30304S195WuSATCOM

Application of a Static Reactive Power Compensator (STATCOM) and a Dynamic

Braking Resistor (DBR) to the Stability Enhancement of a Large Wind Farm
Xueguang Wu1, Atputharajah Arulampalam2, Changjiang Zhan2, Nick Jenkins1

1. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, UMIST, UK

2. The Manchester Centre for Electrical Energy (MCEE), UMIST, UK
B15 Ferranti Building, EE & E, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK
Email addresses: <w.xueguang@umist.ac.uk>, <atpu@ee.pdn.ac.uk>,
<c.j.zhan@umist.ac.uk>, <n.jenkins@umist.ac.uk>

ABSTRACT
A control strategy to improve the stability of a large wind farm using a Static Reactive Power
Compensator (STATCOM) and Dynamic Braking Resistor (DBR) is proposed and investigated. The
STATCOM supplies the reactive power demand of the wind farm dynamically in order to maintain the
network voltage, including brief periods of faults. The DBR is controlled by Liapunovs stability
criterion to absorb the active power of the wind farm during the network fault. The performance of the
STATCOM and DBR, applied to a large wind farm (60 MW), is studied in PSCAD/EMTDC. The
simulation results show that effective control of the STATCOM and DBR together can enhance the
stability of large wind farms.

Keywords: Induction generator, Stability, Static Reactive Power Compensator, STATCOM, Dynamic
Braking Resistor, DBR, Wind Farm

1. INTRODUCTION

Wind power penetration is increasing in many power systems world-wide. In parts of Europe, e.g.
Northern Germany or Denmark, wind power already supplies more than 10% of the yearly average
demand. At present, large wind farms have a power output typically between 50 MW to 150 MW.
However, in Europe, large offshore wind farms of up to 1000 MW are being proposed, and in the US,
particularly along the West Coast and on the Great Plains, projects of more than 500 MW are also

being considered [1]. Hence, a new challenge is the connection of large wind farms to transmission and
high voltage distribution systems.

A large wind farm often consists of many wind turbines, each having similar induction generators. This
type of electrical machine is relatively low cost, has a robust construction and does not require complex
auxiliary systems in order to operate. However, there are problems associated with the use of induction
generators. Induction generators absorb reactive power from the network while the pullout torque is
reduced by low network short circuit levels. Studies have shown the reduction of stability of large wind
farms because of the continued decrease of the ratio of network short circuit level to wind farm
generation capacity, as projects increase in size [2, 3]. Therefore, techniques for the enhancement of the
stability of large wind farms are required.

Stability is the ability of the wind farm to maintain stable operation when subject to a severe
disturbance, such as a network fault. The wind farm response to such disturbance involves large
excursions of induction generator speed (or slip), low bus voltages, and high reactive power flows.
However, if the resulting speed of the induction generators can be controlled within certain bounds, the
wind farm maintains stability.

A power network fault, electrically close to wind farms, may cause voltage collapse in the induction
machines [3]. Present practice is that a wind farm is disconnected and stopped at such a fault on the
network. This is not a major concern if the power supplied from each wind farm is relatively small.
However, for very large wind farms, or a large number of smaller installations, disconnection will lead
to unacceptable loss of power in the system. Therefore, the power system stability of wind farms with
large capacities must be improved for rapid reconnection after short-interval faults on the network.

Stability of a large wind farm has been investigated by a number of researchers [3, 4, 5, 6]. Several
strategies for improvement of the stability have been considered. The use of a STATCOM to improve
the dynamic performance of a wind farm has been studied [4]. The effect of changes in the machine
electrical parameters (e.g. the stator resistance, rotor resistance, and inertia) on stability has also been
investigated [3]. Electrodynamic braking, to control rotor overspeed, has also been modelled and field

experiments undertaken [5]. Recently, the use of doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG) has been
shown to improve the stability of large wind farms [6]. However, due to the presence of power
electronic converters, the DFIG is likely to be more expensive and potentially less robust than the
fixed-speed induction generator, which will continue to be used widely.

