Abstract: Power from blowing wind is converted mainly to electricity in the Wind based Energy Conversion System (WBECS). In such applications, a dedicated wind turbine along with other necessary arrangements such as a gear, controller, brake system etc. converts the kinetic energy of the blowing wind into an electrical counterpart. Earlier, asynchronous generators were used in such applications. However, with the advent of solid-state devices now-a-days AC generators, particularly permanent magnet synchronous generators (PMSG), are mostly used in such applications. In small scale applications, the output of WBECS is converted to DC through a rectifier mechanism. However, due to variation in the wind profile, the output is not a steady one, which is not suitable for DC applications. In this regard, power electronic based converters lay a vital role. Such an application may find its usefulness particularly in coastal regions where wind has a good potential from an electricity generation point of view particularly to charge up electric vehicles (EV). In the present study, a small-scale application of a WBECS system incorporated with PMSG is modelled in MATLAB/Simulink environment with a DC load. The o utput of the system is regulated with buck and boost converters and a comparison of their performance was done. Duty ratio of the converters was controlled by the maximum power point tracking algorithm (MPPTA). In the present study, the Hill Climbing method was adopted.

Key words: sustainability, permanent magnet synchronous generator, wind energy based energy conversion system, maximum power point tracking