This paper aims to address the stabilization problem of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based wind energy conversion system (WECS) through a novel adaptive fractional fuzzy integral sliding mode control scheme in contrast to the traditional integer order control schemes. The main objective of modeling the fractional order control for nonlinear PMSM is to enhance the convergence rate which is effectively better when compared to integer order control schemes. In addition, this paper intensively investigates the performance of fractional order controllers in both PMSM and surface-mounted PMSM-based WECS through analyzing the global stability of closed-loop system based on Lyapunov stability theory. In this regard, the nonlinear PMSM model is transformed into equivalent linear submodels through an effective Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy membership rules. Then, a novel automated (adaptive) controller is designed along with fractional sliding surface, which involves an integral term to control the considered PMSM. In general, adaptive controllers are much more effective than manual controllers. Further, the sufficient conditions are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities via constructing the novel fractional fuzzy Lyapunov functional with quadratic terms, which guarantees the global stabilization of PMSM-based WECS. Overall performance and effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results are demonstrated through numerical simulations. © 2018 IEEE.