A Methodology for Parameter Estimation of

Equivalent Wind Power Plant

Elmer P. T. Cari and Jose N. Neto

Istvan Erlich and and Jose L. Rueda

Federal University of Technology Parana

Cornelio Procopio, Brazil
E-mail: elmer@utfpr.edu.br
E-mail: neto_nabero@hotmail.com

Duisburg-Essen University
Duisburg, Germany
E-mail: istvan.erlich@uni-due.de
E-mail: jose.rueda@uni-duisburg-essen.de

AbstractA methodology for parameter estimation of equivalent wind power plant is proposed in this paper. The parameter algorithm is formulated as an optimization problem
which miminize the output between the real system and the
mathematical model. The parameters are updated using NewtonRaphson method which depends on the information of trajectory
sensitivity functions. A generic equivalent of wind power plant
was used as a structure of the model, which is valid for DoubleFed Induction Generator (DFIG) and full Converter Based Wind
Turbine. In addition, the procedure to obtain of the trajectory
sensitivity functions of the model is presented in this paper. A
discussion of the estimated results is also analysed. In general,
the convergence happened in a few seconds for most of the cases
studied.
KeywordsTrajectory sensitivity, parameter estimation, wind
power plant, wind generator, Newton-Raphson method.

N OMENCLATURE

r Resistance in [p.u].

x Reatance in [p.u].

imax Maximum current limitation in [p.u].

kvc Voltage gain.

kI Integrated block gain of the controler.

TI Generator constant time.

v Shifting angle between the generator and network

reference.
I.

I NTRODUCTION

Determining the effect of the dynamic response due to the

increasing of wind power plant in the power system is an
important concern of power operation centers. For example, in
Brazil, government has created a Programme of Incentives for
Alternative Electricity Sources (PROINFA) in order to promote
the use of renewable technologies (wind, biomas and small
hydro) through incentives and subsidies. The expectative is to
get 10% share of annual energy consumption by those source
in the next 15 years. Therefore, in Brazilian power system, the
problem of the impact of wind generator will be an important
subject in the next years.
Computer simulations are performed to obtain the dynamic
response of the power system, which depends on the accuracy
of the wind generator plant representation. Unfortunately, the

good representation of wind power plant is not a trivial task

for many reasons, such as: (i)different values of impedance to
be represented that connect the wind generators with the main
bus, (ii) different types of wind generators and controllers in a
power plant to be modeled (iii) many elements to be modelled
that cause computational effort. Moreover, manufacturers do
not provide detail information about the wind generator model
and controllers due to confidentiality.
In order to overcome those problems, a generic model has
been developed in scientific literature. Some of them can be
found in [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].
However, for the model output reproduzes the real system
behavior, a parameter estimation of the model is necessary.
The aim of this paper is to develop a fitting parameter
algoritm to estimate the parameters of an equivalent wind
power plant. A model proposed in [4] was chosen as a
reference which is valid for Double-Fed Induction Generator
(DFIG) and full converter based wind turbine.
The parameter estimation algorithm is based on trajectory
sensitivity analysis. The main benefits of this methodology
are: (i) it can lead nonsmooth events like switchings in power
systems, (ii) it uses a short window time for sampled period of
measurements and (iii) it present a fast convergence. However,
it requires a initial parameter guesses close enought to the real
parameter to guarantee the convergence. That methodology has
been succcesfully used in estimation of synchronous machine
and excitation system ([6],[7],[8]). Furthermore, that technique
has been widely used to quantify the parameter influence in
many applications, such as synchronous generator [9] and one
type of wind turbine in [10]. In this paper, the trajectory sensitivity methodology is used to estimate the dynamic parameters
of equivalent wind power plant.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows:
The sensitivity method for parameter estimation of nonlinear
dynamic systems is presented in section II; Section III presents
the wind turbine modelling; The parameter estimation of the
equivalent power plant is presented in Section IV and the
conclusions of the research are presented in Section V.
II.

