IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO.

1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 541

PWM-Based Optimal Model Predictive Control for

Variable Speed Generating Units
Luca Bigarelli , Student Member, IEEE, Marco di Benedetto , Member, IEEE,
Alessandro Lidozzi , Member, IEEE, Luca Solero , Member, IEEE, Shafiq Ahmed Odhano , Member, IEEE,
and Pericle Zanchetta , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—This article investigates the dc-link voltage control of energy conversion systems where bulky mechanical gearboxes
an active rectifier that is supplied by a variable speed permanent are avoided for minimizing load on wind turbine towers [3]–[5].
magnet synchronous generator. This configuration is commonly With a direct-drive (gearless) permanent magnet synchronous
encountered in gearless wind energy conversion systems as well as
in variable speed generating units. The proposed control strategy generator (PMSG), a varying wind speed means variable fre-
uses an optimal voltage vector based modulated model predictive quency ac voltages being induced at the generator terminals. To
control (MPC) to achieve direct power control. The studied scheme be able to couple this variable frequency source with a constant
combines the advantages of finite control set MPC and control frequency grid, a power electronic interface is necessary.
techniques that use pulsewidth modulator. The fast dynamics of Most often, the power electronic interface consists of a diode
the former are obtained during large transients, and the constant
switching frequency operation, of the latter, is ensured in steady rectifier feeding a dc link at the output of which another power
state. At each sampling instant, all the switching states are evalu- electronic converter delivers power to the grid [6]. However,
ated and the two adjacent states that give minimum error in the a discontinuous conduction pattern in diode bridge rectifiers
controlled variables are selected. The duty cycle of each of these means greater current ripple and, hence, a substantial torque
vectors is computed through linear combination and appropriately ripple at the shaft [6]. An active front end (AFE) converter that
limited for overmodulation. Simulations and cosimulation results
presented in this article show interesting results. The control strat- replaces diodes with bidirectional power electronic switches
egy has been developed on a field-programmable gate array control alleviates this discontinuous conduction problem. The control
platform and experimental results at steady state are shown, with of this AFE converter has been widely reported in the literature
the aim to demonstrate the computational feasibility of the control [7]–[11].
strategy. An increasing research effort is directed toward model pre-
Index Terms—Direct power control, modulated model predictive dictive control (MPC) applications for AFE control [7], [8]. A
control (MPC), optimal voltage vectors, permanent magnet
synchronous generator (PMSG).
ripple-reduced model predictive direct power control of an AFE
is presented in [7]. The active and reactive power slopes are de-
I. INTRODUCTION termined based on the system state equations. Using these power
ERMANENT magnet machines are generally employed for slopes, the active and reactive powers for the next sampling
P servo and traction applications [1]. In variable speed drives,
they are a viable solution in applications that demand high power
instant are predicted for seven voltage vectors corresponding
to available states of a three-phase inverter. A cost function is
density, such as integrated starter generators in aerospace sector evaluated that compares the reference and predicted powers.
[2]. These machines are also very effective in gearless wind Unlike finite control states finite control set (FCS)-MPC in which
only one voltage vector is applied, Zhang et al. [7] use two
Manuscript received December 27, 2018; revised May 17, 2019 and Septem- vectors whose duties are computed through analytical solution.
ber 30, 2019; accepted November 15, 2019. Date of publication November 24, It should be noted that this technique either applies two active
2019; date of current version January 16, 2020. Paper 2018-IPCC-1239.R2,
presented at the 2018 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, vectors or one active and one zero vector in a control period.
Portland, OR, USA, Sep. 23–27, and approved for publication in the IEEE Use of two active vectors and a zero vector in the same control
TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power Converter period is not analyzed. Duty cycles are optimized in [8] for model
Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. (Corresponding author:
Marco di Benedetto.) predictive current control of an AFE. The control is implemented
L. Bigarelli, M. di Benedetto, A. Lidozzi, and L. Solero are with the Center in a dq rotating reference frame. In a given sector, errors in
for Power Electronics and Drives, Roma Tre University, Rome 00146, Italy controlled currents are evaluated for the two voltage vectors
(e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; alessan-
[email protected]; [email protected]). at the sector boundary. An optimization problem is solved to
S. A. Odhano is with the Department of Electrical and Electronic En- compute duty cycles for each active vector in the current sector,
gineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K. (e-mail: which is then transformed to phase duty cycles. Performance of
[email protected]).
P. Zanchetta is with Power Electronics, Machines and Control Research this predictive duty cycle algorithm is compared with deadbeat,
Group, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, U.K. (e-mail: FCS-MPC, and linear controllers.
[email protected]). A predictive hybrid pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategy
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. is introduced in [9] for AFEs. The method focuses on min-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2019.2955662 imization of current distortions and switching losses at each

