Analysis of power quality problems in grid connected wind power plant

Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity in India and around the world. In spite of being cheap, clean and abundant the continuous fluctuations in the renewable energy causes significant power quality issues. This paper presents a technical review of power quality problems associated with grid connected wind power plant and describes the Dynamic Voltage Restorer that injects voltage into the system with a view to enhance the network power factor while stabilizing the voltage and reducing the network losses. On the basis of measurements and norms followed according to the guidelines specified in IEC-61400 (International Electro-technical Commission) standard, the performance of the wind turbine and thereby power quality should be determined. Wind turbines, especially of Induction type, can draw large amount of reactive power from the grid. Insufficient supply of reactive power from the grid to the wind generators may cause voltage stability problems. To minimize reactive power exchange between wind generators and grid, dynamic compensation of reactive power can be employed by using DVR. This paper also describes the analysis of Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR) using MATLAB/SIMULINK for the grid connected Wind Power Plant.