Engelhardt 2011
Engelhardt 2011
Engelhardt 2011
1, MARCH 2011
Abstract—With the increasing penetration of wind turbines w12 Effective winding ratio between stator and
(WTs) grid utilities require extended reactive power supply ca- rotor.
pability not only during voltage dips but also in steady-state oper- ψS , ψR Complex stator and rotor flux linkages.
ation. WTs with doubly fed induction generators (DFIG) are able
to control active and reactive power independently. The reactive ωR , ωS Rotor angular speed, stator angular speed.
power capability is subject to several limitations resulting from ∗ Conjugate complex vector (superscript).
the voltage, current, and speed, which change with the operating
point. This paper discusses the steady-state reactive power loading
I. INTRODUCTION
capability of DFIG-based WTs by taking into account the most im-
portant physical phenomena restricting the reactive power supply IND power has established itself as one of the most im-
of DFIG-based WT systems. The active–reactive power diagram
is systematically derived by considering the typical power–speed
relationship and converter loading limits. The authors discuss also
W portant renewable energy source over the past decades.
With the priority status accorded to it in many countries, the
some special operating modes limiting the reactive power capabil- share of wind power in relation to the overall installed capacity
ity together with aspects of modeling and control that give rise to has increased significantly and this trend is in all likelihood set
these limitations. to continue. In some countries, the share of wind in relation to
Index Terms—Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), power the overall installed capacity is already approaching the 50%
conversion, reactive power, voltage support, wind power, wind mark. The increased prominence of wind in the generation mix
turbine. inevitably leads to the question of its role in the provision of
ancillary services, the most important of which being reactive
NOMENCLATURE power supply in support of grid voltage.
Some utilities, as can be seen in the latest edition of grid codes
MSC Machine side converter. [1], require more stringent operational regimes resembling more
LSC Line side converter. and more the operational chart of conventional generators in
s Slip. terms of real and reactive power settings. In other words, wind
lm Main-field inductance; as per unit (p.u.) quan- turbines (WTs) have to contribute not only to active power
tity, it corresponds with the reactance xm . generation but also to the provision of reactive power. Modern
lσ S , l σ R Stator and rotor leakage inductances; as per WT by virtue of the modern power electronic converters that
unit quantities, they correspond with the reac- come with them are able to control active and reactive power
tances xσ S , xσ R . independently of one another. Accordingly, maintaining any
iS , iR Complex stator and rotor currents. prescribed operating point is not a problem in itself. But the
iM S C , iL S C Complex machine side and line side converter reactive power capability requires extended design features that
currents. come at a higher initial cost, which must pay off in terms of
rS , rR Stator and rotor resistances. commensurate operational benefits.
p, q Active and reactive power. This paper sets itself the task of analyzing the limits of steady-
tel Electrical torque. state reactive power generation capability for a typical WT sys-
udc Converter dc-link voltage. tem using the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). Parame-
uS , uR Complex stator and rotor terminal voltages. ters of the machine and the control system are based on manu-
facturer data, and the simulation results are intended to reflect
the existing reality as accurately as possible. DFIG-based WT
are more popular on account of their favorable cost/performance
Manuscript received December 27, 2009; revised March 21, 2010; accepted attribute resulting primarily from the need for a much smaller
May 9, 2010. Date of publication October 28, 2010; date of current version
February 18, 2011. Paper no. TEC-00540-2009. converter rating compared to the machine rating. In steady-state
S. Engelhardt and J. Kretschmann are with Woodward SEG GmbH operation, the reactive power output of the machine should ide-
and Company KG, 47906 Kempen, Germany (e-mail: stephan.engelhardt@ ally be in tune to the changing voltage situation in the network
woodward.com; joerg.kretschmann@woodward.com).
I. Erlich, C. Feltes, and F. Shewarega are with the University as dictated by the actual load flow configuration. WT controllers
Duisburg-Essen, 47057 Duisburg, Germany (e-mail: istvan.erlich@uni-due.de; are able to react very fast and meeting even the dynamic require-
christian.feltes@uni-due.de; fekadu.shewarega@uni-due.de). ments (let alone the slow changes occurring in steady state) is not
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. challenging. However, if the WT is to supply reactive power on a
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2010.2081365 continuous basis just like conventional synchronous generators,
0885-8969/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
ENGELHARDT et al.: REACTIVE POWER CAPABILITY OF WIND TURBINES BASED ON DOUBLY FED INDUCTION GENERATORS 365
TABLE I
DATA OF CURRENTLY INSTALLED TYPICAL WT
The red solid line, a semicircle with the midpoint at the origin,
represents the stator current heating limit. The dotted green line
shows the stator current limit, if the rotor current is not to exceed
the rated value. For the correct calculation of the magnetizing
current (the difference between rotor and stator currents), it is
necessary to consider the voltage drop over the equivalent circuit
elements, as shown in Fig. 4. The blue dashed vertical line
represents the maximum stator active current corresponding to
the rated stator active power. These boundaries in combination
result in a machine capability curve, as shown in Fig. 5 on
the right-hand side. Up to this point, copper and iron losses as
well as additional limitations are not considered. The necessary
Fig. 7 Reactive current capability at nominal voltage as a function of active
extension to take these factors into account will be discussed in current.
Section IV-E.
