Intelligent control for improving the efficiency of a hybrid semi-submersible platform with wind turbine and wave energy converters: Fuzzy control system for the wind turbine

Abstract

The use of sea wind energy is limited by the limited viable spaces on the onshore or in shallow waters. This makes the use of offshore semi-submersible platforms to be an attractive option, which additionally enables to incorporate other elements as wave converters. However, the interactions between wave converters and wind turbine increase the complexity of the system, and the traditional control techniques do not allow to integrate in an easy way those interactions, thus limiting the efficiency of energy extraction. The use of intelligent control techniques -in particular, fuzzy control- allows to take full account of the said interactions and to improve energy extraction efficiency, although simulation models and systems including those effects are required. This paper presents the development of a fuzzy-logic based control system, scalable to consider the effects due to wave converters due to an in-house developed simulation model, for the control of a wind turbine installed on a semi-submersible platform.