Effects of WECS settings and PMSG parameters in the performance of a small wind energy generator

During recent years the market for small wind turbine generators (SWTG) has been continuously growing. In this context, the supply of components for this product has also been increasing. The main components of SWTG are the rotor, the generator and the wind energy conversion system (WECS), typically formed by a rectifier plus an inverter. The settings of WECS affect the SWTG behaviour, especially the parameters related with minimum and maximum voltages and the way in which the inverter power curve is established. In this paper, a method to calculate the inverter power curve of a STWG is presented, the impact of different types of curves is also evaluated.