Improved Active and Reactive Control of a Small Wind Turbine System Connected to the Grid

This paper deals with the interconnection of a small wind turbine with the low voltage distribution grid and the implementation of an improved control scheme, which also serves educational purposes. Initially the subsystems—wind turbine, rectifying bridge, interleaved boost converter, three-phase inverter, interconnection inductors, lifting transformer, filtering capacitors—are investigated, in order to explain their selection, based on the LEMEC (Laboratory of Electromechanical Energy Conversion, Department of Electrical Engineering, UoP) educational policy. Afterwards, the three-phase inverter control scheme, which is responsible for controlling its input voltage (voltage of the DC Bus) and consequently the active power, as well as the reactive power injected into the grid (VQ control) is analyzed. This is accomplished through DQ transformation and PI controllers which are responsible for generating the appropriate reference signals, to generate the required Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) pulses to drive the semiconductor switches of the inverter. In addition, it is explained how this particular control method can compensate reactive power in the grid, even in apnea, by automatically charging the DC Bus. Finally, simulation and experimental results are given to prove the proposed control method effectiveness.