In this paper, a control strategy to improve the stability of a large wind farm using a STATCOM and
DBR was investigated. A stability criterion based on Liapunovs direct method was used to control the
DBR. Simulation studies of the STATCOM and DBR were conducted to observe the performance and
stability improvement of the large wind farm during a fault on the network.

2. STABILITY OF A LARGE WIND FARM

2.1 Dynamic behaviours of the wind farm during a network fault
Figure 1 illustrates a wind farm connected to a large power system through two parallel circuits. The
wind turbine generators in the wind farm are each assumed to respond in a similar manner to system
disturbances, and so the wind farm is represented by a single equivalent coherent wind turbine
generator. A three-phase fault is considered part way along one of the circuits as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Large wind farm connected to the network

Figure 2 shows the wind turbine mechanical torque

Tm and the torque-slip curves of the induction

generator under three operation conditions: normal

Te _ normal , during fault Te _ fault and post-fault

Te _ post .

Te _ normal
Te _ post

Tm

a f
c
b

Te _ fault

s 0 ss

sc

s 0

su

Figure 2. Electrical torque-slip curves of an induction generator as it responds to a fault.

(Note, the magnitude of the negative slip is plotted)

Initially, the equivalent induction generator operates at point a with conditions:

Te _ normal Tm and

s s0 . When a fault occurs, the characteristic of the generator suddenly changes from Te _ normal to

Te _ fault , and the operating point immediately shifts from a to b. Since the mechanical Tm is now
greater than the electrical

Te _ fault , the induction generator accelerates from b to c, hence having slip

s c . When the fault is cleared by isolating the faulted circuit, the characteristic of the generator
immediately changes from
Now, the electrical

Te _ fault to Te _ post , and the operating point suddenly shifts from c to d.

Te _ post is greater than the mechanical Tm , which causes a deceleration of the

induction generator. However, since the kinetic energy of the turbine has increased during period of the
fault, the speed of the rotor, and hence the reconnected generator, will have increased, so increasing the
magnitude of the slip.

The operating point e is reached when the excess kinetic energy has been completely expended.
However, because of the increased slip magnitude,

Te _ post is greater than Tm , the speed of the

generator decreases, and the operating point retraces the

Te _ post curve from e through d to f. After

this whole period of instability, the generator now operates at f and with slip

ss .

If clearance of the fault is delayed, the kinetic energy gained during the fault is not expended
completely at point e. As a result, the slip increases beyond a critical value
than

su , where Te _ post is less

Tm , and the generator continues to accelerate and becomes unstable.

2.2 Steady state reactive power drawn by the wind farm

Figure 3 shows how the reactive power absorbed by a single induction machine representing a large
wind farm varies with slip.

Figure 3 Variation of reactive power with slip for single induction machine representing a
large wind farm (60 MW). Generation, negative slip, is in the left sector.
From Figure 3, it can be seen that the machine draws some reactive power at the normal generation
operating point A. However, the reactive power requirement (i.e. import) of the wind farm increases
rapidly if the speed rises above its rated value, as the slip increases to the left of point A.

2.3 Stability improvement of the wind farm

Consideration of the stability and the reactive power in Sections 2.1 and 2.2 indicates that the wind
farm maintains its stability during a fault if the speed of the induction generator does not exceed a
critical value. Also the reactive power imported by the wind farm increases significantly, when the
induction generator overspeeds. Thus, the stability of a large wind farm may be improved by using a
STATCOM and DBR during a fault interval. The STATCOM provides fast and reliable reactive power
to the wind farm, therefore compensating the grid for the reactive power otherwise taken from the grid.

The DBR absorbs active power from the wind farm to control the speed increase of the induction
generator.

