1

Design of Single-Phase Three-level Inverters for Wind Power Systems with DoubleWinding Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generators
M.-H. Chen, S.-N. Yeh, J.-C. Hwang Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology 43, Section 4, Keelung Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan phone: 886-2-27376668 fax: 886-2-27376699 Email: D9007101@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation of a power control system for variable-speed, doublewinding, permanent-magnet synchronous generators. In this system, half-controlled, three-phase rectifiers and single-phase, three-level inverter are proposed to convert the three-phase varying voltage and frequency generated by wind to single-phase source with constant voltage and frequency. Specifically, the output power of the overall system is adjusted by detecting the dc-link voltage as well as the line voltage and line current of the generator. The single-phase, three-level inverter operated under voltage-controlled mode by using new two-axis amplitude-lockloop technique algorithm can provide a single-phase source with fast response, stable and low harmonic distortion power to load. The performance of the system is simulated by Matlab/Simulink. Then, a low-cost, 16-bit digital signal processor (DSP, TMS320LF2407A) is used to implement the control functions of the generation system. The experimental results for a 750 W generation system show that the output voltage and frequency can be held at 110 V and 60 Hz, respectively, when the speed varies from 750 to 1500 rpm. The feasibility of the generation system is verified experimentally. Keywords: permanent-magnet synchronous generators, half-controlled three-phase rectifiers, single-phase threelevel inverter

I.

INTRODUCTION

Wind is one of the most abundant renewable sources of energy in nature. The wind energy can be harnessed by a wind energy conversion system (WECS) composed of a wind turbine, an electric generator, a power electronic converter and the corresponding control system. Based on the types of components used, different WECS structures can be realized to convert the wind energy at varying wind speeds to electric power at the grid frequency [1]. It has been shown that, for grid connected wind turbine systems, induction generators are favored due to their cost effectiveness and ruggedness. Their running maintenance costs are also lower than those of the synchronous machines. However, induction generators are uneconomical due to its low efficiency and requiring auxiliary starting equipment. Connecting the generator to the grid directly is reliable and simple, but the output frequency is determined by the grid frequency [2]. The most advanced generator type is perhaps the permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). This machine offers, compared at the same power level and machine size, the best efficiency among all types of machines with high robustness and easy maintenance due to slip-ring-less and exciter-less features. The inherent benefit of permanent magnet which supplies rotor flux in synchronous machines without excitation loss supports the wind power generation development. This thus results in the increasing use of PMSG in recent years [3-7]. However, the capacity of generator is limited by winding turns in stator. Besides, a high-cost position sensor such as a rotor position detector is necessary for controlling the synchronous machines. The proposed double-winding PMSG which consists of two identical windings in stator

yields higher power density than that of its single-winding counterpart. Two half-controlled, three-phase rectifiers connected with double-winding PMSG are designed in this paper to implement a rotor position sensorless control system [6]. In practice, stand-alone operation of WECS requires constant electric quantities such as the amplitude, phase and frequency from the generator output. This necessitates the development of electrical power converter to maintain the required electrical quality to be independent of the variations of wind speed and load. In recent years, several multilevel inverters have appeared in the literature [8]. Multilevel technologies have advantages such as providing an improved output waveform with smaller filter size and lower electro-magnetic interference, etc. Among them, various multilevel switching techniques have been investigated and discussed with their respective characteristics. However, regardless of the switching method chosen, the gate signals to control a particular inverter system must be derived. In general, neutral point clamped pulse-width modulation (PWM) three-phase inverter which uses four switching states in each arm has the three-level voltage waveforms. That results in considerable suppression of the harmonic currents comparing with the conventional full-bridge type PWM inverters. This, however, is not the case for single-phase PWM inverters. The popular single-phase inverter today adopts the power circuit in full-bridge type using approximate sinusoidal modulation technique. Its output voltage has two zero-states and supplies dc-link voltage level. The output voltage harmonics are determined by the carrier frequency and switching pattern resulting in limited reduction of voltage harmonics [9]. The proposed single-

phase, three-level inverter will yield output with considerable alleviation of harmonic components. The switching pattern using new two-axis amplitude-lock-loop technique to improve the output voltage phase delay is derived. Experimental results are given to show the validity of the proposed inverter.

