Virtually synchronous power plant control

During the last century, the electrical energy infrastructures have been governed by synchronous generators, producing electrical energy to the vast majority of the population worldwide. However, power systems are no longer what they used to be. During the last two decades of this new millennium the classical, centralized and hierarchical networks have experienced an intense integration of renewable energy sources, mainly wind and solar, thanks also to the evolution and development of power conversion and power electronics industry. Although the current electrical system was designed to have a core of generation power plants, responsible of producing the necessary energy to supply end users and a clear power flow, divided mainly into transmission and distribution networks, as well as scalable consumers connected at different levels, this scenario has dramatically changed with the addition of renewable generation units. The massive installation of wind and solar farms, connected at medium voltage networks, as well as the proliferation of small distributed generators interfaced by power converters in low voltage systems is changing the paradigm of energy generation, distribution and consumption. Despite the feasibility of this integration in the existing electrical network, the addition of these distributed generators made grid operators face new challenges, especially considering the stochastic profile of such energy producers. Furthermore, the replacement of traditional generation units for renewable energy sources has harmed the stability and the reliable response during grid contingencies. In order to cope with the difficult task of operating the electrical network, transmission system operators have increased the requirements and modified the grid codes for the newly integrated devices. In an effort to enable a more natural behavior of the renewable systems into the electrical grid, advanced control strategies were presented in the literature to emulate the behavior of traditional synchronous generators. These approaches focused mainly on the power converter relying on their local measurement points to resemble the operation of a traditional generating unit. However, the integration of those units into bigger systems, such as power plants, is still not clear as the effect of accumulating hundreds or thousands of units has not been properly addressed. In this regard, the work of this thesis deals with the study of the so-called virtual synchronous machine (VSM) in three control layers. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of the general structure used for the different virtual synchronous machine approaches is presented, which constitutes the base implementation tree for all existent strategies of virtual synchronous generation. In a first stage, the most inner control loop is studied and analyzed regarding the current control on the power converter. This internal regulator is in charge of the current injection and the tracking of all external power reference. Afterward, the synchronous control is oriented to the device, where the generating unit relies on its local measurements to emulate a synchronous machine in the power converter. In this regard, a sensorless approach to the virtual synchronous machine is introduced, increasing the stability of the power converter and reducing the voltage measurements used. Finally, the model of the synchronous control is extrapolated into a power plant control layer to be able to regulate multiple units in a coordinated manner, thus emulating the behavior of a unique synchronous machine. In this regard, the local measurements are not used for the emulation of the virtual machine, but they are switched to PCC measurements, allowing to set the desired dynamic response at the power plant level.Postprint (published version

Frequency support characteristics of grid-interactive power converters based on the synchronous power controller

Grid-interactive converters with primary frequency control and inertia emulation have emerged and are promising for future renewable generation plants because of the contribution in power system stabilization. This paper gives a synchronous active power control solution for gridinteractive converters , as a way to emulate synchronous generators for inerita characteristics and load sharing. As design considerations, the virtual angle stability and transient response are both analyzed, and the detailed implementation structure is also given without entailing any difficulty in practice. The analytical and experimental validation of frequency support characteristics differentiates the work from other publications on generator emulation control. The 10 kW simulation and experimental frequency sweep tests on a regenerative source test bed present good performance of the proposed control in showing inertia and droop characteristics, as well as the controllable transient response.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Control of power converter in modern power systems

