Intelligent controller for improved efficiency of micro wind turbine generators

Due to an ever increasing demand for electricity Eskom is struggling to cope, which inevitably leads to load shedding. Although this is a minor inconvenience for residential users, the effects can be detrimental for businesses. This increases the need for alternative provision of an uninterrupted power supply. Wind energy is a viable solution for this problem as wind turbines proved to be one of the cleanest and fastest growing forms of renewable energy. Although micro wind turbines are the most common type of wind turbines used for homes, businesses, farms or other rural areas, the fundamental drawback is that the majority of these wind turbines are designed to produce maximum efficiency for only a single wind speed. The consequence of a deviation from this designed wind speed is that the overall efficiency of the wind turbine decreases. This problem can be overcome by designing an intelligent controller that allows variable speed operation of the wind turbine and therefore increases the overall efficiency of power extraction from the incoming wind. The method proposed uses a fuzzy logic controller connected to the generator that continuously adapts the rotational speed of the generator to ensure the optimal rotational speed is obtained and therefore extracts the maximum amount of energy from the wind.