MODELLING THE PROVISION OF INERTIAL RESPONSE

FROM VARIABLE SPEED WIND TURBINES

L. Wu, D. Infield
Institute for Energy and Environment,
University of Strathclyde, UK
[email protected]

Keywords: Frequency response, inertial response, recovery wind generation and electrical load, such a frequency
period, variable speed wind turbine, wind variation. response service will become increasingly important to the
operation and control of smaller power systems like those of
Abstract Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. A number of papers
have been published suggesting different ways of providing
One of the key issues around wind energy is how to provide this service.
acceptable power system frequency control in the context of
high wind penetration. The time varying nature of intermittent Ekanayake et al. have shown that by introducing a
wind generation acts as a continuous disturbance to the power supplementary control loop a doubly fed induction generator
system. Wind turbines can be controlled to make a can supply a significant amount of extra power in response to
contribution to frequency response, in particular inertial changes in system frequency, compared to that of a fixed
response, although variations in wind speed mean that this speed induction generator[3]. Morren et al. have examined
potential must be assessed probabilistically. A wind turbine two different control strategies that respectively use the
model is presented and used to show the impact of wind derivative of system frequency and the deviation of system
speed transients on inertial response from a variable speed frequency from the nominal value to trigger the additional
wind turbine. controller and consequently release additional power[4].
Ullah et al. have quantified the maximum power surge
1 Introduction available to provide frequency control support and
investigated possible scenarios by varying the physical
Power system frequency rate of change is a direct measure of parameters of wind turbines. The contribution of this
the balance between generation and demand[1]. When a frequency control support has been justified in the context of
sudden loss in generation or increase in demand occurs on the a hydro-dominated power system[5]. O’Malley et al. have
system, a change in system frequency will follow that reflects suggested that in the Ireland electricity system, fixed speed
the imbalance in generation and demand. As a result, each wind turbines have no significant impact on the frequency
synchronously connected turbine-generator decelerates or minimum immediately following a loss in generation in
accelerates as kinetic energy is released or absorbed in contrast with doubly fed induction generator-based wind
response to changes in system frequency; this is referred to as turbines[6].
inertial response. The rate of change of frequency will depend
on the initial power mismatch and total power system inertia. Tarnowski et al. have investigated the capability of a variable
Because most power systems have considerable inertia (both speed wind turbine to provide frequency response service.
from generation and demand) the initial rate of change of They show that a variable speed wind turbine with doubly fed
frequency is limited, and this allows sufficient time for slower induction generator can provide an active power surge of 0.2
generation to respond to stabilize the system frequency. These per unit for at least 10 seconds. However, the recovery period
slower changes are also important to restore the power system that follows the power surge may compromise the arresting of
to acceptable operation and include continuous regulation system frequency fall when the wind turbine has to reduce its
where generation under governor control responds to stabilise active power output by a few percent in order to restore its
frequency and also so called primary and secondary response rotor speed back to the normal operational range [7]. This
where the outputs of plant are adjusted, the latter two are may impair the recovery of power system frequency and is an
differentiated by their timescales of response. important point not noted by all researchers. Due to the wind
turbine rotor aerodynamic characteristics there will, in
Until recently wind turbines have not been required to general, be some net energy loss from the wind turbine
provide inertial response, but some grid codes now include associated with the provision of inertial response.
specific requirements for such services[2]. As the wind
penetration increases on power systems, the proportion of To date most studies of wind turbine control for inertial
demand supplied by wind generation will rise substantially. response have been restricted to constant wind conditions. In
Taking into account of the time varying nature of intermittent reality wind turbines providing frequency response will be
operating under a wide range of wind conditions. Even within 2.2 Drive train
a wind farm, turbulent wind variation means that not all
turbines will or can respond in exactly the same way to a fall Imbalance between the aerodynamic torque and demanded
in system frequency. In this paper we examine the provision torque (determined through control of the power electronics
of inertial response from a variable speed wind turbine and its of the variable speed drive) will result in an accelerating or
dependence both on wind speed and wind ramp rates during decelerating torque given by the following equation:
ௗఠ
the transient event. ‫ ܬ‬ௗ௧ = ܶ௔௘௥௢ െ ܶௗ (2)
where ‫ ܬ‬is the total inertia of the drive train system including
The paper is organized in the following way. Section 2 rotor, gearbox, shafts couplings etc, and the generator (note
describes the modelling of a variable speed wind turbine. that the generator inertia has been referred to low speed side),
Section 3 explains how to deliver inertial response from a ߱ is the mechanical rotational speed of the rotor, ܶ௔௘௥௢ and ܶௗ
variable speed wind turbine and the energy price that has to are the aerodynamic torque supplied to the system and the
be paid for it. Finally, conclusions and proposals for future torque extracted from the system at the generator (sometimes
research are presented in section 4. called the air gap torque).

