Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

Control strategy for a Doubly-Fed Induction Generator feeding an unbalanced

grid or stand-alone load
Rubn Pena a , Roberto Cardenas b, , Enrique Escobar b , Jon Clare c , Pat Wheeler c
a

University of Concepcion, Electrical Engineering Department, P.O. Box 160-C, Concepcion, Chile
University of Magallanes, Electrical Engineering Department, P.O. Box 113-D, Punta Arenas, Chile
c
University of Nottingham, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 10 February 2008
Received in revised form 15 July 2008
Accepted 18 July 2008
Available online 11 September 2008
Keywords:
Induction generators
Power generation control
Wind energy
Vector control

a b s t r a c t
In this paper, the control systems for the operation of a Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG), feeding
an unbalanced grid/stand-alone load, are presented. The scheme uses two back-to-back PWM inverters
connected between the stator and the rotor, namely the rotor side and stator side converters respectively. The stator current and voltage unbalances are reduced or eliminated by injecting compensation
currents into the grid/load using the stator side converter. The proposed control strategy is based on
two revolving axes rotating synchronously at e . From these axes, the dq components of the negative
and positive-sequence currents, in the stator and grid/load, are obtained. The scheme compensates the
negative-sequence currents in the grid/load by supplying negative-sequence currents via the stator side
converter. Experimental results obtained from a 2-kW experimental prototype are presented and discussed in this work. The proposed control methodology is experimentally validated for stand-alone and
weak grid-connected conditions and the results show the excellent performance of the strategy used.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) is widely used for
variable-speed generation, and it is one of the most important generators for Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) [1]. Both gridconnected and stand-alone operation is feasible [2,3]. For variablespeed operation, the standard power electronics interface consists
of a rotor and stator side PWM inverters that are connected back-toback. These inverters are rated, for restricted speed range operation,
to a fraction of the machine rated power [2]. Applying vector control
techniques yields current control with high dynamic response [2,3].
In grid-connected applications, the DFIG may be installed in
remote, rural areas [4,5] where weak grids with unbalanced voltages are not uncommon. As reported in [6,7], induction machines
are particularly sensitive to unbalanced operation since localized
heating can occur in the stator and the lifetime of the machine can
be severely affected. Furthermore, negative-sequence currents in
the machine produce pulsations in the electrical torque, increasing
the acoustic noise and reducing the life span of the gearbox, blade
assembly and other components of a typical WECS [4,5]. To protect
the machine, in some applications, DFIGs are disconnected from the
grid when the phase-to-phase voltage unbalance is above 6% [5].

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rcd@ieee.org (R. Cardenas).
0378-7796/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2008.07.005

Control systems for the operation of induction generators in

unbalanced grids have been reported in [4,5], where it is proposed
to inject compensating current in the DFIG rotor to eliminate or
reduce torque pulsations. The main disadvantage of this method
is that the stator current unbalance is not eliminated [5]. Therefore, even when the torque pulsations are reduced, the induction
machine power output is derated, because the machine current
limit is reached by only one of the stator phases. Compensation of
unbalanced voltages and currents in power systems are addressed
in [8] where a STATCOM is used to compensate voltage unbalances.
However, the application of the control method to DFIGs is not
discussed. No formal methodology for the design of the control systems is presented and only simulation results are discussed in [8].
In this paper a new control system to compensate the stator
current unbalance in grid-connected and stand-alone DFIG operation is presented. The strategy uses two revolving axes rotating
synchronously at e to obtain the dq components of the negative and positive-sequence currents in the stator and grid/load. The
unbalance is compensated by the stator side converter. The stator
side converter positive-sequence current is conventionally controlled to regulate the dc link voltage, whereas negative-sequence
current is regulated to reduce or eliminate the grid voltage unbalance. The control system for unbalanced operation of stand-alone
DFIGs has been succinctly discussed in a two-page paper published by the authors [9]. However, in that publication issues such
as small-signal models, controller design, compensation of volt-

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R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

age unbalances in grid-connected DFIGs, etc., were not discussed.

In addition, this work also introduces new methods, application
scenarios and insights. These include:

Considering (1) and (2) the following expression is obtained for the
dynamics of the equivalent stator magnetising current:
s

The modelling of a DFIG for unbalanced operation is presented.

