Ecosense installs Wind Turbine Emulator System at Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam

Ecosense installs Wind Turbine Emulator System at Department of Electrical Engineering, Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam.

Andhra University is one of the oldest educational institutions in the country and also the first to be conceived as a residential and teaching-cum-affiliating University, mainly devoted to post-graduate teaching and research.

To conduct research in the field of microgrids and allied technologies, Ecosense supplied Wind Turbine Emulator System at Department of Electrical Engineering at Andhra University.

Wind Turbine Emulator System

Wind turbine emulator mimics the behaviour of wind turbine for hardware level simulations. This system has a DC motor coupled with the Induction generator/Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator, speed of which is controlled as per the speed reference calculated by solving the mathematical model of wind turbine. An induction generator is coupled to the DC motor and bidirectional inverter is connected to the terminals of the generator. Researcher can execute the mathematical models of their newly developed or modified wind turbine and can simulate the speed/power of profile of turbine on hardware environment directly for different wind speeds & pitch angle.

Why Emulator?

Exploiting wind energy and actively developing wind power generation have a great significance to solve the global energy and environmental crisis. Research and experiments on wind power generation system are difficult to carryout due to the limitation of severe conditions of wind farm and high cost. The wind turbine emulator system can substitute the actual wind turbine by calculating the output torque with the wind turbine torque model and rapidly producing a torque corresponding to the current wind condition. It not only has the same mechanical characteristic with the actual wind turbine, but also provides controllable equivalent wind energy. So, it can be used in the design, estimation and test application of the Wind Power Generation System which greatly improves the efficiency and validity of research development.

Technical Characteristics of Wind Turbine Emulator System

· Ability to track torque-speed and power-speed characteristics of a wind turbine at different wind speeds and pitch angle

· Plotting Cp-λ curve to show the turbine characteristics at a particular pitch angle

· Real time tracking of λ could be utilized to track the optimal λ of a turbine

· Maximum power point tracking opportunity based on the generated voltage and current feedback

· Ability to control DC link voltage using bidirectional converter in stand-alone mode

· Research on Microgrid possible as the DC link can accommodate other renewable sources such as PV

· Power flow and quality supplied to the grid can be controlled and analyzed

· Further exploration of control techniques for smart grid implementation possible

· Continuous sensing of grid side voltage and currents provide opportunity to implement advanced control algorithms to control the behaviour as per grid conditions

· Implementing different maximum power point algorithm in Wind Turbine Emulator system

· Maintaining minimum reactive power at inverter output to achieve unity power factor and maximize the usable power generation

· Using different differential equations to emulate different Wind Turbine models

· Implementing Anti-islanding protection using fault detection at different loads

Master’s Training Conducted

After successful installation of system, 1-day master’s training program is conducted. This master’s training was focused on how to efficiently utilize the system in core-curriculum development and practical experimentations.

The way Forward

Faculties and Students at Department of electrical engineering will conduct their research in the field of microgrid technology to achieve seamless transfer of a standalone system to grid -connected and vice versa. This research will help in making smart cities more efficient in the future.

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