A secondary voltage control strategy for transmission level interconnection of wind generation

This paper addresses implementation issues associated with secondary voltage control in a doubly-fed induction generator based wind farm. The effects of different system parameters on the performance of the control are considered, namely the short circuit ratio of the interconnection and the inherent communication delay between the wind park and the remote bus. In addition, a strategy for allocation reactive power requirements to each of the generators within the wind park is proposed. The system is developed and simulated for a wind park consisting of six wind generators connected to a typical transmission system. The paper proposes an optimal tracking secondary voltage control method developed to achieve effective voltage regulation, enhance the network voltage profile and provide optimal reactive power compensation to the interconnected power system. The performance of the controller is compared with secondary voltage control at one selected bus, primary voltage control and the optimal voltage profile obtained from the optimal power flow analysis. The performance of the controllers is tested for steady state operation and in response to system contingencies, taking into account the impact of communication time delays and short circuit ratio (SCRs). Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the capability of the controllers to provide the desired reactive power compensation and voltage support to the electric power grid.