Maximum Peak Power Tracking Control for the new Small Twisted

H-Rotor Wind Turbine

Bunlung Neammanee and Somchai Chatratana

Abstract— A microcontroller based system is proposed for low cost and high efficiency control of small wind turbine. The
perturbation and observation method is employed to achieve maximum peak power tracking (MPPT). The algorithm, controller functions,
and driving signals are implemented on ATMEGA16 microcontroller. The prototype of MPPT controller was tested with real wind turbine
at the laboratory in Germany. The actual operating points of the wind turbine with MPPT controller were compared with power versus
rotational speed curve in order to verify the tracking performance. The result confirms that small wind turbine with proposed MPPT
controller can operate in the maximum power region for the whole range of assigned wind speeds.
Keywords— small wind turbine, vertical twisted H-Rotor, wind energy, maximum peak power tracking, dc/dc converter,
microcontrollers.

appropriate alternatives. If renewable energy is available in

1NOMENCLATURE abundance, such as wind and solar energy, it is widely exploited.
Wind turbines are now mainly used for the electric energy
Aturb = cross-section area of the turbine perpendicular
production. Large wind turbine systems can be directly
to the wind direction.
connected to the grid for transmission of electrical power
cT = torque coefficient
whereas small wind turbine systems are normally equipped with
cP = power coefficient
battery systems to store the electrical power.
ib = battery current [A]
The basic structure for the H- and Twisted H-rotors are
ig = generator current [A]
shown in Fig. 1. The vertical H-Rotor wind turbine (Fig. 1 a) has
iref = reference current [A]
many advantages, for example: 1) it can work very well in very
ibref = battery current reference [A]
bad condition, 2) the construction is simple and it needs little
Jt ω&t = rotational torque[N.m], maintenance, 3) it has long life time, 4) it is easy to install and
M = step size produces low noise, 5) it does not need yaw system, 6)
R = radius of blade of blade [m] mechanical, electrical components, and the generator can be
Rg = generator resistance [Ω] equipped on or near the ground. However, the main disadvantage
Ta = aerodynamic torque [N] is that it requires high starting torque [1]. To solve this problem,
Tf = friction torque [N] a normal H-Rotor turbine was redesigned to a new Twisted-H-
Tg = generator torque [N] Rotor (THR) as shown in Fig. 1 b). The new THR retains all the
Ts = update time [s] advantages of H-Rotor but with low starting torque and reduced
Pe = electrical power [W] peak of tangential and thrust force with same energy capture. The
Plosses = power lossse [W] new design results in a turbine with very low noise, low
Pt = turbine power [W] vibration, and low stress on the blade.
Pwind = wind power [W] A 10 kW normal vertical H-Rotor installed at Alfred-
v = voltage [V] Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research station in
vt = wind speed [m/s] Antarctica is shown in Fig. 2. This wind turbine has been
VB = battery voltage [V] operated in very bad conditions (snowing, windy, stormy, and
Vb = voltage drop at generator brush [V] very cold) in Antarctica since 1989 (more than 16 years). It needs
Vg = generator voltage [V] only single maintenance for eddy current break [2].
ωt = rotational angular speed of blade [rad/s]
ωcutin = cut in speed [rad/s]
λ = tip speed ratio TSR
β = pitch angle [radian]
ρ = the air density [kg/m3]

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, there are more and more concerns over the
fossil fuel exhaustion and the environment problems caused by
fossil fuel based conventional power generation. To solve those
problems, renewable energy is widely accepted as one of

B. Neumanee is with Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of

Engineering, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology North Bangkok,
Thailand, Pibulsongkram Rd., Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand, E-
mail: bln@kmitnb.ac.th Fig. 1 Comparison of normal H- Rotor and Twist-H-Rotor
wind turbine
S. Chatratana is the Deputy Director of Technology Management Center,
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), 111
Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Rd., Klong 1, Klong Luang,
Phathumthani 12120, Thailand, E-mail : somchaich@nstda.or.th
 Fig. 2 A 10kW H-Rotor at Alfred-Wegener-Institute station in
Antarctica 1989.

