Experimental Results of a DC Bus Voltage Level Control for a Load-Controlled Marine Current Energy Converter

Johan Forslund, Staffan Lundin, Karin Thomas and Mats Leijon
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Johan Forslund: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, P.O. box 534, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden
Staffan Lundin: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, P.O. box 534, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden
Karin Thomas: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, P.O. box 534, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden
Mats Leijon: Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, P.O. box 534, 751 21 Uppsala, Sweden

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: This paper investigates three load control methods for a marine current energy converter using a vertical axis current turbine (VACT) mounted on a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). The three cases are; a fixed AC load, a fixed pulse width modulated (PWM) DC load and DC bus voltage control of a DC load. Experimental results show that the DC bus voltage control reduces the variations of rotational speed by a factor of 3.5 at the cost of slightly increased losses in the generator and transmission lines. For all three cases, the tip speed ratio \(\lambda\) can be kept close to the expected \(\lambda_{opt}\). The power coefficient is estimated to be 0.36 at \(\lambda_{opt}\); however, for all three cases, the average extracted power was about \(\sim 19\)\%. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system, with or without water velocity measurement, could increase the average extracted power.

Keywords: marine current energy converter; control system; VACT; PMSG; load control (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: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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