Wind Plant Controller Reactive Power Fault Reconfiguration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Communication failures between reactive power regulating devices and power plant controllers in wind power plants can lead to difficulties in ensuring the desired amount of reactive power is supplied to the electrical grid, resulting in performance issues and saturation problems.
Innovation Solution
A power plant controller is configured with a communication fault detector and reconfiguration capabilities, allowing it to adjust setpoints, limit values, and redistribute reactive power among unaffected devices to maintain desired reactive power production even in case of communication faults, thereby enhancing robustness and performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If communication between power plant controller and reactive power regulating device is maintained, then control precision of reactive power is improved, but system reliability deteriorates due to communication fault vulnerability
Solution Approach 1:
The controller detects communication faults and performs reconfiguration in advance before the fault causes complete loss of reactive power control. By detecting the fault condition and redistributing reactive power setpoints to operational devices proactively, the system maintains control precision without waiting for total system failure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters of the reactive power regulating devices by redistributing reactive power setpoints among operational devices when communication faults are detected. This parameter redistribution allows the system to adapt to the changed communication conditions and maintain effective control.
2Reliability
If reactive power is redistributed among unaffected devices during communication fault, then system reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to reconfiguration requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The power plant controller performs multiple functions: normal reactive power control, communication fault detection, and dynamic reconfiguration. By integrating these diverse functions into a single controller, the system achieves improved reliability without proportionally increasing overall system complexity, as the controller already manages complex control tasks.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-diagnosis and self-reconfiguration when communication faults are detected. The controller automatically detects the fault condition and redistributes reactive power setpoints without external intervention, enabling the system to maintain reliability while minimizing the complexity of external monitoring and manual reconfiguration systems.
3Reliability
If communication fault detection and reconfiguration is implemented, then system robustness is improved, but control system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The controller continuously monitors communication status between itself and reactive power regulating devices, using this feedback to determine when reconfiguration is necessary. This feedback mechanism enables the system to achieve robustness by adapting to communication faults while keeping control system complexity manageable through event-driven rather than continuous complex monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for controlling injection and absorption of reactive power in a wind power plant (WPP). In addition to wind turbine generators (WTG), the wind power plant comprises reactive power regulating devices, such as MSU and STATCOM devices. The reactive power regulating devices are controlled by wind power plant controller so that the combined amount of reactive power produced by the wind turbine generators and the reactive power regulating devices satisfies a desired amount of reactive power. In case of communication fault between the power plant controller and one of the reactive power regulating devices, the power plant controller is reconfigured so as to compensate the capability of the reactive power regulating device to inject or absorb the amount of reactive power.