Summary
Considering the superior performance and comparatively lower maintenance cost of the brushless double‐fed induction generator (BDFIG) than the conventional double‐fed induction generator (DFIG), this article explores its application in wind energy conversion systems (WECS) with a novel control strategy. The proposed control strategy utilizes the intelligence of the Salp swarm algorithm (SSA)–based vector control scheme to optimally regulate the speed, torque, current, active, and reactive power of the proposed WECS during the sharp changes in the wind speed and load. To overcome the demerits associated with the conventional “trial and error” method of PI regulator tuning, the SSA is utilized to optimally select their proportional and integral gains automatically. SSA accomplishes the mentioned task by iteratively minimizing the considered error integrating objective function through an offline optimization method; thus, it provides the least error and consequently optimal dynamic response of the proposed BDFIG‐based WECS at the end of the optimization process. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed control strategy are validated in terms of optimal speed, torque, and active and reactive power regulation and is compared with the internal model control and particle swarm optimization algorithm–based vector control schemes under identical operating conditions and system configurations. The proposed control scheme for the considered BDFIG‐based WECS obtains the best optimal dynamic response among the considered control schemes; thus, it proves its efficacy and essence.