Advanced control techniques for grid-integrated permanent magnet synchronous generator-based wind energy conversion systems

The use of wind energy has been increasing significantly over the past decade. With the global concerns about climate change and world-wide carbon pricing policies, renewable energy has become increasingly popular in the power industry. New investment in conventional generators that use fossil fuels has been decreasing over the years. Because wind energy has been cost-competitive with fossil fuel energy, it occupies a large proportion of the energy portfolio in many countries. With an increasing integration of wind turbine generators into power systems, new challenges are emerging for power systems due to the natural variability of wind power output. Therefore, some requirements, such as power quality, frequency support and voltage criterion, are necessary so that power system quality and reliability with high wind power generation penetration can be improved. The aim of this research is to enhance wind turbine capability to meet these requirements using advanced control methodologies. In particular, variable speed wind turbines with permanent magnet synchronous generators are investigated in this research to improve their grid integration capability.