Design and development of a wind turbine simulator using a separately excited DC motor

Abstract

Over the course of the past decade, power generation based on wind energy has become a significant component in modern power systems, which has caused substantial increase in the wind power based research. As it is complicated to use a real wind turbine for laboratory purposes, development of a replica of a real wind turbine that can be connected and used indoors is imperative. This paper presents the design and development of a wind turbine simulator that operates on the typical power-speed characteristics of a wind turbine. First, the mathematical model of the wind turbine simulator is developed and the corresponding CAD simulations are carried out. Proposed hardware implementations involve a DC motor-DC generator set, a variable load and a control system based on PI controllers. It is a simple, low power and low cost design that can be easily connected to an AC system through an inverter.