Aalborg Universitet

A Power Angle Limiting Method for Improving Stability of Grid-Forming Inverter Under
Overcurrent Condition

Huang, Liang; Wu, Chao; Zhou, Dao; Blaabjerg, Frede

Published in:
2022 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)

DOI (link to publication from Publisher):

10.1109/ECCE50734.2022.9948159

Publication date:
2022

Document Version
Accepted author manuscript, peer reviewed version

Link to publication from Aalborg University

Citation for published version (APA):

Huang, L., Wu, C., Zhou, D., & Blaabjerg, F. (2022). A Power Angle Limiting Method for Improving Stability of
Grid-Forming Inverter Under Overcurrent Condition. In 2022 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition
(ECCE) (pp. 1-6) https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE50734.2022.9948159

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 A Power Angle Limiting Method for Improving
Stability of Grid-Forming Inverter Under Overcurrent
Condition
Liang Huang Chao Wu Dao Zhou Frede Blaabjerg
AAU Energy Electrical Engineering AAU Energy AAU Energy
Aalborg University Shanghai Jiaotong University Aalborg University Aalborg University
Aalborg, Denmark Shanghai, China Aalborg, Denmark Aalborg, Denmark
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—For conventional grid-following inverters, the Based on existing studies [8], [9], it is known that the small-
overcurrent protection can be fulfilled easily by using the current signal stability of the virtual-admittance-based GFM inverter is
reference limiting method. However, when this method is used for already acceptable under normal conditions. Specifically, when
grid-forming (GFM) inverters, it may jeopardize the stability, the value of virtual admittance is designed properly, the system
because the power synchronization control law is destroyed when is always stable within a wide range of short-circuit ratios
the current limit is triggered. To address this problem, this paper (SCRs) [8]. Thus, no matter whether the grid is strong or weak,
proposes a power angle limiting method used for the virtual- the virtual-admittance-based GFM inverter has good stability
admittance-based GFM inverters, which can properly limit the and robustness.
output power and current of the inverters. Since limiting the
power angle is more reasonable than directly limiting the current, However, GFM inverters suffer from instability problems
the stability can be improved by using the proposed method. under abnormal conditions. Namely, when the current exceeds
Detailed implementation of the proposed method is illustrated in the rated range and triggers the overcurrent protection, existing
this paper. Besides, the effectiveness of the proposed method is overcurrent protection methods have some limitations. A typical
verified by the time-domain simulation. current limiting method is the current reference limiting method
[10], which has been successfully applied in the conventional
Keywords—grid-forming inverter, virtual admittance, stability, GFL inverters. However, when this method is used for GFM
power angle limit, overcurrent conditions
inverters, it may worsen the synchronization stability because
I. INTRODUCTION the power angle equation is not satisfied anymore when the
current limit is triggered [11]. To address this problem, an easy
Nowadays, grid-following (GFL) inverters have been widely way is to switch the control mode from the GFM control mode
used in renewable energy generation systems, such as wind and to the GFL control mode when the current limit is triggered. But
solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants. However, as the the latch-up and wind-up issues may happen, which can
penetration of renewable energy increases, conventional GFL challenge the recovery process [12]. Besides, another typical
inverters with current source characteristics may not fully meet current limiting method is adding a virtual impedance between
grid codes requirements [1]. Therefore, an alternative technique the inverter and the grid [13]-[15]. When the value of the virtual
which is called “grid-forming” (GFM) inverter has been impedance is large enough, the output current of the inverter can
proposed in recent years. Since the GFM inverters have similar be limited. However, tuning the virtual impedance in different
voltage source characteristics as the traditional synchronous cases (e.g. transient and steady states) may increase the control
generators (SGs) [2], they are deemed as promising solutions for complexity.
the future power grid with a high percentage of renewable
energy sources. Different from existing methods, this paper proposes a new
idea called “power angle limit”, which can guarantee that the
So far, many different GFM control schemes have been power synchronization control law is still satisfied when the
proposed [3]-[5], which can be generally divided into two overcurrent protection is triggered. Since limiting the power
categories. One is without an inner current control loop, while angle is more reasonable than directly limiting the current, the
the other is with an inner current control loop (e.g. dual-loop stability of GFM inverters can be improved by using the
voltage/current vector control) [6]. Because including the inner proposed method. Moreover, considering that the real power
current control loop can reduce the voltage and current angle is usually unknown, an equivalent virtual power angle is
harmonics, the second category of GFM inverters with an inner used for implementing the power limitation. Same as [16], this
current control loop attracts more research attention [7]. paper mainly focuses on the overcurrent condition caused by the
Moreover, a virtual impedance or admittance is usually used for overload. Simulation results show that the proposed power angle
the dual-loop GFM control scheme to improve the small-signal limiting method is effective under both strong and weak grid
stability [8]. conditions.
 method is shown in Fig. 1. In Fig. 1(a), Lf and Cf are the filter
inductor and capacitor. Lg is the grid inductor. vg is the grid
voltage, and vpcc is the voltage at the point of common coupling
(PCC). iL is the current through the filter inductor. P and Q are
the active and reactive power at the PCC. Moreover, the control
system is performed in the synchronous rotating d-q frame (the
voltage reference e* is aligned to the d-axis). Notably, the
coordinate transformation among different frames (i.e. a-b-c, α-
β, and d-q) are omitted. The inner current control loop is a
standard current control loop with the proportional-integral (PI)
controller, which is the same as that in the conventional GFL
inverter. The virtual admittance is equal to “1 / (sLv + Rv)”,
where Lv is a virtual inductor and Rv is a virtual resistor. The
droop controllers are typical P-f and Q-V droop controllers [17],
[18]. In addition, the equivalent circuit of the GFM inverter
system is shown in Fig. 1(b), where the filter capacitance Cf and
the virtual resistance Rv are ignored because they are relatively
small.
As shown in Fig. 1(a), a limiter is used to limit the current
Fig. 1. Virtual-admittance-based GFM inverter with a conventional current
reference directly, where the limiting value is set as the
reference limiting method. maximum value (1 p.u.). When the magnitude of the current
reference is lower than 1 p.u. (normal conditions), the current
limiter is unsaturated. Thus, iL*’ is equal to iL*. However, when
the magnitude of the current reference is higher than 1 p.u.
(overcurrent conditions), the current limiter is saturated. Thus,
the magnitude of iL*’ is equal to 1 p.u. [10].
B. Instability Mechanism of the Current Reference Limiting
Method
Same as [11], to simplify the analysis, it is assumed that the
current vector iL and the voltage vector e* are in the same
direction ideally. Thus, the voltage vector diagrams of the grid-
connected system are shown in Fig. 2. As shown in Fig. 2(a),
when the current limiter is unsaturated, the output power of the
GFM inverter depends on two voltage vectors e* and vg. In this
case, the power meets the well-known power angle equation
given by (1).

