Interharmonic currents from a Type-IV wind energy conversion system

Abstract This paper presents, for the first time, the verification of the classic model for the origin of interharmonic emission from a frequency converter, for a Type-IV wind turbine by using long-term measurements. Interharmonic variations in magnitude and in frequency are due to the difference between the generator-side and grid-side frequency of the full-power converter. The model verification consists of three parts: correlation between frequencies; relation between magnitude of interharmonics and active-power production, and relation between magnitudes of different interharmonics. The measurements are in agreement with the model predictions. The paper also introduces a novel graphical correlation method to extract information on interharmonics from long-term measurement series.