0093-9994 © 2019 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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542 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

sampling instant. Predictive control is used to estimate current

distortions and switching losses for every PWM sequence and
the sequence that minimizes the cost function is chosen. As
such, the control strategy does not deal with the dynamics of
control. The application of predictive direct power control to
minimize ripple in active power is presented in [10]. Starting
from a conventional MPC that identifies the voltage vector with
minimum power error, instead of applying this vector for a
complete control period its duty cycle is computed that results in
reduced active power ripple. For the remaining time of a control
period, a zero vector is applied. Thus, only one active vector is
used in a given control period. In [11], a performance comparison Fig. 1. System representation.
of different MPC strategies for an AFE rectifier is presented.
The performance is analyzed in terms of the total harmonic
distortion (THD) of the line current under different operating encountered. To preserve optimality condition also in overmod-
conditions, such as unbalanced input voltages, uncertainty in ulation, the duty cycles for each state are linearly scaled. In this
the parameters, and dc-link voltage fluctuation. The control way, the algorithm preserves the fast dynamic characteristics of
performance is evaluated for a system with a 10 mH input filter FCS-MPC as well as maintains constant switching frequency
inductance, 1.1 mF output filter capacitance, 60 Hz frequency, of modulator-based control schemes [13]. An advantage of the
and 20 kHz switching frequency. proposed MPC is that the optimal control action is obtained
In this article, the control of an AFE power converter is imple- without explicitly formulating the cost function. This means that
mented through optimal voltage vector selection starting from no tuning action on the cost function weights is required. Finally,
the basic MPC algorithm. The control strategy is adapted from the use of an additional sensor to measure the load current
[12]; however, the implementation takes place in the rotating dq can be avoided implementing an estimator, such as virtual flux
reference frame. The system under consideration is a variable methods with low passive filters, state observer, and Kalman
speed PMSG supplying a dc load. In [7]–[12], the MPC is filters [14].
implemented for AFE rectifiers in systems that present phase
inductance values from few to dozens mH and fundamental II. SYSTEM MODELING
frequency of 50 Hz. The aim of this article is to show the
With respect to the dq0 rotating frame, the equations rep-
effectiveness of the proposed solution for PMSG with phase
resenting the continuous-time model of the PMSG (1) are
inductance and fundamental frequency of about thousands μH
considered together with the equation describing the dc-link
and Hz, respectively, as is the case of the PMSG employed in
capacitor dynamics, where icp stands for the capacitor current,
variable speed generation applications, where the increase in
as represented in Fig. 1.
the fundamental frequency value allows to reduce the size and
Applying Kirchoff’s law to the node “A” in Fig. 1, the ca-
the weight of the electric machine and of the overall system.
pacitor current is expressed as the algebraic sum between the
Furthermore, the performance of an MPC control algorithm is
rectified current idc and the load current il . From the continuous-
strongly affected by the accuracy of the system model. Par-
time model, forward Euler method is applied to obtain the
ticularly, when power balances are considered in the control
discrete-time model of system (2), where Ts is the sampling
algorithm, it becomes important to realize a model capable of
period, Rs is the generator phase resistance, Ld and Lq are the
providing good power losses estimation. With respect to [13],
machine inductances, C is the total dc-bus capacitance, λpm is
an improved system model, shown in the following section, has
the magnetic flux, ω is the frequency of the electrical quantities,
been implemented in order to increase the accuracy of the system
and vsd vsq are the control actions applied by the inverter to the
state estimation.
system
Starting from the discrete equations of the considered system,
the power errors at the next sampling instant are predicted for ⎧ did
all the inverter states. Then, the two adjacent inverter states ⎨ Ld dt = vsd − Rs id + ωLq iq
⎪
di
that minimize the error in the active and reactive powers are Lq dtq = vsq − Rs iq − ωLd id − ωλpm (1)
⎪
⎩ dvdc
selected. The duty cycle for the application of each state is C dt = icp
decided by whether it is possible to reach the reference power  
values in one sampling instant or not. In the first case, when (k+1) Rs (k) (k) Ts Lq
id = 1 − Ts id + vsd + iq (k) ωTs
the reference power can be achieved in one sample time, the Ld Ld Ld
solution lies in the linear regulation range and the duty cycles  
Rs (k) (k) Ts Lq λpm
are computed through linear combination of the two inverter i(k+1)
q = 1 − Ts iq +vsq − id (k) ωTs −ωTs
Lq Lq Ld Lq
states. In case the system constraints do not allow reaching

