Optimization of Communication Network for Distributed Control of Wind Farm Equipped With Energy Storages

Consensus based distributed control schemes have been widely applied to different operation scenarios of wind farms (WFs). However, few studies concern the influences of WF communication network topology to the consensus control performances. This paper proposes an optimal design method of the WF communication network for the consensus based re/active power regulation control of the WF, in which each individual wind turbine (WT) is equipped with an energy storage (ES) unit. Firstly, the basic model of the WT equipped with ES is presented, and the consensus based control scheme of the power regulation is described. Secondly, the optimization model for the communication network is constructed, so as to speed up the convergence rate, improve the communication survivability and reduce the communication links in the control. Thirdly, this paper proposes a bi-level alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) based solving framework, which decomposes the optimization into sub-problems. Finally, the performances of the control using the designed optimal communication network are tested and compared with other networks in the control, and the results verify the superiority of the proposed method.