Maximum Power Extraction in Grid Connected
DFIG using Multilevel Inverter
R. Sankar
Professor & Head Department ofEEE, SKR
Engineering College, Chennai
sankar3673@yahoo.com
R. Rajarajan
Assistant Professor, Department ofEEE, SKR
Engineering College, Chennai
rajarajanvec@gmail.com
Abstract-Wind energy is the most promismg
renewable among all other renewable and hence successful
integration of wind to the grid will certainly a better
option. Double fed induction generator (DFIG) technology
allows extracting maximum energy from the wind, while
operating in narrow speed ranges. It has the ability for
power electronic converters to generate and absorb
reactive power. A three-level back-to-back AC-DC-AC
converter used in the system. This analysis is based on
reduction of the maximum common mode voltage levels of
the rotor side converter which plays the key role in shaft
voltage generation of the DFIG. The advantages of
proposed method are: voltage balancing of DC link
capacitors and controlling of the active and reactive power
delivered by the wind generator. The proposed DFIG with
multilevel inverter aims at integrating winds farms even in
weaker grid with improved Maximum power injection,
Minimum harmonic issues with reduced impact on WTG.
The proposed method, will improve the power quality
which is delivered to the grid in terms of harmonic, inject
the maximum power to the grid and improve the voltage
profile.
Keywords: DFIG, Wind Turbine, Multilevel Inverter,
Carrier based PWM, Harmonic Analysis, LC filters.
I. INTRODUCTION
With growing concerns about environmental
pollution and a possible energy shortage, great efforts
have been taken by the governments around the world
to implement renewable energy programs, based mainly
on wind power, solar energy, small hydro-electric
power, etc. Due to lack of the traditional energy
resources and their upcoming cost challenges,
renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and fuel
cells became key player elements. Among these
resources, wind energy has been widely accepted in
power industry as a result of its cleanness, easy to
access, proficiency and cost effectiveness in world
energy paradigm.
Natural changes of the wind mechanical power lead
to a variable turbine speed and a variable output voltage.
This problem can be avoided by using mechanical
solutions such as gear boxes to adjust the speed. Power
electronics converters and control modules are also can
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P. Aravindan
Associate Professor, Department ofEEE, K.S.
Rangasamy College ofTechnology
paravindan@rediffmail. com
S. Shobana
Assistant Professor, Department ofEEE, Chennai
Institute ofTechnology
shobanaselvaraj79@gmail.com
be used to achieve an adjustable output voltage in terms
of frequency and magnitude. To achieve a variable
speed constant frequency system, an induction
generator is considered attractive due to its flexible
rotor speed characteristics with respect to the constant
stator frequency. One solution to expand the speed
range and reduce the slip power losses is to doubly
excite the stator and rotor windings. The power
converters in the rotor circuit regenerate the majority of
the slip power [1].
In the early stage of wind power development,
most wind farms were equipped with fixed-speed wind
turbines and induction generators. Since such wind
generators can only operate at a constant speed, the
power efficiency is fairly low for most wind speeds. To
improve their efficiency, many modem wind generators
adopt a variable speed operation in one of two ways:
direct ac to ac frequency converters, such as the cyclo
converters [4], [5]; or using voltage controlled inverters
(ac-dc-ac), which convert power at varying frequencies
at the variable-speed generator to de, and then use some
form of power electronics to convert the dc power back
to ac at a fixed frequency appropriate for the grid
connection [6], [7].
Amongst many variable speed concepts, the DFIG
equipped wind turbine has many advantages over others
[6]. For example, the power converter in such wind
turbines only deals with rotor power, therefore the
converter rating can be kept fairly low, approximately
20% of the total machine power. This configuration
allows for variable speed operation while remaining
more economical than a series configuration with a
fully rated converter. Other features such as the
controllability of reactive power help DFIG equipped
wind turbines play a similar role to that of synchronous
generators.
II. DOUBLE FED INDUCTION GENERATOR
In a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG), the
stator is directly connected to the AC mains, while the
wound rotor is fed from a back-to-back converter via
slip rings to allow the DIFG to operate at a variety of
 Maximum Power Extraction in Grid Connected DFIG using Multilevel Inverter
speeds in order to accommodate changing wind speeds
as shown in Fig.l. The slip power can flow in both
directions to the rotor from the supply and from the
supply to the rotor and hence the speed of the machine
can be controlled from either the rotor- or stator-side
converter in both super and sub-synchronous speed
ranges [2-3]. By applying PWM in three phase inverter,
a voltage will be generated between neutral point of the
load and the ground which is known as common mode
voltage.
This common mode voltage acts as a source for
many unwanted problems in motor drives such as shaft
voltage and bearing current due to parasitic
capacitances which exists in the structure of the
machine [6].
Fig. 1: Grid Connected DFIG
According to the analysis of [7], a high percentage
of common mode voltage generated by rotor side
converter in a DFIG converts to shaft voltage. This
amount is much greater than IEC-34-17 standard which
is a harmful phenomena and leads to both safety and
maintenance issues. Therefore, common mode voltage
is an important factor in high frequency modelling of
electrical machines and is the main source of shaft
voltage in generator structure because of small parasitic
capacitances.
PWM techniques that reduce or eliminate common
mode voltage would be a suitable and cheap solution
which will be greatly fascinated in industry [8]. This
paper presents a common mode voltage strategy based
on elimination of the switching vectors which generates
maximum common mode voltage levels by keeping all
the factors in acceptable levels.
III. MULTILEVEL INVERTER
Multilevel inverters include an array of power
semiconductors and capacitor voltage sources, the
output of which generate voltages with stepped
waveforms. The commutation of the switches permits
the addition of the capacitor voltages, which reach high
voltage at the output, while the power semiconductors
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must withstand only reduced voltages. Fig. 1 shows a
schematic diagram of one phase leg of inverters with
different numbers of levels, for which the action of the
power semiconductors is represented by an ideal switch
with several positions.
A two-level inverter generates an output voltage
with two values (levels) with respect to the negative
terminal of the capacitor, while the three-level inverter
generates three voltages, and so on. Considering that 'm'
is the number of steps of the phase voltage with respect
to the negative terminal of the inverter, then the number
of steps in the voltage between two phases of the load
'k'is,
k=2m+l (1)
and the number of steps in the phase voltage of a
three-phase load in wye connection is
p=2k-l (2)
By increasing the number of levels in the inverter,
the output voltages have more steps generating a
staircase waveform, which has a reduced harmonic
distortion. However, a high number of levels increases
the control complexity and introduces voltage
imbalance problems.
Three different topologies have been proposed for
multilevel inverters and it is as shown in Fig.2,
Fig. 2: Topologies of Multilevel Inverters
A Diode Clamped Inverter
A three-level diode-clamped inverter is shown
below in Fig.3; the clamping diode de is used to
connect the neutral point N to the midpoint of the
transistor. This neutral N, generating an additional
voltage level, yields the name "three level inverter." In
this circuit, the dc-bus voltage is split into three levels
by two series-connected bulk capacitors, C 1andC2 The
middle point of the two capacitors n can be defined as
the neutral point.
Fig. 3: Topology of 3-level Diode Clamped Inverter
 International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering and Energy Management (ICETEEEM-2012)

