Analysis of a Novel Brushless Doubly Fed Reluctance Generator Based Wind Energy Conversion System

ABSTRACT This paper presents a grid connected Brushless Doubly‐Fed Reluctance Generator (BDFRG) based wind energy conversion system. It offers a reliable and cost‐effective solution since its brushless and cage‐less rotor structure eliminates the need for slip rings, reducing maintenance costs, improving efficiency, robust in nature, and more reliable than other wind turbine generators. The BDFRG has two separate windings which are mounted on the stator namely the power winding and control winding: power winding connects to grid whereas the control winding connects to grids via partially‐rated back‐to‐back converter. This partially‐rated converter comprises of dual separately converters namely Grid Side converter (GSC) and Machine Side Converter (MSC). A field‐oriented vector control scheme is proposed for MSC to Variable Speed Constant Frequency (VSCF) action at fluctuating velocity of wind and a grid voltage‐oriented vector control scheme is considered for GSC to maintain constant voltage across DC‐link capacitor and also to obtain unity power factor of the system by managing no reactive power drift between grid and GSC. Maximum power point tracker (MPPT) and blade pitch angle control technique are also incorporated with the control structure of the MSC to obtain full power from the variable wind velocity and limit the winds generated power at its desired rate when the wind speed exceeds its rated value. The study system is modeled mathematically and implemented in MATLAB/Simulink (2021a) environment to observe the efficacy of the proposed control schemes under rated, below rated and above rated wind velocity. The hardware set‐up is developed for the study system and both control schemes are successfully executed in the Field‐Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform for experimental set‐up. Results show the efficacy of the proposed scheme and also provide good responses by showing reduced oscillation during transient, also it offers minimal steady‐state error in response to variations in input sources.