Reactive Power,

Voltage Control and

Voltage Stability
Aspects of Wind
Integration to the
V. Ajjarapu (vajjarap@iastate.edu )

Grid
Iowa State University

1
 Outline
Basic Introduction
Reactive power ; Voltage Stability ; PV curves

FERC Order 661A

Power Factor of +/- 95% at the point of interconnection ;
Voltage regulation capability ; Low Voltage Ride Through
(LVRT) capability to prevent tripping of wind turbines during
voltage sag events
Reactive Power Capability of DFIG
Voltage security assessment and Penetrations levels
Wind Variability on Voltage Stability
Conclusions and Discussion

2
 IEEE/CIGRE View on Stability 1
Power
System
Stability

Rotor Voltage
Frequency
Angle Stability
Stability
Stability

Small Short Long Large Small

Disturban Transient Term Term Disturbance Disturbance
ce Stability

Start Term - Long Term

Short Term
1. P. Kundur, J. Paserba, V. Ajjarapu , Andersson, G.; Bose, A.; Canizares, C.; Hatziargyriou, N.; Hill, D.; Stankovic, A.; Taylor,
C.; Van Cutsem, T.; Vittal, V Definitions and Classification of Power System Stability IEEE/CIGRE Joint Task Force on
Stability Terms and Definitions , IEEE transactions on Power Systems, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp. 1387-1401 August 2004
3
 Voltage Stability
It refers to the ability of a power system
to maintain steady voltages at all buses
in the system after being subjected to a
disturbance.
Instability may result in the form of a
progressive fall or rise of voltages of
some buses

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 Voltage Stability Cont
Possible outcomes of this instability :
Loss of load in an area
Tripping of lines and other elements
leading to cascading outages
Loss of synchronism of some generators may
result from these outages or from operating
condition that violate field current limit

5
 Voltage Stability Cont..
Driving Force for Voltage instability (usually
loads):
The power consumed by the loads is restored by
Distribution Voltage regulators
Tap-changing transformers
Thermostats
A run down situation causing voltage instability
occurs when the load dynamics attempt to restore
power consumption beyond the capability of the
transmission network and the connected
generation
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 Voltage Stability Cont..
It involves : Small and Large
disturbance as well as Short Term and
Long Term time scales
Short Term : Involves fast acting load
components : induction motors,
Electronically controlled loads , HVDC
converters
Short circuits near loads are important

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 Voltage Stability Cont..
Long Term:
Involves slow acting equipment:
Tap changing transformers
Thermostatically controlled loads
Generator current limiters
Instability is due to the loss of long-term
equilibrium
In many cases static analysis can be used
For timing of control Quasi-steady-state time
domain simulation is recommended

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9
10
 FERC Order 661A

ZVRT
( Zero Voltage Ride Through)
2008 - present
3 short of 0 V at POI for 0.15s
(9 cycles)
(Wind farms installed prior to Dec.
31, 2007 are allowed to trip off line
in the case of a fault depressing the
voltage at the POI to below 0.15
p.u., or 15 percent of nominal
voltage)

PF
0.95
(including dynamic voltage
support, if needed for safety
and reliability)

11
 Proposed WECC Low Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT)
requirements for all generators1
Most
grid
codes
now
require
that
wind
power
plants
assist
the grid
in
maintain
ing or
regulatin
g the
system
voltage

1. R. Zavadil, N. Miller, E. Mujadi, E. Cammand B. Kirby, Queuing Up: Interconnecting Wind

Generation into The Power System November/December 2007, IEEE Power and Energy
Magazine 12
 LVRT requirements of various National
Grid Codes2

DS: Distribution TS:

Transmission

2. Florin Iov, Anca Daniela Hansen, Poul Srensen, Nicolaos Antonio Cutululis ,Mapping of grid faults and grid
codes Ris-R-1617(EN), July 2007

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 Summary of ride-through capability for wind turbines2

