596 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 21, NO.

2, JUNE 2006
A Neutral-Point Clamped Converter System for
Direct-Drive Variable-Speed Wind Power Unit
Amirnaser Yazdani, Member, IEEE, and Reza Iravani, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractRecent and ongoing developments in wind turbine
technology indicate a trend towards utilization of high capacity
(e.g., up to 5 MW) wind power units in large wind farms. Higher
capacity of the wind turbine necessitates operation of the corre-
sponding electric machine and the static converter systemat higher
voltages. This paper presents a neutral point diode clamped (NPC)
converter systemthat inherently accommodates higher voltage and
power ratings of a high capacity wind power unit. The overall con-
trol strategy of an NPC-based wind power unit and the details
of the ac side and the dc side controls of the NPC converter sys-
temare also described. The generator-side NPCconverter provides
torque-speed control of the turbine-generator unit. The network-
side NPC converter controls real and reactive power ow to the
network and thus regulates the dc bus voltage and the ac side
power-factor (or voltage) respectively. The paper also presents a
new control approach to balance the dc capacitor voltages. The
NPC converter system is augmented with a dc chopper that con-
trols the synchronous generator eld current. The NPC-based con-
verter system is used to interface a 3 MW, direct-drive (gearless),
synchronous machine based wind power unit to the utility grid.
Performance of the overall NPC-based wind power unit, under the
proposed controls, is evaluated based on time domain simulations
in the power systems computer aided design (PSCAD) electromag-
netic transient for DC (EMTDC) environment.
Index TermsCurrent control, dc-side voltage balancer, electro-
magnetic transients, neutral-point diode clamped (NPC) converter,
variable-speed wind-power system.
I. INTRODUCTION
W
ORLDWIDE, wind energy has been the fastest growing
energy technology within the last several years, and all
factors indicate that the growth will continue for many years in
the future [1]. The technological trend of large wind turbines,
for wind farm applications, is toward large capacity units. For
example, a 5 MW prototype wind power unit was recently in-
stalled and is currently being tested [2]. The high capacity of a
wind turbine indicates that the corresponding electric machine
and static power converter systemmust operate at higher voltage
levels to achieve 1) maximum efciency and 2) optimum size,
volume, and form-factor.
The back-to-back connected, two-level voltage-sourced con-
verter (VSC) system is the most widely used static converter
conguration for variable-speed wind power units [3], [4]. Op-
eration of the two level converter system at high voltage levels
requires valves with high voltage ratings. This can be achieved
through either by using the state-of-the-art switches available at
Manuscript received December 29, 2004, revised June 06, 2005. Paper no.
TEC-00369-2004.
The authors are with the Center for Applied Power Electronics (CAPE)
at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G4, Canada (e-mail: an.yazdani@utoronto.ca;
iravani@ecf.utoronto.ca).
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TEC.2005.860392
high voltage ratings, or cascading switches with lower-voltage
ratings. The former option imposes excessive switch cost which
may render the converter unit economically unattractive or even
unacceptable. The latter approach imposes its own technical
challenges; e.g., equal voltage sharing and simultaneous gating
requirements.
Another approach that avoids the previously described
problems is use of the multilevel VSC instead of the two-level
VSC [5], [6]. This paper proposes the application of the
three-level neutral point diode clamped (NPC) converter [7]
for a high-power variable-speed wind power unit. Applications
of the NPC converter for back-to-back HVDC links [8] and
high-power drives [9] have been reported in the technical
literature, but has neither been proposed nor investigated for
wind power applications.
This paper provides a detailed formulation and evaluation of
the control system of a back-to-back NPC converter system for
a direct-drive (gearless) variable-speed synchronous machine
based wind-power system. The proposed direct drive, variable
speed, NPC-based wind power conguration has the following
salient features when compared with xed-speed, squirrel-cage
induction machine based and doubly-fed induction machine
based wind power unit.
1) Elimination of the gearbox signicantly reduces scheduled
and unscheduled maintenance;
2) Mechanical speed of the turbine-generator is controlled
in a noticeably wider range and thus the captured wind
energy is higher;
3) The conguration can naturally accommodate low-speed
(high-pole) permanent magnet synchronous machines,
which translates in signicant reduction in size, volume,
and weight; and
4) The converter systemacts as a buffer between the electrical
