Blackstart Capability and Survivability of Wind Turbines With Fully Rated Converters

Abstract

The blackstart capability of wind turbines is critical for the recovery of wind-dominant power systems from blackouts. If wind power plants are not able to restore a power system, the incorporation of wind resources into electric grids could be limited by blackstart capability. This paper tackles this problem by setting forth a grid-forming controller for Type 4 wind turbines, which employ fully rated power converters. To this end, we engineer two-axis anti-windup proportional-integral regulators that serve to ride through restoration disturbances. We also design an active protection system to prevent wind turbines from stalling during recovery from blackouts. We demonstrate in a high-fidelity simulation environment that Type 4 wind turbines with the developed controllers and protection subsystem can: (i) re-energize a notional wind-dominant grid; (ii) ride through asymmetrical faults; and (iii) survive low-wind-speed events.