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Published in IET Renewable Power Generation

Received on 7th February 2008
Revised on 17th July 2008
doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018

ISSN 1752-1416

Fault ride through of fully rated converter

wind turbines with AC and DC transmission
systems
G. Ramtharan1 A. Arulampalam2 J.B. Ekanayake2,3
F.M. Hughes4 N. Jenkins3
1
Garrad Hassan and Partners Limited, St. Vincents Works, Silverthorne Lane, Bristol BS2 0QD, UK
2
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya 20400,
Sri Lanka
3
Centre for Integrated Renewable Energy Generation and Supply, Cardiff School of Engineering, Cardiff University,
Queens Buildings, Cardiff CF 24 3AA, Wales, UK
4
Engineering Consultant, UK
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Fault ride through of fully rated converter wind turbines in an offshore wind farm connected to onshore
network via either high voltage AC (HVAC) or high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission is described. Control of the
generators and the grid side converters is shown using vector control techniques. A de-loading scheme was
used to protect the wind turbine DC link capacitors from over voltage. How de-loading of each generator aids
the fault ride through of the wind farm connected through HVAC transmission is demonstrated. The voltage
recovery of the AC network during the fault was enhanced by increasing the reactive power current of the
wind turbine grid side converter. A practical fault ride through protection scheme for a wind farm connected
through an HVDC link is to employ a chopper circuit on the HVDC link. Two alternatives to this approach are
also discussed. The rst involves de-loading the wind farm on detection of the fault, which requires
communication of the fault condition to each wind turbine of the wind farm. The second scheme avoids this
complex communication requirement by transferring the fault condition via control of the HVDC link to the
offshore converter. The fault performances of the three schemes are simulated and the results were used to
assess their respective capabilities.

Nomenclature PGrid pf wind turbine grid side pre-fault active power

iqs generator q-axis stator current PGen f generator fault active power
ids generator d-axis stator current PGrid f wind turbine grid side fault active power
iqgc wind turbine grid side q-axis current Pon pf HVDC onshore pre-fault active power
idgc wind turbine grid side d-axis current Pon f HVDC onshore fault active power
imax wind turbine grid side maximum current vgc wind turbine grid side converter voltage
PGen generator active power vdc wind turbine DC link voltage
PGrid wind turbine grid side active power vdc max wind turbine DC link maximum voltage
PGen pf generator pre-fault active power vdc th wind turbine threshold voltage

