V-Model Design and Experimental Validation for Robust Direct Power Control of Wind Energy Conversion Systems

The V-model is a structured engineering framework used in the automotive and aeronautical industries. Each development phase, in this model, corresponds to a specific validation step. This study presents the first of its kind application of the V-model to the wind energy industry, covering the design, implementation, and validation of a direct power control algorithm with proportional-integral (DPC-PI) for a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). The validation process proceeds through three rigorous stages: Model-in-the-Loop (MIL), Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), and Processor-in-the-Loop (PIL). Under a wind speed step from 6 m/s to 10 m/s, results show that DPC-PI reduces steady-state error by 83.7%, overshoot by 39.4%, and total harmonic distortion (THD) by 92% compared to classical DPC. Next to prove the adaptability of our control to the variations of the environment a conducted parameter variation test demonstrated stable operation and ripple suppression for both active and reactive power. Finally, an assessed operating mode test in sub-synchronous, synchronous, and super-synchronous regions show a reduction of up to 86.4% in power ripples and a THD below 0.9%. Under variable wind conditions, the controller holds THD at 0.84%, outperforming some of the recent methods. In the final phase, the PIL test was executed on the STM32F429 to reveal the real-time performance of this control.