Owing to concern over the environment, there is much interest in renewable sources of electrical power generation, of which one of the most promising is wind power. There are essentially two types of wind turbines, namely constant speed and variable speed machines. In comparison to constant speed wind turbines, variable speed wind turbines are perceived to have several potential advantages which outweigh the considerable cost of the power electronics required to realize variable speed operation. The two frequently mentioned ones are: additional energy capture below rated wind speed and additional power-train compliance and associated load alleviation above rated wind speed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the design of the control system (as opposed to the synthesis of the controller) for variable speed wind turbines. The choice of control strategy is investigated and appropriate realizations of the controller, to cater for the implementation issues of accommodation of variation in the plant dynamics over the operational envelope and switching transients, are identified. A thorough investigation of the dynamics and control of both stall regulated and pitch regulated variable speed machines is undertaken.