Comparative Study of SVC and STATCOM Reactive Power Compensation for Prosumer Microgrids With DFIG-Based Wind Farm Integration

Uncertainties of renewable energy sources like wind power are one of the considerable challenges of prosumer microgrids. To meet the grid codes requirements regarding the voltage stability of wind farm integration, finding the balance between providing the demanding dynamic performance of the voltage and reactive power, and at the same time decreasing the investment on centralized reactive power compensation device, becomes an important research topic. This article compares the effects of the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) and static VAR compensator (SVC) on transient voltage stability at the point of common coupling (PCC) of a doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind farm. And a new fast coordinated control scheme of STATCOM and DFIG is proposed for minimizing the capacity of centralized reactive power compensation device and making the best use of the reactive power control capability of DFIG. The simulation results based on test system show that STATCOM, even with less capacity, can contribute more reactive power than SVC for voltage stability, especially during the serious voltage drop transient stage, and perform a faster voltage recovery time after fault than SVC, proved to be a more economic choice; The proposed coordinated control scheme can not only improve the transient voltage stability, but also help reducing the capacity of STATCOM, so that the cost of investments in wind farms would be reduced.