426 IET Renew. Power Gener., 2009, Vol. 3, Iss. 4, pp. 426 438
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018
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vdc HVDC HVDC link voltage to reduce power may be sent to each wind turbine in the event
vdc HVDC max HVDC link maximum voltage of a fault [9] assuming an ideal communication medium. In
[14], when the HVDC link voltage increases during a fault,
vdc HVDC th HVDC link threshold voltage
the offshore HVDC converter increases the AC network
frequency of the DFIG wind farm. Then the DFIG wind
turbines detect this frequency change and reduce their output
1 Introduction power. A practical solution not requiring fast communication
Wind turbines using fully rated converters are emerging as to each turbine is to use a chopper resistor on the HVDC
one of the more popular variable speed wind turbine link. A qualitative comparison of the different protection
architectures [1]. The decoupled operation of the wind schemes for HVDC fault ride through is given in [15].
turbine generators and the voltage source converters
(VSCs) facilitates the implementation of effective This paper addresses fault ride through of fully rated
controllers [2]. This topology has a number of advantages converter wind turbines with either AC or DC transmission
including (i) wide speed range of operation (ii) direct systems. The control of the generators and grid side
control of real and reactive power to the grid (iii) reduced converters using vector control is described in Section 2. A
mechanical stress and (iv) during a fault, full control over de-loading protection scheme that may be used for an AC
the generator and the grid side converter for network support. network fault is discussed in Section 2.3. The de-loading
controller rapidly reduces the generator power by reducing
Large wind farms are usually connected through high the generator torque as the wind turbine DC link voltage
voltage AC (HVAC) [3]. Owing to capacity and distance rises. Reducing the generator torque increases its rotor speed
limitations of HVAC, VSC-based high voltage DC and converts the aerodynamic input power into kinetic
(HVDC) is an alternative option for large, remote offshore energy. When the wind farm is connected through an
wind farms [2, 4]. Most grid codes now require wind HVAC, the active power current of the wind turbine grid
turbines to remain connected during a network fault. In side converter is dynamically reduced in order to allow an
order to assist voltage recovery of an AC network during a increase of the reactive power current component (Section 3).
fault, the GB grid code encourages the wind turbines to
increase their reactive power supply to the AC network Three different protection schemes were investigated for
without exceeding the current limit of their converters [5]. an HVDC connection (i) de-loading the fully rated
The E.ON grid code denes the required reactive current converter wind turbines, (ii) short circuiting the offshore
against voltage dip magnitude [6]. When an offshore wind HVDC converter and (iii) using a chopper resistor in the
farm is connected through an HVDC link, the offshore HVDC link. De-loading the fully rated converter wind
AC network and the onshore AC network are decoupled turbines using an auxiliary signal activated by the HVDC
from each other [7, 8] and this provides increased exibility link voltage is described in Section 4.1. It is shown in
for achieving grid code compliance [9]. Section 4.2 that the offshore HVDC converter may be
short circuited to block the wind farm active power. This
When a fully rated converter wind farm is connected to an method avoids the need of any communication circuit but
AC network and a network fault occurs, the DC link voltages results in high converter currents. Alternatively, a chopper
of the wind turbines will rise rapidly because the grid side resistor may be used to dissipate the excessive power as heat
converters of the wind turbines are prevented from during the fault (Section 4.3).
transmitting all the active power coming from the
generators. Therefore in order to maintain the wind
turbines DC link voltages below their upper limit, the 2 Control of fully rated converter
excess power has to be dissipated or the generator power
has to be reduced. Chopper resistors on the wind turbines
wind turbine generators
DC link may be used to dissipate the excess power [10, Wind farm manufactures are presently using a number of
11]. Alternatively, the generator power may be blocked at different congurations for fully rated converter-based wind
the generator side converter by switching off the IGBTs [12]. turbines. Examples include geared synchronous machine-
based (GE 2.5 MW, Clipper Liberty 2.5 MW), gearless
When an offshore wind farm is connected through HVDC, synchronous machine-based (Enercon 2.0 MW, Scanwind
the HVDC link voltage is controlled by the onshore HVDC 3.6 MW) and geared asynchronous machine-based (Siemens
converter that transfers the active power to the onshore AC 3.6 MW) wind turbines. In this paper a conguration shown
network. A fault on the onshore AC network reduces this in Fig. 1, which is based on two back-to-back IGBT
active power ow and increases the HVDC link voltage converters and a synchronous generator is considered. The
rapidly. Then, the offshore power has to be reduced or the control schemes discussed in this paper are applicable to any
excess power has to be dissipated to maintain the HVDC link synchronous generator with IGBT converters regardless of
voltage below its limit. The output power of offshore FSIG either geared or gearless drive train. The synchronous
wind turbines may be reduced by increasing the offshore generator can be constructed with an electrically excited
network frequency [13]. For a DFIG wind farm, commands wound rotor or it can have a permanent magnet rotor.

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doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018 & The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009
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Figure 2 Vector diagram of the synchronous generator

Figure 1 Fully rated converter wind turbine conguration in the q-axis is calculated as
   
