FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER FOR PREDICTING WIND TURBINE POWER GENERATION

The utilization of wind energy for power generation purposes is occupying a great share in the electrical market worldwide and becoming increasingly attractive. The good exploitation of wind energy may enhance the power generation capabilities, maximize its capacity factor, and participate in generating electricity at good costs. The present paper comprises two parts; the first part utilizes fuzzy logic methodology to assess wind sites in Jordan and to decide which sites should be given the highest priority with respect to their benefits and costs, and to predict the annual generation for different turbines in the best sites. The criterion of evaluation using fuzzy logic is based on different parameters, i.e., wind resources, prevailing wind direction, above ground level (AGL), site capacity, soil conditions, site elevation, land cost, land roughness, temperature, cultural and environmental concerns, aviation/telecommunications conflicts, nearby resident s concerns, site environmental issues (corrosion, humidity), and distance to transmission line. In the second part, a MATLAB/Simulink model is developed to study the parameters that affect the power generation by wind turbines. The considered parameters are turbine swept area, air density, wind speed, and power coefficient as a function of pitch angle and blade tip speed. The results show that Al Harir site in Al Tafila city is found to be the best choice and should be given the highest priority. It is followed by Al-Fujeij in Al-Shawbak then Al-Kamsha in Jerash.