Novel high efficient speed sensorless controller for maximum power extraction from wind energy conversion systems

•Novel sensorless MPPT technique without drawbacks of other sensor/sensorless methods.•Tracking the actual MPP of WECSs, no tracking the MPP of their wind turbines.•Actually extracting the highest output power from WECSs.•Novel MPPT technique having the MPPT efficiency more than 98.5% for WECSs.•Novel MPPT technique having short convergence time for WECSs.

In this study, a novel high accurate sensorless maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method is proposed. The technique tracks the actual maximum power point of a wind energy conversion system (WECS) at which maximum output power is extracted from the system, not the maximum power point of its wind turbine at which maximum mechanical power is obtained from the turbine, so it actually extracts the highest output power from the system. The technique only uses input voltage and current of the converter used in the system, and neither needs any speed sensors (anemometer and tachometer) nor has the drawbacks of other sensor/sensorless based MPPT methods. The technique has been implemented as a MPPT controller by constructing a WECS. Theoretical results, the technique performance, and its advantages are validated by presenting real experimental results. The real static-dynamic response of the MPPT controller is experimentally obtained that verifies the proposed MPPT technique high accurately extracts the highest instant power from wind energy conversion systems with the MPPT efficiency of more than 98.5% and a short convergence time that is only 25 s for the constructed system having a total inertia and friction coefficient of 3.93 kg m2 and 0.014 N m s, respectively.