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Title:
DUAL TRANSFORMER TURBINE
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2019/233974
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
It is described an arrangement (200) for producing electric energy, comprising: a generator (201) having plural winding sets (203al-2, 203bl-2); plural converters (205al-2, 205bl-2) each connected to one of the winding sets; at least two transformers (207a, 207b), each connected at a low voltage side (209a, 209b) to output terminal of at least one converter (205al-2, 205bl-2); and a control portion (215) connected to control the converters (205al-2, 205bl-2).

Inventors:
GODRIDGE PAUL (GB)
KILPIN MATTHEW ROBERT ANTHONY (GB)
RASMUSSEN BRIAN (DK)
Application Number:
PCT/EP2019/064403
Publication Date:
December 12, 2019
Filing Date:
June 04, 2019
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
SIEMENS GAMESA RENEWABLE ENERGY AS (DK)
International Classes:
H02J3/38; F03D9/25; H02K3/28; H02K7/18; H02K16/04; H02K19/34; H02K19/36; H02K21/48
Foreign References:
US20060103137A12006-05-18
ES2325844A12009-09-21
US20170331295A12017-11-16
EP2947467A12015-11-25
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
ASPACHER, Karl-Georg (DE)
Download PDF:
Claims:
CLAIMS

1. Arrangement (100, 200) for producing electric energy, com prising :

a generator (101) having plural winding sets (103a,

103b) ;

plural converters (105a, 105b) each connected to one of the winding sets (103a, 103b) ;

at least two transformers (107a, 107b) , each connected at a low voltage side (109a, 109b) to output terminals of at least one of the converters (105a, 105b) ;

a control portion (115) connected to control the con verters (105a, 105b) ;

a measurement module (230) adapted to measure low volt age side voltage values at the low voltage sides of each of the transformers (207a, 207b) ; and

a processor (235a, 235b) adapted to derive an average voltage value as average of the low voltage side voltage val ues associated with all transformers (107a, 107b) .

2. Arrangement according to the preceding claim, character ised in that each winding set (103a, 103b) comprises plural wires, each wire providing one phase and being partly ar ranged within slots of a stator of the generator (101) .

3. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that at least one or each of the converters (105a, 105b) is an AC-DC-AC or an AC-AC converter.

4. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, the control portion (115) comprising:

plural converter controllers (117a, 117b) , the number of converter controllers being in particular equal or unequal to a number of transformers, each converter controller (117a, 117b) being connected to control at least one of the plural converters (105a, 105b) or

a single converter controller configured to control all of the plural converters (105a, 105b) .

5. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the control portion (115) is config ured :

to perform voltage control in which a demand voltage value at the low voltage side of the transformers (107a,

107b) is achieved; and, in other times,

to perform power control, in particular active power control, in which a demand power value is output by the en tire arrangement; and, in other times,

to perform grid fault ride through in case of sudden and/or strong deviations of the grid voltage from a nominal grid voltage.

6. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims,

wherein the measurement module (230) is adapted to meas ure low voltage side voltage values for each phase at the low voltage sides of each of the transformers (207a, 207b) ,

wherein the processor (235a, 235b) is adapted to derive the average voltage value as average of the low voltage side voltage values for each phase associated with all transform ers (107a, 107b) .

7. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims when referred to claim 5,

characterised in that the control portion is configured dur ing voltage control :

to use the average voltage value as a feedback value, wherein in particular average voltage value is used by at least one converter controllers, in particular master con verter controller as feedback value.

8. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims when referred to claim 5, characterised in that the control por tion (115, 215), in particular a master converter controller (217a) , is configured during voltage control and/or grid fault ride through control : to derive, based on the average voltage value and the demand voltage value, a reactive current demand value, and/or to divide the reactive current demand value equally or unequally among the plural converters (105a, 105b) , wherein the plural converters (105a, 105b) perform their control based on the divided reactive current demand values.

9. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims when referred to claim 5, characterised in that during voltage control and/or grid fault ride through control the control is such that each converter (105a, 105b) substantially outputs a same reactive current as any other converter.

10. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims when referred to claim 5, characterised in that during power con trol the control is such that each converter (105a, 105b) substantially outputs same active power as any other convert er .

11. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims when referred to claim 5,

characterised in that the control portion, in particular a master converter controller, is configured during power con trol :

to derive, based on the demand power value and average voltage value, an active current demand value, and

to equally or unequally divide the active current demand value among the plural converters (105a, 105b) , wherein the plural converters (105a, 105b) perform their control based on the divided active current demand values.

12. Arrangement according to the preceding claim, character ised in that during power control the control is such that each converter (105a, 105b) substantially outputs substan tially same or different active current as any other convert er,

wherein in particular the total RMS current is shared equally among the converters .

13. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that a high voltage side of each transformer (107a, 107b) is connectable to a utility grid or a common connection point (113, 213) to which plural energy producing facilities are connected.

14. Arrangement according to one of the preceding claims,

wherein the generator (201) has four, in particular three-phase, winding sets (203al, 203a2, 203bl, 203b2);

wherein a first transformer (207a) of the two transform ers is connected at a low voltage side to output terminals of first two converters (205al, 205a2) of the plural converters, wherein a second transformer (207b) of the two trans formers is connected at a low voltage side to output termi nals of second two converters (205bl, 205b2) of the plural converters ,

wherein the control portion comprises one master con verter controller (217a) connected for controlling the first two converters (205al, 205a2) and one slave converter con troller (217b) connected for controlling the second two con verters (205bl, 205b2) .

15. Wind turbine (120, 220), comprising:

a wind turbine rotor (123, 223) having plural rotor blades (121, 221); and

an arrangement (100, 200) according to one of the pre ceding claims, wherein a generator rotor of the generator (101, 201) is connected to the wind turbine rotor (123, 223) .

Description:
DESCRIPTION

Dual transformer turbine

Field of invention

The present invention relates to an arrangement for producing electric energy and further relates to a wind turbine com prising the arrangement.

Art Background

An electric generator may comprise one or more sets of wind ings, each providing for example three phases. A generator having two sets of three-phase windings has been used for a wind turbine. For each winding set of the two winding sets, a respective AC-DC-AC converter may be present. The combined output of the two converters may be supplied to a transformer of the wind turbine to transform the output voltage to a higher voltage to be supplied to a point of common coupling at which plural wind turbines are connected.

It has been observed that the conventional design of a wind turbine has disadvantages in terms of energy or power output. Thus, there may be a need for an arrangement for producing electric energy and there may be a need for a wind turbine, wherein a high amount of electric energy can be produced in a reliable and safe manner.

Summary of the Invention

This need may be met by the subject matter according to the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments of the present invention are described by the dependent claims.

According to an embodiment of the present invention it is provided an arrangement for producing electric energy, com prising: a generator having plural winding sets; plural con- verters each connected to one of the winding sets; at least two transformers, each connected at a low voltage side to output terminal of at least one converter; and a control por tion connected to control the converters.

The generator may for example be a permanent magnet electric generator. The generator may comprise a stator comprising teeth alternating with slots which slots may harbour at least portions of the plural windings. Plural permanent magnets may be mounted at an inner or an outer rotor which may be rotata bly supported relative to the stator comprising the windings. The generator may have for example two winding sets, three winding sets, four winding sets, five winding sets or even more winding sets, each winding set having plural wires for providing different phase of electricity. For each of the plural winding sets, a converter may be provided and connect ed to the respective winding set.

The winding sets may be wound partly within the slots of the stator in a particular winding scheme. The winding scheme may for example be compatible with a star configuration, in which one end of plural wires of one set (or channel) of windings is electrically connected to each other. The winding scheme may for example be compatible with a delta configuration. Wires of different sets (or channels) of windings may mutual ly be electrically isolated from each other.

Furthermore, plural coils may be formed partly within the slots and leading around the teeth of the stator. Other ends of the wires of each set, for example three wires, may be electrically connected to three input terminals of the re spective converter.

