Fault-tolerant finite control set-model predictive control for marine current turbine applications

This study deals with a fault-tolerant control (FTC) strategy for a marine current energy conversion system based on a five-phase permanent magnet synchronous generator. First, a finite control set-model predictive control is adopted to highlight the advantages of this kind of generator in normal mode. The speed tracking performance is evaluated when the system operates under swell effect. Second, its fault tolerance is evaluated under various open-circuit fault conditions. In this case, the reference currents are reconfigured online to achieve the reference torque while minimising the copper losses. Extensive simulations, based on real-tidal speed data measured at the Raz-de-Sein site in Bretagne, France, are carried out for the validation of the proposed FTC strategy.