Development of a variable speed wind turbine emulator for research and training

This paper describes the development of a variable speed wind turbine emulator used for educational purposes. The emulator reproduces different wind conditions and turbine modes of operation. The grid connection system is identical with the one used in a real wind turbine, model DR-14. Therefore, the emulator provides hands on experience to students giving them insight into wind energy conversion systems (WECS) under different operating conditions. A supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system was developed in order to allow wind turbine monitoring and parameters setting with a user-friendly interface. Communication networks were established to transfer data and signals between software and hardware to reproduce the wind turbine behavior.