The converters may convert a variable frequency alternating current power stream to a substantially fixed frequency al ternating current power stream. The converters may comprise plural controllable switches, such as IGBTs which may be con nected as half-bridges between two DC terminals. In particu- lar, each converter may comprise a generator side portion (in particular AC-DC converter portion) , a DC link and a grid side converter portion (in particular DC-AC converter por tion) . The controllable switches may be controlled by appro priate gate signals being supplied by the control portion.

The arrangement may comprise two transformers, three trans formers, four transformers or even more transformers. Each of the transformers is connected to at least one of the convert ers. For example, each of the transformers may be connected to exactly one converter or for example each of the trans formers may be connected to exactly two converters or even more converters. For example, each of the transformers may be connected to a same number of converters, such as one, two, three or even more. Furthermore, a first of the two trans formers may be connected to for example one converter while another of the two transformers may for example be connected to two converters or three converters or even more convert ers .

The transformers may be adapted to transform the output power stream of the connected converter (s) to a higher voltage, for transmission of the power having less power loss. The trans formers may comprises a primary coil at the low voltage side and an inductively coupled secondary coil at the high voltage side .

The control portion may be configured in a number of differ ent ways. The control portion may for example comprise for one or more converters a respective converter controller. The control portion may be adapted in a master- slave configura tion, in which a master converter controller may supply or derive control signals for the slave converter controller and may provide or transmit the control signal to the respective slave converter controller (s) .

By having at least two transformers in the arrangement, the power output of the arrangement for producing electric power may be enhanced. Further, the control portion may at least partly comprise conventionally available control modules and may apply at least partly conventionally available control algorithms .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, each winding set comprises plural wires, each wire providing one phase and being partly arranged within slots of a stator of the generator. The plural wires may be arranged within the slots (for example between teeth) of the stator of the gener ator. Thereby, conventional generators are supported.

When the wires are wound in a delta configuration, the cur rent in each phase of the converter will be made from a com bination of currents from multiple generator winding phases.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, each of the converters is a AC-DC-AC converter. Thereby, convention ally available converters in particular comprising controlla ble switches, such as IGBTs, may be supported.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the con trol portion comprises plural converter controllers, the num ber of converter controllers being equal to a number of transformers, each converter controller being connected to control at least one of the plural converters .

For each of the at least two transformers, a respective con verter controller may be present and which may be connected to control those converters whose output terminals are con nected to the respective transformer. Thereby an effective control may be achieved, in particular at least approximately balancing power output or active current through each of the transformers. Thereby, the converters may for example be grouped into sets of converters, each set of the converter being connected to a low voltage side of a particular one of the at least two transformers. Each set of converters may be controlled by a respective converter controller. Thereby, the complexity of the arrangement may be reduced. Each of the converter controllers may comprise a division module which may divide respective demand values (of electric output) by the number of connected converters. The division module may in other embodiments be implemented as a central additional module which may derive and supply respective di vided demand values to the converters .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the con trol portion is configured to perform voltage control in which a demand voltage value at the low voltage side or the high voltage side of the transformers is achieved; and, in other times, to perform power control, in particular active power control, in which a demand power value is output by the entire arrangement; and, in other times, to perform grid fault ride through in case of sudden and/or strong deviations of the grid voltage from a nominal grid voltage.

Voltage control may allow adjusting the voltage at the low voltage side or the high voltage side of the transformers to a desired value, i.e. the demand voltage value. Voltage con trol may involve injecting reactive current in dependence of a deviation of the actual voltage value from the demand volt age value. Thereby, conventionally applied methods may be utilized .

During power control, the power output of the whole arrange ment may be adjusted to comply with the demand power value, in particular demand active power value and/or demand reac tive power value. For achieving the demand power value (for example at the low voltage side of the transformers or the sum of the power outputs at the low voltage side of all transformers of the arrangement) an active current may be ap propriately adjusted. Or the power which is delivered by each set of converters may appropriately be adjusted such that the sum equals the demand power value. According to an embodiment of the present invention two main operating modes may be supported: , steady state' and GFRT. E.g. a direct steady state reactive current reference, rather than a low voltage voltage reference, may be received.

