Offshore Wind Farms - VSC-based HVDC Connection

ABSTRACT:

Due to significantly higher and more constant wind speeds and the shortage of suitable sites for wind turbines on the land, offshore wind farms are becoming very attractive. The connection of the large offshore wind farms is possible with HVAC, classical HVDC and Voltage Source Converter (VSC based) HVDC technology. In this paper their main features will be given. From the economical and technical viewpoint, the type of connection depends on the size of the wind farm and on the distance to the connection point of the system.

As very promising technology, especially from the technical viewpoint, the focus of this paper will be put on the VSC-based HVDC technology. Its main technical features as well as its model will be detailed. At the end, obtained simulation results for different faults and disturbances for one offshore wind farm connected with VSC-based HVDC technology will be presented.

KEYWORDS:

1.      HVDC

2.      IGBT

3.      Offshore wind farm connection

4.       PWM

5.      Requirements

6.       Stability

7.       VSC

SOFTWARE: MATLAB/SIMULINK

BLOCK DIAGRAM:

Fig. 1. Principal scheme of VCS-based HVDC connection

EXPECTED SIMULATION RESULTS:

Fig. 2. Active and reactive power at the connection point during reactive power control

Fig. 3. Active and reactive power at the wind farm side during reactive power control

Fig. 4. Active power, reactive power and voltage at system and wind farm side in case of single phase short circuit near to the connection point - 100ms

Fig. 5. Active power, reactive power and voltage at system and wind farm side in case of single phase short circuit at the wind farm side - 100ms

CONCLUSION:

The connection of an offshore wind farm depends primarily on the amount of power that has to be transmitted and the distance to the connection point.

Primarily due to comparatively small size and short distance to the connection point as well as due to its lower costs and experience, all actual offshore wind farms and those planned to be installed are still using/plan to use HVAC connection.

The advantages of using a HVDC solution are more significant with increase of the distance and power.

The VSC-based HVDC technology is due to its technical advantages like: active and, especially, reactive power control (voltage control), isolated operation, no need for an active commutation voltage etc. very good solution for an offshore wind farm connection. Performed simulation and their results of simulated faults and disturbances show that the technical requirements can be fulfilled.

REFERENCES:

[1] European Wind Energy Association. (2004). Wind Energy – The Facts. [Online]. Available: http://www.ewea.org

[2] Global Wind Energy Council. (2004). [Online]. Available: http://www.gwec.net

[3] F.W. Koch, I. Erlich, F. Shewarega, and U. Bachmann, "Dynamic interaction of large offshore wind farms with the electric power system", in Proc. 2003 IEEE Power Tech Conf., Bologna, Italy, vol. 3, pp. 632-638.

[4] J.G. Slootweg and W.L. Kling, "Is the Answer Blowing in the Wind?", IEEE Power and Energy Magazine, vol. 1, pp. 26-33, Nov./Dec. 2003.

[5] Wind Energy Study 2004. [Online]. Available: http://www.ewea.org

Offshore Wind Farm Power Control Using HVdc Link Control de puissance d’un parc éolien en mer utilisant la liaison CCHT

ABSTRACT:

In this paper, a method is presented to control offshore wind farm output power. This method is able to fix the wind farm output power even during wind speed variations. In the proposed method, the offshore wind farm is connected to the onshore grid through the high-voltage dc (HVdc) cable. Moreover, the power control of the wind turbines is achieved by controlling the HVdc convertors. In the proposed system, the generator side convertors have to control the active power absorbed from the wind, and the grid side ones are obtained to control the HVdc link voltage. The control system is based on applying the appropriate modulation index to the voltage source converters. Two control strategies are proposed and analyzed to control wind farm output power. The simulation results illustrate that the proposed method is able to smooth the output power of the offshore wind farms appropriately. The proposed wind farm configuration and the control system are validated by simulations in the MATLAB/Simulink environment.

KEYWORDS:

1.      Current source inverter (CSI)

2.      Offshore wind farm

3.      Permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)

4.       PQ-bus

5.      Voltage source converter (VSC)

SOFTWARE: MATLAB/SIMULINK

BLOCK DIAGRAM:

Fig. 1. Proposed configuration of wind turbines connection.

EXPECTED SIMULATION RESULTS:

Fig. 2. (a) Wind speed variations (m/s). (b) Turbine rotational speed (rad/s).

(c) Turbine efficiency.

Fig. 3. HVdc link voltage.

Fig. 4. Wind farm output power.

