Static compensators fitted at wind farms
An
ABB Power Technologies product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Oct 29, 2007
ABB Statcoms will provide Nordex with real-time, reactive power compensation within a compact installation footprint
Nordex is installing ABB Statcoms (static compensators) at two of the UK's largest new wind farms, Scout Moor and Little Cheyne Court.
The Statcoms will provide Nordex with a cost-effective solution for dynamic, real-time, reactive power compensation within a compact installation footprint, increasing the resilience of the power generated by the wind farms and helping them comply with the stringent requirements of the grid code for voltage regulation and power factor performance.
The 65MW Scout Moor wind farm is being developed by Peel Wind Power on a site around 30km north-east of Manchester on the Rossendale/Rochdale border.
It will comprise 26 Nordex N80 2500kW turbines and is due to be connected to the grid in spring 2008.
Little Cheyne Court, Npower Renewables' 60MW wind farm under construction on Romney Marsh, Kent, is the largest onshore scheme in the south of England to date.
Comprising 26 N90 2300kW turbines, it will be completed by Nordex on a turnkey basis and go into operation at the beginning of 2009.
The grid code will require the Scout Moor and Liitle Cheyne Court wind farms to regulate their transmission voltage within tight limits, even as the power output (MW) changes according to the windspeed.
Reactive power compensation is needed to counteract voltage sags, swells and momentary interruptions.
It also has to be provided quickly and efficiently - within fractions of a second - to prevent tripping or crashing of the network, avoiding lost production and potential equipment damage.
Reactive power control provided by generators or capacitor banks alone is too slow for the sudden load changes found in wind farms.
The traditional solution would therefore be the SVC (static VAr compensator).
However, these function most effectively in large utility installations and in reducing the size of an SVC to that appropriate for a typical UK wind farm there is a loss in efficiency and a significant cost increase per VAr of capacity.
ABB has developed an alternative in the form of the Statcom featuring a power electronic voltage source convertor (VSC) using semiconductors based on integrated gate commuted thyristor (IGCT) technology.
The Statcom acts as a dynamic, variable source of reactive power that can inject (add VArs) or consume (take VArs) in small increments, to or from the wind farm output, as required by its control system, bringing superior performance at reduced costs for reactive power compensation and dynamic voltage regulation.
It also has the benefit of a small installation footprint as it eliminates large air-cored inductors and mechanically switched capacitors.
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