Evaluating the Performance of External Fault Ride-Through Solutions used in Wind Farms with Fixed Speed Induction Generators when Facing Unbalanced Faults

Abstract

The continuous growth of wind energy integration on electrical networks has led many utilities to impose fault ride-through capability to wind farms. This means that wind turbines must remain connected to the system during severe fault occurrence. Regarding the existing wind farms equipped with fixed speed induction generators directly connected to the grid, fault ride-through capability is commonly assisted with dynamic compensation devices, such as DSTATCOM units. These power electronic devices are controlled for voltage regulation purposes and behave like a balanced three-phase voltage source converter since commonly used control techniques are based only on the positive sequence of both voltage and current measured at its connection point. These control techniques are suitable only when compensation devices are operated under balanced conditions and therefore its performance when facing unbalanced faults needs to be evaluated. This paper tackles with this subject and the results obtained through numerical simulations demonstrate that over voltages can arise on non faulty phases leading to the wind farm disconnection.