A.

Mathematic Model of Double-Winding PMSG

The novel double-winding PMSG consists of two identical windings in stators, thereby providing high power density. The equivalent circuit of windings r-s-t is shown in Fig. 2. The voltage equation can be written as [18]:
 e rst = rs i rst + d rst dt
rs rs ]
T

(1) (2) (3) (4)

II.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

where

The configuration of the proposed system shown in Fig. 1 consists of two parts: power converters and controller. As indicated above, the power converter includes a doublewinding PMSG, two half-controlled, three-phase rectifiers [6], two dc-link capacitors driving a single-phase, threelevel inverter, and a single-phase, three-wire, voltagedoubling transformer. The proposed system can thus transfer energy from mechanical to electrical form with good power quality. In addition, a capacitor connected with the extra winding of transformer is used to form a low-pass filter. As to the controller, it includes voltage and current sensors, and a digital signal processor (DSP, TMS320LF2407A) [16]. Besides, an emulator (XDS510PP) connected with a personal computer is used to realize the controller of the proposed system. An encoder counter, 10bit analog-to-digital converter and a PWM module are built in the control board of DSP to reduce the hardware complexity and improve the reliability as well as maintainability of the system.

s = diag [ rs r

e rst = [ er

es

et ]

i rst = [ir
rst = [ r

is

it ]

T T

t ]

(5)

, et and ir , is , it denote the phase voltages and line er ,es

currents of generator, respectively; rs and r ,s ,t are the equivalent resistance and flux linkages of stator. Assume that the flux harmonics of rotor and stator are negligible. Under this circumstance, the fluxes of rotor and stator are sinusoidally distributed. Therefore, one has the flux linkage   i + = L (6)
rst s rst m

where
Lls + Lms  = 1L L s 2 ms 1 Lms 2 1 Lms 2 Lls + Lms 1 Lms 2 Lls + Lms 1 Lms 2 1 Lms 2

(7)

III. OPERATING PRINCIPLES

The sequential-switching of switches for half-controlled, three-phase rectifiers are used to convert power from the wind generator without detecting rotor position [6]. In addition, a single-phase, three-level inverter controlled by two-axis amplitude-lock-loop is designed to provide ac voltage from dc-link [17]. The low-pass filter formed by transformer and capacitor is built to reduce high-frequency harmonics from power transistors. Detailed analysis is given in the following.
double-winding PMSG & inductors half-controlled three-phase rectifiers single-phase threelevel inverter transformer single-phase loads 110/220V

sin r 2  m = m sin( r ) 3 sin( r + 2 ) 3

(8)

r = r dt ; Lms =

N s2 ; r and r are the rotor flux angle m

Dr L1 ir er es L1 is et L1 it

Ds
r s

Dt

+ a

+ b

v1
t

C1
a

Nf ia + van + N a vab + vbn Nb

Cf

rm
PM SG wind-turbine

Tr o Dx ix e x L1 e y L1 iy iz e L z 1 Tx

Ts

Tt

Dy
x y

Dz

S3li
b

Np

and speed, respectively; N s and Lls are equivalent turns and leakage-inductance of stator winding, respectively; ' m is the equivalent reluctance of stator; m is the equivalent flux linkage of rotor referred to stator. From eqs. (1)~(8), one can obtain the following phase voltage of generator:
 d i + e s i rst + L erst = r (9) s rst rst dt where erst denotes the internal voltage of generator and is

loads

v2
z

C2 Ta Tb

Ty o

Tz

er e s e x ey
ir is ix iy

gate driver

vab
voltage & current sensors DSP TMS320LF2407A voltage & current sensors

proportional to r . That is,

cos r er e = cos( 2 ) erst = s r m r 3 e t 2 cos( r + ) 3 The output power of generator

ia

emulator XDS510PP

(10)