Ts (k)
the target in one sample time, the overmodulation condition is (k+1) (k)
vdc = vdc + i − il . (2)
C dc

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BIGARELLI et al.: PWM-BASED OPTIMAL MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR VARIABLE SPEED GENERATING UNITS 543

For a given dc-link voltage, the voltage vector resulting from

each inverter state is given by the following equation:
⎛ ⎞
0.66667 −0.3333 −0.3333
⎜ ⎟
⎜ −0.66667 0.3333 0.3333 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ −0.3333 0.6667 −0.3333 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
vs1,7 = vdc ⎜ 0.3333 −0.66667 0.3333 ⎟ . (3)
⎜ ⎟
⎜ −0.3333 −0.3333 0.66667 ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝ 0.3333 0.3333 −0.66667 ⎠
0 0 0
Fig. 2. Inverter finite control actions on αβ and eiq eid plane.

A. Improved Modeling and Calculations

In order to accurately control the dc-link voltage, especially
during the steady-state condition, an improved modeling ap- the control algorithm must determine the voltage vector that the
proach has been performed to consider more nonideal effects. converter has to apply to the system in order to reach the desired
Additional losses that have been considered are related to the current references and consequently the desired dc voltage. As
inverter conduction and switching effects as well as electrical already known, the only possible control actions in FCS-MPC
machine Joule and iron losses. Those terms will be part of the are those generated by the eight different converter states. The
proposed control structure. control action is thus discrete, resulting in a low power quality at
1) Electrical Machine Joule Losses: Electrical machine steady state. In this article, an inversion of the electrical model is
Joule losses can be achieved by considering the dq axes currents performed as in [12]. Finding an analytical inversion would re-
that are used also in the control structure. Losses evaluated at quire extremely high computational effort. The electrical model
the next time step have the expression reported as follows: inversion is thus obtained through linear approximation. Fig. 2
shows the hexagon created by the converter finite control actions
3  
PJloss = Rs (T ) i2d,[k+1] + i2q,[k+1] on the αβ plane. Applying to the system, each one of these
2 control voltages would result in different values of the dq axes
where also the temperature of the machine stator winding has currents. It is then possible to consider the plane of axes eid
been taken into account. and eiq , where eid stands for the error between the predicted
2) Electrical Machine Iron and Friction Losses: In order values of id and its reference and eiq represents the error on
to achieve the aforementioned loss contribution, two different the q-axis current. The coordinates of each point represented in
approaches can be used. The first one allows to directly evaluate the plane eid eiq (e1 ,e2 …) stand for the currents that would be
the whole losses by a no-load test of the electrical machine at present in the system if the voltage vectors with the same index
the test bed. The use of a torque meter is mandatory to obtain the (V1 ,V2 …) were applied by the converter. On the plane eid eiq ,
shaft torque and speed. On the other side, taking into account the predictions associated to the nonzero voltage vectors form
the design and assembly characteristics, iron and friction losses an irregular hexagon.
can be estimated [15], [16]. The e0 error is the one associated to the uncontrolled system,
3) Power Converter Losses: Power devices losses have been whose evolution is here assumed equal to that of the system when
calculated online with specific reference to SiC MOSFET conduc- the zero voltage vector is applied. This means that the point e0
tion and switching losses, dc-bus capacitors losses, as well as represents the initial condition of the system at the beginning
freewheeling diodes losses [17]–[19]. Temperature dependence of the sampling period. The algorithm is meant to find a linear
is also taken into account, adjusting losses accordingly. combination of two adjacent voltage vectors (vx , vy ), which
Aforementioned terms are evaluated online during the execu- allows to move in a control period, on the eid eiq plane, from
tion of the main predictive control algorithm. In fact, as it will the point e0 to the origin of the coordinate reference system;
be shown in details later on, the control platform is able to run the latter is the point for which the error between the predicted
the MPC controller in parallel with the system losses evaluation currents and the reference values goes to zero. The error vectors
block. (ex , ey ) must then satisfy the following mathematical condi-
tions, which guarantee that the chosen voltage vectors cause
III. MODULATED MPC STRATEGY the system operating point to move toward the origin of the
coordinate reference system:
The purpose of the proposed control strategy is to regulate
⎧
⎨ (ex − e0 ) · (−e0 ) > 0
⎪
the dc-link voltage while keeping the reactive power to zero.
The desired value of the dc voltage is reached considering the (ey − e0 ) · (−e0 ) > 0 (4)
link between the active power flow produced by the permanent ⎪
⎩
magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) and the change in the (ex − e0 ) × (−e0 ) · (ey − e0 ) × (−e0 ) < 0

