Control strategy for direct voltage and frequency stabilityenhancement in HVAC/HVDC grids

Direct voltage fluctuations due to the presence of relatively large DC reactors (as an essen-tial part of HVDC breakers), lack of inertia, and unwanted frequency fluctuations in theAC side of HVDC grids, have major consequences on the stability of HVAC/HVDC grids.The use of the DC Power System Stabilizer (DC-PSS) can damp and eliminate voltageoscillations caused by the presence of the DC reactors. However, DC-PSS cannot addressthe issues of inertia and unwanted frequency fluctuations. A method to improve inertiais proposed here that can operate well with the droop controller, and DC-PSS does notinterfere with power-sharing and does not interact with any of these elements. Since thepresence of a droop controller in HVAC/HVDC grids associates with power and directvoltage, the method proposed here can improve direct voltage fluctuations by eliminatingsevere power peaks. Moreover, this method does not change the voltage level of the entiresystem, so there is no need to change the set-points of controllers. In addition, all param-eters of the controllers are tuned by an intelligent algorithm, and the Participation factor(PF) scheme is used to find the proper placement of the proposed controller

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

A new approach for harmonic detection based on eliminating oscillatory coupling effects in microgrids

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs LicenseThe primary goal of grid-connected microgrids is to control the active and reactive power, which is reachable by the inner current control loop in the control structure of power converters. However, when facing unbalanced conditions, the inner current control loop implemented in the dq frame does not function properly. In such conditions, the popular current control loop malfunctions since there is an oscillatory coupling between harmonic components. Therefore, in this study, a new harmonic detector based on decoupled double synchronous reference frame within the current control loop is proposed in which the oscillatory coupling between harmonic components is eliminated, and the overall performance of the power converter control system is significantly improved. The performance of the precisely developed mathematical models is verified by Matlab simulations, and the simulation results confirm the accuracy and proper operation of the proposed strategy

Unified reference controller for flexible primary control and inertia sharing in multi-terminal voltage source converter-HVDC grids

Multi-terminal dc (MTDC) grids are expected to be built and experience rapid expansion in the near future as they have emerged as a competitive solution for transmitting offshore wind generation and overlaying their ac counterpart. The concept of inertia sharing for the control and operation of MTDC grids, which can be achieved by the proposed unified reference controller. The control objectives of the MTDC grids voltage source converter (VSC) stations are no longer limited to the stabilisation of MTDC grid, instead, the requirements of ac side are also met. The interaction dynamics between the ac and dc grid is analysed to illustrate the proposed concept. In addition, the voltage source converter stations can work in different operation modes based on the proposed unified control structure, and can switch among the operation modes smoothly following the secondary control commands. Simulation results exhibit the merits and satisfactory performance of the proposed control strategy for stable MTDC grid operation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Control of VSC-HVDC with electromechanical characteristics and unified primary strategy

High voltage dc (HVDC) systems act as the prevailed solution for transmitting offshore wind energy to onshore main grids. Control of the voltage source converters (VSC) in HVDC systems is decisive for the performance. This paper proposes the control of VSC-HVDC with electromechanical characteristics and unified primary strategy, as a reaction to the updated requirements of the ac grid transmission system operators. As two important aspects of VSC-HVDC control, converter control and primary control are both designed in detail. Electromechanical characteristics make the VSC capable of providing inertia to the ac networks as well as simplicity in island operation. Besides, unified primary control is given as a universal primary strategy for VSC stations, and especially takes into account frequency support and control mode transition. The proposed converter control is validated in scaled-down 10 kW laboratory setups, while the proposed primary control is endorsed by the simulation tests on a CIGRE multi-terminal HVDC model.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Heuristic optimization of supplementary controller for VSC-HVDC/AC interconnected grids considering PLL

