Prof. Uddin

Over the last few decades wind energy has emerged as one of the fastest growing mainstream power
technologies due to its low cost and environmentally friendly nature compared to conventional fossil fuel based power
generation. Considering available options of state-of-the-art generator technologies in wind energy conversion system
(WECS), doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) has become popular because of its economic operation, ability to
regulate in sub-synchronous or super-synchronous speed and decoupled control of active and reactive power. Harnessing
regulated power supply from unpredictable wind blow, extraction of maximum power from intermittent generation and
supervision on nonlinear system dynamics of DFIG-WECS are some of the critically challenging issues for wind energy
system. Maximization of the power yielded from wind turbine is possible by optimizing tip-speed ratio, turbine rotor
speed or torque and blade angle. Traditionally, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control algorithm is based on the
Hill Climb Search (HCS) method due to its simple implementation and turbine parameter-independent scheme. Since the
conventional HCS algorithm has few drawbacks such as power fluctuation and speed-efficiency trade-off, a new adaptive
step size based HCS controller is developed in this work to mitigate its deficiencies by incorporating wind speed
measurement in the controller. Again, conventional feedback linearization controllers are sensitive to system parameter
variations and disturbances on grid-connected WECS, which demands advanced control techniques for stable and efficient
performance considering the nonlinear system dynamics. An adaptive backstepping based nonlinear control (ABNC)
scheme with iron-loss minimization algorithm for DFIG is also developed in this work to obtain both improved dynamic
performance and reduced power loss.
In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes, simulation models are designed using
Matlab/Simulink. The proposed MPPT control, nonlinear control for grid-connected mode of DFIG-WECS has been
successfully implemented in real-time using DSP controller board DS1104 for a laboratory 350 W DFIG. In the
laboratory environment a 4-quadrant dynamometer is used to emulate the wind turbine to provide variable wind speed to
the generator. The performance of the proposed ABNC is also compared with the benchmark tuned proportional-integral
(PI) controller under different operating conditions such variable wind speed, grid voltage disturbance and parameter
uncertainties and it exhibits excellent grip over the rotor side and grid side converter control.

Biography:

Mohammad Nasir Uddin (Fellow IEEE) received the B.Sc. and M. Sc. degrees both in electrical & electronic
engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada in 1993, 1996, and 2000, respectively. He has been
serving as a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Lakehead University (LU), Thunder Bay, ON, Canada since
August 2001. He also served as a visiting Prof. at Univ. of Malaya (2013, 2012, 2011), University of Tenaga Nasional
(UNITEN) (2018-2019), Malaysia, Tokyo University of Science (2010), Japan and North South University (2006), Dhaka,
Bangladesh. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of
South Alabama, USA from January 2001 to May 2001, an Assistant Professor from 1996 to 1997 and a lecturer from 1994 to
1996 at BUET. He possesses more than 28 years of teaching experience and has authored/co-authored over 295 papers in
international journals (75 in IEEE Transactions (top ranking in the field) and 21 in other refereed journals) and conferences.
Currently, he is serving as a member of the IEEE PES Fellow Evaluation Committee and IEEE Technical Field Award
Selection committee. During 2016-2017 he served as an Executive Board Member of IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS)
and Chair of IEEE-IAS-Manufacturing Systems Development and Applications Department. Earlier, he also served as one of
the Technical Program Committee Chairs for IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE) 2015 at Montreal, Canada.
He was the Technical Program Committee Chair for the IEEE-IAS [Industrial Automation and Control Committee (IACC)]
Annual Meetings in 2011 (Orlando) and 2012 (Las Vegas). He served as Transactions Papers Review Chair (Editor for four
years, 2009–2010 and 2013–2014) for IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (IACC). Earlier he served IEEE IAS IACC
for 9 years in different capacities (secretary-elected, vice-chair, chair and past-chair). Due to his outstanding contributions
IEEE-IAS IACC recognized him with the IEEE IAS Service Award 2015. He received several other awards including the
prestigious IEEE Power and Energy Society Cyril Veinott Electromechanical Energy Conversion Award 2025, EIC
(Engineering Institute of Canada) Fellow (2023) and IEEE-IAS Distinguished Lecturer (2026-2027). He was also the recipient
of the LU both Distinguished Instructor Award (highest instructor award) in 2023 and Distinguished Researcher Award (highest
research award) in 2010 and five Prize Paper Awards from IEEE IAS IACC. He is a registered professional engineer in the
province of Ontario, Canada. His research interests include renewable energy, motor drives, power system and intelligent
controller applications.