CONCLUSION:

In this paper, the configuration and control methods have been proposed for the offshore wind turbines, connected to the onshore grid. This method is capable to control and smooth the wind farm output power, injected to the onshore grid. The proposed system can mitigate the fluctuations of wind farm output power, even during wind speed variations. In other words, the wind farm can operate such as a PQ-bus. Moreover, two strategies (fixed power and MPPT) have been analyzed and compared with each other. Finally, the proposed method is compared with other similar works to smooth the output power of the wind farm. The main result is that the proposed method can smooth the output power better than the TSR, PAC, and OTC methods. But it is a bit weaker than the KEC method in power smoothing issue. Moreover, using this method, the wind farm is able to cooperate in frequency control of the onshore grid by controlling the desired active power, to improve the power system operation, which is the future work of the authors.

REFERENCES:

[1] J. O. Dabiri, “Potential order-of-magnitude enhancement of wind farm power density via counter-rotating vertical-axis wind turbine arrays,” J. Renew. Sustain. Energy, vol. 3, no. 4, p. 043104, 2011.

[2] J. Hua, “A floating platform of concrete for offshore wind turbine,” J. Renew. Sustain. Energy, vol. 3, no. 6, p. 063103, 2011.

[3] A. Urtasun, P. Sanchis, I. S. Martín, J. López, and L. Marroyo, “Modeling of small wind turbines based on PMSG with diode bridge for sensorless maximum power tracking,” Renew. Energy, vol. 55, pp. 138–149, Jul. 2012.

[4] (2007). Global Wind and Energy Council, Market Forecast 2010- 2014. [Online]. Available: http://www.gwec.net/fileadmin/documents/ Publications/GlobalWind2007report/market/forecast%2020102014

[5] M. Kesraoui, N. Korichi, and A. Belkadi, “Maximum power point tracker of wind energy conversion system,” Renew. Energy, vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 2655–2662, 2011.

Modeling and Control of Multi-Terminal HVDC with Offshore Wind Farm Integration and DC Chopper Based Protection Strategies

ABSTRACT:

Multi-Terminal HVDC based on three-level neutral-clamped voltage source converters (VSC) is an ideal approach for the integration of DFIG wind farms to the power grid. However, dc-link faults and ac faults are major concerns for the safety and consistency of VSC-HVDC system. This paper demonstrates methods employing both full bridge and half bridge DC-DC converters for the fast clearance and protection of dc and ac ground faults respectively. In addition, control strategies incorporating decoupling control and feed-forward compensation on both grid side and wind farm side VSCs are also presented. Normal operations are observed to examine the performance of the MT-HVDC system, and also dc-link fault and three-phase ground fault at inverter side are simulated to verify the effectiveness of the approach employing DC-DC converters to suppress dc current overshoot in case of dc-link fault and mitigate dc voltage overshoot during three-phase ac ground fault. This proposed MT-HVDC transmission system and the fault-ride through capabilities provided by the dc choppers is validated by the simulation studies using detailed Matlab/Simulink model for normal operation, dc and ac ground faults.

KEYWORDS:

1.      VSC-HVDC

2.      DFIG

3.      DC chopper

4.      Faults

 SOFTWARE: MATLAB/SIMULINK

BLOCK DIAGRAM:

                                                         Fig. 1 Topology of the proposed multi-terminal VSC-HVDC system.

EXPECTED SIMULATION RESULTS:

Fig. 2 Simulation results of MT-HVDC during normal operation: (a) active power of wind farm, (b) dc voltage, and (c) ac rms current.

Fig. 3 Simulation results of 6 DFIG units during normal operation: (a) active power, (b) reactive power, (c) ac rms voltage, and (d) back-to-back dc-link voltage of DFIG unit.

Fig. 4 Simulation results of MT-HVDC during dc pole-to-pole fault with and without full bridge dc chopper protection: (a) dc voltage, and (b) dc current.

Fig. 5 Simulation results of MT-HVDC during three-phase ac ground fault at inverter side with and without half bridge dc chopper protection: (a) ac rms voltage at inverter side, (b) dc voltage overshoot without protection measures, and (c) dc voltage with protection measures.

CONCLUSION:

This paper investigates a multi-terminal VSC-HVDC system, which integrates two DFIG wind farms to the ac grid. The control strategies of both WFVSC and GSVSC stations are discussed in detail, and two approaches employing both full bridge and half bridge dc choppers are extended and displayed. Simulation studies are carried out in normal, dc pole-to-pole and ac ground fault operations, and the result verifies the effectiveness of the proposed MT-HVDC system in both the performance of wind power delivery and the protection measures for various fault conditions. Specifically, the dc voltage drop and dc current overshoot are eliminated during dc fault with full bridge dc choppers, while only a 8% voltage overshoot is observed with the implementation of half bridge dc choppers in case of three-phase ac ground fault.

