Experimental Voltage Stabilization of a Variable Speed Wind Turbine Driving Synchronous Generator using STATCOM based on Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

Abstract In this paper Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM) is used for improving the performance of the power grid with wind turbine that drives synchronous generator. The main feature of the STATCOM is that it has the ability to absorb or inject rapidly reactive power to grid. Therefore the voltage regulation of the power grid with STATCOM device is achieved. STATCOM also improves the stability of the power system after occurring severe disturbance such as faults, or suddenly step change in wind speed. The proposed STATCOM controller is a Proportional-Integral (PI) controller tuned by Genetic Algorithm (GA). An experimental model was built in Helwan University to the proposed system. The system is tested at different operating conditions. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed STATCOM controller in damping the power system oscillations and restoring the power system voltage and stability.