Flicker mitigation and voltage sag ride through of a wind turbine using an STATCOM

Wind farms are becoming more and more important as distributed renewable energy resources. That is why quality issues (such as flicker emission and voltage sag ride through) are being taken into account by grid codes. Wind farms employing fixed speed induction generators may require dynamic compensation devices, for instance, STATCOM units to fulfill the network requirements. In this paper, the installation of a STATCOM device in parallel with the wind turbines is examined. Different configurations are analyzed through simulation with the aim of determining the STATCOM size and designing its control. Measurement data obtained in a wind park have been used in order to simulate the real working conditions of wind turbines.