The wind turbine topology in Fig. 1 has three control loops, 2 2 1
iqsref  TSP (2)
pitch controller, generator controller and grid side controller. 3 P lM
The pitch controller is activated to limit the rotor speed in
high wind speeds [16]. The generator controller moves the The term TSP is usually obtained from a look-up table for
wind turbine operating point along the maximum power maximum power extraction.
curve. Vector control methods can be used to control the
operation of the generator [17, 18]. The reference current in the d-axis ids ref can be used for
eld weakening when the generator terminal voltage
The grid side controller maintains the wind turbine DC exceeds the converter ceiling voltage [24]. In the present
link voltage close to the specied reference level by study eld weakening was not exercised. The generator side
adjusting the active power exported to the grid to match converter functions as a voltage source, therefore the
that of the power input to the generator side converter. required voltage vectors are determined using the steady-
Reactive power is supplied to the AC network whenever it state stator voltage equations. In the steady state, the stator
is necessary [19, 20]. Load angle and vector control voltage equations are written as [25]
methodology can be used to control the grid side converter
[21, 22]. The load angle scheme controls the phase angle vd s rs id s  vr Lqs iqs (3)
and magnitude of the converter voltage. The vector control vqs rs iqs vr Ld s id s vr lM (4)
scheme controls the stator current in a dq-frame.
Stator voltage components were obtained by the vector
controller shown in Fig. 3 [17, 18]. Vector control allows
2.1 Generator controller the torque and the ux magnitude of the machine to be
Gabriele et al. [23] discusse three different control schemes that controlled independently under dynamic conditions [26].
can be used to control a synchronous generator-based wind
turbine with back-to-back IGBT converters, namely: The loops from the measured currents to the stator
maximum torque control, generator unity power factor voltages represent the second terms on the right side of
control and constant stator voltage control. In this study, the equations (3) and (4). The induced voltage due to the rotor
maximum torque control scheme (referred to as vector ux lM is also added to vqs , which corresponds to the third
control) is used to control the synchronous generator based term in (4). The voltage drop across the stator resistance,
on rotor ux orientation [24]. The vector diagram of the rs , is negligible when compared with the voltage drop
permanent magnet synchronous generator is shown in Fig. 2. across the reactance and induced voltage due to rotor ux
The d-axis is aligned with the rotor ux, lM , produced lM and therefore not included into the control loop.
by the permanent magnet and the q-axis is 908 ahead of
the d-axis in the direction of rotor rotation. The generator
electromagnetic torque can then be written as

  
3 P
Te  lM  iqs (1)
2 2

where P is the number of poles of the generator. Therefore for

a particular torque set point (TSP) the reference stator current Figure 3 Control loops of the generator vector controller

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& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018
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Measured currents are compared with the references and then voltage vector angle and dq current components of the grid
the error was regulated by PI controllers. side controller. Gate pulses for the grid side converter are then
calculated by comparing the reference and measured currents.
Detailed information on the implementation of hysteresis
2.2 Grid side controller switching control can be found in [27].
The grid side controller is also based on a dq-frame rotating
at the synchronous speed of the AC network. The q-axis is 2.3 De-loading of a fully rated converter
aligned with the wind turbine terminal voltage and the wind turbine
d-axis is 908 lagging the q-axis. In order to maintain the In the event of a network fault, the generator power is rapidly
wind turbine DC link voltage, the measured DC link reduced (de-loaded) by reducing the generator torque. Fig. 5a
voltage is compared with the reference and the error is fed shows the power ow in the wind turbine DC link during a
through a PI controller to obtain the current in the q-axis network fault. The rate of increase of the DC link voltage
as shown in Fig. 4a. The terminal voltage of the wind depends on the difference between the input power
turbine is controlled by manipulating the reactive power supplied to the generator side converter, PGen , and the
from the wind turbine grid side converter using the d-axis power delivered to the network by the grid side converter,
current. The measured terminal voltage is regulated by a PI PGrid . Therefore in order to prevent the upper limit of the
controller to determine the current in the d-axis (Fig. 4b). wind turbine DC link voltage being reached, it is necessary
to reduce the generator power until PGen PGrid .
The PI controllers of the loops were designed using the simple
approach of increasing the proportional gain until borderline Fig. 5b shows the variation of the grid side power and
stability was reached and then choosing a value of 25% of this generator power of the faulted system. Before the fault
gain to provide a conservative gain margin of 4. The integral occurrence PGrid pf (pre-fault grid side power) is equal to
gain term was then chosen as 10% of the proportional gain to PGen pf (pre-fault generator power), if power losses in the
ensure that its inuence on the loop gain margin was small. converters are neglected. It was assumed that the grid power
drops to PGrid f (fault grid side power) at the instant of the
Small signal stability of the basic control loops was fault. It was also assumed that the generator power is reduced
examined using eigen value analysis in Matlab/Simulink. from PGen pf to PGen f linearly in T s. Considering the
However, this paper is concerned with the nonlinear power ow into the capacitor gives
performance of the wind turbine and transmission system in
response to large voltage changes during fault ride through. dvdc
Hence time-domain responses to large disturbances are used vdc  C PGenf  PGridf (5)
dt
to demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the system
over a wide operating range. From Fig. 5b, the generator power at time t can be written as

