This paper presents an overall perspective on contemporary issues like wind power plants and grid integration. The purpose is to present and discuss the impacts of emerging new grid connection requirements on modern wind turbines. The grid integration issue has caused several new challenges to the wind turbine design and development. The survival of different wind turbine concepts and controls is strongly conditioned by their ability to comply with stringent grid connection requirements, imposed by utility companies. Beside its impact on the mechanical design and control of wind turbines, the grid integration aspect has also an effect on wind turbines' role in the power system, on wind turbine technologies' survival on the market, as well as on the wind turbines' loads. Over the last years, it became obviously, that there it is an increasing need for design and research of wind turbines based on an integrated design and control approach. © 2009 IEEE.