Small wind turbine technology application for residential uses

Abstract

As a result of environmental concerns, the depletion of fossil fuel, and the increase in energy demand, renewable sources' penetration is expanding day after day. However, because of their dependency on weather conditions, renewable sources impose new challenges on the power system. To accommodate these sources into the conventional power system, the structure of the power system should be changed. The concept of the microgrids is regarded as the appropriate solution for the grid integration of renewable sources. Microgrids refer to small power systems with control capabilities operating in grid connection and in offgrid modes. Microgrids can be classified as DC, AC, or hybrid microgrids. DC microgrids have emerged as sustainable solutions combining both energy storage and distributed generation to provide power to DC loads such as LED lights, computer chargers, Electric Vehicles, computers, laptops, TVs, tablets, phones, printers, etc. This study considers a DC microgrid based on a small wind turbine. The aim is to design a 3 kW standalone wind turbine DC microgrid to provide power to residential appliances operating at 240 V in case of power shortage or power cuts from the primary power grid. The system consists of a small wind turbine using an AC permanent magnet synchronous generator, a three-phase diode rectifier, a DC-to-DC boost converter, and a maximum power point tracker based on the Perturb and Observe (P&O) technique. MATLAB/Simulink software package is used for the modelling and simulation.