The output voltage has three states: Vde/2, 0, and -

Vde/2. For voltage level Vde/2, switches Sl and S2need to
be turned on; for -Vdc/Z switches Sl' and S2'need to be
turned on; and for the 0 level.S, andS 1' need to be
turned on. The key components that distinguish this
circuit from a conventional two-level inverter are Djand
D 1'. These two diodes clamp the switch voltage to half
the level of the dc-bus voltage. When bothx. andS2 tum
on, the voltage across a and 0 is Vde, i.e.,V ao = Vde. In
this case.D.' balances out the voltage sharing between
Sl'andS2' with blocking the voltage acrossCl and
S2'blocking the voltage across C2. Notice that output
voltage Van is ac, and VaO is dc.
Fig. 5: Carrier-Based Three-Level PWM Modulation

This modulation method is focused on the search

for optimal switching sequences, operation at low
modulation index, adaption to new topologies and
reduction of common mode voltage.

B Features ofMultilevel Inverters

Fig. 4: Working Principle of the Three Level Inverter. (a) Conduction
State to Generate a Positive Load. (b) Positive Load
Voltage. (c)Complete Voltage Showing Three Levels.
They can generate output voltages with
extremely low distortion and lower dv/dt.
They draw input current with very low
distortion.
They generate smaller common-mode (CM)
voltage, thus reducing the stress in the motor
bearings. In addition, using sophisticated
modulation methods, CM voltages can be
eliminated.
They can operate with a lower switching
frequency.

