Adjustment of wind farms to the new standars

Abstract

Wind farms will have to adapt to new guidelines of ElectricalSystem Operator, and current legislation and the one that willshortly be passed. These requirements are based on continuityof supply in case of voltage dips, reactive power control andpower quality problems. The new generators, as well as thealready existing wind farms, will have to adapt to theserequirements.In Spain, the installed wind power is more than 10.000 MW,and the PER (Renewable Energies Plan) aims to reach to20.155MW between 2005-2010. The AutonomousCommunities are planning to install a total amount of40.000MW. From this information, the technical problems arederivate to evacuate and to handle this considerable amount ofwind installed power, allowing the large-scale integration in theelectrical network without producing destabilization of theelectrical system.To be able to do this feasible integration, have been establishednew standards more demanding. The fulfilment of the grid coderequirements require to introduce new solutions and thedevelopment of new control strategies.The challenge is to adapt older installations that cannot face thevoltage dips and fulfil the new requirements. This problemextends to approximately 50% of the 20GW that will beworking in 2010, supposing that all new installations willincorporate technology already brought up to date.To settle this problem is proposed the use of DG-FACTS, thesedevices can help wind farms to solve problems such as:,reactive power capacity, frequency control, voltage control,active power curtailment and others.