A Simple and Reliable Rectier for PMSG Wind Turbines by Using Series Reactive Compensator Named MERS

Takanori Isobe, Takayuki Kawaguchi, Tsukasa Sakazaki and Ryuichi Shimada

Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors, Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo, Japan 1528550

AbstractThis paper proposes a series reactive power compensator named MERS to be applied to PMSG wind turbine. PMSG usually requires reactive power control to achieve full use of the generator voltage rating; therefore, a diode rectier cannot be used and more complex voltage source converter is usually used as a generator side converter. The series compensator enables use of the diode rectier with PMSG; therefore, relatively simple generator side converter can be achieved. This paper proposes the power conversion conguration using the series compensated diode rectier with dc current link topology, and describes operation principle and compensation strategy to achieve full use of the generator capability at each rotation speed. Small scale experiments were conducted with 1.5 kW rated PMSG, and the results conrms the principles and advantages.

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Fig. 1. Circuit conguration of MERS. (a)Full-bridge. (b)2-switch conguration.

II. M AGNETIC E NERGY R ECOVERY S WITCH (MERS) A. Conguration and Characteristics Series compensator named magnetic energy recovery switch (MERS) [2], [3] and its application for wind turbine has been proposed [4]. The MERS works as a series variable capacitor by line frequency switching and phase angle control. From a certain aspect, the MERS is one of FACTS (exible ac transmission system) device works as a series compensator [5] like GCSC (gate commutated series capacitor) [6], [7] and SSSC (static synchronous series compensator) [8], but has different operation range and implementation characteristics. GCSC and SSSC have been studied for power transmission applications well; however, not introduced to other indutrial applications. Fig. 1(a) shows the basic conguration of the MERS. The MERS consists of four semi-conductor switches and a capacitor. Semi-conductor switches are required to have reverse conductivity (or free-wheeling diode is needed) and turn-off capability. At this moment, IGBTs and MOSFETs are candidates. In the full-bridge conguration, the capacitor is charged with unipolar voltage and electrolytic capacitors can be used. However, almost all current ows into the capacitor; therefore, electrolytic capacitors are usually not adequate due to their current ripple ratings. The MERS works as an active series compensator, in other words, adjustable series capacitor. In comparison to conventional converters, using the MERS has following advantages: 1) Line frequency switching, comparatively low switching frequency in usual system frequency of 50 / 50Hz. Additionally low conduction loss semiconductor device can be used, if a special design is applied [10].

I. I NTRODUCTION Permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is a promising candidate for large scale offshore wind turbines because of its simple structure and possibility of high pole number and gear-less conguration. These features result in maintenance efforts reduction and they become much more important for future wind power generation especially in offshore wind farm [1]. On the other hands, using PMSG has challenges in rare earth materials and complexity of power-electronics stage. Usually, reactive power controllability is needed to the generator side converter to control the terminal voltage of the generator and maximize the generator ratings utilization; on the other hands, a simple diode rectier can be used for dcexcited synchronous generators. Usually a voltage source type active rectier with high frequency switching is used for the generator side converter of large scale PMSG; however, the complexity of the converter results in reduced reliability, increased loss and cost. High frequency switching converter also introduces ground leakage current problems and generator side lter needed. This paper proposes a series reactive power compensator named MERS to be applied to PMSG and achieve relatively simple rectier with reactive power controllability. The series compensator enables use of diode rectier with PMSG and the compensator itself is also simple. Especially the MERS is controlled with line frequency switching; therefore, the additional part to the diode rectier can be implemented with relatively low effort compared to other possible reactive power compensators.

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Fig. 2. Possible current paths of MERS. The owing current is positive direction (left to right in the diagram) in (a), (b) and (c), and negative direction (right to left) in (d), (e) and (f). The capacitor is discharged in (a) and (d), and charged in (c) and (f). When the capacitor voltage is zero, the current ows in two parallel paths as shown in (b) and (e), which are referred as parallel bypass mode.