S ENSITIVITY METHOD FOR PARAMETER ESTIMATION

OF NONLINEAR DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS

In this section, the trajectory sensitivity algorithm to estimate parameters of a dynamical system is presented. Trajectory

sensitivity-based parameter estimation approach can be easily

implemented for a large class of nonlinear systems, including
those with hard nonlinearities. It can easily deal with short
intervals of time of measured data and provides estimates
of the state initial conditions. Consider a nonlinear system
modeled by
d
x(t)
dt
y(t)

f (x(t), p, u(t))

g(x(t), p, u(t))

(2)

Solutions of (2) are the sensitivity functions x(t)

pi and
of the state x(t) and the output y(t), respectively. Those
functions quantify the variation of a trajectory in relation to
parameter variations. This quantification is used to update the
model parameters in order to minimize a cost function that
measures the mismatch between the real system output (measured trajectory) and the auxiliary system output (mathematical
model), that is, we search for p that minimizes the functional
J:
y(t)
pi

1
2

To

(yr y)T (yr y)dt

(
0

y T y 
) ( )dt (k)
p
p
p=p

(6)

(1)

where xRn is the state vector, yRm is the output vector,

uRl is the input vector and pRk is the parameter vector
to be estimated. Functions f and g are nonlinear, continuous
and Lipschitz with respect to x, p and u. Let pi be the ith
component of p. We assume f and g are differentiable with
respect to every component pi of p. The trajectory sensitivities
x(t)
y(t)
pi and pi are computed respectively as

J(p) =

To

where the i-th column of the sensitivity matrix y

p is the
sensitivity of the output variables with respect to parameter pi .

III.

f (x(t), p, u(t)) x(t)

f (x(t), p, u(t))
d x(t)
=
+

dt pi
x
pi
pi
y(t)
g(x(t), p, u(t)) x(t)
g(x(t), p, u(t))
=

+
pi
x
pi
pi

M ODELLING OF W IND T URBINE G ENERATOR

A simplified generic model which is valid for DFIG and

full converter based wind turbine proposed in [4] was chosen to
represent the equivalent of the wind generator power plant. The
model was obtained using a Thevenin equivalent, where the
Thevenin voltage souce takes the effect of all the components
of the wind generator (Fig. 1). In this representation, terminal
voltage is chosen as a reference in which the current is
split in two components one in direction of terminal voltage
called active component (IAc ) and the other 90 degree lagged
called reactive component (IRe ). A magnitude limitation block
provides a priority of both components of the currents. During
a disturbance, the terminal voltage is low, then reactive current
is the priority. After the clearing of the fault, active current is
the priority. The proportional-integral block (PI) performs the
active and reactive current control. The shifting block is also
added to this model to change the reference from terminal
voltage to synchronous reference (network reference). Finally,
the two delayed blocks represent electrical machine (DFIG)
and/or the converter delay.

(3)

where yr is the output of the real system (obtained from

the measured data) and y is the output of the model (equation
(1)). The optimality condition J(p)
p = 0 is given by
G(p) :=

J(p)
=
p

To  y T

(yr y)dt = 0

(4)

Newtons method can be used to solve the nonlinear equation (4). Starting from an initial parameter guess p(0) = po ,
the parameter fitting at the k th iteration is given by:


p(k+1) = p(k) hopt 1 G(p)

p=p(k)

(5)

where hopt is an optimal stepsize which can be calculated

by means of a quadratic search line method [11], and is the
Jacobian matrix of G(p) which can be approximated neglecting
the second-order term by

Figure 1.

Generic Wind Farm Equivalent.

Equations of the model represented in Figure 1 are developed as:

a) At the input of current limitation block:

IAc

PT ref
VT

IRe

Kvc(VT ref VT ) +

(7)
QT ref
VT ref

(8)

b) At the output of the current limitation block:

p
2 + I2 < I
If IAc
max Then
Re
IP ref
IQref

=
=

IAc
IRe

(9)
(10)

of the model is p = [R, X, KI , TI , Tv , Kvc ], and the input

measured vector is: u = [VT , v , P, Q].
The sensitivity equation can be obtained differentiating the
model equation (7)-(18) in relation to the parameter vector p.
For example, for paramter Tv , the sensitivity equations are:
v
T
Vd

v
T
Vq

v
T
Pe

v
T
Qe

1
(VP AS Vd )
Tv2
1
2 (VQAS Vq )
Tv

Vt Vtmin

IV.