A la portada consta el nom del programa interuniversitari: Joint Doctoral Programme in Electric Energy Systems [by the] Universidad de Málaga, Universidad de Sevilla, Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Erriko Unibertsitatea i Universitat Politècnica de CatalunyaPower system is undergoing an unpreceded paradigm shift: from centralized to distributed generation. As the renewable-based generations and battery storage systems are increasingly displacing conventional generations, it becomes more and. more difficult to maintain the stability and reliability of the grid by using only conventional generations. The main reason for the degradation of grid stability is the rapid penetration of nonconventional sources. These new generations interface with the grids through power electronics converters which are conventionally designed to maximize conversion efficiency and resource utilization. Indeed, these power converters only focus on their internal operation despite the grid conditions, which often worsens the grid operation. To overcome such a drawback, the grid-forming concept has been proposed for power converters, aiming to redesign the control of the power converters to enforce more grid-friendly behaviours such as inertia response and power oscillation damping to name a few. Despite the rich literature, actual adaptation of grid-forming controller in real-world applications is still rare because incentives for renewable power plants to provide services based on such advanced grid-forming functions were at best scarce. In the last years, however, several system operators have imposed new requirements and markets for grid-supporting services. In addition, the existing grid-forming controllers require modification to low-level control firmware of a power converter, which is often unrealistic due to the control hardware limitations as well as necessary testing and certifications. To ensure a stable operation of a grid-forming converter under adverse operating conditions, a robust voltage sensorless current controller is developed in this PhD thesis. The proposed controller is able to handle most of the possible abnormal conditions of the grid such as impedance variations, unbalanced voltage; harmonics distortion. These abnormalities of the grid are mathematically represented using equivalent linear models such that they can be used for calculating the controller gains. Linear matrix inequality techniques are also used to facilitate parameter tuning. In fact, the performance and stability of the current control loop can be determined through only two tuning parameters instead of eight parameters for a controller of a similar structure. The existing grid-forming implementations are designed considering that the control firmware of the power converter can be upgraded at will. However, modifications of the control firmware are not straightforward and cost-effective at mass scale. To overcome such a limitation, an external synchronous controller is presented in this PhD thesis. The external synchronous controller uses measurements, which are either provided by the power converter or a dedicated measurement unit, to calculate the actual active and reactive power that should be injected by the power converters in a way that the power plant acts as an aggregated grid­forming converter. As a result, any conventional power converters can be utilized for providing grid-supporting services with minimal modification to the existing infrastructure. Power converters can provide even better performance than a synchronous generator if a proper control scheme is used. In this regard, the final chapter of this PhD thesis presents the multi-rotor virtual machine implementation for grid-forming converter to boost their damping performance to power oscillations. The multi-rotor virtual machine-controller implements several virtual rotors instead of only one rotor as in typical grid-forming strategies. Since each of the virtual rotors is tuned to target a specific critical mode, the damping participation to such a mode can be increased and adjusted individually. The controllers presented in this PhD thesis are validated through simulators and experiments in the framework of the H2020 FlexiTranstore project. The results are throughout analysed to assess the control performance as well as to highlight possible implications.A medida que las generaciones basadas en energías renovables y los sistemas de almacenamiento de baterías desplazan la generación convencional, se vuelve cada vez más difícil mantener la estabilidad y confiabilidad de la red. Estas nuevas generaciones interactúan con las redes a través de convertidores de electrónica de potencia que están diseñados tradicionalmente para maximizar la eficiencia de conversión y la utilización de recursos. Estos convertidores centran su funcionamiento interno independientemente de las condiciones de la red, lo que a menudo empeora el funcionamiento de la red. Para esto, se ha propuesto el concepto de convertidores de potencia formadores de red (grid-forming), con el objetivo de rediseñar el control de los convertidores de potencia para imponer comportamientos más favorables a la red, por ejemplo, la respuesta inercial y la amortiguación de oscilaciones de potencia. No en tanto, la adaptación real del controlador grid-forming en aplicaciones del mundo real todavía es escasa debido a los pocos incentivos para que las plantas de energía renovable proporcionen servicios basados en funciones de formación de red tan avanzadas. Aunque en los últimos años, operadores de sistemas han impuesto nuevos requisitos y mercados para servicios auxiliares, los controladores grid-forming existentes requieren cambios en el firmware de control de bajo nivel de un convertidor de potencia, algo poco realista debido a las limitaciones del hardware de control, así como a las pruebas y certificaciones necesarias. En esta tesis se desarrolla un controlador de corriente robusto, sin sensor de tensión, para garantizar el funcionamiento estable de un convertidor grid-forming en condiciones de operación adversas. Este controlador es capaz de manejar la mayoría de las condiciones anormales de red, como variaciones de impedancia, tensión desequilibrada y distorsión de armónicos. Estas anomalías de la red se representan matemáticamente mediante modelos lineales equivalentes, utilizados para calcular las ganancias del controlador. También, usando técnicas de desigualdad matricial lineal para facilitar el ajuste de parámetros. De hecho, el rendimiento y la estabilidad del bucle de control de la corriente pueden determinarse mediante sólo dos parámetros de sintonización. Las implementaciones de formación de red existentes están diseñadas considerando que el firmware de control del convertidor de potencia puede actualizarse a voluntad. Sin embargo, las modificaciones del firmware de control no son sencillas ni rentables a gran escala. Por tanto, esta tesis presenta un controlador síncrono externo que utiliza las mediciones proporcionadas por el convertidor de potencia o por una unidad de medición dedicada para calcular la potencia activa y reactiva real que deben inyectar los convertidores de potencia, de forma que la central eléctrica actúe como un convertidor grid-forming agregado. Como resultado, cualquier convertidor de potencia convencional puede utilizarse para proporcionar servicios de apoyo a la red con una modificación mínima de la infraestructura existente. Los convertidores de potencia pueden ofrecer mejor rendimiento que un generador síncrono utilizando un esquema de control adecuado. El último capítulo de esta tesis presenta la implementación de una máquina virtual multirrotor para que los convertidores de red aumenten su rendimiento de amortiguación de las oscilaciones de potencia. El controlador de la máquina virtual multirrotor implementa varios rotores virtuales en lugar de un solo rotor como en las estrategias típicas de grid-forming. Dado que cada uno de los rotores virtuales está sintonizado para dirigirse a un modo crítico específico, la participación de la amortiguación a dicho modo puede aumentarse y ajustarse individualmente. Los controladores presentados en esta tesis doctoral han sido validados mediante simulaciones y experimentos en el marco del proyecto H2020 FlexiTranstore.Postprint (published version

