Wind Turbine Type-4

Author

Aleksandra Lekić, Haixiao Li

Published

January 13, 2026

Tip

Type-IV wind turbines (WT4), also known as full-converter wind turbines, employ a generator fully interfaced with the grid through a back-to-back power electronic converter. In this configuration, all generated power is processed by the converter, allowing complete decoupling between the generator and the grid. This enables wide-range variable-speed operation and flexible, independent control of active and reactive power. Owing to their superior grid-support capability and compliance with stringent grid codes, WT4 turbines are widely applied in weak-grid and offshore wind power systems, and are typically connected to the grid via a medium-voltage collector network and a substation transformer.

Mathematical Modeling

The typical structure of the type-4 WT is depicted in Figure 1.

Figure 1: WT type-4 block diagram.

For the design of the model of WT type-4, the publication Arshad, Beik, Pallapati, et al. (2024) is used, with the corrections proposed in Arshad, Beik, Manzoor, et al. (2024) and He et al. (2025).
Namely, the WT is modeled by observing the dq-domain admittance looking into the GSC, which includes the PLL, current controller, output filter, delay, and a second-order input filter, as shown in Fig. Figure 2.

Figure 2: Model of the GSC and its controlling loops inside WT type-4, taken from Arshad, Beik, Pallapati, et al. (2024).

For such a model, the admittance can be calculated by taking into account:

\[\begin{equation} Z_f = R_f + s L_f, \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} Y_{out} = \frac{1}{Z_f^2 + (\omega_g L_f)^2} \begin{bmatrix} Z_f & \omega_g L_f \\ -\omega_g L_f & Z_f \end{bmatrix}, \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} G_{id} = - V_{dc} \, Y_{out}. \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} H_{PLL} = \frac{K_{p,\mathrm{pll}} + \frac{K_{i,\mathrm{pll}}}{s}} {s + V_{d,\mathrm{ref}} \left(K_{p,\mathrm{pll}} + \frac{K_{i,\mathrm{pll}}}{s}\right)}, \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} H^{d}_{PLL} = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & -M_{q0} H_{PLL} \\ 0 & M_{d0} H_{PLL} \end{bmatrix}, \qquad H^{i}_{PLL} = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & I_{q,\mathrm{ref}} H_{PLL} \\ 0 & -I_{d,\mathrm{ref}} H_{PLL} \end{bmatrix}. \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} G_{mf} = \begin{bmatrix} \dfrac{\omega_n^2}{s^2 + 2 \zeta \omega_n s + \omega_n^2} & 0 \\ 0 & \dfrac{\omega_n^2}{s^2 + 2 \zeta \omega_n s + \omega_n^2} \end{bmatrix}, \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} G_{del} = \begin{bmatrix} \dfrac{1 - 0.5 T_d s}{1 + 0.5 T_d s} & 0 \\ 0 & \dfrac{1 - 0.5 T_d s}{1 + 0.5 T_d s} \end{bmatrix}, \end{equation}\]

\[\begin{equation} G_{cc} = G_{dec} + G_{pi} = \begin{bmatrix} -\left(K_{p,cc} + \dfrac{K_{i,cc}}{s}\right) & -\dfrac{\omega_g L_f}{V_{dc}^2} \\ \dfrac{\omega_g L_f}{V_{dc}^2} & -\left(K_{p,cc} + \dfrac{K_{i,cc}}{s}\right) \end{bmatrix}, \end{equation}\]

The admittance in the dq-frame is then calculated based on the flow-chart depicted in Figure 3: \[\begin{equation} Y_{dq} = (I + G_{del} G_{id} G_{cc} G_{mf})^{-1} \times (Y_{out} + G_{id} G_{del} (H^d_{PLL} + G_{cc} H^i_{PLL}) G_{mf} ). \end{equation}\]

Figure 3: Transfer function estimation for the GSC of the WT type-4, picture taken from Arshad, Beik, Pallapati, et al. (2024).

The results of the code execution in Harmony are available in Fig. Figure 4.

Figure 4: Bode plots of the dq admittance for the type-4 WT using the parameters from He et al. (2025).

Code Explanation

For detailed code information, see the Harmony manual.

References

Arshad, Muhammad, Omid Beik, Muhammad Owais Manzoor, and Mahzad Gholamian. 2024. “Stability Analysis via Impedance Modelling of a Real-World Wind Generation System with AC Collector and LCC-Based HVDC Transmission Grid.” Electronics 13 (10). https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13101917.
Arshad, Muhammad, Omid Beik, Ruth Pallapati, and Scott Hoberg. 2024. “Overview and Impedance-Based Stability Analyses of Bison Wind Farm: A Practical Example.” IEEE Industry Applications Magazine 30 (4): 50–63. https://doi.org/10.1109/MIAS.2023.3345835.
He, Lifu, Dingshan Liu, Haidong Tao, Yangwu Shen, Jiapeng Ren, Yuting Wang, Jin Li, and Yaqin Xu. 2025. “Small-Signal Stability Analysis of Grid-Connected System for Renewable Energy Based on Network Node Impedance Modelling.” Processes 13 (5). https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/13/5/1292.