New random SPWM technique for AC-AC converter-based WECS

Abstract

A single-stage AC-AC converter has been designed for a wind energy conversion system (WECS) that eliminates multistage operation and DC-link filter elements, thus resolving size, weight, and reliability issues. A simple switching strategy is used to control the switches that changes the variable-frequency AC output of an electrical generator to a constant-frequency supply to feed into a distributed electrical load/grid. In addition, a modified random sinusoidal pulse width modulation (RSPWM) technique has been developed for the designed converter to make the overall system more efficient by increasing generating power capacity and reducing the effects of inter-harmonics and sub-harmonics generated in the WECS. The technique uses carrier and reference waves of variable switching frequency to calculate the firing angles of the switches of the converter so that the three-phase output voltage of the converter is very close to a sine wave with reduced THD. A comparison of the performance of the proposed RSPWM technique with the conventional SPWM demonstrated that the power generated by a turbine in the proposed approximately increased by 5% to 10% and THD reduces by 40% both in voltage and current with respect to conventional SPWM.