Grid connection control of VSC-based high power converters for wave energy applications

Abstract

In the wave energy sector, an increasing concern regarding the grid connection of wave energy converters is recently being experienced, as well as in the main challenges resulting from the grid integration of large scale wave power plants. This increasing interest arise due to the near-commercial developments of several wave energy converter devices, which have already proved its hydrodynamic and power take-off performance. Therefore, this paper proposes a suitable power processing system configuration and its suitable control design used for interfacing the grid connection of such high power wave energy converters while ensuring acceptable grid connection standards compliance. An advanced filter topology will be introduced based on the superposition of LCL+Trap filters as an alternative solution to the conventional LCL filters, as it allows for smaller filter size, while ensuring a reliable and cost-effective power processing solution. Finally, the evaluation of the filter design as well as the power converter control will be introduced in simulation with the purpose of validating the grid connection of wave energy converters.