Wind Energy Conversion System - a Laboratory Setup

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile laboratory setup for designing, testing, and controlling wind energy conversion systems, bridging the gap between simulations and real-world applications for research and education.

Contribution

It presents a flexible hardware platform that emulates wind turbines and enables testing various control techniques in a practical, laboratory environment.

Findings

Effective emulation of wind turbine behavior

Capability to test multiple control strategies

Facilitates transition from simulation to real-world testing

Abstract

This paper presents a laboratory setup usable for the design and testing of a Wind Energy Conversion System respectively their control solutions. The stand can be used for research or in the engineering educational system offering the possibility of studying the behavior of wind energy conversion systems, including testing of some adequate control techniques, allowing the transition from simple simulations on the computer to practical functional tests, much closer to the reality of the site. The stand architecture is based on a hardware platform integrating electrical machines, control equipment, power devices, sensors, computing systems and appropriate software, all allowing one flexible configuration to test a multitude of scenarios specific to the wind energy domain. The wind turbine is emulated using an asynchronous motor with direct torque control based on rotating speed measurement. The controlled torque is applied to a synchronous generator and the output power is injected into the grid.