Impact of power fluctuations in reactive power capability of wind power plants

Due to characteristics of wind which is inherently variable, active power production from wind power plants fluctuates over time. Reactive power capability of wind power plant is dependent on active power production. This paper investigates the impact of active power fluctuations on reactive power capability of wind power plants and quantifies the impact. For this purpose time series data of active power production with fluctuations from aggregated wind power plant is simulated. This time series is then used to calculate reactive power capability time series of the aggregated wind power plant. Different time periods have been used for calculating mean values of reactive power capability. Then, ramp rates has been calculated to quantify mean value changes between two consecutive time periods. From the case study performed, it is observed that active power fluctuation has an impact on reactive power capability - increasing the averaging time period increases the ramp rate of reactive power capability.