capacitor voltage. This relation allows to determine the reference (ex − e0 ) · dx + (ey − e0 ) · dy = e0
of the q-axis current, which enables the achievement of the . (5)
dx + dy ≤ 1
desired dc voltage. Once that the current references are obtained,
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544 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

In Fig. 2, the vectors (ex − e0 ), (ey − e0 ) are represented Equation (9) describes the existing relation between the
in red. The first two inequalities reported in (4) state that the change in the stored energy of a capacitor (ΔEc ) and its voltage
above-mentioned vectors must have positive components along variation, as well as the resulting power flow
the −e0 direction, whereas the third inequality guarantees that C 2 ΔEc
their components along the normal to the −e0 direction are of ΔEc = Vdc,R − Vdc,[k+1]
2
Pc = . (9)
2 Tt
opposite sign. It is then guaranteed that the linear superposition
of the two chosen voltage vectors allows to move toward the ori- The power required by the load is determined as the product
gin of the coordinate reference system along the −e0 direction. of the load current, which is here assumed measurable, and the
Once the couple of adjacent voltage vectors is chosen, the duty desired dc-link voltage. Power losses are considered as Joule
cycle associated to each of them is calculated, according to the losses due to the stator resistance (PJloss ), iron losses in the stator
resolution of the linear system expressed by (5). If the sum of system (PSloss ), and the converter switching and conduction
the duty cycles determined by (5) is less than 1, the zero voltage losses (PCloss ). The sum of the considered losses is PLtot . It
vector is applied for the remaining time of the control period. means that the required active power flow at instant [k + 2] is
In the overmodulation region, that is when, dx + dy > 1, duty C  2
Pag,[k+2] = Vdc,R − Vdc,[k+1]
2
+ (Vdc,R il ) + PLtot .
cycles are opportunely scaled according to (6) 2Tt
(10)
dx dy
dsx = ds = (6) The active power produced by the PMSG is expressed in terms
dx + dy y dx + dy of the q axes current by (11) and it is then possible to evaluate
vs = vx dx + vy dy . (7) the iq reference through (12)
3
The resulting voltage vector applied to the system can be Pag = pλpm ωm iq (11)
expressed as in (7). The proposed control strategy does not 2
⎡  ⎤
consider an explicit formulation of a cost function, being the C 2
Vdc,R − Vdc,[k+1]
2
+ 2Vdc,[k+1] il + 2PLtot
1⎣ T
⎦.
q = −
t
control action chosen on the basis of the explained mathe- iR
matical procedure. The latter aims to identify the two voltage 3 pλpm ωm
vectors that, linearly combined, lead to the smallest error in (12)
the controlled quantities. In order to keep the reactive power
equal to zero, id reference value is set to zero, whereas to The parameter Tt represents the period of time in which
opportunely regulate the capacitor voltage, a reference value of the reference value has to be reached. Consequently, it takes
the q axes current is generated (iq,R ), based on the estimation of into account the dynamics of the control action. It has to be
the active power flow needed to both feed the load and follow the underlined that this parameter acts only on the power that in the
voltage reference [20]. The control algorithm starts computing proposed control strategy is required by the capacitor to increase
the first step of prediction on the basis of the previous control the voltage at its terminals. When the measured voltage enters
action applied to the system. The values of id,[k+1] , iq,[k+1] , and a close range of the reference value, the control dynamics is
vdc,[k+1] are then calculated. The predicted value of the capacitor reduced increasing the value of Tt , in order to significantly de-
