Assessment of Power Quality Characteristics of

Wind Farms
A. I. Estanqueiro, Member, IEEE, J. O. Tande and J. A. Peas Lopes, , Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractIn this paper the main parameters to assess the power

quality of grid embedded wind farms are presented. International
standards to assess and quantify the power quality of grid
connected wind turbines exist for some years now, and are here
extrapolated to wind farms aggregates when possible being the
correspondent methodologies identified in the document.
Recently, the grid code requirements posed a novel challenge to
this technologic area, particularly since they were issued with
national or local objectives and without particular normalized
global concerns. The form how the international standards are
evolving in order to cope both with the power systems industry
local requirements, but also with the global wind turbine
manufacturers principles is addressed in the paper.
Index Terms power quality, wind energy, wind turbines,
voltage dip.

I. INTRODUCTION

his paper presents the existing normalized and

uniform parameters and methodologies that ensure

consistency and accuracy in the assessment and presentation
of power quality characteristics of grid connected wind
turbines (WTs). These methodologies have been prepared to
be applied by the several parties involved in the wind
industry, namely: the WT manufacturer striving to comply
with well-defined characteristics; the WT purchaser in
specifying the equipment characteristics; the WT operator,
planner or regulator who may be required to verify that stated,
or required power quality characteristics are met and also
determine the impact of a WT on the power system quality of
service; finally it may also be useful to the planner or
regulator of the electric network who needs to determine the
grid connection required for a WT.
The currently existing power quality standard for wind
turbines, issued by the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC), IEC61400-21: Measurement and
assessment of power quality characteristics of grid connected
wind turbines, Ed 1, 2001 [1] defined the parameters that are
characteristic of the wind turbine behavior in terms of the
Ana I. Estanqueiro is with INETI National Institute for Engineering,
Technology and Innovation, Estrada do Paco do Lumiar, 22, Lisbon, Portugal.
(Ph: 351210924773; fax: 351217127195; e-mail: ana.estanqueiro@ineti.pt).
J.O Tande is with SINTEF Energy Research, Norway
J. A. Peas Lopes, is with INESC-Porto and Faculdade de Engenharia da
Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

1-4244-1298-6/07/$25.00 2007 IEEE.

quality of power, and also provides recommendations to carry

out measurements and assess the power quality characteristics
of grid connected WTs. Although the standard mainly
describes measurement methods for characterizing single
wind turbines, there are methodologies and models developed
that enable, for well pre-defined conditions, to extrapolate the
single turbine unit parameters to the typical quality
characteristics of wind farms.
Recently, several Transmission System Operators (TSOs)
have developed grid codes [2] for wind turbines and/or wind
farms. These generally resemble requirements to wind farms
that are very similar to those of any other power stations. The
new requirements were challenging for the wind turbine
industry, but it responded as requested by the TSOs. The
largest problem seems to be the fact that the grid codes were
issued to respond to national and regional grid characteristics
that, by their intrinsic nature, are typically non-general and
local-dependent thus prevent from a normalized standard
approach [3].
II. WIND POWER QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS
When the IEC 61400-21 standard was developed as
published, the assessment of the WTs power quality was, in
its essence, the assessment of the turbines voltage quality. The
reason for this was that at the time of developing the standard,
the wind turbines were mainly connected to the distribution
grid, and the basic concern was their possible impact on the
voltage quality and not on power system operation. This has
changed with the development of large wind farms that may
form a significant part of the power system. In consequence,
todays wind turbines are able to control the power (active and
reactive) delivered both in transient and steady state, they can
cope with power ramp requirements and they have ride through
fault (RTF) capability. They may even contribute to the primary
frequency control, but then on the cost of dissipating energy. To
this, IEC 61400-21 is currently under revision to provide
procedures for assessing these new wind turbine characteristics.
One may state that todays wind farms are more like
conventional power plants, and in that respect quite different
from the wind turbine installations from the end of the last
century. Such recent technical advances allow for large global
wind power penetration and also attractive for island systems.
Nevertheless, wind farm developers still face some resistance
from the utilities to connect their independent power plants to
the existing grid. The wind, being a spatially dispersed
renewable source of energy, still induces a negative reaction

