Design and experimental implementation of a wind energy conversion platform with education and research capabilities

Today, pitch-controlled variable speed wind turbines (WTs) are the most installed Wind Energy Conversion (WEC) systems. They mainly use two types of generators: the permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) and the double-fed induction generator (DFIG). In this paper, the overall configuration of DFIG-based WEC systems is reviewed and its control strategy is experimentally implemented using dSPACE DS1104 controller board. In this context, emphasis is placed on active power transfer management, reactive power compensation, and sinusoidal current injection into the main grid to improve power quality. The built lab-scale prototype allows validating different subsystems operation and demonstrating DFIG-based WEC capabilities. This paper specifically provides a thorough and consistent step-by-step modeling and control design methodology for a DFIG-based WEC simulation and experimentation platform that could be used for education and research addressing the wind energy conversion timely topic. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.