A Coordinated Control Method to Smooth Wind Power Fluctuations of a PMSG-Based WECS

Abstract

This paper presents an output power smoothing method by a simple coordinated control of DC-link voltage and pitch angle of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) with a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The WECS adopts an AC-DC-AC converter system with voltage-source converters (VSC). The DC-link voltage command is determined according to output power fluctuations of the PMSG. The output power fluctuationsin low- and high-frequency domains are smoothed by the pitch angle control of the WECS, and the DC-link voltage control, respectively. By using the proposed method, the wind turbine blade stress is mitigated as the pitch action in high-frequency domain is reduced. In addition, the DC-link capacitor size is reduced without the charge/discharge action in low-frequency domain. A chopper circuit is used in the DC-link circuit for stable operation of the WECS under-line fault. Effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the numerical simulations.