Contribution of Variable-Speed Wind Generators to Frequency Regulation and Oscillation Damping in the United States Eastern Interconnection

Abstract

The United States Eastern Interconnection (EI) has been going through some profound changes due to the increasing penetration of wind power in this bulk grid, including the worsening of the frequency response and inter-area oscillation. However, the fast response speed of electronics devices makes it possible that the kinetic energy stored and/or wind power reserve (if it exists) in variable-speed wind generators could be injected into the power grid in a fast manner. This portion of fast-injected active power could contribute to frequency regulation or oscillation damping of the EI significantly if implemented with appropriate control schemes. In this chapter, a user-defined wind electrical control model with fast active power controllers is built in PSS®E. Then, based on the 16,000-bus EI system dynamic model, the potential contributions of variable-speed wind generators to the EI frequency regulation and oscillation damping are evaluated respectively. Simulation results have demonstrated that current and future penetrations of wind generation are promising in providing frequency regulation and oscillation damping in the EI.