ICA-ACCA 2018, October 17-19, 2018, Greater Concepción, Chile

Comparison Between Voltage Droop and Voltage

Margin Controllers for MTDC Systems
Fernando Torres, Sebastián Martínez, Claudio Roa and Enrique López.

 Abstract— This paper studies the problem of DC voltage Lastly, droop voltage control is used to control the DC voltage
control in a HVDC multi-terminal system based on voltage considering the contribution of several VSCs [5].
source converters. The control scheme used is based on The principal contribution of this paper is to analyse the
inner current and outer loops. External loops define or dynamic behaviour of a MTDC grid considering a converter
modify the power reference in each converter. Master- loss contingency. VSCs are equipped with different DC
slave DC voltage, droop voltage and margin voltage voltage control techniques. This will indicate some key
controllers are described, and their implementation differences among voltage margin and voltage droop
diagrams are depicted. Dynamic behaviour of the MTDC controllers. Simulations are run with a 3-terminal MTDC grid.
grid equipped within DC voltage controllers is studied and The study cases present simulations under VSC loss
analysed. A three terminal MTDC system subject to contingency. Analysis and comparisons of results may lead to
converter loss is simulated. Margin and droop DC voltage establish an appropriate control strategy. It’s important to
controllers are tested, indicating relevant differences in the mention that this paper presents simulations (particularly
use of both controllers. Study Case III) in which the system is unstable.
This paper is structured as follows: First, control of MTDC
Index Terms——High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC), Multi- systems based on VSC is described and its control diagrams
Terminal HVDC (MTDC), Voltage Droop Control, Voltage are shown. Then test system and simulation results are
Margin Control, Voltage Source Converter (VSC).
presented, and study cases discussed. Finally, main results and
conclusions of this work are given.
I. INTRODUCTION

M ulti-Terminal High Voltage Direct Current (MTDC)

systems are considered an important upgrade to the
actual transmission systems [1]. In specific, Voltage Source
II. CONTROL OF HVDC MULTITERMINAL SYSTEMS
A. Vector Control
Converters High Voltage Direct Current (VSC-HVDC) The vector or phasor control is the main control strategy
systems provide flexibility in operation, bulk power capability used in power VSCs for HVDC applications. Its main benefit
over long distances and reduction of intermittence of is achievement of independent control over real power and
renewable energy [2]. reactive power (through manipulation of direct and quadrature
One of the most important variables on the DC side of a current components) exchanged between AC grid and the
MTDC system is DC voltage. This variable indicates the VSC. This technique is known as decoupled control [4]. The
power balance and stability of the system [3]. To guarantee complete control structure for a single VSC is depicted in
stability and operational performance without exceeding Figure 1.
HVDC station’s capabilities, DC voltage must be maintained The average model of a VSC may be described with its
under a narrow band of operation. The increasing number of AC/DC linking equations given as follows
converters in a MTDC grid conduce to many possible
combinations and strategies to control DC voltage. This paper Vabc = mabc · Vdc/2 (1)
describes a master-slave, voltage margin, droop controls. The Io = (1/2)·( ma·ia +mb·ib +mc·ic) (2)
operation of the master-slave control is similar to slack bus of The inner current control can be established applying
AC grids, which compensates power imbalances of DC grids. Kirchhoff’s voltage closed loops to the AC side. Transforming
The voltage margin control allows selection of the VSC that the resulting equations to dq components with abc/dq
will operate as DC voltage controller [3, 4]. transformations detailed in [4] and synchronizing the d axis of
the transformation with d component of the grid voltage using
a Phase Locked Loop (PLL), leads to AC dynamics described
Date 25-09-2018 in (3) and (4). Vdq r y Vdq c are the signals obtained when
F. Torres is with Department of Electrical Engineering - Universidad de applying the transform abc-dq on Vabc r y Vabc c respectively
Talca. Curicó, Chile (e-mail: [email protected]).
S. Martinez is with Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering - (see Figure 1).
Universidad del Bío-Bío. Concepción, Chile (e-mail: [email protected]).
C. Roa and E. López are with Department of Electrical Engineering - L(dId/dt) = Vd r – Vd c – RId – LωIq (3)
Universidad de Concepción. Concepción, Chile (e-mail: [email protected])
(e-mail: [email protected])
L(dIq/dt) = Vq r – Vq c – RIq – LωId (4)

978-1-5386-5586-3/18/$31.00 c 2018 IEEE 1

 ICA-ACCA 2018, October 17-19, 2018, Greater Concepción, Chile

AC Grid VSC
r r c
Iabc Vabc Vabc

PLL
ϴ AD-DC equations
dq/abc
Vdc
abc/dq
Inner Loop
abc/dq

Measurements P, Q r
Outer Loop Iq* Id*
Q*
r Reactive Power
Q Control
r
P* Real Power
r
P Control
r
Vdc* Master-Slave
r r Control
P* Vdc*
Voltage Droop
r Control
Vdc*
Voltage Margin
Control
Psup Pinf

Figure 1. Control structure for a VSC for MTDC applications.

