Thesis

Mitigating the erosion of transient stability margins in Great Britain through novel wind farm control techniques

Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2021
Thesis identifier
  • T15999
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 201184206
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • The predominant North-to-South active power flow across the border between Scotland and England has historically been limited by system stability considerations. As the penetration of variable-speed wind power plants in Great Britain grows (reducing the generation share of traditional synchronous generation), it is imperative that stability limits, operational flexibility, efficiency and system security are not unduly eroded as a result. The studies reported in this thesis illustrate the impacts on critical fault clearing times and active power transfer limits through this North-South corridor, known as the B6 boundary, in the presence of increasing penetrations of wind power generation on the GB transmission system. By focussing on the transient behaviour of a representative reduced test system following a three-phase short-circuit fault occurring on one of the two double-circuits constituting the B6 boundary, the impacts on the transient stability margins are qualitatively identified. There is a pressing necessity for new wind farms to be able to mitigate, as much as possible, their own negative impacts on system stability margins. The transient stability improvement achieved by tailoring the low voltage ride-through reactive power control response of wind farms is first investigated, and a novel control technique is then presented which can significantly mitigate the erosion of the transient stability performance of power systems, in the presence of in-creasing amounts of wind power, by tailoring the immediate post-fault active power recovery ramp-rates of the wind power plants around the system. The impacts of these control techniques on critical fault clearing times and power transfer limits are investigated. In particular, it has been found that the use of slower active power recovery from wind farms located in exporting regions when a short circuit fault occurs on the export corridor will provide significant benefits for both of these metrics, while a faster active power recovery in importing regions will provide a similar transient stability benefit. However, it is also shown that there are potential detrimental effects for system frequency stability. In addition, important impacts of wind farm settings in respect of low voltage ride through are revealed whereby the LVRT controls can act to erode stability margins if careful consideration of their settings is not taken. Assuming a future power system with high levels of centralised observability and controllability (or decentralised co-operative control systems), it may be possible to continually “dispatch” the reactive power gains and active power recovery ramp rates discussed in this thesis to match the current system setpoint and to seek an optimal transient response to a range of credible contingencies.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Booth, Campbell
  • Bell, Keith
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2019
Funder

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