Laboratory-Scale Airborne Wind Energy Conversion Emulator Using OPAL-RT Real-Time Simulator

Pankaj Kumar, Yashwant Kashyap (), Roystan Vijay Castelino, Anabalagan Karthikeyan, Manjunatha Sharma K., Debabrata Karmakar and Panagiotis Kosmopoulos ()
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Pankaj Kumar: Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Yashwant Kashyap: Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Roystan Vijay Castelino: Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Anabalagan Karthikeyan: Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Manjunatha Sharma K.: Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Debabrata Karmakar: Department of Water Resources and Ocean Engineering National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Panagiotis Kosmopoulos: Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens (IERSD/NOA), 15236 Athens, Greece

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-30

Abstract: Airborne wind energy systems (AWES) are more efficient than traditional wind turbines because they can capture higher wind speeds at higher altitudes using connected kite generators. Securing a real wind turbine or a site with favorable wind conditions is not always an assured opportunity for conducting research. Hence, the Research and Development of the Laboratory Scale Airborne Wind Energy Conversion System (LAWECS) require a better understanding of airborne wind turbine dynamics and emulation. Therefore, an airborne wind turbine emulation system was designed, implemented, simulated, and experimentally tested with ground data for the real time simulation. The speed and torque of a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) connected to a kite are regulated to maximize wind energy harvesting. A field-oriented control technique is then used to control the PMSM’s torque, while a three-phase power inverter is utilized to drive the PMSM with PI controllers in a closed loop. The proposed framework was tested, and the emulated airborne wind energy conversion system results were proven experimentally for different wind speeds and generator loads. Further, the LAWECS emulator simulated a 2 kW, 20 kW, and 60 kW designed with a projected kite area of 5, 25, and 70 square meters, respectively. This system was simulated using the Matlab/Simulink software and tested with the experimental data. Furthermore, the evaluation of the proposed framework is validated using a real-time hardware-in-the-loop environment, which uses the FPGA-based OPAL-RT Simulator.

Keywords: airborne wind energy system; emulator; LAWECS; PMSM; controller; renewable energy; OPAL-RT; real-time HIL simulator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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