*
3 E ⋅ Vg
P=⋅ ⋅ sin(δ ) (1)
2 Xv + X g

where E* and Vg are the magnitudes of the vectors e* and vg.

Moreover, as shown in Fig. 2(b), when the current limiter is
Fig. 2. Voltage vector diagrams of GFM inverter in unsaturated and saturated
cases.
saturated, the GFM inverter can be considered as a current
source with a constant current magnitude. Thus, the output
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II power of the GFM inverter depends on vectors iL and vg. In this
discusses the instability mechanism of the conventional current case, equation (1) is not satisfied anymore. Instead, the
reference limiting method. Section III introduces a new power expression of the output power can be rewritten as (2) [11]. It is
angle limiting method. Then, simulation results are presented in worth mentioning that when the directions of iL and e* are
Section IV. Finally, this paper is concluded in Section V. different, the analysis is more complicated. So, only the ideal
case is considered here for qualitative analysis.
II. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF INSTABILITY MECHANISM OF
CONVENTIONAL CURRENT REFERENCE LIMITING METHOD 3
P = ⋅ I max ⋅ Vg ⋅ cos(δ ) (2)
A. Configurations of Typical Virtual Admittance-Based Grid- 2
Forming Inverter Control Scheme
According to (1) and (2), theoretical operating trajectories of
The schematic diagram of the virtual-admittance-based
the GFM inverter by using different limiting methods are
GFM inverter with the conventional current reference limiting
compared in Fig. 3.
 Fig. 4. Implementation of the proposed power angle limiting method.