Fig. 4. Normalized equivalent reactance of MERS, Xmers /Xc , as function of gate control angle, , where Xmers is the fundamental equivalent reactance of the MERS and Xc is the reactance of the equipped capacitor inside of the MERS. (a) to (d) are corresponding to waveform modes in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 3. Waveform modes of MERS. (a)No MERS. (b)Discontinuous mode. (c)Balance mode. (d)Dc-offset mode.

2) Simple gate angle control like thyristor. 3) Soft-switching operation within a certain operating range. 4) The full-bridge conguration has a wide operating range compared to other series compensation technology. B. Operation Principles Fig. 2 shows possible current paths of the full-bridge MERS. Two switches are turned on and off in pair, UY are always opposite to V-X. By controlling two pairs of switches, the capacitor can be connected to ac circuit in series alternately with different polarity, or shorted. Remarkable paths are (b) and (e), which can be achieved when the voltage of the capacitor is zero, and in these

paths, the capacitor is shorted and does not inject any voltage to the ac circuit. By line frequency switching and controlling current paths in a cycle, this circuit can work as an adjustable series capacitor. Schematic waveforms are shown in Fig. 3. The phase difference between the owing current and the switching, , can be controlled. When = 0 as shown in Fig. 3(a), the owing current does not charge the capacitor; therefore, the MERS does not inject any voltage to the circuit. By increasing , generated voltage in the capacitor is increasing and this waveform mode is referred as discontinuous mode. Finally when = 90 , the injected voltage waveform becomes pure sinusoidal as shown in Fig. 3(c), and has the same amplitude as the case of using a xed capacitor whose capacitance is equal to one of the MERS capacitor. This waveform mode is referred as Balance mode. Additionally, the full-bridge conguration can inject higher voltage by dc-offset mode as shown in Fig. 3(d). In all waveform modes, fundamental component of the injected voltage has 90 degree phase difference to one of the owing current, and amplitude can be controlled. This clearly means that the MERS works as an adjustable capacitor about their fundamental components. The equivalent reactance of the MERS, Xmers , can vary from 0 to . Normalized equivalent reactance of the MERS is shown in Fig. 4. Xmers can be controlled by in discontinuous mode. In dc-offset mode, is always 90 and Xmers cannot be determined by only . Practically, control is implemented by PLL (phase lock loop) based on generator voltage or by using rotary encoder, and Xmers can be easily controlled by simple phase angle control with reference of generator voltage or rotor position. C. 2-switch Conguration Fig. 1(b) shows 2-switch conguration which also can work as a series compensator, but with reduced number of semi-conductor switches. In this conguration, the capacitor is charged and discharged without semi-conductor conduction, and only when the capacitor voltage is zero, current ows into semi-conductor switches. This can be

(Current source Inverter)

Fig. 5.

Proposed conguration using MERS for single wind turbine.

Fig. 6. Equivalent circuit in single phase diagram. PMSG is represented by nominal induced emf, E , and synchronous reactance, Xs . Diode rectier connected to dc current source can be represented by a resistive load, which draws a constant ac current.

an attractive advantage from points of semi-conductor rating and conduction loss. If the operation is in discontinuous mode and very near to balance mode, semiconductor conduction duration becomes very small. This will result in low conduction losses and small current ratings required as well. Additionally, two semi-conductor switches share their emitter (or source) terminals; therefore, gate drive circuit can be simple. On the other hands, as a drawback, the 2-switch conguration can not achieve dc-offset mode, since a remaining voltage in the capacitor will cause shorting charged capacitor and very high current owing into semiconductor switches. Therefore, the operating range of this conguration is limited as 0 < Xmers < Xc , where Xc is the reactance of the equipped capacitor. III. P ROPOSED C ONVERTER FOR S INGLE W IND T URBINE U SING PMSG A. Conguration The MERS can compensate for synchronous reactance of the generator; therefore, generator terminal voltage can be controlled and achieve good utilization of generator ratings. In other words, reactive power supply to the PMSG can be controlled by more simple method, that is usually implemented by high switching frequency converters. The MERS applied for wind turbine using PMSG has been proposed in [9]; however, the proposed conguration consists of a diode rectier and a voltage source type gridside converter, connected via dc voltage link; therefore, additional step-up chopper is actually needed for low turbine speed operation since the diode rectier with the MERS does not have voltage step-up capability by itself. This paper proposes the same concept but with current link topology as shown in Fig. 5. By using current link topology and current source converter as grid-side converter, the power from low speed operated generator can be transferred to the grid, whose voltage is constant and higher than the generator voltage, without additional step-up converter. Both line commutated converter and self-commutated converter with a high frequency switching can be used for the grid-side converter. The selection depends on rated power and requirements of harmonics improvement and reactive power controllability.

