Integration and Stability of a Large Offshore Wind Farm with HVDC Transmission in the Norwegian Power System

Abstract

In the last decades, due to the environmental concerns and the increase of energy demand, wind power has strongly penetrated the field of electricity generation. Today, because of the lack of onshore sites and visual and noise nuisances, the development of wind farms turns more and more to offshore and Norway has a great potential of offshore wind power. This thesis investigates the impact of the integration of an offshore 1000MW wind farm on the Norwegian power system. Two different transmissions are used, one HVAC transmission system and one HVDC transmission system. They are installed in four different configurations which represent the possible cases of wind farm integration regarding the distance from the shore. Two different connection points have been chosen regarding the load flow simulations. The first one is situated in the region of Bergen in the West Norway and the other one is situated between Kristiansand and Stavanger in the south Norway. In order to investigate the power stability and the behaviour of the system, simulations are performed under both steady-state and dynamic conditions by using PSSTME. Disturbances are applied in different locations on the system both near the connection point and on the offshore wind farm. The results show that the power system with large offshore wind power remains stable after the different faults. The requirements of the Norwegian Transmission System Operator, Statnett, are respected after the integration of a large offshore wind farm in the Norwegian power system.