Current Development of Wave Energy Generation Control Technology

Advanced control technology that integrates mechanical energy capture and electrical energy conversion is crucial for improving the energy capture efficiency of wave power generation systems. At present, various advanced control methods have been rapidly developed and gradually applied in wave energy application. This paper aims to systematically summarize the development status of control technology for wave power generation systems and sort out the main ideas and basic principles of various control methods. Taking a typical direct-drive point-absorber wave energy converter as the example, various energy-capture-optimizating control methods are comprehensively introduced, including: ① traditional linear control, latching control and velocity-tracking control; ② the mainstream model predictive control and its variants, such as spectral control and pseudo-spectral control; ③ control strategies addressing uncertainties in model and wave conditions, including robust control, adaptive control and reinforcement learning control. At the same time, wave excitation force estimation and prediction techniques required by many controllers are introduced. In addition, other control links in wave energy grid integration systems are introduced, especially energy storage systems and the associated control technologies used to smooth output power fluctuations. Finally, key issues and challenges faced by this research field are discussed.