This book is intended for academics and engineers working in universities, research institutes, and industry sectors wishing to acquire new information and enhance their knowledge of the current trends in wind turbine technology. Readers will gain new ideas and special experience with in-depth information about modeling, stability control, assessment, reliability, and future prospects of wind turbines. This book contains a number of problems and solutions that can be integrated into larger research findings and projects. The book enhances studies concerning the state of the art of wind turbines, modeling and intelligent control of wind turbines, power quality of wind turbines, robust controllers for wind turbines in cold weather, etc. The book also looks at recent developments in wind turbine supporting structures, noise reduction estimation methods, reliability and prospects of wind turbines, etc. As I enjoyed preparing this book, I am sure that it will be valuable for a large sector of readers.

This book is intended for academics and engineers working in universities, research institutes, and industry sectors wishing to acquire new information and enhance their knowledge of the current trends in wind turbine technology. Readers will gain new ideas and special experience with in-depth information about modeling, stability control, assessment, reliability, and future prospects of wind turbines. This book contains a number of problems and solutions that can be integrated into larger research findings and projects. The book enhances studies concerning the state of the art of wind turbines, modeling and intelligent control of wind turbines, power quality of wind turbines, robust controllers for wind turbines in cold weather, etc. The book also looks at recent developments in wind turbine supporting structures, noise reduction estimation methods, reliability and prospects of wind turbines, etc. As I enjoyed preparing this book, I am sure that it will be valuable for a large sector of readers.

Introductory Chapter: Stability Control and Reliable Performance of Wind Turbines.

Presenting the latest developments in the field, Wind Energy Systems: Control Engineering Design offers a novel take on advanced control engineering design techniques for wind turbine applications. The book introduces concurrent quantitative engineering techniques for the design of highly efficient and reliable controllers, which can be used to solve the most critical problems of multi-megawatt wind energy systems. This book is based on the authors’ experience during the last two decades designing commercial multi-megawatt wind turbines and control systems for industry leaders, including NASA and the European Space Agency. This work is their response to the urgent need for a truly reliable concurrent engineering methodology for the design of advanced control systems. Outlining a roadmap for such a coordinated architecture, the authors consider the links between all aspects of a multi-megawatt wind energy project, in which the wind turbine and the control system must be cooperatively designed to achieve an optimized, reliable, and successful system. Look inside for links to a free download of QFTCT—a new interactive CAD tool for QFT controller design with MATLAB® that the authors developed with the European Space Agency. The textbook’s big-picture insights can help students and practicing engineers control and optimize a wind energy system, in which large, flexible, aerodynamic structures are connected to a demanding variable electrical grid and work automatically under very turbulent and unpredictable environmental conditions. The book covers topics including robust QFT control, aerodynamics, mechanical and electrical dynamic modeling, economics, reliability, and efficiency. It also addresses standards, certification, implementation, grid integration, and power quality, as well as environmental and maintenance issues. To reinforce understanding, the authors present real examples of experimentation with commercial multi-megawatt direct-drive wind turbines, as well as on-shore, offshore, floating, and airborne wind turbine applications. They also offer a unique in-depth exploration of the quantitative feedback theory (QFT)—a proven, successful robust control technique for real-world applications—as well as advanced switching control techniques that help engineers exceed classical linear limitations.

Offshore Wind Turbines clearly presents the facts and figures of wind turbine operation and maintenance in the inclement offshore environment.

This book emphasizes the application of Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) gain scheduling techniques to the control of wind energy conversion systems. This reformulation of the classical problem of gain scheduling allows straightforward design procedure and simple controller implementation. From an overview of basic wind energy conversion, to analysis of common control strategies, to design details for LPV gain-scheduled controllers for both fixed- and variable-pitch, this is a thorough and informative monograph.

Due to environmental pollution and climate change, the use of renewable energy sources as an alternative means of power generation is on the rise globally. This is because of their clean nature, which makes them ecofriendly with little or no pollution compared to the traditional fossil fuel power-generation power plants. Among the various renewable energy sources, wind energy is one of the most widely employed, due to its promising technology. Wind turbine technologies could be classified into two groups as follows: Fixed Speed Wind Turbines (FSWTs) and Variable Speed Wind Turbines (VSWTs). There have been tremendous improvements in wind turbine technology over the years, from FSWTs to VSWTs, as a result of fast innovations and advanced developments in power electronics. Thus, the VSWTs have better wind energy capture and conversion efficiencies, less acoustic noise and mechanical stress, and better power quality in power grids without support from external reactive power compensators due to the stochastic nature of wind energy. The two most widely employed VSWTs in wind farm development are the Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) and the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) wind turbines. In order to solve transient stability intricacies during power grid faults, this book proposes different control strategies for the DFIG and PMSG wind turbines.