Battery Connected DFIG Wind System Analysis for Strong/Weak Grid Scenarios

With large wind energy integration into power systems, wind farms begin to influence power systems in a much more significant manner. As wind energy systems utilize different generator technologies from the one utilized in the conventional power plants, the steady-state, transient and small-signal dynamics, as well as, power system stability will thus be significantly affected. The impact of wind energy systems on the power system dynamics and stability is thus of practical importance. As there is a significant increase in installation of wind turbines equipped with doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) in recent years, a dynamic model of the DFIG wind turbine is firstly developed in this thesis. The model is validated against field measurement data, and the validation gives confidence about the accuracy and applicability of the developed model. DFIG wind farms consist of tens to hundreds of identical DFIG wind turbines increasing the complexity of the wind farm model and simulation time. A novel aggregation technique is developed in this thesis that incorporates a multiplication factor, namely mechanical torque compensation factor (MTCF), to the mechanical torque of the full aggregated wind farm model. The MTCF is initially constructed to approximate a Gaussian function by using fuzzy logic method. By optimizing the MTCF on a trial and error basis, less than 10 percent discrepancy is then achieved between the proposed aggregated model and the complete model. The proposed aggregation technique is then applied to a 120 MVA offshore wind farm comprising of 72 DFIG wind turbines and shows higher accuracy in approximating the wind farm dynamics as it appears at the point of common coupling (PCC) as compared to the full aggregated model. The proposed aggregated model computes faster than the complete wind farm model by 90.3 percent during normal operations and 87 percent during grid disturbances. To overcome the adverse effects due to the fluctuating nature of wind, two wind power smoothing methods are proposed using a fuzzy logic pitch angle controller for a smooth performance with a minimum drop in output power. One method performs partial smoothing with only 4.74 percent drop in the output power while the other method offers complete smoothing with a 8.28 percent drop in output power. The impact of wind energy integration on power system transient stability (PSTS) is studied quantitatively with the transient energy margin (TEM), which is calculated through the evaluation of the transient energy function (TEF). This study is carried out in two ways in the thesis. One is to analyse the impact of transient fault on the DFIG wind turbine as compared to SGs for different factors, like the fault clearing time, the grid coupling, the inertia constant and the voltage sag. The study reveals that transient stability of the DFIG wind turbine is hardly affected by the grid coupling, the inertia constant and the generator terminal voltage sag variations indicating its consistent transient performance within a wide range of these factors. The fault clearing time should be almost 11 percent faster for the system with the DFIG than the synchronous generator (SG). The other is to investigate the impact of the DFIG wind farm on the PSTS with the variation of different factors, which are the voltage sag, the fault clearing time, the load and the wind power penetration level. The study reveals that power systems integrated with DFIG wind farms are sensitive to transient events with high voltage sag, high fault clearing time, low load operation and high wind power penetration level. Machines at different locations individually possess distinct fault response and suffer from a large-scale power imbalance. As a result, reliable operation of DFIG wind farm integrated power systems demands upgraded equipment, such as advanced switchgear, fast breakers/isolators, efficient power reserve systems and advanced reactive power compensating device, etc.

Since 2004, Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) has become the most admired wind turbine generator type that is widely installed worldwide. The popularity of DFIG is due to its capability to extract more energy than fixed speed wind turbine generator type. Moreover, a DFIG requires only one-third of the full converter size used by type-4 wind turbine generator which in turn reduces the total cost of DFIG installation. The main weakness of DFIG is its vulnerability to grid faults such as voltage dip and swell. Grid faults may have adverse impacts on the overall performance of the DFIG including the voltage at the point of common coupling that, at certain fault levels, may violate the permissible margins of the grid codes established by the transmission line operators. This paper investigates the application of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) unit to improve the fault ride-through capability of a DFIG during grid faults. Results show that the connection of a SMES unit at the point of common coupling between the DFIG and the grid can enhance the overall performance of the DFIG during such faults events.

The growth rate of penetration of wind energy has addressed many challenges and impacts related to the power quality and power system stability because of its intermittent nature. Once a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is connected to a power system, it absorbs lagging reactive power during the grid operation causing instability issues to the grid voltages. In this research paper, a DFIG based wind turbine is being modeled considering the optimal power coefficient and reactive power control strategy. The optimal power coefficient correlates the power law exponent with the respect of velocity and elevation. The reactive power control strategy is modeled using back-to-back converter system. The paper also investigates the voltage improvement of a large distribution network connected with DFIG system. By using steady state analysis, the voltage magnitude profiles are determined during DFIG at point of common coupling. The proposed control shows that DFIG based wind-turbine integration to the large distribution network enhances the weak bus voltage.

To ensure the dynamic stability of the system and improve low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability, this study presents a cut-out strategy for doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines that combines reactive power output with asynchronous load reduction. This strategy reduces the risk of the large-scale disconnection of DFIGs in a wind farm by regulating the reactive power output of DFIGs in the wind farm and removing DFIGs in an asynchronous state based on the reduction ratio. Simulation results demonstrate that the implementation of this strategy can help increase the voltage at the point of common coupling and the LVRT time for a wind farm.

