Bridge-Type Fault Current Limiter to improve the

transient stability of Doubly Fed Induction Machine

Abstract:
Technological advancement and industrialization has raised the increase in electrical power
demand all around the world. Rapid exhaustion and limited reserve of fossil fuels, intensification
of environmental concerns have made it urgent to seek for alternative energy sources and to
devise improved methods of exploiting renewable energy sources. Among the available
renewable energy sources, wind energy is the fastest growing and most prominent option to
generate electric power due to its zero fuel cost, no carbon emission, lower maintenance, cleaner,
cheaper and renewable nature. Due to flexibility in operation and enhanced features like higher
output power, higher efficiency, improved power quality, variable speed operation, lower
mechanical stress on turbine hence lower maintenance, decoupled control of the active and
reactive power, the variable speed wind generators are becoming preferred choice for new
installations and drawing higher attention than the traditional induction machine-based fixed
speed wind generators. Compared to variable speed wind generators having full rated converter,
the DFIM is more vulnerable to grid fault or disturbances from the stability standpoint, as its
stator windings are directly connected to grid while rotor windings are interfaced to grid via the
rotor-side converter (RSC) and the grid-side converter (GSC) that are connected back-to-back
through a dc-link capacitor. At the event of grid fault, terminal voltage of the DFIM goes very
low and very high current flows through both stator and rotor winding. This is a threat to stable
operation and may eventually burn the machine and the converters. Traditionally, to protect from
such fault incidents, wind generators were disconnected from the grid. As more and more wind
power is integrated into the grid, it has become necessary that wind turbines stay connected to
grid during fault. Therefore, it is important to enhance the transient stability of the DFIM-based
wind generators. To achieve enhanced transient stability of the DFIM, a bridge-type fault current
limiter (BFCL) is proposed in this study

Existing method:
Due to flexibility in operation and enhanced features like higher output power, higher efficiency,
improved power quality, variable speed operation, lower mechanical stress on turbine hence
lower maintenance, decoupled control of the active and reactive power, the variable speed wind
generators are becoming preferred choice for new installations and drawing higher attention than
the traditional induction machine-based fixed speed wind generators. Lower cost, durability,
simple structure, possibility to cover a wide range of wind speed, partially rated variable
frequency ac/dc/ac converter and lower switching loss have made the doubly fed induction
machine (DFIM) a superior choice over the other wind generator options.

Proposed method:
The effectiveness of the proposed BFCL is demonstrated through a test wind energy conversion
system. The system consists of a wind turbine equipped with a DFIM, a transformer and the
double circuit transmission lines connected to the infinite bus. Temporary symmetrical and
unsymmetrical faults were applied at the most vulnerable point of the system. In order to see
how much effective the proposed approach is, its performance is compared with that of the series
dynamic braking resistor (SDBR).

Block diagram:

Block diagram of the DFIM with the test system.

Advantages:

Improved system efficiency

Reduced cost of the inverter filters and EMI filters
Power-factor control can be implemented at lower Cost
Efficiency improvement can be obtained.

Applications:

In combination with fossil fuel generators as part of hybrid systems.

With back-up diesel generators.
In distributed generation system.
Electricity for remote areas.