THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

ENERGY 722 Energy Technology

MASTER OF ENERGY

Assignment 6

Renewable Integration into Electricity Grid

Professor Nirmal Nair

Barbara Melo Diniz

ID: 371529394

Auckland, New Zealand

June 12th, 2017
Wind farm reactive power management (1.b.i)

Wind energy has currently a major importance in the development of energy

markets and power systems worldwide, because of it is a clean energy with an endless
resource. Although, wind power has its own issues: the wind is unpredictable, resulting
in a fluctuating power, which affects the stability of a power grid and brings along other
problems, as voltage regulation, flickers, harmonics and changes on reactive power flow
(Pathak, Sharma, & Bundele, 2015).
The main reason to manage the reactive power of wind farms is to keep the
voltage at the desirable value and ensure minimum losses when injecting the generated
power into the grid. Flow of reactive power is associated with high reactive power
losses, and, because of this, reactive power must be generated and consumed locally
(Samarasinghe & Abeyratne, 2007). Reactive power does not perform any useful work,
as active power does, but it is fundamental to maintain the voltage in the necessary
parameters (sinusoidal, 50 Hz), so the active power can flow through the grid. It is
possible to manage the voltage through the reactive power because consumption of
reactive power decreases the system voltage and the supply of reactive power increases
the system voltage (Vong & Ancell, 2008). In New Zealand, the management of
reactive power is made through synchronous generators (which also help on voltage
support), capacitor banks, SVC and HVDC filter banks.
The substitution of conventional power stations (which have synchronous
generators) per wind farms (asynchronous generators) affects the reactive capability of
the power grid. Different wind farms have different capabilities to manage reactive
power. The oldest wind turbines (type A) are constituted of squirrel cage inductors
generators, which always consume reactive power and operate at a constant speed. For
this type of turbine, the consumption of reactive power is normally compensated by
capacitors, although, this does not contribute to the voltage control. The voltage control
capability for these old turbines can be enhanced by the installation of more advanced
solutions than the traditional capacitors. These advanced solutions included a static
compensator (STATCOM) and a static VAR compensator (SVC). Type C wind turbines
use a double fed induction generator, which allows the management of the reactive
power through the rotor current. It is possible to generate or consume different amounts
of reactive power at a particular rotor speed and its respective active power generation.
Type D consists of a direct-drive variable-speed wind turbine. In this case, the generator
is not coupled to the grid, and the reactive power flow is determined by the grid side of
the power electronic converter (Ackermann, 2005).
To prevent that the insertion of wind farms harm the voltage control and the
reactive power management, the responsible organisation from each country must
determine rules for the wind farms integration in the power grid. For example, in the
United States, FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) specified that the new
wind farms must be capable of controlling their reactive power between the range of
0.95 inductive and 0.95 capacitive and, consequently, supporting the power system
voltage, if the interconnection study determines that it is necessary. This rule is not
applicable for all new wind farms because it is very expensive to provide this capability.
The interconnection study also specifies which technology will be installed to manage
the reactive power, looking for the cheapest way to achieve the goal. One case is the
Aragonne Mesa wind farm in New Mexico. The farm has installed four mechanically
switched capacitor banks and one distributed static compensator (DSTATCOM). The
capacitor banks are not able to maintain a continuous control and to react to small
alterations on voltage, but it can help to correct the power factor to almost a unit. The
DSTATCOM is capable of maintaining the power factor to unity continuously at the
point of interconnection of the wind farm to the transmission system of the power grid,
at Guadalupe bus. The equipment, through voltage and current measurements and line
losses calculations, possesses an algorithm capable of determining continuously the
reactive power output to maintain the power factor at unity at the point of
interconnection. To make the system even more trustful, there is a feedback signal from
SCADA of the real reactive power and this signal is used to correct the output of the
DSTATCOM (Zavadil, Miller, Ellis, Muljadi, Camm, & Kirby, 2007). This is a very
good case in which the objectives were reached: the wind farm is able to manage the
reactive power in order to support the system voltage control with a good cost-benefit.
The capacitor banks are a traditional technology, not so expensive, and, even if they are
not able to perform a fine and continuous control, they can correct the power factor to
near unity, letting the DSTATCOM to do the fine control through small changes in the
power factor. This results in a more reliable system because the DSTATCOM does not
have to perform big alterations in a small time.
New Zealand has its own rules, defined by the Electricity Governance Rules
(EGR), about reactive capability of grid connected generators to support voltage. It is
required that the generators have adjustable reactive power output and continuously
operation to support voltage control and stability of the grid (Vong & Ancell, 2008).
Transpower, the system operator, defined its own rules specific to wind generation:
wind farms may include additional components, as switched capacitor banks and
dynamic reactive power devices, to achieve voltage control requirements (defined by
EGR). The reactive power management must be automatic and act in a timeframe that
supports the maintenance of voltage stability this control must be equivalent of a
synchronous generator with AVR (automatic voltage regulator) (Transpower, 2007).
Currently, the wind level penetration in New Zealand is around 5.5% (MBIE, 2015),
although, all governments forecast shows that this level will increase considerably in
the near future (MBIE, 2016), therefore, the impacts on the grid from the insertion of
wind farms will also increase, which makes the reactive power management a key point
to achieve a secure and reliable power grid operation.
As explained, there are technologies capable of enhancing the reactive power
management in wind farms, which is so important for the voltage control and stability.
An efficient way to ensure that the voltage requirements would be fulfilled is, for the
new wind farm projects, the utilisation of the turbine technologies that allow the
reactive power management without the necessity of auxiliary equipment. The
regulation also has an important role because guarantees that the insertion of a new
wind farm in the transmission grid will not affect the stability and reliability of the
system.