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Fig. 7. Phasor diagrams. (a)No compensation (Xmers = 0). (b)Half compensation (Xmers = 1/2 Xs ).

B. Compensation Strategy Fig. 6 shows an equivalent circuit in single phase diagram. The PMSG is modeled as a voltage source, which represents nominal induced emf, and an inductance, which represents synchronous reactance. The MERS is modeled as variable capacitor. The diode rectier with dc current link can be modeled as a resistive load, which draws a constant ac current, Igen , which can be controlled by the dc-side current, Idc , as Igen = 2/3Idc . Consequently, the following discussion focuses on only fundamental components. Fig. 7 shows phasor diagrams when the generator | and |E | are speed and current are xed. Therefore |Igen s | is consequently xed. V s and Vmers have xed and |V , and Vd has the 90 degree phase angle difference to Igen . Without compensation, |Vgen | same phase angle with Igen | due to V s . With compensation, |Vmers | is lower than |E can be controlled since the equivalent reactance of the MERS, Xmers , can be controlled; by doing that, the phase and |Vgen | can be controlled. Fig. 7(b) shows angle of Igen the phasor diagram when Xmers is controlled to be a half | becomes equal to |E |. of Xs . In this condition, |Vgen Fig. 8 shows Vgen , generator active power, P , and generator power factor, cos , as function of Xmers , which are obtained from the phasor diagram. The graph indicates that increasing Xmers results in increase of Vgen , and Vgen becomes equal to E when Xmers is equal to a half of Xs . This operating point is referred as half compensation in the following discussion. is dened as the phase and Igen ; therefore, cos angle difference between Vgen indicates the power factor at the generator terminal. The

Fig. 8. Generator voltage, Vgen , active power, P , and generator power factor (in lead), cos , as function of Xmers when Xs is 0.6 p.u.

Fig. 9. Generator voltage, Vgen , and active power, P , as function of Igen when Xs is 0.6 p.u. Solid lines show those with half compensation (Xmers = 0.3), and dotted lines show those without compensation (Xmers = 0) and with full compensation (Xmers = 0.6).

graph indicates that the power factor of the generator becomes lead by increasing Xmers , and reactive power is supplied to the generator. P is dened as Vgen Igen cos , normalized by that achieved when Vgen and Igen become unity. P achieves the maximum when Xmers is equal to Xs . This point is referred as full compensation. At is equal to that of E ; the point, the phase angle of Igen therefore, this power is the maximum power which can be drawn from this machine with the rated current and speed, if there is enough voltage rating of the stator. Fig. 9 shows Vgen and P as function of Igen with various Xmers . Without compensation, Vgen decreases according to increase of Igen . By using half compensation, Vgen can be maintained at E . Full compensation can obtain more power; however, Vgen is increased and becomes higher than E . The generator voltage rating should be equal to or higher than E since Vgen becomes E in no load condition, since the proposed rectier conguration has no reactive power and terminal voltage controllability when the active power is zero. The full compensation requires a higher generator voltage rating than E . This compensation strategy can be selected by designing the stator voltage rating to accept this voltage; however, the increase in the stator capacity cannot be compensated by the increase in maximum power. From the point of voltage rating utilization in whole operating range, the half compensation is most attractive compensation strategy. C. MERS Capacitor Selection For a constant speed operation, Xmers can be xed to achieve a good compensation; therefore, a xed capacitor can be used. However, for variable speed and frequency operation, variable Xmers should be used to achieve optimum compensation in whole operating speed. Reduced frequency results in decrease of Xs and required Xmers . Additionally, it also results in increase of Xc with the same capacitance. Therefore, if the capacitance is selected to achieve that Xc is equal to required Xmers at the maximum frequency, Xmers is always lower than Xc . This means that only discontinuous mode operation is needed for the MERS, and the 2-switch conguration, which has some advantages in