grid and the turbine-generator, and thus minimizes unde-
sirable dynamic interactions between the two subsystems,
e.g., due to wind speed uctuations and electrical faults.
The control model is developed based on a generalized state-
space model of the NPC converter [10] and includes 1) torque-
speed control of the synchronous machine, 2) grid-side power-
factor (voltage) control, 3) net dc bus voltage control, and 4)
dc capacitor voltage equalizer. The NPC converter system is
augmented by a dc-dc chopper that is supplied from the dc-
bus, and controls the synchronous machine eld current. The
chopper controls are also described in detail. This paper also
presents the control strategy of the overall wind-power unit.
Performance of the overall wind power unit, including the NPC
converter system and the controllers, is evaluated based on time
domain simulation studies in the PSCAD/EMTDCenvironment.
0885-8969/$20.00 2006 IEEE
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YAZDANI AND IRAVANI: A NEUTRAL-POINT CLAMPED CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR DIRECT-DRIVE VARIABLE-SPEED WIND POWER UNIT 597
Fig. 1. Single-line schematic diagram of a three-level VSC-based power conversion system.
This paper is organized as follows: Section II introduces
the wind power system. Section III deals with the models of
the synchronous machine, the machine side NPC converter,
and the machine torque-speed control. Section IV develops
the models for the grid side NPC converter, the grid side
current controllers, the net dc bus voltage controller, and the
dc-side voltage equalizer. The wind power system control strat-
egy is described in Section V. Section VI presents the sys-
tem performance in response to the startup, a wind gust, and
a line-to-neutral fault in the grid. Section VII concludes the
paper.
II. SYSTEM STRUCTURE AND MODEL
Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of a three-level NPC-
based wind power system. The system is comprised of a wind
turbine that is directly coupled to a high pole synchronous ma-
chine. The synchronous machine is eld-controlled. The ma-
chine is vector-controlled by NPC1. The second three-level NPC
converter, NPC2, interfaces the wind power system to the utility
grid.
The dc bus is composed of two nominally identical capacitors.
The clamped points of the two NPC converters are connected to
the capacitors at midpoint 0, Fig. 1. The midpoint is assumed to
be the circuit voltage reference, but is not necessarily grounded.
Grounding midpoint or any other node in the converter sys-
tem must take into account protection requirements and other
unit dependent factors; e.g., conguration of the interface trans-
former.
A current-controlled buck converter, supplied from the DC-
bus, is used to regulate the machine eld current i
f
. The buck
converter is a diode clamped converter and thus can withstand
high dc bus voltages. Therefore, the clamped point of the buck
converter is also connected to the midpoint 0. Resistor R
p
rep-
resents the total switching losses of the NPC converters, and is
not a physical component.
NPC2 equalizes the voltages of the dc side capacitors and
regulates the dc bus voltage, [10], [14]. The ac side terminals of
NPC2 are connected to the utility grid through series connected
TABLE I
SYSTEM PARAMETERS
inductors and a three-phase transformer. R represents the on-
state loss of NPC2 switches and the internal resistance of series
inductor L. Two three-phase shunt lters are installed at the low
voltage side of the transformer as shown in Fig. 1. The shunt
lters trap dominant switching harmonics and prevent voltage
distortion at the point of common coupling (PCC).
A sinusoidal PWM switching is adopted for the NPC con-
verters. The PWM carrier signals of both NPC converters and
the buck converter are synchronized to the grid voltage V
sabc
at the low voltage side of the interface transformer, see Fig. 1.
Therefore, the converters operate at constant switching frequen-
cies, and high frequency jitters and EMI phenomenon are mini-
mized. P
ext
denotes the power delivered to the dc bus from the
machine side through NPC1. The system parameters are given
in Tables IIII.
III. SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE VECTOR CONTROL
A. Machine Dynamic Model
The machine model, in its rotor dq-frame; is adopted from
[11]. The voltage and current vectors of the machine stator in
the dq-frame, i.e., V
stdq
and I
stdq
, are related to the correspond-
ing abc-frame values; i.e., the vector of fundamental voltage
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598 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 21, NO. 2, JUNE 2006
TABLE II
SYNCHRONOUS MACHINE PARAMETERS
TABLE III
WIND TURBINE PARAMETERS
components at the machine-NPC1 terminals V
stabc
(t), and the
current vector i
stabc
(t) (see Fig. 1) by the following transfor-
mations
V
stdqo
= T(P
r
)V
stabc
(t) (1)
I
stdqo
= T(P
r
)i
stabc
(t) (2)
where
r
and P are the rotor mechanical angle and the number
of pole-pairs. The transformation matrix T is dened by
T() =
2
3
_
_
cos() cos
_

