Control of multi-terminal HVDC networks towards wind power integration: A review

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. More interconnections among countries and synchronous areas are foreseen in order to fulfil the EU 2050 target on the renewable generation share. One proposal to accomplish this challenging objective is the development of the so-called European SuperGrid. Multi-terminal HVDC networks are emerging as the most promising technologies to develop such a concept. Moreover, multi-terminal HVDC grids are based on highly controllable devices, which may allow not only transmitting power, but also supporting the AC grids to ensure a secure and stable operation. This paper aims to present an overview of different control schemes for multi-terminal HVDC grids, including the control of the power converters and the controls for power sharing and the provision of ancillary services. This paper also analyses the proposed modifications of the existing control schemes to manage high participation shares of wind power generation in multi-terminal grids.Postprint (author's final draft

Virtual Inertia Emulation to Improve Dynamic Frequency Stability of Low Inertia Microgrids

Due to low inertia and the intermittent nature of photovoltaic systems, dynamic frequency stability issues arise in microgrids with large photovoltaic systems. This limits the maximum amount of photovoltaic systems that can be penetrated in the microgrid. In order to increase the penetration of photovoltaic systems, the dynamic frequency controller, that is faster than the primary frequency controller (governor control) needs to be added in the microgrid system. For dynamic frequency control, inertial response can be provided from the energy storage system (such as battery, ultra-capacitor, photovoltaic system, etc.), which is termed as virtual inertia. A virtual inertia can be defined as the combination of an energy storage system, a power electronics converter and a proper control algorithm that improves the dynamic frequency stability of the microgrid. A virtual inertia supplies or absorbs the active power to and from the energy storage system to improve the dynamic frequency stability. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a hardware prototype of 1 kW virtual inertia in a microgrid with a real diesel generator and a load. For a step change in load, the virtual inertia improved the frequency response of the system from 57.39 Hz to 58.03 Hz. This improvement in frequency response proves the concept of existing proportional derivative based virtual inertia experimentally. With the addition of virtual inertia, the frequency of the system returns to the nominal frequency slower. Once the primary controller (governor control) of the system takes the action to regulate the frequency, virtual inertia no longer needs to add inertia to the system. So the dynamics of the VI needs to be improved so that the frequency returns to nominal frequency faster. This thesis also proposes an online learning controller based virtual inertia using adaptive dynamic programming that learns online and improves the dynamics of the controller of existing VI. The output of this controller supplements the output of the existing proportional derivative controller of virtual inertia. The supplementary controller is trained to increase the dynamics of the outer controller and to bring the system frequency to nominal frequency faster. Due to faster dynamics, the net energy delivered by the VI can be reduced significantly and improve the total possible discharge cycles from the battery. For performance evaluation, the proposed controller was implemented in a microgrid with a photovoltaic system, a diesel generator and a variable load. With the proposed controller, the frequency of the system returned to nominal frequency faster. The net energy delivered by the proposed controller in a photovoltaic diesel generator microgrid was 46.14% of the net energy delivered by the existing virtual inertia. Due to the decrement in the total energy delivered, the total number of possible battery discharge cycles with ADP based VI was 2.17 times of the total number of possible battery discharge cycles from VI

Small-Signal Modelling and Analysis of Doubly-Fed Induction Generators in Wind Power Applications

The worldwide demand for more diverse and greener energy supply has had a significant impact on the development of wind energy in the last decades. From 2 GW in 1990, the global installed capacity has now reached about 100 GW and is estimated to grow to 1000 GW by 2025. As wind power penetration increases, it is important to investigate its effect on the power system. Among the various technologies available for wind energy conversion, the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) is one of the preferred solutions because it offers the advantages of reduced mechanical stress and optimised power capture thanks to variable speed operation. This work presents the small-signal modelling and analysis of the DFIG for power system stability studies. This thesis starts by reviewing the mathematical models of wind turbines with DFIG convenient for power system studies. Different approaches proposed in the literature for the modelling of the turbine, drive-train, generator, rotor converter and external power system are discussed. It is shown that the flexibility of the drive train should be represented by a two-mass model in the presence of a gearbox. In the analysis part, the steady-state behaviour of the DFIG is examined. Comparison is made with the conventional synchronous generators (SG) and squirrel-cage induction generators to highlight the differences between the machines. The initialisation of the DFIG dynamic variables and other operating quantities is then discussed. Various methods are briefly reviewed and a step-by-step procedure is suggested to avoid the iterative computations in initial condition mentioned in the literature. The dynamical behaviour of the DFIG is studied with eigenvalue analysis. Modal analysis is performed for both open-loop and closed-loop situations. The effect of parameters and operating point variations on small signal stability is observed. For the open-loop DFIG, conditions on machine parameters are obtained to ensure stability of the system. For the closed-loop DFIG, it is shown that the generator electrical transients may be neglected once the converter controls are properly tuned. A tuning procedure is proposed and conditions on proportional gains are obtained for stable electrical dynamics. Finally, small-signal analysis of a multi-machine system with both SG and DFIG is performed. It is shown that there is no common mode to the two types of generators. The result confirms that the DFIG does not introduce negative damping to the system, however it is also shown that the overall effect of the DFIG on the power system stability depends on several structural factors and a general statement as to whether it improves or detriorates the oscillatory stability of a system can not be made