voltage vdc,[k+1] is obtained estimating the dc current idc as a crease the voltage ripple around the voltage reference value and
function of the inverter states applied to the system and the phase thus improve the phase currents waveform. An appropriate value
currents, as shown in (8). This solution is considered because of of Tt should be selected based on the desired tradeoff between
the specific nature of the proposed MPC strategy, which returns current waveforms quality, steady state error on the dc voltage
as a result different converter states to be applied in a single reference and dc voltage ripple. Once that the current references
control period. The adopted solution allows improving the idc have been determined, the control actions are chosen on the
estimation and consequently the whole control algorithm. The basis of the mathematical procedure previously introduced. A
second step of prediction starts with the calculation of the iq,R simplified scheme of the proposed control strategy is presented
reference value. To do that, a proper power balance is defined in Fig. 3.
considering that the active power flow produced by the PMSG
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
(Pag ) has to account for both the power required by the load
(PL ), the power needed to change the dc-link voltage (Pc ), and Preliminary results have been achieved through a simulation
the power losses model implemented in the MATLAB/Simulink environment.
⎛ ⎞ The system parameters are shown in Table I. Typical issues
1 0 0
⎜ ⎟ of real implementation have been considered in the simulation,
⎜0 1 1⎟ such as delay time on the application of the control action (finite
⎛ ⎞ ⎛ ⎞ ⎜ ⎟
ia ⎜0 1 0⎟ time of the calculation) and parasitic elements such as losses
ia ⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟
idc,M = sx ⎝ ib ⎠ dx + sy ⎝ ib ⎠ dy s = ⎜ 1 0 1 ⎟ . related to the power devices of the three-phase inverter and the
⎜ ⎟ electrical machine operated as generator.
ic ic ⎜0 0 1⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎝1 1 0⎠ A. Cosimulation
0 0 0 Between the simulation and the experimental stage, the NI
(8) LabVIEW Multisim cosimulation tool has been used to verify
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BIGARELLI et al.: PWM-BASED OPTIMAL MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR VARIABLE SPEED GENERATING UNITS 545

shown in Figs. 5 and 6, analogous performances have been

put in evidence by both simulation and cosimulation. Indeed,
in both cases, it takes a time equal to about 15 ms for the control
algorithm to reach the new reference value. In order to avoid
too high transient currents, a limitation in the value of the q-axis
current (iq ) intervenes as it is possible to notice in both figures. In
this case, the current limitation was set to 50 A. Again, when the
load resistance was decreased from 200 to 140 Ω, simulation and
cosimulation returned comparable results, as shown in Figs. 7
and 8. Once again, the fast dynamics of the control allows
keeping the dc voltage close to the reference value, even during
the fast variation of the load conditions.
As already mentioned, this dynamic is regulated by the param-
eter Tt , which allows to increase or decrease the period of time
in which the reference voltage has to be reached. By the way,
this parameter acts only on the power flow that is delivered to
the capacitor and not on the total power produced by the PMSG.
The previous considerations have been taken into account to
select an appropriate value of Tt once that the characteristics
of the controlled system have been evaluated. In addition, Tt is
expressed as an integer multiple of the sampling period. The
chosen value of Tt for both simulation and cosimulation is
reported in Table I.
Fig. 3. Block scheme of the control strategy.