2
3
_
cos
_

4
3
_
sin() sin
_

2
3
_
sin
_

4
3
_
1
2
1
2
1
2
_
_
.
(3)
V
stdq
is related to the dc bus voltage V
dc
through the amplitude
and phase angle: i.e., m
1
and
1
, of the PWM modulation
waveform of NPC1, as given by (4) and (5)
V
std
=
m
1
2
V
dc
cos
1
(4)
V
stq
=
m
1
2
V
dc
sin
1
. (5)
Based on (4) and (5):

1
= tan
1
_
V
stq
V
std
_
(6)
m
1
=
2
_
V
2
std
+V
2
stq
V
dc
. (7)
TABLE IV
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
The dynamic model of the machine, in the dq-frame is [11]
L
f
di
f
dt
= R
f
i
f
+V
f
+L
md
dI
std
dt
(8)
L
d
dI
std
dt
= R
s
I
std
+L
q
I
stq
P
r
V
std
+L
md
di
f
dt
(9)
L
q
dI
stq
dt
= R
s
I
stq
L
d
I
std
P
r
V
stq
+L
md
i
f
P
r
(10)
where
r
=
d
r
dt
, and the other terms are dened in Table IV.
V
f
is the average of V
f
over one switching period.
No damper winding is considered in the model. The reason is
that the machine is current-controlled and the ux is regulated
at a constant value. Thus, the impact of damper windings is in-
signicant [11], and practically, damper bars are removed from
a vector-controlled machine. Similarly, the magnetic saturation
is not included in the model, since the ux is tightly regulated
in a vector-controlled machine.
The machine electrical torque is given by [11]
T
e
=
_
3
2
_
P(L
md
i
f
I
stq
L
d
I
std
I
stq
+L
q
I
std
I
stq
). (11)
B. Machine Vector Control
T
e
is a nonlinear function of machine currents. Based on a
vector control strategy, the nonlinearity can be avoided and the
current coupling minimized. One optimal approach is to impose
I
std
= 0 [11] and [12]. This reduces (11) to
T
e
=
_
3
2
_
PL
md
i
f
I
stq
. (12)
Equation (12) shows that T
e
is a linear function of I
stq
, provided
that eld current i
f
is regulated at a constant value; e.g., at the
rated eld current. Moreover, imposing I
std
= 0 ensures that the
stator currents are minimum for a pre specied torque and, thus,
the machine efciency is enhanced [12]. Furthermore, regulat-
ing I
std
at zero eliminates the transient impact of the machine
damper windings (if they exist) on the torque [11]. The struc-
tures of the machine current regulators, based on the availability
of the rotor angle
r
and speed
r
via either measurement or
estimation [13], is as follows:
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YAZDANI AND IRAVANI: A NEUTRAL-POINT CLAMPED CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR DIRECT-DRIVE VARIABLE-SPEED WIND POWER UNIT 599
1) Rotor Current Regulator: In (8), i
f
is the state variable,
V
f
is the control input, and L
md
dI
std
dt
is the coupling term be-
tween i
f
and I
std
. I
std
is to be regulated at zero. Thus, if the
closed loop system is stable, L
md
dI
std
dt
becomes zero after tran-
sients. Hence, (8) can be approximated as
L
f
di
f
dt
= R
f
i
f
+V
f
. (13)
The output voltage of the buck converter is
V
f
= d.V
dc
(14)
where d is the duty ratio. d is provided by the following control
law
d =
1
V
dc
_
K
f p
e
f
+K
f i
_
t
0
e
f
dt
_
(15)
where, e
f
= i
f ref
i
f
and i
f ref
is set at the rated value. Choos-
ing K
f p
=
L
f

f
and K
f i
=
R
f

f
, we deduce the closed loop trans-
fer function as
i
f
(s)
i
f ref
(s)
=
1

f
s + 1
, (16)
where
f
is the time constant of the closed loop response.
2) Stator Current Regulators: In (9), I
std
is the state vari-
able, V
std
is the control input, and L
md
di
f
dt
is the coupling term
between I
std
and i
f
. If the closed loop system is stable, L
md
di
f
dt
becomes zero after transients and (9) can be approximated as
L
d
dI
std
dt
= R
s
I
std
+L
q
I
stq
P
r
V
std
. (17)
Let us dene the following change of variable
V
std
= u
std
+L
q

I
stq
P
r
(18)
where u
std
is the control variable. u
std
is given by the following
PI controller
u
std
= K
dp
e
std
+K
di
_
t
0
e
std
dt (19)
where e
std
= I
stdref


I
std
, and reference I
stdref
is set to zero.

I
std
and

I
stq
are ltered I
std
and I
stq
, respectively. The ltering
is to reduce the impact of current harmonics on the closed loop
system. The transfer function of each lter is
F
i
(s) =

I
std
I
std
=

I
stq
I
stq
=
1

i
s + 1
. (20)
To provide adequate attenuation of harmonics,
i
must be large,
but considerably smaller than the smallest desired time-constant
of the closed loop system. These constraints can be readily
satised, since the PWM generated harmonics are of high order.
Substituting for V
std
from (18) into (17), we obtain
L
d
dI
std
dt
= R
s
I
std
+L
q
P
r
(I
stq

I
stq
) +u
std
. (21)
Based on (21), I
std
cannot be decoupled fromI
stq
, since (I
stq

I
stq
) is not zero during transients. However, since the lter time
constant
i
is small, (I
stq

I
stq
) rapidly approaches zero, and
Fig. 2. Block diagram of machine current controllers.
the coupling is weakened. Consequently, the following SISO
model is obtained for the machine d-axis current dynamics
L
d
dI
std
dt
= R
s
I
std
+u
std
. (22)
Similarly, the q-axis stator current controller is dened by
u
stq
= K
qp
e
stq
+K
qi
_
t
0
e
stq
dt (23)
V
stq
= u
stq
L
d

I
std
P
r
+L
md
i
f
P
r
(24)
where, e
stq
= I
stqref


I
stq
. I
stqref
is the q-axis reference value,
which is determined based on the desired torque. Substituting
for V
stq
from (24) into (10) and ignoring the transient impact
of (I
std

