Terminal voltage build-up and control of a DFIG based stand-alone wind energy conversion system

The paper presents the voltage build-up process and the terminal voltage control of a doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) driven by a pitch controlled wind turbine for the supply of autonomous system without any auxiliary source. A control strategy for the complete system including voltage build-up phase is developed with a view to provide as well as possible the required power for load. Indirect stator flux-oriented vector control is proposed to keep the stator voltage constant by means of a back-to-back converter connected to the rotor side, while the management system is supported by the pitch angle and the load shedding controllers. A novel scheme for voltage build-up is presented, which requires no additional hardware support, and physical interpretation of how self-excitation can occur from residual magnetism in the machine core is examined. A reliable start-up process is accomplished by using an appropriate voltage reference ramp which enables minimizing energy loss during the starting. The proposed system is modeled and simulated using Matlab/Simulink software program to examine the dynamic characteristics of the system with proposed control strategy. Dynamic simulation results for different transient conditions demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.