This model can be used to study the effects of negative-sequence
components in the machine, e.g. torque pulsations in the electrical torque, ripple in the machine ux, etc., The modelling
presented in Section 2 is suitable for analysing DFIGs feeding
unbalanced loads as well as DFIGs connected to unbalanced, weak
grids.
The control systems, based on two synchronously rotating axes,
are presented and fully analysed. The control systems of Section
4 are linearised using small-signal models suitable for designing
the current controllers of the positive/negative-sequence current
control loops.
The control systems, suitable for compensating the effects of
negative-sequence components in a DFIG connected to an unbalanced grid are discussed. Grid-connected operation is considered
as the most important application of DFIGs.
The rest of this paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 the
modelling of the DFIG, for variable-speed stand-alone and gridconnected operation, is addressed. In Section 3 the control systems
for balanced operation of DFIGs are briey reviewed. In Section
4 the control systems for unbalanced operation of DFIGs are presented. In Section 5 experimental results obtained from a 2 kW
prototype are analysed. Finally an appraisal of the proposed control
method is discussed in the conclusions.

2.1. Modelling of DFIGs considering balanced operation

The modelling of DFIGs, for balanced operation is reviewed in
this section. Further details can be found in [2,3]. The nomenclature
used is shown in Appendix A, with superscript + used to indicate that the dq-axes are rotating at +e (positive-sequence). The
machine equations written in a dq synchronous frame rotating at
the supply frequency +e , are [2]:
+
ds

+
qs 0 Ls

+ =
dr Lm 0



+
qr

v+
ds
v+
qs
v+
dr
v+
qr

Lm
0
Lr
0

Lm

Rs

Rs

Rr

Rr

+
ids
+
iqs
+
idr
+
iqr

i+
ds
+

i
Lm
qs
+

0 idr

Lr
+


d
dt


+

d
dt

+
iqr

+
ds
+
qs
+
dr
+
qr

Ls +
=
i
Lm qs

= Lm ims ;
+
ds

(1)

sl

sl

(7)

In steady state and balanced operation of the DFIG, the dq components of the stator and rotor currents are dc values and the electrical
torque is constant.
2.2. Modelling of DFIG considering unbalanced operation
Assuming negligible zero-sequence components in the grid, the
unbalanced voltage of a weak grid can be described using negative
and positive-sequence components:
v s = v1s ej(e t+v+ ) + v2s ej(e t+v )

(8)

where v1s and v2s are the moduli of the positive and negativesequence voltages respectively. Referring (8) to dq-axes rotating
at +e and e yields:
+

v s = v1s ejv+ + v2s ej(2e t+v )

= v1s e

j(2e t+v+ )

+ v2s

(9)

ejv

(10)

As shown in (9) the negative-sequence voltage produces doublefrequency components when referred to the frame rotating a + e .
On the other hand, the positive-sequence voltage also produces a
double-frequency components in the dq-axes rotating at e (see
(10)). In general, any unbalanced vector in the stator frame can be
written as
x s = x1s ej(e t+x+ ) + x2s ej(e t+x )

(11)

and in the rotor frame, an unbalanced vector can be written as:

+
ds
+
qs

+
dr
+
qr

(2)

(3)

(5)

(12)

where x1 and x2 are the moduli of positive and negative-sequence

components. Using (9)(12), (2) and (3) are written in the negativesequence frame as

(4)
+
qs = 0

p
+ +
+ +
Te = 3 Lm (iqs
idr ids
iqr )
2

x r = x1r ej((e r )t+x+ ) + x2r ej((e r )t+x )

where s , r , vs and is are the stator and rotor ux vectors and the
stator voltage and current vectors respectively; Ls , Lm , Lr , Rr and Rs
are the stator, magnetising and rotor inductances and the rotor and
stator resistance respectively; and sl = e r is the slip frequency
with r the rotational speed. Aligning the d-axis on the stator ux
vector yields:
+
iqr

(6)

where  s = Ls /Rs and  s = (Ls Lm )/Lm are the stator time constant
and leakage factor respectively. Therefore, for stand-alone applications, the stator magnetising current, hence the stator voltage, can
+
be controlled using the positive-sequence direct rotor current idr
.
For grid-connected operation ims can be supplied from the machine
stator and/or rotor.
The torque produced by the DFIG is obtained as [2,3]:

v s

2. Modelling of DFIGs

dims
1 + s +
+
+
vds
+ ims = idr
Rs
dt

v
ds
v
qs
v
dr
v
qr

Rs
0

0
Rs

Rr
0

0
Rr

ids

iqs

idr

iqr

0
(e + r )

d
+
dt
d
+
dt


ds

qs

dr

qr

(e + r )
0

0
e

e
0


ds

qs

(13)


dr

dr


(14)

