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Published in IET Renewable Power Generation
Received on 11th November 2010
Revised on 11th August 2011
doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2010.0208

ISSN 1752-1416

Coordinated frequency regulation by doubly fed

induction generator-based wind power plants
Z.-S. Zhang1,2 Y.-Z. Sun1 J. Lin1 G.-J. Li1
1

State Key Laboratory of Power Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084,
Peoples Republic of China
2
The Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025, USA
E-mail: zhangzs05@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract: The increasing penetration of wind power impacts the frequency stability of power systems. A doubly fed induction
generator (DFIG)-based wind power plant naturally does not provide frequency response because of the decoupling between the
output power and the grid frequency. DFIGs also lack power reserve margin because of the maximum power point tracking
(MPPT) operation. Therefore this study presents a novel frequency regulation by DFIG-based wind turbines to coordinate
inertial control, rotor speed control and pitch angle control, under low, medium or high wind speed mode. Inertial control
emulates the inertia of wind generators and supports frequency control during transient. The gain of inertial control is
calculated from a creative viewpoint of protecting the wind turbine from stalling. Rotor speed control and pitch angle control
enable DFIGs to reserve sufcient active power for a steady-state frequency adjustment. The numerical simulations
demonstrate that the coordinated control enhances the frequency regulation capability and damps the frequency oscillations
effectively.

Nomenclature
Pref
K
H
DPin
 s0
v
s
v
vs
vsn
v
 r0
r
v
 r0
v
r
v
vr
vrn
fsys
f
fnom
Ek
k
DE
Pm
Pe
m
P

reference active power for the rotor side controller

gain of the inertial controller
inertia constant of the wind energy conversion
system
per-unit response of the inertial controller
initial per-unit synchronous generator speed
per-unit synchronous generator speed
synchronous generator speed
rated synchronous speed
initial per-unit rotor speed with vsn as base value
per-unit rotor speed with vsn as base value
initial per-unit rotor speed with vrn as base value
per-unit rotor speed with vrn as base value
rotor speed
rated rotor speed
per-unit system frequency
system frequency
per-unit rated system frequency
kinetic energy
per-unit variation of kinetic energy
mechanical active power
electromagnetic active power
per-unit mechanical active power

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e
P
p
DP
R
P0
vref
vMPPT
PMPPT
Vw
b

per-unit electromagnetic active power

number of wind generator pole pairs
additional electromagnetic power from DFIG
speed adjustment rate for the rotor speed
controller
initial operating power point
rotor speed reference for the pitch angle controller
optimal speed for a constant wind speed
optimal active power for a constant wind speed
equivalent wind speed added on the gearbox/rotor
pitch angle