on the system planners and operators, mainly due to its timedependent non-dispatchable nature. As an example, although
that is evident for most power engineers, its is probably
difficult to find a reference to the fact that, in specific cases,
wind power can even improve the voltage quality and benefit
the service in weak rural systems. Another example being
that, for some areas where wind may have a high correlation
with the seasonal loads (e.g. seasonal tourism in windy areas),
the local integration of this power sources - possibly together
with some storage - may avoid the reinforcement of the
transmission grid and clearly benefice the power system.
With the development of the IEC 61400-21 standard during
the later nineties and its publication in 2001 [1] as well as the
outcomes of some European funded research projects it was
possible to identify both the factors and characteristics with
highest influence on the power quality of wind turbines and
the parameters more adapted to their quantification, to act as
normalized quality indicators (Table I).
Table I - Factors with impact on
the power quality of wind farms

(together with the reactive power flow in either sense

depending on national/regional legislation and regulations) are
wind power trade-marks than can contribute to flicker
emissions and to affect the mean voltage profile. Indeed, this
can be counteracted on by installation of reactive
compensation (possibly as a central unit of the wind farm).
The use of doubly-fed induction generators or generators with
fully rated frequency converters generally offers smaller
fluctuations in the active power output, and built in reactive
compensation capabilities. A drawback of using power
electronic converters may be a higher harmonic distortion.
B. Grid conditions
Reduction of voltage quality due to the connection of wind
generators may impose limits to the connection of large wind
parks in a given part of the electrical network. The approach
used to evaluate about the feasibility of such connection
involves three steps, according to IEC Electromagnetic
compatibility standards, IEC 61000-3-6 and 3-7 [4]-[5]:
1.

A) wind turbine technology

- type of electrical generator
- gearbox or gearless transmission
- direct/controlled connection to the grid

B) grid conditions at the point of common coupling

- short circuit power and X/R ratio
- interconnection voltage level and regulation
- type of interconnecting transformers (e.g. LTC)
- earth system (?? I suggest to delete this point)
- coordination of the protections

C) wind farm design and control

- number and nominal power of the wind turbines
- wind farm internal power collecting system characteristics (X/R)
- possible capacity effects from the wind farm internal cabling system
- added power/voltage control and regulation

D) wind flow local characteristics

- turbulence intensity
- - turbine operation under wake flow
- spectrum of the wind 3D components
- spatial variability of the wind

This important step enabled not only to estimate the power

quality of a wind turbine (and extrapolate it to a wind park),
but also to apply them in the feasibility phase of a wind park
and thus optimise its capacity and technical characteristics in
order to avoid the degradation of the existing network quality
of service.
A. Wind turbine technology
The typical behaviour of a wind park based on squirrel cage
induction generators (mostly doubly fed in current days),
delivers a variable1 power to the grid. This power flow
1
but not intermittent as some authors refer. Intermittency implies no persistence of the power signal,
which is not true for wind, being persistence methods even used for power production forecasting.

2.
3.

Identification of the tolerable planning levels in the

receiving network, in terms of voltage, for power quality
(harmonics and flicker);
Allocation of the distortion limits to the generation
facilities, considering the influence of adjacent networks;
Evaluation of the tolerable limits for harmonic current
injections and flicker for each wind park.