2 Wind turbine modelling The inertia constant ‫ ܪ‬is defined as the ratio of kinetic energy
stored in the rotor at nominal speed to the nominal power of
A suitably detailed model of a conventional medium-scale up- the machine and is given by[1]:
wind, three-bladed wind turbine, rated at 3 MW, has been ଵ ௃ఠ మ
developed for this study. As required to facilitate inertial ‫ = ܪ‬ଶ ௉బ (3)
response the turbine has a pitch-regulated, variable speed where ‫ ܬ‬is the equivalent inertia of the machine, ߱଴ is the
rotor. rated rotor speed, and ܲ is the rated power. The inertia
constant ‫ ܪ‬of wind turbine used in this study is 7.2 ‫ ݏ‬and was
2.1 Rotor aerodynamics taken from a commercial design.

A central function of the rotor aerodynamics sub-model is to 2.3 Turbine controller

calculate the aerodynamic power of the rotor. It is based on
the following steady state equation: In the below rated operating region the rotor is regulated to
ܲ௔௘௥௢ = 0.5ߩ‫ܷܣ‬ଷ ‫ܥ‬௉ (ߣ, ߠ) (1) maximize energy capture by tracking the optimum power
where ܲ௔௘௥௢ is the aerodynamic power captured by the rotor, coefficient curve[8]. Maximum aerodynamic efficiency is
ߩ is the air density in ݇݃Τ݉ଷ , ‫ ܣ‬is the area swept by the rotor achieved at the optimum tip speed ratio ߣ = ߣ௢௣௧ , at which
blades in ݉ଶ, ܷ is the wind speed in ݉Τ‫ݏ‬, and ‫ܥ‬௉ is the the power coefficient ‫ܥ‬௣ has its maximum value ‫ܥ‬௣(௠௔௫) .
power coefficient defined in the conventional manner and is a Since the rotor speed ߱ is then proportional to wind speed ܷ,
measure of the aerodynamic efficiency of the rotor. the power increases with ܷ ଷ and ߱ଷ , and the torque with ܷ ଶ
and ߱ଶ .
0.5

0.45 In the steady state therefore, the optimum tip speed ratio can
0.4 be maintained by setting the demanded torque, ܶௗ , to balance
0.35 the aerodynamic torque.
0.3
The optimum torque is then given by
Cp

