Evaluation of controller autotuning in a wind energy conversion system

A methodology for automatically tuning controller parameters of wind energy conversion systems is investigated in this paper. The PI controller is often used in wind energy conversion systems, however, it is challenging to reliably tune the parameters for such nonlinear systems. Here we evaluate an autotuning method to automatically determine the PI control parameters for a wind turbine system containing a back-toback converter. We consider a quantiser based method that can be utilised during normal operation of the system even when disturbances occur. The quantiser is used to induce oscillations near the critical frequency of the system. A continuous time parameter estimation algorithm then estimates a model of the system at the current operating point, with the controller designed using an internal model control method. Simulation results show an improvement in disturbance rejection in terms of voltage transients as compared to a PI controller typically tuned using a phenomenological model the system.