Fault Ride-Through Study of Wind Turbines

Xinyan Zhang, Xuan Cao, Weiqing Wang, Chao Yun

School of Electrical Engineering, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China; 2School of Electronics Information Engineering, China Civil Aviation University, Tianjin, China..

DOI: 10.4236/jpee.2013.15004                

Abstract

The installation of wind energy has increased rapidly around the world. The grid codes about the wind energy require wind turbine (WT) has the ability of fault (or low voltage) ride-through (FRT). To study the FRT operation of the wind farms, three methods were discussed. First, the rotor short current of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) was limited by introducing a rotor side protection circuit. Second, the voltage of DC bus was limited by a DC energy absorb circuit. Third, STATCOM was used to increase the low level voltages of the wind farm. Simulation under MATLAB was studied and the corresponding results were given and discussed. The methods proposed in this paper can limit the rotor short current and the DC voltage of the DFIG WT to some degree, but the voltage support to the power system during the fault largely depend on the installation place of STATCOM.

Keywords

Wind Energy; Fault Ride-Through; Doubly-Fed induction Generator; Wind Farm

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	I. Erlich, W. Winter and A. Dittrich, “Advanced Grid Requirement for the Integration of Wind Turbines into the German Transmission System,” IEEE Powertech Conference Proceedings, St. Petersburg, Russia, 27-30 June, 2006, pp.1210-1216.
[2]	A. D. Hansen and C. Michalke, “Fault Ride-through Capability of DFIG Wind Turbines,” Renewable Energy, Vol. 32, No. 8, 2007, pp. 1594-1610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2006.10.008
[3]	J. B. Hu, D. Sun, Y. K. He and R.D. Zhao, “Modeling and Control of DFIG Wind Energy Generation System under Grid Voltage Dip”, Automation of Electric Power Systems, Vol. 30, No. 8, 2006, pp. 21-26.
[4]	D. W. Xiang, S. C. Yang and L. Ran, “Magnet Excitation Control Strategy of DFIG on Grid Operation during Power System Symmetric Fault,” Proceedings of the CSEE, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2006, pp. 164-169.
[5]	S. J. Hu, J. L. Li and H. H. Xu, “Analysis on Protection Circuits Suitable for VSCF-WECS to Cope with Grid Faults,” Commutation Technology and Power Draw, No. 1, 2008, pp. 45-50.
[6]	X. P. Zhang, “Performance of PWM Rectifier under Voltage Dips in Wind Power,” Electrical Application, Vol. 28, No. 9, 2007, pp. 52-56.
[7]	C. Jauch, P. Sorensen, I. Norheim and C. Rasmussen, “Simulation of the Impact of Wind Power on the Transient Fault Behavior of the Nordic Power System,” Electric Power System Research, Vol. 77, 2007, pp. 135-144.
[8]	I. Erlich, C. Feltes, F. Shewarega and M. Wilch, “Interaction of Large Offshore Wind Parks with the Electrical Grid,” Proceedings of DRPT 2008, Nanjing, China, 3-5 April, 2008, pp. 1242-1250.
[9]	S. J. Hu, J. L. Li and H. H. Xu, “Analysis on the Low-Voltage-Ride-Through Capability of Direct-Drive Permanent Magnetic Generator Wind Turbines,” Automation of Electric Power Systems, Vol. 31, No. 17, 2007, pp. 73-77.
[10]	D. Campos Gaona, E. Moreno Goytia and O. Anaya Lara, “Fault Ride-Through Improvement of DFIG-WT by Integrating a Two-Degrees-of-Freedom Internal Model Control,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2013, pp. 1133-1145.
[11]	R. L. Hendriks, R. Völzke and W. L. Kling, “Fault Ride-Through Strategies for VSC-Connected Wind Parks,” Europe’s Premier Wind Energy Event, Marseille, France, 16-19 March 2009, pp. 252-260.
[12]	A. Arulampalam, G. Ramtharan, N. Caliao, J. B. Ekanayake and N. Jenkins, "Simulated On-shore-Fault Ride through of Offshore Wind Farms Connected through VSC HVDC," Wind Engineering, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2008, pp. 103-113.