Improvement of fault clearing time of wind farm using reactive power compensation

Generation of electricity using wind power has received considerable attention worldwide in recent years. In order to investigate the impacts of the integration of wind farms into utilities´ networks, various windmill models have been developed. One such impact is related to the Critical Clearing Time (CCT) of the Wind Power Based Embedded Generators (WPBEGs). The CCT determines the stability of an integrated wind farm. It has been found that it is much lower than the time setting of the protection devices normally installed on networks´ feeders. The work in this paper therefore describes an attempt to improve the CCT. It is based on reactive power compensation (RPCs) techniques. Results from several case studies aiming at examining those factors, which influence the stability of WPBEG during network fault are presented. The effect of shaft modelling on the CCT is also discussed