Control of Oscillating Water Column-based wave power generation plants for grid connection

There is a worldwide interest in the use of renewable resources for the generation of electrical power. Between all renewable energy sources, ocean energy is the one that still has the furthest to go to achieve commercial maturity. As the most promising ocean energy that can be harnessed in the Basque Country is wave energy, the NEREIDA MOWC project, promoted and led by Basque Energy Board, aims to prove the viability of this technology for future commercial plants. In this paper, an Oscillating Water Column-based wave power generation plant is modeled and controlled by means of a new control scheme that takes into account the influence of turbine damping and the main requirements imposed by new Grid Codes when a grid fault occurs on the transmission system.