A hysterisis current control method as shown Fig. 4c is used t

PGenf PGridpf  (P  PGridf ) (6)
to inject the current components into the network. The phase T Gridpf
lock loop (PLL) in the gure gives the grid side
converter voltage vector angle. Inputs to the PLL are the Integrating (5) and substituting (6) gives the available time T
three-phase grid side converter voltages. Grid side converter
C
reference current components are calculated using the PLL T [v2  v2dcth ] (7)
(PGridpf  PGridf ) dcmax

The wind turbine DC link voltage reaches its upper limit

vdc max from its threshold value vdc th in T s.

Figure 4 Grid side current controller diagram of the wind

turbine Figure 5 Variation of power ow at the DC link dynamics
a DC link voltage controller during a fault
b Terminal voltage controller a Power ow at the DC link
c Hysterisis current controller b Variation of power ow

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Figure 6 De-loading droop for wind turbine fault ride

through
Consider an example of a 2 MW wind turbine with 100 mF
DC link capacitance. Conservative parameters used to
calculate the time (T ) are PGrid pf 2 MW, PGrid f 0, Figure 8 Grid side controller for AC transmission
vdc max 1350 V and vdc th 1250 V. Using (7), the time
With an HVAC transmission connection, the grid side
period T was calculated as 13 ms, indicating that the
converter of each wind turbine is controlled to provide
generator controller should have the capability of reducing
additional reactive power during a fault [19, 20]. The limit
the generator power from 2 to 0 MW within 13 ms.
of the active power current is adjusted to allow an increase of
the reactive power current for DFIG wind turbines [28]. A
Fig. 6 shows a droop controller acting on the wind
similar approach is used to modify the active power current
turbine DC link voltage used to de-load the generator. The
as shown in Fig. 8. This arrangement ensures that the grid
droop gain is multiplied by the torque demand coming
side converters of the wind farm supply more reactive
from the maximum power extraction curve. Below the wind
currents while not exceeding the converter current limit.
turbine DC link threshold voltage, the droop gain is 1 and
it linearly decreases to zero when the DC link voltage
reaches a specied upper limit.
3.1 Fault studies with HVAC transmission
The generator controller, the grid side controller and the
de-loading loop described in this section refers to A three-phase short circuit ground fault was applied for
individual wind turbine control and are appropriate for 200 ms at the wind farm connection point and the
wind turbines in a wind farm connected to the grid via simulation results obtained in EMTDC/PSCAD are
either HVAC or HVDC transmission systems. shown in Fig. 9. During the fault, active power of the
wind farm is dropped to zero and the reactive power is
increased as shown in Fig. 9b. The reasons for the active
power drop is not only the voltage drop in the AC
3 Fully rated converter wind network but also the grid side controllers decrease the
turbines connected to an AC grid via active power currents in order to increase the reactive
power current (Fig. 9c). As the active power from the
an HVAC transmission link wind farm is reduced, the DC link voltages of individual
Fig. 7 shows a 60 MW fully rated converter wind farm wind turbines increase (Fig. 9d) and the de-loading
connected to a 132 kV grid through a 62.5 kV AC controllers reduce the generator torques (Fig. 9e). De-
transmission system. Parameters of the HVAC transmission loading the generators increase the rotor speed of the wind
line and the transformers are given in the Appendix. In turbines as shown in Fig. 9f. The increase in the rotor
normal operation, each wind turbine maintains its rated speed for the 200 ms fault is around 2%. The instantaneous
terminal voltage at 690 V and the wind farm generates 56 MW. phase current and the voltage waveforms of the wind farm

