Power quality assessment of wind turbines and comparison with conventional legal regulations: A case study in Turkey

Abstract

Renewable energy sources have been investigated for use instead of conventional fossil fuels in many areas. Among these renewable energy sources, wind energy has come into prominence owing to the fact that it is a clean, sustainable and cost-effective type of energy. However, the connection of large wind farms to the grid may cause problems in terms of power quality due to the variability of the energy extracted from the wind. The mentioned power quality problems are generally taken into consideration after the grid integration of wind farms. However, the precautions that can be taken by means of the assessments before the installation of the turbines represent an easier and more economic way. In this study, the possible effects of the grid connected wind turbines on the power quality characteristics have been defined and the MATLAB based models have been constructed so as to calculate these effects. Particularly, fast voltage variations that are difficult to model due to their relations with the human factor have been analyzed in detail. It has been aimed that the models are suitable for use in practice while utilizing various standards such as IEC 61400-21 and IEC 61000-4-15 in order to setup the models. The analyses of the implementations that represent constraints for exploiting the wind resources in Turkey have been realized in terms of production and consumption with a case study. The realized calculations present the applicability of the model to grid conditions with different characteristics. It is also presented that the wind energy penetration can be increased without deteriorating the power quality of the grid with the use of the proposed model. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.