Solar PV voltage management (2.b.i)

All over the world, solar power technologies is becoming more affordable and,
consequently, it is expected that the installation of solar PV (photovoltaic) panels will
grow considerably in the next years, including in New Zealand. This growth will result
in an increasing of the PV penetration level and will cause some impacts on the grid,
mostly on the distribution system, where the PV panels are connected. One of these
impacts is disturbances in the voltage: rise and fluctuation. The voltage rise happens
because solar PV panels inject power directly on the distribution system, resulting in a
voltage rise at the connection point and in the network around it and the voltage
fluctuation is caused by voltage dips originated from clouds passing over plenty of PV
systems (Thomson & Infield, 2007). These impacts need to be managed because the
grid operators have the obligation to maintain the voltage in peoples houses within a
specific range.
Distribution grid, especially those of low voltage, has its own characteristics and
is very different from the transmission grid (for example, distribution networks are
unbalanced, have a constant variation of the load and the resistance-reactance R/X
ratio is larger when compared to transmission systems). A small distribution system
with a high PV penetration level can easily lose its stability if the PV power goes to
zero, what usually happens due to cloud coverage. Due to solar PV panels only generate
active power and the high R/X ratio, variation in active power generation will result in
voltage fluctuation and not in frequency variation, as happens in transmission system
(Yan & Saha, 2012). So, it is necessary to manage the voltage to keep the system stable
and reliable, because it is not possible to manage the active power generation this
depends directly on the momentary radiation.
There are some solutions available to ensure voltage stability. It is possible to
estimate the maximum solar PV penetration based on voltage requirements of the
countries. On that way, the issues associated with voltage rise would be excluded, but
this is not a good solution because prevents the growth of the quantity of installed solar
PV. For example, based on the UK standard, the maximum PV penetration level in the
grid is 33% in order to avoid voltage rise issues (Thomson & Infield, 2007). Another
similar method is the curtailment of the active power that is injected into the distribution
grid and the installation of batteries by the PV owners to avoid energy losses. One way
to make this happens is the implementation of feed-in tariffs in order to incentive the
power self-consumption, as is implemented in Germany (Braun, Arnorl, & Laukamp,
2009). This is not an effective solution but is an easier and fast to be implemented,
although, many potential PV owners could lose the interest to install the PV panels.
Another possible solution is the installation of inverters on the PV systems that
have the technology of controlling the voltage rise up to the specified limit (Yan &
Saha, 2012), although, this inverter also presents a disadvantage. The inverter utilises
the PV active power output to control the voltage rise, decreasing the efficiency of the
PV panels, and this a big issue, because the efficiency of the system is always a priority
and should be maximised whenever possible. A PV inverter that manages reactive
power to control the voltage rise has been proposed by many researches, but this
technology is against some countries standard, as Australia, and IEEE standard.
 In relation to the voltage fluctuation, a great solution is to install energy storage
systems, as batteries, to provide a power backup, because, as discussed before, the
voltage fluctuates because of the drop of PV active power output (Yan & Saha, 2012).
This is a very good solution, but the storage systems are still very expensive.
Currently, New Zealand does not have a high solar PV penetration level. In
2015, solar PV generated only 34 GWh out of a total of 42,989.7 GWh generated across
the country, which is not even 1% of the total (MBIE, 2015). One reason for this low
penetration is because New Zealand does not offer subsidies for PV generation and the
energy buy-back rate is far below what is necessary to make the investment worthwhile
(Watson, Watson, Santos-Martin, Wood, Lemon, & Miller, 2016). Although, as
mentioned before, it is expected a change in that situation, because the technology is
becoming cheaper. If it is in the interest of the government to help accelerate this
growth, it is a good idea to implement subsidy policies.
A study developed in 2016 by Watson, Watson, Santos-Martin, Wood, Lemon
and Miller simulated different levels of solar PV penetration in New Zealand
distribution grid in order to evaluate the possible maximum limits of penetration and
effective methods to control overvoltage issues. As result, the research concluded that
the New Zealand urban distribution network can host between 10 and 15% of solar PV
penetration without relevant issues. The simulation showed that the voltage will
increase, but this overvoltage will not be higher than the New Zealand limit of 1.06 pu.
To be able to achieve a higher penetration, some methods were tested and the method
that presented a better performance was the installation of PV inverters capable of
reactive power control.
New Zealand has a good solar irradiation, the grid is capable of hosting a much
larger amount of solar PV panels than the current amount and there are technologies
available to support the voltage management. The cheapening of technologies and the
implementation of government subsidy policies will be decisive in the growth of solar
power in the power system of New Zealand.

Word count: 2,050 words

References

Ackermann, T. (2005). Wind Power in Power Systems. Stockholm, Sweden: Wiley.

Braun, M., Arnorl, G., & Laukamp, H. (2009). Plugging into the zeitgeist. IEE Power &
Energy Magazine, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 63-76.

MBIE. (2015, September 17). Electricity. Retrieved June 2017, from Ministry of
Business, Innovation & Employment: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-
industries/energy/energy-data-modelling/statistics/electricity

MBIE. (2016, November 22). Electricity Demand and Supply Generation Scenarios
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http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-industries/energy/energy-data-
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Pathak, A., Sharma, M., & Bundele, M. (2015). A critical review of voltage and reactive
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Samarasinghe, C., & Abeyratne, S. (2007). Technical Solutions of Wind Farms to meet
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Zavadil, R., Miller, N., Ellis, A., Muljadi, E., Camm, E., & Kirby, B. (2007). Queuing
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