Introduction

Nowadays, with large-scale wind power integrated into power

systems, grid operators face frequency stability challenges.
Unlike synchronous generators, the doubly fed induction
generators (DFIGs), which are the most commonly used
type of wind turbines, provide no contributions to
frequency changes. One reason is that the rotor is connected
to the grid through an AC/DC/AC converter, which
decouples the output power from the grid frequency.
Therefore auxiliary controllers need to be implemented in
the converter to relate the electromagnetic torque and
frequency for the primary frequency control. Another
reason is that traditional DFIGs normally operate at
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maximum power point tracking (MPPT), so they cannot
increase their output power beyond the maximum power
level [1].
With low wind power penetration, power systems are little
impacted by wind power because thermal plants possess
abundant regulating capability. However, as wind power
penetration increases, the frequency stability will be
progressively inuenced due to the uncertainty and
stochastic behaviour of wind energy and insufcient
thermal power reserves. In some developed countries, the
wind generation ascends rapidly at night and exceeds the
electricity load valley [2]. Under these circumstances,
the wind power has to be partially curtailed because wind
farms at MPPT do not have a frequency regulation margin.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission of China
announced Investigation Report of Wind Power
Development in China on 21 July 2009 [3]. This report
indicates that until 2008, about 27% of the wind power
(3.23 GW) was curtailed to keep the power system stable
due to the limit of transmission capacity and the lack of a
power regulation margin. Therefore wind power plants shall
have enough active power reserved to help frequency
regulation of power grids.
To maintain system stability, a common way is to cut off a
part of the wind generators from power grids. However, this
operation results in frequent starting-up and closing-down
of wind turbines and thus reduces equipment life. Thermal
power reserves and energy storage systems may help to
solve this problem but lead to costly investment and high
carbon dioxide emission. Therefore many corporations and
research institutes are studying the frequency control
methods of wind turbines. Moreover, some grid codes are
introduced governing the operation of wind power plants
for frequency regulation. For example, all wind generators
must operate with a reserve margin (down-regulation
percentage) of 1.5% in the Spanish grid code [4]. In the
UK grid code, all medium and large wind power stations
are required to be capable of adjusting the active power
output in response to any frequency change [5]. There are
also similar requirements in the grid codes of other
countries, such as Denmark and Ireland [6], to encourage
wind power plants participating in frequency control.
Although down-regulation of wind power plants affects
initial investment, conversion efciency and steady-state
penetration of wind power, system security is much more
important and thus frequency control is deemed as a
necessary auxiliary of advanced wind turbines in future.
This study proposes a meaningful and effective solution to
improve the utilisation of wind energy in China. If the 27%
curtailed wind power mentioned above is partially used as
primary or secondary reserves, there is a win win situation
for both wind farms and grid companies. From the point of
view of wind farms, more wind generators can be integrated
due to the increase of reserves. Therefore wind farms will
gain more revenues by selling the wind power reserves to
grid companies. From the viewpoint of grid companies,
parts of reserve investments are saved and no extra carbon
dioxide is produced. This objective can be achieved by
integrating more wind generators to the grid and shifting
some DFIGs from the maximum power operating point to a
sub-optimal operating point. The comparison among the
options of thermal reserves, energy storage and sub-optimal
operation is to be investigated in future considering
economic and environmental factors.
Currently, some control methods have been discussed to
improve the frequency control capability of DFIGs. The
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, pp. 38 47
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inertial control [1, 7 9] can transiently release the large

kinetic energy stored in the rotating mass to emulate the
hidden inertia for primary frequency control. However,
the gain of inertial control (K in Fig. 2) has not been
accurately estimated from the perspectives of wind
generator stability and dynamic frequency stability.
Holdsworth et al. [8] and Keung et al. [9] give a solution
that the control gain equals twice the total inertia constant
(H ) of the wind energy conversion system (WECS), that is,
K 2H. However, K represents the relationship between
the torque and synchronous generator speed change rate of
dvs/dt, but H represents the relationship between the torque
and wind turbine rotor speed change rate of dvr/dt.
Therefore the method in [8] and [9] is just an
approximation and the frequency may not be well
controlled to some extent. Compared with [8] and [9], the
study by Ma and Chowdhury [7] gives a better estimation
for the gain of inertial control through trial and error.
However, it is very difcult to test online for a large-scale
power system.
Wind turbines can have active power reserved by the
regulation of either pitch angle or rotor speed, thereby
participating in the frequency control for an extended time
period [1, 7, 8, 10]. In recent years, inertial, pitch angle and
rotor speed controls have been much discussed although the
coordination between them is rarely considered. The study
by Ma and Chowdhury [7] investigates the coordinated
control approaches, but only combines the pitch angle and
inertial controls and compares the rotor speed control with
the combination of pitch angle and inertial controls. In [10],
a control scheme is proposed to coordinate pitch angle and
rotor speed controls; however, this scheme relies too much
on the pitch angle regulation and thus signicantly
increases the wear and tear of the mechanical components.
In [11] and [12], the control modes are categorised
according to low, medium and high wind speed conditions.
Within each wind speed region, this control method is
specially designed to keep the wind power output constant
so that grid operators could dispatch wind power plants in
the conventional power plant way. Nevertheless, in practice,
down-regulating the wind power as a percentage is a more
effective way of improving the utilisation of wind energy
where a large proportion of the wind power has been
curtailed like in China. Therefore, based on [11] and [12]
but using a different classication of wind speed regions,
this study proposes a coordinated control scheme to downregulate wind power as a percentage through pitch angle
and rotor speed controls to support the secondary frequency
control.
The contributions of this study include: (i) a novel idea for
the calculation of the inertial control gain from the standpoint
of wind turbine stability and frequency security; (ii) a new
down-regulation strategy based on coordinated rotor speed
and pitch angle controls to reserve wind power as a
percentage for various wind speed conditions; (iii) a
combined method among inertial, pitch angle and rotor
speed controls. For several wind speed cases, the
simulations show the comparison of the three controls and
their combination, and the coordinated control is proved to
be the best.
This study proceeds as follows. Section 2 introduces the
design structures of three individual controls. Section 3 sets
out the coordinated strategies among the three controls.
Section 4 shows the simulations and compares the powerfrequency regulation capabilities of the three controls.
Finally, Sections 5 and 6 discuss and conclude the study.
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2

