Adaptive Voltage Control Strategy for Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Connected to a Weak Network

Significant voltage fluctuations and power quality issues pose considerable constraints on the efficient integration of remotely located wind turbines into weak networks. Besides, 3p oscillations arising from the wind shear and tower shadow effects induce further voltage perturbations during continuous operation. This study investigates and analyses the repercussions raised by integrating a doubly-fed induction generator wind turbine into an ac network of different parameters and very weak conditions. An adaptive voltage control (AVC) strategy is proposed to retain voltage constancy and smoothness at the point of connection (POC) in order to maximise the wind power penetration into such networks. Intensive simulation case studies under different network topology and wind speed ranges reveal the effectiveness of the AVC scheme to effectively suppress the POC voltage variations particularly at very weak grid conditions during normal operation.