Design of a Micro-grid Integration Circuit for Ocean Wave Energy Converters

This study discusses the design of a circuit for micro-grid integration for wave energy converters (WECs). One of the power-take-off mechanism of the WEC is using permanent magnet linear generator (PMLG). However, the output voltages and currents from PMLG vary in term of magnitude and frequency. A simple circuit was designed to convert the voltage and the frequency of the PMLG to be suitable for grid or micro-grid specifications. The circuit comprised of the passive three-phase rectifier, a DC-DC converter, a three-phases inverter, and a step-up transformer. The simulation study conducted to test the design circuit. It showed that the converter voltage and frequency satisfied the grid or micro-grid specifications with a low total harmonic distortion.