BIFURCATION IN WIND ENERGY GENERATION SYSTEMS

This letter reveals the possibility of Hopf bifurcation in a grid-connected wind energy generation system which handles an unbalanced loading. The wind energy generation system consists of a typical doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) which allows variable speed operation by using partially rated back-to-back quadruple active and reactive power PWM converters. Many control schemes reported in the literature are designed to solve some specific control problems associated with DFIG and have rarely been tested for general stability. Specifically, bifurcation analysis of the system has not been reported so far. We study the system stability in terms of the magnitude of some unwanted oscillation of the voltage link capacitor under a practical scenario where the system interacts indirectly with unbalanced single-phase constant power loads through the power grid. In this letter, the rotor speed of the DFIG is used as a variation parameter for bifurcation analysis. Bifurcation diagram of the voltage link capacitor indicates a Hopf-like bifurcation of the system in super-synchronous operation. This clearly explains the instability phenomenon of the practical DFIG system when unbalanced single-phase constant power loads are connected to the connecting grid. © 2010 World Scientific Publishing Company.