As the world transitions to renewable electrification to reduce CO2 emissions, remote island electrification remains a challenge. Although some islands are connected to the grid, many still rely on fossil fuels for electricity generation. Several studies indicate that renewable energy sources, such as wave energy, have the potential to make these islands self-reliant because of their substantial power potential. However, research on the control of power electronics converters for these systems remains limited. This paper proposes isolated grid-forming control for island electrification to address this gap using a wave energy converter and an energy storage system. Resistive loading control is implemented to optimize the power absorption of the generator. The result illustrates the establishment of the required AC voltage and 50 Hz frequency in the island load, ensuring harmonics compliance with the recommended standards. Experiments were conducted to test and validate the operation of different converter controls. The results also demonstrate the converter's ability to black-start the island load and automatically transition the load current with varying loads in a few milliseconds. Furthermore, the power quality produced by the wave energy converter presents one of its significant challenges. Therefore, the performance of two distinct converter technologies was compared. The performance of the IGBT converter was evaluated against that of the SiC-based converter in terms of power quality. The study demonstrates that the use of SiC enhances power quality in all switching frequencies tested, achieving the most significant reduction of 78% in current THD and 92% in voltage THD at the 25 kHz switching frequency, thus validating its advantages for wave energy converter applications.

Reactive control is a popular method for maximizing wave energy absorption in wave energy converters (WECs). This technique involves adjusting the damping and stiffness coefficients of the WEC to align its natural frequency with the frequency of incoming waves. Unfortunately, wave variability and complex hydrodynamics have posed challenges in accurately determining these coefficients. This paper proposes a model-independent approach for reactive control based on a variable step size maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The MPPT algorithm tunes the WEC's damping and stiffness coefficients toward maximum generated power. Furthermore, a power curtailment control (PCC) strategy is integrated, based on a proportional-integral (PI) controller that modifies the MPPT control force to follow power generation references below its maximum generation capacity. This capability is essential for grid integration, where power generation must match demand. Finally, a hardware-in-The-loop experimental setup was constructed to evaluate the proposed control strategies under monochromatic and polychromatic wave conditions. An analysis comparing MPPT and damping control under various polychromatic wave conditions revealed that MPPT achieves substantially higher electrical power, outperforming damping control by 55.4% to 70.6%. The experimental results demonstrated the efficacy of the PCC strategy in reducing the WEC power output to track specific power setpoints.