I
std
), we deduce the following SISO model for the
machine q-axis current dynamics
L
q
dI
stq
dt
= R
s
I
stq
+u
stq
. (25)
The PI-controller gains K
dp
, K
di
, K
qp
, and K
qi
can be deter-
mined from pole placement, based on the desired performance.
Fig. 2 shows block representations of the machine d-and q-axis
current controllers.
IV. CONTROL OF GRID-SIDE CONVERTER, NPC2
A. Dq-Frame Synchronization
The dynamic model of NPC2 is developed in the grid syn-
chronously rotating dq-frame. The dq quantities are related to
the corresponding abc quantities through
f
dqo
= T(t)f
abc
(t) (26)
where is the grid frequency, and the transformation matrix T
is given by (3). The dq-frame is synchronized to the three-phase
ac side voltages V
sabc
, (see Fig. 1) such that V
sq
= 0. Thus,
V
sa
(t) = V
sd
cos(t) (27)
V
sb
(t) = V
sd
cos
_
t
2
3
_
(28)
V
sc
(t) = V
sd
cos
_
t
4
3
_
. (29)
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600 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 21, NO. 2, JUNE 2006
Fig. 3. Block representation of (a) three-phase space-vector PLL, (b) dq-frame current controllers.
The synchronization is achieved by a space-vector PLL
[15]. The block diagram of the space-vector PLL is shown in
Fig. 3(a). The feedback loop with compensator H(s) adjust an-
gle such that V
sq
is forced to zero. The PLL compensator
H(s) must include an integral term for zero steady state error.
Moreover, H(s) should include a band-stop characteristic to
eliminate distortions of V
sq
, and provide a distortion free angle.
Similarly, notch lters F
n
(s) are required for conditioning
V
sd
and V
sq
.
B. Dynamic Model
A dynamic model of NPC2 in the dq-frame is [10]
dI
d
dt
=
R
L
I
d
+I
q

1
L
V
sd
+
1
L
V
td
(30)
dI
q
dt
= I
d

R
L
I
q

1
L
V
sq
+
1
L
V
tq
(31)
d
dt
(

V
1

V
2
) =
3
C
(I
d
cos
2
+I
q
sin
2
)(
0

0
) (32)
dV
dc
dt
=
2
C
i
ext

3
2C
m
2
(I
d
cos
2
+I
q
sin
2
)

3
C
(
0
+
0
)(I
d
cos
2
+I
q
sin
2
) (33)
where
V
td
=
_
V
1
_
m
2
2
+
2
0

_
+V
2
_
m
2
2
+
2
0

__
cos
2
(34)
V
tq
=
_
V
1
_
m
2
2
+
2
0

_
+V
2
_
m
2
2
+
2
0

__
sin
2
. (35)
m
2
and
2
are the amplitude and phase angle of the PWM
modulation signals,

V
1
and

V
2
are the dc components of the dc
side voltages V
1
and V
2
, and
0
and
0
are small offsets added
to the PWM modulating waveforms, in consecutive half-cycles,
to equalize

V
1
and

V
2
[10]. Since
0
and
0
are small, (34) and
(35) can be approximated as
V
td

m
2
2
V
dc
cos
2
(36)
V
tq

m
2
2
V
dc
sin
2
. (37)
m
2
and
2
are calculated from (34) and (35) as

2
= tan
1
_
V
tq
V
td
_
(38)
m
2
=
2
_
V
2
td
+V
2
tq

4

(
0
V
1
+
0
V
2
)
V
dc

2
_
V
2
td
+V
2
tq
V
dc
. (39)
Equations (30) and (31) are used for the ac side current control,
(32) is used for the dc side voltage equalization, and (33) is used
for the net dc bus voltage control.
C. AC Side Current Control
The objectives of the ac side current controls are 1) dc bus
voltage control and 2) reactive power control. Principles of
current control are given in detail in [10]. Fig. 3(b) shows a
block representations of the d- and q-axis current controllers.
As shown in Fig. 3(b), I
d
and I
q
are passed through the corre-
sponding notch lters to eliminate distortions.
The transfer function of each notch lter is:
F
n
(s) =

f
dq
f
dq
=
1 +
_
s
2
_
2
1 +

m=2
m=1
a
m
s
m
. (40)
Then, the closed loop current dynamics are expressed by
G
i
(s) =
I
d
(s)
I
dref
(s)
=
I
q
(s)
I
qref
(s)

_
1 +
_
k
i p
s
k
i i
___
1 +

m=2
m=1
a
m
s
m
_
1 +

n=4
n=1
b
n
s
n
(41)
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YAZDANI AND IRAVANI: A NEUTRAL-POINT CLAMPED CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR DIRECT-DRIVE VARIABLE-SPEED WIND POWER UNIT 601
where k
ip
and k
ii
are the proportional and the integral gains
of the current controllers, respectively. The poles of the notch
lters, F
n
(s), given by 1 +

m=2
m=1
a
m
s
m
= 0, appear as the ze-
ros of G
i
(s). Based on the adopted control strategy, the reactive
and real power components supplied by NPC2 to the grid can
be expressed as
Q
g
=
3
2
V
sd
I
q
(42)
P
g
=
3
2
V
sd
I
d
. (43)
In Fig. 3(b), I
qref
is set at zero for operation at unity power-
factor. Based on the power balance principle, I
dref
is determined
by the dc bus voltage controller to keep the dc bus voltage
regulated, as discussed in the following section.
D. DC-Bus Voltage Dynamics and Control
The dynamics of the dc bus voltage are described by (33).
Since (33) contains m
2
I
d
cos
2
and m
2
I
q
sin
2
, which include
multiplications of the state variables and the control inputs, con-
trol of V
dc
based on (33) is not straightforward. Amodied form
of (33), based on the principle of power balance, is presented
in [14]; (33) can be rewritten as:
dV
2
dc
dt
=
2
R
p
C
eq
V
2
dc
+
2
C
eq
P
ext