PC

Fig. 1 Block diagram of the proposed system

Pe = er ir + es is + et it (11) From eqs. (10) and (11), the output power can be rewritten as: 2 ir cos r + is cos( r ) Pe = r m 3 (12) 2 ) +it cos( r + 3 It is seen from eq. (12) that the output power of generator

is proportional to the rotor speed

and the peak value of

three-phase currents. This means that the output power of generator can be controlled by the peak currents and is used in this paper to implement the current controller of half-controlled, three-phase rectifiers. Before leaving this subsection, it is important to note that similar result can be obtained for the other three-phase winding of the stator.
is
+ +

iy
iz rs Ns et o Ns es er Ns rs e y
+

it es

+ et

rs Ns ez o Ns ey ex

rs

e z

er
+

ir

rs

e x
+

Ns ix rs

carrier waves having the same peak-to-peak amplitude, frequency and phase. It is seen from Fig. 4(a) that the peak values of lower- and upper- carrier are vdc 2 and vdc , respectively. Therefore, there are five switching modes according to the level of commanding signal as shown in Figs. 4(b)~(f). If the commanding signal can be produced using only half of dc-link voltage, say lower dc-link voltage v2 , the lower-carrier wave is compared with the commanding signal magnitude, thereby yielding the first mode of operation. If the commanding signal magnitude is grater than vdc 2 , the second mode of operation with its switching pattern produced by comparing upper-carrier wave with commanding signal magnitude is conducted. Similarly, the gating signals for power transistors of the third and forth modes of operation can be obtained by comparing lower- and upper- carrier waves with the * , respectively. Finally, it is selfmagnitude of vab explanatory from Fig. 4 that zero output voltages are resulted from the fifth mode of operation corresponding to the rest combinations of gating signals. It is seen from Fig. 4(g) that the switching pattern of single-phase, three-level inverter is generated by the above five modes and the average output voltage vab, avg is sinusoidal. With respect to switching loss of inverter, it is known that switching loss can be reduced by reducing the switching frequency or by reducing the instantaneous value of current or voltage in the switching period. The conventional two-level modulation presents more commutation losses due to the fact that four switches are modulated at high frequency in all modulation cycles. However, in three-level modulation, only the bi-directional switch S3l is modulated at high frequency in all modulation cycles, while switches Ta+ , Ta are modulated in every semi-cycle and switches Tb+ , Tb are operated at very low frequency. In such case, it is not difficult to conclude that the three-level modulation is more efficient for practical applications. In the conventional single-phase inverter with low-pass filter, sinusoidal output voltage is obtained by exercising suitable control algorithm with proper choice of filter components and switching frequency. However, the increase of filter inductance/capacitance and switching frequency will result in the increase of cost and size in the system [19]. Therefore, the improvement of control algorithm is important to design a compact and low-cost converter. In this paper, the control algorithm to obtain a sinusoidal output voltage which is independent of load variation is proposed. The main idea behind this approach is to split the filter output voltage into two orthogonal components to facilitate the control of output voltage to be sinusoidal without phase delay. This is given in the following. Assume that
1 sin( n 0 t + 0 ) n! ,n = 1, 3, 5... q = sin( 0 t ) u vab (t ) = Vm
n =1

Fig. 2 The equivalent circuit of double-winding PMSG

B.