TABLE I V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

SIMULATION, COSIMULATION, AND EXPERIMENTAL SETUP MAIN PARAMETERS
The developed control strategy has been implemented on
the National Instruments System on Module (formally sbRIO-
9651), with a dedicated control board (PED-Board). The whole
control algorithm is developed on the FPGA, whereas the
real-time target takes into account the external communication
and the system management actions. The active rectifier is an
SiC power converter based on the SKiiP 26ACM12V17 from
Semikron, which allows to achieve high switching frequencies,
the correct field-programmable gate array (FPGA) implemen- improving power quality of the phase currents. The entire elec-
tation of the control strategy. This tool allows simulating the trical drive is shown in Fig. 9.
physical system through NI Multisim and simultaneously imple- Calculation of the system losses has been implemented us-
ment the control strategy writing the FPGA code on LabVIEW ing the same development environment adopted for the MPC
FPGA. Proceeding like that, it has been possible to significantly algorithm. A dedicated LabVIEW subVI has been deployed
reduce the time needed to reach a correct FPGA implementation to evaluate in real time the complete system losses. Such a
of the code and thus the experimental stage. The tool highlighted software structure runs on the real-time target (i.e., control board
in Fig. 4, thanks to the use of a Control and Simulation Loop, μprocessor) allowing monitoring the behavior thanks to a ded-
guarantees the right timing between the simulation of the phys- icated graphical user interface. Table II illustrates the accuracy
ical system and that of the simulated control platform. Only of the losses estimation algorithm (PLtot ) with respect to an
few minor changes to the simulated FPGA code have to be industrial measurement (PLtotM ) setup composed by a power
made before loading it on the real control platform. For each meter (PM3000A from Voltech) and a torque meter (DRFL-II-
iteration of the “Control and Simulation Loop” the Multisim 50 manufactured by ETH-Messtechnik). Comparison has been
model of the system is executed, whereas the output values of reported with respect to different operating points expressed
the FPGA simulated code are returned each Ts (i.e., control as dc-bus power (Pdc ), modulation index (m), and mechanical
algorithm sampling time). speed (Ωm ).
Cosimulation has been carried out considering the same pa- Fig. 10 shows the steady-state behavior of the control algo-
rameters of the simulation stage. A deadtime of 1 μs was added rithm when the voltage reference is 700 V, the load resistance
to the switches behavior. The PMSG is rotating at a constant is equal to about 50 Ω, and the value of the Tt parameter is set
speed, about 1450 r/min, which leads to a frequency of the to 7.5 ms. The electrical quantities frequency is about equal to
electrical quantities around 290 Hz. For the behavior of the 500 Hz (2500 r/min). The THD of the phase currents (THDI )
control algorithm during a step in the voltage reference, as has been calculated to be equal to 4.2%.

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546 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

Fig. 4. NI LabVIEW FPGA and Multisim cosimulation.

Fig. 5. Phase currents and dc voltage during a reference voltage step (Rload
≈ 150 Ω, nm ≈ 1450 r/min).

Fig. 7. Phase currents and dc voltage when the load resistance is decreased
(Rload ≈ 200 Ω, Rload ≈ 120 Ω, nm ≈ 2000 r/min).

Fig. 8. Cosimulation. DC-link voltage (top) and phase currents (bottom)

Fig. 6. Cosimulation. DC-link voltage (top) and phase currents (bottom) when the load resistance is decreased (Rload ≈ 200 Ω, Rload ≈ 120 Ω,
during a reference voltage step (Rload ≈ 150 Ω, nm ≈ 1450 r/min). nm ≈ 2000 r/min).

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BIGARELLI et al.: PWM-BASED OPTIMAL MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR VARIABLE SPEED GENERATING UNITS 547

Fig. 9. Experimental setup.

TABLE II Fig. 10. A-phase current (green), dc-link voltage (yellow), and rotor angle
COMPARISON BETWEEN ESTIMATED AND MEASURED LOSSES (pink) at steady state. Rload = 50 Ω, nm = 2500 r/min.

