Wind Energy
Seminar
Topic – Wind Turbine Control System
Prepared By: - Neeraj Singh
Roll NO: - 212TH013
NIT Surathkal
Need of Control System
The control system on a wind turbine is designed to: -
1. seek the highest efficiency of operation that maximizes
the coefficient of power, Cp,
2. ensure safe operation under all wind conditions
Wind turbine control systems are typically
divided into three functional elements:
• the control of groups of wind turbines in a
wind farm,
• the supervising control of each individual
wind turbine, and
• separate dedicated dynamic controllers
for different wind turbine sub-systems
The wind farm controller’s function is “power management”. – It can
initiate and shut down turbine operation as well as coordinate the
operation of numerous wind turbines in response to environmental
and operating conditions.
The wind turbine supervisory controller manages the individual
turbine operation. – Including power production, low-wind shutdown,
high-wind shutdown, high load limits, and orderly start-up and
shutdown – Also provides control input to the dynamic controllers for
r.p.m. control to maintain an optimum tip-speed-ratio, and blade
pitch control
• Generally, there exists an optimum tip-speed-ratio, λ that maximize
Cp. – The exact λ depends on the individual wind turbine design (6 ≤ λ
≤ 8)
• The sensitivity of Cp to λ motivates closed-loop control focusing on
the the rotation frequency
Aerodynamic Torque control
One of the approaches to control λ is through control of the rotor
aerodynamic torque. – This ultimately comes by controlling the rotor
L/D ratio.
For L/D control, there are two approaches: -
1. stall-regulated rotor designs :- Stall-regulated rotors are designed
with section shapes and mean angles of attack to cause the rotor to
stall at higher wind speeds, beginning at rated power wind speeds.
2. Pitch Regulated Rotor design:-
Pitch-regulated rotors reduce the aerodynamic torque by reducing
the pitch and thereby the local angle of attack of the rotor sections. –
The lower angles of attack reduce the section lift coefficients and
thereby the aerodynamic torque on the rotor. – The pitch control
initiates when the wind velocity is sufficient to generate the turbine
rated power level. – It continues to reduce the pitch to seek to maintain
an optimum λ while also maintaining a constant rated power up to the
cut-out wind speed.
Electrical Torque Control
• Another approach to control λ is through electrical torque control.
• Synchronous generators are most commonly used in large wind
turbines
• Synchronous machines are commonly used as generators especially
for large power systems, such as turbine generators and hydroelectric
generators in the grid power supply
The reactive power generated by a synchronous machine can be
adjusted by controlling the magnitude of the rotor field current.
unloaded synchronous machines are also often installed in power
systems solely for power factor correction, or for control of reactive kV-
A flow.
• For a general case of a synchronous machine with P poles, the
relationship between the electrical and mechanical angular velocities,
ω and is ω = .
• In terms of physical frequency, f(Hz) and n (rpm), .
• The rotor field current is
adjusted by the speed of
synchronous machine
• The moving rotor cut the
flux, and generate current.
By controlling its speed the
reactive power is
synchronised with the
turbine.
• Most wind turbine generators have 4 poles.
• To produce the 60 Hz. frequency that is the U.S. power standard, the
rotor would need to spin at 1800 r.p.m
• For a fixed r.p.m. wind turbine, a gear box would be designed so that
at the optimum tip-speed ratio, the generator rotor would spin at the
r.p.m. that would produce 60 Hz. – This approach is quite restrictive
• An alternate approach is converting the AC power to DC power, after
which it is converted back to AC power with the U.S. standard 60 Hz
frequency.
References
Apata O, Oyedokin DTO, Cantu C, (2020) wind turbine control
system. Scientific African: e00566
Eltigani D, System frequency regulation in Wind turbines,
International Journal of Power energy and system 43(1) 977-983
Thank you!!
