Optimisation du dimensionnement d’une chaîne de conversion électrique directe incluant un système de lissage de production par supercondensateurs : application au houlogénérateur SEAREV

The work presented in this thesis sets forth the study of the sizing of a direct-drive electrical conversion chain for a direct wave energy converter (SEAREV). This electrical chain is made up of a permanent magnet synchronous generator attached to a pendular wheel and a power-electronic converter made up of two three-phase pulse width modulation bridge, one controlling the generator, the other allowing injecting electrical energy into the grid. In addition, an energy storage system (bank of supercapacitors) is intended to smooth the power output. The sizing of all these components needs an operating cycle optimization approach, in a system context with strong multi-physics coupling, more particularly between hydrodynamical and electromechanical parts. At first, the generator-converter set, whose role is to damp the pendular movement of an internal wheel, is optimized with a view to minimize the cost of energy (kWh production cost). This optimization, based on torque-speed operating profiles, is carried out considering a strong coupling with the wave energy converter thanks to the consideration as design variables, some relatives to the generator-converter sizing but also some relatives to the damping law of the pendular wheel. In addition, the consideration of a flux-weakening strategy, interesting to ensure a constant power operation (levelling), allows, as soon as the sizing step, to deal with the generator-converter interaction. In a second step, the rated energy capacity of the energy storage system is being optimized with a view of the minimization of its economical life-cycle cost. To do this, we define quality criteria of the power output, including one related to the flicker, and we compare three energy managment rules while taking into account the power cycling aging of the supercapacitors due to the voltage and their temperature. In a third step, from yearly sea-states data, we provide sizings of the direct-drive electrical conversion chain that are the best trades-offs in terms of total electrical produced energy and economical investment cost.