Dynamic test in Fig. 11 has been performed varying the

resistive load from about 200 to about 120 Ω using a dc contactor.
It can be noticed how fast is the controller to compensate any
dc-bus voltage unbalance. In fact, the phase current is suddenly
increased as soon as the required power increases.
Fig. 12 shows a zoom of the dc-link voltage of Fig. 11 after the
load step. In order to properly show the zoomed voltage wave- Fig. 11. Resistive load step. Constant Tt . Losses evaluation fully enabled
form, an offset function of the oscilloscope has been exploited. (Rload ≈ 200 Ω, Rload ≈ 120 Ω, nm ≈ 2000 r/min).
This allows setting the vertical axis zero to 610 V. It is possible
to recognize a negligible steady-state error of about 4 V, which tries to reach the desired final voltage as soon as possible,
indicates the accurate tracking of the voltage reference. increasing the q-axis current reference, theoretically, without
Thus, the error between the voltage reference and the mea- any limitation.
sured one is about equal 0.6%. Furthermore, it can be seen that However, the inherent current limiting feature allows to di-
a peak-to-peak dc-link voltage ripple of about 8 V is present. In rectly saturate the maximum current to the desired value as it is
Fig. 13, the same experimental test has been performed when shown in this experimental verification. Of course, any current
the online losses evaluation is completely disabled. It can be limitation affects the dynamic related to the tracking of the
noticed that a steady-state error is still present, increasing when voltage reference variation.
the demanded power increases. In fact, during the experimental
test both the electrical machine and the inverter losses have been
forced to zero, avoiding their contribution in the model predictive A. Considerations About the Convergence Time Tt
algorithm. The resulting voltage error is about 24 V, ≈3%. The convergence time Tt is expressed in seconds, and it could
A performance comparison test has been also performed with be considered as a sort of time required to provide the necessary
respect to a variation of the mechanical speed. Speed reference amount of energy to the dc-link capacitors, in order to bring the
of the prime mover is suddenly changed to about 500 r/min and, related voltage to the desired value. Hence, it directly affects
after a certain amount of time, it is brought back to its initial the ac to dc transferred power: lower Tt results in high power in
value. Fig. 14 shows the results when the algorithm for online short time (i.e., fast compensation of dc-bus voltage unbalances),
losses evaluation is enabled. It can be seen that the dc bus does whereas higher values yield longer compensation times with
not exhibit appreciable changes. Whereas, in Fig. 15 the same very stable behavior. In general, it is convenient to evaluate the
test is carried out when the losses evaluation was disabled. A Tt parameter as an integer multiple of the control algorithm
steady-state error in the dc-link voltage is present and it depends sampling time Ts , Tt = H ∗ Ts .
by the mechanical speed. In Fig. 16, the dc-link voltage reference The effects of the time Tt are highlighted in Fig. 17, where two
is suddenly changed from 500 to 700 V. Voltage regulation different values are used. Sampling time Ts has been set to 50 μs,

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548 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 56, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

Fig. 15. DC-bus voltage regulation with respect to mechanical speed variation.
Losses evaluation disabled. Rload ≈ 200 Ω.

Fig. 12. Zoom of the dc-link voltage in the operating condition of Fig. 11 after
the load step.

Fig. 16. DC-link voltage reference variation and current limiting feature
(Rload ≈ 140 Ω, nm ≈ 1450 r/min).
Fig. 13. Resistive load step. Constant Tt . Losses evaluation disabled (Rload
≈ 200 Ω, Rload ≈ 120 Ω, nm ≈ 2000 r/min).

Fig. 14. DC-bus voltage regulation with respect to mechanical speed variation.
Losses evaluation fully enabled. Rload ≈ 200 Ω.
Fig. 17. Effects of the convergence time on the current behavior. Tt1 = 50Ts ,
Tt2 = 200Ts . Rload ≈ 140 Ω, nm ≈ 1450 r/min.

as reported in Table I. For Tt = Tt1 = 50Ts , it can be noticed

an initial instability on the generator phase current where also showing a current waveform with low distortion (THDI ≈ 4.2%).
the current waveform appears distorted: current regulation starts According to that, the time Tt has been dynamically adjusted
becoming ineffective. On the contrary, when the convergence with respect to the dc-bus voltage error to obtain a high-quality
time is increased Tt1 = 200Ts , the system is perfectly stable current waveform and accurate dc-bus voltage regulation during

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BIGARELLI et al.: PWM-BASED OPTIMAL MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL FOR VARIABLE SPEED GENERATING UNITS 549

low the number of necessary calculations and making possible

to increase the speed of the control algorithm. Furthermore, as
long as the frequency of the control loop increases, the accuracy
of the linear superposition at the basis of the mathematical
procedure increases, improving the performance of the control
algorithm. As can be seen from Table I, the L/R time constant
of the electric machine used for the experimental campaign is
about 4.5 ms, considering the rated parameters. In general, it is
not recommended to force a convergence time that is far below
the electrical time constant due to the constraint imposed by the
converter sampling and switching frequency.

