Biogeography-Based Optimization Technique for maximum power tracking of hydrokinetic turbines

Hydrokinetic energy, referring to the energy contained in moving water, is a renewable energy source that gained much consideration in the past years and expected to play a significant role in the future. The energy is initiated in all moving water masses, but is significantly economic to convert for water masses moving with high velocity. Nonlinear characteristics of water speed and generator model in hydrokinetic energy conversion systems require an optimal controller for achieving optimal performance and high efficiency of the system. Here, the field oriented control method is proposed to set the PI controllers which their coefficients are optimized based on Biogeography-Based Optimization technique (BBO). In order to use BBO to solve this problem, the problem has to be formulated as an optimization problem. Numerous simulation studies are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed controller scheme. Achieved results for different patterns of water speed changes in time domain show the capability of the proposed control.