Sensorless control of a squirrel cage induction generator to track the peak power in a wind turbine

This communication deals with the study and the control of a squirrel cage induction generator intended to produce electrical energy in an autonomous or grid connected small wind generator. Small turbines use a permanent magnet synchronous machine without any system to produce the peak power for every wind speed. This paper proposes two generator control algorithms to track the peak power without wind and machine speed sensors. The application field are small wind power generators, which do not use this kind of sensors to reduce the cost. The system uses rotor flux oriented control of the induction machine. The first peak power control algorithm measures generated power and increases or decreases the torque reference to track the peak power. The second algorithm measures generated power too, but it modifies the speed reference to track the peak power. Simulation plots are included to prove the excellent performance with constant and variable wind power.