3L
2C
eq
_
dI
2
d
dt
+
dI
2
q
dt
_

3
C
eq
V
sd
I
d
. (44)
In (44), V
2
dc
is the output variable, I
d
is the input signal, I
q
and
P
ext
are the disturbance signals. Equation (44) is linear with
respect to V
2
dc
and P
ext
, but nonlinear with respect to I
d
and
I
q
. Based on (44), I
d
and P
ext
affect V
2
dc
during transients, and
the steady state. I
q
has an insignicant transient impact on V
2
dc
.
Hence, in the following analysis, for simplicity and without the
loss of generality, we do not consider the impact of I
q
. Equation
(44) is linearized as
d

V
2
dc
dt
=
2
R
p
C
eq

V
2
dc
+
2
C
eq

P
ext

3LI
dss
C
eq
_
d

I
d
dt
+
V
sd
LI
dss

I
d
_
. (45)
where ss and represent the steady state value and the
small signal perturbation of a variable, respectively. Since R
p
is
large, the following equality holds
P
extss

3
2
V
sd
I
dss
. (46)
Expressing (45) in the Laplace domain and substituting for I
dss
from (46), we deduce

V
2
dc
(s) = G
v
(s)

I
d
+G
p
(s)

P
ext
(47)
Fig. 4. Block representation of the dc bus voltage controller.
where transfer functions G
v
(s) and G
p
(s) are
G
v
(s) =

V
2
dc
(s)

I
d
(s)
=
_
2LP
extss
V
sd
C
eq
_
_
s +
1.5V
2
s d
LP
extss
_
_
s +
2
R
p
C
e q
_ (48)
G
p
(s) =

V
dc
(s)

P
ext
(s)
=
_
2
C
eq
_
1
_
s +
2
R
p
C
e q
_. (49)
Equation (48) shows that transfer function G
v
(s) has a pole at
P =
2
R
p
C
e q
and a zero at Z =
1.5V
2
s d
LP
extss
. Since R
p
is large,
the pole is constant and fairly close to the origin. However, the
location of zero is highly dependent on P
extss
and can vary from
to +depending on the mode of operation and the amount
of steady state real power ow P
extss
. If P
extss
is negative, the
system is nonminimum-phase. This is the case when the wind
power system is in the standby mode of operation and a small
amount of power is drawn from the grid to compensate for the
losses. However, in this case, the nonminimum-phase zero is
far from the origin and has no signicant impact on the system
stability.
Fig. 4 shows a block representation of the dc bus voltage
control system. The dc bus voltage is controlled by I
d
; the
controller is designed based on (48) and at the rated power.
To mitigate the transient impact of the disturbance signal P
ext
,
a feed-forward action is included in the control scheme. The
following methods can be considered to obtain P
ext
for the
feed-forward:
1) Direct measurement of i
ext
, and calculation of power
based on P
ext
= i
ext
V
dc
;
2) Torque estimation based on (12), and calculation of power
based on P
ext
P
m
T
e

r
.
Method 1) needs an instantaneous Hall effect current sen-
sor for the dc current measurement. Moreover, since i
ext
is a
switched waveform, additional low pass ltering is necessary
to provide a smooth measurement of P
ext
. This results in a
slow feed-forward process. Method 2) utilizes the machine pa-
rameters and I
stq
, which is available from the machine vector
control. Therefore, Method 2) is adopted in this study. P
ext
is a
few percent less than the machine mechanical power P
m
, due to
the machine and converter losses. Thus, the feed-forward action
is less accurate at lower power levels.
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602 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 21, NO. 2, JUNE 2006
E. DC-Side Voltage Equalization
The dc side voltage balancer maintains the dc components of
voltages V
1
and V
2
(see Fig. 1) equal at a pre-specied value
[10]. In view of (32), we dene

0
= sgn() (50)

0
= sgn() (51)
e =

V
1

V
2
(52)
where the sign function sgn( ) is unity for a positive argument,
and zero otherwise. Substituting for
0
from (50),
0
from (51),
and e from (52), in (32) we obtain
de
dt
=
3
C
(I
d
cos
2
+I
q
sin
2
). (53)
Based on (53), can be adjusted to equalize the voltages of
the two dc side capacitors. The plant modeled by (53) is re-
garded as an integrator with a variable gain. The integral gain,
3
C
(I
d
cos
2
+I
q
sin
2
), is a function of the system operating
point. To optimize the control design, the range of gain varia-
tions should be known. The ranges over which I
d
and I
q
change
are known from the operational specications. However, angle