Control design

Fig. 1 shows the overall structure of DFIG control. The rotor

speed and inertial controllers are joined together as shown in
Fig. 2. They send the reference active power (Pref ) to the rotor
side controller, thereby relating the grid frequency and output
active power. The pitch angle controller gives the instructions
of reference pitch angle to the blade, thereby adjusting the
mechanical active power. Each controller is technically
introduced in detail by the following sections. Without loss
of generality, this study assumes that the following sections
are based on the events of frequency deviating from 50 Hz.
2.1

K and H have no physical relationship and K 2H does not

have any physical meaning. The reason is that K represents
the ratio between the torque difference and changing rate of
synchronous generator speed (dvs/dt), whereas H represents
the ratio between the torque difference and changing rate of
wind turbine rotor speed (dvr/dt). Therefore the traditional
method is only an approximation and the system frequency
may not be well controlled to some extent.
This study proposes a novel idea to obtain K based on the
perspectives of wind turbine stability and frequency security.
From the point of view of energy balance, the kinetic energy
is gained by the integral of both sides of (1).


 k = DPin dt = K d
DE
v2s
2

Inertial control

The response (DPin) of inertial control as shown in Fig. 2 is

equivalent to that of a synchronous generator. This inertial
response represents the capability of releasing the kinetic
energy and it can be written as
d
v
DPin = K v
s s
dt

(1)

dfsys
dt

(2)

or
DPin = K fsys

where K is the gain of the inertial controller, v

 s is the per-unit
synchronous generator speed and fsys is the per-unit system
frequency. K is similar to the inertia constant of a
synchronous generator and DPin is similar to the difference
between the mechanical and electromagnetic active power.
To provide an appropriate primary inertial support to the
system, the calculation of K is a crucial problem and the
following sections give some solutions.
In the traditional approach, K is regarded as twice the total
inertia constant (H ) of WECS, that is, K 2H [8, 9]. In fact,

then
k =
DE

K 2
(
v v
 2s0 )
2 s

(3)

 k is the per-unit kinetic energy that is released to the

where DE
grid and v
 s0 is the initial per-unit synchronous generator
 k can also be achieved by
speed. Similarly, DE


 k = (P
m P
 e ) dt = H dv
 2r
DE
then
 k = H(v
 2r v
 2r0 ) =
DE

H v2sn 2
(
vr v
 2r0 )
v2rn

(4)

 e is the
 m is the per-unit mechanical active power, P
where P


per-unit electromagnetic active power, vr and vr0 are the
present and initial per-unit wind turbine rotor speed with vrn
as the base value, respectively. v
 r and v
 r0 are the present
and initial per-unit wind turbine rotor speeds with vsn as the
base value, respectively, vsn is the rated synchronous
generator speed and vrn ( 1.2vsn in Appendix) is the rated
wind turbine rotor speed. In the following sections, the base
value of the wind turbine rotor speed will be totally set as
vsn . From (3) and (4), we obtain
K = 2H

v2sn v
 2r v
 2r0
v
 2r v
 2r0

=
1.389H
v2rn v
 2s v
 2s0
v
 2s v
 2s0

(5)

