Grid connection of active stall wind farms using a VSC based DC transmission system

Currently, there is an increasing trend to connect large MW wind farms to the transmission system. Requirements that focus on the influence of the farms on the grid stability and power quality, and on the control capabilities of wind farms have already been established. The main trends of modern wind turbines/farms are clearly the variable speed operation and a grid connection through a power electronic interface, especially using doubly fed induction generators. Using power electronics the control capabilities of these wind turbines/farms are extended and thus the grid requirements are fulfilled. However, the traditional squirrel-cage generators based wind turbines/wind farms directly connected to the grid have less control capabilities. These wind turbines/farms cannot regulate their production and contribute to power system stability. A DC transmission system for connection of the active stall wind farms to the grid can provide these features and also maximize the produced power especially at low wind speeds by using variable voltage/frequency for the wind farm. The focus in this paper is in studying the operation for the active stall wind farms using a voltage source converter based DC transmission system as well as the power quality issues of the generated power.