Investigation of power loss and voltage stability limits for large wind farm connections to a subtransmission network

Today wind farms are growing both in size and in number. Being connected at higher voltage levels, their impacts are becoming more widespread. High demand for reactive power is known as one major characteristic of large wind farms that causes voltage problems to power networks. The larger the wind farm, the more severe this effect could be. If the network is not able to meet the wind farm reactive power requirement, the integration of the wind farm power into the system would be limited. The reactive power shortage due to the operation of the wind farm may lead to an increase in the network overall losses and have adverse effects on its voltage stability. This study explores the possibility of integrating the full power of two large wind farms into a subtransmission network, as well as their impacts on the network losses and voltage stability. It also considers these impacts when the network loading is increased. The study is carried out using computer analyses performed on a custom-designed yet realistic radial power system.