Investigation of the flicker emission by grid connected wind turbines

Wind turbines connected to electrical grids may affect considerably the quality of the supply, due to the fluctuating character of their output power. An important effect from their connection are the rapid fluctuations of the supply voltage, usually referred to as “flicker”. In this paper, an investigation is presented of the flicker emission levels from a grid connected wind turbine, using a detailed computer simulation model. The results include an analysis of the dependence of the flicker on the wind characteristics (mean value and turbulence intensity), grid parameters (short circuit capacity and impedance angle) and the type of wind turbine (constant or variable speed)