Power Maximization and Control of Variable-Speed Wind Turbine System Using Extremum Seeking

Maximizing the power capture is an important issue to the turbines that are installed in low wind speed area. In this paper, we focused on the modeling and control of variable speed wind turbine that is composed of two-mass drive train, a Squirrel Cage Induction Generator (SCIG), and voltage source converter control by Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SPVWM). To achieve Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT), the reference speed to the generator is searched via Extremum Seeking Control (ESC). ESC was designed for wind turbine region II operation based on dither-modulation scheme. ESC is a model-free method that has the ability to increase the captured power in real time under turbulent wind without any requirement for wind measurements. The controller is designed in two loops. In the outer loop, ESC is used to set a desired reference speed to PI controller to regulate the speed of the generator and extract the maximum electrical power. The inner control loop is based on Indirect Field Orientation Control (IFOC) to decouple the currents. Finally, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to obtain the optimal PI parameters. Simulation and control of the system have been accomplished using MATLAB/Simulink 2014.