Wind Power Plant Voltage Stability Evaluation: Preprint
Wind Power Plant Voltage Stability Evaluation: Preprint
Wind Power Plant Voltage Stability Evaluation: Preprint
Stability Evaluation
Preprint
E. Muljadi and Y. C. Zhang
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
To be presented at the International Conference on Wind Energy
Grid-Adaptive Technologies
Jeju, Korea
October 2022, 2014
Conference Paper
NREL/CP-5D00-62568
September 2014
The submitted manuscript has been offered by an employee of the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC
(Alliance), a contractor of the US Government under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Accordingly, the US
Government and Alliance retain a nonexclusive royalty-free license to publish or reproduce the published form of
this contribution, or allow others to do so, for US Government purposes.
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Cover Photos: (left to right) photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 16416, photo from SunEdison, NREL 17423, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL
16560, photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 17613, photo by Dean Armstrong, NREL 17436, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 17721.
Abstract Voltage stability refers to the ability of a power system to maintain steady voltages at all
buses in the system after being subjected to a disturbance during a given initial operating condition.
Voltage stability depends on a power systems ability to maintain and/or restore equilibrium between load
demand and supply. Instability that may result occurs in the form of a progressive fall or rise of voltages
of some buses. Possible outcomes of voltage instability are the loss of load in an area or tripped
transmission lines and other elements by their protective systems, which may lead to cascading outages.
The loss of synchronism of some generators may result from these outages or from operating conditions
that violate a synchronous generators field current limit, or in the case of variable speed wind turbine
generators, the current limits of power switches. This paper investigates the impact of wind power plants
on power system voltage stability through using synchrophasor measurements.
1
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2.1 Parallel Compensation And the reactive power can be commanded to follow the
rules:
Reactive power losses in a transmission line can be Q = P tan (/2)
supplied from Bus 1 or Bus 2, or they can be shared by P = V2 sin /Xs
both sides. Parallel compensation can be implemented on
both sides. Reactive compensation can be implemented by With an active adjustment of reactive power generated
controlling the generator itself, or it can be provided from by reactive power compensation at Bus 1 and Bus 2, the
external compensation, such as adjustable capacitor banks, voltage level can be kept constant at varying wind power
synchronous condensers, and static power compensation output. Note that this control helps to keep the voltage
(static VAR compensator, SVC, or static compensation, adjusted, but the power angle is not affected for the same
STATCOM). amount of power delivery. Figure 2 shows an example of
controlling reactive power to maintain equal contribution of
V1 I jXs V2
reactive power from both sides of the buses.
V1
jXs I (b) All reactive V2
power is supplied by
Bus 2
V2
Figure 2. Voltage phasor diagram with equal
V1
contribution of reactive power from both sides
jXs I (c) All reactive power is
1 I supplied equally by both
2
Bus 1 and Bus 2
2.2 Series Compensation
V2
2
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34.4/230-kV
Station Transformer 34.5-kV Collector
230-kV Line 1 0.6/34.4-kV Equivalent
Rt, Xt. System Equivalent
Infinite Bus R1, X1, B1 GSU Transformer
Re, Xe, Be Rte, Xte
Ideal
Gen
Gen
4
1 230-kV Line 2 2 3 5 100-MW Equivalent
R2, X2, B2 Wind Turbine Generator
Station-Level Shunt Turbine-Level Shunt
Compensation Compensation
3
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normal operating region (0.95 p.u. < V < 1.05 p.u.). We
1.4
Q @Bus 1 Stiff-Grid assume that the participation factor for the generator in this
Q @ Bus 1 Weak-Grid
1.2
case is 100% for each wind turbine generator; therefore, the
1 output reactive power contribution for each individual
Reactive Power (p.u.)
The above exercise is conducted by setting the generator 2.4 PMU-Enhanced Dynamic Stability Assessment
to produce a unity power factor output power. It will give
different results if the WPP is operated at different modes PV and VQ capability curves are used without the need
(e.g., constant power factor, constant voltage, constant to know the phase angle of the phasor voltage. However,
reactive power). with the recent large-scale synchrophasor deployment, the
availability of the phase angles can be used to enhance the
2.3.2 VQ Capability Curve prediction of voltage instability in a power system network.
To conduct a simple analysis performance in Positive
A VQ capability curve is normally investigated to Sequence Load Flow (PSLFTM) computer program, we use
determine the reactive power adequacy in a WPP. Reactive the same network shown in Figure 4. We observe three
power capability is an important aspect of controlling the conditions:
voltage and influencing the PV characteristic behavior. 1. A stiff power system network in which both parallel
As mentioned previously, the WPP uses Type 3 wind lines connecting the infinite bus and substation
turbine generators. All of the wind turbines are controlled transformer are online
to regulate Bus 3 (at the low side of the substation 2. A stiff power system network with a reduction of
transformer). The setting point of the regulated voltage is infinite-bus voltage by 4%
varied from 0.6 p.u. to 1.0 p.u., and the reactive power is 3. The same initial condition as (1), but representing a
plotted against the regulated voltage. The grid voltage weak power system by removing one line of the
(infinite bus) is set to 1.05 p.u. all the time, and the parallel lines connecting the infinite bus and the
generator real power output is set to 1.0 p.u. substation transformer
Then, at constant reactive output power, we increase the
generation from 50% to above 100%, until the load flow
does not converge, indicating the voltage collapse when the
system reaches its instability limit. The operation is
repeated at different values of reactive power. As expected,
the power system reaches its instability operation at
different output power levels depending on the size of
reactive power.