2. Florin Iov, Anca Daniela Hansen, Poul Srensen, Nicolaos Antonio Cutululis ,Mapping of grid faults and grid
codes Ris-R-1617(EN), July 2007

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In general all generators which are coupled to the network
either with inverters or with synchronous generators are
capable of providing reactive power ( for Example Doubly Fed
Induction Generator)

In DFIG real and reactive power can be controlled

independently

Rotor Side Converter (RSC) Grid side converter (GSC)

Grid

Source: http://www.windsimulators.co.uk/DFIG.htm
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 Voltage Controller
A voltage controller placed at the Point of Interconnect (POI) measures
utility line voltage, compares it to the desired level, and computes the
amount of reactive power needed to bring the line voltage back to the
specified range .

Monitors POI or
remote bus
PI control adjusts
stator Qref signal from
Verror
Qmx/n
CC (capability curve)
FERC
Qmax Poutput tan(cos 1 (0.95))

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Grid Side Reactive
Power Boosting
MVAR
By default the grid voltage is
controlled by the rotor-side
converter as long as this is not
blocked by the protection device
(i.e. crowbar), otherwise the grid
side converter takes over the
control of the voltage

Impact of Grid Side Reactive

Boosting with (green) and without
(red) Control
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Capability curve of a 1.5 MW machine

Rated 1.5 MW
electrical
power
Rated 1.3 MW
generator
power
Rated stator 575 V
voltage
Rotor to stator 3
turns ratio
Machine 30 kgm2
inertia
Rotor inertia 610000 kgm2
Inductance: 4.7351,
mutual, stator, 0.1107,
rotor 0.1193 p.u.
Resistance: 0.0059,
stator, rotor 0.0066 p.u.
Number of 3
poles
Grid 60 Hz
frequency
Gearbox ratio 1:72
Nominal rotor 16.67 rpm
speed
Rotor radius 42 m
Maximum slip +/- 30%
range

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 Converter Sizing

Ptot Qtot slip Vrotor Irotor [A] Vdc-link Sconvert

[p.u.] [p.u.] [%] [V] [V] [kVA]

1 0.05 0.80 25.26 244 352 440 258.5

2 0.25 0.72 11.50 108 449 195 146.2

3 0.50 0.63 1.33 8 425 14 10.2

4 0.75 0.49 -9.28 97 428 175 125.4

5 1.00 0.37 -25.14 254 468 460 357.9

6 1.00 0.33 -25.14 254 458 460 348.6

Maximum converter capacity is 28% of machine rating

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 Impact of Capability Curve:
a) On System Loss b) On Voltage Stability Margin
A Sample Simulation Study

Penetration Level
Installed Wind Capacity
Load
Various Wind Penetration Levels at
15, 20, 25 & 30% are simulated

At each penetration level,

total wind generation is
simulated at 2, 15, 50 &
100% output

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a) Impact of Capability Curve on
System Losses

Penetration Level
Installed Wind Capacity
Load

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 b) Impact of Capability Curve on
Voltage Stability Margin

TM Transfer Margin

MWcollapse MWactual PVMARGIN

TM
MWactual MWactual

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 Power Transfer Margin at Different
Penetration Levels (50 MVAr at 204 and 3008)
Base power transfer without
wind is 13.5%
Penetration Level

Plant Output
20% 25 % 30%

0%
15.1 15.3 17.1
33%

17.1 20.6 18.5

66%

19.5 22.5 19.4

100%

18.1 13.5 Unstable

Max system penetration possible is 20-25%

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Security Assessment Methodology
Develop peak load base case matrix:
% Penetration of peak load (x)
% Park output (y)

Critical contingencies for case list

n-1 outages
Perform appropriate static analysis (PV)
Identify weak buses
Voltage criteria limit
0.90 1.05 V p.u.
Max load is 5% below collapse point for cat. B (n-1)
Add shunt compensation
Transfer Margin Limit
Repeat for all % output (y) and % penetration (x)
levels
Perform dynamic analysis

