Impact of Corrective Switching in Wind Farms Operation

Abstract

Eventually, limits violations of bus voltages or of admissible loadings of transmission lines and/or power transformers may occur by the power system operation. If violations are detected, corrective measures may be carried out aiming their elimination or to reduce their intensity. Loading shedding is an extreme solution and should only be adopted as the last control action. The control tool adopted in this work is Corrective Switching. It controls power flows in electrical networks by changing their topologies, without requiring any additional cost. Due to the large potential of wind energy in Brazil, using the technique of Corrective Switching may result in disconnection of wind farms, whose machines are not equipped with Low Voltage Ride Through function, since its wind generators are turned off when submitted to voltage sags for a short time. Thus, this works aims to verify if Corrective Switching actions, that could eliminate operational violations in electrical energy systems, can cause disconnections of wind farms, contributing to degrade power quality.