New Power Factor Correction Application for a Small Wind Power System

This study proposes the application and implementation of a new power factor correction (PFC) with a variable slope ramp for a small wind power system without any input voltage sensing circuits or external control components in the current shaping loop. The hardware description of the variable slope ramp simplifies the complexity of integrated circuit realization with low resolution analog-to-digital converters, and achieves a high power factor for multi and three-phase AC/DC converters such as wind power systems. Up to 1 kW small wind power system is tested to verify the performance of the proposed PFC control. The highest achieved power factor reaches 99.5%.