Improved frequency mitigation of a variable-speed wind turbine

Abstract

For a power grid that has a high wind penetration level, when wind speeds are continuously fluctuating, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) operation of a variable-speed wind turbine (VSWT) causes the significant output power fluctuation of a VSWT, thereby significantly fluctuating the system frequency. In this paper, an improved power-smoothing scheme of a VSWT is presented that significantly mitigates the frequency fluctuation caused by varying wind speeds. The proposed scheme employs an additional control loop based on the frequency deviation that operates in combination with the MPPT control loop. To improve the power-smoothing capability of a VSWT in the over-frequency section (OFS), the control gain of the additional loop, which is set to be inversely proportional to the rotor speed, is proposed. In contrast, the control gain in the under-frequency section is set to be proportional to the rotor speed to improve the power-smoothing capability while avoiding over-deceleration of the rotor speed of a VSWT. The proposed scheme significantly improves the performance of the power-smoothing capability in the OFS, thereby smoothing the frequency fluctuation. The results clearly demonstrate that the proposed scheme significantly mitigates the frequency fluctuation by employing the different control gain for the OFS under various wind penetration scenarios.