Active and reactive power control of a brushless doubly fed reluctance machine using high order sliding modes

This article develops a decoupled active and reactive power control for a variable-speed constant-frequency (VSCF) power generation system based on a brushless doubly fed reluctance machine. This machine is a forthcoming low cost candidate for applications with limited variable speed requirements such as pumping and wind generation. Basically, it allows the use of a partially rated power electronic converter and, at the same time, offers a reliable and maintenance-free operation because of its brushless feature. The control design is approached through second order sliding mode techniques. This theoretical framework permits to deal with systems described by perturbed nonlinear dynamic models, obtaining simple controllers with a finite time reaching phase and a chattering free behavior. The controller performance is assessed through exhaustive simulations.