Control strategies for modern high-power wind turbines

DE BATTISTA, H.; MANTZ, R.; BIANCHI, F.

Wind Turbines: Types, Economics and Developments

Nova Science Publishers

Lugar: New York; Año: 2011; p. 1 - 33

Today, smooth integration of wind power into the utility grids is a topic of high interest to thewind energy community. New technical regulations for grid connection of large--scale wind turbines and farms are demanding high control flexibility. Therefore, large efforts are being done to adapt classical wind turbine designs and controls to fulfill new specifications. This chapter is an approach to modern wind turbine control systems. First, it summarizes the main control objectives of large--scale wind turbines and farms. It follows with a description of the hierarchical control design paradigm of modern wind farms. Then, it explores the capabilities of classical wind turbine concepts to comply with the new requirements. Control schemes and strategies for high--power wind turbines based on these classical concepts are studied. Although particular attention is paid to active power control, other control functions under normal operation and grid fault conditions are also treated. Finally, advanced dynamic control solutions exhibiting higher performance than the conventional multi-loop PI controllers are presented.