3. LIAPUNOV FUNCTION
Consider the induction generator equivalent wind farm shown in Figure 1. By neglecting stator and
rotor transients, the dynamic response of the induction generator is given by

ds
1
Te s Tm

dt 2 H

(1)

where H is a lumped inertia constant of the generator;

Te s is the electrical torque of the generator as

a function of the slip s [7]:

Te s

r r

s r

2
U ac
x m2 rr s

s x m2 x ss x rr

r x
2

(2)

sr s x rr

ss

x ss x ls x m

(3)

x rr x lr x m

(4)

where

U ac : terminal voltage;

Tm : mechanical torque;

rs : stator resistance;

rr : rotor resistance;

x ls : stator leakage reactance;

x lr : rotor leakage reactance;

x m : magnetising reactance.

For a change of slip s of the induction generator about point

s s , the slip becomes s s s s ,

and equation (1) can be written:

ds
1
Te s s s Tm T s

dt
2H

(5)

For (5), a Liapunov function exists (see Appendix A):

1
s 2 0 ,
2

V 0 0

(6)

By substituting

ds
, from equation (5), the time derivative of equation (6) is
dt

dV
ds
s
sT s 0 , s u s 0
dt
dt
where

(7)

s u is a critical slip.

Typically, an electrical torque-slip curve of the induction generator is shown in Figure 4.

Te
Y

Tm

f
Z

s s s
o

ss

s 0

su

Figure 4. Typical electrical torque-slip curve of the induction generator

In Figure 4, the operation area of the induction generator is divided into three sub-operational areas X,
Y and Z corresponding to o-a-b-o, b-c-d-b, and d-e-f-d, repectively. The signs of Liapunov
function V and its time derivative

Table 1 The signs of V and

dV
in the three sub-operation areas are shown in Table1.
dt

dV
in three sub-operation areas as functions of s and T s
dt

Induction generator
Stability

s
T s
1
2
V s
2
dV
s T s
dt
Notes: + is positive, - is negative.

X
stable
+
-

Sub-operation areas
Y
stable
+

Z
unstable
-

Table 1 shows that the function V is positive in all areas. Its time derivative

Y, and positive in Z. Clearly, the negative and positive signs of

dV
is negative in X and
dt

dV
match the stable and unstable
dt

operations of the induction generator. The wind farm is:

(a) stable, if

dV
dV
sT s 0 , or
sT s 0 and s 0
dt
dt

(b) critical, if

dV
sT s 0 and s 0
dt

(c) unstable, if

dV
sT s 0
dt

4. CONTROL STRATEGY OF THE STATCOM AND THE DBR

The study case and arrangement of the STATCOM and DBR for this investigation are shown in Figure
5. The parameters of the wind farm, STATCOM, DBR and network are given in Appendix B. The
wind farm consists of 302MW fixed-speed, stall-regulated wind turbines. The equivalent turbine is
assumed to respond in a coherent manner to the system disturbance. The STATCOM and DBR are
connected to busbar B3. The short circuit ratio (SCR) at busbar B4 is 10.

DBR
132kV

132kV
PDBR

11kV

0.69kV

I
Ps-jQs Tf
B5
system
impedance

II

B4

Pw-jQw

B3
wind farm
subsation

B2
Ic

Gw

Tw
B1

large wind farm

(60MW)

STATCOM

Udc

Figure 5 A large wind farm connected to the system with a STATCOM and DBR

Figure 6 illustrates the integrated control strategy of the STATCOM and DBR. The STATCOM is a
two-level and voltage-space-vector control design [8, 9, 10]. A conventional PI control technique has
been used to control the reactive power output of the STATCOM. The DBR consists of physically
large a set of resistors embedded in an appropriate heat sink. Liapunovs stability criterion is used to
switch the DBR on and off.
Pw

Pw
U ac

Qw

Qs
Wind Farm
substation

Iw

U ac

DBR Switch on
when sTs0 , unstable

Qc

DBR Switch off

when sTs0

U ref

E ac

max
I q*

, stable

PI controller
Voltage Sourced
Inverter
(PWM)

