPPT Tracking
3) GSC Current Controller
4) DC link Controller
Design procedure of each of these, along with MathCAD code, is given below.
RSC Current Controller:

The RSC current controller block is implemented based on the above control block diagram to determine the rotor side
converter control voltages. These controllers track the Irdref and Irqref of the rotor side converter. The Irdref is
determined based on the Tem reference obtained from speed control loop. The Irqref is determined based on the
reactive power reference as shown in the block diagram below.

The RSC current controller is designed based on the following specifications:

a. Open-loop Bandwidth (wg) of 1000 Hz (approx. 1/10th of switching frequency)
b. Phase Margin (PM) of at least 60o.
Based on the system transfer function it was found that a phase boost of 59.832o (< 90o) was required. Hence, a TypeII controller is implemented using the MathCAD code shown in the last section.
Kc_rcc = 3.208, wz_rcc = 1693, wp_rcc = 23310

Speed Controller for MPPT Tracking:

The wr_ref is calculated using the MPPT reference rotor speed as shown below:

wr _ ref =
0.67 P 2 + 1.42 P + 0.51
The above mentioned wr_ref is valid only if the power level is below 75% and for the power level above 75%, the
speed reference is limited to 1.2 p.u, as per product application notes and models. This speed controller is designed to
track the rotor speed (wr) which is a mechanical quantity represented in electrical domain, and hence the bandwidth
requirement for the speed controller needs to be far less than the RSC current controller.
As per above facts, we select a BW wg =6 rad/s and PM 60o is picked in order to get robustness. It was found that a
phase boost of 60o (< 90o) was required. Hence, a Type-II controller is realized using the MathCAD code shown in the
last section.
Kc_sc = 964.62, wz_sc = 1.608, wp_sc = 22.392
GSC Current Controller:

The GSC current controller needs to track the idref and iqref for the grid side converter. The idref_gsc is determined
by the DC-Link controller loop. The iqref_gsc is kept to zero in order to have unity power factor operation at the grid
side. The idref current controller tracking performance can be justified by the regulation of DC-Link. As these
controllers are acting based on the references from outbound loop, the bandwidth of these need to faster than the outer
DC-Link control loop.
Hence, in this case the GSC controller is chosen to have a BW of wg = 2000 Hz, with a PM 60o. It was found that a
phase boost of 59.94o (< 90o) was required. Hence, a Type-II controller is used and implemented using the MathCAD
code is shown in the last section.
Kc_gsc = 11.062, wz_gsc = 3374, wp_gsc = 46800
As the GSC is having a negative sign in its transfer function, so we design the GSC current controller without
considering the negative sign and then include this negative inside the controller transfer function.

Gc _ gsc =
11.062

(1 + 1/ 3374)
(1 + 1/ 46800)

DC-Link Controller:

The selection of BW is governed by the fact that DC-link control loop is the outer loop, whereas the GSC current
control is the inner loop. Hence the DC-Link controller should be slower than the GSC Current Controller. Moreover,
in case of three phase system the problem of 120Hz ripple will not be present in the Vdclink because the instantaneous
power at the dc side of GSC is constant in three phase system.
We design the controller based on the following specifications:
a. Open-loop Bandwidth (wg) should be less than 1/100th of GSC current controller BW.
b. Phase Margin (PM) of at least 60o.
Based on these facts, we pick a BW wg =10Hz and PM 60 o is picked in order to get robustness. It was found that a
phase boost of 60o (< 90o) was required. Hence, a Type-II controller is applied using the MathCAD code shown in the
last section.
Kc_dc = 5.289, wz_dc = 16.836, wp_dc = 234.492

Design of Rotor Side Converter Current Controller:

3

Rr 0.0032

Lls 0.0947 10

wc 2 1000

PM 60

Lm 1.526 10

Lr Llr Lm

Ls Lls Lm
2

Vdc 1150

P lant T rans fer F unctio n :

Grsc( s )

Llr 0.084210

0.5 Vdc

Lm

Ls Lr

s Lr Rr

P has e o f s ys tem w itho ut co ntro ller :

phi_sys arg ( Grsc( j wc) )

phi_sys

180

89.832

P has e bo o s t required :
phi_boost ( PM 90)

180

phi_sys

phi_boost

180

59.832

k-facto r :
k tan

phi_boost

k 3.71

Zero and P o le lo catio ns (rad /s ) :

wz_rcc

wc

wp_rcc wc k

wz_rcc 1.693 10

wp_rcc 2.331 10

C alculatio n o f co ns tant gain (K c):

