A Novel Steady State Wind Turbine Simulator Using an Inverter Controlled Induction Motor

This paper presents a new wind turbine simulator for steady state conditions. In order to provide a test platform for wind turbine drive trains, the authors have developed an experimental system to simulate the static characteristics of real wind turbines. This system consists of a 10 hp induction motor (IM), which drives a synchronous generator and is driven by a 10 kW variable-speed drive inverter, and real time control software. A microcontroller, a PC interfaced to a LAB Windows I/O board, and an IGBT inverter-controlled induction motor are used instead of a real wind turbine to supply shaft torque. A control program written in the C language is developed that obtains wind profiles and, by using turbine characteristics and the rotational speed of the IM, calculates the theoretical shaft torque of a real wind turbine. Based on the comparison of the measured torque with this demand torque, the shaft torque of the IM is regulated accordingly by controlling stator current demand and frequency demand of an inverter. In this way, the relationships between shaft rotating speed, shaft torque of the IM and wind speed are made to conform to the characteristics of a real wind turbine. The drive is controlled using the measured shaft torque directly, instead of estimating it as conventional drives do.