2. AERODYNAMIC OF WIND TURINE

Wind power is a function of wind speed, vt given in (1)

ρ
Pwind = Aturb v 3t (1) Fig. 3 Typical characteristic curves of wind turbine at
2 various wind speeds. (a) Power versus rotational frequency.
According to Betz law, the amount of power can be (b) Torque versus rotational frequency.
captured by an ideal wind turbine is 16/27th (0.5925) of Pwind
calculated from Equation (1). It is shown in [3] that if vt
decelerates by 2/3, the optimum extraction is achieved. 0.25
vt= 8.1 m/s
Tip speed ratio (TSR), λ, is defined as the ratio of the tip
Power coefficient speed ratio

vt= 7.1 m/s

vt= 6.7 m/s
speed to the wind speed, given by 0.2
vt= 6.0 m/s
vt= 4.8 m/s
vt= 4.3 m/s

ωt R
λ=
0.15
(2)
vt
The power produced by the wind turbine is given by 0.1

ρ
Pturb = Pwind cP(λ,β) = Aturb v3t cP(λ,β) (3) 0.05

2
The aerodynamic torque acting on turbine blades is
obtained respectively:
ρ
Ta = Aturb v 2t cT(λ,β) (4)
2 Fig. 4 Characteristic of power coefficient and tip speed ratio
It can be seen in (3) and (4) that power and torque
coefficient are the function of TSR and β . In a fixed pitch wind
turbine (e.g., twisted H-rotor), β is constant; thus, cP and cT
depend only on TSR. It can be found from Equations (2), (3) and
(4) that the relation between λ, cP and cT is
cP = cT λ (5)
For the aerodynamic of the vertical axis twisted H rotor,
reference [2] gives full account of the derivation of tangential
force, trust force and total force on the blade of the turbine with
respect to attack angles and wind velocity. However, for small
wind turbine and for practical purpose, there is always an
alternative of describing the characteristic of the wind turbine. In
this paper the characteristics of wind turbine was obtained from a
laboratory test. The wind turbine was blown with a fan whose
speed can be controlled . Output power from the turbine is then
measured for each value of rotation speed. The typical output
characteristic of power and torque versus rotational frequency
curves are shown in Fig. 3 (a) and (b) [4], [5].
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Tip speed ratio
at wind speed from 4.3 m/s to 8.1 m/s
From test results, cP and TSR can be calculated and their
relationship is shown in Fig. 4 for six wind speed values (from
4.3 m/s to 8.1 m/s). For an ideal wind turbine, there should be
only one curve (the solid line) for any wind speed. These
variations are due to air turbulence and non laminar flow around
the blades and errors in measurement of wind speed.
To derive a mathematical model for the twisted H rotor
shown in Fig. 2 b), we assume that there is only single
representation of cT versus TSR (for example the solid line in
Fig. 4) and that the blades and the whole rotor are considered a
single lumped mass. The relationship among aerodynamic,
friction and generator torque, wind turbine power, moment of
inertia and angular speed can be expressed by
Ta = Jt ω
& t + Tf +Tg (6)
Pt = (Jt ω
& t + Tf + Tg)ωt (7)
From Equations (2), (3), (6) and (7), a block diagram of the
simplified wind turbine system can be established as shown in higher than the cut-in speed, ωcutin, the MPPT controller will start
Fig. 5. the procedure. If a given perturbation leads to a positive or
negative slope, the next perturbation increases or decreases
rotational speed until the slope becomes zero (i.e., maximum
power point is reached).

Fig. 5 Block diagram of the simplified wind turbine plant.

3. MPPT PROCESS AND CONTROL

ALGORITHM
The MPPT algorithm commonly used for solar panel
control can be applied to maximize the wind turbine output
power. Fig. 6 shows the characteristic of power and torque versus
speed of wind turbine that needs to be controlled [6], [7]. The
main purpose of the MPPT controller is to maintain operating
point on Pm_max for any wind speeds. The operating point can be
on the positive slope (the left side of the Pm_max), zero slope (the
point where Pm_max occurs), and negative slope (the right side of
the Pm_max). If the operating point is in the positive slope region, Fig. 7 The MPPT control program flowchart.
the controller must move the operating point to the right to get
closer to the maximum point. This can be achieved by decreasing
load (battery) current, which results in an increase in rotational To implement the MPPT control in the ATMEGA16
speed. Conversely, if the operating point lies on the right hand microcontroller unit for wind turbine control, Equation (7)
side of the peak, the load current has to be increased, resulting in should be rewritten in more detail as given (10). The right hand
a decrease in the rotational speed. The step to increase/decrease side of Equation (10) is the sum of rotational power, electrical
load current references is power, friction power, and brush and copper power losses,
respectively.
Δp[(k )Ts ]
ibref [(k+1)Ts]= ibref [(k)Ts] + M (8)
Δω t [(k )Ts ] & t ωt + Pe + Tfωt + Vbig + ig2Rg
Pt = Jω (10)

The instantaneous power slope is calculated by Ta = Pt/ωt (11)

Δp[(k )Ts ]
slope = (9)
Δω t [(k )Ts ]