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(b) Fig. 10. Experimental setup. (a)Schematic diagram. (b)Overview of tested generator and induction motor as prime mover.

power-electronics implementation, can be used with some design margin to avoid dc-offset mode operation. IV. E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATION A. Setup Small scale experiments were conducted with 1.5 kW rated PMSG. Fig. 10(a) shows schematic diagram of the experimental setup and Table I shows circuit parameters. The gate signals for MERS compensators were generated based on the rotor position by using a rotary encoder. In the dc-side of a diode rectier, a smoothing inductor

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Fig. 11. Experimentally measured waveforms of generator terminal voltages, current and the MERS voltage with rated speed and current. (a)Xmers = 7.08(). Discontinuous mode was observed. (b)Xmers = 14.9(). Balance mode was observed. (c)Xmers = 19.1(). Dc-offset mode was observed.

TABLE I PARAMETERS OF E XPERIMENTAL C IRCUIT Smoothing inductor of dc-link Capacitance of MERS capacitors 101 mH 120 F (15.2 at 87.5 Hz)

TABLE II PARAMETERS OF T ESTED PMSG Rated power Pn 1.5 kW Rated voltage Vn 188 V Rated current In 5.5 A Rated rotation speed nrated 1750 min1 Rated frequency frated 87.5 Hz No-load induced voltage E 163 V at 1750 min1 Synchronous reactance Xs 9.07 (0.53 p.u. ) Stator resistance rs 1.55 (0.09 p.u. ) * Based on the no-load induced voltage.

and an electronic load with current control operation were connected in series. Table II shows parameters of the tested generator. The generator was actually an interior permanent magnet type synchronous motor and was used as generator in the experiments. The machine had higher rated voltage than the no-load induced voltage; moreover, the rated voltage was higher than the expected maximum terminal voltage which can be achieved by full compensation. Therefore, the no-load induced voltage was used as the basis of calculation in the following discussion. Available maximum power as generator, which was expected to be achieved by full compensation, was approximately equal to the rated power as motor. B. Results with Constant Speed and Current Fig. 11 shows waveforms with the rated generator current (5.5 A) and speed (1750 min1 ). Gate angle for the MERS was controlled, and as a result, Xmers was changed. When Xmers is lower than the reactance of the actual capacitor, Xc , the discontinuous mode was

Fig. 12. Experimentally measured terminal voltage, Vgen , power factor, cos , and output active power, P , of the generator as function of Xmers . The no-load induced voltage at this rotation speed, E , is also shown. Theoretical curves which come from the fundamental analysis including consideration of stator resistance are also shown as solid lines.

observed as shown in Fig. 11(a). When Xmers is approximately equal to Xc , the balance mode was observed as shown in Fig. 11(b). When Xmers is higher than Xc , the dc-offset mode was observed as shown in Fig. 11(c). The generator voltage waveforms were much distorted; however, the current waveforms had comparatively good harmonic characteristics.

