Comprehensive review of wind energy maximum power extraction algorithms

With the advancements in the variable speed direct drive design and control of wind energy systems, the efficiency and energy capture of these systems is also increasing. As such, many maximum power point tracking methods have been developed and implemented. These MPPT algorithms can be broadly categorized into three types: Tip-Speed control, Power-Signal feedback, and Hill climb search based. However, so many variations have been proposed over the last 30 years that it has become difficult to adequately determine which method, newly proposed or existing, is most appropriate for a given wind system. Recent papers have shorter literature review and a comprehensive review of all the variations of algorithms was not done. There is also little agreement in the energy gain results mentioned in various papers that were using the same or different algorithms. Therefore, a comprehensive review of various maximum power tracking algorithms proposed has been done by the authors, while further categorizing them into nine categories based on sensor requirements, speed, effectiveness, memory requirements, etc. Also, merits, demerits and comprehensive comparison of various algorithms are performed. The authors hope this paper would serve as a single point reference for the work that has been done on this topic and would be helpful for future researchers.