This paper presents a new approach to enhance the dynamic responses of AGC in power systems by means of heuristic optimization of VSC-HVDC supplementary controllers. The upcoming power electronics-based VSC-HVDC transmission systems offer new features that would be advantageous for improving the frequency control and thus for enhancing the stability of the transmission grids. In this paper, the parameters of the proposed control modulation are tuned using Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing methods. The performance of the proposed intelligent based tuning approach is assessed through MATLAB simulations for an AC/DC interconnected system. For the sake of detailed analysis, the effects of PLL and frequency measurements are also included in the VSC-HVDC system modeling. Furthermore, to show merits of the proposed strategy, a comparison between AC and DC transmissions is presented.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Fuzzy gain scheduling based grid synchronization system responsive to the electrical network conditions

In power conversion applications grid synchronization systems should face very different network operating conditions such as: generic grid connection, faulty or distorted scenarios or islanded conditions among others. However, all the existing synchronization systems have issues operating in all these scenarios if the control tuning parameters cannot be adapted to the grid conditions. This paper proposes a Fuzzy Gain Scheduling PLL (FGS-PLL) to be used for grid synchronization, which has a robust performance in case of severe voltage sag, where there is even a null value of voltage, and phase jump conditions. Moreover, the proposed method employs a fuzzy gain scheduling technique to adjust the proportional and integral gains of the proposed PLL during amplitude, phase and frequency variations in the grid voltage waveform to build a flexible PLL in case of severe grid conditions. This PLL structure permits to adjust the performance in different conditions as well as to provide a voltage reference, even in case of 100% voltage sag.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Flexible HVDC transmission systems small signal modelling: a case study on CIGRE Test MT-HVDC grid

Future Flexible HVDC Transmission Systems will consist of several active and passive infrastructures including DC Power Flow Controller (DC-PFC) device. The addition of the DC-PFC to the future Multi-Terminal HVDC (MT-HVDC) grids arises some key concerns such as stability, system interoperability, and possible adverse interactions. Hence, a suitable model is necessary to conduct deep frequency domain analysis. In this context, this paper proposes a linearized model for small-signal stability analysis of flexible MT-HVDC grids in state space framework that can be straightforwardly utilized in the process of control design. In this paper, a spick-and-span, systematic and step-by-step process to derive the small signal model of all flexible MT-HVDC grid components is presented such that each sub-system is modeled individually and then all are integrated together. The derived model is cross-verified by time domain simulations of a nonlinear system model in a MATLAB/SIMULINK platform for CIGRE DCS3 MT-HVDC test grid.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Analysis on impacts of the shunt conductances in multi-terminal HVDC grids optimal power-flow

This study deals with impacts of the shunt conductances associated with HVDC cables and VSC-HVDC stations on optimal operation of Multi-Terminal HVDC (MT-HVDC). In this study, for the first time, shunt conductances are integrated to HVDC Optimal Power-Flow (OPF) program that is executed at the Power Dispatch Center (PDC) of the MT-HVDC grid. With the objective of losses minimization, optimal reference operation points of the VSC-HVDC stations are derived. The operating points of the power converter stations are adjusted based on the calculations performed in the dispatch center. CIGRE DCS3 MT-HVDC grid, structured by CIGRE B4 working group, is taken as the test platform. Test results have revealed the optimum voltages and loss pattern change. Moreover, the findings are compared with the case of neglecting the shunt conductances.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Power dispatch and voltage control in multiterminal HVDC systems : a flexible approach

This paper deals with the power dispatch and direct voltage control in multiterminal high voltage direct current (MT-HVDC) systems. Generalized voltage droop (GVD) control is adopted for voltage source converters (VSC)s of a MT-HVDC system. A mechanism has been designed based on the power ratio within the GVD controlled stations to achieve flexible autonomous coordination control among VSC-HVDC stations, without need for communication. In this paper, several alternatives are considered to guarantee fault ride through of onshore converter stations. The performance of the proposed control strategy is analyzed with time-domain dynamic simulations, in an EMDTC/PSCAD platform, and experimentally validated. Results demonstrate the robust performance and capabilities of the proposed control strategy during changes in the power demand of the ac grids, unexpected change in wind power generation, and eventual permanent VSC-HVDC station disconnection