the proposed conguration can work in variable speed operation and enables full use of the generator capability at each rotation speed; therefore, is valid for wind turbine application. V. C ONCLUSIONS The MERS offers a simple reactive power compensation method for PMSG and this paper proposed the power converter using the MERS and a diode rectier with current link topology for wind turbine using PMSG. The proposed method can be a simple rectier solution due to the use of diode rectier and simplicity of the MERS itself. Additionally, only a partial capacity is needed for compensator; concretely, the voltage ratings required for semi-conductor devices and the capacitor for the MERS corresponds to the voltage across the synchronous reactance (or half). This can be advantageous especially in low synchronous reactance generator case. The MERS offers comparatively simple rectier with reactive power controllability; therefore, has advantages also in high synchronous reactance case. Allowing high synchronous reactance in generator design has possibility to achieve much compact generator. Reducing size and weight of generator on top of the tower brings many advantages to whole system design of wind turbine. R EFERENCES
[1] J. Ribrant and L. M. Bertling, Survey of failures in wind power systems with focus on swedish wind power plants during 19972005, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp.167173, (2007). [2] T. Takaku, T. Isobe, J. Narushima, H. Tsutsui, and R. Shimada, Power factor correction using magnetic energy recovery current switches, T. IEE Japan, Vol.125-D, No.4, pp.372377 (2005) (in Japanese) [3] T. Takaku, T. Isobe, J. Narushima, H. Tsutsui and R. Shimada, Power factor correction using magnetic energy recovery current switches, Electrical Engineering in Japan, vol. 160, No. 3, pp. 5662, (2007) [4] J. A. Wiik, A. Kulka, T. Isobe, K. Usuki, M. Molinas, T. Takaku, T. Undeland, and R. Shimada:, Loss and rating considerations of a wind energy conversion system with reactive compensation by magnetic energy recovery switch (MERS), EPE Journal, Vol.18, No.3, pp.2530 (2008) [5] J. A. Wiik, F. D. Wijaya, and R. Shimada:, Characteristics of the magnetic energy recovery switch (MERS) as a series FACTS controller, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol.24, No.2, pp.828 836 (2009) [6] G. G. Karady, T. H. Ortmeyer, B. R. Pilvelait and D. Maratukulam, Continuously regurated series capacitor, IEEE Transactions on Power Deliverly, vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 13481355, (1993) [7] E. H. Watanabe, L. F. W. de Souza, F. D. de Jesus, J. E. R. Alves and A. Bianco, GCSC - gate controlled series capacitor: a new facts device for series compensation of transmission lines, 2004 IEEE/PES Transmission and distribution conference and exposition: Latin america, pp. 981986, (2004) [8] N. G. Hingorani and L. Gyugyi, Understanding FACTS, Concepts and Technology of Flexible AC Transmission Systems, IEEE Press, December, (1999) [9] J. A. Wiik, A. Kulka, T. Isobe, K. Usuki, M. Molinas, T. Takaku, T. Undeland, and R. Shimada, Loss and rating considerations of a wind energy conversion system with reactive compensation by magnetic energy recovery switch (MERS), EPE Journal, Vol.18, No.3, pp.2530 (2008) [10] R. Shimada, J. A. Wiik, T. Isobe, T. Takaku, N. Iwamuro, Y. Uchida, M. Molinas and T. M. Undeland, A new AC current switch called MERS with low on-state voltage IGBTs (1.54 V) for renewable energy and power saving applications, Proceedings of the 20th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & IC s, pp. 411, (2008)

Fig. 13. Experimentally measured output active power with the rated generator current (5.5 A) as function of rotation speed. The maximum power obtained by adjusting Xmers in each rotation speed are plotted as maximum power with compensation.

Fig. 12 shows generater terminal voltage, power factor and output active power as function of Xmers with a constant dc-link current which achieves the rated generator current. Theoretical curves which can be available from the analysis of fundamental components in the previous section are also shown in the same gure. The stator resistance of the tested generator cannot be neglected; therefore, the analysis including the stator resistance was used. The experimentally measured values were well agreed to the theoretical curves. The maximum output power was achieved when Xmers was approximately equal to Xs . By using higher compensation area, the output power, P , can be widely controlled. This result indicates the MERS can control power without dc-link current control. However, the terminal voltage, Vgen , becomes higher than the no-load induced voltage, E , and actual rated voltage as motor, Vn , in this case. C. Variable Speed Operation For wind turbine application, characteristics with variable speed operation should be considered. The same experiments were conducted with several rotation speeds. Fig. 13 shows maximum generator output power with the rated current with compensation as function of speed. In the experiments, constraint of the generator terminal voltage was not considered; therefore, the achieved maximum power from all possible operating points about Xmers are plotted. The output power without compensation is also shown. By controlling generator current within the rating, the power can be controlled in the all below area of the plotted points. Both the maximum power and the power without compensation are approximately linear to the speed. The result conrms that the current source topology enables power conversion even in low induced voltage operation. The generator power was increased by compensation in each speed. In the experiments, there was no generator voltage limitation because of enough voltage rating of the tested machine. If the stator voltage has some limitation, the maximum power will be less but reasonable for the ratings. These experimental results indicate that