Large wind farm aggregation and model validation

In order to have a large production of electricity by wind, many wind turbines are installed on the same site, called a large wind farm. The connection of a large wind farm to the grid has raised new and challenging questions for the operation of the electrical grid. In this research we will be addressing these questions: 1. How can a large wind farm with multiple wind turbines be represented by just one equivalent single machine to study the load flow and stability? How well does the equivalent single machine capture the behavior of the large wind farm during a simulation study? 2. When a short circuit happens in a large wind farm, some wind turbines trip while others do not. What is the mechanism to understand and control the number of tripping wind turbines? 3. Is there any way to improve the low voltage ride‐through of a large wind farm using intelligent devices to control the impact of a short circuit? The study is conducted using the General Electric GE doubly fed induction generator wind turbine modeled in the PowerWorld Simulator. Through this research, we have shown that: • A large wind farm using the GE DFIG wind turbines can be consistently aggregated to one equivalent machine for load flow and transient stability studies. • The low voltage ride‐through response can be improved by inserting a self-impedance between the faulted feeder and the rest of the large wind farm during the fault. This impedance will reduce the number of wind turbines tripping during the fault, and increase the voltage stability of the wind farm. • An intelligent device can be used within a large wind farm to locate a default feeder and automatically insert the self‐impedance during the time of short‐circuit.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical & Computer Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Panumpabi, Mulumba P.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Overbye, Thomas J.

• Aggregation of large wind farm to a single machine
• load flow study
• stability study
• Low Voltage Ride-Trough Improvement

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Mulumba P. Panumpabi

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26236

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26236