Integration Of Large Wind Farms To Weak Power Grids PDF Download

Power grids are changing significantly with the introduction of large amounts of renewable energy (especially wind) into the system. Integration of wind energy into the grid is challenging as, firstly it increases penetration stresses when compared to conventional generation as the wind is intermittent and fluctuates in power output. Secondly, most of the wind farms are located in offshore or rural areas which have good wind conditions. The grid in these regions is not normally strong. Most of the modern variable speed wind turbines use voltage source converters (VSCs) for grid integration. However, integrating VSCs to weak power grids will cause instability when a large amount of active power is transferred to the grid. In this thesis, the integration of wind farms to very weak power grids is investigated. A multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) model of the grid side VSC of a wind turbine is developed in the frequency domain in which the d-axis of the synchronous reference frame (SRF) is aligned with the grid voltage. Then, this model has been used as the basis for modelling the multiple parallel converters in the frequency domain. In this thesis, to improve the stability of the very weak grid connected of VSCs, a control method based on the d- and q- axis current error is introduced. This controller compensates the output angle of the phase locked loop (PLL) and the voltage amplitude of the converter. Using this controller, full rated active power transfer and fault ride-through are achieved under very weak grid connection. Furthermore, a stabiliser controller based on virtual impedance is proposed in this thesis to achieve stable operation of a very weak grid connected VSC. This stabilising control method enables the VSC to operate at full power and to ride-through faults under very weak grid conditions. Based on this principle, an external device is proposed that can be utilised and connected to a weak point of the grid to allow a large amount of VSC interfaced power generation (e.g. wind power) to be connected to the grid without introducing stability issues.