Experience with a SVC controlling the point of common

connection of the Nysted offshore Wind Farm

Andersen Niels, Jensen Larsen Claus Overgård, Nielsen Steen Beck
SEAS-NVE, Slagterivej 25, 4690 Haslev, Denmark

Abstract - The reliability of the electrical system depends on the transmission system, the
production units and to a small extent the characteristics of the loads. The production system in
the Eastern part of Denmark has changed significantly during the last decade. The introduction of a
large number of small dispersed production units and the new electricity market have changed the
power flows in the transmission system and made these flows more unpredictable.

Wind turbines in Eastern Denmark account for approx. 740 MW (installed capacity). This includes
the 165 MW Nysted offshore Wind Farm (NOWF). NOWF is a part of the weak south part of the 132
kV grid approximately 100 km from the 400 kV grid and any significant larger power plant. The
south part of the grid has a peak load of 120 MW and app. 420 MW installed wind power. This
share is expected to increase to 635 MW with the second offshore wind farm Rødsand.

Index Terms—Voltage control; Reactive Power; Wind turbine; Facts; Offshore wind farm; Weak Grid; Grid
connection; grid faults

I. SUMMARY
For large-scale offshore wind farms, it is conventional to both provide power and dynamic controlled grid
voltage. The dynamic controlled grid voltage can be incorporated in the wind turbines or be placed on major
AC substations on shore. The tendencies are to produce more and more restrictive grid codes in order to let
the wind farms and wind turbines act as “power plants”. This has made the design of wind turbines more
complicated, introduced increased stresses on all equipment in the wind turbine. One drawback, on
introducing the restrictive grid codes, is that more components in the wind turbines are introduced, which may
decrease the availability, and increase the maintenance and the price.

NOWF was installed with the philosophy of keeping the hard accessible equipment offshore simple by placing
the compensation on shore. The placement of the compensation on shore, instead of offshore gave additional
supply opportunities to more effective support to the grid during faults.

The operation characteristics of the 80 MVAr Radsted SVC, in operation since December 2006, which
compensates the Nysted offshore wind farm, is described. The key points of the project, the main design
objectives will be presented as well as important dynamic grid events.

As a small remark on the emergent grid codes, it has to be mentioned that even though no turbines installed
in Denmark fulfil the most restrictive grid codes, Denmark has not yet experienced any blackout due to the
wind turbines.

II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

The transmission grid in Eastern Denmark encompasses overhead lines and cables at the two highest voltage
levels, i.e. transmission at 132 kV and 400 kV, and the interconnections with Southern Sweden, Funen
(planned) and Germany [1]. Fig. 1 shows the 400 kV and 132 kV grids together with the north-eastern
interconnection with Sweden and the southern interconnection with Germany. The link with Germany is a
400 kV DC interconnection with a transmission capacity of 600 MW. The interconnection with Sweden consists
of four AC links - two at 400 kV level and two at 132 kV level with a total capacity of some 1900 MW. The link
with Sweden also serves as an interconnection with the Nordic grid. The planned link to Funen will probably be
a DC interconnection with a transmission capacity of 600 MW The maximum load in Eastern Denmark is some
2870 MW, and the total installed capacity is 4360 MW.

The transmission grid in Eastern Denmark is strong in the northern part of the system (Zealand) and
relatively weak in the southern part (Lolland).

Fig. 1. The transmission grid in the eastern part of Denmark.

In general the installed production capacity is distributed as follows: The large central units are located in
the northern part of the system, where the grid is strong, while the majority of the wind turbines is connected
in the southern part.
This is also the case for Nysted Offshore Wind Farm, NOWF: A wind farm with a nominal installed capacity
of 165 MW commissioned in 2003 [2] and the planned wind farm Rødsand 2 of approximately 215 MW. Prior
to the commissioning of NOWF, the submarine cables between Zealand and Lolland were reinforced: This was
made in order to increase the thermal ratings in the grid and thus enabling the grid to handle full production
at the wind turbines during outages. Before the new wind farm Rødsand 2, also connected to Radsted, can be
in operation, the grid on Lolland will be reinforced by a new submarine cable to Zealand.
The reinforcements do, however, only increase the short circuit level marginally. Due to the low short
circuit level, the voltage level in the area is quite sensitive to reactive power imbalances.
Wind turbines based on asynchronous generators with squirrel cage rotors (like most wind turbines in
Eastern Denmark) absorb reactive power from the grid for magnetisation. The higher the active power
production - the higher the reactive power consumption. This has led to technical regulations demanding local
compensation of the reactive power consumption of the wind turbines.
Specifically for NOWF the technical regulations required that the reactive power exchange with the grid
must not exceed +/- 10 % of the nominal installed active power in the point of connection to the grid. This
means that the reactive power exchange between NOWF and the grid shall be in the interval [-16.5;16.5]
Mvar in the point of connection. NOWF fulfils these requirements.

