An induction generator (IG) speed drive with the application of a sliding mode controller and a proposed artificial neural network (ANN) controller is introduced in this paper. Grid connected wind energy conversion system (WECS) present interesting control demands, due to the intrinsic nonlinear characteristic of wind mills and electric generators. The ANN torque compensation is feed-forward to increase the robustness of the wind driven induction generator system. The proposed controller is designed to drive the turbine speed to extract maximum power from the wind and adjust to the power regulation. When sliding mode occurs on the sliding surface, the control system acts as a robust state feedback system. Moreover, a sliding mode speed controller is designed based on a sliding surface