Figure 7 Fully rated converter wind farm connected through AC transmission line

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Figure 9 Simulation results with HVAC

a Wind turbine and main grid voltage
b Wind farm active and reactive power
c Wind farm currents
d Wind turbine DC link voltage
e Generator torque
f Generator speed
g Wind farm phase current
h Wind farm phase voltage

are shown in Figs. 9g and 9h demonstrate the smooth and wind turbines. However, in practice this scheme is difcult
operation of the fault ride through the procedure. to implement as wind turbines and the HVDC link are often
designed and manufactured independently by different
companies, and then the wind farm and its connection to
4 Fully rated converter wind the grid is commissioned by another company.
turbines connected to an AC grid
In this study, a fully rated converter wind farm connected to
via an HVDC transmission link an onshore AC system through VSC HVDC as shown in
One possible approach for a fully rated converter wind turbine Fig. 10 was considered. The onshore HVDC converter
with DC transmission is a common DC link for both HVDC maintains the HVDC link voltage close to the specied

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Figure 10 Fully rated converter wind farm connected through a VSC HVDC

reference level by adjusting the active power transmitted to the loading droop. The scheme ensures that the torque set
onshore AC network to match that which is received from the point is directly reduced when the HVDC link voltage
offshore HVDC converter. The control of the onshore HVDC increases beyond its threshold value.
converter is very similar to the grid side converter control of the
fully rated converter wind turbine (Fig. 4). The HVDC link A 200 ms three-phase short circuit fault was applied at the
voltage is maintained at a reference by controlling the onshore onshore HVDC converter terminal at 0.1 s. Fig. 12 shows
HVDC converter current in the q-axis. The terminal voltage the performance of the fully rated converter wind farm
of the onshore HVDC converter is controlled by when the HVDC de-loading droop was implemented into
manipulating the reactive power from the onshore HVDC the generator controller. Simulation studies were carried out
converter using the d-axis current. The dq-current in EMTDC/PSCAD and the parameters of the HVDC
components of the onshore HVDC converter are transformed transmission lines and the transformers are given in the
to the onshore three-phase AC frame and then a hysterisis Appendix.
current control technique is used to inject the current
components into the onshore AC network. The offshore In the event of the fault, the onshore power is reduced to
HVDC converter maintains the voltage and frequency of the zero (Fig. 12b) as the onshore HVDC converter terminal
wind farm AC network. A sinusoidal PWM switching voltage drops to zero at 0.1 s. The HVDC link voltage
technique is used for the offshore converter. increases because of the power reduction at the onshore
HVDC converter. When the HVDC link voltage increases
During a fault in the onshore AC network, the HVDC link beyond its threshold, the HVDC de-loading droop reduces
voltage increases rapidly. Therefore in order to maintain the the generators torque as shown in Fig. 12d. De-loading
HVDC link voltage below its upper limit, the wind farm the generator reduces the wind turbines DC link voltage
output power has to be reduced. Consider an example of a (Fig. 12e). Owing to the wind turbines DC link voltage
50 MW fully rated converter wind farm connected through a drop, the grid side controller reduces the wind farm grid
140 kV HVDC with 150 mF HVDC link capacitance. side active power current (Fig. 12f ) and thus reduces the
Conservative parameters used to calculate the time (T ) are active power from the wind farm.
Pon pf 50 MW (pre-fault onshore power), Pon f 0 MW
(fault onshore power), vdc HVDC max 170 kV and 4.1.2 De-loading via wind turbine grid side
vdc HVDC th 145 kV. Using (7), the time period T is controller: In Fig. 13, the HVDC de-loading droop
calculated as 24 ms. Therefore the wind farm should have the introduces a multiplying factor into the wind turbine grid
capability of reducing its output power (de-loading) from 50 side active power current controller. When the HVDC link
to 0 MW within 24 ms. voltage increases beyond its threshold value, the wind
turbines grid side active power current is reduced to block
4.1 Rapid de-loading a fully rated
converter wind turbine
Fully rated converter wind turbines can be de-loaded in two
different ways for the HVDC fault ride through. One way is
to reduce the generator torques via generator side converter
control. An alternative is to block the output powers via
wind turbines grid side converter control through setting
the active power current components to zero.

