Economic aspects of latching control for a wave energy converter with a direct drive linear generator power take-off

A wave energy converter (WEC) should be controlled in order to increase the average output power. In this paper, economic aspects of latching applied to a point absorbing WEC with a linear generator power take-off (PTO) are discussed. The capacity utilisation factor (CUF) is suggested to be used along with average absorbed power for control optimisation. Optimum and suboptimum latching controls are assessed for the WEC and compared with a constant damping PTO force control. The WEC performance is simulated using monochromatic waves for the wave conditions of the Wave Hub test site, UK. The linear wave theory is used in a hydro-mechanical two-body simulation model. It is shown that the latching controls possess considerable practical challenges significantly increasing the return of investment time periods.