Wind plant reactive power and voltage compliance with grid codes

One important aspect of wind turbine controls is the ability to control the power factor and/or the plant system voltage, in order to comply with interconnection agreements. There are references readily available that discuss control issues regarding the dynamic performance for wind plants, but very little information has been published regarding the overall wind plant operation towards meeting the interconnection requirements for reactive power and voltage control. This paper presents examples of different grid code requirements and how the turbine operation with either voltage or power factor control is used in practice. Some power flow simulation case results are given to illustrate these concepts, and how compliance is achieved at the point of interconnection.