A stall-regulated wind turbine with fixed-speed operation provides a configuration which is one of the cheapest and simplest forms of wind generation and configurations. This type of turbine, however, is non-optimal at low winds, stresses the component structure and gives rise to significant power peaks during early stall conditions at high wind speeds. These problems can be overcome by having a properly designed generator speed control. Therefore, to track the maximum power locus curve at low winds, suppress the power peaks at medium winds, limit the power at a rated level at high winds and obtain a satisfactory power-wind speed curve performance (that closely resembles the ideal power-wind speed curve) with minimum stress torque simultaneously over the whole range of the wind speed variations, the availability of active control is vital. The main purpose of this study is to develop an internal model control (IMC) design for the squirrel-cage induction generator (SCIG), coupled with a full-rated power converter of a small (25 kW), stall-regulated, variable-speed wind-turbine (SRVSWT) system, which is subject to variations in the generator speed, electromagnetic torque and rotor flux. The study was done using simulations only. The objective of the controller was to optimise the generator speed to maximise the active power generated during the partial load region and maintain or restrict the generator speed to reduce/control the torque stress and the power-peaking between the partial and full load regions, before power was limited at the rated value of 25 kW at the full load region. The considered investigation involved estimating the proportional-integral (PI) and integral-proportional (IP) controllers parameter values used to track the stator-current producing torque, the rotor flux and the angular mechanical generator speed, before being used in the indirect vector control (IVC) and the sensorless indirect vector control (SLIVC) model algorithms of the SCIG system. The design of the PI and IP controllers was based on the fourth-order model of the SCIG, which is directly coupled to the full-rated power converter through the machine stator, whereas the machine rotor is connected to the turbine rotor via a gearbox. Both step and realistic wind speed profiles were considered. The IMC-based PI and IP controllers (IMC-PI-IP) tuning rule was proven to have smoothened the power curve and shown to give better estimation results compared to the IMC-based PI controllers (IMC-PI), Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) and Tyreus-Luyben (ZN) tuning rules. The findings also showed that for the SRVSWT system that employed the IVC model algorithm with the IMC-PI-IP tuning rule, considering the application of a maintained/constant speed (CS) strategy at the intermediate load region is more profitable than utilizing SRVSWT with the modified power tracking (MoPT) strategy. Besides that, the finding also suggested that, for the IMC-PI-IP approach, the IVC does provide better power tracking performance than the SLIVC model algorithm.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:639748 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Rosmin, Norzanah |
| Publisher | Loughborough University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/16850 |
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