Transient Stability Augmentation of a Wave Energy Conversion System Using a Water Cycle Algorithm-Based Multiobjective Optimal Control Strategy

This paper introduces a novel optimum design of the proportional-integral (PI) controller in the power converter circuits using the water cycle algorithm (WCA) to augment the transient stability of a grid-connected wave energy conversion (WEC) system. The proposed system relies on the Archimedes wave swing device, which is coupled with a linear permanent magnet synchronous generator (LPMSG). The WEC system is interfaced with the power grid via a generator-side converter (GSC) and a grid-side inverter (GSI). The GSC is used to control both of the d-axis and q-axis current of the LPMSG to minimize its power losses and extract its maximum real power, respectively. The GSI is implemented to control the terminal voltage at the point of common coupling and the dc-link voltage through a complete vector control scheme. The proposed optimal WCA-based PI control strategy is applied to both converters. The optimization process depends on the simulation-based optimization approach. In the proposed approach, the criterion of integral squared error is chosen as a multiobjective function. To validate the proposed WEC system model, the simulation results are compared with the practical results, and their error reaches less than 1%. The effectiveness of the proposed WCA-based PI control strategy is tested and compared with that obtained using the genetic-algorithm-based PI control scheme under symmetrical and unsymmetrical grid fault conditions taking into account a successful and unsuccessful reclosure of circuit breakers. The validity of the proposed control strategy is extensively checked based on simulation studies in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment.