Study of characteristics of wind turbine PMSG with reduced switches count converters

Characteristics of a small scale wind turbine using Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator and connected to a grid through a reduced switches count converter (two legs only) are studied in this paper. Active power output corresponding with the input is given with the reactive power produced by the wind turbine regulated at 0 MVAr. Variable wind speed is optimum for drive train performance at 10 m/s (at maximum power coefficient point). When wind speed changes, the turbine moves away from its optimal tip speed ratio until maximum power point tracking forces the turbine to operate at its optimal speed. The generator torque is regulated by controlling the generator current based on the principle of field oriented control where a decoupling between the field and torque current components is achieved. The generator reference voltage and the converter switching signals are synthesized using the principle of space vector modulation. A 5.7 kW grid-connected variable speed wind turbine is simulated using Matlab/Simulink to study the feasibility of the proposed control technique.