Investigation of Electric Spring for LVRT Capability Improvement of Fixed Speed Induction Generator based Wind Farm

Abstract

This paper investigates the ability of electric spring (ES) for the low voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability improvement of fixed speed induction generator (FSIG) based wind farm (WF). With increased renewable energy integration, new grid codes are declared by various power system grid operators in order to maintain system stability. LVRT capability is the prime and most difficult requirement of these new grid codes. FSIG based WFs are largely installed but it does not have LVRT capability. Various FACTS devices like static-var-compensator (SVC), static synchronous compensator (STATCOM), dynamic voltage restorer (DVR), etc. are being suggested to make it LVRT capable. ES is the emerging smart grid technology which can compensate active and reactive power so as to address the instability problems of frequency and voltage in microgrids. The ES is coming up as a good alternate to STATCOM, but so far it has not been tried, especially for improving LVRT capability of WF. In this paper, MATLAB simulation is carried out to investigate the ability of ES for improving LVRT capability of FSIG based WF. Simulation result shows that ES performs well and seems as an alternate to FACTS devices.

Keywords: Electric spring (ES), low voltage ride through (LVRT), fixed speed induction generator (FSIG), wind farm (WF)