Refrigerator operation during commissioning and first plasma operations of Wendelstein 7-X

•It was quite challenging to have the helium refrigerator operation for the commissioning and the first plasma operation of Wendelstein 7-X.•All the 70 superconducting coils and 14 high temperature superconducting current leads were cooled down to 3.9 K and charged with max. of 12.8 kA.•The refrigerator operation was also carried out in various modes i.e. standby modes and peak power mode at different temperatures.