As shown in Fig. 4(a), considering the grid voltage vg and

grid inductance Xg are usually unknown, the real power angle δ
is unknown. Thus, the power angle δ cannot be directly used for
implementing the power limitation. Although the real power
angle δ is unknown, the angle δv between the PCC voltage vpcc
and the reference voltage e* is known, which is equal to (θps -
θpcc). Notably, the angle θps is the phase angle of the vector e*,
which is generated by the P-f droop controller. Besides, the
angle θpcc is the phase angle of the vector vpcc, which can be
estimated by the phase-locked loop (PLL). Namely, the angle
θpcc is approximately equal to the PLL output angle θpll.
Considering the PLL dynamics, the bandwidth of the PLL
should be high enough to minimize the error (θpll - θpcc). Since
Fig. 3. Theoretical operating trajectories of GFM inverter with different the virtual power angle δv is also proportional to the active
current limiting methods under strong grid conditions. power, it is reasonable to limit the output power by limiting the
angle δv. Therefore, the proposed virtual power angle limiting
Fig. 3(a) shows the trajectory of the GFM inverter without method is shown in Fig. 4(b). Notably, under normal conditions,
any limit. It can be seen that the trajectory follows the power δv is equal to δv’ and δps is equal to δps’. Thus, the proposed power
angle curve A-B-C-D. It is assumed that the current magnitude angle limiter does not have any additional influence under
reaches the maximum value Imax at the point B. Thus, when the normal conditions. In other words, the proposed power angle
load increases from P1 to P2, the output current of the inverter is limiter only works under overcurrent conditions.
higher than Imax, which is above the limit (overcurrent
According to the voltage vector diagram in Fig. 4(a), the
operation). Differently, Fig. 3(b) shows the trajectory of the
relationship between the active power P and the virtual power
GFM inverter with the current reference limit, which follows the
angle δv meets an equivalent power angle equation:
curve A-B-E. When the load increases from P1 to P2, the current
limiter is triggered. Thus, the trajectory moves from point B to *
point E, which finally leads to an unstable result [11]. To solve 3 E ⋅ V pcc
P= ⋅ ⋅ sin(δ v ) (3)
the instability problem caused by the current reference limit, a 2 Xv
new idea of the power angle limit is proposed in this paper,
which is shown in Fig. 3(c). If the power angle can be limited,
Then, the virtual power angle δv can be calculated as:
the trajectory can stay at point B in overcurrent conditions.
III. POWER ANGLE LIMITING METHOD AND ANALYSIS 2 P⋅ X
=δ v arcsin( ⋅ * v ) (4)
A. Proposed Power Angle Limiting Method 3 E ⋅ V pcc
To implement the idea of the power angle limit, the voltage
vector diagram of the virtual-admittance-based GFM control Thus, when the limiting value of the active power P is
method is shown in Fig. 4(a). Besides, the implementation of the determined (e.g. 0.9 p.u.), the limiting value of the virtual power
proposed power angle limiting method is shown in Fig. 4(b). angle δv can be obtained according to (4).
 TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF GRID-FORMING INVERTER SYSTEM

Parameters Values
Grid phase voltage (peak value), Vg 311 V (1 p.u.)
Rated voltage of inverter, VN 311 V (1 p.u.)
Rated angular frequency, ωN 2π·50 rad/s (1 p.u.)
Rated active power of inverter, PN 30 kW (1 p.u.)
Maximum current of inverter, Imax 64.3 A (1 p.u.)
DC-link voltage, Vdc 700 V
Output filter inductor, Lf 3 mH (0.2 p.u.)
Output filter capacitor, Cf 10 μF (0.015 p.u.)
Short circuit ratio, SCR 30 ~ 1.2
Grid inductor, Lg 0.5 ~ 12.8 mH
Fig. 5. Error of phase angle estimation when considering PLL dynamics.
Sampling frequency, fs 10 kHz
Designed current-loop bandwidth, ωi 2000 rad/s
Virtual inductance, Lv 7.65 mH (0.5 p.u.)
Virtual resistance, Rv 0.24 Ω (0.05 p.u.)

