Grid-frequency support and power smoothing

with variable-speed wind turbines

Danny Ochoa, Sergio Martinez
ETSI- Department of Electrical Engineering, ETSI Industriales, UPM
INDUSTRIALES (danny.ochoac@alumnos.upm.es)

Background
Technological advances, low production
costs, efficiency, and emission-free
operation are some of the factors that have
strongly motivated the use of renewable
energy sources for the production of
electrical energy in recent years. The
economy of scale has placed wind
generation well ahead of other renewable
technological alternatives. To guarantee
the quality and reliability of the power
supply, the incorporated wind generators
have to be friendly with the grid through
the provision of ancillary services. This
PhD thesis deals with one of these services:
the frequency control.
Objective
Developing of new control strategies applied to the wind turbine
controller aimed at mitigating the negative effects of variable wind
power injection in the power system while avoiding additional
hardware installation.
Methodology
A Load Frequency Control (LFC) approach is commonly used for
representing the short-time dynamics of power and frequency of the
power system. In order to integrate the wind generation in the LFC-
scheme, this PhD thesis proposes a simplified electromechanical
model of a variable-speed wind turbine [1]. The developed model is
suitable for frequency response studies in multi-machine systems
with a lower computational effort than other detailed models
available in the literature.

Proposals
a) Synthetic inertia based method (EOPPT): control strategy designed to provide a variable speed wind turbine with
an emulated inertial response aimed at reducing the grid frequency drop when the power system experiences a
sudden loss of generated power [2].
b) Combined wind power smoothing technique: algorithm devised to mitigate the grid frequency oscillations
induced by fluctuating wind power injection under normal operating conditions [3].
c) Wind power curtailment strategy: new method for wind power limitation more effective than other traditional
approaches [4].

Cases of study
1) Peninsular Spanish Power System: bulk system with a massive penetration of wind generation.
2) San Cristobal Island (Ecuador) power system: isolated and weak system with a significant share of wind energy.

Results

Time (s)

Frequency drop mitigation by Power smoothing achieved by using (b) under Power curtailment carried out by (c) and tested in
implementing (a) in the case of study (1). actual wind conditions in case of study (1) case of study (2)

Publications
[1] D. Ochoa and S. Martinez, “A Simplified Electro-Mechanical Model of a DFIG-based Wind Turbine for Primary Frequency Control Studies,” IEEE
Lat. Am. Trans., vol. 14, no. 8, pp. 3614–3620, Aug. 2016.
[2] D. Ochoa and S. Martinez, “Fast-Frequency Response Provided by DFIG-Wind Turbines and its Impact on the Grid,” IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol.
32, no. 5, pp. 4002–4011, Sep. 2017.
[3] D. Ochoa and S. Martinez, “Frequency dependent strategy for mitigating wind power fluctuations of a doubly-fed induction generator wind
turbine based on virtual inertia control and blade pitch angle regulation,” Renew. Energy, Under Review.
[4] D. Ochoa and S. Martinez, “Proposals for enhancing frequency control in weak and isolated power systems. Application to the wind-diesel
power system of San Cristobal Island-Ecuador,” Energies, Under Review.