Robust Nonlinear Control Strategy for Small Wind Turbines: A Case Study

Abstract

This chapter presents a case study of robust nonlinear control strategy using nonlinear feedback control technique based on Lyapunov theory and associated with robust control laws. The proposed approach aims to enhance robustness of the wind turbine control scheme. In fact, we selected as a case study, the most used electrical generator in small-scale wind applications, the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSM). Indeed, the control strategy presented in this chapter allows an efficient operation of the wind turbine in the standalone operating mode, offers a nonlinear handling of the WECS(s) and guarantees maximum wind power harvesting and robustness against critical working conditions. Talking about stability, in several wind generator control schemes; a such classical PI controllers-based scheme can easily be disturbed by any uncertainty of the system parameters, thus, in this chapter, we focused on how to overcome this issue by proposing a robust control strategy based on nonlinear controller derived from the Lyapunov Theory. The chapter presents numerical simulations within Matlab/SIMULINK environment. These results proved the effectiveness and the benefits of the proposed approach