Suitable method of overloading for fast primary frequency control from offshore wind power plants in multi-terminal DC grid

Abstract

Increased penetration of offshore wind power plants (OWPPs) demands frequency control services from them. Overloading the wind turbine, for few seconds after the under frequency event, to utilize its kinetic energy seems promising option for fast primary frequency control. Two methods of overloading the wind turbine (WT), with and without considering the impact of WT dynamics and variation of WT output power during the overload, are proposed in the literature. In this paper, these two methods are applied for fast primary frequency control from OWPPs connected through multi-terminal DC grid considering the operation of the WT at below rated wind speed. Moreover, the impact of release of overload on the dynamics of the wind turbine, therefore on the associated AC and DC grids are studied in this paper. Finally, the suitable overloading method is proposed based on the simulation and experimental results. The time domain simulations for fast primary frequency control are performed on an OWPP connected through a 3-terminal DC grid using DIgSILENT PowerFactory. The experiments are performed on OWPP model integrated to a laboratory scale 3-terminal DC grid test set up. Based on the simulations and experimental results, overloading method which considers the variation of WT output power during the overload provides better performance during and after release of the overload.