Performance assessment of the full scale ISWEC system

ISWEC (Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter) is a system using the gyroscopic reactions provided from a spinning flywheel to extract power from sea waves. The flywheel and the energy conversion systems works inside the sealed floating body thus being protected from the marine environment to obtain reliable and durable operation. The goal of this work is to identify a strategy to optimize the performance of the ISWEC and to introduce a mathematical tool suitable for this purpose. The control of the device aims to exploit all the available control parameters in order to maximize power generation. At first the tuning of PTO control law is analyzed and then the additional control degree provided by the gyro speed is considered too. The control strategies are identified with a constrained multivariable optimization algorithm taking into account the device physical limits. The system analyzed in the present work is a 100 kW ISWEC device deployed at the Island of Pantelleria, Italy.