High-efficiency control of brushless doubly-fed machines for wind turbines and pump drives

The paper is concerned with vector control of a promising brushless doubly-fed reluctance machine (BDFRM) technology for generator and drive systems with limited adjustable speed ranges such as wind turbines or pump-alike installations. The BDFRM has been receiving increasing attention because of the low capital and operation and maintenance costs afforded by the partially-rated power electronics and the high reliability of brushless construction, while offering performance competitive to its well-known slip-ring counterpart, a doubly-fed induction machine. The comprehensive comparative studies have evaluated the performance of two robust control algorithms by computer simulations and experimentally on a custom-made BDFRM under the maximum torque per inverter ampere conditions for improved efficiency of electro-mechanical energy conversion.