Measured in Radsted
at 132 kV P (MW)

160

Radsted, 132 kV

SVC
40
Q (MVAr)

Demand at 33 kV
and measured
NOWF, 33 kV

Fig. 2. The Reactive power characteristic of the NOWF

Regarding NOWF: The wind farm is connected to the transmission grid via a 29 kilometres long cable and a
132/33/33 kV transformer, located at the wind farm. The NOWF point of connection to the grid is located at
the 33-kV busbar at the 132/33-kV transformer. Due to reactive power losses in the transformer and cable,
the reactive power exchange between NOWF and the transmission grid in Radsted referred to as “grid PCC”
may (legally) exceed the interval mentioned above. As figure 3 indicates, the reactive power exchange with
the grid in Radsted is approximately 40 MVAr inductive at full production.
 III. THE NOWF AND THE SVC
V
[pu]
1.8

60 ms

1.6

1.4
600 ms
1.3
1s
1.2
80.2 MVAr

1.1

1.0
88.2 MVAr
10 s
0.9
Design point inductive
0.8 65 MVAr at 1.0 pu
Design point capacitive
80.2 MVAr at 1.0 pu

0.6

continuous
0.4 operating range
time limited
overload range

Minimum continuous V = 132 kV

0.2
operating voltage
I = 100 MVA

I [pu]
1.0 1.0
Capacitive Current Inductive Current
Fig. 3. The compensation of the Radsted SVC

The Radsted SVC is constructed in order to compensate for the NOWF and support during grid faults. The
SVC will also have an adequate size to be able to compensate for the next wind farm Rødsand 2 with an
expected capacity of 207 MW. The SVC is able to deliver 80.2 MVAr capacitive and 65 MVAr inductive at 132
kV. The reactor (40 MVAr) compensating for the transmission cable to NOWF is non-switchable since the unit
was too big and would create undesired voltage changes by switching, with the SVC in operation. It is planned
to make the reactor compensating the Rødsand 2 transmission cable switchable and thereby to increase the
range of reactive power compensation.

The SVC is to be categorised as a FACTS (Flexible AC transmission System). Together with the NOWF it
supplies reactive power to the grid and compensates for the production related to variations on reactive power
in the grid. The services of the SVC together with the wind farm can bear comparison with the grid code
demands.
 P (MW)
0,925c 160 MW 0,95i

40 MVAr
Q (MW)
Reactive power control in grid PCC
Grid code demands to wind farms

Fig. 4. The grid code demands off a wind farm and the NOWF with SVC reactive power capability.

The figure 5 illustrates how the reactive power capability of the wind farm is comparable with desired
characteristics of wind farms and support of reactive power with the grid. The SVC enables the grid to be
operated at more than 132 kV and thereby to reduce transmission losses, the SVC set points is 134.5 kV and
a slope of 2%.

IV. FAULTS

In the Lolland-Falster area most generators in existing installed wind turbines are simple induction generators
or some DFIG generators, which do not require to follow any grid codes regarding fault ride through and
voltage regulation. Studies have been carried out to investigate the behaviour of the grid during faults.
In order to see the behaviour of some faults the Lolland Falster area (weak south grid) has been divided into
several areas, and the wind turbine production has been logged during the failures. Figure 5 shows a map of
the Lolland Falster area and wind turbines production listed.

Fig. 5. The Lolland Falster Area with wind turbines, Source Danish Energy authorities
Due to ice load on the OH lines several failures on the 132 kV lines connecting to Radsted occurred. The
incidences took place 24/2-2007 in the time interval 6:41-8:00, as several two phase failures.

Fig. 6. SVC response to failures, Right curves show the 3 phase voltages
left curves show Measure reactive power from SVC, Voltage in rms, Ordered reactive power

During the failure close to the SVC the voltage is unaffected of the SVC, which delivers maximum reactive
power support to the grid. The failure results in a voltage of app. 0.6 pu of the normal voltage. When the
failure is disconnected, a short increase in the voltage to app. 1.1 pu is seen on phase L3, before the SVC
again controls and supports the voltage.

The two phase failures occurred as listed 7:05:38, 7:46:46, 7:47:21, 7:47:25, 7:48:14, 7:52:37, 7:52:45
seven times in total within a short time frame. As it can be seen the grid is supported by the SVC, so the
voltage is only limited affected during the failures.

