Grid Compliance of Ocean Energy Converters: Control Strategies and Recommendations

Anne Blavette (1) , Dara O'Sullivan (1) , Michael Egan (1) , Antony Lewis (1)

1 UCC - University College Cork

The potentially variable and intermittent electricity generated from wave and tidal energy may have some negative impact on the power quality of an electrical network. Impact assessment is usually performed by the use of power system simulators and appropriate numerical models of the electrical network components. However, standard generator models are unable to reflect some of the inherent features of ocean energy converters, in particular regarding power variability and intermittency. New numerical models for these devices must hence be created. This will be achieved using the generic modelling approach. Another technical obstacle to the grid connection of ocean devices stems from the absence of strategy to make the devices grid compliant. This is partly explainable by the early development stage of most devices. However, although the current conditions that are required from ocean energy converters for being allowed grid connection are relatively permissive, they are expected to become more stringent in the near future. Complying with these requirements will make necessary the use of control strategies which still remain to be developed. This paper concerns the control systems of near-term ocean energy converters from a grid compliance perspective. It details the main grid code requirements from a power quality and network stability perspective. Then, it presents some control strategies developed for complying with these requirements, as well as approaches for modelling them generically.

Mots clés: grid code requirements; power quality; generic modelling; control

Domaines: Energie électrique

Anne Blavette, Dara O'Sullivan, Michael Egan, Antony Lewis. Grid Compliance of Ocean Energy Converters: Control Strategies and Recommendations. 9th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, 2011, Southampton, France. ⟨hal-01265988⟩