otherwise
Vt < Vtmin

IQref = q
min(IRe , Imax )
2
2
IP ref = Imax
IQref

v
X(VT d T
Vd

r2 + X 2
Tv
Tv
v
+ VT q T
Vq ) r(VT d Vq VT q V

VQA

Z t
KI
P
P
)+
(IP ref
)dt
VT
TI 0
VT
Z t
KI
Q
Q
IQref ) +
IQref )dt
(
KI (
VT
TI 0 VT

KI (IP ref

r2 + X 2
Vd
Tv ,

TVvq =

Vq
Tv ,

TPve =

Pe
Tv

(21)
(22)

and TQve =

PARAMETER E STIMATION OF E QUIVALENT W IND

P OWER P LANT

In this section, an assessment of parameter estimation of an

equivalent wind power plant is presented. Figure 2 represents
the equivalent of a detailed wind farm of 18 wind turbines
with speed and pitch control each with 5 MW nominal power
obtained from [4].

c) At the output of PI block:

VP A

(20)

where TVvd =
Qe
Tv .

IP ref = q
min(IAc , Imax )
2
2
IP
IQref = Imax
ref

(19)

Tv
Tv
Tv
v
r(VT d T
V + VT q Vq ) + X(VT d Vq VT q V

Else:
if

1 Tv

Tv Vd
1 Tv

Tv Vq

(11)
(12)

d) At the output of shifting block:

VP AS
VQAS

=
=

VP A cos(v ) VQA sen(v )

VP A sen(v ) VQA cos(v )

(13)
(14)

Finally, at delay block of DFIG and/or converter:

Vd

Vq

i
1 h
VP AS Vd
Tv
i
1 h
VP AS Vq
Tv

Figure 2.

(15)
(16)

Test system for obtaining the measurements data.

The disturbance data were obtained by computer simulation

using Power Factory Digisilent 14.0 program. The analysis is
only performed for one type of fault, but the methodology was
tested for other type of faults with similar results.

(18)

A three-phase fault with fault impedance ZF =3+j9 was

considered as disturbance for obtaining the dynamic response
as shown in Figure 2. The fault is applied in t = 0.1s and it is
cleared in t = 0.3s. The measurements are sampled for 1s. The
difference for other kind of short circuits is in the calculation
of the fault impedance and the use of positive sequence of
voltages and currents for measurements.

The steady state and output variables of this model are

x = [Vd , Vq ]T and y = [Pe , Qe ]T respectively. IP ref , IQref ,
VP AS and VQAS are intermediate states. The parameter vector

Terminal voltage VT (t), active power, P (t), reactive power

Q(t) and terminal angle v (t) are stored with 1 Khz of
frequency sampling. Beside that, a Gausian white noise with
zero mean and standard deviation of 0.1% of their nominal
values were added to all measurements.

The output equations at the terminal bus are:

Pe

Qe

r(VT d Vd + VT q Vq VT2 ) + X(VT d Vq VT q Vd )

r2 + X 2
X(VT d Vd + VT q Vq VT2 ) r(VT d Vq VT q Vd )
r2 + X 2

(17)

Real
System
yr = (P, Q)

Input
(VT,qv P, Q)

Output

The comparison of outputs of the real system and mathematical model at the beginning and at the end of the estimation
process for case 1 is shown in Figs 4 - 7. After the convergence
of the parameter, the active and the reactive power of both
system are very similar.

Mathematical
Model

Block diagram of the methodology application

The sumary of the methodology application can be shown

in block diagram of Figure 3.
The Real System block contains the measurement data of
the real system. The Mathematical Model block is composed
by equations (7)-(18). Sensitivity block is composed by the
sensitivity equations obtained by differentiating the model
equation by the parameter vector (equations (19)-(22) for
parameter Tv ).
The model and sensitivy equation blocks must be solved by
integration method to obtain the model output (y) and sensitivity function ( y
p ) respectively. After that, the parameter fitting
algorithm is obtained using (5). The process is performed
iteratively until the convergence of the parameter or the error
function (3) becomes lower than the tolerance (tolerance =
1e-3).
A. Test results
The trajectory sensitivity methodology of Section II was
used to estimate the parameter of the equivalent wind power
plant. Many cases were tested with different deviations of the
initial parameter guesses in relation to the true value, but just
two cases (case 1 and case 2, obtained randomly) were shown
in this paper (Tables I and II). The parameters provided from
[4] were considered as true parameters and they are shown in
fourth column of Table results. In both cases, the parameters
converged to the true values with a good accuracy.
Table I.

