Power Electronic Based Emulation of Synchronous Generator With Improved Accuracy

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2020 IEEE International Conference on Power Systems Technology (POWERCON)

Power Electronic Based Emulation of Synchronous


Generator with Improved Accuracy
Kapil Upamanyu and G. Narayanan
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India
kapilu@iisc.ac.in, gnar@iisc.ac.in

Abstract—Existing methods of synchronous generator emula-


tion utilize simplified synchronous machine models which neglect
the effects of stator transients for calculating the terminal voltage. Electrical
These models are suitable when the load current consists of Load
only a fundamental frequency positive sequence component.
Unbalanced and non-linear loads draw currents having nega- Synchronous
tive sequence and other low-order harmonic contents as well. Generator
This paper details a method which takes into account the Fig. 1: A synchronous machine connected to an electrical load
stator transients for emulating a synchronous machine. The
performances of the emulated synchronous machines using the
proposed and conventional methods are compared with that of
an actual generator through simulations. The voltage and current reported in the literature [8]–[10]. These emulations are con-
waveforms of the actual generator are found to be much closer ducted considering balanced load conditions. Whereas, there
to those of the proposed emulator as compared to those of the are several loads in a microgrid which are unbalanced and
conventional emulator. The experimental waveforms of the two
emulators are observed to be similar to the simulated ones.
non-linear. The existing emulation methods are not suitable for
Index Terms—Power electronic based emulation, power hard- these conditions. This paper presents a synchronous generator
ware in loop simulation, real time simulation, stator transients, emulation method appropriate even for unbalanced and non-
synchronous machine linear loads.

I. I NTRODUCTION
II. C ONVENTIONAL S YNCHRONOUS G ENERATOR
Power converters are actively employed for emulation of E MULATION
various systems used in wide range of applications. Power
electronic based emulation are recently reported for transmis- This section presents the conventionally used method, em-
sion lines [1], [2], three-phase loads [3], power grid [4], battery ployed for power electronic based emulation of synchronous
energy storage system [5], and electric machines [6]–[9]. generator, to generate the terminal voltage references of the
Power electronic based emulation of electric machines is power amplifier from the measured load currents.
used for testing at developmental stages of various systems
such as motor drives and microgrids [6]–[9]. Power electronic
based emulation of a machine enables the testing of a system A. abc-dq Transformation of Measured Current
with the physical machine being unavailable. The system can The three-phase instantaneous measured currents (iabc ) are
also be tested for certain cases which might lead to unsuitable transformed into equivalent synchronously revolving two-
conditions for the machine. Moreover, the system can be tested
with machines having different sets of parameters.
Fig. 1 shows a synchronous generator connected to an
electrical load. The same electrical load connected to an emu- +
Power Electrical
lated synchronous generator is shown in Fig. 2. The terminal Amplifier Load
of the generators are replaced by the terminals of a power -
amplifier. The reference voltage signals to the power amplifier
are provided by a synchronous machine model computed in
real-time. The model utilizes the sensed load currents as its
input.
Synchronous generators constitute an important part of
a microgrid. Emulation of synchronous machines is widely
Synchronous Generator Model
This work was supported by the Department of Science and Technology,
Government of India, under a Fund for Improvement of Science & Technology Fig. 2: An emulated synchronous machine connected to an
Infrastructure (FIST) project titled Smart Energy Systems Infrastructure:
Hybrid Test Bed. electrical load

978-1-7281-6350-5/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE


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phase per unitized quantities idq using the following relation: where ωe is the instantaneous angular speed of the rotor. Tm
  and Te are the mechanical torque and electromagnetic torque,
i
A  a
 
iq respectively. D and H are the damping coefficient and inertia
= ib (1) constant of the rotor, respectively. The electromagnetic torque
id IB
ic of the generator Te is computed as:
where IB is the base value of the generator current and A is
Te = Eq0 iq + Ed0 id + (Xd0 − Xq0 )id iq (9)
the transformation matrix given as:
The value of the mechanical torque Tm can be kept constant
cos(θ − 2π cos(θ + 2π
 
