Automatic Electronic Braking System for Commercial Micro Wind Turbine

The inclusion of renewable energy as wind turbines on microgrids has been increasing in popularity. However, commercial micro wind turbines lack advance electronic control systems to monitor the turbine and automatically brake for safety purposes. This paper presents the design of a modular electronic braking and monitoring system architecture with off-the-shelf electronic components and open-source software. The proposed system records the turbine operational parameters and triggers a braking system when an emergency stop button is closed or when a desired electrical parameter exceeds an established threshold. Electronic braking is a low-cost alternative that needs less maintenance, space, and mechanical complexity. We used a 400W micro wind turbine located at 17 feet high to test the proposed system architecture. Results demonstrate that this system architecture could be implemented for wind turbines in any existing polygeneration microgrid as an add-on.