Variable voltage off-shore distribution network for wind farms based on synchronous generators

Modern wind turbines allow for tight control of terminal voltage, this is particularly true for synchronous generator (SG) based wind turbines. Therefore, an integrated design of wind turbine and HVDC link control can lead to a substantial simplification of the off-shore rectifier. This paper introduces an integrated control algorithm for line commutated thyristor (LCT) based HVDC transmission line and the wind farm whereby the off-shore rectifier tap changer is eliminated and a cheaper and more efficient uncontrolled rectifier is used instead of a LCT-based rectifier. The presented control strategy allows for good performance during steady state and transient operation.