Single-Phase Three-Level Inverter

The schematic diagram of the single-phase, three-level inverter under consideration is shown in Fig. 3. It is constructed by adding a bi-directional power switch to the conventional bridge structure. The bi-directional switch controls current flow to and from the neutral point of the two separate dc voltage sources and is formed by two power transistors [15]. Proper switching control of this auxiliary switch allows half-level of dc supply voltage to appear in the output voltages. The inverter power circuit with appropriate control can provide the load with five different voltage levels. These are illustrated as the following five modes of operation: 1. when S3l , Tb are on and Tb+ , Ta+ , Ta are off, vab = v2 = vdc 2 2. when Ta+ , Tb are on and S3l , Ta , Tb+ are off, vab = v1 + v2 = vdc 3. when S3l , Tb+ are on and Tb , Ta+ , Ta are off, vab = v1 = vdc 2 4. when Ta , Tb+ are on and S3l , Ta+ , Tb are off, vab = (v1 + v2 ) = vdc 5. otherwise, vab = 0 where v1 = v2 = vdc 2 . Voltage ratings of switches are the same and equal to vdc , while that of switch S3l is vdc 2 . The anti-parallel diodes across the switches allow continuous current to flow and thus help maintain a sinusoidal output current. In order to control three-level inverter, a multicarrier disposition PWM technique is used. For an n-level system, n 1 carrier signals are required [19]. Gating signals for power transistors are generated by comparing the * commanding signal magnitude of vab with two contiguous

(13) (14)

(15) where Vm and 0 are the peak value and frequency of

d = cos( 0 t ) u

inverter output voltages, respectively; 0 is the phase q and u d are delay introduced by the output transformer; u unit vectors of q- and d- axis, respectively. From eqs. (13)~(15), one has
q eq = v ab (t ) u cos 0 cos(2 0 t + 0 ) + 1 1 1 cos(2 0 t + 0 ) cos(4 0 t + 0 ) + = Vm 2 3! 3! 1 1 cos(4 t + ) cos(6 t + ) + ... 0 0 0 0 5! 5! 1 Vm cos 0 2 d ed = v ab (t ) u
sin 0 + sin(2 0 t + 0 ) + 1 1 1 = Vm sin(2 0 t + 0 ) + cos(4 0 t + 0 ) + 2 3! 3! 1 1 cos(4 t + ) + cos(6 t + ) + ... 0 0 0 0 5! 5! 1 Vm sin 0 2

v1
+

C1

Ta+ a s3li

Tb+

b Tb

v2

C2

Ta

(16)

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of the single-phase, three-level inverter

vdc
* vab

vdc 2

(a)
0

(17)
* vab

Ta+ Ta Tb+ Tb
S3l

(b)

where higher order terms are neglected since low-pass filters are introduced in control system, eq and ed are the voltages of q- and d- axis, respectively. It can be seen from eqs. (16) and (17) that the first terms correspond to the fundamental components and both are dc values. The lowest frequency in both axes is the second harmonic. Thus, to obtain the fundamental component for both axes, the cutoff frequency must lie between the dc frequency(0 rad/sec) and the fundamental frequency(377 rad/sec). In this paper, the cutoff frequency of 100rad/sec is chosen. This yields a delay time constant of 10ms and will reduce the control bandwidth of the overall voltage controllers. To eliminate phase delays at the output of transformer, let
1 Vm 2 * ed =0
* eq =

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

vab v1 + v2 v2 0 v1 (v1 + v2 )

(g)

vab , avg

Fig. 4 Switching pattern of single-phase, three-level inverter

v1 v2
+ q u

(18) (19)
1 * eq = Vm 2
* ed =0

* * where eq and ed are the corresponding voltage commands

eq

Gq

* vab

of q- and d- axis. From eqs. (18) and (19), it is obvious that 0 must be zero. Therefore, output voltage vab is monitored to control the voltage commands of q- and daxis to assure constant voltage amplitude without phase delays at the output of transformer. The voltage regulators can be written as: kiq Gq = k pq + (20) s k (21) Gd = k pd + id s where Gq and Gd are the gains of the proportionalintegral voltage controllers, respectively. The pole-zero cancellation method is used to determine the controller parameters which yield the proportional-integral controller parameters of voltage regulator, k pq = k pd = 33.5 and
kiq = kid = 347 . From eqs. (16)~(21), one can obtain the

ed

Gd d u

single-phase, three-level, inverter

load

q u

low-pass filter
low-pass filter

multiplier multiplier d u

vab

vab

Fig. 5 The control block diagram of single-phase, threelevel inverter

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

To verify the performance of the proposed system, an experimental prototype of 750W wind power system using novel double-winding PMSG is built with the following parameters:
Ll = 1.5mH

C1 = C2 = 1000 F

C f = 10 F

control block diagram as shown in Fig. 5.

