Stable Renewable Plant

Voltage and Reactive Power

Control

NERC ERSTF
June 11-12, 2014

Sebastian Achilles
Nicholas Miller
Einar Larsen
Jason MacDowell

GE
Energy Consulting

1/
GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Topics

• Features of modern wind turbine generators and wind

plants
• Voltage vs. power factor control in wind plants
• Weak system control stability with PE sources
• Response coordination of multiple wind plants
• Summary

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
What makes a Wind Plant “Grid Friendly”?
• Not trip during Faults and other System Disturbances …
ride through capability
• Regulate Plant Voltage and Reactive Power
• Limits the Rate of Change of Power from Variations in
Wind Speed … Ramp Rate Control
• React to Changes in Grid Frequency … Frequency Droop
• Provide reactive power all the time
• Provide inertial response to large under-frequency events:
WindINERTIATM
• Reliable operation with series compensated lines
• Reliable operation with low system strength
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Wind Turbines and Reactive Power Control

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
WTG Reactive Power Capability
Reactive Power for Voltage Support
• Steady-state PF range - 0.90 under-excited/0.90 over-excited
• Dynamic range meets or exceeds steady-state range
• WTG reactive capability often sufficient to satisfy PF
requirements at POI
• VAR capability reduced at low power due to units cycling off-line
• GE offers reactive power capability with no wind
Terminal Bus

P gen

WTG

Q gen

Reactive Capability all the time is valuable! 5/

GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
WindCONTROL Substation
Plant Level Control System HV Bus

• Coordinated turbine and Point of Interconnection

(POI)
plant supervisory control QWP PWP
LTC
structure LV Bus

• Fast WTG controls QL Reactive

• Slower plant controls QC Power

Controller

• Voltage, VAR, & PF control

• Active Power control Reactive Compensation
(if required)
• PF requirements primarily PWTG PWTG
met by WTG reactive
capability, but augmented QWTG QWTG
by mechanically switched
shunt devices if necessary PWTG PWTG

• Integrated with substation

SCADA QWTG QWTG

PWTG PWTG

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QWTG QWTGGE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Voltage & Reactive Power Controls
Actual measurements from a
162MW wind plant
• Regulates Grid Voltage at
Point of Interconnection Wind Plant Voltage Voltage at POI

• Minimizes Grid Voltage

Fluctuations Even Under
Varying Wind Conditions
Wind Plant Power Output
• Regulates Total Wind Plant
Reactive Power through
Control of Individual Average Wind Speed

Turbines

Voltage and Reactive Power Regulation

Like A Conventional Power Plant
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Network Stability: Voltage or Power Factor
Control?

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Steady State considerations
PF
Control
Strong grid Weak grid
Voltage
Control

Insufficient margin and challenging

operation in PF control

Plant level voltage control improves network voltage

stability performance in constrained transmission systems
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Control Stability of Power Electronic
Sources in Weak Grids

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Conventional and Power-Electronic sources
• Relevant electrical characteristics of Power-Electronic (PE)
sources
Performance aspect Conventional generation Power-Electronic Sources

Short circuit contribution Around 3 pu Small/none

(system strength)
Inherent to design
Current characteristics. Sharing Fast current controls
sharing/distribution depends on size and force current sharing
impedances of the
machines

• All current-controlled PE sources require grid strength to

operate reliably and stably
• Grid strength is high when electrically close to
conventional generation
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Conventional and Power-Electronic sources
• Long transmission corridors (low system strength)
typically have power transfer limited below thermal limits
due to stability challenges

Conventional generation Power-Electronic Sources

Transient Stability Voltage stability

Dynamic stability Fast control stability
Voltage stability

• Fast control stability refers to interactions between

transmission system and PE sources (Wind Turbine
Generators, SVCs, STATCOMs, etc.)
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Wind turbine generators and system strength
Modern WTGs are PE sources
Some applications may need mitigations to achieve desired
system performance under very low system strength conditions:
• Transmission upgrades
» New lines
» Updated Topology (meshed vs. radial)
» Series compensation
» Synchronous condensers (System strength, dyn VARs)
» SVC, STATCOM (dyn VARs, control challenges)
• Special protection schemes (such as transfer trips)
• GE offers control features to improve performance in low SCR
conditions
More than one mitigation mechanism may be used and
system coordination of multiple mechanisms is highly
desirable and very effective (e.g. Wind Plant + Condenser)
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
SCR applied to Wind Plants
• In the case of Wind Plants, the characterization of system
strength has to take into account all electrically close
converters (Multi-infeed)
• Composite SCR (CSCR) considers the grid strength as
seen by all electrically close converters and is used for
wind plants.

