Voltage control of a variable speed wind turbine connected to an isolated load: Experimental study

Highlights: ► We develop an experimental test bench of a wind energy conversion system. ► A DC motor is emulating a variable speed wind turbine using a DS1104 card. ► The production unit is supplying a three-phase load. ► A voltage control is established in order to regulate the DC bus voltage and the line-to-line voltages. - Abstract: This study is interested in the development of an experimental test bench of an autonomous wind energy conversion system (WECS) based on a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). After the description of the test bench, the elements constituting the WECS are presented. Then, a real time model implemented under a digital signal processor (DSP) system is established. The first objective of this work is to validate the functionality of the test bench leading to experiment some principles developed in theory. The second objective is to control the load connection voltages and the DC bus voltage. For the first control, two resonant controllers are used and for the second one, a dump load, connected to the DC bus, offers the possibility to maintain a balance between production and consumption in spite of wind fluctuations and load variations. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the test bench trying out in real time the behavior of a WECS supplying an isolated load.