Centralized control of a wave energy farm

As long as an increased number of Wave Energy Converters are reaching their prototypal and pre-commercial stage it is fundamental to analyse in detail the issues arising from the grid integration of such devices. Point absorbers are among the most promising Wave Energy Converters. In this paper a point absorbers wave farm, connected to a weak grid, is simulated in order to evaluate how active and reactive power control strategies can help to fulfil the grid codes and to improve the behaviour of the farm as well as the efficiency of the internal grid. The real test case offered by bimep is used to model the internal grid of the farm. Different farm level control strategies, centralized and decentralized, are considered and compared. Both steady-state and dynamic analyses are carried out in order to assess the performance of the farm under its nominal operation and also to underline the detrimental effect of the energy source intermittency. Fault analyses are performed to evaluate the effect of voltage dips on the system operation.