Grid forming control for power converters based on an Inertial Phase Locked Loop (IPLL)

Inertia emulation is claimed to play a decisive role in the regulation and management of frequency in modern electrical systems. The support offered by renewable energy power plants and distributed generators is key to diminish the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF), as many synchronous generators are being replaced all around the globe. It is a reality that the implementation of the swing equation in the power converter control has been the core of several proposals on grid-forming controllers to emulate inertia. This kind of controller has been heavily studied and integrated in some demonstrators around the world during the last years, providing dynamic inertia support functionalities. However, the need to modify the synchronization strategy in already deployed power units has been one of the key opposition factors on industry, leading to a severe shortcoming on the integration. In contrast to the traditional swing equation implementation this paper presents a lightweight inertial phase-locked loop (IPLL) able to take the most of inertial features introducing minor changes on classical power converter control and synchronization structures. As shown in this work, the straightforward implementation significantly reduces the technological and computational effort compared to other synchronous emulation proposals. Moreover, it integrates not only dynamic inertial response to the converter, but also all grid-forming capacities to the power conversion unit. This modification on the synchronization structure enables the converter to work in grid-following mode in grid-tied applications, and grid-forming in islanded ones. The integration of the proposed IPLL, the stability analysis and a sample of its performance in HIL and experimental environments will be presented in this paper.This work was supported by the Margarita Salas Program promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Universities under Grant GA 94126.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Energy Shaping Control for Stabilization of Interconnected Voltage Source Converters in Weakly-Connected AC Microgrid Systems

With the ubiquitous installations of renewable energy resources such as solar and wind, for decentralized power applications across the United States, microgrids are being viewed as an avenue for achieving this goal. Various independent system operators and regional transmission operators such as Southwest Power Pool (SPP), Midcontinent System Operator (MISO), PJM Interconnection and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manage the transmission and generation systems that host the distributed energy resources (DERs). Voltage source converters typically interconnect the DERs to the utility system and used in High voltage dc (HVDC) systems for transmitting power throughout the United States. A microgrid configuration is built at the 13.8kV 4.75MVA National Center for Reliable Energy Transmission (NCREPT) testing facility for performing grid-connected and islanded operation of interconnected voltage source converters. The interconnected voltage source converters consist of a variable voltage variable frequency (VVVF) drive, which powers a regenerative (REGEN) load bench acting as a distributed energy resource emulator. Due to the weak-grid interface in islanded mode testing, a voltage instability occurs on the VVVF dc link voltage causing the system to collapse. This dissertation presents a new stability theorem for stabilizing interconnected voltage source converters in microgrid systems with weak-grid interfaces. The new stability theorem is derived using the concepts of Dirac composition in Port-Hamiltonian systems, passivity in physical systems, eigenvalue analysis and robust analysis based on the edge theorem for parametric uncertainty. The novel stability theorem aims to prove that all members of the classes of voltage source converter-based microgrid systems can be stabilized using an energy-shaping control methodology. The proposed theorems and stability analysis justifies the development of the Modified Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity-Based Control (Modified IDA-PBC) method to be utilized in stabilizing the microgrid configuration at NCREPT for mitigating system instabilities. The system is simulated in MATLAB/SimulinkTM using the Simpower toolbox to observe the system’s performance of the designed controller in comparison to the decoupled proportional intergral controller. The simulation results verify that the Modified-IDA-PBC is a viable option for dc bus voltage control of interconnected voltage source converters in microgrid systems

