Coordinated Control of Reactive Power between STATCOMs and Wind Farms for PCC Voltage Regulation

This paper proposes a coordinated control of the reactive power between the STATCOMs (static synchronous compensators) and the grid-side converters (GSC) of wind farms equipped with PMSGs (permanent-magnet synchronous generators), by which the voltage fluctuations at the PCC (point of common coupling) are mitigated in the steady state. In addition, the level of voltage sags is reduced during grid faults. To do this, the GSC and the STATCOM supply reactive power to the grid coordinately, where the GSCs are fully utilized to provide the reactive power for the grid prior to the STATCOM operation. For this, the GSC capability of delivering active and reactive power under variable wind speed conditions is analyzed in detail. In addition, the PCC voltage regulation of the power systems integrated with large wind farms are analyzed for short-term and long-term operations. With this coordinated control scheme, the low power capacity of STATCOMs can be used to achieve the low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) capability of the wind farms during grid faults. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy has been verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation results.