REFERENCES:

 [1] S. G. Hernandez, E. M. Goytia and O. A. Lara, “Analysis of wide area integration of dispersed wind farms using multiple VSC-HVDC links,” in Proc. of EPE, Sevilla, pp. 17-26, 2008.

[2] S. Towito, M. Berman, G. Yehuda and R. Rabinvici, “Distribution generation case study: electric wind farm doubly fed induction generators”, in Proc. Convention of Electrical and Electronics Engineering(CEEE), Israel, pp. 393-397, Nov. 2006.

[3] N. Flourentzou, V. G. Agelidis, and G. D. Demetriades, “VSC-based HVDC power transmission systems: an overview,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 592-602, Mar. 2009.

[4] L. Xu, L. Yao, and C. Sasse, “Grid integration of large DFIG-based wind farms ssing VSC transmission,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 3, pp.976-984, Aug. 2007.

[5] L. Weimers, “HVDC Light: A new technology for a better environment”, IEEE Power Eng. Review, vol. 18, no. 8, pp.19-20, Aug. 1998.

Inertial Response of an Offshore Wind Power Plant with HVDC-VSC

 ABSTRACT:

This paper analyzes the inertial response of an offshore wind power plant (WPP) to provide ancillary services to the power system grid. The WPP is connected to a high-voltage direct-current voltage source converter HVDC-VSC to deliver the power to the onshore substation. The wind turbine generator (WTG) used is a doubly-fed induction generator (Type 3 WTG). In this paper we analyze a control method for the WTGs in an offshore WPP to support the grid and contribute ancillary services to the power system network. Detailed time domain simulations will be conducted to show the transient behavior of the inertial response of an offshore WPP.

KEYWORDS:

1.      HVDC

2.       Inertial response

3.       Offshore wind turbine

SOFTWARE: MATLAB/SIMULINK

 BLOCK DIAGRAM:

Fig. 1. Test system schematic

EXPECTED SIMULATION RESULTS:

Fig. 2. ΔT order applied to the controller of the DFIG

Fig. 3. DFIG rotating speed, 150 MW

Fig. 4. DFIG electromagnetic torque, 150 MW

Fig. 5. HVDC link voltage , 150 MW

Fig. 6. HVDC link current, 150 MW

Fig. 7. Real and reactive power (rectifier side), 150 MW

Fig. 8. Real and reactive power (inverter side), 150 MW

Fig. 9. DFIG rotating speed, 180 MW

Fig. 10. DFIG electromagnetic torque, 180 MW

Fig. 11. HVDC link voltage , 180 MW

Fig. 12. HVDC link current, 180 MW

Fig. 13. Real and reactive power (rectifier side), 180 MW

Fig. 14. Real and reactive power (inverter side), 180 MW

Fig. 15. DFIG rotating speed, 200 MW, 12 m/s

Fig. 16. DFIG electromagnetic torque, 200 MW, 12 m/s

Fig. 17. HVDC link voltage , 200 MW, 12 m/s

Fig. 18. HVDC link current, 200 MW, 12 m/s

CONCLUSION:

Detailed time domain simulations were conducted in order to analyze the transients present on the inertial response of an offshore WPP delivering power through an HVDC-VSC link. Several results from transient behavior are presented, these results show that an offshore WPP connected to the grid via an HVDC-VSC link is able to deliver inertial response if it is requested.

These results are important as the WPP importance for the power system is growing and its performance during contingencies must be asured.

REFERENCES:

[1] A. Bodin, “HVDC Light—A Preferable Power Transmission System for Renewable Energies.” Proceedings of the 2011 Third International Youth Conference on Energetics; July 7–9, 2011, Leiria, Portugal

[2] M. de Prada Gil, O. Gomis-Bellmunt, A. Sumper, and J. Bergas-Jané, “Analysis of a Multi-Turbine Offshore Wind Farm Connected to a Single Large Power Converter Operated with Variable Frequency.” Energy (36: 5), May 2011; pp. 3272–3281

[3] Feltes, C., and Erlich, I. “Variable Frequency Operation of DFIG-Based Wind Farms Connected to the Grid Through VSC-HVDC Link.” IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, June 24–28, 2007, Tampa, Florida.

[4] N. Miller, K. Clark, M. Cardinal, and R. Delmerico, "Grid-friendly wind plants controls: GE Wind CONTROL—Functionality and field tests," presented at European Wind Energy Conf., Brussels, Belgium, 2008.

[5] N. W. Miller, K. Clark, and M. Shao, “Impact of frequency responsive wind plant controls on grid performance,” presented at 9th International Workshop on Large-Scale Integration of Wind Power, Quebec, Canada, Oct. 18–19, 2010.