Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop Investigations for a Partly Superconducting Medium-Speed Wind Turbine Generator Prototype

This paper presents a comprehensive Controller-Hardware-in-the-Loop (CHiL) investigation for a multi-megawatt-scale, partly superconducting, medium-speed wind turbine generator prototype. The CHiL approach is employed to safely and efficiently test the generator’s sophisticated control system by interfacing a real controller with a high-fidelity, real-time simulation of the generator and its power converter. The generator design incorporates a superconducting rotor winding to reduce the overall size and mass for large-scale offshore wind applications while featuring high efficiency. The core of the CHiL real-time model is a highly non-linear, flux-based representation of the electrically excited synchronous machine. A key aspect is the critical importance of modeling the coupled generator-converter system for partly superconducting generators. Previous findings within the scope of the presented project demonstrate that the non-sinusoidal voltage and current from the converter feeding can introduce significant eddy current losses, potentially dominating thermal loads in the cryogenic rotor parts compared to ideal sine-wave operation. This work is a crucial step in the development of future control strategies for a megawatt-scale prototype, which is currently under construction.