Small signal stability analysis of power systems with high penetration of wind power Ping HE, Fushuan WEN (&), Gerard LEDWICH, Yusheng XUE Abstract The integration of large amount of wind power into a power system imposes a new challenge for the secure and economic operation of the system. It is necessary to investigate the impacts of wind power generation on the dynamic behavior of the power system concerned. This paper investigates the impacts of large amount of wind power on small signal stability and the corresponding control strategies to mitigate the negative effects. The concepts of different types of wind turbine generators (WTGs) and the principles of the grid-connected structures of wind power generation systems are first briefly intro- duced. Then, the state-of-the-art of the studies on the impacts of WTGs on small signal stability as well as potential problems to be studied are clarified. Finally, the control strategies on WTGs to enhance power system damping characteristics are presented. Keywords Wind turbine generators, Wind farm integration, Small signal stability, Damping characteristic 1 Introduction The energy policies in many industrialized countries place the emphasis on the large-scale development of renewable energy-based power generation. The ever- increasing power generation from renewable energy sour- ces, especially wind energy, would be helpful for reducing the emissions of pollutions, and hence mitigate global warming and improve environment. The wind power reserve is huge around the globe. It is reported in [1] that the technical potential of onshore wind energy is very large, around 2.74 9 10 12 –5.0 9 10 12 KWh (kilowatts- hour). It is estimated by the Global Wind Energy Council that about 2 9 10 7 MW of electricity could be utilized, which is ten times larger than the available water energy. In the past decades, more and more wind power is integrated to power systems around the globe, and the trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future [2]. The wind energy reserve in China is abundant, the onshore wind potential reaches 3.226 9 10 7 KWh per year, in which about 2.53 9 10 6 KWh can be utilized; while the offshore wind energy potential reaches 7.5 9 10 6 KWh [2]. According to global wind report 2011 [3] from European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), around 2 9 10 4 MW [3] of new wind energy capacity were installed in China in 2011, and the total wind installed capacity reached about 6.5 9 10 4 MW by the end of 2011. In recent years, the installation of wind power energy has moved from small wind farms with a few wind turbines to large wind farms with more than hundreds of MW of capacity, and the connection point of wind farm have developed from low-voltage-level electricity distribution system to high-voltage-level electricity transmission system. With the increasing penetration level, the impact of wind power on power system dynamics and stability become increasingly complicated. The increasing utilization of wind Received: 1 July 2013 / Accepted: 7 August 2013 Ó The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com P. HE, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China e-mail: hplkz@126.com P. HE, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Zhengzhou 450002, China F. WEN, G. LEDWICH, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point, Brisbane, Australia (&) e-mail: fushuan.wen@gmail.com G. LEDWICH e-mail: g.ledwich@qut.edu.au Y. XUE, State Grid Electric Power Research Institute, Nanjing 210003, China e-mail: xueyusheng@sgepri.sgcc.com.cn 123 J. Mod. Power Syst. Clean Energy DOI 10.1007/s40565-013-0028-9