Offshore Wind Farm-Grid Integration: A Review on Infrastructure, Challenges, and Grid Solutions

Syed Wajahat Ali,Mustafa Alrayah Hassan,Muhammad Umair Mutarraf,Chun-Lien Su,Muhammad Sadiq,Syed Ahmad Raza Naqvi,Guangya Yang,Josep M Guerrero,Yacine Terriche,Le Quang Nhat Hoang

doi:10.1109/access.2021.3098705

Abstract

Recently, the penetration of renewable energy sources (RESs) into electrical power systems is witnessing a large attention due to their inexhaustibility, environmental benefits, storage capabilities, lower maintenance and stronger economy, etc. Among these RESs, offshore wind power plants (OWPP) are ones of the most widespread power plants that have emerged with regard to being competitive with other energy technologies. However, the application of power electronic converters (PECs), offshore transmission lines and large substation transformers result in considerable power quality (PQ) issues in grid connected OWPP. Moreover, due to the installation of filters for each OWPP, some other challenges such as voltage and frequency stability arise. In this regard, various customs power devices along with integration control methodologies have been implemented to deal with stated issues. Furthermore, for a smooth and reliable operation of the system, each country established various grid codes. Although various mitigation schemes and related standards for OWPP are documented separately, a comprehensive review covering these aspects has not yet addressed in the literature. The objective of this study is to compare and relate prior as well as latest developments on PQ and stability challenges and their solutions. Low voltage ride through (LVRT) schemes and associated grid codes prevalent for the interconnection of OWPP based power grid have been deliberated. In addition, various PQ issues and mitigation options such as FACTS based filters, DFIG based adaptive and conventional control algorithms, ESS based methods and LVRT requirements have been summarized and compared. Finally, recommendations and future trends for PQ improvement are highlighted at the end.

Highlights

Wind energy generation is increasingly becoming one of the key sources of electric energy for industrial as well as domestic use, due to its several advantages over fossil fuel counterparts [1]
AC transmission is most commonly used in offshore wind power plants (OWPP) nowadays, the transmission voltage level constraints will encourage the use of high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission in near future
This paper reviewed power quality (PQ) issues of OWPP integration into electric gird and discussed various solution methodologies

Summary

Introduction

Wind energy generation is increasingly becoming one of the key sources of electric energy for industrial as well as domestic use, due to its several advantages over fossil fuel counterparts [1] This growth in wind energy can be seen from its installed capacity figures, where China is leading with a 237 GW of wind power available followed by US at around 105 GW [2]. The UK and Germany having the largest installed capacity with a total of thirteen countries contributed in wind energy to achieve these numbers [3]-[5] When it comes to offshore wind energy, the main advantage over its onshore counterpart is the consistency in generating power at a steady rate due to stronger and more consistent wind gusts. It is noteworthy that offshore wind industry in the world has succeeded to add 6.1 GW of new capacity in 2019, which

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