Trends and development of sliding mode control applications for renewable energy systems

Based on the matured theoretical framework of sliding mode control for varied, nonlinear, and unpredictable systems, practical designs of sliding mode control have been developed to suit the purpose of controlling power converters under various operating conditions. These design guidelines are particularly valuable for emerging technologies with renewable energy sources. This paper presents a discussion on the recent development of sliding mode control applications for renewable energy systems, and further examines the current trends of achieving efficiency improvement of renewable energy systems and load protections against large overshoot/undershoot in transient states, by utilizing the fast-dynamic-tracking capability of the sliding mode control. Three comparative case studies between the sliding mode control and proportional-integral control involving, namely, a low-power wind energy conversion system, a series-series-compensated wireless power transfer system, and a multiple energy storage system in a direct current (DC) microgrid, are provided. © 2019 by the authors.