Reactive compensation techniques to improve the ride-through of induction generators during disturbance

The total world wind turbine installation capacity has reached around 17,600 MW at the end of 2000. World wind energy capacity has doubled every three years from 1990 to 2000. Germany has the highest installed capacity of 6,000 MW; while Denmark, where wind energy accounts for more than 13% of electricity consumed, has the highest wind energy level per capita. Additionally, United States is catching up in the development of wind farms. Several large-scale wind generation projects have materialized in the recent years. Though there are significant progresses in the wind generation technology, most of the installed wind turbines utilize induction generators to produce the electricity. Induction generators for the wind power do not perform voltage regulation in the utility grid. On the contrary, they absorb reactive power and are often the source of voltage fluctuations. When the percentage of the wind generation increases, it is necessary to examine its responses during the faults and its possible impact on the system stability. This paper discusses the reactive compensation techniques of the induction generator based wind generation. Their voltage ride-through capabilities during system disturbances with different reactive compensation techniques are studied and compared.