Topology assessment for 3 + 3 terminal offshore DC grid considering DC fault management

Peer reviewedPostprin

Analysis of North Sea offshore wind power variability

This paper evaluates, for a 2030 scenario, the impact on onshore power systems in terms of the variability of the power generated by 81 GW of offshore wind farms installed in the North Sea. Meso-scale reanalysis data are used as input for computing the hourly power production for offshore wind farms, and this total production is analyzed to identify the largest aggregated hourly power variations. Based on publicly available information, a simplified representation of the coastal power grid is built for the countries bordering the North Sea. Wind farms less than 60 km from shore are connected radially to the mainland, while the rest are connected to a hypothetical offshore HVDC (High-Voltage Direct Current) power grid, designed such that wind curtailment does not exceed 1% of production. Loads and conventional power plants by technology and associated cost curves are computed for the various national power systems, based on 2030 projections. Using the MATLAB-based MATPOWER toolbox, the hourly optimal power flow for this regional hybrid AC/DC grid is computed for high, low and medium years from the meso-scale database. The largest net load variations are evaluated per market area and related to the extra load-following reserves that may be needed from conventional generators.Parts of this work were funded by Agentschap.NL, the Netherlands, now RVO.nl (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland [25], under the project North Sea Transnational Grid (NSTG). The NSTG project is a cooperation between Delft University of Technology and the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands

Cost and losses associated with offshore wind farm collection networks which centralise the turbine power electronic converters

Costs and losses have been calculated for several different network topologies, which centralise the turbine power electronic converters, in order to improve access for maintenance. These are divided into star topologies, where each turbine is connected individually to its own converter on a platform housing many converters, and cluster topologies, where multiple turbines are connected through a single large converter. Both AC and DC topologies were considered, along with standard string topologies for comparison. Star and cluster topologies were both found to have higher costs and losses than the string topology. In the case of the star topology, this is due to the longer cable length and higher component count. In the case of the cluster topology, this is due to the reduced energy capture from controlling turbine speeds in clusters rather than individually. DC topologies were generally found to have a lower cost and loss than AC, but the fact that the converters are not commercially available makes this advantage less certain

Offshore DC Grids as an Interconnection of Radial Systems : Protection and Control aspects

Peer reviewedPostprin

Multi-terminal HVDC grids with inertia mimicry capability

The high-voltage multi-terminal dc (MTDC) systems are foreseen to experience an important development in the next years. Currently, they have appeared to be a prevailing technical and economical solution for harvesting offshore wind energy. In this study, inertia mimicry capability is added to a voltage-source converter-HVDC grid-side station in an MTDC grid connected to a weak ac grid, which can have low inertia or even operate as an islanded grid. The presented inertia mimicry control is integrated in the generalised voltage droop strategy implemented at the primary level of a two-layer hierarchical control structure of the MTDC grid to provide higher flexibility, and thus controllability to the network. Besides, complete control framework from the operational point of view is developed to integrate the low-level control of the converter stations in the supervisory control centre of the MTDC grid. A scaled laboratory test results considering the international council on large electric systems (CIGRE) B4 MTDC grid demonstrate the good performance of the converter station when it is connected to a weak islanded ac grid.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Hybrid HVDC for integrating wind farms with special consideration on commutation failure

This paper presents the control and operation of a hybrid HVDC system comprising a wind farm side VSC rectifier and a grid side LCC inverter for integrating wind power. The configuration and operation principle of the hybrid HVDC system are described. Commutation failure in the LCC inverter during an AC network disturbance is considered and its impact on the hybrid system operation is analyzed. An enhanced control strategy for the LCC inverter at the grid side and an alternative MMC topology using mixed half-bridge and full-bridge modules considered for the rectifier at the wind farm side are proposed. Simulation results using Matlab/Simulink are presented to demonstrate the robust performance during LCC inverter commutation failure to validate the operation and recovery of the hybrid system with the proposed control strategy and MMC configuration

DC protection of a muti-terminal HVDC network featuring offshore wind farms

A protection scheme for DC faults has been designed for a multi-terminal HVDC network used to transfer energy from three large offshore wind farms to shore. The system uses open access models created in the EU-funded BEST-PATHS project, including a manufacturer-supplied wind farm model. Tripping conditions for the DC circuit breakers are found through simulation, along with current limiting inductor sizes, based on the use of a hybrid circuit breaker. Simulations of faults in the HVDC network show the ability of the protection scheme to isolate the fault, and the converter stations and wind turbines are able to ride-through the fault without tripping based on the 5ms switching time of the circuit breakers Longer switching times will cause significant rises in the offshore grid frequency, which could cause the turbines to trip