Wind turbine having improved overvoltage protection

• US 9,515,594 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2015
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Service GmbH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Senvion SE
• Inventors: Pingel, Steffen, Letas, Heinz-Hermann
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuevas, Pedro J
• Application Number:
  US14/713,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20150333677A1
• Time in Patent Office: 571 Days
• Field of Search: 290/44, 290/55
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 9/255 connected to electrical distribution networks; Arrangements therefor
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 9/257 the wind motor being part of a wind farm
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 7/1216 for AC-AC converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/28 The renewable source being wind energy wind motors F03D
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/12 for adjusting voltage in ac networks by changing a characteristic of the network load
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/1885 using rotating means, e.g. synchronous generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/48 Controlling the sharing of the in-phase component
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0064 Magnetic structures combining different functions, e.g. storage, filtering or transformation
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/32 Means for protecting converters other than automatic disconnection
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/325 with means for allowing continuous operation despite a fault, i.e. fault tolerant converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/42 Circuits or arrangements for compensating for or adjusting power factor in converters or inverters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 5/458 using semiconductor devices only
• CPC Class Codes: H02P 9/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/76 Power conversion electric or electronic aspects
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/30 Reactive power compensation

Abstract

A wind turbine comprises a wind rotor, a generator driven by the wind rotor, a converter, wherein the generator and the converter generate electrical energy output via a connecting line with an inductively acting line reactor to a grid, and an overvoltage protection device comprising a plurality of different active modules, which are designed in such a way that they each effect, in different ways, a reduction in the voltage at the output of the converter, a switching matrix, which connects and disconnects the different active modules, and a selector comprising an overvoltage classifier, which is designed to select a predetermined stage depending on the overvoltage and to actuate the switching matrix in such a way that successive ones of the active modules are disconnected, wherein the overvoltage classifier defines a plurality of overvoltage ranges by virtue of in each case the selector setting different switching groups.

Claims

1. A wind turbine comprising a wind rotor, a generator driven by the wind rotor, a converter, and an overvoltage protection device, wherein the generator and the converter are configured to generate electrical energy that is output via a connecting line with an inductively acting line reactor to a grid, and wherein the overvoltage protection device comprises

a plurality of different active modules each configured to effect, in different ways, a reduction in the voltage at the output of the converter,

a switching matrix that connects and disconnects the different active modules, and

a selector comprising an overvoltage classifier configured to select a predetermined stage depending on an overvoltage and to actuate the switching matrix such that successive ones of the active modules are disconnected, wherein the overvoltage classifier defines a plurality of overvoltage ranges due to in each case the selector setting different switching groups.

2. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein the switching matrix and the selector are configured such a way that at least two different overvoltage stages are switchable.

3. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein the selector and the switching matrix are combined.

4. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein one of the active modules comprises a reduction element for reducing the output active power.

5. The wind turbine of claim 4, wherein the reduction element implements a current droop, wherein the output active current of the wind turbine is reduced increasingly as the voltage increases.

6. The wind turbine of claim 4, wherein the reduction element reduces the output active power only after at least one second stage of the overvoltage.

7. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein one of the active modules comprises a variable limiter for a capacitive reactive-power output.

8. The wind turbine of claim 7, wherein the limiter comprises a limitation droop.

9. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein one of the active modules comprises an overcurrent controller, which sets an increased inductive reactive-power output in comparison with the rated reactive-power output.

10. The wind turbine of claim 9, wherein one or both of the line reactor and the transformer are dimensioned such that the reactive current is at most 1.6 times the rated reactive current, even at the upper end of the highest overvoltage range.

11. The wind turbine of claim 9, wherein the overcurrent controller has a plurality of stages, wherein, in a second stage, an increased inductive reactive-power output is provided.

12. The wind turbine of claim 11, wherein the increased inductive reactive-power output is twice the rated reactive-power output.

13. The wind turbine of claim 9, wherein the increased inductive reactive-power output is greater than a rated reactive power.

14. The wind turbine of claim 9, wherein one or both of the line reactor and the transformer are dimensioned such that the reactive current is at most 1.1 times the rated reactive current, even at the upper end of the highest overvoltage range.

15. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein one of the active modules comprises a setpoint voltage slide for the voltage in the DC link.

16. The wind turbine of claim 15, comprising a ramp element in which an overproportional ramp gradient is implemented.

17. The wind turbine of claim 15, wherein the setpoint voltage slide for the voltage in the DC link comprises a voltage droop.

18. The wind turbine of claim 17, wherein the voltage droop is divided into a plurality of ranges.

19. The wind turbine of claim 18, wherein at least two ranges form a ramp function with a range which has an increased constant value.

20. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein one of the active modules comprises an overmodulation element, which increases the voltage output by the converter.

21. The wind turbine of claim 20, wherein, due to overmodulation, an increase to at least 1.05 times the maximum value without overmodulation is achieved.

22. The wind turbine of claim 20, wherein the overmodulation element is set to a total harmonic distortion of at most 20%.

23. The wind turbine of claim 20, comprising a control droop for the overmodulation element in which an overproportional ramp function is implemented.

24. The wind turbine of claim 20, wherein, due to overmodulation, an increase up to at least 1.07 times the maximum value without overmodulation is achieved.

25. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein one of the active modules comprises an additional activator for a chopper of the converter and has a control output for activating the chopper.

26. The wind turbine of claim 1, comprising a frequency adaptation module that interacts with the overvoltage classifier such that, in the case of a line frequency below a rated line frequency, the classification is performed with reduced values.

27. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein a turbine transformer in the connecting line is dimensioned such that the turbine transformer experiences magnetic saturation in the overvoltage range in the case of line frequencies below a rated line frequency.

28. The wind turbine of claim 1, wherein the switching matrix and the selector are configured such a way that at least three different overvoltage stages are switchable.

29. The wind turbine of claim 1, comprising a frequency adaptation module that interacts with the overvoltage classifier such that, in the case of a line frequency below a rated line frequency, the classification is performed with reduced values and a maximum voltage is reduced.