Integration of an Energy Capacitor System With a Variable-Speed Wind Generator

This paper presents a system using an energy capacitor system (ECS) to smoothen the output power fluctuation of a variable-speed wind farm. The variable-speed wind turbine driving a permanent-magnet synchronous generator is considered to be connected to the ac network through a fully controlled frequency converter. The detailed modeling and control strategy of the frequency converter as well as variable-speed operation of a wind turbine generator system are demonstrated. Afterward, a suitable and economical topology of ECS composed of a current-controlled voltage-source inverter, dc-dc buck/boost converter, and an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) bank is presented, including their control strategies. Exponential moving average is used to generate the real input power reference of ECS. Another novel feature of this paper is the incorporation of a fuzzy-logic-controlled reference signal adjuster in the control of the dc-dc buck/boost converter, in which the stored energy of the EDLC bank is utilized in an efficient way. Due to this controller, the energy storage capacity of the EDLC bank can be reduced in size, thus resulting in reduction of the overall cost of the ECS unit as well as decrease in irrepressible operations during high and low energy levels of the EDLC bank. Finally, extensive simulation results are presented that validate the effectiveness of the proposed system to smoothen the output power fluctuation of the variable-speed wind farm.