Grid connection improvements by control strategy selection for wave energy converters

In this paper a wave-to-wire approach to model the exploitation of ocean energy by point absorbers in heave is presented. Attention is focused on the impact that the control strategy of the Wave Energy Converter (WEC) has both on the power performance of the single device and on the grid power quality at the connection point, when point absorbers are arranged in wave farms. Two different control strategies are proposed and compared to theoretical ones such as the complex-conjugate method. Their effectiveness in improving the system overall power extraction while reducing each Power Take-Off’s rating and easing the Wave Farm grid integration is proved by time domain simulations, developed both at single-device level and at farm level.