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the tower, rotor and nacelle equivalent mass and K
t
and D
t
denotes the tower spring and damping constants.
The actuators are assumed linear under the assumption
that a low-level controller, for example, proportional–
integral–differential (PID) or some type of nonlinear
controller, for example [15], is operating in closed
loop with the actuator mechanics. The pitch actuator
dynamics, including local low-level controller, are described
by a second-order ordinary differential equation, an
approximation which under the proper conditions can be
justified [16]
¨
θ + 2ζ
θ
ω
θ
˙
θ + ω
2
θ
θ = ω
2
θ
θ
ref
(13a )
subject to
θ
min
˙
θ
min
≤
θ
˙
θ
≤
θ
max
˙
θ
max
(13b)
where ω
θ
and ζ
θ
are the natural frequency and damping
ratio of the actuator and θ
ref
is the reference signal from
the controller. The generator torque actuator is described by
a first-order ordinary differential equation [17]
˙
Q
g
+ τ
−1
g
Q
g
= τ
−1
g
Q
g
ref
(14a )
subject to
Q
g,min
˙
Q
g,min
≤
Q
g
˙
Q
g
≤
Q
g,max
˙
Q
g,max
(14b)
where τ
g
is the time constant of the generator torque actuator
and Q
g
ref
is the reference signal from the controller.
The components can be gathered into a nonlinear model
composed of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation
f : R
n+n
u
→ R
n
, a state noise matrix G ∈ R
n×n
e
and a
measurement equation g : R
n+n
u
→ R
n
y
˙x(t) = f (x(t), u(t)) + Gw(t) (15a )
y(t) = g(x(t), u(t)) + v(t) (15b)
that describes the relationship between the state vector x ∈
R
n
x
, the input vector u ∈ R
n
u
, the output vector y ∈ R
n
y
and the state and measurement noise vectors w ∈ R
n
w
and
v ∈ R
n
y
, respectively, of the complete design model. These
vectors contain the following variables
x =[
r
g
φψ
t
˙
ψ
t
V
eff
˙
V
eff
θ
˙
θ Q
g
]
T
u =[θ
ref
Q
g,ref
]
T
w =[e]
T
y =[
r
g
¨
ψ
t
θ
˙
θ
¨
θ Q
g
˙
Q
g
P
e
]
T
The nonlinear model can be linearised using first-
order Taylor series approximation where δ denotes small
variations away from the linearisation point, which in this
case is equivalent with equilibrium points for a given
wind speed. The linearised model is time-discretised by the
zero-order-hold method [18] into the form
δx
k+1
= Aδx
k
+ Bδu
k
+ Gw
k
, w ∈ N (0, R
w
) (16a )
δy
k
= Cδx
k
+ Dδu
k
+ v
k
, v ∈ N (0, R
v
) (16b)
where the subscript k refers to the discrete points in time t
k
.
The state, input and output vectors are related in a linear way
via the matrices A
∈ R
n
x
×n
x
, B ∈ R
n
x
×n
u
, C ∈ R
n
y
×n
u
and D ∈
R
n
y
×n
u
. Note the small variations symbol δ has been omitted
from the remainder of this paper to simplify notation.
3 Hybrid controller setup
The term hybrid controller relates to the fact that four
controllers, named K
I
–K
IV
, are active under different
operating conditions governed by a switching mechanism.
The primary static objective of the wind turbine control
system is to optimise power production for the given wind
speed. Load reduction is a typical secondary objective,
which shall however not be discussed further in this section.
The primary objective for a given wind speed can be
formulated as the constrained minimisation of nonlinear
quadratic cost function concerning generator power. An
additional term concerning generator speed is included in
the cost function, this term is only active when the first
term concerning power is zero. The steady state constrained
optimisation problem for a given wind speed is
min
g
,θ
(P
e
− P
nom
)
2
+ w (
g
−
g,nom
)
2
(17a )
where
w =
0, for P
e
= P
nom
1, for P
e
= P
nom
subject to
0 = f (x, u) (17b)
g
∈[
g,low
,
g,nom
] (17c)
θ ∈[θ
min
, θ
max
] (17d)
where the equality constraint (17b) ensures steady state
operation. The generator speed and pitch angle are limited to
certain ranges (17c) and (17d). The terms min/max indicate
constraints to be respected, whereas low/nom indicate lower
and upper set points that should be tracked. As explained
later in this section the actual set point depends on the given
wind speed: for low wind speed the low set point is tracked,
for mid-range wind speeds the set point is between ‘low’ and
‘nom’ and for high wind speeds the set point is ‘nom’. Set
points are not respected in the same way as constraints and
for example generator speed is allowed to vary around its
given set point, whereas for example, the pitch angle cannot
go beyond its min/max limits. The distinction between
min/max and low/nom is maintained throughout this paper.
There are also other constraints such as pitch rate and
acceleration limits etc. but these velocity constraints are not
active during the present steady state optimisation sweep,
as velocities and accelerations are zero at steady state.
Above rated wind speeds, where the generator power is
at its nominal value, there is no unique solution for the
optimisation problem. The pitch angle and generator speed
could have any number of solutions as long as they are on
the appropriate contour line of the C
P
curve. The generator
speed weight w ensures that for above rated wind speed
there is a unique solution with generator speed at its nominal
value.
The optimisation gives the characteristic diagrams for
generator power, generator speed and pitch angle against
wind speed as seen in Fig. 1. Four regions of operation
O ∈ (I, ...,IV) also denoted (O
I
, ..., O
IV
) respectively, are
derived from (17). The regions and their respective primary
control objectives are as follows:
• O
I
: Optimise power. Generator speed at lower level. Pitch
angle fixed at its minimum value.
1724 IET Control Theory Appl., 2012, Vol. 6, Iss. 11, pp. 1722–1734
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2012 doi: 10.1049/iet-cta.2011.0488