Improved Fault Ride through Capability of SCIG-based Wind Turbine based on Photovoltaic System

Abstract

This paper investigates the operation of a hybrid system including a two-stage PV system and a SCIG based wind turbine. The wind turbine is connected directly to the AC side of the PV system’s inverter and they are connected to the external grid through a step up transformer. With this configuration, the free land around the turbine tower can be utilized to install the PV system. A more important thing is that the inverter of the PV system can play the role of a STATCOM to support reactive power to the SCIG –wind turbine. This allows reactive power compensating equipments such as capacitor bank, SVC and so on to be absent at the wind turbine. The simulation results show that thank to the support of the PV system’s inverter, the SCIG-turbine can be stable in steady state and it can ride through fault easily. In addition, this investigation demonstrates a locus of critical fault-clearing time among different PV capacities and the minimum capacity of the PV system helping the wind power to ride through fault is identified.