Control and Stability of Residential Microgrid with Grid-Forming Prosumers

The rise of the prosumers (producers-consumers), residential customers equipped with behind-the-meter distributed energy resources (DER), such as battery storage and rooftop solar PV, offers an opportunity to use prosumer-owned DER innovatively. The thesis rests on the premise that prosumers equipped with grid-forming inverters can not only provide inertia to improve the frequency performance of the bulk grid but also support islanded operation of residential microgrids (low-voltage distribution feeder operated in an islanded mode), which can improve distribution grids’ resilience and reliability without purposely designing low-voltage (LV) distribution feeders as microgrids. Today, grid-following control is predominantly used to control prosumer DER, by which the prosumers behave as controlled current sources. These grid-following prosumers deliver active and reactive power by staying synchronized with the existing grid. However, they cannot operate if disconnected from the main grid due to the lack of voltage reference. This gives rise to the increasing interest in the use of grid-forming power converters, by which the prosumers behave as voltage sources. Grid-forming converters regulate their output voltage according to the reference of their own and exhibit load sharing with other prosumers even in islanded operation. Making use of grid-forming prosumers opens up opportunities to improve distribution grids’ resilience and enhance the genuine inertia of highly renewable-penetrated power systems. Firstly, electricity networks in many regional communities are prone to frequent power outages. Instead of purposely designing the community as a microgrid with dedicated grid-forming equipment, the LV feeder can be turned into a residential microgrid with multiple paralleled grid-forming prosumers. In this case, the LV feeder can operate in both grid-connected and islanded modes. Secondly, gridforming prosumers in the residential microgrid behave as voltage sources that respond naturally to the varying loads in the system. This is much like synchronous machines extracting kinetic energy from rotating masses. “Genuine” system inertia is thus enhanced, which is fundamentally different from the “emulated” inertia by fast frequency response (FFR) from grid-following converters. Against this backdrop, this thesis mainly focuses on two aspects. The first is the small-signal stability of such residential microgrids. In particular, the impact of the increasing number of grid-forming prosumers is studied based on the linearised model. The impact of the various dynamic response of primary sources is also investigated. The second is the control of the grid-forming prosumers aiming to provide sufficient inertia for the system. The control is focused on both the inverters and the DC-stage converters. Specifically, the thesis proposes an advanced controller for the DC-stage converters based on active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), which observes and rejects the “total disturbance” of the system, thereby enhancing the inertial response provided by prosumer DER. In addition, to make better use of the energy from prosumer-owned DER, an adaptive droop controller based on a piecewise power function is proposed, which ensures that residential ESS provide little power in the steady state while supplying sufficient power to cater for the demand variation during the transient state. Proposed strategies are verified by time-domain simulations

