Control and Supervision Requirements for Floating Hybrid Generator Systems

Abstract

This work presents a series of devices that generate renewable energy from the marine environment which, in recent years, have aroused increasing interest. In particular, the main types of floating wind generators and marine current turbines are described. Over time, some of these floating generators have evolved in various hybrid modalities, integrating different generation devices into the same system, wind turbines, marine current turbines, wave energy converters, etc., with the objective of multiplying their generation capacity and optimizing the investment made in the floating system. However, this hybridization offers, in some cases, an opportunity to address the problem of controlling the structural stability of the system. Such stability enhancement has been considered a major challenge since the early days of floating wind turbine design. With this objective, in this work, a specific solution is proposed, consisting of a floating hybrid system composed of a wind generation subsystem and a generation subsystem with two marine current turbines. This proposal allows the development of an integrated control system which deals simultaneously with the structural stability of the system and the optimization of the generation capacity. Additionally, other requirements are also highlighted relating to the achievement of economic viability objectives, considering the reliability and availability of the system in the particularly aggressive marine environment, where maintenance operations are especially costly. In this sense, a model of intelligent integration of the tasks of supervision, diagnosis, and predictive maintenance is proposed.

BEM Turbine Model and PID Control System of a Floating Hybrid Wind and Current Turbines Integrated Generator System

“…This calculation starts from the force vector ( → F blade j (BODY) (t)) exerted at the base of each blade (p n0j (BODY) (t) points), calculated using Equation (39). Equation (59) can be used to find the moment ( → M Thrust j (BODY) (t)) produced by these force vectors at the origin of the mobile coordinate system.…”

“…In summary, with the inclusion of the BEM theory, a more precise turbine modeling is obtained and, in addition, two fundamental objectives are achieved: the first one is to provide two acting magnitudes on the floating hybrid system in each of the turbines-the generator torque and the blade pitch angle-that allow for the testing of different control strategies on it [39]. The second is to present a model that allows us to obtain the results of turbines for which the operating data are not previously known.…”

Model and Simulation of a Floating Hybrid Wind and Current Turbines Integrated Generator System, Part II: Hydrodynamics and Acting Forces

“…In [56], the numerical model of a hybrid system composed of a floating wind turbine and a Wave Energy Converter (WEC) system was presented, with the aim of optimizing the size and layout of the WEC system. In [57], the control and supervision requirements of floating hybrid systems were reviewed, taking as an example those described in [1,52,55].…”