Turbine startup and shutdown in wind farms featuring partial power processing converters

Abstract

The wind turbine startup and shutdown procedures for electrical subsystems are straightforward for wind turbines featuring full-scale power electronic converters and have not required significant attentions from the research community. However, for offshore wind farms featuring series-connected dc collection systems and differential power processing capabilities, the controllable wind turbine power converters might not be rated in such a way that a full-scale output power difference can be handled within a series string. As startup and shutdown procedures can require a transition from zero to full power, a more elaborate design is required to ensure that wind turbines can still start and stop reliably under all conditions, without compromising advantages in reduced wind turbine converter ratings with differential power processing capabilities. In this paper, the startup and shutdown procedures for a series-dc wind farm featuring diode-bridge rectifiers and partial power processing converters as wind turbine converters, are investigated and constraints on converter ratings are evaluated.