Wind farm power plant: Optimal capacitor placement for reactive power compensation

Wind energy has had in the last decade an exponential growth in the world. Although the most recent technology offers wind generators able to directly control the reactive power absorbed/injected from the distribution network, most of the currently installed wind turbines utilize inductor generators that do not perform voltage regulation and absorb reactive power from the utility grid. In this paper a methodology for a partial reactive power compensation, in existing wind farm induction generators based, based on partial compensation of the reactive power is presented. A Genetic Algorithm is used to individualize the optimal sizing and placement of the reactive power centers and a case study on a real test grid has been pointed out. The results are presented and discussed.