Maximum power point tracking of a variable speed PMSG wind power system with DC link reduction technique

A new controller to track the maximum power point (MPP) of a variable speed wind energy conversion system (WECS) incorporating permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) along with DC link reduction is presented in this paper. The power extracted from the turbine is affected by the double line frequency voltage ripple present in the DC link of the system. The traditional large electrolytic capacitors used for the DC link are bulky and less reliable, thereby reducing the reliability of the system. The replacement of these capacitors with lower capacity film capacitors which are costlier and more reliable proves to be a viable solution for this problem. So, an algorithm to track the MPP along with the DC link reduction is proposed. The proposed method is implemented, analyzed and verified in MATLAB/SimPowerSystem. The simulation results obtained clearly shows the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy for WECS based on the PMSG.