Overvoltage Limitation Method of an Offshore Wind Farm With DC Series-Parallel Collection Grid

Abstract

This paper describes the characteristics of a series parallel wind farm (SPWF) topology and investigates the control strategy to ensure its safe operation. The SPWF was found to have advantages over other pure dc wind farm architectures in terms of lower construction cost and lower power losses in the collection system. However, unbalanced power productions among the wind turbines cause the variations of their output voltages, which may endanger the safe operation of the entire wind farm. This paper proposes a global control strategy that prevents wind turbines from operating above their overvoltage capabilities. With an active participation of the onshore converter, the proposed strategy allows maximum power point tracking of the wind turbines. The practical limitations of this strategy are discussed and improvements are given. The feasibility of the proposed method is validated in a simulation of 300 MW wind farm developed in EMTP-RV.