Design of control tools for use in microgrid simulations

2018 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.New technologies are transforming the way electricity is delivered and consumed. In the past two decades, a large amount of research has been done on smart grids and microgrids. This can be attributed to two factors. First is the poliferation of internet. Internet today is as ubiquitous as electricity. This has spawned a new area of technology called the internet of things (IoT). It gives us the ability to connect almost any device to the internet and harness the data. IoT finds use in smart grids that allow utiliy companies to deliver electricity efficiently. The other factor is the advancement in renewable sources of electricty and high power semiconductors coupled with their decreasing cost. These new sources disrupt the traditional way of electicity production and delivery, putting an increased focus on distributed power generation and microgrids. A microgrid is different from a utility grid. The difference is in the size of the grid, power level, a variety of possible sources and the way these are tied together. These characteristics lead to some unique control challenges. Today's appliances and consumer goods are powered using a standardized AC power. Thus a microrid must deliver uninterrupted and high quality power while at the same time taking into account the vastly different nature of the microsurces that produce the power. This work describes control system tools for different power converters that will be used in simulating microgrids.\ Simulations are important tool for any researcher. It allows researchers to test their research and theories at a greatly reduced cost. The process of design, testing and verification is an iterative process. Simulations allow a cost effective method of doing research, substituting the actual process of building experimental systems. This greatly reduces the amount of manpower and capital investment. A microgrid consists of several building blocks. These building blocks can be categorized into microsources, energy stores, converters and the loads. Microsources are devices that produce electric power. For example, a photovoltaic panel is a mirosource that produces DC power. Converters act as an interface between microsources and the grid. The constituent chapters in the document describe microsources and converters. The chapters describe the underlying control system and the simulation model of the system designed in Simulink. Some of the tools described are derived from the MATLAB/Simulink Examples library. Original authors of the simulation models and systems have been duly credited. Colorado State University has a vibrant research community. The tools described in this thesis are geared to be used for research into microgrids. The tools are developed in a simulation software called Simulink. The tools would allow future researchers to rapidly build microgrid simulations and test new control system implementations etc. The research described in the thesis builds upon the research by Han on natural gas engine based microgrid. The control tools described here are used to construct a microgrid simulation. The microgrid is built around a natural gas engine. Due to the transport lag in delivering fuel, a natural gas engine exhibits significant deviation in the AC grid frequency when subjected to step load. The microgrid setup along with the control system described here, minimizes the frequency deviation, thus stabilizing the microgrid. Simulation results verify the working of the tools

Battery Energy Storage System converter control: Virtual Generator application for fault conditions.

The growing need of integrate renewable energies, such as wind and solar has been driven by the necessity of reducing air pollutant, reducing greenhouse gases emissions, improv- ing public health and having energy supply diversication. This need of sustainability cannot exclude the necessity to guarantee reliability and stability of the electrical power system, and more specically Microgrid systems, both in normal operating scenarios and during unexpected events such as unintentional islanding or fault events. For this rea- son renewable generation as to be support by intelligent system such as Battery Energy Storage Systems in order to have an energy reserve able to follow the oscillations of the renewable energies and to guarantee a stable control of voltage and frequency. These energy sources are typically connected via power electronics in order to have rapid re- sponse and degree of freedom to implement several control techniques. But the increase in the interfacing of energy sources with inverters has contributed to the reduction of system inertia and this aspect has to be investigated. This thesis proposes a new control algorithm for Battery Energy Storage System able to provide inertial contribution in order to mimic the behaviour of a synchronous generator and then a new approach to adapt this algorithm to fault condition which can cause severe instability of the Micro- grid. After a rst introduction chapter, Chapter 2 presents the new Virtual Synchronous Gen- erator control algorithm and some simulations carried out with the dedicated simulation software DIgSILENT PowerFactory\uae show the correct dynamic behaviour in normal operating scenarios. Then Chapter 3 deals with the modication of the proposed control scheme in order to properly manage symmetrical faults in islanded and grid connected conguration with a particular focus on the resynchronisation problem. Chapter 4 pro- poses a complete set of simulations in order to show the excellent results obtained in this research eld. Overall conclusions and nal remarks are reported in Chapter 5. This Ph.D. thesis is an outcome of a scientic research that I have conduct during the three years long Ph.D. program, in collaboration with and founded by Hitachi Power Grids

Simulating the Power Electronics-Dominated Grid using Schwarz-Schur Complement based Hybrid Domain Decomposition Algorithm

This paper proposes a novel two-stage hybrid domain decomposition algorithm to speed up the dynamic simulations and the analysis of power systems that can be computationally demanding due to the high penetration of renewables. On the first level of the decomposition, a Schwarz-based strategy is used to decouple the original problem into various subsystems through boundary variable relaxation, while on the second level, each decoupled subsystem is further decomposed into subdomains that are solved independently using the Schur-complement approach. Convergence is checked in both stages to ensure that the parallelized implementation of the subsystems can produce identical results to the original problem. The proposed approach is tested on an IEEE 9 bus system in which one synchronous generator is replaced with a solar PV farm through a grid-forming inverter (GFM) with an admittance control method to evaluate its effectiveness and applicability for large-scale and very-large-scale implementations. Since conventional dual-loop GFMs are not stable when connecting to a stronger grid with a small grid inductance, a virtual inductance method is adopted to increase the equivalent inductance connecting the grid to enhance stability.Comment: 6 page