Impacts of FACTS device on wind farm protection: Comparison between STATCOM and UPFC

With the increasing trend of wind energy in the power system, the significant impacts for system operation are got more attentions. Due to voltage fluctuating supplied by the renewable sources, it is a significant challenge to maintain power quality in power system with existing technologies. Voltage fluctuating will cause the balance problems for power flow among wind power plants and eventually will affect the associated protection systems. This paper will discuss the impacts on protection system due to integrating the renewable energy resources into grid, especially with widely used Flexible Alternating Current Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices. Two major categories for FACTS, Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM), and Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC), will be studied and compared for their impacts on wind farm protection systems. Simulation results will be presented, which show that the relay system has different response for STATCOM and UPFC, which UPFC response much faster than STATCOM while maintaining the power system steady state stability.