6.3.

2 Reactive power
The reactive power demand of the asynchronous generator of fixed-speed wind turbines (Type A) is partly compensated by capacitor banks. Thus the power factor (i.e. the ratio of active power and apparent power) lies, in general, at about 0.96. Variable-speed wind turbines with PWM inverter systems (Types C and D) have an inverter to control the reactive power. Thus, these wind turbines have, in general, a power factor of 1.00. These turbines can control the reactive power over a wide range (inductive and capacitive). It is therefore possible to control the voltage and to keep it more stable at the grid connection point of the wind farm or wind turbine (see also Chapter 19).

In the case of a direct-drive variable-speed wind turbine (Type D), the reactive power exchange with the grid is not determined by the properties of the generator but by the characteristics of the grid side of the power electronic converter. The generator is fully decoupled from the grid. Therefore, the reactive power exchange between the generator itself and the generator side of the converter as well as between the grid side of the converter and the grid are decoupled. This means that the power factor of the generator and the power factor of the grid side of the converter can be controlled independently.

Figure 19.5 shows the operating range of a variable-speed wind turbine with a directdrive synchronous generator, with the terminal voltage as a parameter. The rotor speed is not taken into account. As the generator and the grid are decoupled, the rotor speed hardly affects the grid interaction. It is assumed that at nominal voltage and power the wind turbine can operate with a power factor of between 0.9 leading and 0.9 lagging. Figure 19.5 illustrates that a variable-speed wind turbine with a direct-drive synchronous generator allows control of reactive power or terminal voltage, because many values of reactive power correspond to a single value of active power.

Figure 19.7 presents the results of the steady-state analysis of the constant-speed wind turbine. The horizontal axis shows the active power generated by the wind turbine. The vertical axis depicts the terminal voltage and the reactive power supplied to the grid. The reactive power supplied to the grid equals the reactive power generated by the capacitor minus the reactive power consumed by the squirrel cage induction generator. Figure 19.7 shows that the reactive power decreases and the terminal voltage increases when active power generation increases. The decrease in reactive power generation can be explained by the fact that when the active power generation increases, the reactive power consumption of the squirrel cage induction generator increases as well. Therefore, a minor part of the reactive power generated by the capacitor will be supplied to the grid. The exact quantitative behaviour in a specific situation depends on the parameters of the generator and the grid connection (Svensson, 1996).

Although the two variable-speed wind turbine types studied here have a different generation system, they both allow full active and reactive power control, as described above. In the steady-state analysis, only the terminal voltage and the exchange of active and reactive power with the grid are studied. Therefore, it is unnecessary to analyse the steady-state behaviour of the two variable-speed wind turbine types separately. Figure 19.8 shows the results of the steady-state analysis of variable-speed wind turbines. In both cases, the wind turbine voltage controller controls the voltage at the low-voltage (700 V) side of the transformer. The horizontal axis gives the active power

generated by the wind turbine. The vertical axis depicts the terminal voltage and the generated reactive power. There is a marked difference between Figures 19.7 and 19.8. In Figure 19.8 the terminal voltage varies; in Figure 19.8 it is constant.

Presently, converters in variable-speed wind turbines are often controlled in such a way that no reactive power is exchanged with the grid. That means that a current with the same phase angle as the grid voltage is injected, and the power factor, PF, equals 1 (see Section 19.2.2). This mode of operation will be further referred to as unity power factor operation. Figure 19.9 presents the results of the steady-state analysis of this operating mode. Owing to the relatively high impedance of the grid connection in the test system, the variable-speed wind turbines did not perform very well at unity power factor operation.

The reactive power capabilities of the VSC are used to control the AC voltages of the network connected to the converter stations. The voltage control of a station constitutes an outer feedback loop and influences the reactive current in order for the set voltage on the network bus to be retained.

Constant-speed wind turbines (Type A) have squirrel cage induction generators that always consume reactive power. The amount of the reactive power consumption depends on the terminal voltage, active power generation and rotor speed. Figure 19.3 illustrates the relation between terminal voltage, rotor speed, active power generation and reactive power consumption. This figure shows that a squirrel cage induction generator cannot be used for voltage control, because it can only consume and not generate reactive power and because the reactive power exchange with the grid cannot be controlled but is governed by rotor speed, active power generation and terminal voltage.

Wind Power in Power Systems Edited by Thomas Ackermann

Reactive Power Control

Reactive power production and consumption by generators allows the network operator to control voltages throughout their system. The requirements can be stated in a number of ways. The simplest is the fixed power factor. The wind farm is required to operate at a fixed power factor when generating, often equal to 1. Often, the required accuracy and integration intervals for the verification of the power factor are not stated. And the fixed value may be changed occasionally, for example for winter and summer, or peak and no-load periods. Alternatively, the wind farm may have to adjust its reactive power consumption or production in order to control the voltage to a set point. This is usually the voltage at the PCC, but other locations may be specified. There may be requirements on the accuracy of control and the speed of response. Fast control may be difficult to achieve, depending on the capabilities of the wind farms SCADA communications system. Some wind turbine designs can fulfil these functions, even when the wind turbine is not generating. This is potentia lly a very useful function for network operators, but is not yet a common requirement. FRT requirements can be met with central reactive power compensation equipment.

Requirements for reactive current supply during voltage dips Some grid codes prescribe that wind farms should support the grid by generating reactive power during a network fault, to support and faster restore the grid voltage. E.ON requires wind farms to support grid voltage with additional reactive current during a voltage dip, or increased reactive power consumption in the event of a voltage swell, as shown in Fig. 2. The voltage control must take place within 20 ms after fault recognition by providing additional reactive current on the low voltage side of the wind turbine transformer amounting to at least 2 % of the rated current for each percent of the voltage dip. A reactive power output of at least 100 % of the rated current must be possible if necessary. The above applies outside a 10% dead band around nominal voltage. According to the Spanish grid code, wind power plants are required to stop drawing reactive power within 100 ms of a voltage drop and to be able to inject reactive power within 150 ms of grid recovery as shown in Fig. 2. Finally, Great Britain and Ireland specify in their grid codes that wind farms must produce their maximum reactive current during a voltage dip caused by a network fault.

Figure 2. Reactive output current during voltage disturbances, according to the German and Spanish grid codes.