Connection System for Small and Medium-Size Wind Generators through the Integration in an MMC and NLC Modulation

Fernando Martinez-Rodrigo, Dionisio Ramirez, Santiago de Pablo and Luis Carlos Herrero- de Lucas
Additional contact information
Fernando Martinez-Rodrigo: Department of Electronics Technology, University of Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Dionisio Ramirez: Centro de Electrónica Industrial (CEI), 28006 Madrid, Spain
Santiago de Pablo: Department of Electronics Technology, University of Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Luis Carlos Herrero- de Lucas: Department of Electronics Technology, University of Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: This paper presents a new way of organizing a wind farm with a large number of small to medium-sized turbines. Each wind generator has been included in a switching module of a modular multilevel converter (MMC), which generates the output voltage by near level control (NLC). The proposed topology reduces the number of semiconductors required, switching losses, and voltage filtering requirements. This topology replaces the usual configuration where each wind turbine is connected to a three-phase two-level back-to-back converter plus a filter and then connected in parallel with the other wind generators. To test the topology and its control performance, a case has been developed and simulated for generator configurations producing the same power, for generation imbalances between phases and for imbalances between arms. The analysis of the data shows that the converter works correctly and that it can deliver power to the grid in a balanced way even if the generation has imbalances. The generation imbalances between phases are compensated through the average value of the circulating current, while the imbalances between arms are compensated through the 50 Hz circulating current.

Keywords: modular multilevel converter (MMC); near level control (NLC); small wind turbine; wind farm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2681/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2681/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:9:p:2681-:d:549946

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().