Performance of an Ocean Energy Conversion System with DFIG Sensorless Control

The 2009/28/EC Directive requires Member States of the European Union to adopt a National Action Plan for Renewable Energy. In this context, the Basque Energy Board, EVE, is committed to research activities such as the Mutriku Oscillating Water Column plant, OWC. This is an experimental facility whose concept consists of a turbine located in a pneumatic energy collection chamber and a doubly fed induction generator that converts energy extracted by the turbine into a form that can be returned to the network. The turbo-generator control requires a precise knowledge of system parameters and of the rotor angular velocity in particular. Thus, to remove the rotor speed sensor implies a simplification of the hardware that is always convenient in rough working conditions. In this particular case, a Luenberger based observer is considered and the effectiveness of the proposed control is shown by numerical simulations. Comparing these results with those obtained using a traditional speed sensor, it is shown that the proposed solution provides better performance since it increases power extraction in the sense that it allows a more reliable and robust performance of the plant, which is even more relevant in a hostile environment as the ocean.

Desarrollo de sistemas de guiado en direcciones estacionarias basados en brújulas mecánicas

[ES]El South Pointing Chariot es un antiguo mecanismo de origen chino usado en sus inicios como instrumento de orientación, siendo su principal característica la existencia de un punto que siempre tiene velocidad angular absoluta nula. Tomando sus fundamentos como base, es posible realizar sistemas de guiado en direcciones estacionarias con múltiples aplicaciones en la actualidad, pudiendo usarse, por ejemplo, como sistema estabilizador. Para ello, debe realizarse su análisis cinemático, para comprender su funcionamiento, y comprobar que los resultados son correctos, pudiéndose hacer esto mediante un prototipo. La realización del prototipo engloba su diseño y posterior fabricación.