The use of Miller converter for Permanent Magnet Reluctance Generator driven Wind Energy Conversion System

A Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) has been considered to be the most promising Renewable Energy System (RES) owing to its fast - developing technology. However, power generation cost of the WECS is still higher than that of fossil energy conversion systems. Therefore, new type generators and power electronic drive circuits are required to be developed. A Permanent Magnet Reluctance Generator (PMRG), which is a special Switched Reluctance Generator (SRG) with magnet on stator yoke, seems to have potential to meet expectations of WECSs. Although an Asymmetric Half Bridge (AHB) converter is the best solution for independent phase control of the PMRG, it contains six controllable switches and six freewheeling diodes. Another converter topology, known as Miller converter, requires less switches and diodes and can be used to reduce the converter cost. In this work, the first use of Miller converter for SRGs, particularly for PMRGs, has been presented. The converter has been accompanied by torque ripple minimization -assisted Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPTT) algorithm and has been experimentally performed on the PMRG driven WECS. The control-converter combination not only allows converting wind energy at its maximum power point (MPP) but also provides a protection from possible damages or failures due to torque ripples.