For stator unbalanced operation the electrical torque, Te , is obtained

as (see (11)):
p

Te = 3 Lm [(i1qs i2s sin(2e t + i ))idr

2

(i1ds + i2s cos(2e t + i ))iqr

]

(15)

where the terms i2s sin(2e t +  i ) and i2s cos(2e t +  i ) are

double-frequency current components produced by the negativesequence stator current. In (15) the rotor current is assumed to be

R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

equal to the demand ir . Even with balanced rotor currents (i.e.

, i are continuous signals) the electrical torque of (15) has
idr
qr
a double-frequency component, which can produce large torque
pulsations.
Torque pulsations may be reduced or eliminated by adding
and i [4,5].
compensation components to the rotor currents idr
qr
However, this compensation technique does not eliminate the
negative-sequence components of the stator/rotor currents and
voltages. Furthermore, according to [5], the unbalance in the stator current may even be increased when compensation signals are
added to the rotor current.
Rotor compensating currents can be used to achieve other control targets such as balancing the stator currents. However, using
rotor current compensation techniques does not provide enough
degrees of freedom to achieve several control targets simultaneously, for instance to eliminate both the stator current unbalance
and the torque pulsations. Furthermore, the slip velocity for the
negative-sequence frequency is (e + r ) (see (14)), therefore
a negative-sequence rotor ux may produce a large machine
back e.m.f., i.e. relatively large rotor voltages are necessary to
regulate ir .
This paper proposes to use the stator side converter to compensate the negative-sequence components of the grid or stand-alone
load.

The control system for balanced operation of grid-connected

DFIGs has already been discussed in [2] and only a brief discussion
is presented here. The typical control system for a grid-connected
DFIG is shown in Fig. 1. The dq reference frame is orientated along
the stator ux. The demodulation of the rotor currents and modulation of the rotor demand voltages uses the slip angle derived
from:
(16)

where  r is the rotor position (sensorless operation is also feasible

[10]). For balanced operation, the stator ux vector position  e can
be obtained from the stator ux components as


e = tan

s

s

Fig. 1. Vector control system for DFIG operation.

s =

s =

(vs Rs is ) dt
(18)
(vs Rs is ) dt

As shown in Fig. 1, PI controllers are used to regulate the rotor

currents. The direct component of the rotor current may be used
= 0 the
to supply the magnetising current to the machine. If idr
magnetising current is entirely supplied from the grid. The electri (see (7)). If the
cal torque is controlled using the q-axes current iqr
is regulated
DFIG is used in a variable-speed WECS, the current iqr
to capture the maximum power of a wind turbine for a given wind
condition [12].
3.2. Control system considering stand-alone applications
Stand-alone balanced operation of DFIGs is discussed in [3] and
only a summary is presented here. With some minor modications,
the vector control system of Fig. 1 can be used to supply electrical
energy to a stand-alone load or isolated grid. In this case, the stator
ux position  e is derived from a free running integral of the stator
frequency demand e (50 Hz):
e =

3.1. Control systems for grid-connected applications.

The stator ux components are obtained from the stator voltages and currents as [2]:

3. Vector control of DFIGs for balanced applications

slip = e r

357

e dt

(19)

Typically, in stand-alone connections, the magnetising current

ims is supplied entirely from the rotor. Therefore, the stator ux is
(see (5)). The torque current
controlled using the d-axes current idr
iqr is now controlled according to

iqr
=

Ls
iqs
Lm

(20)

which forces the orientation of the reference frame along the stator
ux vector position (see (2)). More information about control systems for the stand-alone operation of DFIGs is presented in [3,10].
4. Control system for DFIGs feeding an unbalanced
grid/load.
4.1. Vector control system for the stator side converter

