System-level Co-design and Control of Large Capacity Wave Energy Converters with Multiple PTOs
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Abstract
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Publications
Apsley J
(2023)
Integrated hydrodynamic-electrical hardware model for wave energy conversion with M4 ocean demonstrator
in Proceedings of the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference
Draycott S
(2022)
The numerical re-creation of experimentally generated nonlinear irregular wave fields using a time-reversal approach
in Applied Ocean Research
Jiang C
(2023)
Wave energy power take-off design of hybrid energy storage system
in IET Conference Proceedings
Liao Z
(2024)
A Sea-State-Dependent Control Strategy for Wave Energy Converters: Power Limiting in Large Wave Conditions and Energy Maximising in Moderate Wave Conditions
in IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy
Zhan S
(2023)
A Fast Model Predictive Control Framework for Multi-Float and Multi-Mode-Motion Wave Energy Converters
in IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology
Zhang X
(2025)
Computationally-Efficient Electro-Thermal Modelling of Wave Energy Conversion Systems via Pseudo Steady-State PMSM Model
in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
| Description | Stated objectives were: i) Establish a generic wave-to-wire model for a reconfigurable multi-float multi-power take-off wave energy converter. ii) Develop the deterministic sea wave prediction (DSWP) technique for real sea conditions. iii) Develop a hierarchical optimal control framework based on the W2W model of i) and the Multi-DSWP technique of ii) to maximize energy output, optimally regulate shutdown and improve power quality. iv) Develop a co-design procedure by integrating the control of iii) into the W2W WEC design. v) Design and build up a reconfigurable W2W test-rig with multiple PTOs for fast and economic dry testing of control strategies and co-design results. vi) Implement simulations using the data through a whole year's sea conditions, based on the control and the co-design result validated in v), to investigate the lowest annualized levelized cost of energy. The electrical & hydraulics team at Manchester is directly responsible for the delivery of (i) and (v), is collaborating with Exeter on (ii), and with the control team on supporting (iii), (iv) and (vi). Task (i) is complete; platform models have been verified in tank tests and electrical models have been validated in dry tests. The collaboration for task (ii) is complete. Manchester has supported tasks (ii) and (iv) and (vi), supplying reduced-order computationally-efficient electrical models (now published) and analytical sizing tools. All channels of the dry test rig has been fully commissioned and used to generate results for publications. The research has identified that effective power-limiting control in high sea-states is important for overall cost of energy and has proposed a new sea-state dependent control strategy (published). The electrical & hydraulics team contributed strategies to protect the generator and gearbox in high sea states to this work. |
| Exploitation Route | The most promising applications of wave power short-term would be in aquaculture (see partnership with UWA and Blue Horizon) or in combination with offshore wind. |
| Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Energy |
| Description | Collaboration with Blue Economy and University of Western Australia has reported economic impacts to their local community. The mechanical build, instrumentation, marinisation and deployment was all completed by local businesses. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Energy |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Islanded Wave Powered Microgrid Pilot for Remote Islands in Thailand |
| Amount | £1,086,158 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 10081283 |
| Organisation | Innovate UK |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2024 |
| End | 07/2026 |
| Title | Computationally efficient reduced-order models of power take-off components |
| Description | Reduced order models of power-take-off components for wave generation, that preserve low-frequency behaviour (0.1 s update rate) for system level model predictive control and design optimisation. Conventional models require 50 us update rate. Relevant to other renewable energy sources such as wind. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Reduces computation times from hours to minutes enabling progress on the co-design and control aspects of this project. |
| Title | Research data supporting publication: Computationally-Efficient Electro-Thermal Modelling of Wave Energy Conversion Systems via Pseudo Steady-State Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) Model |
| Description | This dataset supports the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications paper "Computationally-Efficient Electro-Thermal Modelling of Wave Energy Conversion Systems via Pseudo Steady-State PMSM Model" and comprises six files. Four files provide the experimental datasets used to generate the results in the paper, as MATLAB© '.mat' binary files. A MATLAB© '.m' file is provided to combine and plot data from two of these files. 'PSS_Readme.pdf' summarises the contents of each of the data files. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Newly released, no impacts yet |
| Description | Partnership with Toshiba, UK branch |
| Organisation | Toshiba Research Europe Ltd |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have established a close partnership with the Toshiba UK branch in Bristol. Our team has been developing non-causal optimal control for wave energy converters. Wave prediction information needs to be provided to controller. The efficacies of the control algorithms need to be validated by tank testing experiments. We have been working with Toshiba to integrate deterministic wave prediction technique into the control algorithms. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Toshiba (UK branch) has been supporting the project in terms of wave prediction techniques and especially in tank testing experiments. |
| Impact | We have worked together on tank testing experiments and published 4 papers out of it together. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Seeding Marine Innovation in WA with a Wave Energy Deployment in Albany |
| Organisation | University of Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Advising on electrical drive train design and integration and instrumentation. Diagnosing problems during commissioning and sea trials |
| Collaborator Contribution | The wave energy converter concept was developed by project partner M4 Ltd. |
| Impact | Two joint publications, two more in preparation. Device is at undergoing sea trials. Live stream data available https://wawaves.org/m4. Impact on local Australian community and economy identified: https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2024/november/albany-wave-energy-project-to-help-australia-become-world-leader-in-renewables. Future outputs would be in the form of collated deployment data and societal impact. |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | A presentation of the project progress in EPSRC ORE Supergen Annual Assembly |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Prof Guang Li gave a talk to update the progress of the project, the latest results and future plan in the one-day ORE Supergen Annual Assembly held in Southampton. Our team also engaged with the event actively and met academic colleagues and industrial partners during the event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://nf-pogo-alumni.org/opportunities/meetings-opportunities/020623-6/ |
| Description | N-ZEEE network+ event, Cross-cutting PEMD technologies: Renewables, aviation and automotive, University of Durham, Invited presentation on the challenges of wave energy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | EPSRC Network+ workshop, to identify some of the major challenges in the field and consider in which of these academia can have the largest real impact. This event was an opportunity to think creatively and imaginatively, without being constrained to fit a funding call and identify how the network can foster collaborations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.linkedin.com/posts/n-zeee_welcome-to-n-zeee-the-uks-net-zero-enabling-activity-722144637... |
| Description | Poster presentation to Supergen ORE Hub Autumn Assembly Oxford, by project PDRA XZ |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation to inform UK wave energy community about activities, engage in discussions with the hydrodynamics and marine energy researchers and exchange views on aspects relating to the power take-off and electrical interfaces. Researcher development. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://supergen-ore.net/news-and-events/supergen-ore-hub-autumn-assembly |
| Description | Video presentation Supergen ORE annual assembly |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Video presentation summarising the project for the wider marine energy community |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |