Computers and Electrical Engineering 80 (2019) 106492 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers and Electrical Engineering journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compeleceng Control and study of a real wind turbine  Abdeldjalil Dahbi a,c,* , Abdellatif Reama b , Messaoud Hamouda c , Nasreddine Nait-Said d , Mohamed-Said Nait-Said d a Unité de Recherche en Énergies Renouvelables en Milieu Saharien, URERMS, Centre de Développement des Énergies Renouvelables, CDER, 01000 Adrar, Algeria b Department of Engineering System, Paris Est University, ESIEE, Paris, France c Laboratoire de Developpement Durable et Informatique, Université Ahmed Draia, Adrar, Algeria d Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Batna 2, LSP-IE’, 2000, Rue Chahid Med El Hadi Boukhlouf, 05000 Batna, Algeria a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 10 January 2019 Revised 7 October 2019 Accepted 8 October 2019 Keywords: Wind energy conversion system (WECS) Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) Pitch angle control Artificial neural network (ANN) Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) a b s t r a c t This paper studies the real wind turbine installed in Kaberten (Adrar), in south western Algeria. It is based on Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) connected to the grid. The main objectives of this research is to create a good model which reflects the real behav- ior of the studied Wind Energy conversion System (WECS), the optimization of the cap- tured wind power, and the improvement of its performance. In this context, various control strategies were applied. When the power is lower than its nominal value, two Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) strategies were applied and compared. When the power is over or closer to the nominal value, the speed limit and pitch angle controls based on Ar- tificial Neural Network (ANN) approach are applied. The simulation results were compared to the real data of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). They proved the validity of the model and the performance improvement. © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Recently, due to the oil crisis and environment pollution, the exploitation of renewable energies knows a high interest and growth. The wind power energy has a particular place, especially in remote areas, where the supply of electricity from the grid is either not possible or very expensive. Algeria has a considerable wind potential; it greatly varies from a region to another due to diverse topographies and climates. Adrar’s region is among the windiest areas that present an excellent potential of wind energy. It is located in south western Algeria (about 1540 km from Algiers), [1–4]. In addition, the annual mean of wind speed in this area is over 6 m/s [3–7], which makes possible the exploitation of the wind turbine. Therefore, the first wind farm was installed in Kaberten (73 km north of Adrar). This wind farm has a capacity of 10 MW, with a surface of 30 hectares; it is constituted of 12 identical (0.85 MW) wind turbines that are connected to the grid via fully controlled converters, as it is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, [1,4,8]: The wind turbines installed in Kaberten are named Gamesa G52-850 kW; they have three-blades and a height of 55 m. This wind farm is equipped with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the control system and  This paper is for regular issues of CAEE. Reviews processed and recommended for publication to the Editor-in-Chief by Associate Editor Dr. Jia Hu. * Corresponding author at: Unité de Recherche en Énergies Renouvelables en Milieu Saharien, URERMS, Centre de Développement des Énergies Renou- velables, CDER, 01000 Adrar, Algeria. E-mail address: dahbi_j@yahoo.fr (A. Dahbi). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2019.106492 0045-7906/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.