PARAMETER ESTIMATION R ESULT FOR CASE 1.

Param.
Tv
TI
KI
Kvc
R
X

Initial
guess
0.511
0.026
12.62
2.040
0.026
0.237

Final
Values
0.3891
0.0379
10.398
1.999
0.0332
0.1973

Nominal
values
0.3930
0.0380
10.516
2.000
0.0332
0.1972

Error
(%)
-0.992
-0.329
-1.116
-0.005
-0.036
0.035

Active Power (pu.)

Parameters

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Time (s.)
Figure 4.

Active power at beginning of the estimation process.

Real
Model

1.2

Active Power (p.u)

New

Figure 3.

Real
Model

2.5

1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Time (s.)
Figure 5.

Active power at the end of the estimation process.

Real
Model

Reactive Power (pu.)

Sensitivity
Equations

y = (Pe, Qe)
y
p

0.5

0.5
Table II.

PARAMETER ESTIMATION R ESULT FOR CASE 2.

Param.
Tv
TI
KI
Kvc
R
X

Initial
guess
0.350
0.026
9.000
2.040
0.020
0.180

Final
Values
0.3848
0.0378
10.286
1.999
0.0332
0.1972

Nominal
values
0.3930
0.0380
10.516
2.000
0.0332
0.1972

Error
(%)
-2.0891
-0.4798
-2.1892
-0.0083
-0.0251
-0.0186

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Time (s.)
Figure 6.

Reactive power at beginning of the estimation process.

The parameter converged to the true values in less than

10 iterations in all the cases. The average processing time
was around 4 s. in a computer of 2Ghz of memory. The

R EFERENCES
Real
Model

Reactive Power (p.u)

0.5

0.5
0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Time (s.)
Figure 7.

Reactive power at the end of the estimation process.

parameters were succesfully estimated as shown in Tables I and

II. The only parameter that presented convergence problems
to be estimated was the parameter Kvc . The estimation is
only guaranteed if that parameter were close to his nominal
value (+/ 2.5%). This is justified by the fact that it will
only be observable when the variable IRe (see Fig. 1) has
dynamic response. That just happen during the disturbance,
when the voltage reference is different from the terminal
voltage. After the clearing of the fault, the dynamic of IRe is
almost neglectible. The problem is that the sampling during the
disturbance is too short, therefore, Kvc is mostly unobservable
during the sampled period. A similar problem was reported in
[10]. A further study will be carried on in order to overcome
the estimation of parameters which are observable in short
term in future researches.
V.

C ONCLUSIONS

A metodology to estimate an equivalent of wind generator

power plant using trajectory sensitivity functions was presented
in this paper. A generic equivalent of wind turbine was
chosen as a model structure. The equation that describe the
dynamic of that equivalent were developed and then trajectory
sensitivy functions were obtained. Based on that information,
a parameter fitting algorithm was implemented using NewtonRaphson method. The methodology estimated the parameters
of that equivalent even with initial paramter guesses far away
(+/ 60 %) of their nominal values. Only one parameter of
the model kvc presented convergence problems. An analysis of
the problems has indicated that the problem is due to the fact
that it is only observable during a disturbance which is a short
term time (200 ms.). Small Gaussian white noise was added in
the measurement and the methodology estimates the parameter
with good acuracy. The parameter were estimated in less than
10 iterations. The processed time was, in average, less than 4
s. Ongoing enforce has been developed in order to estimate
the parameter with higher deviation in the initial parameter
guesses of kvc , and, in adittion, to validate the methodology
with a real measurement data acquired in the field.
VI.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank CAPES and DAAD for

the partial financial support given to this research by grand
BEX 6135/11-0.

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