Aitor J. Garrido

Modeling and Simulation of Wave Energy Generation Plants: Output Power Control

The control and simulation of the power delivered to the grid are becoming an important topic, particularly when the number of distributed power generation systems increases. In this paper, two different control schemes for an oscillating-water-column Wells-turbine-generator module are simulated, implemented, and compared. In the first method, the control system does appropriately adapt the slip of the induction generator according to the pressure drop entry in order to maximize the generated power, while in the second method, a traditional proportional-integral-derivative-based control is implemented in order to deal with the desired power-reference-tracking problem. It will be shown how the controllers avoid the stalling behavior and that the average power of the generator fed into the grid is significantly higher in the controlled cases than in the uncontrolled one while providing the desired output power.

Sliding-Mode Control of Wave Power Generation Plants

The worldwide demand for energy requires alternatives to fossil fuels and nuclear fission, so renewable resources, particularly ocean energy, are called to play a relevant role in a near future. In particular, the oscillating water column (OWC) is one of the most promising devices to harness energy from the sea, as it is the case of the Nereida project plant, located in the Basque coast of Mutriku. This kind of devices consists of a particular type of turbine and a doubly fed induction generator. The turbogenerator module is usually controlled using a traditional proportional-integral (PI)-based vector control scheme, which requires an accurate knowledge of the system parameters and lacks of robustness, limiting, in some cases, the power extraction. To avoid these drawbacks, a novel sliding-mode-control-based vector control scheme for the OWC plant is presented in this paper. This variable-structure control is intrinsically robust under parameter uncertainties, which always appear in real systems, and presents a convenient disturbance rejection. The stability of the proposed controller is analyzed using the Lyapunov theory. The performance of the control scheme presented is proved by comparing it to the traditional PI-based vector control scheme in a series of representative maximum power generation case studies. Both numerical simulations and experimental results show that the proposed solution provides high-performance dynamic characteristics, improving the power extraction in spite of parameter uncertainties and system disturbances.

Complementary Control of Oscillating Water Column-Based Wave Energy Conversion Plants to Improve the Instantaneous Power Output

In this paper, an oscillating water column-based wave energy conversion plant is modeled and controlled by means of two complementary control strategies in order to improve the conversion of wave energy into electric power. This wave power generation system consists of a capture chamber, a Wells turbine, and an induction generator. The improvement relays on the implementation of a control scheme that combines two different control methods: a rotational speed control and an airflow control implemented by means of a throttle valve in series with the turbine. The use of rotational speed control provides a fast way to react to the abrupt and short changes in the turbine speed, ensuring that the average power of the generator is adequately adjusted according to the incident wave power level. Besides, a throttle-valve is used to control the flow through the turbine so as to increase the amount of energy produced, particularly at the higher incident wave power levels. These two control strategies complement each other, maximizing and improving the quality of supply by controlling and smoothing the generated power for different scenarios of wave oscillations, variations of wave grouping, and changes in the sea state.

Fault-Ride-Through Capability of Oscillating-Water-Column-Based Wave-Power-Generation Plants Equipped With Doubly Fed Induction Generator and Airflow Control

The increasing use of distributed power-generation systems, as with the case of wave-power-generation plants, requires a reliable fault-ride-through capability. The effects of grid fault include uncontrolled turbogenerator acceleration, dangerous rotor peak currents, and high reactive-power consumption so that the plant may contribute to the voltage dip. A simple solution is automatic disconnection from the grid, but this policy could lead to a massive power-network failure. This is why new Grid Codes oblige these systems to remain connected to the grid. In this paper, an oscillating-water-column-based wave-power-generation plant equipped with a doubly fed induction generator is modeled and controlled to overcome balanced grid faults. The improvement relies on the implementation of a control scheme that suitably coordinates the airflow control, the active crowbar, and the rotor- and grid-side converters to allow the plant to remain in service during grid fault, contributing to its attenuation by supplying reactive power to the network and complying with new Grid Code requirements. The simulated results show that it obtains a great reduction of the rotor currents, improving the transients and avoiding rotor acceleration. Similar results are obtained from the experimental implementation.

Performance of an Ocean Energy Conversion System with DFIG Sensorless Control

The 2009/28/EC Directive requires Member States of the European Union to adopt a National Action Plan for Renewable Energy. In this context, the Basque Energy Board, EVE, is committed to research activities such as the Mutriku Oscillating Water Column plant, OWC. This is an experimental facility whose concept consists of a turbine located in a pneumatic energy collection chamber and a doubly fed induction generator that converts energy extracted by the turbine into a form that can be returned to the network. The turbo-generator control requires a precise knowledge of system parameters and of the rotor angular velocity in particular. Thus, to remove the rotor speed sensor implies a simplification of the hardware that is always convenient in rough working conditions. In this particular case, a Luenberger based observer is considered and the effectiveness of the proposed control is shown by numerical simulations. Comparing these results with those obtained using a traditional speed sensor, it is shown that the proposed solution provides better performance since it increases power extraction in the sense that it allows a more reliable and robust performance of the plant, which is even more relevant in a hostile environment as the ocean.

