Three fault ride through controllers for wind systems running in isolated micro-grid and Effects of fault type on their performance: A review and comparative study

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents survey about Fault Ride Through (FRT) techniques and controllers which employed with all wind generation system types. After presenting a comprehensive FRT survey, paper proposes three Fault Ride Through (FRT) controllers for keeping stability of Fixed Speed Wind Generation (FSWG) system serving in isolated Micro-Grid (MG). The first controller has been implemented by inserting Superconductor Fault Current Limiter (SFCL) in series with wind generator terminals during fault instant. The second proposed FRT controller is modifying the conventional Pitch Angle Controllers (PAC) to can spill and reduce high percentage of extracted mechanical wind power during and subsequent fault occurrence which in turns help stability improvement and restoration. Third FRT technique is performed by adapting the wind turbine gearbox ratio which forces the wind generation system to run far from the maximum power point. The best performance is obtained with the SFCL controller. Superior results are obtained when the three proposed FRT controllers are employed simultaneously. The three developed FRT controllers are simple, reliable and economical attractive. Effects of fault type on SFCL FRT controller performance are analyzed and investigated in details. The proposed SFCL FRT controller has been tested under single phase, double phase, phase to phase, and three phases to ground faults. Results display that the three phases to ground fault is the most severe type on SFCL FRT performance from stability point of view. On the other hand, double phase to ground fault is the most severe one from fluctuations and oscillations points of view. Parameters of the SFCL must be adjusted based on the three phases to ground fault. If the SFCL FRT controller is designed to can deal with three phases fault, it sure can deal with the other fault types successfully.