(17)
In the control system proposed in this paper, the stator side
converter is controlled to supply positive and negative-sequence
currents to the grid/load. The vector control system is shown in
Fig. 2. The system is orientated along the positive-sequence stator voltage vector. Because of the unbalance, a phase locked loop
(PLL), shown at the bottom of Fig. 2, is implemented to calculate the
stator voltage angle v [11]. A notch lter eliminates the negativesequence from the dq voltage components. The PI controller forces
the q-axes positive-sequence to zero, ensuring the orientation of
the reference frame. The parameters of the notch lter and the
PI controller used in the PLL are given in Appendix B. From +v
and v , the currents can be referred to two synchronous dq-axes
rotating at +e and e respectively. Double-frequency components are produced when the positive/negative-sequence currents
are referred to the dq-axes rotating in the opposite direction [47].
As shown in Fig. 2, notch lters are used to eliminate these high
frequency components.
The control systems for the stator side positive-sequence cur+
+
rents idf
and iqf
are entirely conventional (see Figs. 1 and 2 and
+
[13]). The current idf
regulates the dc link voltage E and the current

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R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

Fig. 2. Proposed control system for the stator side converter.

+
iqf
regulates the reactive power supplied to the load. The stator side
negative-sequence currents are regulated to (see Fig. 2)

= idqL
idqf

(21)

idqL = (idqs
+ idqf
)

Therefore the negative-sequence current demand is a function of

the grid/load negative-sequence current. In steady state, when the

= idqL
, the stator current idqs
= 0 (see
PI controller regulates idqf
(21)), and the torque pulsations are eliminated.
The total current supplied by the stator side converter is lim+
ited to avoid overloading. Assuming iqf
= 0, the maximum current
available to compensate the negative-sequence stator current is

+
(idf
) + (iqf
) Irated idf

4.2. Control of the DFIG considering connection to an unbalanced

grid
Fig. 3 shows a DFIG connected to an unbalanced grid. In this
case the stator current has positive and negative-sequence components. The control of the DFIG is carried out using a reference
frame aligned with the positive-sequence stator ux vector. For an
unbalanced or distorted grid, the ux vector position is obtained
using a PLL [11], with a structure similar to the one shown in Fig. 2.
In this case, the inputs to the demodulator block are the stator ux
components obtained from (18). The PI controller drives the
stator ux positive-sequence q-axes component to zero, ensuring
the correct orientation of the reference frame. The PLL parameters
are the same to the ones used in Section 4.

(22)

where Irated is the converter nominal current. In this work it is

assumed that the control of the positive-sequence currents has
a higher priority. Therefore, in each sampling time the demand
+
current idf
is calculated rst. After that the maximum negativesequence current is obtained using (22).
In a, b, c coordinates, the total voltage demand for the stator side
converter is obtained as (see Fig. 2):

va (t)
vb (t)
vc (t)

v+
v
a (t)
a (t)
+
vb (t) + v
(t)
b
v+
v
c (t)
c (t)

(23)
Fig. 3. Grid-connected operation of a DFIG.

R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

359

Fig. 5. DFIG sourcing a stand-alone unbalanced load.

obtained as


Fig. 4. Single phase equivalent circuit corresponding to Fig. 3.

The stator side converter is controlled to supply the current if

given by
if = i1f ej(e t+f+ ) + i2f ej(e t+f )

(24)

where the component i2f is supplied to the grid to compensate the

DFIG stator voltage unbalance. Fig. 4 shows the Thevenin equivalent
circuit per phase of Fig. 3 for the negative-sequence components.
The voltage v
is the equivalent grid negative-sequence voltage
aT
and L2T is the equivalent negative-sequence inductance of the grid.
In Fig. 4 it is assumed that the coupling between the sequence
networks is low.
The negative-sequence equivalent for the DFIG is dependent
on the machine operating point. However, if the stator and rotor
voltages/currents are balanced, then the negative-sequence voltage
v
as 0. In this work, it is assumed that balanced reference currents
are applied to the rotor. Therefore to balance the DFIG it is only
necessary to eliminate the negative-sequence stator voltage.
Using the single phase circuit of Fig. 4, it can be shown that the
negative-sequence current is eliminated from the DFIG stator when

Vaf
e Lf Iaf
=0

(25)

i.e. the stator side converter is a short circuit for the grid negativesequence voltage (see Fig. 4). Therefore the negative-sequence
voltage applied to the machines stator is zero. Using (25) the
negative-sequence current supplied by the stator side converter
can be calculated as