2 cos(θ) 3 ) 3 )
A= (2) or obtained using a torque-frequency droop controller model.
3 − sin(θ) − sin(θ − 2π 2π
3 ) − sin(θ + 3 )
D. Terminal Voltage Reference Generation
Here, θ is the instantaneous angle between the axis of the rotor

and the axis of a-phase winding on the stator [11]. The instantaneous terminal voltage references (vabc ) for the
emulated synchronous generators are obtained through dq-abc
B. Computation of Stator Voltages transformation:
 ∗
The per-unitized terminal voltages of the generator in the va  
synchronously revolving frame of reference are computed vb∗  = VB A0 vq (10)
vd
using simplified stator voltage equations (see Fig. 3) [11]: vc∗
vd = Ed0 − Xq0 iq − Ra id (3) where VB is the base value of the generator voltage. A0 is
vq = Eq0 + Xd0 id − Ra iq (4) given as:
 
cos(θ) − sin(θ)
where Ra is the stator resistance, Xq0 and Xd0 are the q- and A0 = cos(θ − 2π 2π 
3 ) − sin(θ − 3 ) (11)
d-axes transient stator reactances, respectively, and Eq0 and Ed0 cos(θ + 3 ) − sin(θ + 2π

3 )
are the q- and d-axes flux induced EMFs, respectively. Eq0 and
Ed0 are computed using the following differential equations: III. P ROPOSED S YNCHRONOUS G ENERATOR E MULATION
dEq0 1 The proposed emulation of synchronous generator differs
= 0 (−Eq0 + (Xd − Xd0 )id + Efd ) (5)
dt Td0 from the conventional one in the process the stator voltages are
dEd0 1 computed (see Section II-B). This section describes in detail
= 0 (−Ed0 − (Xq − Xq0 )iq ) (6) the process of the computation of the stator voltages for the
dt Tq0
proposed synchronous generator emulation.
0 0
where Tq0 and Td0 are the q- and d-axes open-circuit time
constants, respectively. Efd is the equivalent field winding A. Computation of Stator Voltages
excitation. Efd is an input to the model. Its value can be kept The stator voltages are computed using simplified expres-
constant or obtained from an excitation control system model. sions (3) and (4) in the conventional method. These equa-
tions neglect the effects of the transformer voltages and the
C. Computation of Rotor Angle variation in the rotor speed [11]. The transformer voltages
The instantaneous value of the angle θ between the rotor
axis and the axis of a-phase stator winding is obtained using +
following differential equations: -


= ωe (7)
dt -
+ + +
dωe 1 + X -
= (Tm − Te − Dωe ) (8)
dt 2H

+ +
+ -

- -
+ + +
X -

- - +
+ + +

Fig. 3: Stator voltage calculation neglecting stator transients Fig. 4: Stator voltage calculation including stator transients
and variation in rotor speed and variation in rotor speed

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vanish in steady-state when the generator current consists only TABLE I: Generator parameters [11] and system parameters
of positive sequence fundamental component. In such cases, used for synchronous generator emulation
neglecting the stator transient voltage terms does not affect the Parameter Value Parameter Value Parameter Value
accuracy of the emulation adversely in steady-state. But when Xd (pu) 1.7572 Xq (pu) 1.5845 0 (s)
Td0 6.66
the load connected to emulated generator is unbalanced and/or Xd0 (pu) 0.4245 Xq0 (pu) 1.040 0 (s)
Tq0 0.44
Ra (pu) 0.0033 D (pu) 0 H (pu) 3.542
non-linear, the current drawn consists of low-order harmonic
Efd (pu) 1.5
√ Vdc (V ) 200 Tc (s) 0.0005
components. For such cases, the transient terms are significant IB (A) 10/ 3 VB (V ) 100 ωB (rad/s) 100π
and cannot be neglected for the sake of accuracy.
The per-unit voltages of the stator windings of a generalized
machine are given by [11]: where Tc is the time constant of the low-pass filter. The
transfer function of the differentiation of the resulting current
1 dψd
vd = − − ωe ψq − Ra id (12) is given by:
ωB dt
1 dψq sIx (s)
vq = − + ωe ψd − Ra iq (13) sIx0 (s) = (19)
ωB dt 1 + sTc
where ψd and ψq are the d- and q-axes flux linkages of the Forward Euler discretization of the above equation is ob-
stator, respectively. For a synchronous generator, these are tained as follows:
given by: I˙0 (s)
 
