The 6th International Conference on Renewable Power Generation (RPG)

19–20 October 2017

Wind farm HVRT capability improvement based on coordinated reactive power

control strategy
Yuandong Zhang1,2,3, Qing Li1,2,3, Jinping Zhang1,2,3, Shiyao Qin1,2,3
1
State Key Laboratory of Operation and Control of Renewable Energy & Storage Systems, People’s Republic of China
2
CEPRI Inspection and Certification (Beijing) Co. Ltd, People’s Republic of China
3
Renewable Energy Center, Electric Power Research Institute, People’s Republic of China
E-mail: zhangyuandong@epri.sgcc.com.cn

Published in The Journal of Engineering; Received on 5th October 2017; Accepted on 1st November 2017

Abstract: Voltage swells after grid fault clearance is one of the major causes of large-scale wind power tripping accidents in China. In this
study, reasons that led to overvoltage phenomena were researched, and factors that influence the grid overvoltage during grid fault were quan-
titatively analysed through simulation. A coordinated reactive power control strategy combined the control of wind turbines with reactive
power compensation devices was proposed to prevent the occurrence of high voltage and improve the high-voltage ride through capability
of wind power plant. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy was indicated by the simulation results in DIgSILENT/
PowerFactory.

1 Introduction
With the continuously increasing wind power in the weak grid in
China [1, 2], the impact on the stable operation of the power grid
is much notable than before [3]. The large-scale wind turbine
(WT) tripping accidents occurred in 2011 made grid operators
aware of the importance of wind power plant (WPP) low-voltage
ride through (LVRT) capability. However, it should be noted
that many of the WTs which ride through low voltage were
tripped because of the voltage swell after fault clearance
[4–8]. To safeguard the network against these problems, grid
operators in China and some other countries have recently
enforced stringent requirements on the high-voltage ride
through (HVRT) capability of large WPPs. A comparison of
the international grid codes shows that AEMC in Australia
and Energinet.dk in Denmark have the most stringent regula-
tions on HVRT, and the maximum voltage at the instant of
fault existence is 1.3 pu of the nominal voltage at the point of
common coupling [9].
Previous studies on HVRT are mainly focused on the control
strategy of a single WT in the transient process. The HVRT capabil-
ity of WTs studied in [10–13, 14] shows the improvement of HVRT
capability for WTs with a full scale converter with the application
of STATCOM. Results have shown that it is an effective approach
to meet the HVRT requirements for a single WT by modifying con-
verter control schemes. Other research studies are focused on the
hierarchical reactive power control or voltage control strategies of
a WPP [15–17], which is mainly concerned about the steady state
voltage stability.
There are different types of transient overvoltage in the power
grid, such as the switching overvoltage [18], lighting overvoltage
[19], and overvoltage caused by high voltage direct current
(HVDC) monopole or bipolar block, etc. However, according to
the survey of large-scale WT tripping accidents happened in
China, the main reason is the reactive power redundancy during
and after grid short circuit faults, which is caused by an inappropri-
ate control strategy of the WT and reactive power compensator. As
a result, to avoid the voltage swell after grid fault, the reactive
power of the WPP must be co-ordinately controlled during this tran-
sient process, and this is the main concern in this paper.
This paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents the two
main reasons that have result in voltage swell and large-scale WT
tripping accidents in China in recent years. In Section 3, the influ-
ence of the WT control characteristics and grid parameters on grid
overvoltage is analysed. A coordinated reactive power control strat-
egy for the WPP is proposed in Section 4, and the result is demon-
strated by means of dynamic simulations with DIgSILENT/
PowerFactory.
2 Causes of overvoltage in WPP
In the actual power grid with a high wind power penetration
level, overvoltage can be caused by various reasons. According
to the survey of large-scale WT tripping accidents happened
in China, there are two main reasons that may lead to voltage
swell.
2.1 Inappropriate switching of reactive power compensators in
steady states
WPPs are generally located far from the load centre and connected
to the weak grid in China, and the grid impendence is always in a
relatively great value. A large number of active power transmission
in the line will easily get to the static voltage stability limit of the
system, and in which situation, small disturbance of reactive
power may lead to grid voltage swells.
The equivalent schematic diagram of a WPP integration system is
depicted in Fig. 1, which has a structure similar to the single
machine infinite bus system.
In Fig. 1, UWPP is the voltage at point of interconnection (POI)
of WPP, Ugrid is the voltage of grid, PWTs and QWTs are
the active and reactive power generated by the WTs, X is the
equivalent impedance of the WPP transmission line, and B
is the equivalent capacitance of the WPP reactive power
compensator.