Using Proportional and Integrative (PI) controllers and important variables on the DC side of an HVDC multi-
adding compensations components, d and q current loops are terminal system, because DC overvoltage levels may hit
set up as shown in Figure 2. Employing the power/current insulation limits and in consequence rise fault probability. On
equivalence on the Point of Common Coupling (PCC), given the other hand, boundless decrement on the DC voltage might
by (5) and (6), valid for balanced AC grid operation produce overcurrent in semiconductors as well as in DC
conditions, controlled power transference is achieved using cables. With the purpose of establishing operational standards,
active and reactive power as control inputs. [6] defines ±5% of voltage variation in normal operation and
±10% during transient as references of operational limits.
Pac = (3/2)Vd r Id r (5) References [4] and [7-11] detail and describe voltage
margin and voltage droop controllers. These control methods
Qac = – (3/2)Vd r Iq r (6)
are considered the most prominent DC voltage control
techniques. They are used in this paper to perform DC voltage
control.
Idq* PI CONTROLLER Vdq Also, [10] and [11] describes P-Vdc operation curves for DC
voltage droop and margin. Operational limits of VSC are
added
i. Master-Slave DC Voltage Control
Idq Iqd ωL This control strategy is a simple extension of the actual
method used to control point to point HVDC systems, that is, a
a single VSC controls DC voltage to a constant value and the
Vdqr rest of VSCs of the MTDC grid inject or withdrawal power
from or to the AC grid. The power equilibrium is reached
Figure 2. Inner loops: d and q components
On the other hand, as shown in Figure 1, outer loops are through the master converter. This VSC must have enough
capacity to balance power injection/withdrawal in the DC grid
included on the control scheme to fulfil DC voltage control on
[7]. The main disadvantage of this strategy lays in case of the
the MTDC network. These DC voltage outer controllers are
loss of the master converter, conducting directly to DC side
described below.
instability due to unbalance on DC voltage profile.
The external DC voltage loop is included to the d
B. DC Voltage Control component current loop to provide the active power reference
as shown in Figure 3.
Like electrical frequency on AC systems, DC voltage on
MTDC systems indicates the balance among power injection
and withdrawal from DC grid. DC voltage is one of the most

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 ICA-ACCA 2018, October 17-19, 2018, Greater Concepción, Chile

2* Id* Pupper
Vdc PI CONTROLLER INNER LOOP

1.5Vd
Vdc
2
Id
Figure 3. Master-Slave DC voltage controller.
Vdc* DC Voltage
Vdc Id*
Controller
ii. Voltage Droop Control
1.5Vd
To distribute the task of controlling DC voltage between
chosen VSCs of the MTDC grid, the voltage droop controller
is used. This method increases reliability and reduces stress on
the DC system [9]. However, DC voltage cannot be Plower
maintained in nominal value, because of the proportional Figure 5. Voltage margin controller.
characteristic of the controller. Then, an additional voltage
strategy is necessary to achieve zero steady-state error III. TEST SYSTEM AND STUDY CASES
required for normal operation, such as a secondary DC voltage
control. Margin and droop controllers allow to overcome overload
Power deviation of a VSC equipped with voltage droop in a single VSC that assumes entire power imbalance (master-
control after a power imbalance on the DC grid is defined by slave control) of the DC grid. However, given the operational
the slope of the P-Vdc characteristic [10-11]. Figure 4 shows importance of future MTDC grids, it is fundamental to study
the implementation diagram of this DC voltage controller. The the advantages between the DC control techniques mentioned
functioning of the controller is based on an error (ΔVdc) which above.
is amplified by 1/kv, resulting on a power deviation of ΔP. To analyse the dynamic response of the MTDC, the 3-
This power deviation is added to the active power reference. terminal MTDC system of Figure 6 is used. Each VSC is
The droop-parameter kv must be carefully selected. [12] and modelled with an average model of 3-level converter.
[13] give some criteria and methodology to establish droop- Simulations are run using MATLAB/Simulink. Additionally,
parameters of VSCs in a MTDC grid. protection devices are not considered in these simulations.
Parameters and rating values are specified in Table I for DC
Vdc* 1/kv Overhead Lines (OHL), as well as control parameters and
VSC rating values [15].