VI. CONCLUSION
The modulated optimal MPC for the control of the active
rectifier that is supplied by a PMSG has been presented in this
article. The proposed strategy ensures both the fast dynamics
Fig. 18. Behavior of the convergence term H. of the finite-set MPC and good phase currents quality at steady
state, which is typical of the control typologies characterized
by the presence of a modulator. It has been individuated that the
the steady-state operation, as well as high dynamic, fast, com- parameter Tt allows to properly tune the control action to achieve
pensation of dc voltage errors when the operating conditions both the fast behavior at transients and high-quality phase current
change. at steady state.
Coefficient H has been evaluated to be proportional to the
voltage error expressed as the difference between the dc-link
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for nonlinear material behavior,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 48, no. 11, pers. His research interests include power electronic
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“Performance assessment of the 5-level 3-phase back to back E-type
converter,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Convers. Congr. Expo., Cincinnati, OH, Shafiq Ahmed Odhano (S’13–M’15) received the
USA, 2017, pp. 2106–2113. M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering in 2011 and
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fixed switching frequency,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 296– drives in 2014 from the Politecnico di Torino, Turin,
304, Jan./Feb. 2017. Italy.
He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the
Politecnico di Torino. He is currently a Postdoctoral
Research Fellow with the University of Nottingham,
Luca Bigarelli (S’19) received the M.Sc. degree in Nottingham, U.K. His research interests include high-
mechanical engineering, in 2017, from Roma Tre performance control of servo drives, model predictive
University, Rome, Italy, where since 2017, he has control of power converters, and self-commissioning
been working toward the Ph.D. degree with the Center of ac motor drives.
for Power Electronics and Drives. Dr. Odhano was a recipient of the IEEE-IAS Prize Paper Award in 2015.
His research interests include power converter
modeling and control, control of permanent mag-
net motor drives, predictive control, control plat-
form based on combined DSP-FPGA systems, and
hadware-in-the-loop solutions for testing of control
board and power converters.
Pericle Zanchetta (M’00–SM’15–F’19) received the
M.Eng. degree in electronic engineering and Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the Technical
Marco di Benedetto (S’16–M’18) received the University of Bari, Bari, Italy, in 1993 and 1997,
M.Eng. degree in electronic engineering from the respectively.
University of Roma Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, in 2014, In 1998, he became an Assistant Professor of Power
and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical and industrial Electronics with the Technical University of Bari.
engineering from Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy, In 2001, he became a Lecturer in Control of Power
in 2018. Electronics Systems with the Power Electronics, Ma-
Since November 2018, he has been a Research Fel- chines and Control Research Group, University of
low with the Center of Power Electronics and Drives, Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., where he is currently
Roma Tre University. His research interests include a Professor in Control of Power Electronics Systems. He is also a Part Time
hardware and FPGA control design for multilevel Professor with the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy. He has authored/coauthored
power converter topologies for high-speed generating more than 330 peer reviewed papers. His research interests include control and
and uninterruptible power system applications. optimization of power converters and drives, matrix and multilevel converters.
Dr. Zanchetta is a Past Chair of the IEEE-IAS Industrial Power Converter
Committee (IPCC) and is a Transactions Review Chair of IPCC. He is also a
Vice-Chair of the IEEE-IAS Industrial Power Conversion Systems Department.
Alessandro Lidozzi (S’06–M’08) received the Elec-
tronic Engineering and Ph.D. degrees from Roma
Tre University, Rome, Italy, in 2003 and 2007,
respectively.
From 2010 to 2017, he was a Researcher with the
Department of Engineering, Roma Tre University,
where since 2017, he has been an Associate Profes-
sor. His research interests include power converter
modeling and control, control of permanent magnet
motor drives, control aspects for power electronics in
diesel-electric generating units, four-leg converters,
and development of high-performance control platforms based on combined
DSP-FPGA systems.

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