Performance improvement of DFIG-based wind farm using multilevel cascaded H-bridge converter under unbalanced grid voltage conditions

This paper presents a new configuration of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind farm with multilevel cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter and its control system, which is suitable not only for unbalanced grid voltage conditions, but also for small voltage sags. The proposed configuration of DFIG can balance the point of common coupling (PCC) voltage without needing additional DC link capacitor or energy storage unlike other configurations and methods. Consequently, the stator voltage and the other loads voltage connected to the PCC are kept constant at the nominal value. The new configuration improves all the DFIG signals under unbalanced grid voltage and small voltage sag conditions unlike other methods. Some of the DFIG units in wind farm require to connect the CHB converter, therefore, it is cost-effective. Matlab/Simulink is used for simulation of a 13.5-MW wind farm consisting of nine 1.5-MW DFIG units and the results demonstrate the good efficiency of the proposed scheme.