As the mainstream generation devices in the current wind power market, doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) based wind farms in China are always located in the northwest, northeast and north China and other remote areas where DFIG systems have to be connected with the weak grid. In that case, the resonance may occur in the system on account of the interaction between AC and DC system and lead to harmonic amplification. The subsynchronous resonance (SSR) lower than the fundamental frequency and the high-frequency resonance (HFR) are the two main resonance modes in the DFIG grid-connected system. However, researches on HFR characteristics of DFIG connected to grids have been drawn attention. This paper will fill this gap. The DFIG system model under the weak power grid with different kinds of compensations is set up firstly. Then, the grid impedance and the DFIG numbers are changed separately to discuss the influence of them on harmonic characteristics by Bode diagrams. Afterward, a detailed model for DFIG system under weak grid is developed in MATLAB/Simulink. The harmonic characteristics of the system are analyzed by fast Fourier transform (FFT). The study shows that HFR is more serious when the DFIG system is integrated into the parallel compensated weak grid than connected to the series compensated grid. HFR is more possibly to happen with the growth of the system capacity or the DFIG numbers.

Since the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) converters are designed by the slip power (a fraction 25-30% of the total power) to achieve full control of the generator, there is not enough capacity to provide reactive power when the voltage dips below the tolerable grid voltage level at the point of common coupling (PCC). We propose in this paper to use the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) for compensating the grid voltage dip to improve the power quality in a weak grid or asymmetrical load. The simplified active and reactive power control strategies of a 6 MVA wind farm with DFIG are described. The maximal power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is implemented. The simulation results using the platform between Matlab/Simulink and PLECS demonstrate the good performance of the wind farm with DFIG and STATCOM, validating the analytical conclusions.

One of the problems with the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) is its high vulnerability to network perturbations, notably voltage dips, because of its stator windings being coupled directly to the network. As the DFIG’s stator and rotor are electromagnetically mated, the stator current peak occurs during a voltage dip causing an inrush current to the critical converter back-to-back and an overload of the DC-link capacitor. For this purpose, a series of researchers have achieved a linear and non-linear controller with a crowbar-based protection scheme. With this type of protection, the Rotor Side Converter (RSC) is disconnected momentarily, and consequently, its control of both the active and reactive output power of the stator is totally lost, leading to incorrect power quality at the point of common coupling (PCC). In this document, a robust nonlinear controller by Advanced Backstepping with Integral Action Control (ABIAC) is initially employed to monitor the rotor and the network side converters under normal network operations. In the presence of a network fault, an improved protection scheme (IPS) is tacked on to the robust nonlinear control to help enforce the behavior of the DFIG system to be able to overcome the fault. The IPS, which is formed by a crowbar and an RL series circuit, is typically located in the space between the rotor coils and the RSC converter. Compared to a standard crowbar, the developed scheme is successful to limit the rotor transient current and DC-link voltage, also an RSC disengagement to rotor windings can be prevented during the fault. Furthermore, the controllers of both the RSC and the Network Side Converter (NSC) are modified to boost the supply voltage at the PCC. A comparative study is also performed between the IPS without and with modification of the reactive power control loops. The simulation results mean that with the modified controllers during the fault, the amount of reactive power sustainment with ABIAC at the PCC is optimized to 17.5 MVAr instead of 15 MVAr with proportional-integral control (PIC). Therefore, the voltage at the PCC is fort increased in order to comply with the voltage requirements of the farm and absolutely to maintain the connection to the network in case of voltage dip.

© 2017 IEEE. In this paper, a harmonic mitigation technique is introduced to the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind energy conversion system (WECS) by modifying its grid side converter (GSC) classical control. When this technique implemented, the DFIG's GSC acts like an active power filter, which compensates for current harmonics generated by a nonlinear load connected to the point of common coupling (PCC), in addition to its primary purposes which are maintaining the dc-link voltage constant and ensuring unity power factor operation with the grid. This technique is simple, easy to be integrated with the existing system, and has the ability to compensate for the current harmonics even if the generator is in brake mode. Moreover, a robust control method is applied to DFIG's rotor side converter (RSC) to verify that the proposed technique does not affect the DFIG system nominal operation. Experimental results show that the proposed DFIG technique reduces the current total harmonic distortion (THD) at PCC.

This paper presents a new configuration of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind farm with multilevel cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter and its control system, which is suitable not only for unbalanced grid voltage conditions, but also for small voltage sags. The proposed configuration of DFIG can balance the point of common coupling (PCC) voltage without needing additional DC link capacitor or energy storage unlike other configurations and methods. Consequently, the stator voltage and the other loads voltage connected to the PCC are kept constant at the nominal value. The new configuration improves all the DFIG signals under unbalanced grid voltage and small voltage sag conditions unlike other methods. Some of the DFIG units in wind farm require to connect the CHB converter, therefore, it is cost-effective. Matlab/Simulink is used for simulation of a 13.5-MW wind farm consisting of nine 1.5-MW DFIG units and the results demonstrate the good efficiency of the proposed scheme.

