Real‐Time Fault Ride Through Capability Improvement of PMSG‐Wind Turbine Based on Robust Fractional Order Sliding Mode Control

ABSTRACT The increasing integration of renewable energy sources, such as wind power, poses significant challenges for maintaining grid stability and reliability, especially under fault conditions. The issue of transient response speed of the control system during fault occurrence and clearing is one of those challenges. In this article, a fractional‐order sliding mode control (FOSMC) method is introduced for a wind energy conversion system (WECS) with a variable‐speed direct‐drive permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) under both normal and fault conditions. During normal operation, the machine‐side converter (MSC) is utilized to achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for the wind turbine, while the grid‐side converter (GSC) regulates the DC‐link voltage and injected reactive power. In fault conditions, such as low voltage ride through (LVRT) events mandated by grid codes, the MSC adjusts the DC‐link voltage instead of the GSC, while the GSC controls active and reactive powers. The proposed control method is compared to a conventional control system. The results demonstrate that the suggested approach offers faster dynamic response and greater robustness under both balanced and unbalanced conditions. Furthermore, by enhancing LVRT capability and reactive power injection, the proposed control method leads to smaller spikes in injected current and DC link voltage. To validate the proposed method, simulations are performed using offline MATLAB/Simulink simulation. Subsequently, the results are validated through experimental real‐time implementation.