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turbines and photovoltaic (PV) systems were regarded as non- II. GRID CODES AND LVRT REQUIREMENTS
reliable and non-dispatchable due to little or no inertia. Hence,
they must be disconnected during grid faults such as low The increase in the integration of renewable energy sources
voltages and short-circuits. This is because during grid voltage in large quantities such as wind and PV solar farms, and the
dips, power generated by this renewable sources is higher than possibility of voltage instability if abruptly disconnected has led
power absolved by the grid, hence the DC link voltage rises, to the inclusion of LVRT requirements in grid codes of several
turbine may run away, and can cause damage to the power countries. Before 2003, these sources are required to be shut
rectifiers and wind turbines and solar PV systems [1]. However, down or disconnected, at voltage levels of the point of common
due to more wind energy proliferation, several researches in coupling (PCC) beyond safe limits, to protect them from
Europe made it possible to expand requirements for wind farm damages due to symmetrical and non-symmetrical line faults
integration in the grid code [2]. The low voltage ride-through [1] [2]. However, Germany, via E.ON-Netz, is the first country
(LVRT) capability of wind turbines only was first introduced, to require an LVRT capability in her grid code. The grid code
then was later applied to PV systems and combined-heat and requires that renewable sources must act like traditional
power (CHP) plants [3]. LVRT requires synchronous generators during voltage dips and faults, thereby
To ensure LVRT capability and requirements stated in grid staying online to support the system via reactive power
codes of several countries, several LVRT technologies have generation [1]. Thereafter, many other countries with large
been proposed in the literature. The crowbar resistance amount of wind turbine penetration followed suit. Fig. 1. shows
technique has been proposed with several improvements. the graphs of the LVRT requirements of several European
Ibrahim et al [1]proposed the use of active crowbar with blade countries which is a voltage-time profile. As voltage stability
pitch angle control thereby allowing the controllability of not support is the most critical part of high penetration of wind
just the crowbar active bypass time but also reducing power power and PV system plants. The German requirement is the
imbalance across the rotor by reducing captured power of the most stringent as shown in Fig. 1. [4], where power plants must
wind turbine. Vidal et al [4] proposed a set of single-phase dc stay online even at zero grid voltage for a fault lasting 150ms.
crowbars with zero crossing capability that allows LVRT requirements of Spain and Italy have the lowest voltage
disconnecting the scheme at zero current, eliminating high level of 20% of nominal voltage and can lasting 500ms. The
voltage problems of three-phase dc crowbars, and making plants can only be disconnected at operations below this
unnecessary the complex and expensive circuitry of three-phase threshold lines. The Tables I and II show the LVRT requirement
crowbars. of several countries in Europe and North America [5].
Arunkumar et al [5] combined the actions of robust controller
2
TABLE I [5]
LVRT REQUIREMENTS IN GRID CODES OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES FOR GRID-
CONNECTED WIND TURBINES
A. Crowbar
The inclusion of crowbar resistor across the rotor winding is
among the most popular technique in literature to enhance the
LVRT capability of a wind turbine. The crowbar provides
alternative paths for the flow of high rotor currents during grid
side voltage dips, hence maintaining grid connection of the
plant. Thereby, protecting the rotor side converter (RSC) from
damage due to high rotor current, and the turbine from high
acceleration. The crow bar topology is given in Fig. 3.
However, the crowbar operation makes deactivates the RSC,
TABLE II [5]
LVRT REQUIREMENTS IN GRID CODES OF USA AND CANADA FOR GRID- hence power control is lost, no reactive power grid support is
CONNECTED WIND TURBINES possible, other function of the RSC are lost and the machines
draws a lot of reactive power from the grid via its stator. To
mitigate this and improve LVRT, the idea of active crowbar has
been proposed with improvements. The active crowbar allows
the controllability of the activation and deactivation of the
crowbar resistance within an optimized bypass time, in order to
allow RSC functions to be minimally affected.
A novel active crowbar technology proposed by Lafferte et
al [12] can detect either rotor over-currents, low stator or high
DC bus voltages. This improved topology is given in Fig. 4.
With the controlled switching of the controlled rectifier and
measured differences of the voltages across capacitors C1 and
C2, the converters are kept save and dangerous high voltages
and rotor currents are managed more effectively [12]. The
The second LVRT requirement for grid connection is that
provision of additional chopper device to the DC-link as shown
during voltage dips, the renewable sources must support the
in Fig. 4. is to enhance dissipation of energy in case of large
grid with reactive current injection into the system. This will
3
IV. CONCLUSION
This work has given an overview of the reasons why LVRT
capability is required for renewable energy sources such wind
turbine and solar PV farms due to their large penetration in
concerned countries. An overview of LVRT grid code
requirements is also made. It is seen that not implementing the
LVRT requirement will make the system at the risk of sudden
voltage instability due to faults and cascaded-effect loss of large
wind farms. The most popular methods employed to attain
LVRT capability are discussed.
REFERENCES
[1] I. R. A., H. M. S., D. Y. G. and W. B. W., "A review on recent low voltage
ride-through solutions for PMSG wind turbine," in International
Symposium on Power Electronics, Electrical Drives, Automation and
Motion, Sorrento, 2012.
[2] C. Abbey and G. Joos, "Effect of low voltage ride through (LVRT)
characteristic on voltage stability," in IEEE Power Engineering Society
General Meeting , San Francisco, 2005.
[3] J. Dirksen, "DEWI GmbH, Wilhelmshaven," August 2013. [Online].
Available:
http://www.dewi.de/dewi/fileadmin/pdf/publications/Magazin_43/10.pdf.
[Accessed January 2017].
[4] J. Vidal, G. Abad, J. Arza and S. Aurtenechea, "Single-phase dc crowbar
topologies for low voltage ride through fulfillment of high-power doubly