Modeling and Performance Enhancement of Grid Tied Tidal Energy System with Fractional Order Integral Based Incremental Conductance

The global paradigm shift towards clean energy often encounters challenges due to its unpredictable nature and complicated integration into the power grid. This makes tidal energy a potential solution owing to its predictability and high energy density. This paper deals with modeling, analyzing, and controlling cost-effective power-take-off systems (PTO) for reliable and sustainable grid integration of tidal energy sources (TES) using a real-time simulator Typhoon HIL 402. A comparison of different power converter architectures for permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) based tidal energy conversion is provided. The significant contribution of this paper is the development and Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (CHIL) validation of control schemes for generator and grid-facing converters to clinch efficient integration of TES. Additionally, incremental conductance (IC) based fractional order integral regulator (FOIR) is used for optimizing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of variable tidal energy. The parameters of FOIR are tuned using a hybrid bacterial foraging oriented particle swarm optimization (BFPSO) based heuristic algorithm, and it is compared with conventional IC and PI-IC MPPT techniques. Lastly, the validation of the control algorithm is carried out using Hardware-in-the-Loop (CHIL) technique, ensuring accurate and reliable real-world testing.