Equivalencing the Collector System

of a Large Wind Power Plant

Presenter: Ed Muljadi
National Wind Technology Center
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Golden, Colorado USA
IEEE Power Engineering Society
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
June 1822, 2006

Disclaimer and Government License

This work has been authored by Midwest Research Institute (MRI) under Contract No. DE-AC36-99GO10337 with the U.S.
Department of Energy (the DOE). The United States Government (the Government) retains and the publisher, by accepting
the work for publication, acknowledges that the Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to
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Co-authors
E. Muljadi
C.P. Butterfield

A. Ellis
J. Mechenbier

J. Hochheimer
R. Young

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

1617 Cole Blvd
Golden, CO 80401

Public Service Company of New Mexico

Alvarado Square, MS 0604
Albuquerque NM 87158

FPL Energy LLC

700 Universe Blvd.
Juno Beach, FL 33408

N. Miller
R. Delmerico

R. Zavadil
J.C. Smith

General Electric International, Inc.

1 River Road, Bldg. 2-605
Schenectady, New York 12345

Utility Wind Integration Group

2004 Lakebreeze Way
Reston, VA 20191

Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the support of the following:
U.S. Department of Energy
Public Service Company of New Mexico
FPL Energy
General Electric
Utility Wind Interest Group (UWIG)
William Price, from General Electric International Inc., for help
and discussions during the development of this project

Issues
A large wind power plant covers a very large area
(>100 square miles) and consists of many wind
turbines (>100).
The power system network within a power plant is
intricate, with long line feeders.
The wind plant representation must be accurate
enough to maintain the validity of the wind plant
behavior.
The wind plant representation must be simple
enough to be simulated and analyzed.

Objectives
Derive an equivalent circuit of a wind power plant.
The equivalence must be valid for large or small
wind plant.
The equivalence must be sufficient to represent the
behavior of a wind plant under steady-state and
dynamic conditions.

136 turbines representation

Equivalence

Wind Farm
(R + jX)

10998

10995

34.5 kV

345 kV

jB

Values to be determined
10997
0.570 kV

10996

10999

(0.002+j0.002)
(0.0014+j0.0828)

34.5 kV

Taiban Mesa
Infinite Bus

(RXFMR + jXXFMR)
values to be determined.

Equivalence to be derived

Approach
Analytical approach
Assumptions made:
All turbines generate rated currents.
All currents are identical in magnitude and phase angle.
Equivalence is based on real and reactive losses.

Define circuit configurations found in the wind plant.

Derive the equation representing each circuit configuration.
Identify the sub-circuits found in the wind plant represented by
each circuit configuration.
Combine the sub-circuits found in the entire wind plant, and find
the equivalence of the wind plant up to the main substation.

Deduction approach

Analytical Approach
Circuit configurations found in the wind plant
Z1S

IS
I1
Z1
I1

Z2
I2

Z3

IS

I4

I3

I1

Z4

Z1

I2

IS

(b)

Figure 3 a) single series daisy-chain

b) equivalent representation of circuit (a)

n1

IP

IT

Z 2P

n2

IT

ZP

Figure 4. Parallel connection of three groups of

turbines through series impedances Z1, Z2, and Z3

Corresponding equivalent impedance

ZS =

I3
Z3P

n3

ZS

Z3S

Z3
n3

n2

I2
Z1P

I3

(a)

n1
1

Z2

Z 2S

n
m=1

m Zm

2
n
m=1 m Zm

ZP =

n m
m =1

ns
2
ni ZiP + nj ZiS

i=1
i=1 j =1

ZT =
2
np

ni
i=1
np

ZT

Figure 5. Parallel series connection of three

groups of turbines

ns

Analytical Approach
The voltage drop across each impedance, can
be easily derived as follows.
The voltage drop across Z1 = VZ1 = I1 Z1 = I Z1
.
The voltage drop across Z4 =
VZ4 = (I1 + I2 + I3+ I4) Z4 = 4 I Z4
The power loss at each impedance, can be
computed as:
SLoss_Z1 = VZ1 I1* = I1 I1* Z1 = I I* Z1 = I2 Z1
SLoss_Z4 = VZ4 (I1 + I2 + I3 +
= 42 I2 Z4
2

