Wind-diesel hybridization has been emerging as common practice for electricity generation in many isolated power systems due to its reliability and its contribution in mitigating environmental issues. However, the weakness of these kind of power systems (due to their small inertia) makes the frequency regulation difficult, particularly under high wind conditions, since part of the synchronous generation has to be set offline for ensuring a suitable tracking of the power demand. This reduces the power system's ability to absorb wind power variations, leading to pronounced grid frequency fluctuations under normal operating conditions. This paper proposes some corrective actions aimed at enhancing the frequency control capability in weak and isolated power systems: a procedure for evaluating the system stability margin intended for readjusting the diesel-generator control gains, a new wind power curtailment strategy, and an inertial control algorithm implemented in the wind turbines. These proposals are tested in the San Cristobal (Galapagos Islands-Ecuador) hybrid wind-diesel power system, in which many power outages caused by frequency relays tripping were reported during the windiest season. The proposals benefits have been tested in a simulation environment by considering actual operating conditions based on measurement data recorded at the island.
With high levels of wind energy penetration, the frequency response of isolated power systems is more likely to be affected in the event of a sudden frequency disturbance or fluctuating wind conditions. In order to minimize excessive frequency deviations, several techniques and control strategies involving Variable Speed Wind Turbines (VSWTs) have been investigated in isolated power systems. In this paper, the main benefits and disadvantages of introducing VSWTs—both their inertial contribution and primary frequency regulation—in an exclusively renewable isolated power system have been analyzed. Special attention has been paid to the influence of the delays of control signals in the wind farm when VSWTs provide primary regulation as well as to the wind power reserve value which is needed. To achieve this objective, a methodology has been proposed and applied to a case study: El Hierro power system. A mathematical dynamic model of the isolated power system, including exclusively renewable technologies, has been described. Representative generation schedules and wind speed signals have been fixed according to the observed system. Finally, in order to obtain conclusions, realistic system events such as fluctuations in wind speed and the outage of the generation unit with the higher assigned power in the power system have been simulated.
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