DESIGN AND MODELLING OF CONVERTER FOR WAVE ENERGY

World energy consumption is increasing by year. This fact has led to extensive researches conducted in utilizing renewable energy all around the world as the alternative. Wave energy is one of the alternative energies that have high potential to be developed. However because of the nature of ocean wave which is random in term of amplitude and frequency, the generated voltage from Wave Energy Converter (WEC) will be non-uniform and unstable. This non-uniform voltage output from WEC cannot be directly used and thus an intermediate system between the WEC and load is needed. This project entitled “Design and Modelling of Converter for Wave Energy” is focusing on developing the intermediate system which is voltage conversion system. It aims to design wave energy converter in stabilizing the output voltage from the generator so that it is suitable to be used with load and at the same time conduct extensive literature review on the previous technologies. WEC that will be considered in this project is Resen Wave LOPF Buoy that is available in UTP Offshore Lab with the maximum output AC voltage of 15 V. Literature review is conducted onto the type of converters that can be implemented to convert AC voltage. From the study carried out, AC-DC-AC converter is the most suitable converter type to be used with renewable energy. Next, extensive literature review on three previous technologies has also been completed and from the review done; a proposed design of converter is introduced.