896 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2005
Flicker Study on Variable Speed Wind Turbines
With Doubly Fed Induction Generators
Tao Sun, Zhe Chen, Senior Member, IEEE, and Frede Blaabjerg, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—Grid connected wind turbines may produce flicker
during continuous operation. This paper presents a simulation
model of a MW-level variable speed wind turbine with a doubly
fed induction generator developed in the simulation tool of
PSCAD/EMTDC. Flicker emission of variable speed wind tur-
bines with doubly fed induction generators is investigated during
continuous operation, and the dependence of flicker emission on
mean wind speed, wind turbulence intensity, short circuit capacity
of grid and grid impedance angle are analyzed. A comparison is
done with the fixed speed wind turbine, which leads to a conclu-
sion that the factors mentioned above have different influences on
flicker emission compared with that in the case of the fixed speed
wind turbine. Flicker mitigation is realized by output reactive
power control of the variable speed wind turbine with doubly fed
induction generator. Simulation results show the wind turbine
output reactive power control provides an effective means for
flicker mitigation regardless of mean wind speed, turbulence
intensity and short circuit capacity ratio.
Index Terms—Doubly fed induction generator, flicker, variable
speed wind turbine.
I. INTRODUCTION
I
N RECENT years wind power generation has experienced
a very fast development in the whole world. As the wind
power penetration into the grid is increasing quickly, the in-
fluence of wind turbines on the power quality is becoming an
important issue. One of the important power quality aspects is
flicker.
Flicker is defined as “an impression of unsteadiness of visual
sensation induced by a light stimulus, whose luminance or
spectral distribution fluctuates with time” [1], which can cause
consumer annoyance and complaint. Furthermore, flicker can
become a limiting factor for integrating wind turbines into
weak grids, and even into relatively strong grids where the
wind power penetration levels are high.
Flicker is induced by voltage fluctuations, which are caused
by load flow changes in the grid. Grid connected wind turbines
may have considerable fluctuations in output power, which
depend on the wind power generation technology applied. The
Manuscript received October 28, 2003; revised June 19, 2004. Paper no. TEC-
00311-2003.
T. Sun is with the Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aal-
borg DK-9220, Denmark. He is also with North China Electric Power Univer-
sity, Baoding 071003, China, and China Electric Power Research Institute, Bei-
jing 100085, China (e-mail: tsu@iet.auc.dk).
Z. Chen is with the Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aal-
borg DK-9220, Denmark, on leave from De Montfort University, Leicester LE1
9BH, U.K. (e-mail: zch@iet.aau.dk).
F. Blaabjerg is with the Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University,
Aalborg DK-9220, Denmark (e-mail: fbl@iet.aau.dk).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEC.2005.847993
flicker emission produced by grid connected wind turbines
during continuous operation is mainly caused by fluctuations
in the output power due to wind speed variations, the wind
gradient and the tower shadow effect [2].
As a consequence of the combination of wind speed varia-
tions, the wind gradient and the tower shadow effect, an output
power drop will appear three times per revolution for a three-
bladed wind turbine. This frequency is normally referred to as
the
frequency. For fixed speed wind turbines with induction
generators, power pulsations up to 20% of the average power at
the frequency of
will be generated [3].
There are numerous of factors that affect flicker emission
of grid-connected wind turbines during continuous operation,
such as wind characteristics (e.g. mean wind speed, turbulence
intensity) and grid conditions (e.g. short circuit capacity, grid
impedance angle, load type) [2], [4]–[7]. The type of wind tur-
bine also has influence on flicker emission. Variable speed wind
turbines have shown better performance related to flicker emis-
sion in comparison with fixed speed wind turbines [2], [4]. The
reason is that variable speed operation of the rotor has the ad-
vantage that the faster power variations are not transmitted to
the grid but are smoothed by the flywheel action of the rotor.
Although the variable speed wind turbine produces lower
flicker levels, the flicker study becomes necessary and imper-
ative as the wind power penetration level increases quickly.
Variable speed wind turbines with doubly fed induction gener-
ators, the most popular installed variable speed wind turbines
worldwide [8], [9] are the main research topic in this paper.
In this paper, a simulation model of a MW-level variable
speed wind turbine with a doubly fed induction generator
developed in PSCAD/EMTDC [10], [11] is presented, and the
control schemes of the wind turbine are described. Based on
the wind turbine model, flicker emission of variable speed wind
turbines with doubly fed induction generators is investigated
during continuous operation. The factors that affect flicker
emission of wind turbines, such as wind characteristics (mean
speed, turbulence intensity) and grid conditions (short circuit
capacity, grid impedance angle) are analyzed. Compared with
that in the case of the fixed speed wind turbine, the factors
mentioned above have different influences on flicker emission
of the variable speed wind turbine with doubly fed induction
generator. Flicker mitigation is realized by output reactive
power control of the variable speed wind turbine with doubly
fed induction generator.
II. W
IND TURBINE MODEL
The wind turbine considered here applies a doubly fed
induction generator, using a back-to-back PWM voltage source
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