Electrical design of a smart control and monitoring system for small horizontal-axis wind turbines

Abstract

The popularity of small wind turbines would rise in future, because of electricity prices are still growing. Next generation of small wind-turbines can have higher efficiency values. Under wind gusts and turbulences, the system should be very sensitive to wind conditions. In this work, it is presented a control system that can improve the performance of commercial small-scale wind turbines by including active pitch and load control. We show the electrical design of a smart active pitch control to increase the energy generation of micro-wind turbines (< 5 kWp). The electrical design controls a simple mechanism that allows the rotation of the blades by using an actuator that moves the blades according to the energy desired. The load control is also shown. These two control strategies maximise the power output at all wind conditions, and can increase the performance of small wind turbines. Moreover, important signals that allow safety actions and feedback data are monitored. The electro-mechanical design is robust and economical compare to the traditional hydraulic solution, which will increase its potential adoptability by users.