Operation of grid‐connected DFIG using SPWM‐ and THIPWM‐based diode‐clamped multilevel inverters

Abstract

This paper proposes a WECS based on a back to back diode-clamped multilevel inverter systems (DCMLI) fired comparatively by sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) and third harmonic injection pulse width modulation (THIPWM) techniques. DFIG performance is compared using these technologies for different wind speed under normal operation condition. The proposed approach shows that the DCMLI systems generate a nearly sinusoidal voltage with reduced total harmonic distortion (THD) thus upgrading the power quality of that produced by DFIG. As SPWM and THIPWM MLI are most common usage techniques in research, we applied them in the system to discuss a comparison of using those techniques to determine the number of levels that achieve the IEEE 519 criteria of THD which is less than 5% for both techniques (5th level for SPWM and 4th level for THIPWM) in all operation wind speed. Compared with simple PWM, and THIPWM have many advantages as lower THD, minimal number of switching to decrease switching losses and the output fundamental voltage is increased. Lastly, the paper investigates the variation of the frequency of induced rotor voltage and the active power flow due to the wind speed change when the rotor speed changes from super-synchronous to sub-synchronous speeds.