Control and operation of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract: Research in wind power generation technology is a topic of high relevance in the context of renewable energy systems. This project aims to develop and implement an automatic operation and control system for an experimental vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) located at Lunds Tekniska Högskola, in Sweden. Supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) are increasingly considered indispensable in industrial scale wind power plants with the purpose of optimizing power production and monitoring the operation conditions in realtime to improve safety and reduce downtime and costs. Variable speed control is widely used for maximizing power extraction. In this project, a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm was successfully implemented in order to optimize power production. Hill Climb Search (HCS) was the chosen control method, since there is no knowledge about the optimum tip speed ratio of the rotor or the wind turbine maximum power curve. A state-machine model was developed to manage the operation of the wind turbine. The control sequence is implemented in programmable logic controllers from National Instruments, and data from the power converters and wind speed measurement is acquired and analyzed in the system. Performance tests were ran to investigate the optimum CP and the wind speed at which the wind turbine is capable of producing power.