Novel Single Stage AC-AC Converter for Wind Energy System

Renewable energy is becoming increasingly important as an alternative power source for large scale power systems to produce clean and reliable electricity. India has high potential and abundant availability of wind energy. This paper investigates a novel single stage AC–AC converter, as an alternative to AC–DC–AC converter system, to interface the Wind Energy Conversion system to a utility grid as a distributed generation unit. A new switching strategy and a control mechanism for the converter are presented. Based on time-domain simulations in the MATLAB environment, the dynamic behavior of a wind turbine generation system, including the dynamic models of the turbine (thermodynamics), generator and converter control, is studied. The studies conclude that an AC-AC converter is technically a viable option to interface a wind turbine to a utility grid