Fault ride-through enhancement of fixed speed wind turbine using bridge-type fault current limiter

The interaction between wind energy turbines and the grid results in two main problems, increasing the short-circuit level and reducing the Fault Ride-Through (FRT) capability during faults. The objective of this paper is to solve these problems, for fixed speed Wind Energy Systems (WECS), utilizing the bridge-type Fault Current Limiter (FCL) with a discharging resistor. A simple cascaded control system is proposed for the FCL to regulate the terminal voltage of the generator and limit the current. The system is simulated on PSCAD/EMTDC software to evaluate the dynamic performance of the proposed WECS compensated by FCL. The simulation results show the potentials of the FCL as a simple and effective method for solving grid interconnection problems of WECS.