Maximum power point tracking of a wind turbine driven by synchronous generator connected to an isolated load using genetic algorithm

Abstract

Wind turbine generation is rapidly becoming the preferred renewable source of electric energy. The amount of energy captured from a wind energy conversion system (WECS) depends not only on the prevailing wind at the site, but also on the control strategy used for the WECS. Modeling, control and simulation of a wind turbine conversion system connected to an isolated load are proposed. The wind turbine being considered a variable speed turbine connected to a gear box to move a three phase wound rotor synchronous generator. The variable frequency energy produced by the generator is converted to the 50 Hz power system energy by a full power AC/DC/AC electronic converter. The maximum output power at every wind speed is achieved by selecting a certain inverter modulation index using proportional-integral controller which uses DC link power as feedback signal. The controller gains (Kp and Ki) are optimized using the Genetic Algorithm.