Iaf
=

VaT

e L2T

(26)

Therefore, when the stator side converter supplies the negativesequence current given by (26), the DFIG is in balanced operation.
The control of the stator side converter positive-sequence current is used to regulate the dc link voltage E (see Fig. 2) and the
reactive power supplied to the grid. This is entirely conventional
and will not be discussed here. The interested reader is referred to
[13].

ia (t)
1/(sLa + Ra )
ib (t) =
0
ic (t)
0

0
1/(sLb + Rb )
0

0
0
1/(sLc + Rc )

va (t)
vb (t)
vc (t)

(27)

where va , vb and vc are the instantaneous DFIG line to neutral stator voltages and La , Lb , Lc and Ra , Rb , Rc are the load inductances
and resistances respectively. The negative-sequence current can be
obtained from (27) as [14]:

(t) = ia (t) + ib (t) ej2/3 + ic (t) ej2/3

iaL

(28)

and the zero-sequence current is obtained as

0
(t) = ia (t) + ib (t) + ic (t)
iaL

(29)

The zero-sequence current does not produce a resulting stator ux; therefore this current does not produce torque pulsations
in the machine. If the negative-sequence stator current is relatively small, the line to neutral voltages are approximately balanced
because a stator ux control loop regulates idr . Therefore, there
are negligible negative/zero-sequence load voltages. For the standalone system of Fig. 5, the sequence components are coupled so that
positive-sequence voltages produce negative and zero-sequence
currents in the load.
A single phase equivalent system of Fig. 5 is shown in Fig. 6. The
negative-sequence current is represented as a current source. The
current of (28) can be supplied from the DFIG or the stator side
converter. Because the aim is to have balanced stator current, the
stator negative-sequence component is eliminated when

= iaL
iaf

(30)

Therefore, the stator side converter is again similar to a short circuit for the negative-sequence current components and the full
negative-sequence current circulates through stator side converter

0
with idqs
The control system described in Fig. 2 compensates the
negative-sequence stator current. The zero-sequence component

4.3. Vector control system for a DFIG feeding an unbalanced

stand-alone load
Fig. 5 shows a DFIG sourcing an unbalanced load. The machine
stator and the load are star-connected, with the neutral of the
generator connected to the load. This allows the presence of zerosequence currents. The topology of Fig. 5 is similar to that used by
diesel driven synchronous generators feeding stand-alone loads.
Using Fig. 5, the instantaneous currents in the phases a, b and c are

Fig. 6. Single phase equivalent circuit corresponding to Fig. 5.

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R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

Fig. 7. Small-signal model. (a) Grid-connected applications and (b) stand-alone

applications.

is not compensated for and the stator current is still unbalanced.

Therefore localized heating is not completely eliminated, and the
DFIG power may be derated if only one of the phases reaches the stator current limit. Zero-sequence current compensation cannot be
achieved with the proposed control system, unless a four-leg converter is used [15]. However, the application of four-leg inverters for
the compensation of zero-sequence stator currents is considered
outside the scope of this paper.
4.4. Small-signal models
As discussed in Section 4, the proposed control strategy drives
to zero the negative- sequence stator current. For grid-connected
applications the small-signal model is shown in Fig. 7a. The transfer
function relating the stator side converter voltage v
to the stator
dqf
currents

idqs

is

v
dqf

L2T
sL2 L2s + L2T
L2T L2s
L2 = Lf +
L2T + L2s

idqs

(31)

In (31) cross coupling terms between the d- and q-axes are

neglected. This is normal, because they are compensated for and
their effect is eliminated at the controller output [2]. The resistances of the machine lter and lines have also been neglected in
(31).
For stand-alone unbalanced loads (see Fig. 7b), the transfer function between the stator side converter voltage v
and the stator
dqf

currents idqs
is obtained assuming that the negative-sequence current load of (28) is constant. From Fig. 7, the transfer function is
obtained as

idqs

v
dqf
s(Lf + L2s )

(32)

In (32) the resistances and cross coupling terms are also

neglected. The small-signal transfer functions of (31) and (32) can
be used to design the controllers using conventional root-locus
analysis.
5. Experimental results
The control systems of Figs. 1 and 2 have been implemented
using a 2 kW DFIG driven by a cage machine. This cage induction
machine may be used to emulate a wind turbine or another prime
mover using the emulation techniques presented in [16]. The experimental rig is shown in Fig. 8. Two PWM back-to-back inverters are
connected to the machine rotor. Current transducers are used to

