A REAL TIME EMULATOR OF VARIABLE PITCH WIND TURBINES USING TORQUE-CONTROLLED INDUCTION MOTORS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minoufiya University, Shebin El-Kom, Egypt

Abstract

Owing to the technical difficulties of experimental investigations of real wind turbines, Wind Turbine Emulator (WTE) plays a role for performing such experimental tasks. This facilitates to conduct advanced research efforts for wind energy conversion system applications without reliance on natural wind resources. In this paper, a WTE (able to emulate the steady-state and dynamic wind turbine behavior) is experimentally developed. This represents a chance to validate not only the behavior of the proposed controllers, but also to extensively evaluate the properness of their developed dynamic models as well. For this aim, a motor generator set based two induction motors and Digital Signal Possessing (DSP) board were used to develop the WTE in order to simulate the aerodynamic characteristics of fixed speed-variable pitch wind turbine. The response of the proposed WTE during wind speed variations and the behavior of its related pitch controller are tested and recorded. All presented test results corroborated the efficacy of the developed WTE for profiling the dynamic behavior of variable pitch turbines for analyzing wind farm applications.

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