4.1.1 De-loading via the generator controller:

Fig. 11 shows how the HVDC de-loading droop is Figure 11 De-loading a fully rated converter wind turbine
incorporated into the already existing wind turbine de- via generator controller

432 IET Renew. Power Gener., 2009, Vol. 3, Iss. 4, pp. 426 438
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018
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Figure 12 De-loading the wind turbine via generator torque control

a Onshore voltage
b Onshore and offshore power
c Offshore DC link voltage
d Generator torque
e Wind turbine DC link voltage
f Wind farm active power current Iqs

the wind turbine output power. Reducing the power at the the onshore HVDC converter terminal voltage drops to zero
wind turbine grid side converter increases the wind turbine and hence the onshore power is reduced to zero (Fig. 14b).
DC link voltage and in turn activates the wind turbine This increases the HVDC link voltage (Fig. 14c) and the
de-loading controller. HVDC de-loading droop reduces the wind turbines
individual grid side active power current (Fig. 14d ). Reducing
The performance of the system when de-loading via the wind the wind turbines active power at the wind turbine grid side
turbine grid side controller is shown in Fig. 14. During the fault, converter increases the wind turbines DC link voltage as
shown in Fig. 14e. Increasing the wind turbines DC link
voltage activates the generators de-loading control. As a
result, the generators are de-loaded as shown in Fig. 14f.

De-loading the fully rated converter wind turbines via the

wind turbine generator controllers or via the wind turbine
grid side controllers ultimately increases the rotor speed
and converts the aerodynamic power into kinetic energy.
When the HVDC de-loading droop is implemented into
the generator controller (Fig. 11), the HVDC link voltage
increased to 167 kV (Fig. 12c). A few ms delay was
observed in reducing the power at the wind turbine grid
side converter. This is due to the de-loading action going
through the wind turbine generator and its controller
Figure 13 De-loading a fully rated converter wind turbine dynamics, the wind turbine DC link dynamics and then
via grid side controller the wind turbine grid side controller dynamics. On the

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Figure 14 De-loading the wind turbine via grid current control

a Onshore voltage
b Onshore and offshore power
c Offshore DC link voltage
d Wind farm grid side active power current
e Wind turbine DC link voltage
f Generator torque

other hand, de-loading through the wind turbine grid side 4.2 Emulated short circuiting of the
converter (Fig. 13) directly blocks the active power at the offshore HVDC converter
wind turbine grid side converter terminals without any
delay. Therefore the HVDC link voltage increased to The difculties of relying on dedicated control signals from
158 kV only (Fig. 14c). HVDC link to de-load individual turbines when an
onshore fault occurs can be avoided by adopting an
alternative approach. The location of the onshore fault can
It was assumed that the ideal communication medium is
be effectively transferred to the offshore AC wind farm
available between the offshore HVDC converter and every
wind turbine to dispatch the de-loading signals. Modern
wind farms use fast communication circuits, such as bre
optic material for the SCADA system, however,
the availability of such communication links for fault ride
through remains a question. Therefore in practice there
may be a delay in sending the de-loading signals
(due to the unavailability of communication channels) to
each wind turbine. In order to demonstrate the effect of
communication delay, a 10 ms delay was introduced after
the HVDC de-loading droop. Fig. 15 shows the effect of a
10 ms delay on the HVDC link voltage. The HVDC link
voltage reached 180 kV for the 10 ms delay while the limit Figure 15 Effect of communication delay on HVDC link
of the HVDC link voltage is 170 kV. voltage

434 IET Renew. Power Gener., 2009, Vol. 3, Iss. 4, pp. 426 438
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the wind farm sees an apparent fault in the offshore network

when there is, in fact, a fault in the onshore network.