Fig. 8. Experimental system.

measure the rotor, stator and stator side converter currents. Voltage transducers measure the stator voltage. A position encoder of
10,000 pulses per revolution (ppr) is used to measure the rotor
position. The parameters of the whole system are in Appendix B.
The PI controller parameters for the rotor and stator side converter
currents, the dc link voltage and the magnetising current, based on
the procedure shown in [2,3], are depicted in Table 1.
5.1. Experimental results for a DFIG feeding an unbalanced
stand-alone load.
Figs. 9 and 10 show the performance of the proposed control system for negative-sequence current compensation under
variable-speed stand-alone operation. The load consists of three
resistors of 25, 154 and 154 , connected to phases a, b and
c respectively (see Fig. 5). The rotational speed is varied from
1350 to 1650 rpm to illustrate the performance at variable-speed
(from below to above synchronous speed). Before t 1.25 s, the
compensation system is disabled and the stator current has a
negative-sequence component (see Fig. 9). At t 1.25 s the comTable 1
Parameters of PI controllers
System

PI controller

Closed loop natural Sampling

frequency (Hz);
frequency (Hz)
damping factor

Rotor current

11.14

z 0.893734
z1

70; 0.8

2000

Stator side
converter current

z 0.897692
26.35
z1

70; 0.8

2000

dc link voltage

0.034256

z 0.975753
z1

1.25; 0.8

200

Magnetising current 0.788693

z 0.934173
z1

1.5; 0.8

200

R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

361

Fig. 9. Control system response for the negative-sequence currents.

Fig. 12. Unltered rotor voltage referred to the dq positive-sequence axes.

Fig. 10. Stator and rotor unltered currents referred to the dq positive-sequence
axes.
Fig. 13. Control system response for a load-step in one phase.

pensation is enabled and the stator current

idqs

is driven to zero.

For t > 1.5 s, idqL

idqf
and the negative-sequence currents are eliminated from the machine stator.
Fig. 10 shows the unltered machine currents referred to the
dq-axes rotating at +e (corresponding to the test of Fig. 9). Notch
lters are not applied to the currents shown in Fig. 10. For t < 1.25 s
the DFIG dq currents have a double-frequency component which
is eliminated after t 1.25 s when the proposed control system is
enabled. The stator voltage, in the coordinates (corresponding
to the test of Fig. 9), is shown in Fig. 11. Before enabling the compensation the voltage is unbalanced (see Fig. 11a). After the control
system is enabled, the negative-sequence load current is supplied
by the stator side converter and the stator voltage is approximately
balanced (see Fig. 11b). Fig. 12 shows the unltered rotor voltage
referred to the positive-sequence dq-axes. For t < 1.25 s the dq
rotor voltage has a large double-frequency component, because
and i are constant dq values without negative-sequence
idr
qr
components. Therefore the PI controller injects negative-sequence
voltages in the rotor in order to compensate the negative-sequence
machine back e.m.f. (see (14)). When the compensation system is
enabled, negative-sequence currents and voltages are completely
eliminated from the machine.
Figs. 13 and 14 show the control systems response to an unbalanced load-step. For t < 4 s the stand-alone DFIG is feeding a load of

about 200 per phase. The line to neutral voltage is about 145 V
and the rotational speed is 1650 rpm. At t 4 s the load resistance
in one phase is changed from 200 to 33 . In Fig. 13, the dq components of the rotor and stator currents are shown. These currents
are referred to the axes which are rotating at +e . No notch lter
is applied to these signals. When the load-step is produced, the
rotor quadrature current increases to compensate the increase in
the machine output power. As shown in Fig. 13, there are no doublefrequency components in any of the machine currents, because the
compensation system is enabled during that test. In Fig. 14 the
negative-sequence currents of the machine stator and stator side
converter are shown. When the unbalanced load-step is connected,
the converter negative-sequence current is increased, compensat
ing the load-unbalance and driving the current idqs
to zero. As
shown in Fig. 14, the proposed control system has a good dynamic
response.

Fig. 11. Stator voltage. (a) Before compensation and (b) after compensation.

Fig. 14. Negative-sequence currents corresponding to the test of Fig. 13.