STot_loss = I

m=1

m Zm

I1

Z2
I2

Z3

IS

IS

I4

I3

Z4

(b)

ZS

Figure 3 a) single series daisy-chain

b) equivalent representation of circuit (a)

2
m
m=1 Zm
n

(a)

STot_loss = IS2 ZS

I4)*
2

STot_loss = I (Z1 + 2 Z2 + 3 Z3 + 4 Z4 )
n

Z1

ZS =

n2

Analytical Approach
Wind turbine transformer
Turbine
#1 0.570 kV

Shunt representation

34.5 kV

R+jX
(0.3572+j3.3370)

B/2

Turbine
#136

0.570 kV

Btot = Bi

34.5 kV

(0.3572+j3.3370)

i =1

10997

10996

0.570 kV

34.5 kV

Wind Farm

(136 turbines)

B/2

(0.3572+j3.3370)/136 =
(0.0026+j0.02454)

ZPMXFMR_WF = ZPMXFMR_WTG /nturbine

Analytical Approach
Equivalence of complete circuit
(EOCC)
Taiban Mesa
Infinite Bus

Equivalence of major lines

(EOML)
Taiban Mesa
Infinite Bus

10999
345 kV

10999
345 kV

10995
345 kV

10995
345 kV

10998
34.5 kV
D22

10998
34.5 kV

N8

D23
m8
N3

D11

N8

m3
D1

N1

D12
N4

N2

D2

D13

D17

D3

D14

D18

D15

D19

D16

D20

N3
D6
m1

N6

N1

N2

D7
m4

D4

N5

D8
N7

D21

N6

D9
N5

D5

m6

N4

D10

m5

m7

N7

m2

Deduction Approach
Deduction approach
Assumption made:
The voltages, currents, and real and reactive losses used are
computed by power flow.
The voltages and currents have unique phase angles and
magnitudes.
The current outputs of each turbine may not be identical with respect
to its neighbor.

Identify the groups of turbine and the corresponding line feeder to

be equivalenced.
Tabulate the real and reactive losses within the group.
Tabulate the current for each group identified.
Compute the equivalent model to represent each group identified.

Deduction Approach
Impedance computed from losses

PLoss
R pu = 2
3I Z base

Z base =
X pu =

VLL _ base 2
Sbase

Qtot _ Loss V pu2 B pu Sbase

3I 2 Z base

Comparisons
deduction

analytical

Collector System Losses

Losses Complete (136WTG)

Ploss
4.13 MW
2.02%
Qloss 5.33 MVAR 2.61%

EOCC
2.69%
4.99%

EOML
1.81%
4.15%

Line Impedance Z (p.u.), B, X/R and B/R

Conclusions

The equivalence of a collector system using EOCC produces the highest

impedance due to conservative assumptions that all turbines produce rated
current at the same magnitude and phase angle. Using EOML, the result is closer
to the Complete representation.

The ratio X/R is very consistent for the EOCC, EOML, and Complete
representations.

The ratio B/R for the complete equivalent circuit is over-predicted.

Very large and diverse wind power plants can be represented by dividing the
large wind power plant into smaller groups of wind turbines with similar
attributes.

This approach for calculating X, R, and B using EOCC was tested and validated
by the authors and has been adopted by the wind developer for estimating
equivalent impedance of proposed wind power plants for interconnection study
purposes. Recommendations were provided to PNM to adjust the equivalentcircuit representation for this project.

Rather than estimating the impedance by visual inspection as initially done, a

much more accurate result can be obtained by taking into account the number of
wind turbine generators that are injecting currents into each branch.