During a grid fault, the grid voltage may suddenly break down or may suddenly strongly increase. In those events, an energy producing facility is required to react in a particular man ner, in order to avoid damage of components of the energy producing facility and/or grid components. Therefore, the ar rangement is arranged to detect and appropriately react on grid faults to provide a secure and reliable ride through. Thereby, conventionally applied methods may be performed and implemented in the control portion. However, those conven tionally available methods are now adapted for at least two transformers each being connected to a respective set of con verters or at least one converter each.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the ar rangement further comprises a measurement module adapted to measure low voltage side voltage values, in particular for each phase, at the low voltage sides of each of the trans formers; a processor adapted to derive an average voltage value as average of the low voltage side voltage values asso ciated with all transformers.

The measurement module may also be adapted to measure output currents of each of the converters. All measurement signals may be supplied to the processor which may analyse the meas urement values and derive the average voltage value, for ex ample as an average of RMS values for each winding set . For example, for each winding set the mean of the squared voltag es for each phase may be formed and the square root may be taken to thereby arrive at the RMS value (RMS: root mean square) of this particular winding set. Then the average of the RMS values of each or of all winding sets may be derived as arithmetic or geometric mean. In other embodiments, the squares of the phase voltages at the low voltage side of a first transformer are summed and divided by the number of phases. The same is performed with the voltages present at all other input terminals at all oth er transformers. Then, the average (for example arithmetic average or geometric average) of all those RMS values is cal culated, to arrive at the average voltage value. The average voltage value may thus reflect voltages at low voltage sides of all transformers. Thus, the average voltage value may be an appropriate feedback signal for for example voltage con trol or grid fault ride through control or even also power control .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the con trol portion is configured during voltage control: to use the average voltage value as a feedback value, wherein in partic ular average voltage value is used by at least one converter controller, in particular master converter controller as feedback value.

Thus, according to this embodiment, a single feedback value, namely the average voltage value, is used for the entire ar rangement. In particular, not several different feedback val ues are utilized, thereby simplifying the arrangement and en suring reliable operation.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the con trol portion, in particular a master converter controller, is configured during voltage control and/or grid fault ride through control: to derive, based on the average voltage val ue and the demand voltage value, a reactive current demand value, and/or to divide the reactive current demand value equally or unequally among the plural converters, wherein the plural converters perform their control based on the divided reactive current demand values.

E.g. if one converter channel which was running hot (for ex ample) an unequal split may deliberately be choosen according to some thermal constraint (for example) . In particular di viding the current between channels may be performed accord ing to the channel's capability at that moment. Another pos sibility may be to divide the reactive current according to balancing the RMS currents in each channel . In order to have equal active power in each channel there may be unequal ac tive currents then unequal reactive currents may be chosen to create equal RMS currents. Other division rules may be ap plied .

A deviation between the average voltage value and the demand voltage value may be supplied to a controller, such as a PID or PI controller, which may output the reactive current de mand value. The different converters may then be commanded to each provide a portion of the reactive current demand value. Therefore, the reactive current demand value may be appropri ately shared or divided among the present converters. In par ticular, the converters may be commanded to substantially output a same reactive current as any other converter or some or at least one converter is commanded to provide a higher reactive current than another converter. When the reactive current demand value is equally divided or shared among the converter, the rating of the converter may be complied with in an easy manner.

In other embodiments the reactive current demand value may unequally divided or shared among the converter, e.g. depend ing on state and/or capacity/rating of the converters/winding sets .

According to an embodiment of the present invention, during voltage control and/or grid fault ride through control the control is such (for example by the control portion or the converter controllers) that each converter substantially out puts a same reactive current as any other converter. According to an embodiment of the present invention, during power control the control is such that each converter sub stantially outputs same active power as any other converter.

Also, when each converter substantially outputs a same active power as any other converter, the ratings of the converters may be complied with and may be the same, while not requiring especially high rated converters. All converters may be con figured in a similar or even same manner.

