Co-ordinated voltage control of DFIG wind turbines in uninterrupted operation during grid faults

Emphasis in this article is on the design of a co-ordinated voltage control strategy for doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines that enhances their capability to provide grid support during grid faults. In contrast to its very good performance in normal operation, the DFIG wind turbine concept is quite sensitive to grid faults and requires special power converter protection.

The fault ride-through and grid support capabilities of the DFIG address therefore primarily the design of DFIG wind turbine control with special focus on power converter protection and voltage control issues. A voltage control strategy is designed and implemented in this article, based on the idea that both converters of the DFIG (i.e. rotor-side converter and grid-side converter) participate in the grid voltage control in a co-ordinated manner.

By default the grid voltage is controlled by the rotor-side converter as long as it is not blocked by the protection system, otherwise the grid-side converter takes over the voltage control. Moreover, the article presents a DFIG wind farm model equipped with a grid fault protection system and the described co-ordinated voltage control.

The whole DFIG wind farm model is implemented in the power system simulation toolbox PowerFactory DIgSILENT. The DFIG wind farm ride-through capability and contribution to voltage control in the power system are assessed and discussed by means of simulations with the use of a transmission power system generic model developed and delivered by the Danish Transmission System Operator Energinet.dk.

The simulation results show how a DFIG wind farm equipped with voltage control can help a nearby active stall wind farm to ride through a grid fault, without implementation of any additional ride-through control strategy in the active stall wind farm. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.