  This paper aims to investigate electric dynamics and improve electric power
generation of an isolated wave energy converter that uses a linear permanent
magnet generator as the power take-off system, excited by regular or irregular
waves. This is of significant concern when considering actual operating
conditions of an offshore wave energy converter, where the device will
encounter different sea states and its electric load needs to be tuned on a
sea-state-to-sea-state basis. To that end, a fully coupled
fluid-mechanical-electric-magnetic-electronic mathematical model and an
optimization routine are developed. This proposed time-domain wave-to-wire
model is used to simulate the hydrodynamic and electric response of a wave
energy converter connected to specific electric loads and also used in an
optimization routine that searches optimal resistive load value for a wave
energy converter under specific sea states. Sample results are presented for a
point-absorber type wave energy converter, showing that the electric power
generation of a device under irregular waves can be significantly improved.
  Keywords: wave energy converter, wave power system, wave-to-wire model,
linear permanent magnet generator, electric load optimization.
