Experimental Comparison of the Different Switching Techniques applied to Back-to-Back Converter connected to DFIGbased Wind Turbine for Harmonic Analysis

To mitigate the fast-growing demand of electrical energy, the use of renewable energy resources (RES), e.g., solar and wind, can offer an environmentally friendly and sustainable solution. However, the massive penetration of power converters interfaced RESs in electric power systems introduces power quality issues, such as harmonic distortion and voltage variations. Therefore, these issues may lead to serious problems, such as cable and transformers overheating, harmonic overvoltage, and more related to harmonic resonances. This article quantifies the harmonic distortion produced by different switching techniques used in the back-to-back converter of the DFIG. The different switching techniques implemented are: SPWM, THIPWM and SVPWM. Modeling and simulation of the DFIG is carried out using the commercial software MATLAB-Simulink (R). The model is validated with an experimental 3 kW DFIG prototype. Finally, the results obtained from the experimental tests corroborate the correct functioning of the proposed model.