Converter
locations

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GE Proprietary /
WP1 WP 2 WP 3
May 10, 2008
Composite SCR
• Composite short circuit level:
– 3Ph short circuit at 34.5 KV buses - all interconnected
– Low load conditions (low/realistic commitment of
conventional generation)
– Contingency conditions also considered
– No contribution from converters

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GE Proprietary /
WP1 WP 2 WP 3 May 10, 2008
Composite SCR: Recommended Practice
Composite SC MVA
CSCR 
 converter MW rating
• Composite SCR is useful to characterize grid strength
and screen for system stability risks
• Understanding of the grid parameters, system operation
and future wind projects is required to meaningfully
estimate CSCR
• Grid entities should estimate this parameter for normal
and contingency operation and communicate to
developers.
• For very low CSCR applications, dedicated detailed
analysis is recommended
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Coordinated response of electrically close
wind plant level controllers

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Plant Level Control Substation
Interactions HV Bus

Point of Interconnection
(POI)
QWP MV Bus

QWP1 VWP
Plant Level Plant Level
Wind CONTROL
Control Wind CONTROL
Control
time
QWP1 QWP2
QWP2
PWTG PWTG

VWP QWTG QWTG

PWTG PWTG

QWTG QWTG

PWTG PWTG
time
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GE Proprietary /
QWTG QMay
WTG10, 2008
Plant Level Control Substation
Interactions HV Bus

Point of Interconnection
(POI)
QWP MV Bus

QWP1 VWP
Plant Level Plant Level
Wind CONTROL
Control Wind CONTROL
Control
time

QWP2 Circulating Q
PWTG PWTG

VWP QWTG QWTG

PWTG PWTG

QWTG QWTG

time PWTG PWTG

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GE Proprietary /
QWTG QMay
WTG10, 2008
Plant Level Control Interactions: Voltage Droop
Uncoordinated Without Voltage Droop Coordinated With Droop
Effect of voltage setpoint differences or PT errors Effect of system event

QWP QWP
QWP1
QWP1 ≈ QWP2
time time

QWP2

VWP VWP

time time
• Faster control details neglected
for this discussion
• Dynamic response coordination 20 /
GE Proprietary /
also assumed May 10, 2008
Summary

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
 Summary
• Coordinated plant level voltage control improves voltage stability
performance in weak grid applications
• Fast terminal voltage control significantly improves the system
performance during contingencies in weak grid applications
• Providing Reactive power all the time is valuable for system stability
• Understanding and potential remediation of very low grid strength wind
plant operation is critical to maintain stability
• This requires collaboration between system operator, planners,
developers and OEMs. CSCR estimation is an initial step in such
collaboration
• Electrically close plant level controls require coordination to avoid
negative interactions of reactive power

These issues are resolvable if known and included in the

planning/development process
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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Thank you!

Questions?

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Back-up

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Fast or Slow Voltage Control?

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Conventional Generation
• Fast acting Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR)
– Quick an effective system support to improve stability
– Limits voltage variations at equipment
• Slower acting joint control
– Optimizes steady state operation
– Does not interfere with inner control loops
– Reduced risk of instabilities due to communication
delays
FAST Loop

FAST Loop

SLOW Loop FAST Loop

A reasonable and valuable concept

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
Contingency operation of Wind Plants
N-0 Steady state
• Contingency operation requires
higher reactive power for stable
operation with same power level
• Joint control is typically slower than
WTG active power recovery
• Fast WTG terminal voltage control N-1 before
joint control
keeps system stable for wider range reaction
of operating conditions
• Joint control further optimizes
operating condition in steady state

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GE Proprietary /
May 10, 2008
How “strong” are grid conditions?
• The industry has used the Short Circuit Ratio (SCR) to
assess the system strength for the connection of power
electronic converters
• SCR varies with system conditions
• There are few different SCR calculation methods
proposed in the industry
short circuit MVA of AC System
SCR 
converter MW rating

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GE Proprietary /
March 2012
HVDC rectifier May 10, 2008