This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons J. Eng., 2017, Vol. 2017, Iss. 13, pp. 756–761
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) doi: 10.1049/joe.2017.0432
 tripping. This is the chain reaction in the WT tripping accidents
in Guyuan, Hebei Province on 14 May 2012 [21].

2.2 Inappropriate control of WTs and reactive compensation

devices in transient process
On the other hand, the inappropriate control characteristics of WTs
and reactive power compensation devices will result in the overvol-
tage during a grid fault.
In Fig. 1, PWPP and QWPP are the active and reactive power
generated by the WPP, and QRCs are the reactive power from
reactive power compensation devices. As a result, PWPP = PWTs,
QWPP = QWTs+ QRCs, and the following equations can be
obtained
Fig. 1 Equivalent schematic diagram of a WPP integration system
2
UWPP Ugrid sin d + j(UWPP − UWPP Ugrid cos d)
PWPP + jQWPP = ,
X
Choosing the reference phase U̇ grid = Ugrid /0◦ ,
(5)
U̇ WPP = UWPP /d, active and reactive power generated by WTs
can be expressed as follows [20]: 

2Q X − U 2 + U 4 + 4U 2 Q 2 2
 WPP grid grid grid WPP − 4X PWPP
PWTs + jQWTs = (UWPP cos d + jUWPP sin d) UWPP = .
2
WPP cos d + jUWPP sin d − Ugrid

U
 
+ UWPP cos d + jUWPP sin d jB (6)
jX
UWPP Ugrid sin d
2
1  U U cos d
WPP grid It can be seen from (6), the voltage of the WPP is increased with
= + j UWPP −B − , QWPP and decreased with PWPP, which means after grid short
X X X
(1) circuit fault clearance, both reactive power redundancy caused by
the reactive current over injection and the active power loss
UWPP Ugrid sin d caused by the low active power recovery speed will result in over-
PWTs = , (2) voltage. It will aggravate the voltage swell if the control strategy
X
and response time of reactive power compensation devices cannot

1

UWPP Ugrid cos d meet the requirements of transient voltage regulation. These are
2
QWTs = UWPP −B − . (3) the reasons for WT tripping accidents in Jiuquan, Gansu Province
X X
on 24 February 2011 [7].
If WTs operate at unity power factor, the following equation is
obtained: 3 Influence factor analysis on overvoltage
Overvoltage after grid fault is mainly caused by continuous
2

PWTs X
2
+
 2
UWPP (1
2

− XB) = UWPP Ugrid . (4) reactive current injection after the fault clearance. So the
maximum voltage is strongly correlated to the control character-
istics of WTs and the grid structure. Factors that influence the
Suppose that the grid voltage Ugrid is constant, the relationship grid overvoltage after fault clearance is analysed through simulation
between PWTs and UWPP under different reactive power compensa- in this section.
tion capacities is shown in Fig. 2 (SB = 1000 MVA). The WPP is A typical WPP was modelled in the simulation software
operating at Point A at first, where UWPP = 1.0 pu, PWPP=1.0 pu, DIgSILENT/PowerFactory. WTs were equipped with a full power
B = 0.33 pu. If a reactive power compensation device, such as a converter that can independently control active and reactive
20 Mvar fixed capacitor, is switched on, the operation point will powers. Internal details of the WPP should be modelled with suffi-
be changed to Point B with a voltage swell. WTs without HVRT cient accuracy so that the currents and voltages within the WPP can
capability may disconnect from the grid, and with the reduction be evaluated and constraint violations within the WPP can be
of active power, the operation point will move towards Point monitored.
C. Voltage at POI will be further increased, leading to more WTs The layout of the WPP is shown in Fig. 3. The WPP consists
of 25 × 2 MW WTs and is connected to the transmission system
with a 35 kV/220 kV transformer, which is modelled explicitly.
The WPP has a total of two overhead feeders of different
lengths, and the distance between adjacent WTs is set to 0.5 km.
A static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) of 10 Mvar and

Fig. 2 P–V curves of a wind power integration system Fig. 3 Layout of the studied WPP

J. Eng., 2017, Vol. 2017, Iss. 13, pp. 756–761 This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons
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fixed capacitors (FCs) of 3 Mvar×4 are used for reactive power
compensation.
During the simulation, the WPP was producing at a level of
100% of its nominal capacity prior to the fault, and a three-phase
short circuit fault was assumed to occur 1 s after the start of the
simulation. The fault reactance was adjusted such the voltage at
the POI dropped to around 0.2 pu and its duration was set to
500 ms.

