Improved maximum power extraction strategy for PMSG-based wind energy conversion system

Even though hill-climbing search (HCS) control is the simplest maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm that does not require any prior knowledge of the system, it has the disadvantage of being slow in its response. This slowness in the response is due to the number of perturbations involved in climbing the hill and the settling time of the each perturbation. This paper proposes an improved HCS control, in which the nature of the input perturbation is changed, so as to improve the control algorithm's response speed in tracking the maximum power point of a wind turbine.