Vdc * Id* 52kV VSC Station 1

100kV
P 2/(3Vd) INNER LOOP

AC Grid 1
Id
Figure 4. Voltage droop controller. See Figure 1.

iii. Voltage Margin Control 52kV VSC Station 2

This control strategy can be considered as an extension of AC Grid 2

the master-slave controller. The difference lays on the
operation condition. The voltage margin control allows to
See Figure 1.
change the VSC operating as a DC voltage controller (Figure
5). To do this, the VSC must be within the operation band
established by its P-Vdc characteristic [4, 10, 11]. As explained 52kV VSC Station 3

with master-slave method, the voltage margin is not adequate

for MTDC grids with a large number of VSCs, because in any AC Grid 3
moment, just one converter will be controlling DC voltage,
then a loss of that VSC will induce DC voltage instability, as See Figure 1.
explained and exemplified in this paper.
Figure 6. 3-terminal MTDC test system.

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 ICA-ACCA 2018, October 17-19, 2018, Greater Concepción, Chile

Table I. MTDC parameters and rating values.  VSC 2 (P constant control): Pref = 40 MW, changing to -
Parameter Value 40 MW at t = 0.5 s.
VSC rated power 55 MVA  VSC 3 (droop control): Pref = 0 MW and Vdc_ref = 100
VSC AC rated voltage 52 kV kV. VSC 3 operates with droop-parameter kv3 = 0.1
VSC DC rated voltage 100 kV kV/MW (red and black plots, respectively in Figure 7)
Nominal AC frequency 50 Hz and kv3 = 0.2 kV/MW (blue and green plots, respectively
Reactor resistance, R 0.83 Ω in Figure 7).
Reactor inductance, L 31.91 mH It can be observed from Figure 7 that the change of
DC capacitor, C 180 µF reference of VSC 2 (t = 0.5 s) and the loss of VSC 1 (t = 1 s)
DC line res. per length 38 mΩ/km can be considered as a load impact (power withdrawal) from
DC line ind. per length 4.58 mH/km the MTDC grid point of view. This leads to a reduction of
DC line cap. per length 0.356 µF/km voltage profile. At time t = 1 s, VSC 1 is lost. It can be noticed
DC lines length 100 km from Figure 7 that the loss of VSC 1 produces a DC voltage
reduction due to excessive power withdrawal from the DC
Table II. Study case definition and control strategies. grid. Then VSC 3 brings the balance to the MTDC system
Study VSC 1 op. VSC 2 VSC 3 thanks to its droop voltage controller.
Event
Case mode op. mode op. mode In this Study Case, the DC grid is capable to maintain
I Lost VSC 1 Droop PQ Droop power balance due to the droop controller of VSC station 3.
II Lost VSC 2 Droop PQ Droop Before the converter loss, it can be noticed from Figure 7.b
III Lost VSC 1 Margin PQ Margin that DC voltage differs from its nominal value due to
IV Lost VSC 2 Margin PQ Margin operation with droop controllers, which introduce non-zero
error in steady state. In addition, there is a voltage drop in the
Each VSC is equipped with DC voltage controllers and their DC OHL lines.
operation depends on the study case described in Table II. The
objective of the simulations is to show the different dynamics
of the MTDC system when it is equipped with diverse control
strategies. Because of this, advantages and disadvantages are
detected.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

The goal of the Study Cases presented below is to study and
analyse the dynamic behaviour of power transfer and DC
voltage (one of the most important variables in the MTDC
grid) when a VSC is lost operating with a determined control
strategy as explained below.
The DC control voltage is implemented via droop mode in
Study Cases I and II. VSC 1 and 3 are equipped with droop
voltage controllers, while VSC 2 operates in P constant mode.
Study Case I is defined when VSC 1 is lost (Figure 7). Study
Case II is defined when VSC 2 is lost (Figure 8).
Study Cases III and IV are defined to simulate when the DC
control voltage is implemented via margin mode. In these Figure 7. Study Case I: a) VSC Power, b) VSC DC voltage.
cases, VSC 1 and 3 are equipped with margin voltage
controllers while VSC 2 operates in P constant mode. Study
Case III is defined when VSC 1 is lost (Figure 9). Study Case B. Study Case II
IV is defined when VSC 2 is lost (Figure 10). Power transfer, DC voltages references and droop-
In all cases a previous dynamic behaviour is set to show parameters are established as follows.
how all controllers act under normal conditions (reference  VSC 1 (droop control): Pref = 0 MW and Vdc_ref = 100
changes). Afterwards, contingency is applied. kV. VSC 1 operates with droop-parameter kv1 = 0.1
kV/MW (black and green plots, respectively in Figure 8)
A. Study Case I and kv1 = 0.2 kV/MW (blue and red plots, respectively in
Power transfer, DC voltages references and droop- Figure 8).
parameters are established as follows.  VSC 2 (P constant control): Pref = 40 MW, changing to -
 VSC 1 (droop control): Pref = 0 MW and Vdc_ref = 100 40 MW at t = 0.5 s.
kV. VSC 1 operates with droop-parameter kv1 = 0.1  VSC 3 (droop control): Pref = 0 MW and Vdc_ref = 100
kV/MW (black and green plots, respectively in Figure 7) kV. VSC 3 operates with droop-parameter kv3 = 0.1
and kv1 = 0.2 kV/MW (blue and red plots, respectively in kV/MW (red and black plots, respectively in Figure 8)
Figure 7).