Wind Farm

min

U ac
Liapunov's stability
criterion

DBR
s T s

I d* 0
STATCOM

U dc

speed

Figure 6 Control strategy of the STATCOM & DBR

5. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LIAPUNOV STABILITY CRITERION

Control of the DBR was achieved by a Liapunovs stability criterion,

The term

dV
, derived from equation (7).
dt

s s s s is a deviation between s and s s . From equation (2), it can be seen that the

electrical torque

Te s is also a function of the terminal voltage U ac . In the case of the wind farm

with the STATCOM using voltage control,

U ac is held constant by the STATCOM. As a result, the

electrical torque of the wind farm is approximately equal to the pre-fault value. Hence,
approximated by

s s can be

s 0 (see Figure 2). In practice, a large wind farm may consist of different types of

wind turbine generators. For this case, an average value of the slip obtained by measuring at each
generator may be used to represent the wind farm.

The expression T s

torque

P s Pm
1
Te s Tm 1 e
2H
2H 1 s

is the difference between the electrical

Te s and the mechanical torque Tm . Under steady state conditions, the mechanical power

Pm of the wind farm should be equal to its electrical power Pe s 0 . Hence, Pm can be found by
tracking Pe s 0 and freezing its value constant during a fault event.

Therefore, Liapunovs stability criterion can be implemented through: (a) measuring the average slip,

s , of the wind turbine generators, and (b) the electrical power output, Pe s , of the whole wind farm,
and regularly memorizing, freezing, their steady state values,

Pm

Freeze

s0

Freeze

Pm

Pe s

s 0 and Pe s 0 , as shown in Figure 7.

s0 s s

Fault detector

(1) Switch to A, when the system is normal operation.

(2) Switch to B, when a fault happens in the network.

Figure 7

Pm and s 0

calculations. Normally the system control is switched to A. When a fault occurs,

the control is connected to the immediately previous frozen parameters, Pm and s0.

For the simulation, a fault in the network was detected by measuring the network voltage. If the
network voltage dropped to less than 0.8 per unit then the fault detector was operated.

6. Simulation results
6.1 Dynamic performance of the wind farm
In this study, it was assumed that the 132 kV network was subjected to a three-phase fault along one of
the parallel circuits, of 120 ms duration at 2 seconds. The faulty circuit was disconnected after the fault

10

clearance. The main simulation results produced by using PSCAD/EMTDC are shown in Figures 8-11
for two cases: (a) with STATCOM & DBR and (b) without STATCOM and DBR.

With STATCOM & DBR

Without STATCOM and DBR

Figure 8 Voltages at busbar B4

Without STATCOM and DBR

With STATCOM and DBR

Figure 9 Liapunovs stability criterion, dV (see equation (7)).

dt

11

Figure 10 Real power absorbed by the DBR

Figure 11 Reactive power supplied by the STATCOM

Figure 8 shows the voltage responses at B4. It can be seen that without the STATCOM and DBR, the
wind farm is unstable, and the voltage collapses. With the STATCOM & DBR, the wind farm is stable,
and the voltage comes back to normal quickly.

12

Figure 9 shows the variations of Liapunovs stability criterion (see equation (7)). Without STATCOM
and DBR, the wind farm is unstable, and then the Liapunovs criterion is positive and increases
continually. With STATCOM & DBR, the wind farm is stable. The Liapunovs criterion is briefly
positive during the fault, and then changes to be negative and zero after the fault.

Figure 10 shows the real power absorbed by the DBR. The DBR is controlled by the Liapunov criterion
and switched on at point A. It can be seen that active power is absorbed by the DBR during the fault.
When the fault is cleared at point B, the voltage recovers and the active power absorbed by the DBR
increases quickly. The DBR is switched off at point C when the wind farm is stable.