3.1 Control characteristics of WTs

The reactive current injection capability during voltage dips is
required by grid codes in many countries, which is usually
expressed as in (7)

Iq ≥ kf (UT )IN , (7)

where Iq is the reactive current of the WT during a fault, UT and IN

are the terminal voltage and the nominal current of WT, and k is the
factor that defines the requirement of Iq at a certain UT.
The response time of Iq is also required, such as 75 ms after the
inception of LVRT in China and 100 ms in South Africa. As there is
no upper limit for Iq in these grid codes, some manufactures may
use a k-factor as large as possible to meet the response time
requirement.
Fig. 4 shows the over voltage comparison between different set-
tings of k-factor and time delay of WT under the same voltage dip.
To make the comparison more apparent, the most remote WT from
the POI was selected as the study object. In Case 1, as there was no
reactive current support provided by the WT during a fault, no over-
voltage was detected after a fault. Case 2 shows the simulation
results of good control characteristics, which used a proper
k-factor with a relatively short control delay (k = 1.2, tdelay = 0.01 s).
The reactive current injected at the low-voltage side of the WT
transformer was 1.5 kA during a fault, and the grid voltage was
stable to a pre-fault value in quite a short time after fault clearance.
While in Case 3, inappropriate control parameters were used
(k = 1.6, tdelay = 0.04 s), and after the clearance of grid fault, the
WT did not stop providing reactive current and the voltage suddenly
jumped over the nominal value and continue increasing to the peak
value of about 1.35 pu.
The grid voltage under different active power recovery speed
after grid fault clearance is shown in Fig. 5. When the active
power recovered at a slow speed (0.2 pu/s), there would be a
voltage swell for the lack of active power. If the active power recov-
ered at a very fast speed (2 pu/s), there would be an obvious voltage Fig. 4 Influence of reactive power control of WT on grid voltage
a Reactive current of WT
oscillation. b Reactive power of WT
c Voltage at the most remote WT terminal. Case 1: no reactive power
injection during a fault. Case 2: good reactive power control
3.2 Short circuit capacity (SCC) and cable length characteristics (k = 1.2, tdelay = 0.01 s). Case 3: bad reactive power control
characteristics (k = 1.6, tdelay = 0.04 s)
The voltage swell also shows a high dependency on grid impen-
dence. The relationship between the maximum voltage during the
fault ride through the process the SCC of the power grid and the
4 Coordinated reactive power control strategy
cable length from the low-voltage side of the WPP transformer to
the most remote WT is shown in Fig. 6. The voltage swell and reactive power redundancy of the WPP is a
During the simulation, the control parameters in Case 3 were complex issue caused by multi-reasons, and cannot be solved by
used, and the range of the cable length was from 5 to 30 km. simply improve the HVRT capability of WTs or reactive power
SCC was set from 400 to 1600 MVA. This gives a short circuit control scheme of WPP. To reduce the risk of wind power trip
ratio from 8 to 32 for the considered WPP rating, which covers off under high voltage, a coordinated reactive power control strat-
the range from common interconnection to strong interconnection. egy including transient and steady state control of WT and reactive
As can be seen from Fig. 6, the maximum voltage at POI raises power compensation devices is needed.
from 1.05 to 1.2 pu with the decrease of the SCC, and the cable For the control of WTs, the reactive current injection factor k in
length has a significant influence on the voltage of the WT terminal. (7) should be calculated according to the grid impendence of each
With the increase of the cable length, the maximum voltage will WT. The grid impendence is an important parameter in the voltage
increase about 0.1 pu, which means the most remote WT may control loop since it determines how much the voltage can be
face much serious voltage swell than the WT near the substation. changed when a certain amount of reactive current is injected

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Fig. 5 Influence of active power recovery speed on grid voltage