2
and consequently cos
2
and sin
2
are functions of the oper-
ating point. Therefore, the range of
2
cannot be predetermined
from the converter specications, and must be deduced based
on intermediate calculations. Thus, we manipulate (53) to tailor
it for control design.
Multiplying and dividing the right hand side of (53) by
m
2
V
d c
2
, and substituting for m
2
cos
2
and m
2
sin
2
from (36)
and (37) in the resultant, we obtain
de
dt
=
6
Cm
2
V
dc
(V
td
I
d
+V
tq
I
q
). (54)
Since in the steady state, V
td
I
d
+V
tq
I
q
V
sd
I
d
, (54) can be
rewritten as
de
dt
=
6
C
_
V
sd
V
dc
__
I
d
m
2
_
. (55)
m
2
typically assumes values from 0.5 to 0.9 over the whole
operating range. Therefore, (54) can be approximated as
de
dt
=
6
C
_
V
sd
V
dc
__
I
dss
m
typ.
_
. (56)
In (56), V
sd
is a constant value, V
dc
is regulated at its nominal
value, and the rated value of I
dss
is known from the converter
specications. In (56), is the control variable and e is the output
to be regulated at zero. Since V
1
and V
2
contain high amplitude
triple line frequency components, a low pass or a notch lter is
required in the loop, to provide

V
1
and

V
2
as required by (52).
Fig. 5 shows a block diagram of the dc side voltage balancer.
V. CONTROL STRATEGY OF WIND-POWER SYSTEM
The wind turbine is characterized by its mechanical power,
which is given by [16], [17]
P
tur
= 0.5r
2
C
p
(, )V
3
w
(57)
Fig. 5. Block diagram of the dc side voltage balancer.
where is the air mass density, r is the blade length, and V
w
is the
wind velocity. C
p
(, ) is called Power Performance Coefcient
and varies within the range of zero to 0.59 (Betz limit) [17].
C
p
(, ) is a static nonlinear function of the blade pitch angle
and tip speed ratio . The analytical formula for C
p
(, ) are
available in [16] and [18]. The blade tip speed ratio is given as
=
V
tip
V
w
=
r
r
V
w
(58)
where V
tip
is the blade tip speed and is the turbine speed.
Based on (57), the turbine power is a nonlinear function of
the wind speed and the turbine speed. The maximum power is
captured at an optimum turbine speed and the corresponding
optimum turbine torque.
To obtain the maximum power at wind speeds below a cer-
tain wind speed, the pitch angle is set to a small value; e.g.,
5

, and C
p
(, ) is maximized. Since the pitch angle is a con-
stant value in this mode, C
p
(, ) is a single-valued function of
; i.e., C
p
(). The peak of C
p
() corresponds to =
opt
.
Therefore, the turbine speed must be changed according to
the wind speed to keep at
opt
. This is achieved through
the machine torque control. The optimum operating point can
be reached if the following reference is commanded to the ma-
chine torque controller [3]
T
eref
= K
opt

2
r
. (59)
Based on T
eref
, the corresponding I
stqref
is determined from
(12), and commanded to the machine q-axis current controller.
K
opt
is given by
K
opt
=
0.5r
5
C
p
(
opt
)

3
opt
. (60)
K
opt
can be calculated based on the turbine manufacturer data
or measurements.
VI. CASE STUDIES AND SIMULATION RESULTS
A detailed switching model of the wind power system of
Fig. 1 and the controllers are developed in the PSCAD/EMTDC
[19] environment. Based on the system parameters in
Tables IIII, the designed controllers are given in the Appendix.
The following case studies illustrate typical time responses of
the proposed wind power unit from the startup to t = 30 s.
To simulate more realistic operating conditions, actual mea-
sured wind speed [20] is imposed on the turbine. However, to
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YAZDANI AND IRAVANI: A NEUTRAL-POINT CLAMPED CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR DIRECT-DRIVE VARIABLE-SPEED WIND POWER UNIT 603
Fig. 6. dc bus voltage during startup.
demonstrate the performance of the wind power unit under the
most severe operating conditions, we add a 2.5 m/s step change
to the wind speed waveform at t = 11 s; and at t = 21 s, we
remove the step function.
A. System StartUp
Initially, the pitch angle is set at 5

