Reactive power optimization control of wind farms with fixed-speed wind turbine generators

As the level of wind power penetration into the grid increases, reactive power control will become more critical for wind farms with fixed-speed wind turbine generators. Capacitor banks are used for reactive power compensation in wind power plant (WPP). This paper focuses on our effort to develop a method to determine the number, sizes and control strategy of capacitor banks. To solve this problem, the number and control strategy of capacitor banks is determined by the characteristics of wind turbine, local wind resources and power grid. Then the size of capacitor banks was determined by genetic algorithms (GA). Objective of optimization is to reduce the switching frequency of compensating capacitor banks installed at its terminals, maintain an acceptable voltages profile and minimize active losses of a power system. The proposed method is carried out in a modified IEEE 39-bus system. According to simulation results, the grouping and control strategy of capacitor banks is feasible and effective for reactive power optimization control of wind power plants.