Design of PMSG based Wind Energy Conversion System with MPPT for Maximum Power Extraction

Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) play a key role in the shift away from non-conventional energy sources towards renewable energy. However, a major challenge when adopting wind energy is to make sure that the system is able to extract as much power as is available, to satisfy the aim of optimized and efficient operation. The Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is one such method to achieve this. A complete Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) driven WECS is modelled, including the wind turbine, drivetrain, pitch controller and cut-in and cut-out speed based operating mechanism. The Perturb and Observe (P&O) based MPPT algorithm is then applied to the system in order to analyze its performance and highlight its advantages and drawbacks. The model is simulated in MATLAB Simulink.