Structured Linear Parameter Varying Control of Wind Turbines

High performance and reliability are required for wind turbines to be competitive within the energy market. To capture their nonlinear behavior, wind turbines are often modeled using parameter-varying models. In this chapter, a framework for modelling and controller design of wind turbines is presented. We specifically consider variable-speed, variable-pitch wind turbines with faults on actuators and sensors. Linear parameter-varying (LPV) controllers can be designed by a proposed method that allows the inclusion of faults in the LPV controller design. Moreover, the controller structure can be arbitrarily chosen: static output feedback, dynamic (reduced order) output feedback, decentralized, among others. The controllers are scheduled on an estimated wind speed to manage the parametervarying nature of the model and on information from a fault diagnosis system. The optimization problems involved in the controller synthesis are solved by an iterative LMI-based algorithm. The resulting controllers can also be easily implemented in practice due to low data storage and simple math operations. The performance of the LPV controllers is assessed by nonlinear simulations results.