Figure 11 shows the reactive power output of the STATCOM. It can be seen that the STATCOM will
supply an amount of reactive power to the wind farm and compensate its requirement for reactive
power during a fault event.

6.2 Critical clearing times of the wind farm

Figure 12 shows the variations of critical clearing time with short-circuit ratios (SCR) under the four
cases: (a) without STATCOM and DBR, (b) with DBR, (c) with STATCOM and (d) with STATCOM
& DBR.
The SCR is defined as: SCR

short circuit level(MVA)

. The different SCRs at busbar B4
wind farm capacity(M W)

were obtained by changing the system impedance in Figure 5.

13

With STATCOM & DBR

With DBR
With STATCOM

Without STATCOM and DBR

Figure 12 Variations of the critical clearing time with SCR

From considerations of steady state instability, the minimum credible SCR for stable operation of the
wind farm is about 6. Hence, without the STATCOM and DBR,, a very fast clearing time (less than
100ms) is required. The major benefit to improving the stability of the wind farm is that the
STATCOM allows critical clearance times of more than 150 ms. Some useful additional benefit to the
STATCOM is obtained by adding the DBR. However, the DBR on its own does not contribute
significantly to improving the stability of the wind farm.

7. CONCLUSION
This paper describes the studies of the application of the STATCOM and DBR to improve the stability
of a large wind farm. A control strategy of the STATCOM and DBR for enhancement of the stability of
the wind farm has been investigated. A Liapunovs stability criterion was successfully used for the
control of the DBR. Simulation results show that the STATCOM makes a major contribution to
stability improvement of the wind farm. The DBR could not significantly increase critical clearing time
of the wind farm without the STATCOM. The DBR may be used together with the STATCOM for
stability enhancement of the wind farm.

8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

14

The authors would like to thank EPSRC and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research for
support in this work. The authors would like to thank Dr. J.V. Milanovic for his helpful comments.

9. REFERENCES
1.

Carlson O. and Thor S., Summary of IEA topical expert meeting on large scale integration into the
grid, 36th IEA Topical Expert Meeting Large Scale Integration into the Grid, Newcastle,
November 2001.

2.

Jenkins, N. and Strbac, G., Impact of embedded generation on distribution system voltage stability,
IEE Colloquium on Voltage collapse, 1997.

3.

Akhmatov V., Knudsen H. and Nielsen A. H., A Dynamic Stability Limit of Grid-connected
Induction Generators, Power and Energy System, Proceedings of the IASTED International
Conference, Marabella, Spain, September 19-22, 2000.

4.

Saad-Saoud Z., Lisboa M.L., Ekanayake J.B., Jenkins N. and Strbac G., Application of
STATCOMs to wind farms, IEE Proceeding on Gener. Transm. Distrib.,

Vol. 145, No.5,

September 1998, pp. 511-516.

5.

Craig L.M., Saad-Saoud Z. and Jenkins N., Field Testing of a Passive Electrodynamic Brake for
Wind Turbines, IEE Eight International Conference on Electrical Machines and Drives,
Cambridge, UK, Sept. 1997.

6.

Usaola J. and Ledesma P., Dynamic Incidence of Wind Turbine in Networks With High wind
Penetration, IEEE Power Engineering Society 2001 Summer Meeting, July 15 th 19th, 2001,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

7.

Krause, P.C., Analysis of Electric Machinery (book), McGraw-Hill Inc, 1986.

8.

Gyugyi L., Dynamic Compensation of AC Transmission Lines by Solid-state Synchronous Voltage

Sources, IEEE Transaction on Power Delivery, Vol. 9, No. 2, April 1994.

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Schauder C. and Mehta H., Vector Analysis and Control of Advanced Static VAR Compensators,
IEE Proceedings-C, Vol.140, No.4, July 1993.