5.2. Experimental results for a DFIG feeding an unbalanced grid

Unbalanced stator voltages can be created using the schemes
shown in Fig. 15. In Fig. 15a the unbalanced grid is created by
adding a variable voltage to one of the phases. Another possibility
is shown in Fig. 15b. In this case the voltage unbalance is produced
by connecting an unbalanced load to a balanced weak grid. For the
implementation of Fig. 15b, the equivalent circuit of Fig. 4 is not

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R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364

Fig. 15. Experimental setup to obtain unbalanced stator voltages. (a) Unbalancing
by adding an extra voltage to one phase and (b) unbalancing by connecting a small
impedance between two phases.

Fig. 16. Rotor and stator currents.

completely correct because the sequence components are coupled,

i.e. unbalanced stator voltages are produced even when the weak
grid is balanced and has only positive-sequence voltages.
Using the experimental system shown in Figs. 8 and 15a,
the proposed compensating system has been tested considering
variable-speed grid-connected operation. The rotational speed is
varied from 1600 rpm to 1400 rpm in 4 s. The machine is magnetised from the stator and the rotor current idr = 0. During the test
the rotor quadrature current is regulated to a constant value of 10 A.
The negative-sequence compensation system is enabled at t 2 s.
A voltage of 82 V is added to phase a.
Fig. 16 shows the unltered machine currents referred to the
dq-axes rotating at +e . Notch lters are not applied to these
currents. In t 2 s, the compensation system is enabled and the
negative-sequence currents are eliminated from the machine. The
negative-sequence currents are shown in Fig. 17. When negative-

Fig. 17. Machine stator and stator side converter negative-sequence currents for the
test of Fig. 16.

Fig. 18. Electrical torque corresponding to the test of Fig. 16. (a) Compensated and
uncompensated toque and (b) amplied view of (a).

sequence current is injected from the stator side converter, the

stator negative-sequence current is driven to zero.
In Fig. 18 the electrical torque is shown. The torque is calculated
using (7), with the unltered dq components obtained from the
axes rotating at +e . As shown in Fig. 18a, before the compensating
system is enabled, there are large torque pulsations of 5 N m (35%
of the dc value). The torque pulsations are eliminated when the
compensation is enabled. In Fig. 18b, an amplied view of Fig. 18a
is shown. The torque pulsations, with a fundamental frequency of
100 Hz, are noticeable in this gure.
The stator voltage corresponding to the test of Fig. 16 is shown
in Fig. 19. The components of the stator voltage are unbalanced
for t < 2 s. When the proposed compensation system is enabled the
stator voltage is completely balanced and the negative-sequence
components are eliminated.
The hardware implementation of Fig. 15b was also used to
test the proposed control system. The weak grid is implemented
using a variable 3 transformer and 20 mH line inductances. The
machine is running at 1400 rpm, with a line-to-line stator voltage of 260 V and a resistance of 12.5 is connected between
phases a and c in t 2.5 s. Fig. 20a shows the unltered rotor
and stator machine currents with the compensation strategy
enabled. When the unbalanced load-step is applied there is a
small disturbance in the currents that is compensated for by
the proposed control scheme. Fig. 20b shows the dq negativesequence currents in the stator side converter and DFIG stator.
After the load-step is connected the stator side converter negativesequence current is used to drive to zero the unbalance in the
stator current. For this test the equivalent circuit of Fig. 4 is not
completely correct, however even in this case the proposed com-

Fig. 19. Stator voltage in components.

R. Pena et al. / Electric Power Systems Research 79 (2009) 355364


Te

p
r
e
sl
r
 slip
e
v
ims

Fig. 20. Stator side converter and machine currents. (a) Machine positive-sequence
currents and (b) negative-sequence currents.

pensation system has a good performance with a fast dynamic

response.
6. Conclusions
In this paper a new methodology to compensate the stator
voltage unbalance of DFIG has been proposed. The effects of voltage unbalances in DFIG have been discussed, equivalent circuits
and small-signal models, appropriate to design the current control
loops, have been proposed.
The control system proposed in this paper uses negativesequence currents supplied from the stator side converter to
eliminate the current and voltage unbalances in the machine. This
control system is suitable for stand-alone and grid-connected applications.
Experimental results have been presented to validate the proposed control methodology. For stand-alone and grid-connected
applications the performance of the control system has been tested
considering variable-speed operation, xed-speed operation and
step connection of unbalanced loads. The experimental results validate the excellence of the proposed methodology.
For grid-connected applications the control system has been
tested considering two experimental implementations to generate voltage unbalance in the machine. Using these experimental
implementations, the performance of the proposed control system
was again tested considering variable-speed operation, xed-speed
operation and step connection of unbalanced loads. For the entire
test carried out in this work, the performance of the proposed control system is very good.
Acknowledgement
This research is supported by FONDECYT, Grant 1060500.
Appendix A. List of symbols

