Wind turbine simulator for laboratory testing of a wind energy conversion drive train

This paper presents a wind turbine simulator for laboratory testing of a wind energy conversion drive train that includes an electric generator, gear-box, electromagnetic brake, power electronic converters and controllers. The simulator consists of a 5.5-kW induction generator which is driven by a variable speed inverter and a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) that simulates the wind turbine power speed characteristics. The simulator provides the required torque reference signal according to the wind speed input and thus, it acts like a wind turbine to the energy conversion system. Moreover, the variation of wind direction and passive stall characteristics of the wind turbine could be simulated by incorporating the above aerodynamic effects in the PLC control software. Thus, a Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) can be tested at the laboratory in wind steady-state and dynamic performance and also in stand-alone and grid connected configurations. The electric generator can be of any type of electric machines and also various control techniques for the WECS can be applied. Thus, the aerodynamic effects of yaw error, passive stall and wind turbulence on the power quality in stand-alone and grid connected wind generators can be examined. This paper reports the structure, operating principle of the developed simulator and several experimental results are presented.