, and the turbine speed

is zero. Figs. 68 illustrate the system behavior during startup.
Until t = 0.05 s, gating signals of NPC1 and NPC2 are blocked
and the dc bus capacitors are charged to about 1000 V through
the antiparallel diodes of NPC2, see the Fig. 6. At t = 0.05 s,
gating signals of NPC2 are released, the reference of the dc
bus voltage is ramped up, and the dc bus voltage reaches its
prespecied value of 2000 V. At t = 0.4 s, gating signals of
NPC1 are also released, and the machine vector controller takes
over; the dc bus voltage experiences a transient disturbance as
shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 7(a) and (b) shows that the eld current and I
std
are regu-
lated at 1.0 p.u. and zero, respectively. Since the turbine speed is
low (less than 3.5 rpm), the turbine torque is very small. Hence,
the control system sets I
stq
at 3.55 kA, corresponding to 1.0
p.u., to accelerate the turbine Fig. 7(c). During acceleration,
power is drawn from the grid. Fig. 7(a)(c) illustrates that, i
f
is well decoupled from I
std
and I
stq
. However, I
std
and I
stq
are not entirely decoupled during transients. This is due to the
effect of current measurement lters.
Fig. 7(d) indicates that, corresponding to a change in I
stq
, the
dc bus voltage controller with its feed-forward action changes
the d-axis current component of NPC2, I
d
. The change of I
d
is
to ensure the balance of power. Fig. 7(d) and (e) shows that due
to the notch lters, I
d
and I
q
are not entirely decoupled.
Fig. 7(f) shows that during the time interval that the machine is
supplied from the system and is accelerating, capacitor voltages
V
1
and V
2
signicantly deviate from their nominal values of
1000 V. The reason is that during this time interval, the machine
speed (and its stator frequency) is very low while the machine
currents are large; and the midpoint current of NPC1, i
np1
, has
a dominant third harmonic component [21] with an amplitude
proportional to the amplitude of machine current. Therefore,
i
np1
has a large magnitude at a fairly low frequency. At this
low frequency, the impedances of the dc capacitors are large
and therefore, the third harmonic of i
np1
imposes large ripple
components on V
1
and V
2
. Fig. 7(g) shows that despite large
deviations of V
1
and V
2
, the net dc bus voltage V
dc
is tightly
regulated at its nominal value. Fig. 7. System response during startup.
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604 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 21, NO. 2, JUNE 2006
Fig. 8. System response during startup.
Fig. 8(a) shows the wind speed uctuations. Fig. 8(b) il-
lustrates the turbine and the machine torques, and shows that
the machine torque T
e
is proportional to I
stq
. At low turbine
speeds, T
e
is negative and the turbine accelerates, and the speed
increases as Fig. 8(c) indicates. When the turbine speed reaches
3.5 rpm, the turbine starts to produce torque, Fig. 8(b), and the
control mechanism changes I
stqref
, proportionally to the square
of the turbine speed, to maximize power capture from the tur-
bine. Thus, T
e
also increases as Fig. 8(b) indicates. Fig. 8(d) and
(e) shows that as speed and torque increase, the turbine power
P
tur
, the machine power P
m
, and the grid power P
g
increase. It
should be noted that due to the wind speed uctuations, T
tur
and
P
tur
uctuate. However, due to the turbine inertia, the turbine
Fig. 9. System response to a sudden wind speed increase.
speed is relatively smooth (Fig. 8(c)). Since T
e
is proportional
to the turbine speed, T
e
is also smooth (Fig. 8(b)). Thus, P
m
and P
g
are smooth as compared with P
tur
. In the steady state,
P
tur
and P
m
tend to become equal. However, due to the system
losses, P
g
is smaller than P
tur
and P
m
.
B. Sudden Increase in Wind Speed, and Ground Fault
Figs. 9 and 10 show the system response to a 2.5 m/s step
change in the wind speed at the pitch angle of 5

. Prior to the
step change, the wind speed, the turbine speed, and the grid
power are at 8.0 m/s, 14.5 rpm, and 750 kW, respectively. At
t = 11.0 s, the step change in the wind speed is introduced
(Fig. 9(a)). In practice, a change in the wind speed is gradual.
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YAZDANI AND IRAVANI: A NEUTRAL-POINT CLAMPED CONVERTER SYSTEM FOR DIRECT-DRIVE VARIABLE-SPEED WIND POWER UNIT 605
Fig. 10. System response to a sudden wind speed increase.
However, a step change in the wind speed is articially in-
troduced to subject the system to the most severe conditions
and evaluate the system performance under the worst case
scenario.
Fig. 9(b) and (d) shows that the turbine torque T
tur
and
power P
tur
increase rapidly due to the wind speed change.
However, the machine torque T
e
and power P
m
do not in-
stantly react to the disturbance. The reason is that T
e
is
proportional to the square of the turbine speed, and due to
the turbine inertia, the turbine speed cannot have a sudden
change.
Fig. 9(b) indicates that due to the change in the wind speed,
the turbine torque becomes higher than that of the machine.
Consequently, the turbine accelerates (Fig. 9(c)). Fig. 9(d) and
(e) shows that P
m
and P
g
smoothly follow P
tur
.
At t = 18.5 s, phase (c) of the PCC is subjected to a line-to-
ground fault. Therefore, the grid power is disturbed (Fig. 9(e)).
The fault is self-cleared after 1.0 second. Fig. 9(b) and (c) shows
that during the fault, the machine torque and the turbine speed
are not affected. This is because of the decoupling property of
the back-to-back converter conguration via the dc link.
When the ground fault occurs, the amplitude of the positive-
sequence component of V
sabc
becomes 0.67 times its rated
value. Therefore, the dc bus voltage controller increases I
d
by
1.5 times, to maintain the balance of power and the dc bus volt-
age (Fig. 10(a)). Fig. 10(b) shows that I
q
is fairly decoupled
from I
d
, despite the fault.
Fig. 10(c) illustrates that during the fault, the system is stable
and the average of the dc bus voltage remains tightly regulated.
However, a 120 Hz ripple component is experienced by the dc
Fig. 11. System response to line-to-ground fault.
bus voltage. This is a result of the ac side voltage and current
imbalance due to the fault.
Fig. 11(a) and (c) provides a closeup of the NPC2 currents,
the DC-bus voltage, and the capacitors voltages, during the
fault. Fig. 11(a) shows the unbalanced NPC2 line currents.
Fig. 11(b) shows that the dc bus voltage is polluted with the
120 Hz ripple component. However, the dc bus voltage is well
regulated within 2.5% of its rated value. Fig. 11(c) indicates
that the dc side voltage balancer maintains V
1
and V
2
despite the
fault.
C. Sudden Wind Speed Drop
Fig. 12 shows the system response to an articial step change
of 2.5 m/s in the wind speed at the pitch angle of 5

