IRP33: Distributed control strategies for wind farms for grid support

The average wind power penetration level in EU is above 14%, with temporary values exceeding 50% in some countries. In this scenario, the integration of wind farms into the power systems requires new control strategies with new specifications and objectives. Now, the objective is not the maximization of the energy harvesting, but the production of power profiles demanded by TSOs. This includes the provision of ancillary services such as frequency support, voltage stability, power reactive dispatching, etc.

In general, wind power plants have been modelled as aggregated turbines to represent the behaviour of the entire system in terms of power delivered to the grid. However, these simplified descriptions are not able to capture the complexity of the wind farms behaviour. Each wind turbine faces different wind profiles and interacts with the rest of turbines in the farms. Furthermore, a wind farm is itself a complex electrical grid with a large number of agents and with different control levels interacting with each other.

The objective of this Individual Research Project is to propose distributed control strategies for wind farms aimed to regulate the active and reactive power injected into the grid in order to provide support frequency, voltage stability and other grid support services. The aim is to consider the individual behaviour of each turbine in the farm and to achieve a coordinated behaviour to fulfil the TSOs demands. The control strategies will cover the different control levels needed to achieve the previous mentioned objectives.

Tasks

Expected Results