Wind Energy Conversion Technologies and Control Strategies: A Review
Abdelfattah Dani, Mohamed Benlamlih, Zineb Mekrini, Mhamed El Mrabet, Mohammed Boulaala
Abstract
Renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly popular, especially wind power. According to many criteria, the Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) can be categorized into various types. As part of their application, in the small and standalone Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT), most of the generators utilized in these technologies are Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs) because of their low weight and high efficiency regarding their cost. This study compares and presents the advantages and limitations of various Wind Turbine (WT) types. In addition, a comparison between the PMSG and doubly fed induction generator has been presented. On the other hand, this paper reviews and analyzed the main control strategies applied in WECS. Based on the available studies in the literature, maximum power point tracking control strategies are widely used to harvest the maximum power from wind energy. This control is divided into indirect power control and direct power control. While the pitch angle control strategies can be classified as traditional collective pitch angle control and individual pitch angle control, which is applied to adjust the rotation speed of WT blades. Nevertheless, machine-side converter and grid-side converter control strategies are among the widely used methods for improving power quality. The conventional control strategies reveal many drawbacks and challenges. However, to reduce and even overcome this issue, combining conventional with robust and intelligent controllers may be a good solution.