Alternatively, the control portion, in particular a master converter controller, is configured during power control: to derive, based on the demand power value and average voltage value, an active current demand value, and to equally or une qually divide the active current demand value among the plu ral converters, wherein the plural converters perform their control based on the divided active current demand values.

The active current demand value may be derived such that the product of the thereby derived active current demand value taken with the average voltage value results in the demand power value. Thereby, an alternative division of particular power portions or current portions among the converters is provided .

In particular, according to an embodiment of the present in vention, during power control the control is such that each converter substantially outputs substantially same active current as any other converter.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a high voltage side of each transformer is connectable (in particu lar connected) to a utility grid or a common connection point to which plural energy producing facilities are connected. Thereby, the arrangement may constitute or support conven tionally required electrical properties. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the gen erator has four, in particular three-phase, winding sets;

wherein a first transformer of the two transformers is con nected at a low voltage side to output terminals of first two converters, wherein a second transformer of the two trans formers is connected at a low voltage side to output termi nals of second two converters, wherein the control portion comprises one master converter controller connected for con trolling the first two converters and one slave converter controller connected for controlling the second two convert ers .

Thereby, a high power output provided in a reliable and safe manner may be achieved. In particular, the two turbine trans formers may be connected together at the grid medium voltage output terminals of the turbine each with its own separate low voltage circuit within the turbine. Each of the two transformer low voltage terminals is connected to two elec trically independent converter channels. Thus, they are four channels of electrically independent converters in total.

Each of the four channels of converters is connected to a separate set of electrical windings of the turbine generator. Thus, there is a single four-channel generator according to this embodiment. Furthermore, the four converter channels are coordinated by the control portion including the operation in which one or more converter channels is disabled. If one or more converter channels is disabled, the kind of division or sharing of reactive current values among the converters may be changed to not include the faulty converter or the faulty channel or winding set of the generator.

The arrangement may also support a failure in one or more of the winding sets. In this case, the respective converter may be disconnected or may be disabled during any control, such as voltage control, power control or grid fault ride through control. Furthermore, the control signals indicative of the power or current to be output by the respective converter may be shared or divided only among those converters which are connected to intact winding sets.

According to an embodiment of the present invention it is provided a wind turbine comprising a wind turbine rotor hav ing plural rotor blades and an arrangement according to one of the preceding embodiments, wherein a generator rotor of the generator is connected to the wind turbine rotor.

The wind turbine may comprise a wind turbine tower, a nacelle mounted on top of the tower, the nacelle harbouring the gen erator and in particular the entire arrangement for producing electric energy.

The aspects defined above and further aspects of the present invention are apparent from the examples of embodiment to be described hereinafter and are explained with reference to the examples of embodiment. The invention will be described in more detail hereinafter with reference to examples of embodi ment but to which the invention is not limited.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates an arrangement for producing electric energy according to an embodiment of the present in vention including two converters and two transformers; and

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates an arrangement for producing electric energy according to an embodiment of the present in vention including four converters and two transformers.

Detailed Description

The illustration in the drawings is in schematic form. It is noted that in different figures, similar or identical ele ments are provided with the same reference signs or with ref erence signs, which are different from the corresponding ref erence signs only within the first digit. The arrangement 100 schematically illustrated in Fig. 1 for providing electric energy comprises an electric generator 101, in particular a generator 101 having two winding sets 103a, 103b, each comprising three wires partially arranged within slots of a stator of the generator 101 and partly wound around teeth of the stator of the generator 101. Wires of different winding sets 103a and 103b are electrically dis connected from each other. Wires of a same winding set, e.g. 103a or 103b, are electrically disconnected from each other at at least one respective end of the wires. Each of the winding sets may for example comprise three wires providing three phases.

The arrangement 100 further comprises a first converter 105a having its input terminals connected with the first winding set 103a. Furthermore, the arrangement 100 comprises a second converter 105b whose input terminals are connected to the second winding set 103b.

