Influence of wind farm on distribution system: Current characteristics during fault occurrence

Abstract

In this past few years, installation of distributed generator (DG) has become topic of interest in many countries due to rapid increase in energy and environmental issue. Generating power from renewable source has been proposed to compensate fossil fuel that is currently depleted. Wind power is one of the renewable energy sources that gains a huge attention, and many utilities are connecting wind power to distribution system. This number is going to get higher in the near future. Research on influence of wind power on system must be done in order to ensure the reliability of power system. This paper aims to study an impact of wind power-integrated distribution system when fault occurs in the system for various conditions. Many factors capable of changing system characteristics have been taken into account such as distribution system consisting of multi-wind power generation, size of wind power generation, fault type, and location of fault. Distribution system under this study is modeled based on 22 kv distribution network of Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) in Thailand. Simulation will be done by using PSCAD/EMTP. Result obtained from case studies will be used to analyze and evaluate the effect of installation of wind power. The result indicates that the DG contributes significant fault current to the system when fault occurs.