Enhanced control of a direct drive grid connected wind energy system with STATCOM

This paper investigates control and operation strategy of grid connected permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) based direct drive variable speed wind turbine with a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM). The application of STATCOM enhances the system performance by improving the fault ride through capability of the wind turbine. Control strategies for generator side converter with maximum power extraction, grid side inverter and STATCOM controller are implemented in Matlab/Simpower. Moreover, a rapid synchronization by controlling the phase angle of wind energy system output is presented in this paper. Extensive simulations have been conducted and results show that STATCOM can enhance the steady state and dynamic performances of the wind energy system. The proposed synchronizer can synchronize the wind turbine with the grid rapidly during normal operation or after fault recovery.