Fig. 7. Wind turbine production

The production is listed on figure 7. Some of the wind turbines were disconnected, but came fast back in
operation. As observed the Nysted offshore wind farm (Rødsand) is not affected and continues to produce
power.
Distant failure
Distant Failure on Amager island (Copenhagen), which through the grid reach Radsted with a distance of more
100 km. The failure was recoded 16/4-2007 kl 8:57 on Amager. The SVC reacts as expected and delivers full
reactive capacity during the failure and thereby supporting the voltage during the failure so only the voltage is
slightly affected and keeping the grid stabile after the failure.

Fig. 8. SVC responses to failures, Right curves show the 3 phase voltages
left curves show Measure reactive power from SVC, Voltage in rms, Ordered reactive power

”Power Qreg” shows the ordered power, due to different physical limitations the response is some 20-40 ms
delayed, the current response follows the ordered curve with 1-2 cycles delay. It can be seen that the voltage
is fully restored 20-40 ms after the failure has occurred.
The voltage shows a voltage drop to app. 0.77 pu before the SVC support is active. Even though the failure
lasts app. 80-100 ms, the SVC restores and maintains the voltage on less than 40 ms. The measured reactive
power relatively slow response can be due to the measurement.

Fig. 9. Wind turbine production

As it can be seen the wind production is not affected of the failure.

 V. Conclusion
The SVC installed in Radsted has improved the voltage quality in normal operation and brought
considerably more dynamic stability in the grid during disturbances.

• It is possible to operate a local grid with 400% wind power

• Wind turbines stay in operation more than anticipated.
• Good performance of the SVC in Radsted is improved due to the relatively weak connection to the
strong grid in north.
• The SVC has made it feasible to install the simple induction generator in the wind turbine, without any
belonging converter and complications. The simplified wind turbine design has been proven as a very
robust design, which contributes to fewer visits in the wind turbines, which are not always accessible.
• With the Radsted SVC, the Nysted offshore wind farm fulfils conventional grid codes for offshore wind
farms with an induction generator. The SVC does additionally supply valuable support to the grid and to
both the offshore and on shore wind turbines during grid faults, independently of the wind production.

VI. References

[1] C. Rasmussen, P. Jorgensen, and J. Havsager, S.B. Nielsen, N Andersen. "Improving voltage quality in
Eastern Denmark with a Dynamic Phase Compensator," Fifth International Workshop on Large-Scale
Integration of Wind Power and Transmission Networks for Offshore Wind Farms, Galsgow, Scotland, 2005.
[2] Transmission Plan 2005 (in Danish: Transmissionsplan 2005). Elkraft System a.m.b.a., Jan. 2005.
[3] S. B. Nielsen, ”Danish wind farm in the Baltic Sea,” in Proc. Third International Workshop on Transmission
Networks for Offshore Wind Farm, session 1, 2002.
[4] P. Kundur, “Power System Stability and Control”, McGraw-Hill, 1994.
[5] N. G. Hingorani, L. Gyugyi, “Understanding FACTS – Concepts and Technology of Flexible AC Transmission
System” IEEE Press, 2000.
[6] Power System Simulator for Engineering, PSS/E. Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc., Power
Technologies International (Siemens PTI).
[7] V. Akhmatov, “Analysis of Dynamic Behaviour of Electric Power Systems with Large Amount of Wind
Power”. Ph.D. thesis. Electric Power Engineering, Oersted – Technical University of Denmark, April 2003.
 VII. Biographies

Niels Andersen was born in 1961. He received his M.Sc. degree from the Technical
University of Denmark (DTU) in 1988, and was employed at the ABB Power Systems
(HVDC) until 1994. Since 1994 he has been employed by NVE where he has been
working with HVDC and FACTS applications. The present main areas of work are project
management, system studies, feasibility studies and specification for HVDC/FACTS and
offshore wind farms. From 1996-2003 he was a member of the CIGRE WG14-28 active
filters for high voltage applications.

Claus Overgaard Jensen Larsen was born in 1972. He received his B.Sc. from the
Odense University College of Engineering (IOT) in 1996. Since 1988 he has been
employed at SEAS and is now team leader in the station and transmission department.
His work includes system studies, design, preparations and erection of substations in the
transmission grid.

Steen Beck Nielsen was born in 1962. He received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical
Engineering from Aalborg University. Since 1988 he has been employed at SEAS and is
now Head of station and transmission department. His work includes strengthening of
the High voltage grid, transmission lines, high voltage cable projects and grid
connections of the Nysted Offshore Wind Farm.

VIII. Corresponding author’s address

Niels Andersen
SEAS-NVE
DK-2750 Ballerup
Denmark
Tel: (+45) 7029 2060
Fax: (+45) 7029 2511
na@seas-nve.dk