Economic analysis of reactive power control and availability on power losses in a wind farm connected at 38KV

This paper presents a case study of a wind farm connected to a 38kV system at a weak point on the network. It examines reactive power control to resolve the voltage rise issue with increasing generation from the wind farm. The paper considers reactive power control using three methods and compares each method in terms of power losses on the system. The 3 methods are reactive power control from the wind turbine directly, a STATCOM connected to the main 20kV busbar and a STATCOM connected to the 38kV busbar. The three solutions are modelled and the power loss impacts are investigated and compared. The objective of this study is to establish which solution is the most optimum to minimise power losses at the wind farm. Finally an economic analysis is carried out to see the impact on each of the reactive power control method on the overall revenues generated from the wind farm over a 25 year period.