Output power limiting value, Plim 27 kW (0.9 p.u.)

Active power droop coefficient, mp 2.5%·ωN/PN
Reactive power droop coefficient, nq 5%·VN/PN
Damping ratio of PLL, ζ 1
Natural angular frequency of PLL, ωn 200 rad/s

C. Analysis of the Weak Grid Conditions

According to the power angle equation in (1), as the grid
inductance Xg increases, the maximum value of the power angle
curve will decrease, which may reduce the stability margin of
the system. Therefore, the weak grid condition is a worse case
Fig. 6. Theoretical operating trajectories of GFM inverter with different for the grid-connected inverters, which will be analyzed in this
current limiting methods under weak grid conditions. section.
B. Discussion of PLL Dynamics Different from the strong grid conditions, the theoretical
As aforementioned, the proposed power angle limiting operating trajectories of the GFM inverter under weak grid
method introduces a PLL to estimate the phase angle of the PCC conditions are shown in Fig. 6, where point B is closer to point
voltage. However, an inaccurate phase angle estimation may C. Fig. 6(a) shows the trajectory of the GFM inverter without
lead to uncertain performance. Hence, the impact of the PLL any limit, which follows the power angle curve A-B-C-D. It is
dynamics on the proposed method needs to be discussed. assumed that the current magnitude reaches the maximum value
Imax at the point B. Thus, when the load increases from P1 to P2,
The theoretical analysis of the PLL dynamics is presented in the output current of the inverter is higher than Imax. Besides,
Fig. 5, where a faster PLL and a slower PLL are compared. It when the load power P2 is higher than the maximum value of the
can be seen in Fig. 5 that when the angular frequency of the PCC power angle curve (point C), the trajectory moves from point B
voltage is reduced from ω1 to ω2, the frequency dynamic to points C and D. Finally, the system becomes unstable.
responses of the two PLLs are different, and the errors of the Notably, even when the current reference limiting method is
phase angle estimation are different. Obviously, the error of the used, the instability problem still exists, which has been
phase angle by using the faster PLL is smaller. Therefore, a fast analyzed in the previous section. Hence, this method is not
PLL with a high bandwidth is used in this paper. effective. Differently, as shown in Fig. 6(b), when the proposed
Notably, it is known that a fast PLL may worsen the small- power angle limiting method is used, the trajectory can stay at
signal stability of GFL inverters under weak grid conditions point B under the overcurrent conditions. Thus, the proposed
[19], [20]. Similarly, the proposed method with a fast PLL may method not only limits the output current of the GFM inverters
also have some unexpected results under ultra-weak grids, but also improves the transient stability of the GFM inverters
which is worth being studied further in the future. under weak grid conditions.
Fig. 7. Simulation results of different current limiting methods under strong grid conditions (SCR = 30).

Fig. 8. Simulation results of different current limiting methods under weak grid conditions (SCR = 1.2).

D. Windup Issue of the Proposed Power Angle Limiter limiter is out of saturation, the integrator can be enabled. Thus,
It can be seen from Fig. 4 that when the power angle limiter the GFM inverter can return to the normal operation smoothly.
is triggered, the output angle of the limiter θps’ does not depend IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
on the P-f droop controller anymore. However, the integrator in
the P-f droop controller still works. Thus, the windup issue of In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed power
the integrator is worth being discussed. angle limiting method, a 30 kW virtual admittance based GFM
inverter simulation model is established in Matlab/Simulink.
It can be seen from Fig. 4(b) that when the power angle The system and control parameters are shown in Table I. To
limiter is triggered, the output angle θps’ mainly depends on θpll, avoid the influence of the high-frequency harmonics, an average
which means that only using the PLL is enough to keep model of the inverter is used. Besides, a strong grid condition
synchronization with the grid. To avoid the windup issue of the with SCR = 30 and a weak grid condition with SCR = 1.2 are
P-f droop controller, the integrator in the P-f droop controller used as examples to test the performance of the proposed
can be disabled when the limiter is saturated. Then, when the
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