Maximum power point trackers for wind turbines

Maximum power point tracking methods are presented whereby the loading on the wind turbine is controlled to ensure that the maximum available energy from the wind is captured. The wind turbine system is modelled and used in simulations to evaluate two proposed maximum power point trackers, named anemometer control and calculation control for the purpose of this paper. An additional analog system is also created whereby the complete wind turbine system can be simulated. An inverter is used to replicate the generator and the loading is controlled using an active rectifier. The results from the simulations and analog system are presented whereby the two trackers are shown to be close to ideal. The appeal of the calculation method is in the redundancy of an anemometer making it attractive to less expensive, small-scale systems.