Evaluation of the Performance of a DC-Link Brake Chopper as a DFIG Low-Voltage Fault-Ride-Through Device

The performance of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) during grid faults is attracting much interest due to the proliferation of wind turbines that employ this technology. International grid codes specify that the generator must exhibit a fault-ride-through (FRT) capability by remaining connected and contributing to network stability during a fault. Many DFIG systems employ a rotor circuit crowbar to protect the rotor converter during a fault. Although this works well to protect the generator, it does not provide favorable grid support behavior. This paper describes an experimental investigation of an alternative FRT approach using a brake chopper circuit across the converter dc link to ensure that the dc-link voltage remains under control during a fault. Two different approaches to chopper control are examined and the resulting FRT performance is compared with that of a conventional crowbar approach. The new chopper-based control methods are experimentally evaluated using a 7.5-kW DFIG test rig facility.

[1]  S. Salman,et al.  Windmill Modeling Consideration and Factors Influencing the Stability of a Grid-Connected Wind Power Based Embedded Generator , 2002, IEEE Power Engineering Review.

[2]  J. Niiranen,et al.  Performance Study of a Doubly Fed Wind-Power Induction Generator Under Network Disturbances , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[3]  Frede Blaabjerg,et al.  Stability improvement of induction generator-based wind turbine systems , 2007 .

[4]  A.G. Jack,et al.  Fault Ride-Through of Large Wind Farms Using Series Dynamic Braking Resistors (March 2007) , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Power Systems.

[5]  J. Morren,et al.  Short-Circuit Current of Wind Turbines With Doubly Fed Induction Generator , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[6]  I. Erlich,et al.  Dynamic Behavior of DFIG-Based Wind Turbines during Grid Faults , 2007, 2007 Power Conversion Conference - Nagoya.

[7]  O. Gomis-Bellmunt,et al.  Ride-Through Control of a Doubly Fed Induction Generator Under Unbalanced Voltage Sags , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[8]  Yang Wang,et al.  Grid-fault tolerant operation of DFIG wind turbine generator using a passive resistance network , 2009, 2009 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[9]  G Pannell,et al.  Minimum-Threshold Crowbar for a Fault-Ride-Through Grid-Code-Compliant DFIG Wind Turbine , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[10]  Istvan Erlich,et al.  Protection system behavior of DFIG based wind farms for grid-faults with practical considerations , 2010, IEEE PES General Meeting.

[11]  G Pannell,et al.  Analytical Study of Grid-Fault Response of Wind Turbine Doubly Fed Induction Generator , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[12]  Jin Yang,et al.  A Series-Dynamic-Resistor-Based Converter Protection Scheme for Doubly-Fed Induction Generator During Various Fault Conditions , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[13]  B. Wu,et al.  Cost effective method for DFIG fault ride-through during symmetrical voltage dip , 2010, IECON 2010 - 36th Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.

[14]  Humberto Pinheiro,et al.  Robust Controller for DFIGs of Grid-Connected Wind Turbines , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[15]  Wei Zhang,et al.  A novel control strategy of an active crowbar for DFIG-based wind turbine during grid faults , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Electric Machines & Drives Conference (IEMDC).

[16]  Yang Wang,et al.  Grid-Fault Tolerant Operation of a DFIG Wind Turbine Generator Using a Passive Resistance Network , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[17]  Tamer A. Kawady,et al.  Investigation of grid-support capabilities of Doubly Fed Induction Generators during grid faults , 2011 .

[18]  Li Ren,et al.  SMES Based Excitation System for Doubly-Fed Induction Generator in Wind Power Application , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity.

[19]  R. Takahashi,et al.  Wind Farms Fault Ride Through Using DFIG With New Protection Scheme , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy.

[20]  Wenping Cao,et al.  A doubly-fed induction generator test facility for grid fault ride-through analysis , 2012, IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine.

[21]  Shaotao Dai,et al.  Enhancing Low-Voltage Ride-Through Capability and Smoothing Output Power of DFIG With a Superconducting Fault-Current Limiter–Magnetic Energy Storage System , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion.

[22]  Kavitha Busi,et al.  Fault Ride-Through of a DFIG Wind Turbine Using a Dynamic Voltage Restorer during Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Grid Faults , 2013 .