Fig. 17 shows the performance of the emulated short

circuiting scheme for the HVDC during an onshore AC
network fault. Notice that the time scale of the offshore
HVDC converter voltage (Fig. 17a) and current (Fig. 17d )
are given for 0.5 s whereas the power (Fig. 17b) and HVDC
link voltage (Fig. 17c) are given for 1.0 s. As the offshore
HVDC converter voltage was reduced to zero during the
fault, the offshore power drops to zero. The HVDC link
voltage is maintained well under the limit by short circuiting
the offshore HVDC converter. However, a high transient
Figure 16 Short circuiting controller in the offshore HVDC current passes through the offshore HVDC converter
converter switches at the beginning and end of the fault (Fig. 17d ).

4.3 Chopper resistor on the HVDC link

network by reducing the voltage at the offshore HVDC
An alternative approach to maintaining the HVDC link voltage
converter terminal.
below the upper limit during an onshore fault is to dissipate the
excess power as heat. A chopper resistor was used on the
When an onshore fault occurs, the increase in HVDC link HVDC link to dissipate the offshore input power during an
voltage is detected to adjust the amplitude modulation index onshore network fault. Fig. 18 shows the dissipated power in
of the offshore HVDC converter. Fig. 16 shows the emulated the chopper resistor and the HVDC link voltage during a
short circuit protection controller incorporated into the 200 ms short circuit fault. It should be noticed that the rating
sinusoidal PWM of the offshore HVDC converter. The de- of the chopper resistor has to be the rating of the wind farm.
loading droop gain, acting on the HVDC link voltage, is
multiplied by the reference offshore HVDC converter 4.4 Comparison of the HVDC fault ride
voltage. As the HDVC link voltage increases during an
onshore fault, the de-loading controller reduces the amplitude
through protection schemes
modulation index and then the terminal voltage of the In Sections 4.1 4.3, three possible control schemes for fault
offshore HVDC converter is effectively reduced. Therefore ride through of a wind farm connected via an HVDC line is

Figure 17 Short circuiting the offshore HVDC converter

a Offshore HVDC converter voltage
b Onshore and offshore power
c HVDC link voltage
d Offshore HVDC converter current

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Figure 18 Chopper circuit to dissipate excessive power

a Dissipated power
b HVDC link voltage

Table 1 Comparisons of the three protection schemes for HVDC fault ride through
De-loading Short circuiting Chopper resistor
fault is detected by monitoring HVDC link voltage as it increases in the event of an onshore fault
protection sending a de-loading signal to every transferring onshore fault to the connecting a chopper
activated by wind turbine offshore HVDC converter resistor to the HVDC link
fault ride through reducing the output power of wind emulating an offshore fault thus external means by the
was achieved by turbines blocking the power input to the chopper resistor on the
offshore HVDC converter HVDC link
during the fault rotor speed of wind turbines increases no change in the rotor
speed of wind turbines
excess power is converted into kinetic energy excess power during the
fault is dissipated as heat
requirements fast communication medium from offshore HVDC converter with high a chopper breaking
the offshore HVDC converter to current rating resistor equal to the
each wind turbine wind farm rating