Low Effort Nuclear Fusion Plasma Control Using Model Predictive Control Laws

One of the main problems of fusion energy is to achieve longer pulse duration by avoiding the premature reaction decay due to plasma instabilities. The control of the plasma inductance arises as an essential tool for the successful operation of tokamak fusion reactors in order to overcome stability issues as well as the new challenges specific to advanced scenarios operation. In this sense, given that advanced tokamaks will suffer from limited power available from noninductive current drive actuators, the transformer primary coil could assist in reducing the power requirements of the noninductive current drive sources needed for current profile control. Therefore, tokamak operation may benefit from advanced control laws beyond the traditionally used PID schemes by reducing instabilities while guaranteeing the tokamak integrity. In this paper, a novel model predictive control (MPC) scheme has been developed and successfully employed to optimize both current and internal inductance of the plasma, which influences the L-H transition timing, the density peaking, and pedestal pressure. Results show that the internal inductance and current profiles can be adequately controlled while maintaining the minimal control action required in tokamak operation.

Robust Sliding Mode Control for Tokamaks

Nuclear fusion has arisen as an alternative energy to avoid carbon dioxide emissions, being the tokamak a promising nuclear fusion reactor that uses a magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus. However, different kinds of magnetohydrodynamic instabilities may affect tokamak plasma equilibrium, causing severe reduction of particle confinement and leading to plasma disruptions. In this sense, numerous efforts and resources have been devoted to seeking solutions for the different plasma control problems so as to avoid energy confinement time decrements in these devices. In particular, since the growth rate of the vertical instability increases with the internal inductance, lowering the internal inductance is a fundamental issue to address for the elongated plasmas employed within the advanced tokamaks currently under development. In this sense, this paper introduces a lumped parameter numerical model of the tokamak in order to design a novel robust sliding mode controller for the internal inductance using the transformer primary coil as actuator.

SVPWM Variable Structure Control of Induction Motor Drives

This paper presents a new proposal of speed vector control of induction motors based on robust adaptive VSC (variable structure control) law and its experimental validation. The presented control scheme incorporates the SVPWM (space vector pulse width modulation) instead of the traditional current hysteresis comparator. The SVPWM improves the quality of the stator currents, reducing the harmonics, while maintains the main characteristics that is usual in this kind of algorithm, like the fast response and good rejection to uncertainties and measurement noises. This regulator is also compared with the PI (proportional integral) controller designed in the frequency domain, in order to prove the good performance of the proposed controller. The two controllers have been tested using various simulation and real experiments, taking into account the parameter uncertainties and measurement noise in the loop signal, in the rotor speed and in the stator current. This work shows that the VSC regulator is more efficient than the traditional PI controller in both adverse conditions and suitable conditions. Finally, some practical recommendations for real experiment implementations are also given.

An Adaptive Variable Structure Control Law for Sensorless Induction Motors

This paper presents a new sensorless adaptive robust control for induction motor drives. The proposed design employs the so called vector (or field oriented) control theory for the induction motor drives and the designed control law is based on an integral sliding-mode algorithm that overcomes the system uncertainties. The proposed sliding-mode control law incorporates an adaptive switching gain that avoid calculating an upper limit of the system uncertainties. The design includes rotor speed estimation from measured stator terminal voltages and currents. The estimated speed is used as feedback in an indirect vector control system in order to achieve the speed control without the use of shaft mounted transducers. The stability analysis of the proposed controller under parameter uncertainties and load disturbances is provided using the Lyapunov stability theory. Finally simulated results show on the one hand that the proposed controller with the proposed observer provides high-performance dynamic characteristics, and on the other hand that this scheme is robust with respect to plant parameter variations and external load disturbances.

On the intrinsic limiting zeros as the sampling period tends to zero

It is rigorously proved that the limiting discrete zeros located at z=1 as the sampling period tends to zero are limiting intrinsic zeros (i.e., they do not appear if the continuous plant is zero-free). To prove that known result, it is not assumed as usual in the literature, that the plant is approximated by an integrator of order equal to its relative degree as the sampling period tends to zero. It Is also proved that limiting zeros at z=1 are present for any fractional zero-order hold (FROH), including the zero-order hold (ZOH) and the first-order hold (FOH), even when the continuous plant is of zero relative degree (i.e., biproper).