Wind power plant enhancement with a fault current limiter

An important aspect of wind power plant (WPP) impact studies is to evaluate the short-circuit (SC) current contribution of the plant into the transmission network under different fault conditions. This task can be challenging to protection engineers due to the topology differences between different types of wind turbine generators (WTGs) and the conventional generating units. While it is important to size the circuit breaker to accommodate the available SC current, the available rating of a circuit breaker is limited. A fault current limiter (FCL) has the capability to limit the SC current, and in some cases, may be necessary to limit the SC current from a WPP to defer the replacement of a circuit breaker currently installed in the transmission line. This paper investigates the capability of a saturable core FCL to limit the SC current of different types of WTGs. Different faults are simulated to investigate the effectiveness of the FCL to limit the SC current and to reduce transient torque during faults. Several cases will be considered to demonstrate the benefits of using FCLs in unique situations.