Modeling and Analysis of the Impact of Wind Power Integration into the Grid on Power Quality (Case Study: Adama I wind farm)

Abstract

Wind energy is a key renewable resource worldwide that can lessen dependence on traditional diesel generators. Ethiopia, aspiring to be the power house of Africa has three wind farms under operation totaling 324 MW capacities, and two extra which are under commissioning and construction. Integrating wind farms into the grid presents challenges in system operation, control, stability, and power quality. This study focuses on Adama I wind powerplant, which uses a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) with a full- scale power converter for grid connection. Despite the benefits, the presence of power electronic converters and nonlinear loads causes harmonic distortion. In this study a sliding mode control scheme is proposed for the PMSG-based wind energy system. The Nonlinear Proportional-Integral form of Sliding Mode Control (SMC) offers robustness and disturbance rejection but it can increase harmonic distortion due to chattering. This study mitigates SMC drawbacks by selecting a suitable reaching law and incorporating an RL filter into the control design. Simulation results in MATLAB/Simulink confirm the effectiveness of the control strategy, improving stability, settling time from 0.06 to 0.0094, overshoot from 0.68% to 0.096%, and reducing total harmonic distortion from 8.23% to 4.43%. Stability analysis using Lyapunov theory shows enhanced dynamic performance metrics, meeting harmonic requirements for a stable system.