Advanced controls enable wind plants to provide ancillary services

Grid integration of wind power plants is complicated by wind variability and the technical characteristics of wind generators. At high levels of wind power penetration, the need for several types of ancillary services increases while the traditional resources that provide those services may become less economic or available. This paper describes a suite of advanced wind plant controllers designed to improve system performance, reduce the need for additional ancillary services, and provide ancillary services instead of or in competition with conventional resources. Wind power plant controls can coordinate the real and reactive power response of multiple wind turbines and thereby make the plant function as a single “grid friendly” power generation source. The real power controls include active power regulation, frequency or governor response, power ramp rate limiter, start up/shut down sequencer, and inertial control. The reactive power controls include voltage regulation with or without active power production, reactive power or power factor control, and various fault ride-through capabilities.