1
sIx0 (s) = Ix (s) − x (20)
Tc s
ψd = Xd0 id + Eq0 (14)
1
ψq = Xq0 iq − Ed0 (15) i˙0x [k] = (ix [k] − yx [k]) (21)
Tc
Therefore, the exact expressions of the stator voltages for a yx [k] = yx [k − 1] + Ts I˙x0 [k − 1] (22)
synchronous generator are: The above equations are diagrammatically shown in Fig. 5.
1 X 0 did dEq0 IV. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
vd = ωe Ed0 − ωe Xq0 iq − Ra id − − d (16)
ωB dt ωB dt
0 0 Simulated terminal voltage and current waveforms of the
1 dE Xq diq
vq = ωe Eq0 + ωe Xd0 id − Ra iq + d
− (17) emulated synchronous generator using the conventional and
ωB dt ωB dt proposed methods are compared with those of MATLAB-
The proposed method does not neglect the transient voltage Simulink library model of synchronous generator. The exper-
terms, and utilizes (16) and (17) for the computation of stator imental waveforms of the two emulated generators are also
voltages, as shown in Fig. 4. The model considered is shown presented.
to be resulting in a more accurate emulation of synchronous
A. System Description
generator for unbalanced and non-linear loads.
The parameters of the synchronous generator [11], whose
B. Computation of Derivatives of Current per-unit model is real-time computed, are presented in Table I.
The base values considered for the emulation are also provided
The derivative terms related to Eq0 and Ed0 are directly in the table. While the generator considered is originally rated
obtained from (5) and (6). But there are practical noise-related for 100 MVA, the emulation is carried out at a scaled down
issues with the computation of the derivative terms of iq power level with the base power rating of 1000 W. The power
and id . To overcome these issues, the current terms to be amplifier used is an open-loop controlled three-phase voltage
differentiated are replaced by their low-pass filtered quantities, source inverter without any power filter at its output, as shown
as suggested in [12]: in Fig. 6. Such a power amplifier is shown to be suitable for
Ix (s) power system loads, which are significantly inductive [10].
Ix0 (s) = , x ∈ {d, q} (18) Since the output of the amplifier is high frequency pulse width
1 + sTc
modulated voltage, the waveforms of the emulators presented

+ Pulse-width
-
+
-

Modulator
Modulation 1 PWM
Signals Signals +
+ 0
+
-1 -

Fig. 5: Discrete-time domain calculation of stator current Fig. 6: An open-loop controlled voltage source inverter as a
derivative power amplifier [4]

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a
nents. This can lead to ripples in the output of the excitation
a
control, i.e., in Efd . The comparison between the conventional
b b and proposed emulations is made by ignoring the dynamics of
c c the excitation controller by keeping the value of Efd constant.
(a) (b) The value of Efd is chosen as 1.5 p.u. to maintain the terminal
voltages close to unity. Two types of loads are considered:
Fig. 7: (a) Unbalanced and (b) non-linear loads to the emulated
unbalanced and non-linear, as shown in Fig. 7.
synchronous generators
The voltage source inverter used as power amplifier is an
IGBT-based stack as mentioned in [13]. The computation of
the synchronous generator model and the control of the voltage
are the reference voltages to the power amplifier instead of
source inverter are implemented using a Texas Instruments
the actual voltages.
DSP, TMS320F28377S [14].
The switching time period of the voltage source inverter and
the time step for the computation of the synchronous generator B. Unbalanced Load
model are kept same at Ts = 100 µs. The value of Tc is
chosen to be 500 µs, i.e., 5 times Ts . Higher values result in The simulated line-to-line voltage and phase current wave-
poor emulation of the high frequency harmonic components, forms of the conventional and proposed synchronous generator
while the lower values lead to noisy waveforms. The value emulators are shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b), respectively. The
considered is a reasonable trade-off between the accuracy and corresponding experimental waveforms are shown in Fig. 9(a)
the noise content of the emulated waveforms. and (b), respectively. The voltage and current waveforms of
The mechanical torque Tm is made to droop with ωe as the actual synchronous generator are also shown in the figures
follows: with dashed black traces.
Fig. 10(a) and (b) compare the frequency spectra of the
1 − ωe waveforms shown in Fig. 8 and 9, respectively. The graphs
Tm = 1 + (23)
0.05 are shown on a vertically zoomed scale. The magnitude of
When a synchronous generator feeds an unbalanced or a non- the harmonic components are normalized to the magnitude of
linear load, the terminal voltages contain harmonic compo- the fundamental component. Negative sequence and 3rd order

100 100
v ∗ (V)

v ∗ (V)