Gc_pre( s)

Kc_rcc

1
s

wz_rcc

G_OL_pre ( s) Grsc ( s) Gc_pre( s)

wp_rcc

1
G_OL_pre ( j wc)

F inal C o ntro ller:

Kc_rcc 3.208

Gc( s) Kc_rcc Gc_pre( s)

Verificatio n:
Gc( j wc) Grsc ( j wc) 1

180 arg( Gc( j wc) Grsc ( j wc) )

180

60

Design of Speed Controller for MPPT Tracking:

wc 6

PM 60

Jeq 100

B 1 10

P lant T rans fer F unctio n :

1

Gt( s )

s Jeq B

P has e o f s ys tem w itho ut co ntro ller :

phi_sys arg ( Gt( j wc) )

phi_sys

180

90

P has e bo o s t required :
phi_boost ( PM 90)

180

phi_sys

phi_boost

180

60

k-facto r :
k tan

phi_boost

k 3.732

Zero and P o le lo catio ns (rad /s ) :

wz_sc

wc

wp_sc wc k

wz_sc 1.608

wp_sc 22.392

C alculatio n o f co ns tant gain (K c):

Gc_pre( s)

Kc_sc

1
s

s
wz_sc
s

G_OL_pre ( s) Gt( s) Gc_pre( s)

wp_sc

1
G_OL_pre ( j wc)

Kc_sc 964.62

F inal C o ntro ller:

Gc( s) Kc_sc Gc_pre( s)
Verificatio n:
Gc( j wc) Gt( j wc) 1

180 arg( Gc( j wc) Gt( j wc) )

180

60

Design of Grid Side Converter Current Controller:

3

Rg 0.002

Lg 0.15 10

wc 2 2000

PM 60

Vdc 1150

P lant T rans fer F unctio n :

Grsc ( s)

0.5 Vdc
Rg s Lg

P has e o f s ys tem w itho ut co ntro ller :

phi_sys arg ( Grsc ( j wc) )

phi_sys

180

89.939

P has e bo o s t required :
phi_boost ( PM 90)

180

phi_sys

phi_boost

180

59.939

k-facto r :
k tan

phi_boost

k 3.724

Zero and P o le lo catio ns (rad /s ) :

wz_gsc

wc

wp_gsc wc k

wz_gsc 3.374 10

wp_gsc 4.68 10

C alculatio n o f co ns tant gain (K c):

Gc_pre( s )

Kc_gsc

1
s

s
wz_gsc
s

G_OL_pre( s ) Grsc( s ) Gc_pre( s )

wp_gsc
1

G_OL_pre( j wc)

Kc_gsc 11.062

F inal C o ntro ller:

Gc( s ) Kc_gsc Gc_pre( s )
Verificatio n:
Gc( j wc) Grsc( j wc) 1

180 arg( Gc( j wc) Grsc( j wc) )

180

60

Design of DC Link Controller:

Cdc 0.01

wc 2 10

PM 60

P lant T rans fer F unctio n :

Grsc ( s)

2
s Cdc

P has e o f s ys tem w itho ut co ntro ller :

phi_sys arg ( Grsc ( j wc) )

phi_sys

180

90

P has e bo o s t required :

phi_boost ( PM 90)

180

phi_sys

phi_boost

180

60

k-facto r :
k tan

phi_boost

k 3.732

Zero and P o le lo catio ns (rad /s ) :

wz_dc

wc

wp_dc wc k

wz_dc 16.836

wp_dc 234.492

C alculatio n o f co ns tant gain (K c):

Gc_pre( s)

Kc_dc

1
s

s
wz_dc
s

G_OL_pre ( s) Grsc ( s) Gc_pre( s)

wp_dc

1
G_OL_pre ( j wc)

Kc_dc 5.289

F inal C o ntro ller:

Gc( s) Kc_dc Gc_pre( s)
Verificatio n:
Gc( j wc) Grsc ( j wc) 1

180 arg( Gc( j wc) Grsc ( j wc) )

180

60

References:
[1] R. Ayyanar, Lecture Notes , EEE598 Renewable Electric Energy Systems, Fall 2016.
[2] R. Ayyanar, Homework-4 Solutions, Fall 2016. for Initial Conditions .
[3] V.Vittal, R.Ayyanar, "Grid Integration and Dynamic Impact of Wind Energy", Springer