Direct load flow algorithm to evaluate performance of offshore Wind Farm Distribution Systems

Abstract

In recent years offshore Wind Farm Distribution Systems (WFDS) become popular because of its advantages; such as the wind resource in offshore is higher, uniform (i.e. no turbulence) and availability of large sea area. In order to evaluate the performance of WFDS load flow algorithm/solution is essential. Traditional load flow methods such as the Gauss-Seidel and Newton-Raphson techniques fail to meet the requirements in evaluating both performance and robustness aspects of radial connected wind farm distribution systems due to weakly meshed structure and extremely large no of branches and nodes. Hence in this context it is necessary to have a robust load flow algorithm. This paper describes the direct load flow algorithm which solves directly using KCL and KVL to obtain the load flow solution for the offshore WFDS. The advantage of this algorithm is that it can be used with any type of variable speed generators. Further to validate the algorithm computer simulations are carried out for 80 MW DFIG and PMSG based wind farm distribution systems independently using MATLAB.