Half-controlled-converter-fed open-winding permanent magnet synchronous generator for wind applications

The configuration and control of two cascaded half-controlled-converters (HCC) designed for use with an open-winding permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) wind turbine are investigated in this paper. The system is modeled and simulated in Simulink with the assistance of PLECS. The simulations results demonstrate that by using speed-control-based hysteresis current regulator, pure sinusoidal phase current waveforms can be achieved in the machine windings at various power factors. Compared to an open-winding PMSG fed by two cascaded voltage source converters, the proposed system requires fewer switches but provides identical excellent performance and good fault tolerance. The proposed system is also free of shoot-through issues. Although HCC allows only unidirectional power flow, this is typically not an issue in the wind power applications.