Start-up of virtual synchronous machine: methods and experimental comparison

A modern grid is smarter mainly in the advance in information and communication technologies, while the power processing mechanism does not make a big difference. To make a modern grid smarter, the grid control should be improved to process the power in a smarter way. Therefore, it is easily foreseen that virtual synchronous machines, which emulates the synchronous machines based on power converters, may have big potentials in a future energy internet. This paper uses the Synchronous Power Controller with emulated and improved synchronous machine characteristics for renewable generation systems and proposes two start-up strategies. The proposed strategies are explained in detail, verified and compared by experimental results.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Modular multilevel converter with modified half-bridge submodule and arm filter for dc transmission systems with DC fault blocking capability

Although a modular multilevel converter (MMC) is universally accepted as a suitable converter topology for the high voltage dc transmission systems, its dc fault ride performance requires substantial improvement in order to be used in critical infrastructures such as transnational multi-terminal dc (MTDC) networks. Therefore, this paper proposes a modified submodule circuit for modular multilevel converter that offers an improved dc fault ride through performance with reduced semiconductor losses and enhanced control flexibility compared to that achievable with full-bridge submodules. The use of the proposed submodules allows MMC to retain its modularity; with semiconductor loss similar to that of the mixed submodules MMC, but higher than that of the half-bridge submodules. Besides dc fault blocking, the proposed submodule offers the possibility of controlling ac current in-feed during pole-to-pole dc short circuit fault, and this makes such submodule increasingly attractive and useful for continued operation of MTDC networks during dc faults. The aforesaid attributes are validated using simulations performed in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and substantiated experimentally using the proposed submodule topology on a 4-level small-scale MMC prototype

Modular multilevel converter based LCL DC/DC converter for high power DC transmission grids

This paper presents a modular multilevel converter (MMC) based DC/DC converter with LCL inner circuit for HVDC transmission and DC grids. Three main design challenges are addressed. The first challenge is the use of MMCs with higher operating frequency compared to common transformer-based DC/DC converters where MMC operating frequency is limited to a few hundred hertz due to core losses. The second issue is the DC fault response. With the LCL circuit, the steady state fault current is limited to a low magnitude which is tolerable by MMC semiconductors. Mechanical DC circuit breakers can therefore be used to interrupt fault current for permanent faults and extra sub-module bypass thyristors are not necessary to protect antiparallel diodes. Thirdly, a novel controller structure is introduced with multiple coordinate frames ensuring zero local reactive power at both bridges in the whole load range. The proposed controller structure is also expandable to a DC hub with multiple ports. Detailed simulations using PSCAD/EMTDC are performed to verify the aforementioned design solutions in normal and fault conditions

Offshore Wind Farm Black Start Service Integration:Review and Outlook of Ongoing Research

A review of the ongoing research on black start (BS) service integrated with offshore wind farms (OWFs) is presented in this paper. The overall goal is to firstly gain a better understanding of the BS capabilities required by modern power systems. Subsequently, the challenges faced by OWFs as novel BS service providers as well as an outlook on the ongoing research which may provide solutions to these are presented. OWFs have the potential to be a fast and environmentally friendly technology to provide BS services for power system restoration and, therefore, to ensure resiliency after blackouts. As a power electronic-based system, OWFs can be equipped with a self-starter in the system in order to perform BS. The self-start unit could be a synchronous generator (SG) or a power electronic unit such as a grid-forming (GFM) converter. Preliminary BS studies performed in PSCAD/EMTDC are presented in a simplified OWF system via an SG as the self-start unit. Consequently, technical challenges during the BS procedure in an OWF benchmark system are outlined via theoretical discussions and simulations results. This is useful to understand the threats to power electronics during BS. Finally, the most relevant GFM strategies in the state-of-the-art literature are presented and their application to OWF BS is discussed

Virtual Synchronous Machine Control with Adaptive Inertia Applicable to an MMC Terminal

Renewable energy sources (RES) penetration levels are increasing in the power grid. However, it does not have inertia as a traditional synchronous generator, causing a reduction in the inertia and damping in the power grid, impacting the stability during power changes in the grid, causing large frequency deviations. The virtual synchronous machine (VSM) concept has become an attractive solution to emulate the synchronous machine characteristics and supply the inertia and damping property in the system. It consists of emulating the synchronous machine’s static and dynamic properties by power electronic converters and energy storage systems. Nevertheless, the implementation and design of the VSM is a challenge since it must be flexible in the presence of load fluctuations, preventing the oscillations and frequency overshoot from increasing during system disturbances. Hence, the VSM with adaptive inertia has become a potential solution because it provides the inertia and damping factor to the grid according to the load variations and different RES penetration levels in the system. Therefore, the inertia estimation is necessary to use the special techniques that guarantee the balance between the power and frequency response..

