Study of Wind Energy System with Induction Generators

Abstract

Wind energy, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. The world has enormous resources of wind power. It has been estimated that even if 10% of raw wind potential could be put to use, all the electricity needs of the world would be met. A phased programme to develop wind energy in India started as early as 1985, and today the total installed capacity has reached 1650 MW, saving about 935,000 metric tonnes of coal.
Wind electrical generation systems are the most cost-competitive of all the environmentally clean and safe renewable energy sources in the world. They are also competitive with fossil fuel generated power and much cheaper than nuclear power.
Traditionally, wind generation systems used variable pitch constant speed wind turbines (horizontal or vertical axis) that were coupled to squirrel cage induction generators or wound-field synchronous generators and fed power to utility grids or autonomous loads.
The recent evolution of power semiconductors and variable frequency drives technology has aided the acceptance of variable speed generation systems. Such systems can yield 20-30% more power than constant-speed generation systems.