This paper focuses on the control problem of wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) with direct-driven permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) working in variable power output stage. A novel compound control scheme combined the active disturbance rejection controller (ADRC) and speed sensorless technology is proposed. In order to achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT), a speed control loop is designed based on ADRC to improve the speed tracking ability and anti-disturbance ability of system. Moreover, considering the large amount of system model information, a model-assisted ADRC is designed on the nominal ADRC to improve the response speed of system and reduce the energy consumption for the system control. Additionally, to solve the contradiction between the requirement of speed sensor precision and the economy of system design, a speed observer based on current model is designed in α − β coordinate system. Furthermore, a resistance observer is introduced to improve the convergence rate of the observer. And a position sensorless observer structure based on the speed observer is proposed. Finally, simulation studies are conducted to evaluate power tracking performances of the proposed speed-observerbased model assisted ADRC technology. It is shown that the proposed compound scheme exhibits significant improvements in both control performance and anti-disturbance ability with high observation precision compared with the normal ADRC method. INDEX TERMS Active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), wind energy conversion system (WECS), permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), speed observer, sensorless.