Investigation of power grid technologies for offshore wind farm systems

Abstract

In the present document, an investigation about offshore wind farm technology is presented. The main objective of the work is to investigate the possibility of the farm to work in Direct Current instead of the conventional Alternate Current. With this in mind model of an AC wind farm is simulated in Simulink, in order to compare its performance with a DC wind farm model. In order to create those, the current technology of wind turbines is first presented. The different elements that form a turbine are explained and the generator used in the models selected and analytically designed. Next, the different types of wind farms are listed. The AC and DC technologies are explained and the wind farm topologies presented. A simple configuration is selected for the simulation. On the next chapter, the electronic converters, one of the most important element of the system are presented. The current technologies and the models for the DC wind farm are explained and the topologies for the simulation designed. Finally, the simulated models are described. These are then simulated and the results obtained are used to compare them. A final conclusion is made afterwards.