STATCOM Operation and Control for Offshore Wind Farms with Diode Rectifier-based HVDC Connection

This paper presents a comparison between two variants of STATCOM topologies for offshore wind farms (OWFs) connected to the diode rectifier-based high voltage direct current links: The two-level STATCOM and the cascaded H-bridge STATCOM. These converter topologies are compared during three functions: the OWF frequency control, active power filtering and negative-sequence voltage compensation. The comparison includes the system operation and control during both normal and fault conditions. The dynamic behavior, fault-ride-through capability, power losses and relative cost of both approaches are evaluated through simulation model of the system during a specific study case.