Power converter for wind turbine application

Variable speed wind turbines are known to provide more effective power capture than their fixed-speed counterparts. To generate electrical power over a wide range of speeds, induction generators have been shown to be superior in many ways to DC generators: efficiency, maintainability, power density, etc. Unfortunately, loads are typically fixed-frequency. A power electronic converter enables efficient conversion of the variable frequency output of an induction generator, driven by a variable speed wind turbine, to a fixed frequency appropriate for the grid or a load. The conventional converter topology for this task is the well-known DC link converter. The power converter proposed in this investigation differs from the conventional DC link converter in three important ways. (1) It has only one bridge, composed of active devices. Consequently, the converter has only half the switching devices of the conventional DC link converter. Compared to many DC link converters, it may have half the controller hardware as well. (2) It has a unique modulation algorithm. (3) It has a simple filter to capture energy produced by the system and to transfer that energy to the grid or a load.