K can be calculated through the worst-case analysis in the

following steps.
Fig. 1 Structure of DFIG controllers

Fig. 2 Rotor speed controller (solid) and the inertial controller

(dashed)
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 2r0 increases
Step 1 Calculation: If K is constant, v
 2r v
2
2
monotonously with the increment of v
s v
 s0 . In the worst
case, v
 2r v
 2r0 reaches the limit by setting an optimal K
whereas v
 2s v
 2s0 reaches its limit.
The study by Luo et al. [13] gives the standard limits of
dynamic frequency deviation in Quebec, Canada and the
frequency could be kept at +5.83% for not more than 5 s.
In this study, we assume that the dynamic system frequency
should not exceed +5% during a frequency event.
Therefore, in the worst case, the frequency suddenly drops
from 50 Hz (1 p.u.) to 47.5 Hz (0.95 p.u.) or rises to
52.5 Hz (1.05 p.u.). Thus, the lower limit of v
 2s v
 2s0 is
estimated as 0.952 2 1 20.0975 whereas the upper
limit is 1.052 2 1 0.1025.
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Assume that a wind turbine normal operating rotor speed is
within the range 0.7 1.2 p.u. The dynamic rotor speed of the
wind turbine is allowed to vary between 0.6 and 1.3 p.u.
during transient. The wind turbine protection system will be
activated if the rotor speed is outside this range. Thus, in
the worst case, the wind turbine rotor speed is initially 0.7
or 1.2 p.u., and then when the frequency incident occurs
and the inertial control is activated, the post-fault rotor
speed deviates from 0.7 to 0.6 p.u. or from 1.2 to 1.3 p.u.
The lower limit of v
 2r v
 2r0 is estimated as
2
2
0.6 2 0.7 20.13 whereas the upper limit is
1.32 2 1.22 0.25.
In conclusion, the upper limit of K is achieved by
Kmax 1 = 1.389H

0.13
= 1.85H
0.0975
Fig. 3 Sub-optimal operation

and
Kmax 2 = 1.389H

0.25
= 3.39H
0.1025

then
K = min (Kmax 1 , Kmax 2 ) = 1.85H

(6)

Step 2 Validation: If K is set greater than 1.85H, the wind

turbine rotor speed may exceed its limits. For example, if
K 2H as described in [8] and [9], when the frequency
drops from 1 to 0.95 p.u. and the rotor speed is initially
0.7 p.u., the wind turbine rotor speed decelerates to
0.591 p.u. according to (5). Obviously, the wind turbine
stalls when the rotor speed has exceeded the lower limit.
On the other hand, if K is smaller than 1.85H in (6), the
kinetic energy is released less; hence the wind turbine rotor
speed does not easily cross the secure line.
Therefore K calculated by (6) is the most appropriate gain
for inertial control. In this study, H is set as 1.12 s according
to Appendix and K is consequently set as 2.07 s referring
to (6).
2.2

Rotor speed control

The solid part in Fig. 2 shows the frame of the wind turbine
rotor speed control based on the frequency drop
characteristic. The controller adjusts the active power output
in proportion to the frequency deviation with the ratio of
21/R [14] as follows
DP = P1 P0 =

fsys fnom
R

2.3

Pitch angle control

The pitch angle controller is used for preventing the rotor

speed from exceeding the nominal value, that is, the
maximum speed (1.2 p.u.). Fig. 4 shows the 90% suboptimal curve considering the rotor speed limitation. The
operating rotor speed should be restricted between 0.7 and
1.2 p.u.
Nowadays, a constant reference rotor speed is commonly
used for pitch angle control [15]. This study describes a
modied pitch angle controller with a variable reference
rotor speed of vref in a creative way as shown in Figs. 5
and 6. This method achieves the coordinated control
strategies which will be discussed in Section 3.

(7)

where fsys is the per-unit system frequency and fnom is the perunit nominal frequency, R is the speed adjustment rate, P1 is
the active power corresponding to fsys and P0 is the initial
operating power point (load reference).
Fig. 3 [7] shows the relationship among the mechanical
active power, rotor speed and wind speed for the optimal
pitch angle condition. As discussed in Section 1, the wind
turbine is assumed to operate at a sub-optimal curve to
provide power reserves. There are two 90% sub-optimal
curves based on under-speed operation (left curve) and
over-speed operation (right curve), respectively. However,
the left curve is unstable and undesirable [1, 7]. For
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simplicity, the sub-optimal curve represents the right

curve in the following sections.
By the use of rotor speed control, the wind turbine initially
operates at point A of over-speed and generates the active
power of P0 as shown in Fig. 3. After the frequency drops, a
DP increase of the electromagnetic active power reduces the
wind turbine rotor speed to point D on account of the
imbalance between the mechanical and electromagnetic power.
That is why the control is named the rotor speed control.
After this, the generation of the wind turbine becomes P0 + DP.