Fig. 6 Wind turbine output power and torque characteristics

with MPP tracking process.
The reference current is updated by the MPPT controller at every
time step Ts. The above mentioned actions bring the operating
point toward Pm_max by increasing or decreasing the rotational
speed step-by-step. This tracking methodology in the control
scheme is called the perturbation and observation method (P&O)
method. [1]
The control flowchart of the maximum power tracking
system in Fig. 7 illustrates the details of decision processes based
on the tracking procedure in Fig. 6. If the rotational speed is
Fig. 8 Block diagram of MPPT control system for wind
turbine for battery charger.
The overall block diagram of control system is shown in Fig. 8.
The dash line covers the MPPT controller built from Equations
(2), (8), (10) and (11). It is connected to the plant consisting of
the wind turbine coupled with a generator, a dc/dc converter, a
battery and sensors. The MPPT controller receives generator
voltage and current signals from the sensors. The controller
calculates turbine speed (i.e., dc generator speed) from the
product of generator voltage, electromotive force (EMF) and
generator constant. The output power, the slope of power with
respect to speed, and battery current references are updated using
Equation (8). This reference will be sent to a battery regulation
loop (lower right conner of the figure), where a proportional-
integral (PI) compensator is used to control the load current as
desired and improve the system stability.
Figure 11 shows 6 curves of the torque coefficient versus TSR
for the same wind speeds as those in Figure 10. As can be seen
from the two figures, power coefficient-TSR and torque
coefficient-TSR curves have a similar trend. It is, however,
important to note that the maximum cP does not coincide with
maximum cT at the same TRS and wind speed.

0.16
4. WIND TURBINE CHARATERISTIC vt=8.1 m/s

Torque coefficient speed ratio

vt=7.1 m/s
0.14
Since the Twisted H-Rotor is a new vertical wind turbine, vt=6.7 m/s
vt=6.0 m/s
it is therefore important to know its characteristics before the 0.12
vt=4.8 m/s
vt=4.3 m/s
MPPT controller is implemented. The test system, in Fig. 9,
0.1
comprises a twisted H-Rotor directly coupled to an encoder and a
dc generator. The output of the generator is connected to a 0.08

variable resistive load with a voltage sensor and a dc current

0.06
sensor. This system employs an anemometer to measure wind
speed. All sensors are connected to the signal conditioner, PLC 0.04

and a computer to data monitoring and recording (i.e., vt, ig, ω, 0.02
vt). A wind speed simulator consists of a fan driven by a 15 kW
induction motor whose speed is controlled by a frequency 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
converter. Tip speed ratio

Fig. 11 Torque coefficients versus tip speed ratio at various

wind speed.

Fig. 9 Diagram of the Twisted H-Rotor with tested

equipments for find the characteristic of wind turbine.
Fig. 12 Power versus rotational frequency
Figure 10 shows the power coefficient versus TSR (tip
speed ratio) with 6 values of wind speed. The graphs in the figure Figure 12 shows the output power of the new Twisted H-
have similar characteristics; namely, one curve has only one peak Rotor starts from zero at zero rotational frequency and increases
where the optimum TSR locates and the positive and negative with the rotational frequency until maximum power is reached
slopes lie on the left and right of the optimum TSR. This then the power drops with increasing rotational frequency. These
characteristic is an important property for each wind turbine. The curves in Fig. 13 is used to validate the MPPT controller whether
optimum TSR of a wind turbine is useful to determine the it can operate with maximum power for a given wind speed.
maximum power the turbine can supply. For example, two
turbines can have the same sweep areas and same power
coefficients but one of them may have higher optimum TSR than
the other. The turbine with higher TSR can operate at higher
speed and supplies more power. For this reason, a power
coefficient-TSR curve can be used to compare the efficiency of
different wind turbines.

