Performance improvement of DFIG-based wind farms using NARMA-L2 controlled bridge-type flux coupling nonsuperconducting fault current limiter

Abstract

Doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) have drawn prominent interest in the field of wind power generation, but they are vulnerable to grid faults. Grid codes mandate DFIGs to employ a sort of fault ride-through (FRT) technique during faults. Fault current limiters (FCLs) always help to augment the FRT capability of DFIGs and a non-linear controller boosts their performances. In this study, a non-linear auto-regressive moving average-L2 (NARMA-L2) controller-based bridge-type flux coupling non-superconducting FCL (BFC-NSFCL) is proposed to enhance the FRT capability of the wind farm. The authors analysed the performance of the proposed NARMA-L2-based BFC-NSFCL (NL2-BFC-NSFCL) against that of the conventionally used series dynamic braking resistor (SDBR), bridge-type FCL (BFCL), and proportional-integral (PI) controller-based BFCNSFCL (PI-BFC-NSFCL). They tested the performance of the NL2-BFC-NSFCL through multiple temporary and permanent fault scenarios and carried out the mathematical and graphical analysis in MATLAB/Simulink platform. They found that the proposed NL2-BFC-NSFCL’s performance surpasses the performances of the SDBR, the BFCL, and the PI-BFC-NSFCL. Moreover, the NL2-BFC-NSFCL has faster system recovery capability after the occurrence of any fault than other competitors.