High frequency electronic ballast provides line frequency lamp current

Most electronic ballasts for fluorescent lamps provide a sinusoidal lamp current at the switching frequency. The high-frequency current flowing through the lamp can generate significant radiated noise, which is unacceptable in noise-sensitive applications, such as fluorescent lights in airplanes. Using shielded enclosures for the lamps may solve the problem, but it is expensive. A discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) electronic ballast topology is presented which drives the lamp with line frequency current, just like a magnetic ballast. However, compared to a magnetic ballast, its weight is substantially reduced due to operation at 40 kHz switching frequency. The topology also ensures unity power factor at the input and stable lamp operation at the output

Designing and Implementation of grid-connected separately excited DC Machine

This thesis presents the design and implementation of SEDC machine which was located at machine laboratory in UiT Narvik campus. To improve the efficiency and to have automatic control, the old passive control needs to be replaced with DC-DC converters based active control method. This thesis explores various DC-DC and grid connected converter with the goal to find a suitable and most efficient for this application. Half bridge VSI was developed and analyses, Filter and PCB for the Three-phase VSI was developed

Primary control of a microgrid operating in islanded mode

This study focuses in the primary frequency control of a generic microgrid. This microgrid consists of a Photovoltaic (PV), an Energy Storage System (ESS), a battery and a Diesel Generator (DG) which account for the majority of systems installed today, specially in remote areas, such as islands.This thesis addresses the development of the primary frequency control of the microgrid. The battery’s convertor is operated as a grid forming and it’s connected in parallel with the diesel generator. The PV’s converter is operated as a grid feeding. The control is handed as a distributed approach between the different elements of the system. Through this work, this control is analysed, through a simulation model implemented in PLECS® which is a Matlab blockset. The simulation model developed shows the operation of the control droop in different operating conditions, such as load and generation changes

Development of a digital electronic rebalance loop for a dry tuned-rotor two degree-of-freedom gyroscope

Digital electronic rebalance loops were designed and implemented in brassboard form to capture both X and Y axes of the Kearfott Gyroflex. The loops were width-modulated binary types using a 614.4 kHz keying signal and a 2.4 kHz sample frequency. The loops were designed for a torquing rate of 2 deg/sec (70.6 mA torquing current) and a data resolution of 23.4 milli-arc-sec per data pulse. Design considerations, implementation details, and preliminary experimental results are presented

Modeling and analysis of power processing systems: Feasibility investigation and formulation of a methodology

A review is given of future power processing systems planned for the next 20 years, and the state-of-the-art of power processing design modeling and analysis techniques used to optimize power processing systems. A methodology of modeling and analysis of power processing equipment and systems has been formulated to fulfill future tradeoff studies and optimization requirements. Computer techniques were applied to simulate power processor performance and to optimize the design of power processing equipment. A program plan to systematically develop and apply the tools for power processing systems modeling and analysis is presented so that meaningful results can be obtained each year to aid the power processing system engineer and power processing equipment circuit designers in their conceptual and detail design and analysis tasks

Advanced Control of Small-Scale Power Systems with Penetration of Renewable Energy Sources

Stability, protection, and operational restrictions are important factors to be taken into account in a proper integration of distributed energy. The objective of this research is presenting advanced controllers for small-scale power systems with penetration of renewable energy sources resources to ensure stable operation after the network disturbances. Power systems with distributed energy resources are modeled and controlled through applying nonlinear control methods to their power electronic interfaces in this research. The stability and control of both ac and dc systems have been studied in a multi-source framework. The dc distribution system is represented as a class of interconnected, nonlinear discrete-time systems with unknown dynamics. It comprises several dc sources, here called subsystems, along with resistive and constant-power loads (which exhibit negative resistance characteristics and reduce the system stability margins.) Each subsystem includes a dc-dc converter (DDC) and exploits distributed energy resources (DERs) such as photovoltaic, wind, etc. Due to the power system frequent disturbances this system is prone to instability in the presence of the DDC dynamical components and constant-power loads. On the other hand, designing a centralized controller may not be viable due to the distance between the subsystems (dc sources.) In this research it is shown that the stability of an interconnected dc distribution system is enhanced through decentralized discrete-time adaptive nonlinear controller design that employs neural networks (NNs) to mitigate voltage and power oscillations after disturbances have occurred. The ac power system model is comprised of conventional synchronous generators (SGs) and renewable energy sources, here, called renewable generators (RGs,) via grid-tie inverters (GTI.) A novel decentralized adaptive neural network (NN) controller is proposed for the GTI that makes the device behave as a conventional synchronous generator. The advantage of this modeling is that all available damping controllers for synchronous generator, such as AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) + PSS (Power System Stabilizer), can be applied to the renewable generator. Simulation results on both types of grids show that the proposed nonlinear controllers are able to mitigate the oscillations in the presence of disturbances and adjust the renewable source power to maintain the grid voltage close to its reference value. The stability of the interconnected grids has been enhanced in comparison to the conventional methods