Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS)

Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS)

1. In earlier times, wind mills were used to lift water for land drainage and to grind grains.
2. But now a days, all over the world the focus is to produce electrical power by using wind energy conversion devices. These are also called as wind turbines (WT) or wind turbine generators (WTG) or aerogenerators.
3. The energy available from wind turbine generators are fluctuating both in magnitude and direction since the wind velocities are fluctuating in nature.
4. Usually wind velocities needed for energy conversion are in the range of 5 m/s to 25 m/s. Therefore, no wind power will be available from wind turbines in case the wind velocities are less than 5 m/s called cut in speed. Thus the wind energy is also intermittent in nature.
5. Various WECS can be used either as low power standalone for charging of batteries (i.c. independent of grid) in remote areas for DC power supply or it can be a grid connected system with grid acting as a stand by of power supply or a hybrid system using WTG in conjunction with either diesel engine generating set or with gas turbine power plant.
6. We have wind farms to generate large power. A wind farm is a group of wind turbine spread over a large area at the same location. In between the wind turbines, the agricultural products can also be grown. The wind turbines are connected to the grid for bulk power supply.

Various wind electrical energy systems are given in Table.

Table : Wind Electric Energy Systems