Power Quality and Stability Improvement in Wind Park System Using STATCOM

Operation of wind turbines has an impact on the power quality and reliability at the connected electric network. Power quality problems such as voltage flicker and harmonic distortion along with reliability issues are some major concern and in this work the flicker & harmonics issues are considered. Wind turbine connected to an induction generator and synchronous generator is modeled using PSCAD to analyze power quality and reliability problems. STATCOM unit is developed to inject reactive power to mitigate power quality problems and to get stable grid operation. Due to continuously varying wind speed components, the active and reactive power along with terminal voltage fluctuates continuously. By connecting STATCOM into the grid, the active power, reactive power and terminal voltage is maintained constant. The wind electric generators have power electronic converters which are used to sweep maximum power at the available speed and for efficient control introduce harmonics. The STATCOM modified as shunt active filter which is used for mitigating harmonics provides good results (C) 2010 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved