Comparative Analysis of Wind Turbine Control Strategies

An article describes a comparative analysis of windmill control strategies based on computer modelling in Matlab/Simulink software. For the research purposes, the mathematical windmill model we developed consisted of a wind turbine, an electric generator, an electric power converter, and an accumulator battery. The main feature of the proposed model is the universal charge controller module operating under the control of different algorithms written in a high-level programming language. The model imitates three different control strategies. The main comparative criterion of windmill efficiency is the power coefficient, i.e. the ratio of the generated electric power to the aerodynamic wind power. The testing setup was equipped with a windmill controller developed for operation under the control program that supports different control strategies. Results showed the best control strategy is to maintain the optimal tip-speed ratio, and all the results can now be applied to other types of wind turbines.