D. Combined Active–Reactive Current Capability
C. Active–Reactive Current Capability of LSC
Fig. 7 shows the combined reactive current capability of the
As the LSC has to supply the slip power, the active current stator and the LSC as a function of WT active current deduced
through the LSC is determined by the machine operating point. from discussions in the preceding sections. Note that up to this
The maximum possible reactive current, however, can be varied point losses and other factors presenting themselves as addi-
up to the limit set by the total rated current in accordance with: tional limiting factors are not considered.
iLSC,reactive available = i2LSC,rated − i2LSC,active . (12)
E. Additional Limiting Aspects
During operation in the dynamic speed band in periods of A more accurate reactive power capability chart should con-
high wind speed, the maximum reactive current capability is sider some other important aspects, such as system losses, speed
smaller due to the high active current. Considering the physical variation, means of filtering, effect of magnetic saturation in the
mechanism for power sharing between the stator and the LSC, main flux path, and output voltage limitation of the converter.
as shown in Fig. 3, and taking (12) into account, the relation- 1) Losses: In this paper, only the machine and converter
ship between stator active current and the LSC current can be losses are taken into account. Losses in feeder cables, auxiliary
determined. For typical WT used as example in this paper, the components, and drives are neglected. Copper and iron losses
resulting characteristic curves are plotted in Fig. 6. At the right are modeled in the manner shown in the equivalent circuit in
edge of the curves, the short-term dynamic overload area of LSC Fig. 4. Combined stator and rotor copper losses lie in the range
is indicated. of 1%–2% of machine rating at nominal current. The iron losses
368 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011
Fig. 8. Effect of losses on reactive current capability of the DFIG and its LSC
at nominal voltage; (R): without losses and additional limitations at nominal
voltage.
Fig. 13. Effect of LSC filter on reactive current capability; (R): without losses
and additional limitations at nominal voltage.
Fig. 18. Reactive power capability versus rotor speed with optimal PWM at
nominal voltage.
Fig. 17. Reactive current capability of DFIG and LSC at 1.06 p.u. LSC voltage;
(R): without losses and additional limitations at nominal voltage.
VII. CONCLUSION
The DFIG-based WT systems can adjust active and reactive
power output independently. The active power output is nor-
mally determined by wind conditions. For the determination
of reactive power capability for a given active power output, a
number of system boundaries have to be considered. Limitations
with regard to generator and converter currents, voltages as well
as nonlinear relationships between junction temperature and ro-
tor current frequency as well as magnetic flux saturation have
to be considered. At higher and gusty wind conditions, opera-
tion in the dynamic speed range could demand lower reactive
power output due to increased active power output. This pa-
per showed typical reactive power characteristics for a standard
design taking all these factors into consideration.
An additional issue of interest is the fact that sometimes
WT run in a reduced noise operation mode. The reduction in
Fig. 21. LSC current control loops. noise emission is realized by lowering the speed band, which
moves the operating speed nearer to the synchronism point,
where a current reduction is required. Further restriction may
to high voltage drops and thus reactive losses in the lines. Also,
be necessitated by low grid frequency. Low frequency implies
lack of fault-ride through (FRT) capability by WT may neces-
large slip, and thus large rotor voltage, which, however, may not
sitate using separate reactive sources like STATCOM installed
be possible to realize due to the dc-link voltage limitation.
close to the grid connection point. It should also be mentioned
that often manufacturers publish more restrictive active–reactive
REFERENCES
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[4] H. Kretschmann, S. Wrede, Mueller-Engelhardt, and I. Erlich, “Enhanced
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372 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 26, NO. 1, MARCH 2011
Source IGBT Converter), TU Ilmenau, 1997, Verlag ISLE, Ilmenau, 1997, Christian Feltes (S’07–M’09) was born in 1979. He
ISBN 3–932633-09–1. received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineer-
[7] I. Erlich, J. Kretschmann, J. Fortmann, S. Mueller-Engelhardt, and ing from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg,
H. Wrede, “Modeling of wind turbines based on doubly-fed induction Germany, in 2005, where he has been working toward
generators for power system stability studies,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., the Ph.D. degree the Department of Electrical Power
vol. 22, no. 23, pp. 909–919, Aug. 2007. Systems since January 2006.
[8] S. Engelhardt, C. Feltes, J. Fortmann, J. Kretschmann, and I. Erlich, His current research interests include wind energy
“Reduced order model of wind turbines based on doubly-fed induction generation, control, integration and dynamic interac-
generators during voltage imbalances,” presented at the 8th Int. Workshop tion with electrical grid.
on Large-Scale Integration of Wind Power into Power Systems As Well As
on Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Farms, Bremen, Germany,
Oct. 2009.
[9] C. Feltes, H. Wrede, F. W. Koch, and I. Erlich, “Enhanced fault ridde-
through method for wind farms connected to the grid through VSC-based
HVDC transmission,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 1537–
1546, Aug. 2009.
Jörg Kretschmann was born in 1958. He received
the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering from
the Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany, in
1986.
During 1986–1988, he was with the Engineering
Department, AEG-Kanis, Essen, Germany, manufac-
Stephan Engelhardt (M’07) was born in 1967. turing of synchronous generators up to 200 MVA.
He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical en- Since 1988, he has been with Woodward SEG GmbH
gineering from the University Hannover, Hannover, and Company KG, Kempen, Germany, as a Design-
Germany, in 1997. ing Engineer for speed-variable applications: unin-
Since 1997, he has been with Woodward SEG terruptible power supply, shaft alternators, doubly
GmbH and Company KG, Kempen, Germany, where fed induction generators for wind turbines. His current research interests in-
he is currently a Team Leader of power conver- clude simulation of power converter systems, design of power components, and
sion/converter technology and responsible for sys- passive grid filter.
tem designs and simulations, control strategies and
patents.