The safe and stable operation of the power system has become an increasingly critical issue as the large-scale of wind power integration and its long-distance transmission. Splitting control (or islanding control) of the power system is an important prevention measure to mitigate the system collapses. In general, the oscillation center (i.e. the point of which voltage is the lowest in the power gird) is applied to searching the splitting boundary. However, fast responses, low inertia, and asynchronous operation of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) might change the migration mechanism of oscillation centers. This paper tries to analyze the impact of DFIG characteristics on oscillation center migration. First, Thevenin equivalent circuit equation of DFIG is established, based on which the characteristic admittance of DFIG under out-of-step oscillation is analyzed. Then by substituting the characteristic admittance of DFIG into the oscillation center migration function, results manifest that the distribution range of the oscillation center is extended, and the splitting location keeps away from the point of common coupling (PCC). Finally, simulations on 2-area 4-machine system and IEEE 118-bus system integrated with wind farms verify the correctness and effectiveness of the theoretical analysis.

This article presents the sharing of reactive power between two converters of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind energy conversion system interacting with the grid. The rotor side converter (RSC) control of DFIG is designed for sharing of reactive power at below rated wind speeds, which essentially reduces the amount of rotor winding copper loss. However, at rated wind speed, the RSC control is designed to maintain the unity power factor at stator terminals and to extract rated power without exceeding its rating. Further, the reduction in rotor winding copper loss due to reactive power distribution is demonstrated with an example. Moreover, the grid side converter (GSC) control is designed to feed regulated power flow to the grid along with reactive power support to DFIG and to the load connected at point of common coupling. Moreover, the GSC control is designed to compensate load unbalance and load harmonics. The battery energy storage connected at dc link of back-to-back converters, is used for maintaining the regulated grid power flow regardless of wind speed variation. The system is modeled and its performance is simulated under change in grid reference active power, varying wind speed, sharing of reactive power, and unbalanced nonlinear load using SimPowerSystems toolbox of MATLAB. Finally, a prototype is developed to verify the system steady state and dynamic performance. Moreover, system voltages and currents are found sinusoidal and balanced, and their total harmonic distortions are as per the IEEE 519 standard.

Background: With the large-scale Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) wind turbine integrated into the power system, the DFIG inertia response of the wind turbine should be provided. Also, the frequency response should be similar to the conventional generation technologies. This paper investigated the influence of frequency response term and wind speed conditions on system frequency control. Methods: The specific operating conditions of four control strategies, including inertia control, droop control, over speed control and pitch angle control were researched in this paper. Multi-factor coordinated frequency control strategy of DFIG wind turbine was established based on the above researches. The strategy was composed of wind speed ranging from low to high. Results: According to the simulation results, the DFIG wind turbine, which was based on multifactor coordinated frequency control strategy, could respond to the system’s frequency change of power grid, effectively. Conclusion: It helps system frequency return to stable states better and faster than DFIG wind turbine and also could reduce the fluctuation of system frequency.

Parallel R-L configuration crowbar with series R-L circuit protection for LVRT strategy of DFIG under transient-state

A nonlinear adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based controller is proposed for power electronic systems (PES) of grid connected unified doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG). The unified DFIG utilizes an additional series grid-side converter (SGSC) connected in series with the stator winding of the DFIG to inject voltage into the grid for compensation purposes. The SGSC is useful in tolerating voltage disturbances at the point of common coupling, compared to the conventional DFIG. The conventional proportional integrator (PI) controller of the PES of a unified DFIG is replaced with a nonlinear adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based controller applied for adaptive, fast, and efficient control of power electronic systems. The performance of the conventional PI and ANFIS based controllers are compared on a test system. The transient response of ANFIS based controllers is found to be better compared to the conventional PI controllers.

Many wind turbine generators (WTGs) are installed in remote, rural areas, where the power grids are usually weak, characterized by unbalanced voltage conditions. If the voltage unbalance is not taken into account in the control system, it will cause poor power quality and poor operating performance of the WTG systems. This paper proposes a novel control scheme to improve the operating performance of a wind turbine equipped with a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) under unbalanced network voltage conditions. The rotor-side converter (RSC) and grid-side converter (GSC) of the DFIG are controlled in a positive (dq)+ reference frame as well as in a negative (dq)- reference frame. Control of the RSC and GSC in the (dq)+ reference frame is the same as the regular control under balanced network conditions. The supplementary control of the RSC in the (dq)- reference frame minimizes the electromagnetic torque pulsations of the DFIG caused by the unbalanced network voltage; the supplementary control of the GSC in the (dq)- reference frame contributes to balance the total output currents of the DFIG. The proposed control scheme is implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC on a 3.6 MW DFIG wind turbine connected to a power network with unbalanced voltage. Results show that it improves the operating performance of the DFIG wind turbine system.