POWER April 2013 - 54

POWER IN CHINA
Wind Power Incidents in China
The rapid pace of wind power development in
China has brought with it issues such as excess
capacity, difficulties in grid integration, and
myriad problems associated with quality. These
issues could impede developing still more wind
power. Data analysis suggests that wind power
incidents may be divided into two classes: trip
accidents and equipment faults.
Turbine trip incidents are very common. In
2010, there were 80 trip incidents, 15 of which
resulted in the loss of 100 MW to 500 MW of
electricity. In 2011, 193 turbine trip incidents
occurred between January and August, of which
54 resulted in the loss of 100 MW to 500 MW
of capacity. Another 12 incidents resulted in the
loss of more than 500 MW of capacity.
An analysis of statistics related to equipment
faults among wind-power companies shows
that starting in 2010, the number of wind turbine
faults has been increasing. Parts such as
the pitch system, frequency conversion system,
electrical system, control system, gearbox, generator,
and yaw systems have been affected, as
shown in Figure 3.
The technical performance of some wind turbines
falls short of meeting the requirements of
safe grid integration. In particular, most turbines
that have been put into use do not have lowvoltage
ride-through capability. Efforts aimed at
improving this capability have been hampered
because many wind farms lack a retrofit plan.
This failure to plan for low-voltage ride-through
has resulted in seemingly endless arguments
about retrofit fees and has led to shelving some
reconstruction plans altogether.
Retrofit fees can be high, putting great pressure
on operators; it's also not easy to prepare a
reconstruction plan. For those turbines that were
put into service early on and whose capacity is
below 1 MW, technical difficulties exist concerning
their reconstruction. Furthermore, some
wind farms are poorly managed, and many managers
are afraid of reconstruction. As a result, a
few wind farms have stated that they could not
complete reconstruction until 2014; a few wind
farms are not studying the issue at all.
A second issue involves reactive power compensation
devices in some wind farms that could
not satisfy grid safety operation requirements.
Most wind farm turbines either are not capable
of regulating reactive power dynamically or their
capacity and regulation speed are incapable of
satisfying grid operation requirements. In a few
instances, reactive power compensation devices
are absent altogether or older devices are running
with a fixed capacitor (reactance) group,
which requires operation that does not regulate
voltage automatically. Other wind turbines have
limited systematic voltage regulation capabilities.
Wind turbine monitoring systems provided
by manufacturers often do not offer access to
users or are not capable of regulating power fac54
tors
online. Hence, turbines cannot effectively
manage voltage regulation, which increases the
difficulty of systematic reactive regulation and
leads to some wind farms being equipped with
more reactive devices than necessary.
A third issue is construction faults in the
design of some wind farms. For example,
35-kV collector systems in some wind farms
are designed by mechanically referring to the
design standard of the conventional distribution
network, which results in using improper
grounding methods. As a result, operators
are unable to quickly cut off the selected line
when there is single phase fault, which may
lead to accidents and grid disconnection. In
addition, the type of step-up transformer chosen
is based on selected distribution network
design principles; package transformers are
widely adopted and more cable terminations
are used than are necessary. As a result, cable
termination fault becomes a main cause leading
to wind farm accidents.
In China's southeast coastal areas, wind turbines
in some instances are installed without
considering microsite factors, which may affect
turbine safety and performance. As a result,
when typhoons create strong turbulence, equipment
accidents occur, such as collapsed towers
and broken blades. Other design problems
include improperly positioned leading wire and
improperly secured cable structures, which can
lead to excessive vibration in high winds.
In other cases, major construction quality deficiencies
exist. This is the result of some wind
farm construction organizations focusing mainly
on expediting development while putting
little thought into management. Specifically,
quality, testing, control, and acceptance inspections
are not carried out in strict accordance with
the rules. What's more, some developers do not
have effective control and management over
construction quality. In some cases, unqualified
organizations perform the primary work.
Recently, more wind power equipment
manufacturers are starting up in China; their
number currently stands at more than 80. To
reduce costs, a few manufacturers have adopted
low-cost components, which reduce
equipment quality even as they reduce expenses.
What's more, some domestic wind
turbines are put into use without field operation
tests; hence, turbine accidents typically
occur during construction or soon after the
machines are put into use. In some instances,
the entire turbine falls down, the main shaft
breaks, the motor catches fire, the gearbox
becomes damaged, and blades rupture.
At present, China's wind power system is not
sound, and technical standards lag far behind
those in other nations. National technical standards
have not been set, and technical standards
for the centralized control of wind farms-along
with standards for system design, integration,
and monitoring-are still on the way.
Wind power production in China 2007-2011. Wind power's share of total energy
production has risen in recent years, but it remains a small part of China's overall generation
mix. Source: China National Electric Power Industry Statistics Bulletin
Year
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Wind power production
(billion kWh)
5.7
13.1
27.6
49.4
73.2
Note: NA = not applicable.
3. Wind turbine accident classifications. Parts such as the pitch system, frequency
conversion system, electrical system, control system, gearbox, generator, and yaw systems
have been most affected. Source: North China Electric Power University
Jan. - Aug. 2011
Impeller
Brake system
Hydraulic system
Gearbox system
Generator system
Pitch regulation system
2,000
www.powermag.com
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000 14,000
POWER | April 2013
2010
Growth rate (%)
NA
126.79
111.14
78.9
48.16
Share of total power
generation (%)
0.17
0.38
0.75
1.17
1.55
Average utilization of
wind power (hours)
NA
2,046
2,077
2,047
1,903
http://www.powermag.com

POWER April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER April 2013

Contents
POWER April 2013 - Cover1
POWER April 2013 - Cover2
POWER April 2013 - Contents
POWER April 2013 - 2
POWER April 2013 - 3
POWER April 2013 - 4
POWER April 2013 - 5
POWER April 2013 - 6
POWER April 2013 - 7
POWER April 2013 - 8
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