N p / N a = 0.5 , N p / N b = 0.5

The effective operating speed range of PMSG is between 500 and 1500rpm. If PMSG is operated above 1500rpm or below 500rpm, the control system will be shut down in order to avoid damaging PMSG. Besides, the maximum loading capacity is determined by the rated power of PMSG. The digital signal processor mentioned above is used to implement the control schemes. The sampling period for feedback signals and program execution corresponds to the sampling frequency of 10kHz. The power converters are formed by insulated-gate bipolar transistors, which operates at 10kHz. Fig. 6 shows the measured rotor speed rm , input current ir , dc-link voltage v1 , phase-voltages van and vbn , and output currents ia and ib of the proposed system under the rotor speed of 750 ~ 1500rpm in stand-alone operation. It is seen from Fig. 6 that at the output level of 750W, the dc-link voltage v1 remains constant, whereas the output voltages van and vbn are balanced and almost sinusoidal. Finally, it is important to note from Fig. 7 that the total harmonic distortions (THD) of output voltages van and vbn are 3.76% and 3.98%, respectively, which satisfy IEEE Std. 519.

2000 1500 1000 500 0

rm , rpm

20

40

(a)

60

80

time, ms

100

i ,A 7.5 r
5 2.5 0 -2.5 -5 -7.5 0
100 1 75 50 25 0

20

40

60

80

v ,V

(b)

time, ms

100

20

40

60

80

200

van ,V

(c)

time, ms

100

V.

CONCLUSIONS

100 0 -100 -200 0 20 40 60 80 100

A position sensorless double-winding PMSG connected with power converters is proposed. Regardless of variation of wind speed, the proposed system yields the distinguished features of constant voltage on dc-link capacitors as well as balanced voltages at the output of inverter. It can function satisfactorily in stand-alone fashion to supply the power for single-phase, three-wire loads. A single-phase, three-level voltage inverter with output transformer has been designed and implemented to alleviate the harmonic components of output voltage provided that the dc-link voltages and switching frequencies of the two proposed rectifiers are identical. The new two-axis amplitude-lock-loop technique is also designed and implemented for the inverter to yield sinusoidal output voltage with high dynamic performances even in the cases of load variations. The experimental results show that the total harmonic distortion of the inverter is considerably reduced. In short, the proposed system possesses the merit of low-cost, low harmonic distortion and stable output voltages.

v ,V 200 bn
100 0 -100 -200 0 20 40

(d)

time, ms

60

80

(e)

time, ms

100

i ,A 4.5 a
3 1.5 0 -1.5 -3 -4.5 0 20 40 60 80

4.5 3 1.5 0

ib , A

(f)

time, ms

100

VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to Nation Science Council for supporting this research with grant NSC-92-2213-E-011-025.

-1.5 -3 -4.5 0 20 40 60 80

(g)

time, ms

100

Fig. 6 The experimental results of the proposed system under 750W resistive loads variations: (a) rotor speed rm ; (b) input current ir ; (c) dc-link voltage v1 ; (d) phasevoltage van ; (e) phase-voltage vbn ; (f) output current ia ; (g) output current ib

6
100 80 60 40 20 0 5 10 15 (a) 100 80 60 40 20 0 5 10 15 (b) 20 25 30 harmonic order vbn mag (% of fundamental) THD= 3.98% 20 25 30 harmonic order van mag (% of fundamental) THD= 3.76%

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

Fig. 7 The voltage spectra of the proposed system under 750W unbalanced resistive load: (a) phase-voltage van ; (b) phase-voltage vbn

[12]

VII. REFERENCES
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