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Dynamic Performance Validation

3 short Circuit at Bus 3001 , CCT 140 ms

Operation Comparison
FERC +/- 0.95
CC

20% penetration at cut-in speed

20% penetration at 15% output
20% penetration at 100% output

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 20% penetration at cut-in
Cut-in (4 m/s)
speed
Q limits
CC (0.72,-0.92)
RPF (0.0, 0.0)
153 voltage
RPF control
unable to recover post
fault
PEC crowbar protection
does not activate
reactive injections
during fault.
Extended reactive
capability stabilizes
system

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 20% penetration at 15%
output
Q limits
CC (0.70, -0.90)
RPF (0.08, -0.08)

CC control provides enhanced

post fault voltage response
Reduced V overshoot /
ripple
Increased reactive
consumption at plant 3005

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 20% penetration at 100% output

Q limits
CC (0.36, -0.69)
RPF (0.34, -0.34)

Near identical reactive

injections
voltage recovery at
bus 153

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Voltage Stability Assessment Incorporating
Wind Variability
Electricity generated from wind power can be highly
variable with several different timescales
hourly, daily, and seasonal periods

Increased regulation costs and operating reserves.

Wind variations in the small time frame (~seconds) is very

small (~0.1%) for a large wind park. [1]

Static tools can be used to assess impact of wind variation

[1] Design and operation of power systems with large amounts of wind power , Report available Online :
http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/workingpapers/2007/W82.pdf

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 Voltage Secure Region of
Operation (VSROp)
For each PV curve the amount of wind generation is kept
BUS constant and the load and generation is increased
VOLTAGE according to a set loading and generation increase scenario

WIND
VARIABILITY

0 POWER
TRANSFER
W2
W1
W3

Redispatch strategy for increase or decrease

WIND in wind generation.
GENERATION
 Methodology Flowchart
The power flow
data for the
system under
The assumed level of wind consideration.
generation in the base
case and wind variability
that is to be studied.

The redispatch
strategy for
increase or
decrease in wind
generation.
Sample Test System

Two locations are chosen for adding

wind generation.

Each wind unit is of size 800 MW.

Two redispatch strategies are chosen

Gen 101 and Gen 3011 [ remote to
load] (RED)
Gen 206 and Gen 211 [ close to
load] (GREEN)

Base case wind output is 560 MW.

Any change in wind power is
compensated by redispatch units

Determine minimum margin and

most restrictive contingency.

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 Results:
Comparison of Redispatch Strategies at Location 1
 Results:
Comparison of Redispatch Strategies at Location 2
 Large System
Implementation
5600 buses with 11 areas constitute the Study
area with 2 wind rich regions.
Total base case load is 63,600 MW with 6500 MW
coming from Wind.
With a given set of 50 critical contingencies the
minimum power transfer margin possible is 300
MW
3000 MW of wind is varied between 0 to 3000.
To compensate for reduced wind additional units
are brought online to compensate for the loss of
wind.
VSROP for Large System
 Observations
A larger power transfer margin available over the
entire range of variability with Capability Curve
Leads to higher penetration levels

This tool helps determine the wind level at which

minimum power transfer margin is obtained.

This power level need not be at minimum wind or

maximum wind.

The tool also provides the most restrictive

contingency at each wind level.
 Conclusions
As levels of wind penetration continue to
increase the responsibility of wind units to
adequately substitute conventional machines
becomes a critical issue
Recent advancement in wind turbine generator technology
provides control of reactive power even when the turbine is not
turning. This can provide continuous voltage regulation. A
performance benefit , not possible with the conventional
machines
Wind generators can become distributed reactive sources.
Coordination of this reactive power is a challenging task
The FERC order 661-A, gives general guidelines
for interconnecting wind parks, but for specific
parks employing DFIG units the restriction on
power factor can be lifted

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