Abstract
To smooth the power fluctuations induced by marine current speed and to satisfy standard grid constraints, the tidal current turbine system should be combined with an energy storage unit (ESU). However, adding ESU into the existing system results in a complex structure of the entire electromechanical conversion chain that needs appropriate tools for system modeling and control development. For that purpose, this paper focuses on the use of a graphical tool based on energetic macroscopic representation (EMR) in order to model the system and design control schemes of a grid-connected tidal current turbine system including a supercapacitor-based energy storage. The transcription of EMR to Matlab/Simulink environment through the available EMR library allows a simple development of overall system control using the inversion-based rules. Simulation results, obtained from the developed simulator, are shown and discussed.