10. Zhan C., Arulampalam A., Ramachandaramurthy V. R., Fitzer C., Barnes M. and Jenkins N.:
Novel Voltage Space Vector PWM algorithm of 3-phase 4-wire Power Conditioner, IEEE Power
Engineering Society Winter Meeting, Columbus, USA, January 28 February 1, 2001.
11. Ghandhari M., Andersson G., Pavella M. and Ernst D., A Control Strategy for Controllable Series
Capacitor in Electric Power, PERGAMON, Automatica 37 (2001) 1575-1583.

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12. Hahn W., Theory and Application of Liapunovs Direct Method (book), Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1963.
13. Salle J. L. and Lefschetz S., Stability by Liapunovs Direct Method (book), Academic Press, Inc.,
London, 1973.
14. Rouche N., Habets P.and Laloy M., Stability theory by Liapunovs Direct Method (book),
Springer-Verlag, New York Inc., 1977.
15. Weedy B.M., Electric Power System (book), John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1992.
16. NGC, Technical and Operational Characteristics of the Transmission System, April 2000.

APPENDIX A - LIAPUNOV FUNCTION; THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS

An electrical power system can be described mathematically by differential and algebraic equations of
the form

dx
f x, y and 0 g x, y [11]. The algebraic variable y is related to the dynamic
dt

state variable x via the algebraic equation g. By the implicit function theorem, an ordinary differential
equation can be developed

dx
f x, h x F x
dt
if the first partial derivative g

(A-1)

x is non-singular.

The origin can be chosen for an equilibrium point of the system of equation (A-1), i.e.
possibly after a coordinate change. A scalar function

F 0 0 ,

V x is said to be a Liapunov function for

system (A-1), if it is continuous together with its first partial derivatives in a certain open region
about the origin such that [12]

V x 0 x , x 0 and V 0 0
dV x
dV 0
gradV F x 0 x , x 0 and
0 (A-3)
dt
dt
where gradV is the gradient of function V.

16

(A-2)

If system (A-1) has a Liapunov function with (A-2) and (A-3) properties, then the system is locally
asymptotically stable. According to the converse theorem of Liapunov [13], the existence of the
Liapunov function with the required properties is necessary for stability.

For electrical power systems, energy functions (such as the kinetic and potential energy) are often used
as Liapunov function candidates. The time derivatives are non-positive. These functions fail to satisfy
condition (A-3) for a Liapunov function. However, applying the invariance principle [14], the energy
functions satisfy an asymptotic stability condition and they can be then considered as Liapunov
function candidates.

APPENDIX B - NETWORK DATA

1. System base quantities:

Voltage: 132kV

MVA: 700

Frequency: 50Hz

X/R=10

2. Induction generator data (on its own base):

Capacity: 2MW

Terminal voltage: 0.69kV

Frequency: 50Hz
Stator resistance: 0.00488 p.u.

Rotor resistance: 0.00549 p.u.

Stator leakage reactance: 0.09241 p.u.

Rotor leakage reactance: 0.09955 p.u.

Magnetising reactance: 3.95279 p.u.

Lumped inertia constant: 3.5 second

3. Data for wind turbine terminal transformer (T w) (on its own base):
Rated capacity: 80MVA

Turns ratio: 11kV/0.69kV

Leakage reactance: 0.05 p.u.

Frequency: 50Hz

4. Data for wind farm substation transformer (T f) (on its own base)
Rated capacity: 100MVA

Turns ratio: 132kV/11kV

Leakage reactance: 0.10 p.u.

Frequency: 50Hz

5. Data for distribution overhead lines each (I, II) [15, 16]

17

Voltage: 132kV

Length: 20km

Area of conductor: 258mm2

Resistance: 0.068 ohms/km

Reactance: 0.404 ohms/km

6. STATCOM
Rated capacity: 60MVAr

PI controller:

K p = 0.1, K i = 0.3 second

7. DBR
Rated capacity: 60MW

Resistance: 2.01 ohm

18