Fig. 4 90% sub-optimal curve considering the rotor speed

limitation
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Fig. 5 Pitch angle controller with variable rotor speed references

Remarkably, the input signal of the wind speed in Fig. 6 is

not a real wind speed but an equivalent wind speed added on
the gearbox or rotor. This equivalent wind speed can be
calculated by an aerodynamic method given in [16].

vB vE PB PE
=
vB vA PB PA

Coordinated control strategies

From the point of view of time scales, the control strategies

can be organised as follows: (i) after a frequency incident,
the inertial control acts towards dfsys/dt at the very
beginning and the response disappears in a few seconds.
(ii) Then, the rotor speed control and pitch angle control
remain valid for an extended time period.
From the point of view of adaptability, the controllers are
required to operate normally at a wide range of wind speeds.
In [11] and [12], the proposed low, medium and high wind
speed control modes are to prevent the dispatch instructions
from exceeding the DFIG practical generation capability, to
let DFIGs follow the dispatch instructions without pitch
angle regulation and to activate the pitch angle control to
enable DFIGs to follow the dispatch instructions,
respectively. This study gives a different classication for
the wind speed regions for the objective to down-regulate
DFIGs and coordinate rotor speed and pitch angle controls,
which will be described below. Note that the wind speed
regions in [11, 12] and this study are all dened according
to control objectives, but not related to the international
standard classication of wind speed ranges [17].
3.1

operation due to the rotor speed upper limit (see Fig. 4).
Thus, the regulation of pitch angle needs to be activated for
assistance. Fig. 4 shows an example control route (A, E, B)
for this mode. The initial operating point is at A rather than
D because of the speed limitation.
A pitch angle control scheme with variable vref is shown in
Fig. 6 for the medium wind speed. The control route in Fig. 4
is the dashed straight line of AB instead of the solid curve of
AFB. When there is an increase of DP, the new stable
operating point is at point E, namely vref is changed from
1.2 p.u. to vE , which can be estimated by the triangle
theorem [10]

Mode 1: low wind speed mode (,9.6 m/s)

When the wind speed is below 9.6 m/s in this study, overspeed is able to achieve the 90% sub-optimal operation as
shown in Fig. 4 and the pitch angle control does not need
to be activated to down-regulate the wind turbine. Therefore
the pitch angle is xed at zero by locking vref as a constant
of 1.2 p.u. as shown in Fig. 6. The control principle is the
same as the rotor speed control (discussed in Section 2.2).
When the frequency drops, the rotor speed control will
increase active power to force the wind turbine to decelerate.
3.2 Mode 2: medium wind speed mode
(9.6 11.8 m/s)
When the wind speed is between 9.6 and 11.8 m/s in this
study, over-speed cannot solely afford the 90% sub-optimal

(8)

where vB ( vMPPT) is the optimal speed at B, PB (PMPPT)

is the optimal active power at B, PA 90%PMPPT,
PE PA + DP 0.9PMPPT + DP and vA 1.2 p.u. Then
we obtain

vref = vE = 1.2 +

DP
(v
1.2)
0.1PMPPT MPPT

(9)

Finally, the rotor speed and pitch angle are regulated together
to the operating point of E to participate in the active
power control.
3.3

Mode 3: high wind speed mode (.11.8 m/s)

When the wind speed is over 11.8 m/s in this study (see
Fig. 4), over-speed is impossible because the MPPT speed
has been over 1.2 p.u. and the pitch angle control is the
only way to down-regulate the wind turbine. Therefore the
rotor speed is xed at 1.2 p.u. and the active power is
initially set at 0.9 p.u. by the pitch angle controller. When
the frequency drops, an active power increment is produced
by the reduction of pitch angle.
3.4

Determination of wind speed regions

This study provides an example to go about deciding the low,

medium and high wind speed regions for one kind of wind
turbines. In practice, although wind power/speed curves for
each kind of wind turbines are differently designed based
on project requirements, the method of classifying wind
speed regions is the same as that in this study.
The wind speed regions are determined by two key
elements of wind power/speed curves and reserve margin.
Firstly, the power/speed curves have already been provided
by generator manufacturers or general specications.
Secondly, the reserve margin is given by operators or grid
codes, for example, a percentage of 10% is assumed in this
study, whereas 1.5% is required in the Spanish grid code

Fig. 6 Selection of the rotor speed reference for the pitch angle control
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[4]. For each kind of wind turbines with known power/speed
curves, a look-up table in which every reserve margin is
corresponding to selected wind speed regions is built up.
Therefore as long as we know the reserve margin, the
classication of wind speed regions can be looked up from
the look-up table.