4
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Figure 8. Voltage characteristics of a wind turbine Figure 9. Voltage characteristics of a wind turbine
generator during stiff-grid conditions generator during stiff-grid conditions with the infinite bus
reduced by 4%
As shown in Figure 8 through Figure 10, the reactive
power output has a major impact on the generator voltage
compared to the impact from the real power output.
0.5
0.3
5
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in the stable region during a stiff-grid condition (Figure 8) of the WPP under different grid conditions, and eventually
is now part of the red line that enters the unstable (voltage- use these maps to guide the operation of the WPP and the
collapse) area, indicated by the area encircled by the dashed proximity to an instability condition.
line.
condition. 0.6
P = 0.5 p.u.
P = 0.75 p.u. 0.6
P = 0.5 p.u.
P = 0.75 p.u.
P = 1.0 p.u. P = 1.0 p.u.
P = 1.2 p.u. P = 1.2 p.u.
P = 1.4 p.u. P = 1.4 p.u.
0.4 0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
0.5
Delta Angle (degrees) Delta Angle (degrees)
=2
.u.
3
0.1
P = 1.0 p.u. Figure 13 illustrates the movement of the operating point
Q = 0.1 p.u.
0 when there is a voltage reduction downstream. Assume that
- 0.1
the operating Point A of the WPP is at rated power (P = 1.0
p.u., V = 1.0 p.u., Q = 0.1 p.u.) on a stiff grid with the star
symbol ( = 23). If there is a voltage reduction at the
- 0.3
0.5 0.72 0.94 1.16 1.38 1.6 1.82 2.04 infinite bus by 4% without any changes in the line
REAL POWER OUTPUT (P.U.) impedance, without changing the reactive power output of
the generator the operating point moves to Point B (the
Figure 11. Angle characteristics of a wind turbine voltage is reduced to 0.96 p.u. and the phase angle is
generator during stiff-grid conditions increased = 25). To maintain the voltage at V = 1.0 p.u.,
the reactive power must be increased by 0.1 p.u. (Point B),
In addition, the increase of reactive power needed to with the phase angle ( = 24) slightly higher than the
maintain per-unit voltage will always be an indication of a original Point A. Figure 14 shows the significant change in
weaker grid. Caution must be taken when considering the angle because of the exposure to a weaker grid. Assume
impact on the size of the voltage-collapse area. A weaker that instead of a voltage reduction at the infinite bus, a
grid means a larger voltage collapse area. One way to parallel line is disconnected and we are exposed to a weak
gauge the operating condition is to run or record an grid. The operating point of the WPP at rated power (P =
operation in a normal condition as the baseline, find a set of 1.0 p.u.) moves from Point A (V = 1.0 p.u.; = 23) to
weaker grid conditions to map the operating characteristics Point C (V = 0.97 p.u.; ~ 30). There is a significant
6
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change in the phase angle = 7 from A to C. Increasing substation. This is because, to provide reactive power, the
the reactive power Q by 0.05 p.u. will return the voltage sending end will have higher voltage, and if the line
back to 1.0 p.u. and initiate a small reduction of the phase impedance between the turbine and the substation
angle = 28). transformer is too large, the voltage limit of the power
converter is sometimes reached before the amount of
Weak Grid
reactive power demand can be supplied.
1
Acknowledgement
Voltage Magnitude (p.u.)
0.8
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of
0.6
P = 0.5 p.u.
P = 0.75 p.u.
Energy under Contract No. DE-AC36-08-GO28308 with
P = 1.0 p.u.
P = 1.2 p.u. the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
P = 1.4 p.u.
0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50
In modern WPPs, wind turbine generators are equipped [2] Stevenson, W.D. Elements of Power Systems
Analysis, Fourth Edition. New York: McGraw Hill,
with power converters to allow variable-speed operation.
1982.
The use of power converters basically isolates the
mechanical response from the grid, thus allowing more [3] Grainger, J.; Stevenson, Jr., W. Power System
flexible operations of WPPs compared to conventional Analysis. ISBN-10: 0070612935, ISBN-13: 978-
0070612938. New York: McGraw Hill, 1994.
plants.