Techno-economic assessment of energy storage technologies for inertia response and frequency support from wind farms

This paper provides the result of a techno-economic study of potential energy storage technologies deployable at wind farms to provide short-term ancillary services such as inertia response and frequency support. Two different scenarios are considered including a single energy storage system for the whole wind farm and individual energy storage for each wind turbine (located at either the dc or the ac side of its grid-side converter). Simulations are introduced to check the technical viability of the proposal with different control strategies. Power and energy capability requirements demanded by both specific services are defined for each studied case based on present and future grid code needs. Based on these requirements, the study compares a wide range of energy storage technologies in terms of present-day technical readiness and properties and identifies potential candidate solutions. These are flywheels, supercapacitors, and three chemistries out of the Li-ion battery family. Finally, the results of a techno-economic assessment (mainly based on weight, volume, lifetime, and industry-confirmed costings) detail the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solutions for the different scenarios under consideration. The main conclusion is that none of the candidates are found to be clearly superior to the others over the whole range of scenarios. Commercially available solutions have to be tailored to the different requirements depending on the amount of inertia, maximum Rate of Change of Frequency and maximum frequency deviation to be allowed

A VSM (virtual synchronous machine) convertor control model suitable for RMS studies for resolving system operator/owner challenges

In recent years, it has become clear that reaching the targeted levels of renewable power generation poses problems, not only for basic infrastructure and generation/load balancing, but also in terms of fundamental network stability. In Ireland, the contribution from convertor-connected generation is already constrained to 50-55%, while recent studies of other networks suggest that any "penetration" of convertors above 65% could lead to instability. The phenomena have been observed both in RMS and high-fidelity EMT simulations of convertor-dominated power systems, and appears to be unavoidable when using the dq-axis current-source controllers within conventional grid-connected convertors. The high control bandwidth (>50 Hz) of these convertors also means that they cannot be effectively included within RMS type large-scale network models. The idea of "synthetic inertia" has been proposed in some publications as a mitigating solution but needs to be considered carefully, since if implemented incorrectly it has been shown to further destabilise the network at the critical small timescales and high frequencies. In this paper we present simple versions of a Virtual Synchronous Machine (VSM) model which is implemented and demonstrated in both transient and RMS based simulations. An important aspect of the VSM is that the controller’s bandwidth is low (<<50 Hz). This means that it can be modelled with reasonable accuracy in RMS simulation with time steps of the order of 2ms. From a system operator perspective, large-scale RMS simulations of entire countries or regions containing hundreds of VSM generators can be carried out with reasonable accuracy

Next Generation Inverters Equipped with Virtual Synchronous Compensators for Grid Services and Grid Support

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Effects of VSM convertor control on penetration limits of non-synchronous generation in the GB power system

2013 saw the presentation of a paper [1][2] to the wind integration workshop, which demonstrated 26 high convertor penetration scenarios, 17 of which introduced a type of instability in RMS models previously unseen by the researchers. It also provided an indication of the constraints necessary if NSG levels where to be limited, potentially placing practical limits on the amount of NSG which could be accommodated. It demonstrated that Synchronous Compensation (SC) could be used to mitigate these and other problems but this is believed to be an expensive solution. Further publications have demonstrated that convertor instability at high NSG extends beyond RMS models and is believed to occur in real systems [3]. In addition, Swing Equation Based Inertial Response (SEBIR) control, sometimes referred to as "Synthetic Inertia", has been shown to be ineffective as a countermeasure against the instability observed in [1][2] and can in some circumstances make it worse [4][5]. Whilst SEBIR improves RoCoF, its inability to address the wider range of problems resulted in the need for more comprehensive solutions. Several authors have proposed converters using principles aligned with VSM and VSM0H concepts and controllers using these concepts exist within marine power networks. This paper returns to the studies presented in [1][2], which used a reduced 36 node GB model in PowerFactory (PF). However here, some of the convertors are replaced with VSM convertor models described in [6] to investigate the effects on Instantaneous Penetration Level (IPL) limit of NSG in terms of transient stability and steady-state stability. These and further results presented demonstrate the potential of VSM, in mitigating the effects of various challenges associated with high NSG, potentially allowing 100% penetration