Electronic Emulator of a Wind Energy System with Full-Scale Power Converter and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator

This paper deals with developing a versatile electronic emulator (EE) of a wind generating system (WGS) that does not use rotating machines, which can be used for research development and educational tools. Thus, the proposed EE platform represents a cost-effective alternative to perform research (tests and analyses) and facilitate academic learning and teaching. The association of a permanent magnet synchronous generator with a wind turbine mathematical model is virtually implemented to compose the aerogenerator. A reference generator system (RGS) generates the control references employed to control the actual back-to-back converter, composed of a controlled rectifier and a current-controlled voltage source inverter (VSI), connected to the power grid and sharing the same DC bus. From the RGS, the power generated by the virtual aerogenerator is used to calculate the current references drained from the grid by the controlled rectifier. The VSI controls the DC bus voltage and injects it into the power grid sinusoidal current, emulating a complete WGS. Besides the power converters’ transfer functions and the DC bus control in the dq synchronous reference frame, a graphical interface (GI) platform is implemented. The proposed EE-WGS is validated through simulation and experimental results, while the electrical quantities can be visualized using the GI to assist in evaluating the WGS static and dynamic behaviors with a full-scale back-to-back power converter.