Small Wind Turbines in Grid-Interactive Microgrids

This paper is focused on the control of small wind turbines, rated less than 200 kW, in grid-interactive microgrids. The considered system is based on a back-to-back power conversion stage. The management of the active and reactive power exchange in the different operating conditions is the key point to allow a practical integration of wind turbine systems in the main electrical grid. This issue lies in a proper control system design achieving high performance in grid-connection as in stand-alone operation modes. A cascade control loops structure is proposed in the paper. Some simulation and experimental results validate the control algorithm.