Grid-Adaptive Limitation of Short Circuit Current Contribution of Wind Power Plant with Superconducting Fault Current Controller

This research exploits the Superconducting Fault Current Controller (SFCC) to effectively regulate fault current contribution of a Wind Power Plant (WPP) comprising different types of wind turbines. Different types of wind turbines commercially available exhibiting different Short Circuit Contributions (SCC) to the fault current level may change for different fault types under varying operating conditions and plant configurations. Although evaluation of SCC level should be a significant aspect of WPP studies to ensure the proper coordination of system protection, it is highly challenging for protection engineers to properly set all of the protection relay settings and maintain the system especially because conventional industry practices for short circuit analysis do not accurately represent the wind turbines exhibiting complex and nonlinear behavior unlike comparable synchronous generators. Thus, this research develops an effective method for controlling the fault current contribution of the WPP by utilizing the functional capability and flexibility of the SFCC and demonstrates its high performance through numerous operation conditions. The proposed study should help maintain the coordination of the existing protection devices even with the high penetration of wind energy. PSCAD/EMTDC is utilized for the performance validation of SFCC.