0.25

0.2
ܶ = ‫ܭ‬௢௣௧ ߱ଶ (4)
where ‫ܭ‬௢௣௧ is the constant (controller gain) for the tracking of
0.15
the maximum power coefficient curve:
0.1
஼
0.05
‫ܭ‬௢௣௧ = 0.5ߩߨܴହ ఒುయ (5)
0 In the above rated operating region, actual rotor speed
0 5 10 15 20
Lamda exceeds reference rotor speed. The pitch control loop starts to
Figure 1: Wind turbine ‫ܥ‬௉ - ߣ curve progressively regulate the blades in order to limit the
aerodynamic power and prevent the rotor speed from getting
This power coefficient depends on the blade pitch angle ߠ, too large. The error between the actual and reference rotor
itself adjusted by the pitch control system, and ߣ, the tip speed is sent to a PI control loop and the output of the pitch
speed ratio defined as ܴ߱Τܷ, where ߱ is the rotational speed control loop is the demanded pitch angle for pitch
mechanism.
of the rotor in ‫ ݀ܽݎ‬Τ‫ ݏ‬and ܴ is the radius of the rotor in
metres. In the model the dependence of ‫ܥ‬௉ on ߠ and ߣ is
represented by interpolation of a look up table based on 2.4 Electrical sub-system
aerodynamic calculations. The turbine ‫ܥ‬௉ -ߣ curve for an In a modern wind turbine, the electrical sub-system has a
unpitched blade ( ߠ = 0 ) is shown in Fig. 1. much smaller time constant than the mechanical sub-system
and so in this work, it is assumed that the electrical sub-
system can perform instantaneously as required by wind
turbine controller. This greatly simplifies the modelling but
should have minimal impact on the delivery of inertial
response. Examination of whether wind turbine electrical and
mechanical components can withstand short term operation at
over their ratings is out of the scope of present study.
However, this is important for cost effective provision of
Figure 2: Inertial controller schematic
inertial response and will be assessed in future work.
In this paper, for simplicity and generalisability a fixed rate of
3 Delivering inertial response ௗ௙
fall of frequency event (i.e. with ௗ௧ constant) is used to
Power system inertia can be defined as the total amount of examine the provision of inertial response from variable
kinetic energy stored in all rotating generators (turbines and speed wind turbines. Note that National Grid, the
rotors) and motors that are synchronously connected to the Transmission System Operator in Great Britain, have
network (or near synchronously connected in the case of described a typical frequency event in [10], but for research
induction generators and motors)[1]. The inertia of variable purposes at this stage this is too complex and introduces too
speed wind turbines is completely decoupled from the system many other implicit factors.
frequency by power electronic converters[9]. Thus without
additional control wind capacity based on such turbines will Figure 3 shows the aerodynamic power input and electrical
not contribute to power system inertia. To make matters power output when the inertial controller is activated at 400s
worse, this type of wind generation capacity is likely to and for duration of 10s and with ‫ܭ‬௜ set to 0.5 per unit. This
increasingly displace conventional generation thereby delivers an inertial response peaking at over 50% above the
reducing overall system inertia. It could lead to substantial initial value being generated. It can be observed that the
erosion in power system frequency control and system aerodynamic power input is almost constant throughout the
stability. Significant increases in fast response reserve might transient despite the reduction in rotor speed during the time
be needed which would be expensive and would lead to period of providing inertial response. This is due to the flat-
higher overall energy costs. topped ‫ܥ‬௉ - ߣ curve as shown in Fig.1. It can be seen that the
electrical power output decreases slightly during the time
As discussed above, the provision of inertial response from period of providing inertial response because ܶ௥௘௙ reduces
variable speed wind turbines can be obtained by controlling along with the rotor speed and ܶ௜௡௘௥௧௜௔ is of course constant.
the power output in response to frequency changes thereby
making variable speed wind turbines appear more like 0.4
power aero
conventional generators with synchronously connected power elec
0.35
inertia.
0.3
The following section explains how variable speed wind
0.25
turbines can be controlled to provide inertial response and
power (pu)

what the energy consequences are. 0.2

0.15
3.1 Inertial control
0.1
The principle of inertial control is to modify the demanded
torque in response to a change in system frequency by adding 0.05

an extra torque term. The modified demanded torque is then

0
given by: 390 400 410 420 430 440 450
time (s)
ܶௗ = ܶ௥௘௙ + ܶ௜௡௘௥௧௜௔ (6)
This can be written as: Figure 3: Power vs time for constant wind speed of 6 ݉Τ‫ݏ‬
ௗ௙ with 10s inertial response duration
ܶௗ = ‫ܭ‬௢௣௧ ߱ଶ + ‫ܭ‬௜ ௗ௧
(7)
ௗ௙
where ‫ܭ‬௜ is the inertial control coefficient and ௗ௧ is the rate of If the duration of the inertial response is extended from 10 to
change of frequency. The supplementary control is 15 seconds, then the rotor is slowed to 0.7 per unit resulting in
represented in Fig. 2. a significant reduction in tip speed ratio and thus ‫ܥ‬௉ , as
shown in Figures 4 to 6.
 0.4
power aero
recovery period is much less an issue here because the pitch
0.35
power elec controller acts to increase the aerodynamic power input as the
rotor speed falls.
0.3 1.5
power aero
1.4 power elec
0.25
power (pu)