0.25
vt= 8.1 m/s
Power coefficient speed ratio

vt= 7.1 m/s

vt= 6.7 m/s
vt= 6.0 m/s
0.2
vt= 4.8 m/s
vt= 4.3 m/s

0.15

0.1

Fig. 13 Torque versus rotational frequency

0.05

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 Figure 13 illustrates the relationship between torque and
Tip speed ratio
rotational frequency for the 6 wind speed values. Such a
relationship represents an important characteristic of a wind
Fig. 10 Power coefficients versus tip speed ratio turbine, particularly for its starting torque. The torque gives
guidance for the selection of a generator to be connected with the
wind turbine as the system will function efficiently if one is
suitably chosen. Also, the starting torque indicates a minimum
wind speed that starts the turbine or the speed which turbine
torque overcomes static friction of the system.
5. WIND TURBINE WITH MPPT CONROL
SYSTEM
In figure 14, the wind turbine generator is connected to a
buck converter with MPPT controller. The buck dc/dc converter
is used to interface the wind turbine and the battery. The
converter power switch consists of two power-MOSFETs: Q1
and Q2. The Q1 is used as a main switch to control the load
current in the normal operating region. The load current depends
on the output power of the wind turbine. The Q2 is used as a
switch to brake the system.
Q1
L power represented by plus signs and ideal power represented by
C1
VG VB C 2
Q2
D
Rg
Emf
ig ib
interface circuit
A/D PWM2 PWM1 A/D
ATMEGA16
Fig. 14 Twisted H-Rotor, buck converter and the control
block diagram.
The lower part of Fig. 14 is a control system implemented on an
Atmel’s ATMEGA16 high-performance, a low-power AVR 8-bit
microcontroller, and an interface circuit. The interface circuit
comprises current filter and signal conditioner circuit connected
to voltage, current and A/D converter in the microcontroller. The
output of the microcontroller is PWM signals sent to the gate
driver circuit of the power MOSFETs. Monitoring and
calculation of control variables (e.g. power slope, the update step
of the controller, angular speed, and acceleration) are carried out
by the microcontroller. The parameters of Twisted H-Rotor wind
turbine and DC generator are shown in Tables 1 and 2 of the
appendix.
Fig. 15 The recorded data of generator current, voltage,
rotational speed, and wind speed from the plotter.
The record of wind speed, generator voltage, generator
current and rotational speed experiment by the PLC and plotter
are shown in Fig. 15. Note that the results in Fig. 15 started from
right hand side and progressed to the left hand side. It can be
seen that the experiment started at the wind speed of 6 m/sec and
the speed was increased to 9 m/sec. The rotational speed of the
generator started at approximately 5 Hz and increased to 7.2 Hz.
The generator voltage was kept around 36 volts throughout the
experiment. The load current started at 0.4 A. and increased with
the wind speed. The fluctuation of current was due to the action
of the controller and the step increase of fan speed.
The output torque and power with various wind speed are
recorded every 0.08 second by serial communication between
ATMEGA 16 microcontroller and a computer. The controller
update command of the outer loop every 1.04 second to make the
system stable due to the system time constant. If the update time
is faster, it will make the system unstable. The output power and
torque versus the rotational speed are illustrated in Fig. 15 and
Fig. 16 respectively. Fig. 15 also shows the optimum controlled
bold line. The comparison of the optimum controlled torque and
the ideal torque is given in Fig. 16 with the same representation.
In both cases, the control trajectories are close to the ideal power
and torque curve. Even with the uncertainty of power coefficient,
air turbulence, and controller update command; it can be
observed in both figures that the MPPT controller is able to track
the optimum power and torque.
Fig. 16 The experimental result of real power curve and
controller tracking performance.
Fig. 17 The experimental result of real torque curve and
controller tracking performance.
6. CONCLUSIONS
The maximum peak power tracking algorithm is proposed
in this paper to capture the maximum power from wind by a
MPPT controller. The control algorithm is based on the
perturbation and observation method. The advantages of the
proposed algorithm are:
ƒ The controller will be able to maximize the output power of a
 generator for any wind speeds,
ƒ It requires only the current and voltage signals from sensors to Table 2. DC generator parameters under test condition.
perform the control law,
ƒ With self tuning, step size of perturbation and peak current Parameterss Units MTP-
can be reduced and the system delivers better response than 1 Rated Speed rpm 1000
the control with fixed step of perturbation,
ƒ The algorithm can be applied to any wind turbines without the 2 Rated Voltage ±5% V 233
knowledge of their operating characteristics, and 3 Rated Current A 3.85
ƒ It can be implemented in a low cost controller. 4 Rated Output Power (1) W 780.00
5 Rated Torque Nm 7.45
7. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
6 Max Torque Nm 47.60
The authors would like to express deepest gratitude to Mr.
Heiko Schier, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Bernd Stephan, Prof. Dr. Ing 7 Max Speed rpm 1200

Friedrich Zastrow and Prof. Dr.-Ing Kai Müller for their 8 EMF Constant ±5% V/1000rpm 207
kindness, helpful suggestion and valuable guidance during the 9 Torque Constant ±5% Nm/A 1.98
construction period of the prototype in Hochschule Bremerhaven, 10 Friction Torque Nm 0.060
Germany.
11 Damping Constant Nm/1000rpm 0.113

8. REFERENCES 12 Terminal resistance Ω 4.760

[1] Chihchiang Hua; Jongrong Lin; Chihming Shen; 1998 “ 13 Rotor Inertia Kgm210-3 2.400
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15 Electrical Time Constant ms 0.588
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9. APPENDIX
Table 1. Twisted H-Rotor wind turbine specification under
test condition.

Twisted H-Rotor
Rotor radius: 0.5m
Blade height: 1m with 30° twist
Angular position between each blade: 120°
Blade width: 0.235m
Blades number : 3
Blade profile: NAC 0021
Rotor areas: 1m2