Overview of FACTS devices for wind power plants directly connected to the transmission network

Growing number of wind turbines is changing electricity generation profile all over the world. This brings challenges for power system operation, which was designed and developed around conventional power plants with directly coupled synchronous generators. In result, safety and stability of the electrical network with high wind energy penetration might be compromised. For this reason transmission system operators (TSO) impose more stringent connection requirements on the wind power plant (WPP) owners. On the other hand flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices offer enhancement of grid stability and can facilitate grid code compliance for WPP. In this paper state-of-the-art in FACTS for WPPs with AC connection is given. FACTS devices with their properties are described. HVDC, which in literature is also often recognized as FACTS device, is out of this paper scope. Academic and industrial research in FACTS applicability for WPPs is summarized. Examples of few existing FACTS applications for wind farms are given.