Supervisory control of reactive power in wind farms with doubly fed induction generator-based wind turbines for voltage regulation and power losses reduction

Abstract

This paper proposes a strategy based on the secondary voltage control (SVC) and the use of grid codes recommended by the system operator to determine the reactive power reference value between a wind farm (WF) with doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) and the electrical grid. The proposed strategy seeks to determine the reactive power reference value required of WF during normal operating and grid faults. When the voltage deviation is within the normal range, the proposed strategy maintains a unity power factor (UPF). If the voltage deviation exceeds the normal range, it provides reactive power compensation to ensure voltage stability. To achieve this objective, the proposed strategy is compared with the SVC. This strategy can reduce the size of potential compensation devices, such as static synchronous compensators, to be used to improve the WF response, if needed. The participation of the grid converter side (GSC) in the reactive power control allows the DFIG to reduce power losses and increases the life of the converters, especially the rotor converter side (RSC). The strategy proposed in this work is implemented on Matlab/Simulink using the S-Function builder to evaluate their performance, which facilitates its integration into real control boards and testing in real experiments in the future.