Limitations that may arise can be solved through network

reinforcements and by using local corrective procedures, like
installation of active filters or dynamic voltage restorers.
The most relevant factor related to the grid characteristics,
with influence on voltage quality, is the equivalent line
impedance, normally introduced in the grid integration studies
through the short circuit power and phase angle in the grid
interconnection transformer or substation (Sk and k), also
referred in the IEC standards as point of common coupling
(PCC).
Network reinforcement can be used to increase the PCC
short-circuit power in order to allow for the connection of
large wind parks in a given network area, however, this is not
always possible due to economic reasons and therefore
voltage quality issues may impose real limitations to the
connection of large wind parks, but depending on the wind
turbine technology.
C. Wind park design and control
The wind park topology is mainly conditioned by the wind
turbine micrositing in order to avoid some turbines to work
under the wake of others. It is commonly accepted that the
power fluctuations - whose equivalent representation in the
IEC power quality standard is the flicker - produced by
several wind turbines tend to cancel by a factor of 1 / N ,
being N the number of the turbines in a park, electric cluster,
or even region as shown by Lipman et al [6]. It is possible
thus, in the initial phase of a wind park or cluster design, to
decide among various configurations of a park that have
different impacts of the system power quality (e.g. a small

number of large turbines vs a large number of smaller ones)

for the same installed capacity, being this issue specially
important in weak isolated systems (e.g. islands). Although
the wind park topology is not addressed in any current
standard, it impact on a wind farm dynamic behaviour, hence
on this power plants quality is not negligible and could,
therefore, be taken into account.
D. Wind flow local characteristics
The most typical characteristics of the primary energy source
driving wind turbines, i.e. the wind flow characteristics, manly
its non stationary and non-stochastic characteristic, usually
referred globally as turbulence, have been traditionally
neglected as a major wind turbine power quality parameter.
Being evident that its inclusion turns an already complex issue
even more complex, using Figure 1 - where two voltage series
with very different turbulence intensity are depicted - one
easily concludes on the high influence of the atmospheric
conditions (and stability) on the voltage fluctuations of a wind
park busbar.

and its spatial correlation is very low, what turns out to be a

very positive issue in what concerns the power system
operation.
As referred previously, the publication of IEC 61400-21
standard enable to define systematic parameters to
characterize the quality of power (mainly voltage at that time)
of grid connected wind turbines. Normalised parameters were
defined and adapted the wind turbine working mode, when
necessary. The main parameters identified and currently used
nowadays are presented below:
A. Wind Turbine Constructive Parameters
Nominal and Reference Power;
Reactive power versus active power;
B. Wind Power Fluctuations
1. Steady-state: Flicker emission
Long and Short Term emission;
2. Transient State: Wind turbine cut-in and cut-out
Voltage Dips and drops

15.8

15.5

IV. FROM WIND TURBINE TO WIND FARM POWER QUALITY

15.3
wind speed = 9.0 m/s, I=10%
wind speed = 9.6 m/s, I=24 %
15.0
0.0

30.0

60.0

90.0

120.0

Time [s]

Fig. 1 PCC voltage for different atmospheric conditions.

Fortunately, the unstable climatic conditions characteristic of

the locality where the voltage time series displayed in Fig. 1
were monitored, are unlikely to occur in many other places.
They are very useful, however, to illustrate that the wind flow
physical characteristics (here the turbulence) may affect the
voltage (and power) quality of a wind power plant. Indeed,
this also depends on the wind turbine technology, and modern
wind turbines with reactive control capabilities may control
the voltage quite effectively even under sever climatic
conditions.

In the paper the existing methodologies and empirical models

to extrapolate the power quality of wind farms from the power
quality parameters defined and developed for single grid
connected wind turbines will be addressed and presented [7][8]. Particularly addressed will be the possibility for
articulation between wind turbine power quality standards and
the national or regional grid codes, in what concerns the low
voltage ride through fault (LVRTF or RTF) capability
represented in Fig.2 where dashed pattern represents the
non-standard RTF area requested by the grid codes.

120

100

Voltage [%]

Voltage [kV]

C. Imbalances and Harmonics

Current Harmonics and Inter-harmonics

80

REN (Portugal)

60

REE (Spain)
E-ON (Germ.)