General

stator or rotor ux
i
stator or rotor current
v
stator or rotor voltage
x
quantity module
R
resistance
L
inductance
stator leakage coefcient
s

363

total leakage coefcient

electrical torque
Time constant
number of poles
induction machine rotational speed
stator electrical frequency
slip frequency
rotor position angle
slip angle
electrical angle
voltage vector angle
magnetising current

Superscripts
*
demanded value
+
positive-sequence value

negative-sequence value

phasor quantity
Subscripts
a, b, c
phase quantities
,
two-phase xed coordinates
d, q
synchronous rotating coordinates
r, s, m
rotor, stator, magnetising quantities respectively
1, 2
positive and negative-sequence
f
stator side converter quantity
T
Thevenin
L
load
rated
nominal quantity
Appendix B. System parameters
Doubly-fed induction machine: 2.0 kW, 1500 rpm, stator 220 V
delta, rotor 105 V star, Rr = 0.45 , Rs = 1.7 , Ls = 0.19872 H,
Lm = 0.1899 H, Lr = 0.01646 H, turn ratio = 3.5. 20 mh added to the
rotor to improve current ltering.
Stator side converter: C = 2000 F, Lf = 12 mH. Converter switching frequency = 1 kHz.
Phase locked loop:
Notch lter =

z 2 1.902113z + 1
z 2 + 1.812478 + 0.907973

centered at 100 Hz with a bandwidth of 25 Hz and sampling frequency of 2 kHz; PI = 0.972168(z 0.999756/z 1).
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was born in Coronel, Chile. He received the electrical engineering
Rubn Pena
degree from the University of Concepcion, Chile, in 1984 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Nottingham, U.K., in 1992 and 1996 respectively.
From 1985 to 1991 he was a lecturer in the University of Magallanes, Chile. He is
currently with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Concepcion,
Chile. His main interests are in control of power electronics converters, A.C. drives
is a member of the Institute of Electrical
and renewable energy systems. Dr. Pena
and Electronic Engineers.
Roberto Cardenas was born in Punta Arenas, Chile. He received the electrical engineering degree from the University of Magallanes, Chile, in 1988 and the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees from the University of Nottingham in 1992 and 1996 respectively. From

1989 to 1991 he was a lecturer in the University of Magallanes. He is currently with

the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Magallanes, Chile. His main
interests are in control of electrical machines, variable-speed drives and renewable
energy systems. Dr. Cardenas is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers.
Enrique Escobar was born in Punta Arenas, Chile. He received the electrical engineering degree from the University of Magallanes, Chile, in 2006. He is currently
with the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) spending one year as a eld electrical
engineer in the Antarctica. His main interests are in control of electrical machines
and variable-speed drives.
Jon Clare was born in Bristol, England. He received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The University of Bristol, U.K. From 1984 to 1990 he worked
as a research assistant and lecturer at The University of Bristol involved in teaching
and research in power electronic systems. Since 1990 he has been with the Power
Electronics, Machines and Control Group at the University of Nottingham, U.K. and
is currently professor in power electronics and head of research group. His research
interests are: power electronic converters and modulation strategies, variable-speed
drive systems and electromagnetic compatibility. Prof. Clare is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and is an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics.
Patrick Wheeler received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering for his work on
matrix converters at the University of Bristol, England, in 1993. In 1993 he moved
to the University of Nottingham and worked as a research assistant in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. In 1996 he was appointed lecturer
(subsequently senior lecturer in 2002) in power electronic systems with the Power
Electronics, Machines and Control Group at the University of Nottingham, U.K. His
research interests are in Variable-Speed AC Motor Drives, particularly different circuit topologies; power converters for power systems and semiconductor switch
use. Dr. Pat Wheeler is a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.