Simulations

4.1

Test system

Case 3: The wind speed is 14 m/s (within the high wind

speed region).
Note that the synchronous generator is without automatic
generation control (AGC) in this study in order to highlight
the dynamic advantages of wind turbine control. The reason
is that about 70% of the power plants are coal-red in China
and their ramping is slow; however, the secondary control by
wind turbines is much faster as DFIGs are power electronic
devices based. For a short period of less than 30 s, the effect

The power system model is constructed using the software

DIgSILENT PowerFactory. The test system [18], as shown
in Fig. 7, consists of a DFIG, a synchronous generator, two
constant power loads and a compensation capacitor
connected to a single 30 kV bus bar. The 8 MVA
synchronous generator is a diesel generator with the
standard IEEE governor (gov_IEESGO) and automatic
voltage regulator (avr_SEXS). For the other parameters,
refer to Fig. 7 and Appendix.
The initial system is normally operating at 50 Hz and the
DFIG is operating at the 90% sub-optimal curve. Load 1 is
connected to the grid, whereas load 2 is not connected. A
disturbance occurs as load 2 is connected at t 2 s. The
following three cases are studied in simulation.
Case 1: The wind speed is 8 m/s (within the low wind speed
region).
Case 2: The wind speed is 11 m/s (within the medium wind
speed region).

Fig. 7 Power system model

Fig. 8 Case 1 for low wind speed (8 m/s)

a
b
c
d

System frequency
Output active power
Pitch angle
Rotor speed

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of coal plant AGC is not so apparent and the case study without
AGC is acceptable for the research objective.
4.2

Test results

Figs. 8 10 observe four physical variables of system

frequency, output active power, pitch angle and wind
turbine rotor speed for the above three wind speed cases.
Each gure compares four kinds of simulation curves that
represent, for the conditions of coordinated control with the
solid line, only inertial control with the dash-dot line, only
wind turbine rotor speed and pitch angle controls with the
dotted line and no auxiliary control with the dashed line.
In case 1, the curves without auxiliary control for the wind
turbine show that the frequency has a sharp drop (see the
dashed line in Fig. 8a). This is because the wind power
output has scarcely any response to the frequency excursion
as the dashed line shown in Fig. 8b, thereby both the pitch
angle and rotor speed almost remain constant (see the
dashed lines in Figs. 8c and d, respectively). When the
inertial controller is installed, the kinetic energy is
transiently released through rotor speed reduction and active
power augmented (see the dash-dot lines in Figs. 8d and b,
respectively). Consequently, the frequency nadir point as
the dash-dot line in Fig. 8a is distinctly lifted and the
frequency change rate is not as sharp as no auxiliary control
condition. However, the steady-state frequency is not
improved (see the dash-dot line in Fig. 8a) as no extra
power reserves are put into use. If the inertial controller is
replaced by the rotor speed controller, the steady-state

frequency behaviour improves as the dotted line in Fig. 8a.

The wind turbine is initially operating at an over-speed
point and the active power is permanently increased by
reducing the rotor speed (see the dotted line in Fig. 8d).
Furthermore, although without the inertial control, the
short-term frequency is optimised by the rotor speed control
due to the pulse width modulation (PWM) control technology.
Fig. 8 shows that the coordinated regulation denoted by solid
curves achieves a good effect for both short- and long-term
frequency regulations. In case 1, the pitch angle control is
invalid as shown in Fig. 8c because the rotor speed control
could satisfy all the frequency support for the system.
Similar results can be obtained from the simulations in cases
2 and 3. However, the wind power reserves are provided in
different combined ways between rotor speed control and
pitch angle control. With the coordinated control, the solid
line in Fig. 9c shows that the pitch angle control is activated
because only rotor speed regulation can hardly provide the
reserve margin in the medium wind speed case. The active
power output response to the frequency drops in an
extended time scale (see the solid line in Fig. 9b) through
reducing the pitch angle and rotor speed (see the solid lines
in Figs. 9c and d, respectively). Fig. 10d shows that the
rotor speed has to be maintained at the maximum value in
steady state as a wind turbine is not capable of working at
over-speed in the high wind speed case. The steady-state
frequency regulations are all completed by the pitch angle
control (see the solid line in Fig. 10c).
Figs. 8 10 show the effectiveness of the coordinated
control strategies for various wind speed regions. In case 1,