40

ESB (Ireland)
FERC (US)

20

III. WIND TURBINES POWER QUALITY STANDARD

PARAMETERS
Being a time depended and highly variable source, the wind
power delivered to the grid maintains, not al, but most of the
primary energy characteristics: it is highly variable in time, it
is difficult to predict and control (although not impossible)

0
-1

-0.5

0.5

1.5

2.5

Time [sec.]

Fig. 2 LVRTF requirements for several grid codes.

3.5

4.5

5.5

V. SYNTHESES
The paper covers the wind power quality issue from the
initially addressed grid connected single-turbine case to the
actual spreading of Transmission System Operators (TSOs)
grid codes and wind power plant behavior requirements.
The possibilities of extrapolation from standards to grids and
the issue of generalized grid codes are addressed.

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]
[3]
[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

IEC 61400-21:2001; Wind turbine generator systems - Part 21:

Measurement and assessment of power quality characteristics of grid
connected wind turbines, IEC Standard, 2001.
E-ON Netz Grid Code High and extra high voltage. Bayreuth, Aug. p-54,
2003.
W. Christiansen and D. T. Johnsen, Analysis of requirements in selected
Grid Codes. Available at http://www.frontwind.com/ (URL).
IEC 61000-3-6. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) - Part 3: Limits Section 6: Assessment of harmonic emission limits for the connection of
distorting installations to MV, HV and EHV power systems - Basic EMC
publication, IEC Standard, 1996.
IEC 61000-3-7. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) - Part 3-7: Limits:
Assessment of emission limits for the connection of fluctuating load
installations to MV, HV and EHV power systems, IEC Standard, 1996.
N. H. Lipman, E. A. Bossanyi, P. D. Dunn, P. J. Musgrove, G. E. Whittle,
and C. Maclean; Fluctuations in the output from wind turbine clusters,
Wind Engineering, vol. 4, n 1, pp.1-7, 1980.
Tande JO, E Muljadi, O Carlson, J Pierik, A Estanqueiro, P Srensen, M
OMalley, A Mullane, O Anaya-Lara, B Lemstrom (2004) Dynamic
models of wind farms for power system studies status by IEA Wind
R&D Annex 21, in Proceedings of European Wind Energy Conference
(EWEC), 22-25 November 2004, London, UK.
IEA: Variability of wind power and other renewables. Management
options and strategies. 2005. http://www.iea.org/Textbase/ publications/
free_new_Desc.asp?PUBS_ID=1572

Ana Estanqueiro was born in Coimbra in 1963. She received her electrical
engineer degree from the Technical University of Lisbon (TUL) in 1986 where
she also did her M.Sc and PhD. in mechanical engineering, respectively in 1991
and 1997. She works as a research scientist at INETI, Lisbon, Portugal since
1987, being currently Director of the Wind and Ocean Energy Research Unit as
well as associate professor at Universidade Lusiada. Her research interests are
broad within wind energy with a focus on grid integration and dynamic behavior
wind turbines benefiting from her electrical and mechanical background. Prof.
Estanqueiro is currently chair of the IEA - International Energy Agency Wind
Agreement and President of the PT IEP/IEC CTE 88 Wind Turbines.
John O. Tande was born in Trondheim in 1962. He received his M.Sc. in
electrical engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology
in 1988. He has worked as a research scientist at Norwegian Electric Power
Research Institute (1989), Ris National Laboratory (Denmark, 1990-97) and
SINTEF Energy Research (1997-). Throughout his career his research has
focused on electrical engineering aspects of wind power, and he has broad
experience within the field including heading EU projects and working groups of
IEC and IEA.
J. A. Peas Lopes (M80SM94) received the electrical engineering degree in
1981 and the Ph.D. degree, also in electrical engineering, in 1988, both from the
University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. He received the Aggregation degree in
1996. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Porto. In 1989, he joined the staff of INESC-Porto as a Senior
Researcher, and is now Co-Coordinator of the Power Systems Unit.
Additionally, he has been leading several research and consultancy projects
related with the integration of renewable generation and DG in the power
system.