A New Method for Maximum Power Tracking in Wind Turbine Application Using Permanent Magnet SynchronousGenerator

Wind energy is by far the fastest growing renewable energy due to its free availability and environmental benefits. Maximum power extraction is a track to realize high power efficiency for Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS). This paper focuses on studying the feasibility of implementing the incremental conductance (INC) method which had used until now for maximum power point tracking in photovoltaic (PV) systems. Direct Driven Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) which has no gearbox is utilized in the proposed system to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of the wind turbine. A certain power conditioning topology which includes an intermediate boost converter (IBC) is employed in order to facilitate the use of this control method. INC method is compared with the traditional Hill Climbing Search (HCS) method and the advantages of using the INC method in some operating conditions, is validated. A Matlab/Simulink model is built to verify this approach

Keywords:

Maximum power point tracking , PMSG , Incremental Conductance (INC) , Hill climbing search (HCS)