Voltage stability refers to the ability of a power system to [4] Muljadi, E.; Mills, Z.; Foster, R.; Ellis, A.; Conto, J.
maintain steady voltages at all buses in a system after being Fault Analysis at a Wind Power Plant for One Year
of Observation. Preprint. Prepared for the 2008
subjected to a disturbance relative to a given initial
IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting,
operating condition. It depends on the ability to maintain July 2024, 2008, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
and/or restore equilibrium between load demand and load
supply from the power system. Instability that may result [5] Miller, N.W.; Sanchez-Gasca, J.J.; Price, W.W.;
Delmerico, R.W. Dynamic Modeling of GE 1.5-
occurs in the form of a progressive fall or rise of voltages
and 3.6-MW Wind Turbine Generators for Stability
of some buses. Simulations. IEEE Power Engineering Society
In a conventional power plant, the balance of reactive General Meeting Proceedings; Jun. 2003, pp. 1977
power is shared among the generator, line impedance, and 1983.
reactive component of the load. Very often, the imbalance [6] Ellis, A.; Muljadi, E.; Sanchez-Gasca, J.;
is caused by sudden changes in the loads (in/out), and the Kazachkov, Y. Generic Models for Simulation of
limitation of the tap changer steps in a transformer or the Wind Power Plants in Bulk System Planning
limitation of the generator to provide additional reactive Studies. Preprint. Prepared for the IEEE Power and
power when the upper limit of the exciter or the limitation Energy Society General Meeting, July 2429, 2011,
of switched bank capacitors has been reached to provide a San Diego, California.
fine adjustment to match the required reactive [7] Muljadi, E.; Nguyen, T.B.; Pai, M.A. Impact of
compensation. Wind Power Plants on Voltage and Transient
The same limitation is also applicable to WPPs, because Stability of Power Systems. Preprint. Presented at
the IEEE Energy 2030 Conference, Nov. 1718,
there is a current-carrying limit of the ability of the power
2008, Atlanta, Georgia.
electronic switches to carry the instantaneous reactive
current demand needed. Another factor in WPPs is that the [8] Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Order 661.
size of a WPP can be very large, as such that the farthest Appendix G: Large Generator Interconnection
Agreement, LVRT requirement.
wind turbine generator from the substation cannot provide
reactive power as effective as the turbine closest to the
7
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[9] Muljadi, E.; Butterfield, C.P.; Parsons, B.; Ellis, A. Eduard Muljadi received his Ph.D. in electrical
Effect of Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Generator engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
on Stability of a Weak Grid. IEEE Transactions on From 1988 to 1992, he taught at California State University,
Energy Conversion (22), 2007; pp. 2936. at Fresno. In June 1992, he joined the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, in Golden, Colorado. His current
[10] WECC Undervoltage Load Shedding Task Force,
research interests are in the fields of electric machines,
Technical Studies Subcommittee. Under-Voltage
power electronics, and power systems in general, with an
Load Shedding Guidelines. July 1999.
emphasis on renewable energy applications. He is member
[11] WECC Reactive Power Reserve Work Group, of Eta Kappa Nu and Sigma Xi, a fellow of the Institute of
Technical Studies Subcommittee. Voltage Stability Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and an editor
Criteria, Under-Voltage Load Shedding Strategy, of the IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. He is
and Reactive Power Reserve Monitoring involved in the activities of the IEEE Industry Application
Methodology. May 2008. Society (IAS), Power Electronics Society, and Power and
Energy Society (PES). He is currently a member of various
[12] WECC Wind Generator Modeling Group. WECC
committees of the IAS, and a member of the Working
Wind Power Plant Power Flow Modeling Guide.
Group on Renewable Technologies and the Task Force on
May 2008.
Dynamic Performance of Wind Power Generation, both of
[13] WECC Modeling and Validation Work Group, the PES. He holds two patents in power conversion for
Renewable Energy Modeling Task Force. WECC renewable energy.
Wind Power Plant Dynamic Modeling Guide.
Yingchen (Y.C.) Zhang received his B.S. from Tianjin
January 2011.
University, in Tianjin, China, in 2003, and his Ph.D. degree
[14] Brochu, J.; Larose, C.; Gagnon, R. Generic from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in
Equivalent Collector System Parameters for Large Blacksburg, in 2010. He is currently with the National
Wind Power Plants. IEEE Transactions on Energy Renewable Energy Laboratory. His research interests
Conversion (26:2), June 2011. include power system stability with large-scale integration
of renewable energies, power system wide-area monitoring,
[15] Brochu, J.; Larose, C.; Gagnon, R. Validation of and PMU applications for renewable integrations. Zhang
Single- and Multiple-Machine Equivalents for previously worked for the California Independent System
Modeling Wind Power Plants. IEEE Transactions Operator developing and implementing steady-state and
on Energy Conversion (26:2), June 2011. dynamic analysis tools to improve power system situational
awareness. He has been a member of IEEE since 2007.
8
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