Designing and Integrating Wind Power Laboratory Experiments in Power and Energy Systems Courses

The goal of this paper is to describe the approach in designing and constructing wind power laboratory experiments for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in power and energy systems. These are separated into basic hands-on laboratory and advanced simulation-based experiments. The basic experiments are integrated into an undergraduate course that includes topics such as the steady-state operation of induction machines, fixed-speed, and variable-speed wind turbines. Advanced experiments are integrated into a stand-alone course dedicated to wind energy and power systems. Topics include the modeling of aerodynamic, mechanical, and electrical components for each type of wind turbine along with their steady-state and dynamic operations. The experiments were originally designed at the University of Texas at Austin. Their transferability to a different laboratory platform at the University of Texas Pan American is also discussed.