0 0
−100 −100

4 4
i (A)

i (A)

0 0
−4 −4
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
t (s) t (s)
(a) Conventional Emulator (a) Conventional Emulator

100 100
v ∗ (V)

v ∗ (V)

0 0
−100 −100

4 4
i (A)

i (A)

0 0
−4 −4
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
t (s) t (s)
(b) Proposed Emulator (b) Proposed Emulator

Fig. 8: Simulated responses of the emulated synchronous Fig. 9: Experimental responses of emulated synchronous gen-
generators for unbalanced load erators for unbalanced load

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16 16

Vn /V1 (%)

Vn /V1 (%)
8 8

0 0
In /I1 (%)

In /I1 (%)
20 Emulated − Con. 20 Emulated − Con.
Emulated − Pro. Emulated − Pro.
10 Actual Generator 10 Actual Generator

0 0
−3 −1 1 3 5 −3 −1 1 3 5
Order of Harmonic (n) Order of Harmonic (n)
(a) Simulated (b) Experimental

Fig. 10: Frequency spectra of voltage and current waveforms of emulated synchronous generators for unbalanced load

TABLE II: Harmonic content (in %) of the waveforms of the corresponding simulated responses. The experimental voltage
emulated synchronous generators with unbalanced load waveforms for the proposed emulator are more noisy due to
Quantity Conventional Emulated Proposed Emulated Actual the differentiation operations involved as compared to those
Sim. Exp. Sim. Exp. Generator of the conventional emulator. But the noise contents in the
V−1 /V1 7.25 7.08 5.23 4.68 5.92 current waveforms for the two cases are comparable.
V3 /V1 2.54 2.32 3.58 3.45 4.43
I−1 /I1 18.65 19.48 13.77 14.07 15.58
I3 /I1 2.29 2.62 3.10 3.30 3.89 C. Non-linear Load
Fig. 11(a) and (b) show the simulated waveforms of the
harmonic components of the line-to-line voltages (V−1 and line-to-line voltages and phase currents of the conventional
V3 ) and phase currents (I−1 and I3 ) for the three cases are and proposed emulators, respectively, for the non-linear load.
tabulated in Table II. The corresponding experimental waveforms are shown in Fig.
The experimental responses are in close agreement to the 12(a) and (b), respectively. The voltage and current waveforms

150 150
v ∗ (V)

v ∗ (V)

0 0
−150 −150

3 3
i (A)

i (A)

0 0

−3 −3
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
t (s) t (s)
(a) Conventional Emulator (a) Conventional Emulator

150 150
v ∗ (V)

v ∗ (V)

0 0
−150 −150

3 3
i (A)

i (A)

0 0

−3 −3
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
t (s) t (s)
(b) Proposed Emulator (b) Proposed Emulator

Fig. 11: Simulated responses of the emulated synchronous Fig. 12: Experimental responses of the emulated synchronous
generators for non-linear load generators for non-linear load

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16 16

Vn /V1 (%)

Vn /V1 (%)
8 8

0 0
In /I1 (%)

In /I1 (%)
20 Emulated − Con. 20 Emulated − Con.
Emulated − Pro. Emulated − Pro.
10 Actual Generator 10 Actual Generator

0 0
−11 −5 1 7 13 −11 −5 1 7 13
Order of Harmonic (n) Order of Harmonic (n)
(a) Simulated (b) Experimental

Fig. 13: Frequency spectra of voltage and current waveforms of emulated synchronous generators for non-linear load

TABLE III: Harmonic content (in %) of the waveforms of the their low-passed filtered equivalents. The proposed method
emulated synchronous generators for non-linear load utilizes an open loop controlled voltage source inverter without
Quantity Conventional Emulated Proposed Emulated Actual any filter as power amplifier, making the implementation easy.
Sim. Exp. Sim. Exp. Generator The effectiveness of the proposed emulator is demonstrated
V−11 /V1 0.99 0.80 0.92 1.48 3.97 though simulations and further validated through experiments.
V−5 /V1 6.07 4.98 12.34 10.87 14.83
V7 /V1 2.97 2.36 7.12 6.36 4.53 R EFERENCES
V13 /V1 0.43 0.27 0.77 0.89 1.89
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Power Electron., vol. 33, no. 12, pp. 10215-10228, Dec. 2018.
I13 /I1 1.82 1.73 0.80 0.68 1.11
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