The arrangement 100 further comprises a first transformer 107a connected with its low voltage side 109 to output termi nals of the first converter 105a. The arrangement further comprises a second transformer 107b whose low voltage side 109b is connected to output terminals of the second converter 105b. The respective high voltage sides 111a, 111b of the first transformer 107a and the second transformer 107b, re spectively, are connected to a connection bar or a connection cable 113 which may for example be connected to a point of common coupling to which plural wind turbines are connected.

The arrangement 100 further comprises a control portion 115 connected to control the converters 105a, 105b. In the illus trated embodiment, the control portion 115 is implemented having or comprising a first converter controller 117a and a second converter controller 117b controlling the first con verter 105a and the second converter 105b, respectively, us ing signal lines 119a, 119b. The converters 105a, 105b are AC-DC-AC converters. The number of converter controllers, i.e. the controllers 117a, 117b, are equal to the number of transformers, namely two.

The arrangement 100 is a portion of a wind turbine 120 which comprises a wind turbine rotor 123 having plural rotor blades 121 connected thereto, wherein the wind turbine rotor 123 is connected to a generator rotor of the generator 101.

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates an arrangement 200 included in a wind turbine 220 according to an embodiment of the pre sent invention. Reference signs denoting same or similar ele ments in structure and/or function are labelled with refer ence signs differing only in the first digit in Figs. 1 and 2.

The arrangement 200 illustrated in Fig. 2 comprises a four channel generator 201, thus a generator having four independ ent winding sets 203al, 203a2, 203bl and 203b2. The arrange ment further comprises the converters 205al and 205a2 con nected to the winding sets 203al and 203a2, respectively. Further, the arrangement comprises the converters 205bl and 205b2 connected to the second winding sets 203bl and 203b2, respectively. Output terminals of the converters lead to in ductances 225 and a filter block 227 for filtering out e.g. harmonics and/or interharmonics of a grid frequency, such as 50 Hz or 60 Hz, and/or harmonics and/or interharmonics of a converter switching frequency. Further downstream, respective switches 229 are provided.

The outputs of the first converters 205al, 205a2 are combined and commonly connected to the low voltage side 209a of a first transformer 207a whose high voltage side 211a is con nected to the connection bar 213. Similarly, the second con verters 205bl, 205b2 are, via the inductances and filters 225, 227 and switches 229, connected to the low voltage side 209b of the second transformer 207b. The high voltage side 211b of the second transformer 209b is also connected to the common connection bar or cable 213.

The control section 215 of the arrangement 200 is implemented by a first converter controller 217a controlling the first converters 205al and 205a2. Further, the control section 215 comprises a second converter controller 217b controlling the second converters 205bl and 205b2. The arrangement 200 fur ther comprises a measurement module 230 which is adapted to measure using sensors 231 low voltage side voltage values at the low voltage side 209a, 209b of each of the transformers 207a, 207b, respectively. Furthermore, current measurement devices 233 may measure currents output from each of the con verters 205al, 205a2, 205bl, 205b2 and provide respective measurement signals to a grid module or processor 235a and 235b which may be integrated into the first converter con troller 217a and the second converter controller 217b or may be implemented in different modules.

Alternatively or additionally current sensors measuring the current may e.g. be provided in reactor 225. These currents may be controlled in embodiments of the present invention, rather than those measured by sensors 233.

The converter controllers 217a and 217b may communicate with each other using communication lines 237. Further, the con verter controllers may communicate using communication lines 239 with a main computer or park pilot 241.

Voltage and/or power references may be decided by a combina tion of park pilot and turbine controller.

The park pilot 241 may for example provide demand values such as a power demand value or a voltage demand value. Using the demand values and the actually measured values, the control ler may appropriately control the respective converters by supplying gate control signals 243 to controllable switches within the converters. Thereby, the controller 215 as such may balance the active power in each channel whenever possi ble. Further, the average of the voltages measured at the low voltage terminals 209a, 209b of the two transformers 207a, 207b are used to derive a single grid voltage feedback which is used for grid voltage control and for detecting and re sponding to grid events as defined in the grid codes.