Fig. 9 Case 2 for medium wind speed (11 m/s)

a
b
c
d

System frequency
Output active power
Pitch angle
Rotor speed

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Fig. 10 Case 3 for high wind speed (14 m/s)

a
b
c
d

System frequency
Output active power
Pitch angle
Rotor speed

the pitch angle is kept at zero and the power is changed by the
adjustment of rotor speed. In case 2, the pitch angle and rotor
speed are both controlled to regulate the active power. In
case 3, the rotor speed is constrained at the maximum value
whereas the power generation is changed by pitch angle
control.

Discussion

Rotor speed control enables wind turbines to release more

kinetic energy because the wind turbine works in overspeed condition. Compared with pitch angle control, rotor
speed control is power electronic device-based, so the
execution of the control scheme is fast and without
mechanical wear. Thus, rotor speed control has a higher
priority in the coordinated principle and pitch angle control
is activated only if rotor speed regulation cannot satisfy the
power control, so as to protect the wind turbine from
frequent wear and tear of the blade and hub material.
The loading of generators also affects the dynamic
response of wind turbines. For instance, at the rated power,
DFIG could barely provide the required inertial response
without exceeding the rotor current limit. The dynamic
contribution is restricted because the rotor current has
already been around its maximum value and cannot be
increased much further [18]. Therefore the down-regulated
operation is necessary not only to keep steady-state power
reserves but also to leave the dynamic regulating margin.
The inertial response of DPin is just a control signal and can
be expressed in other forms rather than (1). For example, [19]
IET Renew. Power Gener., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, pp. 38 47
doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2010.0208

and [20] even dened Pin as a constant power for several

seconds. Therefore the form of Pin is exible corresponding
to the system features as long as the system is well
controlled [1].
This study assumes that the limits of dynamic system
frequency are within +5%, the dynamic range of the wind
turbine rotor speed is 0.6 1.3 p.u., the operating range of
the wind turbine rotor speed is 0.7 1.2 p.u. and the
reserve margin is 10%. In practice, the above parameters
should be decided according to the grid code, wind turbine
protection system parameters and wind turbine equipment
specications. Therefore the value of K is calculated based
on the practical characteristics of wind turbines and the
limits of dynamic system frequency. The 90% sub-optimal
operation is just used for the research objective and the
reserve margin depends on the grid code and operating
requirements. When the wind speed is very low, less
power down-regulation or MPPT operation may be a
good choice.
Note that additional but minor higher frequency
oscillations appear in the pitch angle and rotor speed in the
medium and high wind speed cases as shown in Figs. 9 and
10. The oscillations are caused by constant proportional
integral (PI) gains of pitch angle control as shown in Fig. 5.
In practice, constant PI gains are not adequate for effective
control because the sensitivity of aerodynamic power to
pitch angle varies considerably. The sensitivitys numerical
value enlarges as the pitch angle increases, thereby a linear
pitch angle control would result in instabilities at high wind
speeds [21]. Therefore the non-linear variation of the pitch
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www.ietdl.org
angle implies the necessity of a non-linear control. The study
by Hansen et al. [22] gives a solution of gain scheduling for
the pitch angle control and the control gain is linear with
respect to the sensitivity of aerodynamic power to pitch
angle. This study focuses on the inertial control and
coordinated control scheme design. To simplify the
simulation and modelling, this study utilises the constant PI
gain strategy. The simplication and the control effect are
acceptable for the research although there are some
oscillations. However, gain scheduling of pitch angle
control should be adopted for practical engineering.