1.3
0.2
1.2

power (pu)
0.15
1.1

0.1
1

0.05 0.9

0 0.8
390 400 410 420 430 440 450
time (s)
0.7

Figure 4: Power vs time for constant wind speed of 6 ݉Τ‫ݏ‬ 0.6

390 400 410 420 430 440 450
with 15s inertial response duration time (s)
10
lamda with 10s duration Figure 7: Power vs time constant wind speed 12 ݉Τ‫ݏ‬
9.5 lamda with 15s duration

9 As mentioned above, it is assumed here that the wind turbine

8.5 can withstand short term over-rated operation for all the
8
simulations shown. As will be discussed later, this may not in
practice be acceptable.
lamda

7.5

7
3.2 Energy loss
6.5
It has been mentioned that the provision of inertial response
6
results in some loss of wind power generation if the recovery
5.5
to nominal operational conditions is considered, i.e. that there
5
390 400 410 420 430 440 450
is no net loss of wind turbine rotor speed over the time period
time (s) considered (in this case 40 seconds). The magnitude of this
Figure 5: TLSVSHHGUDWLRȜYVWLPHDWZLQGVSHHGRI݉Τ‫ݏ‬ energy loss depends on the amount of inertial response
for inertial response durations of 10 and 15 seconds required; specifically it is determined by the minimum speed
0.5
Cp with 10s duration
to which the rotor is allowed to fall, all other factors being
0.48 Cp with 15s duration equal. The model has been used to quantify this energy loss.
0.46
Net loss aero with 10s duration
0.44 Net loss aero with 15s duration

0.42 0.25
Cp

0.4
0.2
net loss (pu)

0.38

0.36
0.15
0.34

0.32 0.1

0.3
390 400 410 420 430 440 450
time (s) 0.05

Figure 6: ‫ܥ‬௉ vs time at wind speed of 6.0 ݉Τ‫ ݏ‬for inertial

response durations of 10 and 15 seconds 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Ki (pu)
,W FDQ EH VHHQ IURP )LJ  WKDW WKH WLS VSHHG UDWLR Ȝ GURSV Figure 8: Average power deficit vs inertia control constant at
significantly when the duration of inertial response is wind speed of 6.0 ݉Τ‫ ݏ‬for inertial response durations of
increased from 10 to 15 seconds. 10 and 15 seconds
Figure 6 shows the same response but in terms of time It can be seen in Fig. 8 that at 6 ݉Τ‫ ݏ‬the net energy loss over
variation of the power coefficient ‫ܥ‬௉ . the complete transient (here taken as 40 seconds) increases
with the magnitude of the inertial response (governed by ‫ܭ‬௜ ).
And finally, Figure 7 shows that the transient response for a For ease of interpretation the energy loss has been represented
wind speed of 12 ݉Τ‫ݏ‬, just above rated wind speed. The as a mean power loss (in per unit) over the 40 second period
of the transient including recovery. The first line represents 1
power aero
0.9 power elec
net power average deficit as a function of the inertial control
0.8
constant for inertial response duration of 10 seconds, in this 0.7
case at constant wind speed of 6 ݉Τ‫ݏ‬. The other line

power (pu)
0.6
represents net power average deficit as a function of the 0.5

inertial control constant for duration of 15 seconds. The net 0.4

loss increases when more energy is extracted to provide a 0.3

greater inertial response. These energy costs appear very 0.2

small unless the rotor is allowed to slow down excessively as 0.1

with the 15 second response duration. It should be noted that 0

390 400 410 420 430 440 450
time (s)
the per unit normalisation is the power before the transient
Figure 10: Power vs time with wind speed linearly ramping
(i.e. in this case 0.46 MW).
x 10
6
up from 6 to 10 ݉Τ‫ ݏ‬within 10 seconds.
1
Net loss elec 1
power aero
Net loss mech
0.9 power elec
0
0.8
net loss (ࢃ)