As is illustrated in Fig. 2, there are two converter control lers each controlling two converter channels and there is an inter-converter fibre 237 over which the two controllers 217a, 217b may communicate with each other. The result of this implementation detail is that each of the four converter channels 205al, 205a2, 205bl, 205b2 could in principle com municate directly with any other converter channel . Data can be exchanged between channels at the same rate at which con trolled features are executed.

The block diagram in Fig. 2 also shows that the voltages on the low voltage terminals of each transformer are being meas ured at measurement points 231 using measurement devices. Further, also the currents flowing into the transformer 207a, 207b are measured using the current measurement devices 233.

A separate grid module 235a, 235b may be responsible for col lecting and processing these transformer voltage and current measurements and communicate the results to its local con verter controllers. The grid module may be an implementation of a processor according to an embodiment of the present in vention .

One converter controller, for example converter controller 217a, may be assigned the role of a "master channel" . The master channel may be provided with a voltage feedback that is the average of the RMS voltages measured by each of the grid modules and is therefore the average of the voltages of the two transformers 207a, 207b: The master channel may now use that voltage feedback in a grid AC voltage controller whose output is reactive current demand. Such an AC voltage controller may be a standard fea ture of currently used converters and turbines. That reactive current demand may now be shared e.g. equally between the four converter channels in a master and three slave arrange ment. Or in the case of running fewer than four channels, such as when one channel is faulty, that reactive current de mand can be shared equally between the available channels. This is in turn may mean that the voltages of the two trans formers would not be equal if a different number of channels were active on each transformer. But instead we would have equal reactive currents in each channel and the average grid voltage would match the reference or voltage demand value.

The turbine receives a single grid voltage reference and re ports a single grid voltage feedback and so the signals that this feature produces will perfectly support the standard ex ternal interface from the turbine.

Similarly, the master channel receives a demand to deliver power to the grid. This power demand may be distributed equally between the available converter channels such that they all have equal power in a master plus three slave ar rangement .

An alternative would be for the master channel to decide the total active current needed, based on the requested total power demand and the measured average grid voltage. If this design option were taken, the current in the network bridge of each converter channel would be equal . But the power in each converter channel would not balance if the individual grid voltages of the two transformers did not match and therefore the generator bridge power and current of each channel would not match. Therefore, the design option taken is to balance active power, not network bridge active cur rent. But the invention disclosed here supports either op tion . The converter may also have some features which detect and act upon large transients in grid voltage. Such features may be referred to grid fault ride through or GFRT and may in clude both sudden increase and sudden decrease in grid volt age reactions. During such events, the response of the tur bine (and therefore response of the converters) may be de fined by whatever grid code that turbine is configured to be compliant with. Again, a single average grid voltage feedback may be utilized so that there may be a single point decision on whether or not the grid voltage deviation is large enough to activate one of various grid event features. Furthermore, the single average grid voltage feedback may be used to de cide the reactive current that is injected into the grid fault or into the grid, as well as contribute to the calcula tion of the active current and/or power that should be pro vided by each converter channel .

Embodiments of the present invention provide an energy pro ducing facility having two or more transformers. Furthermore, a single signal may be created representing the average low voltage side voltage of the two or more transformers. This single "measurement" may be used as feedback to converter features whose objective is to control grid voltage or re spond to deviations in grid voltage. Thereby, several ad vantages may be achieved:

(a) a clear and unambiguous signal is provided, from which it can be determined whether the turbine as a whole needs to re spond to a grid event or not. Also this clear and unambiguous signal will also be used to determine what mix of active and reactive current should be injected into the grid.

(b) Equal reactive current in each converter channel may be adjusted at all time, even in reduced converter operation where the transformer voltages can be unequal. If this wouldn't be done and used an independent AC voltage control ler for each transformer low voltage terminals, then the re- active current in each channel would be extremely unequal in reduced converter operation.

It should be noted that the term "comprising" does not ex- elude other elements or steps and "a" or "an" does not ex clude a plurality. Also elements described in association with different embodiments may be combined. It should also be noted that reference signs in the claims should not be con strued as limiting the scope of the claims.




 
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