Fig. 6 Maximum voltage in different grid parameters

from WT. For the WT located further from the POI (with a higher
grid impendence), a smaller number of k should be selected. On the
other hand, to avoid the overvoltage at the WT terminal after fault
clearance, the control delays of reactive current should not exceed
20 ms, and k should be limited to a maximum 1.5. Inductive react-
ive power generating is needed if the voltage exceeds 1.05 pu after
fault clearance, and the active power recovery speed is set to 1 pu/s.
For the coordinated control of reactive power on the farm level,
the reactive power is not provided by static var generator (SVG) but
by FCs and WTs during normal operation. SVG with fast response
characteristics is only used during the transient process of grid fault.
Instead of connected to the grid all the time, FCs should be switched
off if the voltage is below 0.5 pu or above 1.05 pu and connected to
the grid by steps after voltage recovery.
The simulation results of the WPP with the traditional control
strategy and the coordinated control strategy are shown in Figs. 7
and 8. Comparison between the strategies used in the simulation
Fig. 7 Control strategy comparison of the most remote WT from POI
is shown in Table 1. a Voltage
Fig. 7 shows simulation results of the most remote WT from the b Active power
POI. There is an obvious voltage swell of about 1.2 pu after voltage c Reactive current
recovery under traditional control strategy and results in the tripping d Reactive power
off of the WT. As can be seen from Fig. 7c, the WT does not stop
injecting reactive current until 80 ms after fault clearance, which is
the main reason that leads to the overvoltage. While under a coor- Fig. 8 shows the simulation result at POI. It can be seen that there
dinated control strategy, no voltage swell appeared and the WT has is a voltage swell about 0.1 pu and last for 0.08 ms after voltage re-
successfully ridden through grid fault. The reactive power of the covery under a traditional control strategy. The active power after
WT is plotted in Fig. 7d, and in order to ensure the reactive grid fault is 24 MW, which means that more than half of WTs are
power from SVG is 0, the WT is generating 0.1 Mar reactive tripped because of the high voltage protection. While the WPP
power during steady state under a coordinated control strategy. has successfully ridden through grid fault and avoided the

J. Eng., 2017, Vol. 2017, Iss. 13, pp. 756–761 This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons
doi: 10.1049/joe.2017.0432 Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
 Table 1 Control strategy comparison

Coordinated Traditional
control strategy control strategy

WTs reactive depend on the grid a fixed value and

current impendence, usually selected
injection limited to a as large as
factor (k) maximum 1.5 possible to meet
the requirements
of grid code
control 10 ms 40 ms
delay of
WTs
(tdelay)
inductive generate inductive no requirement
reactive reactive power if
power the voltage
generating exceeds 1.05 pu
active power 1 pu 0.2 pu
recovery
speed
reactive power SVG only used during provide reactive
compensation the transient state power at any time
devices process, reactive
power is provided
by FCs and WTs
during the steady
state
FC disconnect when always connected
the voltage is <0.5
pu or >1.05 pu
connected to the
grid by steps

in the coordinated control strategy, FC is disconnected when the

grid voltage is extremely low and connected to the grid by steps
after the voltage is stable to avoid a sharp rise of the grid voltage.

5 Conclusion
The two main reasons for overvoltage in WPP was analysed based
on large-scale WT tripping accidents occurred in China, which are
the inappropriate switching of reactive power compensation devices
during steady states and inappropriate control of WTs and reactive
compensators in the transient process.
A typical WPP model with WTs and different types of reactive
power compensators was built in the simulation software
DIgSILENT/PowerFactory. Factors such as WT control character-
istics and grid parameters that influence the grid overvoltage after
fault clearance were analysed. Simulation results show that the
voltage at the WT terminal is proportional to grid impendence,
and the grid voltage is significantly influenced by the reactive
power control parameters such as k-factor and time delay during a
grid fault.
A coordinated reactive power control strategy is proposed to
avoid the voltage swell caused by reactive power redundancy
during and after grid short circuit faults. The comparison of the trad-
itional control strategy and the new proposed control strategy is
Fig. 8 Control strategy comparison on WPP level listed. The simulation results between the traditional control strat-
a Voltage egy and coordinated control strategy have proved the effectiveness
b Active power of the proposed scheme.
c Reactive power
d Reactive power of FCs
6 Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the
overvoltage after grid recovery under the coordinated control strat- Research Project of State Grid Corporation of China: Simulation
egy. The reactive power from FCs is shown in Fig. 8d. FCs are and Evaluation Technology for Renewable Power Grid
always connected to grid in the traditional control strategy, while Integration and Technical Standard Development (NY71-15-037).

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