Presentations

Abstract

South Fork Wind is New York's first offshore wind farm located 56 km east of Montauk Point, Long Island, and is expected to yield energy to supply the yearly average demand of 70 000 households. The wind farm has set its sight to meet the surging power demand in the Long Island area via the generation of renewable electricity from wind turbines. To meet the performance requirements for transmission-connected non-synchronous resources, it is imperative that the wind farm effectively inject and absorbs reactive power into the grid. A static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) with grid-forming capabilities has been installed in connection to the South Fork Wind farm. It makes use of a modular multi-level converter (MMC) based on series connected semiconductor cells. The main objective of the STATCOM is to provide voltage regulation in the point of common coupling (PCC) by dynamically compensating the reactive power and, as a result, ensuring grid code compliance of the wind farm. The STATCOM is capable of emulating a voltage source behind an impedance by adopting grid-forming behavior, which allows for immediate voltage support and the injection of fault current in the event of grid contingencies. The paper presents the design and performance verification of the South Fork Wind STATCOM, and its grid-forming capabilities.