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 ICA-ACCA 2018, October 17-19, 2018, Greater Concepción, Chile

and kv3 = 0.2 kV/MW (blue and green plots, respectively The magnitude loss of power injection to the DC grid is not
in Figure 8). the cause of voltage instability, instead, the loss of the lower
band of DC voltage control produces the system instability.
At time t = 1 s, VSC 2 is lost. Similarly, DC voltages differ
from its nominal value as in Study Case I. When VSC 2 is

VOLTAGE[kV]
POWER[MW]
lost, VSC 1 and 3 re-establish power balance on the DC grid.
Consequently, a reduction of their power transfer occurs as
shown in Figure 8.a. After the contingency both remaining
stations operate with 0 MW of power transfer. Because of that,
DC voltage returns to its nominal voltage. Therefore, the
MTDC system is capable to maintain balance on the DC

VOLTAGE[kV]
POWER[MW]
voltage. VSC 2 loss conduces to droop voltage equipped
VSCs (1 and 3) to change their operational point.

VOLTAGE[kV]
POWER[MW]
Figure 9. Study Case III: a) VSC Power, b) VSC DC voltage.

D. Study Case IV
Control references are stablished to achieve behaviour on
each VSC as described below.
 VSC 1 (margin control): Plower changes from 45 to -30
MW in t = 1.5 s. Pupper is established in 55 MW. DC
lower voltage reference is maintained in 98 kV.
 VSC 2 (P constant control): Pref = -25 MW.
 VSC 3 (margin control): Plower and Pupper are established
Figure 8. Study Case II: a) VSC Power, b) VSC DC voltage.
as -50 and 20 MW, respectively. DC upper voltage
reference is maintained in 100 kV.
C. Study Case III
Control references are stablished to achieve VSCs
VOLTAGE[kV]
POWER[MW]

behaviour as follows.
 VSC 1 (margin control): As defined in P-Vdc
characteristic of voltage margin control [4, 10, 11], Plower
and Pupper are established as 45 and 55 MW, respectively.
DC lower voltage reference is maintained in 98 kV.
POWER[MW]

VOLTAGE[kV]

 VSC 2 (P constant control): Pref = -25 MW.

 VSC 3 (margin control): Plower and Pupper are established
as -50 and 20 MW, respectively. DC upper voltage
reference is maintained in 100 kV.
POWER[MW]

VOLTAGE[kV]

At time t = 1 s, VSC 1 is lost. It can be observed from

Figure 9.a that the power imbalance on the DC grid is 5 MW
(withdrawal from DC side). This contingency produces a fast
decrement of the DC voltage (see Figure 9.b) reaching 0.9 p.u.
in about 80 ms. In this case, the MTDC system becomes
unstable. Voltage instability operation is also represented in
the P-Vdc characteristics of VSCs in Figure 11. Figure 10. Study Case IV: a) VSC Power, b) VSC DC voltage.
For this contingency, VSC 1 is operating as the last VSC
DC voltage controlling unit (defined by margin control
settings). This produces a decrement on the DC voltage even
though VSC 1 is operating at its lower power band set (P
constant).

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 ICA-ACCA 2018, October 17-19, 2018, Greater Concepción, Chile

Steady State in Operation Point

0.75 ≤ t < 1.0[s] P-V Characteristic

Vdc1[kV] Vdc2[kV] Vdc3[kV]

Inverter Rectifier Inverter Rectifier Inverter Rectifier

45[MW] -25[MW]
100[kV]
98[kV]
-18.2[MW]

VSC Station 1 Pg1[MW] VSC Station 2 Pg2[MW] VSC Station 3 Pg3[MW]

Voltage Instability in Operation Point

1.0 ≤ t ≤ 1.25[s] P-V Characteristic

Vdc1[kV] Vdc2[kV] Vdc3[kV]

Inverter Rectifier Inverter Rectifier Inverter Rectifier

Out of Service -25[MW]

100[kV]
98[kV]
20[MW] <98[kV]

VSC Station 1 Pg1[MW] VSC Station 2 Pg2[MW] VSC Station 3 Pg3[MW]

Figure 11. Voltage instability representation using P-Vdc characteristic of VSCs.

[2] A. Abel-Khalik, A. Massoud, A. Elserougi, S. Ahmed. Optimum Power

It can be observed from Figure 10 that at t = 0 s voltage
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