A Flexible Maximum Power Point Tracking Control Strategy Considering Both Conversion Efficiency and Power Fluctuation for Large-inertia Wind Turbines

In wind turbine control, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control is the main control mode for partial-load regimes. Efficiency potentiation of energy conversion and power smoothing are both two important control objectives in partial-load regime. However, on the one hand, low power fluctuation signifies inefficiency of energy conversion. On the other hand, enhancing efficiency may increase output power fluctuation as well. Thus the two objectives are contradictory and difficult to balance. This paper proposes a flexible MPPT control framework to improve the performance of both conversion efficiency and power smoothing, by adaptively compensating the torque reference value. The compensation was determined by a proposed model predictive control (MPC) method with dynamic weights in the cost function, which improved control performance. The computational burden of the MPC solver was reduced by transforming the cost function representation. Theoretical analysis proved the good stability and robustness. Simulation results showed that the proposed method not only kept efficiency at a high level, but also reduced power fluctuations as much as possible. Therefore, the proposed method could improve wind farm profits and power grid reliability.