described. Each scheme has its own merits and demerits and The fully rated converter wind turbine output power was
is compared in Table 1. reduced rapidly by de-loading the wind turbine. The
possibility of de-loading the wind turbine through
the generator torque controller and through the wind
5 Conclusions turbine grid side active power controller was demonstrated.
The de-loading controller rapidly reduces the generator
Fault ride through of a wind farm consisting of fully rated
torque and allows the rotor speed to increase. Increasing
converter wind turbines was investigated for the case in
which it is directly connected to an HVAC network and the rotor speed converts the aerodynamic input energy into
kinetic energy instead of converting into electrical power.
where it is connected to the AC network through an
Increase in the rotor speed for a 200 ms short circuit fault
HVDC link. When connected directly to the HVAC
network, the voltage recovery of the AC network during a was around 2%.
fault was enhanced by increasing the reactive power current
of the wind turbine grid side converter. In order to de-load individual turbines during a fault, a
signal activated by the HVDC link voltage needs to be sent
Where a wind farm is connected through an HVDC link, to each turbine. It was shown that the wind turbine grid
when an AC fault occurs it is necessary to rapidly reduce the side controller was able to rapidly block the active power
active power from the wind farm in order to keep the HVDC and keep the HVDC link voltage well below its upper
link voltage below its design limit. The available time to limit. However, it was assumed that the communication
reduce the active power is around 24 ms for the example medium could instantly provide the signals needed for
considered. Two different schemes were investigated for control. The SCADA systems on modern wind farms do
fault ride through (i) de-loading the wind farm and (ii) employ fast, bre optic-based communication circuits, but
short circuiting the offshore HVDC converter. the delay introduced by the updating rate of signals will

436 IET Renew. Power Gener., 2009, Vol. 3, Iss. 4, pp. 426 438
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018
 www.ietdl.org

have a signicant inuence on the HVDC link voltage com/EONNETZ_eng.jsp, links to Grid utilization - Grid
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converter-control principles and wind energy
7 Appendix
applications. PhD thesis, Chalmers University of Generator parameters: Stator resistance 0.1961 V, stator
Technology, March 1998 leakage reactance 0.0428 V, d-axis mutual reactance
0.49014 V, q-axis mutual reactance 0.49014 V, number of
[22] SVENSSON J.: Voltage angle control of a voltage poles 64, rotor ux linkage due to permanent magnet
source inverter-application to a grid-connected 966 V, speed range 10.524.5 rpm [12].
wind turbines. 6th European Conf. Power Electronics
and Applications, Sevilla, Spain, September 1995, Generator controller parameters: d-axis proportional gain
pp. 539 544 10 V/A, d-axis integral gain 1 V/As, q-axis proportional
gain 10 V/A and q-axis integral gain 1 V/As, DC
[23] GABRIELE M., ANCA D.H., THOMAS H.: Control strategy of a link capacitance 50 mF.
variable speed wind turbine with multipole permanent
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7 10 May 2007 20 A/V, d-axis integral gain 2 A/Vs, q-axis proportional
gain 20 A/V, q-axis integral gain 2 A/V and Current
[24] VAS P.: Sensorless vector and direct torque control limit 3500 A.
(Oxford University Press, 1998), ISBN 19 8564651
HVAC parameters: Transformers: 690 V/13.8 kV (Wind
[25] KRAUSE P.C., WASYNCZUK O., SHUDHOFF S.D.: Analysis of turbine), 13.8/62.5 kV (wind farm to offshore HVDC
electric machinery and drive system (John Wiley Press, converter), 62.5/132 kV (onshore converter to AC main
2002, 2nd edn.), ISBN: 0-471-14326-X grid). All transformers leakage reactance was 10%. 62.5 kV
HVAC link impedance was (0.57 j 3.6).
[26] MOHAN N.: Advanced electric drives (Mnpere, USA,
2001), ISBN 0-9715292-0-5 HVDC parameters: The impedance between the 13.8/
62.5 kV and 62.5/132 kV transformer was (0.0133
[27] MOHAN N. , UNDELAND M., ROBINS P.: Power electronics j 0.0534). The DC link resistance and inductances were
converters, applications, and design (John Wiley Press, 1.0 V and 0.10 mH, respectively. Converter coupling
2nd edn.), ISBN: 0 471 58408 8 reactance was 0.5 mH.

438 IET Renew. Power Gener., 2009, Vol. 3, Iss. 4, pp. 426 438
& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2009 doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2008.0018