Speed Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbine Using Computational Intelligence Approaches

Wind power generation systems, which can be run at constant speed or variable speed, are gaining a lot of attention as clean and secure renewable energy sources. Due to an increase in the production of wind energy, variable speed generation systems are more appealing than fixed speed systems. A variable speed wind turbine should run as close as practical to its ideal power coefficient to maximise the harvest of wind energy. In this study, a fractional order PID controller with parameters set using computational intelligence techniques is used to regulate the speed of a two-mass mass wind turbine system. Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithm are both used for the purpose of comparison. MATLAB simulation shows that, the proposed fractional order PID controller exhibits improved response in terms of shorter settling times, reduced overshoot as compared to conventional PID controllers.