Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology
Pertanika Journal Home Facebook
Pertanika ยท Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology

Official journal of Universiti Putra Malaysia for scholarly work across science, engineering and related technologies.

e-ISSN 2231-8526 ISSN 0128-7680
Research article

Three Phase Grid Connected Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) Multilevel Inverter Fed by Two Wind Turbines

Sanusi Alabi Kamilu and Saad Mekhilef

KeywordsAdvanced hill climb search (AHCS), DC-DC boost converter, neutral point clamped inverter, total harmonic distortion (THD), wind energy conversion system, wind turbine generator
Article content

Abstract

This paper presents two gear driven wind turbine generators (WTG) feeding a single three level grid connected NPC inverter. Each component of WTG is made up of wind turbine, 2-mass gear drive, permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG), AC-DC-AC power converter. A simple advanced hill climbs search (AHCS) maximum power point tracking algorithm that uses the mechanical power from the Wind turbine was developed to generate proper duty cycle for the control of single stage DC/DC boost converter. The DC link voltages are series interconnected and fed to a sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) controlled high power inverter. The complete model is simulated using MATLAB/ SIMULINK software under fixed and fluctuating wind speed conditions. Simulation results have shown that WECs exhibit variability in their output power as a result of changes in their prime movers (wind speed).