Management and Control of Operating Regimes of Cross-Flow Water Turbines

This paper deals with a generation system based on cross-flow water turbines (CFWTs) operating in a river stream. It is equipped with a permanent-magnet synchronous generator and can feed a power grid or an insulated load through a back-to-back power electronics converter. This paper concerns the control of these two operating regimes with focus on the manner of achieving a soft switching between them, in order to ensure the balance between the generated and the provided power and to alleviate transients. The control laws and the switching sequences have been experimentally validated on a real-time CFWT simulator equipped with the same type of generator and power electronics converter. This paper aims at offering a synthetic vision of how the CFWT-based generation system should be controlled across the main operating regimes in order to preserve its continuity of service.