The difference between Van and VaO is the voltage IV. SIMULATION DIAGRAM
across C2, which is Vde / 2. If the output is removed out
between a and 0, then the circuit becomes a de/de A. Overall system simulation
converter, which has three output voltage levels: Vde-
The overall simulation diagram of the proposed
Vde/2 and O. Modulation And Control Strategies for
Wind energy generation system is shown in the Fig.6
Three-Level NPC Inverters are of three main methods
The effectiveness of the proposed method is
established to control the behaviour of the fundamental
demonstrated through simulation results. The
voltage generated by the three-level inverter to the load.
simulation result of the constant output power at
These methods are as follows:
variable wind speed is simulated and the results are
Carrier-based PWM;
better than the conventional methods. The output of
Space vector modulation (SVM); and wind energy system is shown in Fig.7.
Selective harmonic elimination (SHE).
1) Carrier-Based Three-Level PWM Modulation
This highly popular method is based on the
comparison of a sinusoidal reference v * with two
carriers VerI and V cr2. As shown in Fig. 5,
The logic is very simple
ifu*>uer1, then Sal=ON, Sa2=ON & UaN = Vde/ 2
if Uer2<U*<Uerl,then *Sal=ON, Sa2=ON & UaN =0
ifu*<u er2, then Sal=ON Sa2=ON & UaN =-Vde / 2.
This modulation method is focused on the search
for optimal switching sequences, operation at low
modulation index, adaption to new topologies, and
reduction of common mode voltage [5]. Fig. 6: Overall Simulation Diagram of the Proposed DFIG System

