Control of the grid side converter in a wind turbine

Due to constantly increasing share of wind power in total installed power, transmission system operators must adhere to ever stricter grid codes in order to maintain stable, secure and reliable power system operation. Grid codes require from wind power plants to participate in active and reactive power control and frequency control. In particular, wind power plants need to have fault-ride through capability and must respect power quality demands of the grid codes. To satisfy those requirements wind turbines utilize power electronic devices - converters - as an interface between the wind generator and the grid. A lot of research effort is focused on improvement in the design and control of the grid side converter, which connects the turbine to the grid. This paper presents some of the established grid side converter control strategies. The challenges regarding grid side converter control are also discussed with a brief overview of recent research trends.