. Prior
to the step change, the wind speed, the turbine speed, and
the grid power are at 9.5 m/s, 17 rpm, and 1250 kW, respec-
tively. At t = 21 the wind speed drops by 2.5 m/s (Fig. 12(a)).
Fig. 12(b) and (d) shows that the turbine torque T
tur
and power
P
tur
drop rapidly due to the wind speed drop. However, the
machine torque T
e
and power P
m
do not instantly react to
the disturbance, since the turbine speed cannot have a sudden
change.
Fig. 12(b) indicates that due to the change in the wind speed,
the turbine torque becomes smaller than that of the machine.
Consequently, the turbine decelerates and its speed reduces
(Fig. 12(c)). Fig. 12(d) and (e) shows that P
m
and P
g
smoothly
followP
tur
. Fig. 12(f) shows that the dc bus voltage is regulated
at the rated voltage of 2 kV.
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606 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 21, NO. 2, JUNE 2006
Fig. 12. System response to a sudden wind speed drop.
VII. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a new application of a back-to-back con-
nected, three-level NPC converter as the conversion system for
a gearless, synchronous-machine based wind power unit. The
NPC converter provides an economically attractive and techni-
cally viable alternative to the two-level VSC, where operation
at higher voltage levels is desired to meet the requirements for
higher efciency.
This paper introduces detailed models of the ac side and dc
side controls of the NPC-based back-to-back converter system.
The machine-side NPC converter provides torque-speed control
of the synchronous generator, based on a vector-control strat-
egy. The generator eld current is regulated by a dc-dc chopper
which is supplied from the dc bus of the back-to-back NPC con-
verter system. The grid-side NPC converter controls real- and
reactive-power ow to the network, and regulates the DC-bus
voltage and ac side power-factor, respectively. The paper also
adopts a newly introduced control approach for dc side partial
voltage equalization. Performance of the overall wind power
unit, including the NPC converter system and its controllers,
is evaluated based on time domain simulation studies in the
PSCAD/EMTDC environment. Time domain responses of the
system under startup, variations in the wind speed, and grid
faults, show sound operation of the proposed converter system
and controls.
APPENDIX
WIND POWER UNIT CONTROLLERS
F
n
(s) =

f
dq
(s)
f
dq
(s)
=
s
2
+ (754)
2
s
2
+ 602s + (754)
2
K
i
(s) =
u
dq
(s)
e
dq
=
0.09s + 1.05
s
H(s) = 16.4
_
s
2
+ (754)
2
s
2
+ 452s + (444)
2
__
s + 92.4
s
_
K
v
(s) =
u
v
(s)
e
v
(s)
= 5.2
_
s + 314
s + 2600
__
s + 50
s
_
F(s) =
s
2
+ (2 180)
2
s + 600s + (300)
2
K(s) =
4.5
s + 300
F
i
(s) =
500
s + 500
K
d
(s) =
u
std
(s)
e
std
(s)
=
0.406s + 0.652
s
K
q
(s) =
u
stq
(s)
e
stq
(s)
=
0.308s + 0.652
s
K
f
(s) =
u
f
(s)
e
f
(s)
=
0.414s + 0.199
s
.
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Amirnaser Yazdani (M05) received the B.Sc. de-
gree in 1995,(with honors) from Sharif University of
Technology, Tehran, Iran, the M.Sc. degree in 2001,
from the University of Tehran, and the Ph.D. degree
in 2005, fromthe University of Toronto, Toronto, ON,
Canada, all in electrical engineering.
From 1995 to 2002, he was with Maharan Engi-
neering Corporation, Tehran, Iran, where he worked
on the design of switching power supplies and UPS
systems. His research interests include design, dy-
namic modelling and control of switching power
converters.
Currently, he is with Digital Predictive Systems (DPS) Inc., Mississauga,
Ontario, Canada, as an Industrial Research and Development Post-Doctoral
Fellow.
Reza Iravani (M85SM00F03) received the
B.Sc. degree from Tehran Polytechnic University,
Tehran, Iran, in 1976, and the M.Sc. and the Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
MB, Canada, in 1981 and 1985, respectively, all in
electrical engineering.
He is currently a Professor at the University of
Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. His research interests
include power electronics and power system dynam-
ics and control.
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