0.7
-1

power (pu)
0.6

-2 0.5

0.4
-3
0.3

0.2
-4
0.1

0
-5 390 400 410 420 430 440 450
0 5 10 15
time (s)
U (࢓ Τ࢙)
Figure 9: Average power deficit vs wind speed Figure 11: Power vs time with wind speed linearly ramping
down from 10 to 6 ݉Τ‫ ݏ‬within 10 seconds.
Figure 9 shows the net energy loss across the wind speed
range from cut in to above rated power. At some point around In order to clearly see the dynamics during the transient, the
rated wind speed (11.5 ݉Τ‫)ݏ‬, there will be no energy loss and ramp duration has been set to 10 seconds. Despite the
above this the wind turbine gains energy over the transient increase in aerodynamic power due to the wind speed
time period. As shown in Fig. 7, over rated wind speed, the increase (in the ramp up case), the rotor is decelerated to
wind turbine can provide a power surge to support system deliver the inertial response. The rate of speed reduction will
frequency control without any power recovery period, in however be reduced because of the first term in Equation 7.
contrast with the energy loss at low and medium wind speeds. 1.8
rotor speed without wind ramps
rotor speed with wind ramps
However, this energy gain is obtained at the cost of 1.6
significantly overloading the wind turbine drive train and
generator and in practice is unlikely to be acceptable due to
rotor speed (rad/s)

1.4

excessive wear and damage. The consequence of this would

1.2
be that no inertial response can be provided from wind
turbines operating at rated power or above. In the end 1

economic consequences will determine the design of the

0.8
inertial response controller, but for now it would be safe to
conclude that inertial response is only available from the 0.6
390 400 410 420 430 440 450
turbines that are operating at below related power at any time (s)

particular time. Figure 12: Rotor speed vs time constant wind and wind speed
ramping up from 6 to 10 mΤs within 10 seconds.
0.5
3.3 Wind speed ramps 0.48
Cp without wind ramps
Cp with wind ramps

Finally, we explore the impact of wind variation through the 0.46

0.44
transient inertial response event. For simplicity we assume
0.42
Cp (rad/s)

linear wind ramps during the time period of interest.

0.4

0.38
Figure 10 shows the aerodynamic and electrical power output 0.36
when the wind speed linearly ramps up from 6 to 10 mΤs. 0.34

The ramp starts at the same time as the inertial response and 0.32

has the same duration (10 seconds). Fig. 11 shows the 0.3
390 400 410 420 430 440 450
aerodynamic and electrical power output when the wind time (s)

speed linearly ramps down from 10 to 6 mΤs over the same Figure 13: ‫ܥ‬௉ vs time constant wind and wind speed ramping
period. up from 10 to 6 mΤs within 10 seconds.
 1.8
rotor speed without wind ramps inertial control constant, ‫ܭ‬௜ . The work also raises the issue of
rotor speed with wind ramps
1.7
whether any inertial response can be allowed from wind
1.6 turbines operating at rated power or above.
1.5
rotor speed (rad/s)

1.4 Future work will examine in more detail the loads on the
1.3 wind turbine. Models will be developed to quantify the
1.2 aggregate impact of a wind farm in terms of inertial response,
1.1 and then building on this, techniques for estimating whole
1 power system contributions to frequency regulation from the
0.9 wind capacity.
0.8
390 400 410 420 430 440 450
time (s)
Acknowledgements
Figure 14: Rotor speed vs time constant wind and wind speed
ramping down from 10 to 6 mΤs within 10 seconds. The EPSRC UK-China Wind Energy Grant (EP/FO61242/1)
0.48
Cp without wind ramps
and Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering (GRPe) are
Cp with wind ramps gratefully acknowledged for supporting this work.
0.475

0.47
References
Cp (rad/s)

0.465
[1] P. Kundur, et al., Power system stability and control.
New York ; London: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
0.46 [2] M. Tsili and S. Papathanassiou, "A review of grid
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0.455
Renewable Power Generation, IET, vol. 3, pp. 308-
0.45
332, 2009.
390 400 410 420
time (s)
430 440 450
[3] J. Ekanayake and N. Jenkins, "Comparison of the
Figure 15: ‫ܥ‬௉ vs time constant wind and wind speed ramping response of doubly fed and fixed-speed induction
generator wind turbines to changes in network
down from 10 to 6 mΤs within 10 seconds.
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[7] G. C. Tarnowski, et al., "Regulation and frequency
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plants," in Power and Energy Society General
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there exists an energy price to be paid for the inertial response
service. The ability of an individual turbine to deliver this
service has been shown to depend on the wind conditions
(wind speed and changes in wind speed). It also depends on
the desired duration of the inertial response and the
magnitude of the response as determined in this work by