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 Maximum Power Extraction in Grid Connected DFIG using Multilevel Inverter
Fig. 7: Output Waveform of Overall System When Connected to Grid
The power developed from the Wind energy
conversion is stepped up to a voltage level of 12 KV, 50
Hz which is connected to the Grid.
B. Wind Turbine Generator Model
The simulation model of wind turbine generator is
shown below in Fig.8.
Fig. 8: Turbine and Drive Train Model
Fig. 9: Output Waveform of Wind Turbine and Drive Train
The torque developed by the wind turbine depends
on the wind velocity and thrust coefficient. The power
captured by the wind turbine is the cube of the wind
velocity. Thus the power captured by the wind turbine
is maximum when the wind velocity is 12m/s to15m/s
is shown in the Fig 9.
C Multilevel Inverter Output
The output of the multilevel inverter for line
voltage is as shown in Fig. 10;
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Fig. 10: Multilevel-Diode Clamped Inverter Line Voltage in Volts
The output from the wind turbine is a variable one.
In order to obtain constant voltage and frequency, the
proposed multilevel inverter is used and also it reduces
the harmonic contents in the voltage which is obtained
by increasing the level of inverter, in the proposed
inverter a three level diode clamped inverter is used.
D Direct and Quadrature Axis Current of Stator and
Rotor
Id and Iq current of stator and rotor is as shown
below in Fig. 11.
Fig. 11: Direct and Quadrature Axis Current of Stator and Rotor
E Power Developedfrom DFIG
The power developed in the wind turbine depends
on wind velocity. Thus the power captured by the wind
turbine is the cubic function of wind speed. The
Maximum power extracted from Wind turbine
generator is 8 MW at a wind speed of 15m/s which is as
shown in Figl2. Thus the output power of WTIG is
uniquely determined by its operating speed. Wind speed
changes do not affect the value of reactive power
produced by generator, and active power follows the
power speed curve of turbine. This clarifies the ability
of controlling to separately the active and reactive
power of stator.
Fig. 12: Power developed in the proposed system
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 Interna ational Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering and Energy Management (ICETEEEM-2012)
F Harmonic Analysis
The Fast Fourier Transform is used to determine
the content of harmonics present in output.
Fig. 13: FFT Analysis for Inverter Voltage
Then the Total Harmonic Distortion also calculated
from FFT analysis. From the above graph of the Fast
Fourier Transform analysis, it shows that the Total
Harmonic Distortion (THD) of 32.77 % in the inverter
which is connected to grid is as shown in Fig.13. Thus
harmonic content is much reduced by the use of
multilevel inverter in the proposed system. But in
conventional Two -level converter a THD of 44.03% is
obtained. And comparison ofFFT output shown in table
1.
Fig.14 FFT Analysis of Filter output
Inverter Line Voltage
2 Level
3 Level Without filter
3 Level with filter
V. CONCLUSION
Investigation in the wind farm needs a thorough
knowledge of nature of the wind variation over the
particular site and complete understanding of the
Doubly Fed Induction Generator is necessary. DFIG for
grid-connected variable-speed wind energy conversion
system has been developed. With the proposed method,
it is possible to control the reactive power, and
compensate for the utility harmonics. The control
strategy is capable of controlling the generated active
and reactive power as well as the amount of harmonic
compensation in the grid independently.
The DFIG technology allows extracting maximum
energy from the wind for low wind speeds by
optimizing the turbine speed, while minimizing
mechanical stresses on the turbine during gusts of wind.
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The DFIG technology has the ability for power
electronic converters to generate or absorb reactive
power, thus eliminating the need for installing capacitor
banks as in the case of squirrel-cage induction generator.
The multilevel inverter topology can overcome some of
the limitations than the standard two-level inverter.
Harmonics decreases as the number of levels in the
output voltage is increased.
From the simulation results, the line voltage THD
of the 3-levelwaveform with a modulation index
M=0.913, has a reduced harmonic content of about
32.77%. Thus the higher order and most unwanted
harmonics generated are reduced and the generated
reactive power is also controlled in the proposed system.
In the future work, the proposed system controller
performance may further be improved by using an
Intelligent Control Technique like Genetic Algorithm or
Fuzzy Logic Control. And also comparing the results of
proposed multilevel inverters with the conventional
back-to-back two level inverters. This proposed system
concept can be applied in all type of Industrial control
system to obtain better performance than the
conventional systems.
REFERENCES
[1] Babak Badrzadeh[2003],"New Approach for modelling Doubly-
Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) for grid-connection studies".
[2] Eng Wu, Xiao-Ping Zhang,[2006] "Modeling and Control of
Wind Turbine with Doubly Fed Induction Generator" IEEE
PSCE' 06, page :1404-1409.
[3] Hofmann, J. Zitzelsberger [2006] "PWM-Control Methods for
Common Mode Voltage Minimization - a Survey," SPEEDAM
International Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical
Drives, Automation and Motion, pp: 830-839.
[4] Jun Yao, Hui Li, Yong Liao, and Zhe Chen,[2008] " An
Improved Control Strategy of Limiting the DC-Link Voltage
Fluctuation for a Doubly Fed Induction Wind Generator", IEEE
Transactions On Power Electronics, Vol. 23, No.3, pp: 1205-
%THD
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[5] . Lingling Fan,[2010], " Harmonic Analysis of a DFIG for a
32.73 Wind Energy Conversion System" IEEE Transactions on
3.35 Energy Conversion, Vol. 25, No.1, pp :181-190.
[6] . Pena, J.C.Clare[1996], "Doubly fed induction generator uising
back-to-back PWM converters and its application to variable
speed wind-energy generation" IEEE Puoc.-Electr. Power Appl.,
Vol. 143, No 3,pp: 231-241.
[7] Salman and Babak Badrzadeh,[2004] "New Approach for
modelling Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) for grid-
connection studies" European wind energy conference an
exhibition, London.
[8] Tarak Ghennama, EI-Madjid Berkoukb, [2009],"Back-to-back
three-level converter controlled by a novel space-vector
hysteresis current control for wind conversion systems" Electric
Power Systems Research, pp: 444--455.
[9] Wind Farm - Detailed DFIG Model"Matlab Sim Power Systems,
Demonstration files, www.mathworks.com.
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 Maximum Power Extraction in Grid Connected DFIG using Multilevel Inverter

APPENDIX-I
DFIGRATING
DFIG Machine (6 *1.5 MW) :9
MW
Nominal voltage : 575V
Frequency : 50
Hz
Inertia constant : 0.685
Friction factor : 0.01
Pair of poles :3
Stator resistance (p.u) : 0.023 n
Stator leakage inductance : 0.18 H
Rotor resistance (p.u) : 0.016 n
Rotor leakage inductance : 0.16 H

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