Design and Simulation of Matrix Converter for Wind Turbine Coupled Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator

ABSTRACT Variable speed permanent magnet synchronous generators are often used to extract electrical energy from wind energy for low rating power generation for microgrid or islanded grid applications. Due to variation of wind speed the frequency and amplitude of induced voltage also changes. This problem can be overcome by using either a back-to-back converter or a matrix converter. Unlike conventional back to back converter, matrix converter does not require any energy storing element like capacitor or battery storage. The elimination of bulky capacitor in matrix converter results in reduced size, weight, space of the converter part and increases the reliability. Losses in matrix converter are less as compared to back to back converter, as it is having one stage energy conversion, where the later has two stage energy conversions. The matrix converter requires only one controller unlike the back-to-back converter which requires two controllers, one at the inverter side and another at the rectifier side. The use of a matrix converter with permanent magnet synchronous generator leads to a gearless, compact, and reliable structure with little maintenance which is superior for low-power microgrid applications.