Power Quality Investigation of Distribution Networks Embedded Wind Turbines

In recent years a multitude of events have created a new environment for the electric power infrastructure. The presence of small-scale generation near load spots is becoming common especially with the advent of renewable energy sources such as wind power energy. This type of generation is known as distributed generation (DG). The expansion of the distributed generators- (DGs-) based wind energy raises constraints on the distribution networks operation and power quality issues: voltage sag, voltage swell, voltage interruption, harmonic contents, flickering, frequency deviation, unbalance, and so forth. Consequently, the public distribution network conception and connection studies evolve in order to keep the distribution system operating in optimal conditions. In this paper, a comprehensive power quality investigation of a distribution system with embedded wind turbines has been carried out. This investigation is carried out in a comparison aspect between the conventional synchronous generators, as DGs are widely in use at present, and the different wind turbines technologies, which represent the foresightedness of the DGs. The obtained results are discussed with the IEC 61400-21 standard for testing and assessing power quality characteristics of grid-connected wind energy and the IEEE 1547-2003 standard for interconnecting distributed resources with electric power systems