INVESTIGATION OF NEW SMART ENERGY MANAGEMENT FOR 10kW VERTICAL WIND TURBINE USING A SMART GRID APPLICATION

The low wind speeds of Thailand demands innovative blade designs for vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) to improve efficiency and be considered a potential renewable energy source. This study was aimed at the design of innovative VAWT wind tree with 32 hybrid blade turbines arranged in four stacks (branches), with the ability to move the branches up and down the tree structure. The hybrid Savonius-Darreius blade design gave the turbines a low wind speed start-up of 2 m/s and 5 m/s maximum operating wind speed maintaining high torque. 320 Watts disk type permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG) were also designed producing 9.8 Vdc at 2 m/s and 35 Vdc at 5 m/s. The Generators outputs were rectified through bridge rectifiers and connected to DC/DC boost converters to stabilise the power and synchronize them at a single bus bar. The output from the wind tree was used to power Guilin restaurant in combination with the local grid in Surat Thani province of southern Thailand via grid-tied inverter (GTI). The GTI was monitored and controlled in real-time using iMars Phone Expert mobile application. The hybrid blade VAWT wind tree designed can be installed in low-speed areas, which can be used in combination with the local electricity grid to power a small business or community providing cheap, clean energy along with easy and cost-effective maintenance due to its ability to move the turbines and electro-mechanical devices up and down the structure.