Conclusions

This study presents a novel control scheme through

coordinating inertial, rotor speed and pitch angle controls to
allow DFIG-based wind power plants participating in
frequency regulation. In a short time scale, inertial control
enables the wind power plant to emulate an inertial
response like a synchronous generator. A new calculation
method for the gain (K ) of inertial control is proposed to
prevent the wind turbine from stalling. During an extended
time scale, this study presents a method of coordinating the
wind turbine rotor speed and pitch angle controls to
guarantee enough power regulation margin for the system.
The coordinated strategies between rotor speed and pitch
angle controls are divided into three wind speed modes: (i)
within the low wind speed region (cut-in speed 9.6 m/s),
the active power is regulated by rotor speed control and
pitch angle control is deactivated; (ii) within the medium
wind speed region (9.6 11.8 m/s), the active power is
regulated by both rotor speed and pitch angle controls;
(iii) within the high wind speed region (cut-out speed
11.8 m/s), rotor speed control is deactivated and pitch
angle control takes the responsibility to regulate the active
power of wind power plants.
In conclusion, the proposed frequency regulation is
generally suitable for different post-fault time scales: (i)
during transient, inertial control responds to reduce the
frequency change rate and lift the frequency nadir point; (ii)
in steady state, rotor speed control coordinated with pitch
angle control then releases the reserved power to support
the long-term frequency. Numerical simulation studies in
Section 4.2 show signicant improvements due to the
proposed coordinated regulation, during either transient or
steady-state process. The main frequency indices examined
by grid codes are, of course, appropriately controlled within
secure limitations.
This coordinated control scheme is valuable for some
countries or regions with a large amount of wind power
integrated, but with insufcient local load to consume the
generated wind power. One typical application might be to
convert part of the wind generation into primary or
secondary reserves in the western provinces of China in
future. In this way, the high wind power curtailment as
mentioned in Section 1 will be reduced, which contributes
to a win win situation for both wind farm owners and grid
operators.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Vestas Technology R&D

Singapore Pte Ltd and by National High-Technology
Research and Development Program (863 Program) of
China (2011AA05A103).
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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012

References

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similar manner of conventional power plant, IEEE Trans. Energy
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12 Chang-Chien, L.R., Lin, W.T., Yin, Y.C.: Enhancing frequency
response control by DFIGs in the high wind penetrated power
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13 Luo, C., Far, H.G., Banakar, H., Keung, P.K., Ooi, B.T.: Estimation of
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Wind Farms, Bremen, Germany, October 2009, pp. 16
21 Jonkman, J., Buttereld, S., Musial, W., Scott, G.: Denition of a
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DIgSILENT (Ris DTU, 2007, 2nd edn.)

9
9.1

Appendix
DFIG parameters

DFIG: Apparent power S 5 MW (unity factor), the number

of pole pairs p 3, rated synchronous speed
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www.ietdl.org
vsn 1000 rpm, nominal rotor speed vrn 1200 rpm
(1.2 p.u.), gearbox ratio n 100, speed adjustment rate
R 10%, blade radius r 60 m, generator inertia moment
Jgen 100 kg m2, and turbine inertia moment Jtur
6 100 000 kg m2.
Pitch angle controller: servo time constant Tservo 1.5 s,
pitch angle change rate limit +88/s, maximum pitch
angle bmax 708, and minimum pitch angle bmin 08.
Approximation formulae of aerodynamic efciency Cp are
Cp = 0.22(116z 0.4b 5)e
z=

12.5z

1
0.035

l + 0.08b 1 + b3

(10)
(11)

where l is the tip speed ratio and b is the pitch angle.

Optimal aerodynamic Copt 0.4382, and optimal tip speed
ratio lopt 6.325. The mechanical active power is

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doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2010.0208

estimated by
1
Pm = rpr2 Cp Vw3
2

(12)

where r 1.225 kg/m3 is the air density.

9.2

Other parameters [18]

Diesel generator: apparent power 8 MVA, rated power

factor 0.8, and inertia constant 2 s. Governor
(gov_IEESGO in PowerFactory): T1 0.3 s, T2 5 s,
T3 11.88 s, T4 0.1 s, K1 25 (means the speed
adjustment rate 4%), K3 1, Pmax 0.95 p.u., the other
parameters are 0. AVR (avr_SEXS in PowerFactory):
Tb 20 s, Ta 4 s, Te 0.1 s, K 400 p.u., Emax 4 p.u.,
Emin 24 p.u.
Transmission line: voltage level 30 kV, reactance
0.12 V/km, and resistance 0.125 V/km.

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